Day 1

Plan for the day: Take my travel guide (Lonely Planet's Central America on a shoestring) recommendation of using the Transmetro's SubiBaja hop-on, hop-off self-guided tour around the city and get myself to Antigua before dark.

What actually happened:  Woke up to what I thought might have been an earthquake at 6am (bed shaking and hangers in closet rattling).  Finally got the courage to leave the hotel around 10am.  However, lobby was busy and didn't find anyone to ask my 3 questions to (Where is the ATM?  Where do I catch the SubiBaja?  And where can I buy a SIM card for my cell phone to call the bus depot to find out the bus schedule to Antigua? *local calls were $1 per minute from the hotel room).

So instead I walked blindly out the hotel doors into the scary world of Guatemala City as a single female.  Needless to say, I didn't end up finding any of the things I needed and after a 20 minute walk found myself back in the lobby.  In the end the receptionist pointed me toward the ATM and gave me a vague estimate of where the mall was to get a SIM card.  However, she had no idea what I was talking about when I asked for the SubiBaja.

On my next walk I found the infamous red city buses which my travel guide states "it is pretty much universally accepted that tourists" should avoid "due to an alarming increase in (often violent) crime" that often occurs on them.  Also, observed the many guards with large assault guns strapped to their chest.  And a storefront with a big billboard advertising the "Arms" which it sold beside the billboard for the daycare located next door.

At the mall, the phone company Tigo storefront was crowded.  Finally got up the courage to ask someone if they spoke English and then asked about a SIM card.  They directed me to someone that did who said I needed a passport to get it which I'd left in the hotel room since something recommended that I only carry a copy of it with me as it was likely to get stolen.  Back to square one.

After returning to the hotel to get the passport, I decided to try a mall closer to the hotel.  The Movistar stand was a lot smaller than the Tigo store and I didn't end up needing the passport afterall.  But for some reason my phone from my last trip abroad didn't work (it was unlocked so I'm not sure what was wrong with it) so I had to buy a new phone to go along with my new SIM card.  However, when I called the bus depot, they didn't speak any English so I still didn't know what time the buses ran.  So much for getting a phone to find out the bus schedule.

Back at the hotel I experienced the bizarre sensation of some kind of shaking and the hangers rattling from my 9th floor room once again.  I tried looking up then if there had been an earthquake that morning but couldn't find anything on-line.  Though I tried several days later and found that I had in fact experienced two earthquakes, one at 6:11am of a 5.6 magnitude and one at 3:16pm of a 5.8 magnitude.

By the time I'd left my hotel and managed to get a taxi (my cab driver tried speaking to me in Spanish which turned into him only laughing at me) and to the bus depot it was already 4pm.  Sadly, the next bus wasn't until 6pm.  So much for making it to Antigua by dark (it was an hour ride and sunset was at 5:30).  Two hours I sat unable to leave the uncomfortable bus depot due to my incredibly large pack (I sure wish I'd packed lighter).  And then I somehow managed to miss my bus since I was expecting it to be one of the large ones that kept pulling up and instead it was just a little van with 5 passengers.  Luckily, they were still close and they called the driver back.  When I'd arrived in Antigua it was quite crowded where the van dropped us off and I was able to find my hotel pretty easily.