Day 1

Day 1 in guatamela.

So far so good. Although there's already been some moments of panic.

When I got to san salvador, I was confused because the captain said it was 1:15 and my ipod said 3:15. I had thought Guatemala (and San Salvador) was in Central time. Plus, we were a half hour late, and I wasn't sure if I was going to have time to go through immigration before my flight to guatemala left.

I shouldn't have worried. El salvador appears to be an absolutely beautiful country -- at least from the air. There was nothing anywhere near the airport. Just green and more green. And then suddenly an airport with one runway. We landed and there's a big sign on top of the airport that says EL SALVADOR, with the letters decorated like their flag.

I was all ready to head to immigration or whatnot (and was surprised they never gave me an immigration form on the plane), but I literally just got off at gate 7 and walked over to gate 14, as if I were connecting domestically. Go figure.

Entertainingly, gate 16 was a flight to new york. Accordingly, it had its own security screening checkpoint to comply with TSA regulations. They didn't actually have x-ray machines or anything; they just went through everyone's bags and apparently (judging from the full trash cans) threw everyone's liquids away.

I waited at the gate for awhile, where I saw not a single other english-speaking person, and we finally boarded. And took off from the same runway that I had previously landed on an hour earlier.

In guatemala I had to go through immigration and customs, but there was literally no line, so that wasn't hard. I did start to freak out though when almost everyone's bags had come out on the thingy and mine hadn't. I hadn't wanted to check my bag, but they said I had to. I think it was probably okay to carry on in most planes, but whatever. Anyway, I was really nervous about TACA airlines losing my bag, and thus the panic when 75% of my flight had collected their bags and left. And we're talking about a lot of bags. Apparently these people travel with no less than 2 MASSIVE suitcases.

As a side note, I shouldn't have worried about flying TACA. It was way nicer than most american airlines. Both flights were on what appeared to be brand new Embraer E190s, complete with individual on-demand entertainment systems and a USB port (?). And they even served a meal. Although it was not exactly very good.

Anyway, like the hotel had promised, there was someone waiting for me outside the airport exit with a sign with my name. I told him 'hola!' and he took me to a van. He asked if I spoke spanish, and I said 'un poquito.' He said he spoke un poquito of english. I think his english was much better than my spanish. I told him I was from new york and was comiing to learn spanish. When he found out I was stayiing in antigua only for one day, he asked why, and I tried to explain the best I could that I didn't think i'd be able to get a bus to xela the same day I flew in, and I was worried about my safety in guatemala city. I used the word 'seguridad', which hopefully is sorta what I meant.

The hotel is gorgeous. Antigua is kind of odd. Its all these narrow streets with tall stone walls. But once you get inside those walls, it's all gorgeous gardens and benches, etc. the internal part of the hotel is like that.

I managed to ask the guy at the front desk where an ATM was and how to catch a bus to xela. He gave me a map, and I set off for the ATM. I got completely lost at one point and was like omg, i've already failed at living in this country. I couldn't figure out where I was because the streets are barely labeled, when they are they each have mutliple names, and I got "2a. Calle" confused with "2 Avenida." Eventually I figured out what i'd done wrong and made it to the central park (very cute) and the busy part of the city. Which included ATMs. And a place that sold SIM cards. So I bought a "Movistar" sim card.

Then I saw a shop advertising "tourist shuttles." It was 25 to xela, and the guy convinced me I didnt want to try to change buses to take chicken bus to xela. He's probably right. Plus, I am very short on small change, and you can't use a 100Q note for a chicken bus.

Then I had dinner by myself and even managed to walk all the way back to my hotel with no problems despite losing my map.