Early morning flight

This return trip to Guatemala included a few “new” things, the first of which was an early morning flight that resulted in our ability to touch down in Guatemala before noon!  To reach that goal, however, we left our home base at 2am in order to make it to Milwaukee for a 5:30am flight.

The flights themselves were on-time and Delta was true to their advertising that they left the middle seat open.  They also began boarding from the rear, which helps lessen the co-mingling with other travelers.  But, though certainly through no fault of Delta, the flights were very choppy.  The passenger seated in the window seat adjacent to my aisle seat held a sack in front of his face the entire time.

We made it, though, and Ana from Highland Tours was waiting for us dutifully and professionally.  For those that need a suggestion for transportation, they come highly recommended.

When we touched down in Guatemala, the line to check incoming passengers for the proof of vaccination or negative covid test result was fairly quick but the lines at immigration were long.  The good news was that they green-lighted everyone for the customs process and none of our bags were checked.  I was a little worried that they would think we were opening a pharmacy with all the vitamins we brought in!

After we checked into the hotel, we made plans to distribute some items we transported for friends as well as donations for Nuevo Reto. 

Sending a remittance to myself

We also attempted something “new” this trip — sending ourselves a remittance to be picked up at a bank in Guatemala.  I won’t go into details here, but will let it suffice to say that it was not a success.

The silver lining to my cloudy banking experience is that we had the kind accompaniment of Ester Juarez.

We had made arrangements with Ester to meet at our hotel so that she could drop off a couple of paintings for us to transport back to the United States.  When she heard that we had plans to go to a bank, she volunteered to drive us.  Knowing that it would allow us a little more time together, and to save ourselves the walk to the bank, we happily accepted.

Unfortunately, that trip to the bank resulted in nothing but 1.5 hours of wasted time.  Ester graciously waited outside the bank (you could only come in if you had a transaction to process inside) and never complained about all the time that we were making her wait.

When we finally gave up and aborted the process, we decided to get some takeout food and return to the hotel.  Ester drove through Pollo Campero and we enjoyed her company back at the hotel for that chicken meal. 

Painting it Forward

She told us about the time she spent in the states, her love for painting, and the plans we had for supporting the professional and social projects of her son in Santiago Atitlan, José Miguel Yllescas Juarez.  One of the ways we raise funds for his work is through the sale of her paintings.  Look at this lovely painting of Antigua!  If you would like a chance to own it, please look out for our upcoming charity art auction!

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After Ester left, it was almost time for Patti and Tammi to arrive.  They were coming in on a later flight.  It was nice to have the entire team together. We enjoyed great conversation as a full team that evening and I could tell from the beginning that everyone will gel great together.  It will be a wonderful 13 days!