6.15

Shuttle
The shuttle picks us up on time, as planned, at 8 am. Gustavo is physically there, and extremely apologetic. We hop in and make it to Chichi within a couple of hours. We're dropped off behind the Santo Tomas hotel and are told we will be picked up in front of the hotel at 2 - the driver even takes us around to show us where. Got it. We swing by the church to catch the end of a service, then shop for a while. The market here is the most popular, and largest, in Guatemala. I get everything I want, plus a little extra, and we're done. We have a little time to kill before the shuttle picks us up at two, so we eat lunch and hang out in the beautiful courtyard and bar at the Santo Tomas hotel.

Here We Go Again
We're standing in front of the Santo Tomas hotel, watching the minutes creep past 2:00, getting nervous. Shuttles keep coming and going, but none of them are our. I finally tell Hallie to wait in front, and take off running to the back. There's a ton more shuttles here, and I start asking questions until I do find OUR shuttle, on its way out. I make the driver stop, and my name is on his list, but Hallie's isn't. GREAT. I argue with him until he agrees to pick her up around front and call Gustavo, who confirms the reservation was supposed to be for two - "oops." We're mad, but we're on the shuttle. I watch the houses fly by, nestled in between crop fields up and down the mountain, and start to doze off. ... A couple of hours later, it is 4:30, and we are in Antigua being kicked off our shuttle. We're dropped at a different travel agent office, who is very, very apologetic. He tells us that the company I booked does this all the time, and that they don't explain to people that the shuttle is not a direct trip from Chihi to Guatemala City, it's to Antigua where we wait for the next shuttle, which won't be by until 7. This sucks. There is a sign in a restaurant, across the street from the offices that says, "Breathe, relax and enjoy," so I do. We walk around Antigua for a bit, but neither of us have any money, and it's nearly dark. We end up sitting at the travel agent offices, mooching the wifi until our shuttle finally comes. Once again, Hallie's name is not on the reservation, but this driver gives us no hassle. The should-be 45 minute trip back to Gua City takes more than two hours, because we have to drop off so many people. We are finally taken back to the hotel we were picked up from, dead last, where we hail a cab to go home. As luck would have it, we get the only taxi driver in Guatemala who can't figure out directions. I end up telling him how to get to the Home Base, and we finally arrive, exhausted. There's a whole crop of new people here to volunteer that we meet, but we go to sleep fairly early. It's been a long day, and I am now on my very last week in Guatemala.