AZ to C.A. (Central America)

The last few weeks went by quickly as expected. Getting final preparations completed, shadowing an eye doctor, and seeing family was exciting and exhausting at the same time. We pretty much utilized every minute of every day. The flight out to Guatemala included a red-eye flight from Phoenix to Miami, a 4 hour layover, and then a quick 2 hour flight into Guatemala City. When our tickets were scanned to board the flight from AZ to FL, there was an alarm that we didn`t hear from other ticket holders. Were we at the wrong gate? Did we miss our flight? Not the right passports? Turns out we were sittimg in the emergency row and the flight attendant just wanted to get a confirmation that we would perform the duties bestowed to emergency row passengers. Whew! The flight wasn´t that pleasant and both of us tried to sleep as much as possible. I´m usually able to pass out on an airplane, but I couldn`t on this flight. We landed in Miami and settled in for the 4 hour layover. We gained internet access and decided that we should figure out exactly how to get from Guatemala City to San Andres-Itzapa (where Maya Pedal is located). Better late than never. We found a few blog posts on how people did it before us and felt confident that we would get on the right bus. As usual, plans change.

When we arrived in Guatemala City we decided to take a cab to the bus station. After talking with the cab driver (mostly Shreya and her bonita español, along with some ¨mmhmm¨ noises from me) we decided it was worth the fare to just take the cab to Chimaltenango and then a bus to San Andres-Itzapa. The drive was gorgeous, with awesome mountain passes. Unfortunately, I didn´t take out my camera or phone to document. I´ll take some on the way back to the city

San Andres-Itzapa is small city placed on a pretty steep hillside. After asking a few locals, we found out that Maya Pedal is located at the top of the city. Great views...loooong walk, especially since both of us were carrying about 30lbs of stuff. We did enjoy some of the local offerings on our way though:

Mmmm helados!

Once we got to Maya Pedal, we found the door closed with no one inside. Hmm. We waited around for a bit to see what would happen. We talked to some of the neighbors and kids that were running around to see if they knew when someone would return. They weren´t sure if the members of the shop would return later today or tomorrow. It was about 4:30p local time and we were worried that everyone had left early for the day. One of the neighbors gave us directions to one of the shop members house and we started down the path to their house.We ran into some kids on bikes who stopped us and asked if we were looking for Maya Pedal. I guess we were easily identified. They said that they worked at Maya Pedal and were just returning from lunch. They let us in and we settled down. The other volunteers and shop workers came shortly after. A few volunteers were leaving the next day and one had arrived earlier that day. Everyone was super nice and friendly and helped us integrate into the shop and living quarters quickly.

We finally made it. Maya Pedal is still here and functioning. The people here have been great and we´ve been learning a lot. Stay tuned for more posts and pictures coming soon. Take care!

Nilit