Feliz a dia de San Patricio!
Hope everyone is enjoying the celebration of St. Patties at home.
We stayed one more day at El Roble, and boogie boarded a bit in the morning. We lounged by the pool and read all day then hung out at the beach in the evening. We met a fellow from Port Alberni, named Grandpa Chuck, he is a friend of Darren and Secas from the hostel. He lives right on the beach and we had some beers with him. We all walked back to the hostel for the best damn curry Ive ever had. We celebrated the last night with some drinks and went to bed pretty late.
The next morning, Kelly, a young lady who works and lives at El Roble, told us she had to go to Guatemala to register her car, (there are too many stipulations in El Salvador). She said we could all come along for a small amount of gas money which was about half the cost of the shuttle, but triple the cost of the bus. We decided it was worth the extra comfort. We all said our goodbyes to Darren and Seca (I even teared up) and piled in the Explorer for the trip to the border. I dozed off and awoke to a roadblock. Kelly looked a little worried and explained the she had accidentally left her car papers at the border the day before, since she was there trying to figure out all the paperwork for registering her car. We all handed our passports to the officals, and after some interrogation they told us to follow them to the border (only about 7 minutes away).
Once we got to the border they continued to interrogate Kelly and us, asking where we were going, for how long. Kyle got some flack beecause for some reason the offical at the Honduran border only wrote 9 days instead of 90, but we were only there for transit for a total of 2 hours. Plus, these guys were from El Salvador, what did they care about Honduras? They searched our bags, and asked us some more ridiculous questions. It was really great Kelly was there to translate the Spanish for us. She was feisty! She found the fellow who had her papers, and presented them to the police. They were pissed off because they still felt like she was doing something wrong, but everything was smoothed over by the Salvadorian immigration. We got off with no fine, no bribe, no nothing. Phew!
We ended up having to wait at the border for 5 hours because Kellys papers were filled out incorrectly the day before. The border was fine, just a little boring and really hot. We got there at 3:30, and didnt leave until 8:30. Driving through Guatemala at night wasn't the safest idea, but there were 5 of us, and we were told not to stop for anybody for any reason, because it wasn't safe. We drove for 2 hours through Escuentla and stopped at Mcdonalds. We saw a couple car accidents which looked pretty rough, but drove on. The weather was nice and cool, a refreshing change from the 35 degrees on the coast. We arrived in Antigua at 11:30, the first hostel was full, but Kelly knew of a lady who had rooms for cheap. Estrella was the name of the place, and they gave us a room for 5 bucks each. We had a nice hot shower which was just what we needed after the long day we had. We slept like babies!
This morning we awoke to a little rain, and went for crepes at La Luna de Miel (Honeymoon). I had a smoothie because my stomach was feeling a little off. We switched hotels and are currently staying at "The Yellow House" which is awesomeeeee. They have this nice rooftop chillout area, solar hot water, free internet use, free breakfast and really helpful staff. It's about 8 dollars a night. We went for lunch at Cafe Barista and had a fabulous sandwich which was too expensive but still good. Antigua is pretty gringofied and a little pricey, but that is because it is so beautiful and colonial. I am heartbroken without my camera here as there are beautiful photo ops EVERYWHERE. I want to go explore but my stomach is acting up so I will just have to wait it out. Tonight we will go out to the Irish Pub in town and celebrate St Patties! We will probably stay until Sunday afternoon when we will go to San Pedro, on Lago de Atitlan for our spanish studies.
Not much else to report. Wishing I had my camera. Thats about all. I guess I should take this as a learning experience, to enjoy the moment and not always feel the need to capture it through a lens. I am excited to be here for the weekend since we didnt have much contact with the outside world in El Salvador. But sometimes, that's just what you need.
Hasta luego, amigos!
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