Trip to Guatemala

The Adventure of the Arrival

It was a Monday morning when I got a call at work from Josh saying his Grandpa in Guatemala had passed away. It was a sad time for the Aldana family and I could relate to a loss of a loved one all too well. The next question was, would we be go for the funteral? What I didn't expect was to find out that the funeral would be held the next day. This was something very different than what I was used to here in the United States. We were very fortunate that our work allowed us to take the time off with the short notice. 

We got things together as quickly as we could to arrange for this trip. It was Josh's dad's wishes that both his sons make the trip. It would be Josh and I, and my brother in law Chris. We had less than one day to leave our affairs in order with co-workers and family. That afternoon I left work in the biggest hurry ever. I came home from work and literally was running around the house like a mad women throwing my things in a suitcase for this trip. Normally for any trip I would take days calculating what I would wear, and take with. I would check my lists....check them again...and check one more time. But in this case there was no time for that. Josh's parents arrived 20 minutes after I got home and were ready to take us to the airport. My biggest regret was not saying goodby to my dogs, which didn't even hit me until after I was gone. That's how not straight I was thinking.

Once we got to the airport the adrenalin started to die down a little. By the time we got to LAX it was past midnight and we were just exhausted.  We waited ticket counter where the screen displayed Guatemala City, but no one else was arriving. As we desperately checked our watches to see what time it was we didn't understand why there weren't more people waiting to board the plane. Just as panic started to kick in, we heard a voice over the intercom, "La Famila Aldana por favor vengan a la puerta 53A." Oh no! We jumped up so fast and ran to the ticket counter. As we arrived they immediately started yelling at us, first in Spanish then in English. Which made us feel even worse because we got it twice. "Where have you been? You are late! The plane has boarded and is ready to leave!" We couldn't believe it. We tried to explain that their screen at the other gate still had Guatemala City displayed on it. If the gate changed why did it still say that? It was no use, they didn't want to hear any of it. So there we were, running....again. Let me tell you, I have never felt so many awful stares at once. Yes, we were those annoying people late to board the plane.

All we could do was be grateful that they called our names at all. We almost missed our flight, which would mean we probably would have missed the funeral. With a big sigh relief all we could do sit back and try to get some sleep on the plane. 

As the plane descended to Guatemala City I looked outside...I wasn't quite sure what to think of it. It looked polluted and old. The first thought that came into my head was "What did I get myself into? I want to go back." You have to understand that up to this point this was the first time reality had really sank in. I had been running on pure adrenaline until now. I was now in Josh's family's country and I had no idea what to expect. And I just realized that I would be meeting a lot of in laws for the first time. 

A few month's ago Josh's cousin visited Utah. And now, here we were visiting Guatemala. Darwin was nice enough to pick us up from the airport. As we left the airport we pulled up to the first stop sign. I looked around and became aware of my surroundings. All I could do is put my seat belt on and pray we would make it safe. I must have had a look of terror on my face because the boys thought it was funny. Let's just say...traffic laws were non existent. Cars were speeding, people were honking, no one used signals, it was crazy. And we had a two hour drive ahead of us just to make it to the funeral. We knew we would be cutting it close, but we made it.