Thursday, June 24, 2010

I'm alive! We made it!


Yesterday morning Hannah and I took off out of PDX, on our way to Houston, Texas. Then an elderly gentleman fainted and appeared to be having a stroke, so our plane was turned around and we landed again in Portland. An hour later we were up in the air again, and four hours later we landed in Texas and had to book it across the airport to reach our gate in time, which we did, barely.
Three hours after that we landed in Guatemala, exhausted/excited. The owner of the hostel rooms we are renting and his adult son picked us up outside the airport, gave us a quick tour of the area and repeated several times the location of our apartment. They are very friendly and helpful.
Last night was a little rough. The hostel is right under the flightpath of huge jets into the airport, and we are only a few blocks away, so the planes are RIGHT OVERHEAD. The first time one roared over, Hannah and I both woke up startled. We woke up the next seven or eight times, too, but slightly less startled. Good thing we brought enough earplugs to choke a horse. I mean, if a horse would eat an earplug.
This morning our alarms went off at 7:30 but we snoozed until at least 8. I got up and took a shower with the amazing, if sporadic, hot water! We do need to purchase some toilet paper, however.
The hostel owner drove us the six blocks to the Habitat office at 9:00, showing us how we would be able to walk there on our own. It's sunny with some clouds here, 70s as far as heat, and large parts of the city seem to smell like food.
Hannah and I were introduced to everybody in the office. We got online as soon as the opportunity presented itself. Then we were hungry and we were accompanied to a nearby supermarket to find breakfast.
I'm going to be allergic to Guatemala until I figure out where to find food I can eat: for breakfast I had dry corn flakes and some peach juice, both of which contained sugar and the former contained some form of wheat. Oh well. I brought lots of allergy meds, and they are also readily available here. I won't die, I just won't be able to breathe so well for a while.
Now we're back at the office, bloggin' away. Here's Hannah's side of the story: You should check it out!

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