Day2(Feb.3rd) Going to Xela

Breakfast in restaurant (El Mezon?) right beside Posada La Merced Hotel. I have an Americano breakfast and we order our eggs scrambled. (Huevos revoltos is the correct Spanish) The meal comes with papaya, a bit of fresh youing cheese and slices of plantain bananas.

Six of us volunteers in a shuttle with Eric the driver. I'm sitting beside David and he is quite the story teller. Here is the title of some of his stories: 1)Why did the Mayflower stop at Plymouth Rock? 2) Using GPS in the backwoods of Canada 3)Learning to use GPS skillfully 4)Newfie song about a broken down car and bear hunting.

Since I have photocopy map of Guatemala that I follow with David, on our route across the country from Antigua to Xela. The map indicates we are on the Pan-American number one highway and before we get to Xela we hit the highest elevation of the entire highway. (We're well into the highlands.) The map only mentions "main" cities and villages but there are so many more minor villages every 2 or 3 kms. as we zoom by.

Who are the six? Liz and Karen, Joni and Jackie, Paul and myself. Joni and Karen act as reporters and try to figure out all the last details. Karen has lost luggage on arrival in Guatemala, as well as Margarita. They manage to borrow extra clothing from others. They also have to process an insurance compensation claim.

Our arrival is at Hotal Los Pinos. Charlie, the Peace Corps worker, is there to place us at ease and deal with our questions...guess who asks the most questions?

For dinner we try the Italian Steak Restaurant(?) but they don't have enough food for us. We do find a good third story restaurant that seats and serves all 7 of us with Charlie again helping us. All 7 meals, including 3 beers(Gallo) came to Quetzales138 which is about $23(CAN)! My meal was very good: porco in marinaro sauce/refried beans/fried plantain bananas and a Gallo.
In the later evening we meet with Ruben and 5 other AMMID workers at another restaurant. This is a late night restaurant and they often specialize in coffee and cakes. The meeting goes on in two languages and makes sure everyone knows the scheduling of things-to-do in the following 4 days. AMMID is very well organized and has 10 workers in the office. 4 workers are not able to attend an evening meeting because they live further outside the city and had to get home.
Get to Los Pinos early enough at 8:00pm to get ready for the next day. Lights out at 10:00pm.