This morning we took the kids to school for only a couple of hours. We needed to make sure we got on the road early enough to get through the border and to our hotel before it got dark out.
The drive started out smooth enough. We were able to get out of Xela going in the right direction (towards the coast rather than the mountains) and actually remembered some of the places that we had gone by before. After about an hour of driving we had to make a turn off going into unfamiliar territory. It is so hard to follow the maps here and the signs are horrible so I always fear that we're going the wrong way. When we came to Guatemala for the first time with Dave, he joked that if we get to the Mexican border that we've gone too far. This time however, that's where we were trying to go!!
It was very reassuring when we kept making it to the towns on the map and we were feeling pretty confident that we were close to the border.....and we would have been except that a road was out and we couldn't get through!! UGH!! We had to completely backtrack and try to find another way to get through. We were out in the middle of nowhere surrounded by jungle. The roads were complete drops off with only the trees acting as guardrails. Although it was very nerve racking, it was extremely gorgeous! I don't know how we did it but we managed to make to a little town called Malacatan. We were oh, so close to the border again!! This time we got stopped in traffic. Cops were everywhere running around the street and everybody was getting out of their cars and running down the side street. Of course all the of the kids (and I) wanted to get out to see what was going on but Chris was a little more level headed and told us to be patient and wait safely in the car. After what seemed like forever the cops all came running back up the street, jumped in their trucks and started down the street. As soon as they left there was a loud noise and a helicopter took off from an empty lot. I don't think the people in that little town had seen many helicopters before!! We were glad to finally get going and we arrived at the border shortly after that.
At the border, Chris went into the Guatemala migration and got all of our passports stamped, then we had to go to the Mexico side to get the car sprayed for bugs. They did an inspection of the van by using a big huge truck with what I am assuming was an x-ray machine inside. We were cleared to enter the country. The entire time there were people trying to get money from us for washing the windows, helping with paperwork, etc. What a life!
Once we were past the border, it was about 1/2 hour to our hotel and we had no problems finding it. It was about 5:00 by then so we got checked in and went for dinner. We ate at a little Italian restaurant where I felt like the queen of the country. The waiter was there to help with EVERYTHING! He even served us every single piece of pizza that we ate. Chris tried to get a piece of pieces and the waiter ran over and grabbed it for him. It was pretty funny. We were also the only people in the restaurant so I guess he didn't have much else to do!
After dinner we were all pretty exhausted and looking forward to going to bed in our cozy little hotel room. We were able to get a room that had 4 beds in it so that we didn't have to get two separate rooms. It was nice to be together since we were in a very strange environment!
Saturday 5/23/09
I woke up this morning at 4:00 to the lovely sound of the "rit roo" birds. The birds seriously sound like they are whistling at a a good looking person walking by. I can't get the video to upload right now but I'll keep trying.
The shower was a pleasant surprise. It had some pressure and it also could maintain a temperature for longer than 5 seconds. It was definitely the best hotel shower that we've had down here!!
We got up and looked around a little before we headed to breakfast. The kids were so excited that there were a couple of big huge mango trees outside of our room as well as coconut trees, and a few other weird things that we didn't know. They had so much fun collecting all of the fruit. Cole used the coconuts as soccer balls. The weather is the complete opposite of Xela. It is very hot and very humid. It's a welcome change for a couple of days. (Don't miss the Vegas heat though!!)
Breakfast was an interesting continental breakfast but they wanted to charge us for three people. Our reservations were for six people so I understand what the problems was. They finally said that Alysa and Laina could eat for free but that we'd have to pay for one more person.
We drove around the town to see what there was. Chris laughed at me for taking pictures of the Sam's Club and Home Depot. I guess nobody would really care to see those pictures posted on the blog!! We went into Sam's Club in hopes of finding Chris some Dr. Pepper but to his disappointment, there wasn't any. As we drove around we made a few observations:
1-The people are taller and a lot rounder here!! In Xela they are square/stocky. Here they are just round. It might be more apparent here since it is so much hotter and most of the people dress a lot more scantily.
2-There aren't any crazy chicken buses and the cars don't all have black exhaust shooting out of them.
3- Nobody wears traditional dress here. Everything is a little more modern.
4- People aren't as friendly and welcoming.
5- There are a lot more American made cars. They are a lot newer also.
6- There were very few vehicles with people packed into them.
7- There weren't very many street vendors.
8- Lots of people were wearing "dust masks". There was even a big statue that somebody had put one on. The government has put out a recommendation for people to wear them to prevent the swine flu. They haven't had any cases so it was purely preventative.
(some church that we saw)
Back at the hotel, we had some down time for a little while. We let the kids go swimming in the pool afterwards. There were two parts to the pool so the kids stayed in the shallow end. Alysa said that that it is really cool here and that she likes it a lot.
Dinner was at a local restaurant called LaPena. Our waiter spoke some English and really wanted to practice so he talked with us the ENTIRE night!! Luckily our table was right next to the door to the playground so the kids were happy! I had the best soup there!! By the time we got back to the hotel though, the kids were extremely overtired and very cranky. Plus, Chris was miserably sick! He's had some sort of a cold that he just can't seem to get rid of.
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