Guatemala (1)

Caravan Tours – Guatemala with Tikal and Rio Dulce February 4 – 11, 2024 Transport by van to Orlando, 2 flights, to Miami and Guatemala City Two flights home from Guatemala City to Miami to Orlando and transport van home With Susan and Connie — with a group of 37 people Tour Guide Oscar. Lived in Guatemala his whole life and has been a tour guide most of it

A story isn’t worth telling unless some dragons need to be slain. In this case American Airlines was my dragon!!

This is a serene view of a sunset as we were flying from Miami to Guatemala City. The three of us, however, were NOT calm. I had more trouble getting to Guatemala than I’ll have flying halfway around the world to New Dehli, India.

We were told at the gate in Orlando that we needed to complete a very fussy long questionnaire on our phones in order to get a QR code to get into Guatemala. This put us into a tailspin since we are not adept at doing forms on our phones. Instead of fun card games while awaiting the arrival of our flight, we spent it on our phones. We got it done, though. YAY!

Then we boarded and sat in a plane on the runway in Orlando long enough to run out of fuel, then back to gate for more fuel, then back on runway for a total of 4 hours before take-off without an offer of water!

Our American Airlines APP insisted we needed to rebook because we were going to miss our next flight and they had no suggestions for another flight. Of course we couldn’t get on line without WIFI and were in a panic. A miracle happened!! Our next flight was just as late as the flight we were currently on (due to crew time-outs) so we did NOT have to miss the flight, stay overnight in Miami and miss the first day of our tour. Woo-Hoo!

As we arrived in Guatemala, as instructed, we went to the cab stand and asked for a price to the Barcelo Hotel. The cabbie spoke no English. He went to another man to discuss something. That man grabbed our suitcases and motioned to follow him. I did for awhile until I came to my senses and tried to ask some questions. I took back my suitcase, but he insisted we keep walking in the opposite direction from the cab. I thought we were being kidnapped. It turns out The Barcelo Hotel had a free shuttle and they were just being nice enough to get us to the correct van. The river knew there were three of us and that we had come off the American Airlines plane, so in we went, hoping it was safe. I suppose that’s how other tourists get robbed and murdered. But all was well and we were excited to start our trip.

There are no photos from the bus for our entire trip. The windows of the bus were so darkly tinted, it was like walking into a tomb. The green leaves outside appeared red!! The front had partitions and a curtain, so you couldn’t look forward either. Ridiculous!

This is a bird’s eye view of Guatemala City.

This was a photo of the city from my hotel window. Impressive.

Hotels were great. They were 3-, 4- and 5-star!!

I take alot of these photos — barely able to see something the locals are so proud to show us due to fog, snow, rain or haze. Hope you can see the mountain behind the mountain that was a volcano.

We stopped at the Berlin Plaza.

Guatemala had a massive immigration of Germans in the nineteenth century. Guatemala currently has a strong community of Germans who make up the majority of European immigrants in the country, and it is also the most numerous German community in all Central American countries. In the 1940s, 8,000 German immigrants lived in Guatemala.

Many Germans stayed and married local women.

We stopped at the center of the city. I think the center building was a beautiful green due to the materials they used to build it. The last building could use a good power-wash.

Popol Vuh Museum containing artifacts dating back to 2,500 years BEFORE Christ.

The green jade grommet-looking items were earrings woman put into their ears. In later years, the Catholic church converted many of the Mayans.

Here’s my artsy “framed” picture, with Susan and Connie posing.

Museum of Guatemalan textiles for which they are famous.

The material is way too stiff and thick for me to wear in Florida.

More to come!

Happy Travels

Comment if you’d like. I am the only one who will read it.

Linda Jeanne

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