I barely made the flight out of Bocas to head to Guatemala City. The weather’s been iffy, and the flights in and out have been getting delayed and/or cancelled like crazy. Luckily, my flight was just delayed a couple of hours, and I got out in time. I had a few hours’ layover in Panama City. So I made arrangements to meet up with Liz and Margaux, 2 Belgian sisters I knew from Bocas. They were biding some time before flying off in different directions. Margaux was heading back home to Belgium and Liz, interestingly enough, was heading up to Antigua. So that means I’d probably see her there too.
We met up at their hostel and headed over to Via Espana for lunch. We ended up having Chinese at a busy place. The food was good, but took way too long to come out. We chatted and gossiped about Bocas stuff for awhile, it was nice. Unfortunately, I had to head out a bit early because it was raining massively, and I needed to make sure I made the airport in time for my next flight. We headed back to their hostel where my bags were, and I headed to the airport from there.
The flight to Guatemala was lengthy, because I had to make two stops from Panama City. First to San Jose, then to San Salvador. I finally arrived in Guatemala City. Thankfully Mitzy was waiting, because I was exhausted.
She set me up at the Westin Camino Real Hotel for the first night. Definitely a four-star joint. The room was absolutely incredible and the bed was, to date, the best bed I have ever slept on. I’m not kidding. It was like sleeping on a fluffy cloud. I didn’t think I moved the whole night. It was amazing.
After getting checked in, we went to pick up Moni. She’s the GC Gang contingent who lives on Utila, now a very good friend. She was in Guatemala for a visit, and for the big wedding. Interestingly, Mitzy didn’t tell her I was coming. So when we picked her up at her house, it was a total surprise.
We dined on sushi and got caught up on all the Utila happenings, along with other related subjects. Then, they were in the mood for poker. I was just way too tired, but I told them I’d try to keep up. We hit a couple of poker rooms close by, but there were no good games. Then we went to another one, a newer casino. There was a good game brewing, but not enough room at the table for all three of us. Despite yielding my seat to go ahead and play, but they decided not to, and we headed out. I was really exhausted and looking forward to sleeping in my lovely bed at the Westin anyway. As I previously mentioned, I was not to be disappointed.
I slept so well that I totally missed my wake-up call. It was awesome, I never wanted to wake up. The shower was a beautiful thing too. It was one of those 2-headed massaging get-ups. It was a long, hot shower. Ohh.. yeah…
A bit later, we made arrangements to get some lunch, pick up Moni, and head to Antigua. This is where Rosi and Andres were getting married. It’s a town made for weddings, with something like 33 churches there and plenty of settings for receptions. Mitzy had set me up another very nice hotel there as well. A really nice place called Hotel de Casa Noble. Huge rooms, casually yet elegantly decorated. In the Spanish colonial style, surrounding an incredibly well-manicured courtyard with running fountain. It was spoiling, needless to say.
The wedding was the next day, but we had plans to meet up with a couple other GC gang’ers that night for dinner at an Indian place. Liza ended up being the only one other than us three. Dinner was very nice. It was sure to be a crazy day the next day, so we all opted to turn in early.
Now though I managed to dredge up some presentable dress clothes for this clambake on the boat, there was a slight problem. I didn’t have any dress shoes. Mitzy said not to worry. Campollo, one of the GC Gang who I’ve met several times, and was on the ill-fated Easter trip to Cayos Cochinos last April, would lend me a pair. So all was good.
The next morning I was ready, except for shoes. Campollo was to meet me at the hotel with the shoes, then I’d ride with him to the church for the ceremony, which started around noon. Eleven o’clock went by, and no sign of him. Then noon, still no sign. Mitzy came back to the hotel after the ceremony, which I now had missed, to tell me Campollo called. He was running late because of traffic. He showed up a short while later. After donning the shoes, we were on the way to the reception.
While I was sorry to have missed the ceremony, I kinda wasn’t. I’m not a fan of long, traditional catholic masses, much less catholic wedding ceremonies. My leg was still hurting after the spill I took back at Bocas earlier in the week, and I really didn’t feel like kneeling and standing, and so on. So in a way, I was glad Campollo was late.
The reception, now that was a whole other story. I didn’t want to miss a minute of this thing. They held it at an old coffee plantation house that had been converted to host events like weddings and large parties. There was a stage with a band, loads of food, drinks, and quite a lot of people! I believe it was over 200. I was definitely the sole gringo at this event, and yet, I didn’t feel uncomfortable, not once. Well, maybe once.
Each table had its own set of liquor and mixers, which were promptly refilled upon emptying. The food was quite nice, and there was plenty of it. It was a very elaborate affair. The band went on until about 8 or 9 pm. Despite my injury, I was able to hold my own with my fake salsa and merengue routine.
Then a DJ took over, that’s when the dancing kicked up in earnest. He
played a bit of everything, keeping the dance floor going well into midnight. He also had a tendency to play “What’s Up?” by Four Non-Blondes about 10 times through the night. I think it was because everybody was singing along at the top of their lungs.
Things finally started winding down after midnight, and plans were being made for where the after-party was going to be. There was a lot of major inebriation by this point, naturally. One particular GC member who shall remain unnamed, swayed a bit too much, and took a spill. She ended up landing on the dance floor in a very alarming way. The rest of us thought she was seriously hurt. Luckily she wasn’t, just a small cut on her lip. That little incident, however, sort of set the tone for everyone to just head home and maybe play it safe.
The next day, I got an email from Elizabeth, who I had just seen in Panama before flying out. She had arrived and we arranged to meet at the park at 1pm for lunch. So while the rest of the gang met up and did the after-wedding thing. I met up with Liz, and we hung out the rest of that afternoon. She was planning on being there for 5 weeks to study more spanish. Knowing Antigua fairly well, I showed her around, and gave her some tips about the place.
Later on, we met back up with the gang at a local cafe, and I introduced her to everybody. She had to go back to where she was staying early because she didn’t have a key yet, so we arranged to meet up again later. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen, because everyone else got vegetated, and we ended staying at Liza’s house and watching “Apocalypto” instead. Campollo and I went into town to get some dinner, but that was it.
I flew out the next day. Because of the flight schedule, I was going to be stuck in Panama City that night. Unfortunately, I got there too late to do anything fun. This actually worked out anyway, because I wanted to pick up a battery charger for Andiamo while I was in town. I had just enough time to do that before heading back to Bocas. I was rather hoping that my leg would start feeling a little better by now. But it was still swollen and a bit bruised around the injury. Maybe I should have danced on it so much.
Now that I’m back in Bocas, the plan is to get the prospective crew and passengers set on a departure date, get Andiamo ready, and head out within the week.
At least, that’s the plan.
