Our shuttle for Chichi picked us up at our hotel around 8 am. We said thanks and bye to the owners (a very hospitable family-run hotel) and were on our way. We got a call on our way out of Pana that the driver had forgotten two people and they were on their way in a moto; we had to stop and wait for them. Guess who it was? The aunt and niece pair from Atlanta we met yesterday! Crazy. We got to Chichi around 9:30, made sure our stuff was going to be locked up and started our adventure for the day in one of Guatemala’s biggest outdoor markets. I didn’t have anything specific I was looking for so I wanted to see what was out there to buy and make purchases later. Tad wanted a cotton beach outfit (think Matthew McCougnehey kinda look). As we looked around we started seeing similar stuff that everyone was selling; that was when we could get picky as far as who we purchased from and how much we could get it for. As we were walking, Tad spotted a lady holding what we thought was a dead chicken…until it twisted its head up and we realized it was alive! Here was this Guatemala lady, chatting with her friends, holding a live chicken upside down….wow. Every Sunday and Thursday they have a religious processional of the saints that are honored in the central park cathedral.
This procession was very long and loud because they kept blaring horns, beating drums, and setting off fireworks...in the middle of the streets! One time, as the processional came down the street Tad and I were shopping in, they set up a firework right next to us and told us to move. And we did! It was extremely loud and smoky; I covered my ears to make sure I didn’t blow an eardrum! At this cathedral in the central square, the steps were considered sacred up to a point, so on the bottom women sold colorful flowers and visitors had to enter the church by a side-door.
Tad and I explored inside. It was eerie actually; the worship was a mix of Catholic, ancestral, and pagan worship. I got that weird feeling in my spirit that it wasn’t quite right and not what the original Catholic missionaries had envisioned when they started the church in Chichi hundreds of years ago. After that experience, we walked around more and started buying. Tad bought his beach outfit, I bought some jewelry and little trinkets. There were quite a few gringos there and we kept running into (guess who?) the family from Milwaukee now and again; we saw them at the place we had pizza for lunch. After relaxing at lunch, more wandering and we hear someone call Tad. Tad turns around and turns out there was another guy named Tad in the same aisle as us! He was from Seattle on a trip with some students; crazy, funny world.
Around 2 pm we left for Antigua. We were waiting in the van for an additional half an hour for the aunt and niece pair to come, but finally we had to leave so we’d make it in time. Arrival in Antigua was 5 pm; we spent the night at El Hostal, the same hostel we stayed at in Antigua a few days earlier. Unpacking we see some students speaking English come in and the other Tad came walking in behind them! They had chosen the same hostel in Antigua to stay in. We needed to get out into Antigua right away to reserve a bus to get to Copan early in the morning; thankfully one of the other occupants of the hostel who was from Texas A&M gave us a great recommendation of a travel agency to check out. We hustled over there and everything worked out great! The girl spoke quite good English and we had both our tickets quickly. Our shuttle was picking us up at 4 am (good morning), but we knew tomorrow was going to be a long travel day anyways. Tad finalized all the Roatan hotel fiasco details back at the hostel before we went and had some awesome pasta for dinner in Antigua. Tad had a ‘fun’ night after he received an email from his Spain program that he needed an FBI background check; a Michigan one wouldn’t suffice for a Spanish visa. The hostel did our dirty laundry for us thankfully; we both had overworn our cool weather clothes because we didn’t expect Guate to be so cool and cloudy (65-70 degrees felt cool to us), but it didn’t get done until 10 pm. I stayed up late waiting for it and then finally hit the sack to try to prepare myself for our marathon travel day tomorrow.
Friday, June 18th
This morning came super early…4am early. Our shuttle from Antigua picked us up outside the hostel and we were off. Seven hours later we were in Copan, looking for a bus to La Entrada. We had a little bit of time so we grabbed some breakfast close to the bus station. The bus took off around 11 am and 2.5 hours later we were switching buses in La Entrada to go to San Pedro Sula. This took another 2.5 hours to get from La Entrada to San Pedro Sula. Once to the bus station in SPS, we had to find our nicer bus that would take us to Ceiba (from which we could catch the ferry to Roatan tomorrow).
By this time it was about 4 pm when we left SPS to head to Ceiba. Now we had both been to Tela over Semana Santa and knew that Ceiba was after that. I had thought it was only like an hour from Tela to Ceiba. Oh no….it was more like Tela is the halfway point on what ended up being a 3.5 hour bus ride. Not only that, but for the last hour to Ceiba it was raining and dark. By this time, I was DONE. I had been traveling for over 16 hours and we still didn’t have hotel or had dinner, yet. My mind, will, and body were frazzled. I was so sick of chicken buses and sitting in the same position all day. We asked our taxi driver for a good part of town where hotels were, found one, checked in (because at that point it didn’t matter how much one hotel cost versus another), and proceeded to find something for dinner. We started walking down the street and AAAHHHH a WENDY’s was open at like 9pm! We were ecstatic and rushed in, ordered and scarfed down our food and Frosties. After our stomachs were full, we crashed into bed. I think if either of us had anticipated how long, dirty and frustrating this travel day was going to be, we would have traveled to Ceiba in the morning. But we got there safe, had a place to stay and we were going to paradise on Roatan tomorrow.
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