Quinn’s last day at school was on a Wednesday, and with a long drive to Panama to complete by early July to take up our post as house sitters there, we thought about leaving Panajachel on Friday morning. But we couldn’t turn down an invitation to our friends Tony and Aimee’s house for one last Friday night party, so we decided to head out on Saturday morning.

Jen said the graduation ceremony at Quinn’s school was quite moving.

After graduation we went to have cake for lunch. Yum.

We spent Friday packing up the van. It’s always amazing to us how much stuff we can pull out of the van and how it all seems to fit back in once again. No wonder it’s so heavy!

We thoroughly enjoyed the party on Friday. Tony, by his own account, squeezed about 200 limes and made a huge pitcher of margaritas. They also put on a wonderful tostada bar, and everyone left happy and full.

The next morning after a nice pancake breakfast we were all set for a 10am departure when Quinn started complaining of a tummy ache. Normally those are no big deal, but by the time we were ready to leave he was laying in bed, almost asleep. This is very uncharacteristic Quinn behavior. Jen got ahold of the same doctor who had helped him with his ear infection the week before. We took him to see her and she determined that it wasn’t his appendix, which was our biggest concern. She said he was constipated, gave us some medicine, and suggested we stick with our plans to go to Antigua since there was a good hospital there that we could visit if he didn’t improve.

So at 1pm, with the afternoon rains threatening, we headed out for what we thought was going to be about a 2-hour drive along the scenic route to Antigua.

Someone should bring a film crew to Guatemala to document “Pimp my School Bus”

After traversing winding mountain roads for the better part of 2 hours, we came to the end of the road. Literally. Some farmers nearby said that there was another road we could take that would get us to Antigua, and with some trepidation we set off down that road, rather than the alternative of a 2-hour drive back to Pana to try again the next day.

The end of the road. So this is what the guidebooks mean when they say that roads can become impassible during the rainy season!

Time to turn back…

After winding up and around steep dirt roads in the rain and fog for another 45 minutes we were relieved to find ourselves back on a paved road and on our way to Antigua, where we arrived just in time to walk into town for a very yummy dinner including Pipian Chicken and a “Plato Tipico.”

The alternate route. We stopped to ask about half a dozen people whether this was the way to Antigua, and they all said it was. So on we go!

From what little we saw of Antigua, it seemed like a Guatemalan version of San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Cobblestone streets, colorful buildings, and lots of gringos!

Although we would have liked to explore Antigua the next day we decided to push on, conscious of the 1000 miles and 5 countries we had to traverse over the next ten to twelve days.

We arrived at the border with El Salvador at about 1pm, and aside from some of the usual border crossing stressors and hassles, were on our way again at 3, hoping to make it to a campground in time to catch the USA-Portugal World Cup match at 4.

We had GPS coordinates for what another group of travelers called “The best kept secret in El Salvador,” a coffee plantation where we would be able to camp. The plantation (or Finca) was about 5 km off the road, right between two paved roads, with dirt roads leading to it from both directions. Unfortunately we choose poorly on which road to approach from.

These things are never as straightforward as they seem. The road starts out paved, and very slowly gets worse and worse so that you keep thinking, well, we’ve come this far, we can’t turn back now. But by this time you’re in 4-lo and people walking up the road are passing you. Then you look up and realize that the road on the map has to climb up and over the giant mountain range in front of you and you realize that you’re never going to make it to somewhere with a beer and a TV in time for the football game. That’s when you realize that it’s time to turn back before you break something on your truck.

Turn back we did and eventually found the “official” entrance to the campground off the other paved road, but we still had a chance to catch the second half of the game and so we decided to camp at another finca that was closer to the main road.

It was very nice, and we enjoyed a well-deserved meal and a couple of beers at the restaurant. The only disappointment was Portugal scoring a last-minute goal to end the match in a tie.

The lodge on the coffee plantation

The next day we drove 4 hours more to arrive in San Miguel, near the border with Honduras. The finca of the previous night wasn’t set up for camping, and with the climate getting quite hot and sticky, we opted to stay at a hotel with a pool and air-con. We spent a relaxing afternoon playing in the pool, writing a web post, and watching football matches.

There was a giant TV set up in the central plaza in San Miguel, El Salvador, showing the world cup soccer matches.

The San Miguel Cathedral

Our hotel in San Miguel was in sort of a gritty part of town across from the bus station, but it was clean and the pool was nice.