First Contact

We finally threw our packs down on the floor of our hostel room at about 11pm last night, relieved that we had eventually made it to Guatemala and found a place to stay. We had booked accommodation, we thought, but both places with the name of the place we book - El Gato Negro - we adamant that they had no record of us. Fortunately, after about half an hour of walking the streets of Antigua, trying to decipher the Lonely Planet map, with packs on our backs and fronts, not looking the slightest bit prone to being mugged, we established that the second black cat had a spare room, even if we hadn't booked it.

It all started out as the easiest of long haul flights. Wanting to put an end to the seemingly endless goodbyes and the restless waiting around, we arrived at Sydney Airport with three hours to spare - one of the first times in my life I've made it to the airport without once stressing about whether I was going to miss check in.

The early check in seemed to pay off too - a free upgrade to premium economy made the idea of a 14 hour flight to Los Angeles that much less disturbing. It also left us with time to have a final drink with mum and dad.

Before we knew it though, it was boarding time, and we took our places in seats 14 A and B. I have to say, I will find it difficult to return to normal economy. And to further improve my mood, the captain announced that, due to favourable winds, today's flight time would be (only!) 12 hours and 14 minutes.

I would tell you more about the flight, but the comfortable seats meant that, apart from two hours watching District 9 (Highly recommended, BTW), I slept pretty much the whole way.

Whatever good things I might have to say about V Australia, I can't say the same about LAX. It seemed like the cliched 'Fortress America' arrival experience. Although there were only 7 people ahead of us in line, we waited for about 45 minutes to get to the immigration desk.

As I approached the desk, fast losing my faith in the notion that I was not a criminal and perfectly entitled to enter the USA, the customs officer gave me a stern look.
"How long you staying"
"Just in transit - heading to Guatemala tomorrow"
"Who's that?" (nodding towards Kate, who was waiting next in line)
"That's my girlfriend, we are travelling together" I replied hesitantly, suddenly concerned that I should have said we were married, as the customs officer continued his stern look.
"Tell her to come over"
I gestured to Kate, wondering whether Kate had some criminal record she had failed to mention to me.
"You travelling with this guy?"
"Yes..." Kate seemed as wary as I did.
"Well, he tells me that he is going to propose real soon, don't you worry!" And the customs officer burst out laughing. "I feel a baby coming on, maybe in September, oh yeah, that's right, sooner than you think" He continued to laugh while we gradually unwound and found ourselves with even less to say than when we thought he was going to send us to Gitmo.

The next morning it was off to Guatemala, via Dallas. Another 45 minute wait, this time to get out of the States, seemed all we had to worry about, until, approaching Guatemala City, the pilot made this, somewhat cryptic, announcement:
"Folks, we're approaching Guatemala now, but there is some serious weather around the airport, that means we can't land at the moment, so it looks like we are going to have to circle until the weather clears. Now, unfortunately, it looks like that weather is pretty set in, so we don't have enough fuel to wait for it to clear"

I could tell that no one had really listened to the announcement, because no one on the plane seemed concerned that the pilot just said we couldn't land and didn't have enough fuel to stay in the air. When he repeated the announcement in Spanish, there did seem to be some murmuring.

Moments later the pilot came back and announced that we were going to land in El Salvador instead of Guatemala.

Personally, I would have been happy to start my holiday on El Salvador, but it turns out you can't leave the plane in these situation. So, about an hour later we were back in the air, and about 4 hours late, we landed in Guatemala city, and made our way to Antigua, where the hostel search began.