We are ready to depart the city. Maybe we can find something quaint, quiet, and cultural in Antigua tomorrow. Guatemala City is fast. It also seems to be full of very fancy malls full of things the average Canadian couldn’t afford.
With no blackout curtains and single pane windows, the combination of 5AM traffic and rays of sunshine streaming in through the window had us up early. A breakfast of toaster oven heated quesadilla leftovers and couple cups of cold Pepsi really kickstarted out day. We should have toasted even the fresh ones up this way…delicioso!
A 10 minute death-defying walk to a nearby mall to search for replacement sunglasses and a SIM card and our day was off to a roaring start. Good to hear the mall opened at 7AM. Bad news was that stores didn’t open until 10. How many times can a couple of people walk around an empty mall before security starts asking questions. We found that 2 hours still isn’t long enough. Maybe if we spent more time hanging around outside the kids playroom they might start asking.
Our Spanish sucks balls. Sorry for the vulgarity, but it really does. You might think that being in a city wouldn’t be much of a problem if all you came linguistically armed with was English. This is a wrong assumption. Sure our Airbnb host is fine with English, but if you want to ask for anything in a store or find your way around with an Uber driver…good luck. We are making do, but a whole lot of practice is very necessary.
Uber sorted out. Two very long rides over very short distances have reduced our need to dodge speedy cars in an environment unfriendly to pedestrians in general. Tomorrow will be yet another. Can’t wait for Uber to finally be in Vancouver. Cabs can’t match the speed, service and cost.
So now a rainy night in. We can relax in our safe space and listen to the combination of wet horns down at street level and the occasional plane taking off only 4 blocks away. The joys of travel, especially cities like this, really make us appreciate the little things that make Vancouver so great.