We left our hotel a bit after 9 and were on a bus to Antigua by 9:30. It was the usual "old school bus" and the road was really curvy and we got slammed around on every curve like on a tilt a whirl...but we felt very safe as the front of the bus displayed a prayer, a Blessed Mother with a bouquet of fake flowers & a Tweety Bird! A family of 7 sat in one seat right behid us part of the way, two of the kids jostling between the seat & the aisle and the baby cried a lot even though they gave her an ice cream cone that dripped all over the very calm mom. There was also a lady holding a live chicken tenderly wrapped in her sweater...truly this was a chicken bus (which is actually what these buses are called here.) Many trees and bushes were in bloom with flowers of vibrant to pastel shades of red, pink, fucia, purple, yellow & white. As we got closer to "Whata" (Guate...short for Guatemala City), we came by mountain sides covered with cement homes with only a couple painted. Then we saw some gated communities much richer. Our favorite scene for the ride was a big stake truck with a load of calves that had 7 hammocks strung above the calves, with 7 guys swinging back & forth, and a couple more cowboys with their saddles sat on top just behind the cab. Since the bus stopped often but could go faster than the truck, we passed them several times...each time we'd get another laugh! We got to the bus station around noon...it was very modern, gorgeous & huge...and we found our first McDonald's, Burger King, Pizza Hut, Subway & Little Caesars that we'd seen since leaving home. I noticed that most of the people...who were all locals...were eating at Pollo Campero...the Guate fast food chain & very much like our KFC. I enjoyed my "regular McD meal" which cost $5 here but only $3 at home while Rog found a doblado (deep fried meatpie). We shared some Little Caesar cinnamon sticks with a carmel dip and both left with full tummies. We taxied through town to the next bus terminal...buses are not allowed in Guate so 3 bus stations are all on the edge of town. In 5 minutes we were off again and arrived in Antigua by 3:30... it amazes me how well Rog gets us from point A to point B!
