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Well, my mission in Antigua was a complete success. I set up transportation and airport pickup for my father for Monday and reserved us a room in Antigua during Semana Santa. None of you realize how difficult that task was. Due to the size and popularity of the festival in Antigua, people are supposed to reserve rooms at least 3 or 4 months in advance. I spent all day going hotel to hotel getting the same answer; we're full! The word around town was that every establishment was booked for that week and the rooms were going for around $110 (American) per night. I was presently crashing at the same hostel (Posada Ruiz#2) I had stayed at when I first arrived in Guatemala; at a bargin price of 25Q ($3.25).

The Arrival of Big Daddy Benny

Jeremy Curl
2006-08-28 16:00:04

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of the girls were headed off the next morning; all in different directions. In between locations, I ran into another person (Daniel) that I had met in San Pedro. Daniel had studied at the same Spanish school as me and is now helping young
orphans in Chimaltenango until January. We talked for a while about our experiences thus far, and I discussed with him some of my new ideas on future volunteer/mission work and he seemed quite interested. I'm sure I'll talk with him again (Good luck this year with the kids; it's really a great thing you are doing.). I caught up with the group at a local student hangout and everyone had to switch back from German to English for poor little me. I spent most of the night in discussion with Mareike about international development, the effects of trade agreements on smaller countries, and travel in Asia. I enjoyed seeing and talking with Mareike again. She is a very sweet person and I hope to stay in touch.

Thank God for nose hair! I awoke this morning to a buzz in my nose. I quickly blew out a fly that was still very alive, but not for long. I beat it until it's last breath! I realize now that I am no longer at the Rice's home and that I must go back to morning orifice checks for critters. Hey speaking of noses, Big Daddy Benny is up in Guate.

I picked my Dad up at the airport in a private shuttle and we made our way over to the local bus station, where we hopped a ride to the Rio Dulce. We traveled for 6 hours through the city, mountains, desert, and jungle in a very crowded and humid bus. My poor Dad had been on the go since 5 O’clock in the morning, but he was quite the trooper. We arrived at 9pm and one of the Rice’s friends (Karen Rhea) met us at the bus stop and got us settled into the town. Karen and her husband Mike, are local missionaries that run a health clinic and are in the process of building an orphanage. She took us to a nearby hotel (Bruno’s) ...