Julie and I are on vacation here in Guatemala. Our flight out of Seattle left Wednesday at midnight. So naturally, the planning and packing for the trip started when I got home from work that Wednesday. The next few hours were spend mostly on a mini shopping binge at REI. $600-mini, that is. Purchases included (in decreasing order of necessity) sandals, hiking socks, rain jackets, a deluxe multi-tool, and finally those Motorola walkie-talkies.

The 12 hours of flying passed quickly because we were asleep most of the time. We had a connection in Houston's George Bush International Airport where the best breakfast option at 7am was Fox Sports Grill. We ate nasty omlettes and watched 50 TVs simultaneously air reports like "They hate the military. They hate America. Anti-war groups are active and recruiting in schools. Is your child a target? Find out on the next O'Reilly Factor." You are watching Fox -- We are watching Fox! ( hypnotized drone)

I purposefully planned our arrival during daylight hours so that, being fresh off the plane and very green, we would be less vulnerable to scamming. I think we partially succeeded on that front. Our taxi to the bus station seemed a bit expensive but the price agreed with the estimate in The Book. Our plan was to leave Guatemala City immediately for Xela and the trek.

Guatemala seems tame compared to Morocco or Nepal. I was shocked when our bus left promptly after we got on it and was headed to the desired destination. There's less swarming when you get off a bus or plane. The general public doesn't seeme that interested in tourists. Nobody stares, nobody really tries to sell you crap on the street, nobody tries to guide you to their hotel/restaurant/tour.

Security is a big thing here. At banks, stores, McDonalds', etc. there's one or more uniformed guards with a pump-action shotgun and a belt full of ammo. The cops patrol the highway and stopped our bus periodically for no particular reason. Unlike in Morocco, I didn't see any bribes change hands for the privilege of transporting us tourists.

Our hostel (Casa Argentina) in Xela is pretty deluxe I think. We have our own room for Q50/night. The showers are electricly-heated by a device that attaches to the showerhead. Hot water is way better than I expected but the funny thing is the device is powered by a wire that wraps around the water pipe, following it out of the wall. Seems safe to me!

Arranging the trek was easy since the Quetzaltrekkers agency operates out of our hostel. We just had our pre-trek meeting this evening in our courtyard and I'm pretty psyched about it. Of the three options, we choose the 3-day hike to Lake Atitlan because apparantly we aren't acclimatized enough to do the one to the highest point in Guatemala. Next weekend hopefully. All trips start on Saturday which limits us to only 2. Too bad because they also have a rock-climbing one.

So people really don't speak English here. In fact, students who want to learn Spanish come to Xela exactly because of this fact. I made a little cheat-sheet consisting of how to say 1. "How much?" 2. the numbers 1-100 and 3. "I don't understand." in Spanish. Being helpless Anglos sucks and it makes me miss Morocco where most people speak French. We've managed pretty well so far, however.