Trip To Guatemala

For anyone who was unaware, last week I was in Guatemala. I traveled with a group of ladies from my church and we worked with Orphan Resources International. I would love to have been able to blog while I was down there but hat did not work out. Now that I am back I will try to blog about my trip and make it interesting which is why I am not going to summarize it in one writing.

The adventure began at the incredibly ungodly hour of 12:00 a.m. This was the set time that we ladies met at Petra to hop on a bus that would take us to the Dulles Airport. Now if you know where I live (Ephrata PA) then you know that Dulles is not he closest airport at all and you are probably wondering what on earth we were thinking. I just want to point out, for the sake of my reputation, it was not my idea. The flight from Dulles was the cheapest flight. Hopefully it was significantly cheaper and not just a few dollars difference.

Three hours, three long, freezing cold hours on that bus. You are probably wondering why we did not turn on the heat. That is a very good question... We arrived at the airport around 3:30 and began piling our luggage on the sidewalk. Because of all the donations, we each had two very large check on bags. Thirty-two bags takes up a lot of space. Apparently whoever is in charge at the airport also believes that people should be in bed at such early hours of the night because the check in desks did not open until 4. We were directed to enter our information on the computers but that did not work because someone in our group is apparently a terrorist. Ok not really, but there name is on a watch list.

We finally all had a boarding passes and headed for security which, surprise surprise, does open until 5. So much for needing to arrive hours early. At long last, what would normally be the hardest part of flying was over, but wait, our plain was boarding in... five minutes. Run Forest, run! Accept that we could not run because we needed to take a train. Low and behold the train was not coming. We waited, and waited. A huge crow formed around us pressing toward the doors. At long last a train came and we pushed and we shoved and we got right up to the door, some of us even made it in. We watched them be carried. The train we had waited fro for so long had come for us, and we had been left behind. Someone called out that their was a passageway we could take to walk there but the screen started flashing that a train was coming a in just a couple minutes. Once again we waited, but this time the train did not stop. We began walking. We walked, and we walked and we walked. I really am not sure that we saved any time walking but it got us there just in time. But ii was still not over yet. Somewhere, all alone, a team member waited for us at the train stop. They called over the loud speaker and waited a few minutes. Then our tram leader ran off to retrieve the missing member. They returned a few minutes later and at last, it was over. Until the next flight.

Actually, our connecting flight went fine but we did not have time to stop and get food so we were all rather hungry and sleep deprived when we arrived in Guatemala. I was so excited to walk out of that airport and onto foreign soil. have not left the US since my trip to India with YWAM in 2007. In a strange way it almost felt like coming home. i could not stop smiling the whole drive to El Aprisco hotel. We spent the rest of the day settling into our rooms. We had four people in each room and they were pretty nice rooms. The hotel itself was beautiful and serene.

Our luggage piled on the ORI truck fro the drive from the airport



Looking up at the area of the hotel where our rooms were



Looking down from the area where our rooms were




Our room