Monterrico

"We gotta get out of here. It´s been too many weeks in the city." We say that occassionally. Living in this city of four million (planned for less than a million) feels a little bit like you´re constantly on the run: racing to get to work, to get into line, to get off the street before dark, to stay safe, to get work done despite myriad infrastructural and organizational roadblocks. Though there are certainly good things about the city, they´re mostly people related - so when you can bring those people along with you (in this case, friends from work Kelly, Kimberly, and Kati), it can be a real relief to get out of the city. I guess this is just big city life, but I don´t remember feeling spiritually exhausted by New York City or Chicago or Denver or KC. Guatemala City is just tough to live in, and we feel the weight after enough time here. So this last weekend we planned/improvised a trip to the beach town of Monterrico. Here´s how it all went down.

There was no first class bus, so we rode the fabled chicken buses all the way there. 3 bucks for a 4 hour ride, but three to a seat plus people standing in the aisles.

We stayed at a place called Eco Beach Place run by a man named Luis and his family. We met his soon to be daughter-in-law, a girl from Virginia who happened to stay here one weekend on break from language school in Antigua and never left. She gets married this coming Saturday. We ate lunch as soon as we got there. (LtoR: Me, Kati, and Kelly).

Then we napped.

Then we went and played on the beach.

Down the beach was the weekly baby turtle race. Contestants buy a baby turtle for 10 Quetzales (about $1.24) and cheer them on as they race from the rope to the line.

It was a beautiful Pacific sunset.

The beach was steep so the undertow was really strong, but I went in up to my waist to play for a little bit after the race.

That night we went dancing at a club down the beach. I guess we don´t have any pictures of that. The next morning, we got up at 5 AM for a tour of the nearby mangrove swamp. I tried to take a picture when we started, and this is what came out.

And then it got lighter.

And lighter.

Etc.

That´s Kim in front.

We took a boat across the river to another town to take a different, quicker way back to Guatemala City. I guess they take cars across too.

That´s a bucket of fish in the foreground. It sat in the sun for a least two hours. I´m pretty sure the lady who brought them intended to sell them. Ugh.

Packed again on the bus back. We made it home on time to see the Superbowl, complete with Spanish commentary.