around the world in 180 days

ok, photos are up on flickr. Here’s the link:

Aaron and Anna’s travel photos

A few have explanatory titles, but the rest are just the photo and an inscrutable name. Sorry. I’ll label them later if I have time. These are all from Guatemala.

We are in San Lucas, Guatemala after a long day of traveling to get here. We left the sub-zero temps in Mpls. At 5:30 this morning on an Embraerer jet. When we checked in, we forgot to ask about our frequent flyer miles, so once we reached the gate, we asked the woman working there. She looked up our names and entered our numbers and then asked us if we were on our honeymoon. When we told her we were, she upgraded us to first class. She went from being annoyed and kind of scary to the nicest person we´d seen all day (which wasn´t saying much at that point, I guess).

First class on the plane we were on wasn´t much different from coach, but the seats were bigger ad they had more leg room, which is what is really important at 5 in the morning. Anna and I both managed to snag another couple hours of sleep before we landed in Atlanta. The flight from Atlanta to Guatemala City was only about half full, so Anna and I had a row to ourselves. I still felt crammed in and when the lady in front of me reclined, I felt like she was in my lap. Guess I better suck it up and get used to it. Guatemala is a beautiful place ad its people are warm, friendly and wonderful hosts, but it is a Spanish speaking country. I do not speak Spanish and neither does Anna. She´s better off than I am, but we were both overwhelmed with trying to understand what people were and are telling us. Paul´s mother, Ana, speaks English and is kind enough to translate for us sometimes, but it´s clear that we´re expected to learn as much Spanish as we can while we are here. I´m fine with this, but my brain is not firing on all cylinders after such a long day. I think we´ll be ok in three or four days, but until we get a little more accustomed to this, we´re gong to be dealing with a steep learning curve.

Tomorrow Ana and Chona (Ana´s friend and the woman we are staying with) are travelling to Guatemala City to take care of some business, so Anna and I will be sort of on our own. We´re gong down to the mission for meals and someone will show us around and explain what goes on. On Tuesday, Ana is going to show us around San Lucas.

I am tired, I have written too much, and it is time for me to sleep.

Goodnight!.