My Summer Finale

Working for the man for seven weeks, sitting in front of two computer screens for seven hours a day interrupted by pointless bathroom and water breaks left my soul feeling corned and needing a breath of fresh air. This fresh air came in the form of a trip to Guatemala with Marissa (my fellow traveler and friend who I met in Israel) squeezed between the end of work and the beginning of school. I originally wanted to go to Nicaragua, supposedly the safest and least expensive (though most of Central America is inexpensive) country in Central America, however, Marissa heard from her friends that there is more to do in Guatemala than Nicaragua. She was the one who was getting me the deal on the plane tickets and for me the act of traveling and experiencing new things is what is important, not the place. So I put Nicaragua for another time and got stoked to get away and travel to Guatemala. Before we left I surfed the web for hours checking out things to do, hostels, transportation and other travel related things in Guatemala and purchased a lonely planet to serve as my unofficial guide.
Two days after finishing work I was to fly to Atlanta then onto Guatemala at 8 in the morning. I was flying standby with low priority on all my flights so I only got on if there were extra seats on the plane. My first chance at a flight was at 8 o'clock, got bumped and waited until the noon flight. Again there were no seats but at 1 there was a flight to Cincinnati then onto Atlanta that had space but luckily I did not get on for I got the last seat on the next flight out of Harrisburg.
I arrived in Atlanta, which is a huge airport, ran into a friend that I knew from Israel and went to claim my baggage and meet Marissa's parents who were taking us out to dinner for Marissa's 21st birthday. My luggage arrived to Atlanta before I did so I had to go into a shady baggage claim room with five people sitting around and one actually working to pick up my bag. For dinner we went to a steak place called Wildfire where irony would have it the fire alarm went off for about 10 minutes, flashing lights and annoying alarm and all. But even with a little distraction we still had a good meal and was joined by another friend of ours from Israel, Rachael. After dinner, Rachael, Marissa, B Ro (a man amongst men) and I went to Taco Mac, a cool bar with over 300 different types of beers on tap and in bottle. Choosing a beer was as hard as picking out your favorite meal at Taco Bell, all delicious.
We woke up the next morning about a quarter to seven to a breakfast of french toast, tea and raspberries. Marissa's parents drove us to the airport, we said our goodbyes and waited to board the plane. We sat first/business class with the comfortable big chairs and a nice meal that we did not eat because they ran out of the vegetarian meal and only had flank steak with potatoes. I had a salad and a few bread rolls and promptly fell asleep from the small amount of sleep the night before and a full stomach. The plane landed about four hours after takeoff in Guatemala City airport which to my surprise looked more like an American airport rather than a third world country's main port of entry for internationals. And to our surprise a Guatemalan band was playing giving us a latin feel that would continue throughout the vacation (see picture below).
Getting to our hotel in Antigua was easy, as a shuttle was waiting for us at the exit to the airport and we happened to see my last name only after getting another taxi. Luckily, we were able to tell the first driver that we are taking the shuttle and got our first taste of Guatemala and its capital city on the drive up to Antigua, which is located at a higher elevation. Antigua was the colonial Spanish capital of all of Central America and therefore most of the buildings are old and some dilapidated for the city is located in an earthquake and volcano zone (it is surrounded by three volcanoes, one of which is active) which has caused some buildings to fall. The roads are made of cobblestone and soot is shot into the air from the array of vehicles (chicken buses which are just yellow school buses painted in bright colors, scooters, cars and tose-toses). The first hostel that we stayed out was actually a hotel that was located at the south of the city with our own room and bathroom. I was anxious to walk around the city and to see what was around a plan an activity for the next day. We walked to the 'central park,' a small park with a large fountain in the middle with benches and locals and foreigners mixing. The center is surrounded by the old city hall, governors mansion, stores, restaurants, coffee shops and banks.