Guatemala Days 1 and 2- Planes, Trains and Automobiles

May 1-2, 2023

Our day started on Monday, May 1 at our Pill packing party at Regis. We lost a day of clinic due to a travel delay. Our flight on Sunday night was cancelled due to extremely bad weather in Miami. What else would we expect from international travel. We arrived and packed all of the medical supplies and toys into about thirty suitcases, it took about two hours. We then departed for the airport, and smoothly made it to our gate. We took off at about midnight for about a four hour flight to arrive in Miami at 5am. I couldn't fall asleep on our first flight so I purchased a neck pillow in Miami which was a life saver! I fell asleep at our gate to Guatemala shortly after. The flight to Guatemala went extremely smoothly and I slept the entire way. Now rested on three hours of sleep, I had new energy and adrenaline for the adventure in front of me.

We gathered our checked bags at the gate and headed to customs. "Hola, como estas" I said to the woman at the customs. I am trying to use as much Spanish here as possible. I got through customs without being stopped, Dr. Deb, Romy and Ricky were stopped by customs and we waited for them as they were questioned for the multitude of drugs (not the illegal kinds) that were clearly present. Once they explained that we were here for a medical mission, and showed the proper paper work, we were set! Dr. Stephenie and the drivers were waiting for us. Walking out of the airport was very similar to the Philippines, there were many families lined up waiting with colorful balloons and flowers for their loved ones. Colorful, complete chaos. We met our driver in the middle of the road and quickly loaded all the suitcases onto a pickup truck, then we all got on the bus! We met up with the rest of the team who had flown from Cincinnati a day earlier, everyone was buzzing with excitement for our days to come! We then started the long seven hour drive to Coban!

Looking out the window of the Bus, I was also reminded of the hustle and traffic from the Philippines; here it was more aggressive, and a lot less crowded. The "concrete jungle" of Guatemala City was truly that; fifty percent buildings and fifty percent jungle, with tall rainforest-like trees and glass building competing for attention. The further our from the city we got, the more narrow the roads got, and the less traffic we had to deal with. As we entered the countryside, the landscape all around was filled with luscious green rolling hills and mountains covered in dense rainforest. Small towns with concert buildings with tin roofs and street vendors popped up spastically. The first of many obstacles we faced on the road was torrential rain and a hail and wind storm that covered the streets in over four inches of water, making trucks hydroplane, and making the visibility difficult. This lasted only a short half an hour before we passed it, and it lightly rained. We stopped for ice cream in a small town and used the bathroom, and hit the road again. We slid the windows open as the air was thick and everything was hot and sticky from the recent rain. Dr. Stephenie played some banger tunes as we all sang along to old classics; T-Swift, Coldplay, Rihanna and Hozier. As we drove on the steep cliffs, we saw out into a cloud of fog over a dark rainforest that seemed swallowed the whole land into the unknown.

Our next obstacle jolted me awake with a loud pop as we rounded a steep ledge. Thunking along towards the side of the road we got out to find that our tire had popped. "Of course," we all laughed as we waiting on the side of the rainy highway road. We all joked and laughed at our luck as our amazing bus driver and Ricky replaced the tire while we ate terrible oatmeal packaged cookies. Thankfully they were able to fix it fairly fast, but the sun was now going to set before we reached Coban, because we were still two hours away. So we decided to go straight to the hotel and save the unpacking and setting up for clinic until the morning. As we got deeper into the jungle the sun started setting with a pale pink glow behind the clouds. With the windows still rolled down the jungle began to grow even denser and the smell of the rainforest was sweet and fresh in my lungs, thick with humidity, and cold with the wind that blew through the window. Giselle, Logan, Binh and I drifted in and out of sleep as we sang along to songs and admired the breathtaking views from the windows.

Finally, waking up to speed bumps and the sound of rustling in the van, we arrived in the small town of Coban. We made a sharp turn onto a dirt road with a gate and found ourselves at the hotel. We unpacked our bags and dropped our stuff in the room and headed straight for dinner. We were all starving and craving real food. For the last 24 hours we had all only had snacks and jelly (only jelly) sandwiches. The last "real" thing I had eaten was a bagel in Miami. At the buffet they severed chicken and veggie kabobs, rice, tortillas, mashed potatoes, salsa, veggies, turmeric juice and apple pie. We ate everything. We went to our rooms which were nice and up to date( although they smelled slightly like mildew) but we found that we would all be sharing the space with cockroaches and gigantic spiders for the next week.