the sojourn: Day 5. the long haul and the great find

Today was our 6hr trip from Copan Ruinas to Antigua, Guatemala. We woke up early again and took showers and then packed our bags. We said good by to the girl who takes care of the place during the day and then made our way back to viavia cafe for breakfast and to wait for our bus. We ate, and were joined by Marchello, who was very intent on drinking my coffee. Most of the meal was a constant struggle between me and the cat and constantly throwing him off the table. One time he settled down and snugled up beside me and waited for me to let my guard down. As soon as I did, he jumped up onto the table, but my cat like reflexes proved to be quicker than his as I grabbed him right before his tongue hit the surface of my beloved coffee. After breakfast we waited around for a few hours for the bus to arrive. After boarding it was only about 10min to the boarder of Honduras and Guatemala and we were praying for an eventless crossing. We lucked out and slipped right through without any problems. My bowels were apparently not pleased with something that I had eaten earlier becuase I was fighting off nausea and diarrhea the whole trip, and the fact that the roads were very windy and the driver didnt have a sense of fast and slow, made it even worse. We finally made it to Antigua at about 6:30 and it was already getting dark. We were really wanting to get to a place called Earthlodge but it was a little ways out of town and we had no idea which way to go. So it being dark already, there were many taxi drivers who were willing to take us, for a nominal fee. So we found one who said that he knew where the earthlodge was located, so we went with him. About 20min outside of town, up hills that reminded me of San Fransisco, we finally got to a small village called El Hato. It consisted of one dirt road cut into the side of the mountain with houses flanking its sides made of wood, concrete or metal (anything they could find). We started getting worried that he was taking us up there to rob us, or even kill us, because there was NO sign of any civilization or even a restaurant. We finally reached the end of the road, litterally, and the driver got out and pointed down the hill to a barely noticeable trailhead that split off from the dirt road we were already traveling on. We thought for sure that this was the end of the road for us, this guy was going to lead us into the hands of some bandits who were going to take everything we had and leave us for dead. At this point we really had no option but to start walking down the trail, and sure enough about 10 very long minutes later we reached a sign that said Earthlodge 200meters ahead. YESSSSSS!!!! We were not crazy and we were not going to die as we had previously thought. As we got closer we could hear people talking and even saw a dim lit area with people there, and they were speaking english. We walked up to the main building and met some of the people working there and got a little tour of the place, but since it was all dark it didnt to much good. They showed us a place where we could set up our tent and told us that dinner was at 7pm, which was strange becuase we had never been to a place that everyone ate together like that. After we set up our tent and got back to the main eating area we started meeting people, all who were more than friendly. We met Tim who was from Holand, Crystal who was from holand, Brian from the UK, a girl who was actually from Hendersonville, NC. Some people from seattle, a girl from minnesota, colorado, and the list goes on. We all sat down at two large tables and before we started eating one of the guys there was Jewish and since its Hannakah we all said some jewish prayers and lit some candles together, it was pretty cool. Dinner was served and it was delicious, all vetgitarian and plenty of it to go around. After dinner we all just sat around and talked for a while then when erika and i got tired we both went to bed. It was a great experience and we were glad to finally be sleeping, although we did not have ground mats so it was pretty uncomfortable.

ONE LAST VISIT FROM MARCHELLO