Sadly, today we begin our extraction from Guatemala. We started early by reinstalling our belongings into our backpacks. Having done some preparation the night before, this was pretty simple. Then, promptly at 8:00 we headed up the block for our last breakfast at Café Sol. After a walk around the block (because their eagerness to open didn’t match our eagerness to eat), we settled in for another lovely start to the day. About an hour later we grabbed our bags from our AirBnB and entered into the most exciting part of our trip. Not exciting in a good way, but exciting.

Remember all that pontificating about not over planning and just going with the flow regarding transportation to and from Guatemala City? Today (despite decidedly mixed reviews on the internet about the wisdom), we opted for what seemed like the easy way out and called an Uber for the 24 mile ride back. Trip Advisor reviews are no doubt skewed towards complainers, no? Perhaps. But for us, this was one of those back seat experiences we have only had a few times over the years (a Lisbon taxi, a Croatian bus...). Our driver clearly thought his Mazda was a formula one car and sped past, weaved between, and cut off every car he could for the next hour and a half. This wasn’t just “normal” Guatemalan competitive driving, this was very, very exciting. In a bad way. The saving grace was that traffic in Guatemala City was bumper to bumper for the last hour, so at least at that point the accident was going to be slow.

Eventually we found ourselves at the foot of the Eon Apartment building, living and breathing. After some bumps, the front desk lady gave us a key card for our 11th floor AirBnB loft. The apartment was lovely and simple, with a spectacular view towards our volcanoes and the airport. Feeling we had earned it, we heading downstairs in the same building to “Curry and Kabobs” for a satisfying lunch, accented with Bollywood YouTube entertainment.

A nap (Theresa) and some American politics (Brian) later we wandered the very expat Zone 10 for some steps. Theresa hit the gym while Brian continued to hit the extraordinarily large television. In the early evening we walked a half block to an empty and uninspired “Cadejo Brewing Company” for dinner before calling it an early evening before a travel day.