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Feb - Mar 2002: My friend Priscilla and I took a trip to Guatemala (and briefly into Honduras).

Guatemala, week 1

Jennifer Radcliffe
2005-11-11 11:32:05

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Stranded in Houston

I receive an email at 8am (an hour before we are supposed to leave) from our travel agent in Antigua telling us that there is a strike at the Guatemala airport and we might not make it in today. I call Continental Airlines to ask about our flight, and they haven't heard anything about it (the lady tells me, Well, Continental isn't on strike!) and we happily head to the airport and make our first connection to Houston.

Guess what happens in Houston? Of course! After proceeding to our gate, and after being thoroughly ignored by the people at the counter for the prescribed amount of time, we're told our flight is canceled.

NOOOOOOO!!!!!

We get in the customer service line with the rest of the "lost flock". We were a curious and good-natured group. Luckily, Continental hooked us up with a hotel room, dinner, tomorrow's breakfast, and free shuttle back and forth. In addition, we got booked on first class seats on tomorrow's 8am flight to Guatemala City, and a kind customer rep gave us drink coupons, int'l calling cards, and lots of great info about Guatemala. Yayyyy!! Lesson for the day: a little good-naturedness goes a long way in situations like these! Yes, all this will be lovely if the flight tomorrow actually makes it!

After settling into the hotel and having a plentiful, if slightly bland dinner (gotta love Houston for their portion sizes and buffets!) we decide to go take a walk around the hotel to get a little exercise. The hotel is huge and reminds me more of an apartment complex than a hotel! Long straight corridors that go on forever... we practically have to walk a mile to get to the front desk! And the indoor corridors often dead-end in a glass door which leads outside into a type of courtyard with pools here and there. We get lost ...