Guatemala 2010

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I had the itch to travel again and after looking into a few destinations in Central America, I chose Guatemala over San Pedro Sula and Managua.

My co-worker Ryan and I left Indianapolis on Friday morning at 6am on Delta flight 1153. I was in seat 38E on the MD-88 aircraft. I had a quick nap on the hour flight down to Atlanta.

We had about two hours in Atlanta until our connection. At 9:50am, we were on board Delta flight 461, a 757-200 to Guatemala City. I was in business class seat 3C for the three hour ride down. The flight was smooth and routine. I had a great pasta meal and a few gin and tonics to drink. I also watched the movie "The A Team", which I found enjoyable.

We arrived into La Aurora airport on time and our trip through customs and immigration was quick and easy. We had planned on getting a taxi to Antigua but found an awaiting shuttle that would take us for just $5 more so we did it.

It was about an hour drive to Antigua and we arrived about 12:30pm. We check into the hostel and soon were off to explore the streets of this colonial town. We just walked all over for a couple of hours, looking around until heading into Reilly's Bar for some beers. After that, we set out to see more of Antigua. I was so disappointed that the volcano peek was covered by low clouds. Later, we found another bar called Cafe No Se, where we had a few more beers.

It was early and so we went to get something to eat. After much looking around, we decided on Tacontento. I had some excellent tacos al pastor. It was getting dark now so we went back to Cafe No Se for some more drinks. The crowd was getting large and was a lot of fun. We stayed there about two hours and then went exploring again. It was lightly raining by this time. We were getting hungry again and went to a place called Frida's. It was a Mexican restaurant and I had some Pollo con Mole. It was really good!

We stayed out until around midnight just walking around and hopping in and out of bars. By the time we got back to our hostel, we were soaking wet from the rain.

The hostel was awesome and so comfortable for sleeping.

The next morning we were up around 7am to get ready. The hostel had a free breakfast of pancakes and eggs which was good. At about 9:30 am, we caught a taxi to Guatemala City's La Aurora airport. It had rained all night and the roads were a mess but we still got there in about an our because of our great driver--Stephanie! If you are heading down there, let me know and I will give you her contact information. She is a wonderful person!

Once at GUA airport, we pretty much just sat around waiting for our name to be called off the stand by list. The flight was open so no worries there. La Aurora airport is very nice to wait in!

At about 12:30pm, we were heading to Atlanta on Delta flight 596, another 757-200 aircraft.

I was once again in business class seat 3C. The flight had a few minutes of rough air 30 minutes after departure but it smoothed out for the rest of the trip. This time I had the steak and it was pretty good too. I also had my usual gin and tonics to drink. I passed on the movie, which was The Karate Kid. We arrived into Atlanta at 6pm, which was about 20 minutes early. Our connection was not until 9:57pm but there was a flight at 6:55 that we were going to try and catch. We cleared customs and immigration quickly and then ran like we have never ran before! We got to the gate with just minutes to spare and were given seats. This was Delta flight 378, an MD-88 aircraft. I was in coach seat 16E. It was a good thing we caught that flight because after checking, I saw that we would not have made the flight at 9:57 due to it being full. We would have had to sleep in Atlanta airport overnight.........

In closing, I will say that Guatemala exceeded my expectations! I loved it and will definitely return!

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