We always give ourselves a day extra of travel time when we have to catch a plane to the US. You never know what is going to happen while traveling in Guatemala- a bus breaks down, a spontaneous holiday cancels service, a landslide takes out the road…who knows? And since getting to the airport is 12 hours of travel MINIMUM, we play it safe. We left yesterday at 6am, so today we’re in Antigua, doing some last minute gift shopping for friends and family (the other nice thing about having an extra day in the itinerary).

We have never even been close to missing our flight, and I was starting to feel like we’re playing it too conservatively. But as we were having breakfast this morning in our favorite coffee shop with Froilan and Guillermo (my old host family from training), Emily got a call. Turns out, there is a manifestación (strike/ demonstration/ riot) going on in Chiantla, about 5 hours south of our site, and all access to the north is completely cut off. WHEW! Thank goodness we left yesterday, or we’d have missed our plane for sure. But to make it worse, the caller was the lady from ALAS, the group we are working with to set up a one-day family planning clinic in our town. The doctors are trapped in Chiantla, and can’t get through! We will have to reschedule the clinic, after all that effort to set it up and all the publicity we did. Sigh. Thus is life in Guatemala.

On a lighter note, in Antigua today they are having the annual Waiters’ Race. It’s a footrace around town, and the contestants are waiters and waitresses form various local establishments, carrying trays of drinks. Hilarious. Tourism (and therefore dining) is a big business around here, and this is one way to celebrate it. The winner even gets Q2,200! That’s what I love about Antigua, there’s always something going on.