Family, protests, danger and delicious food: My Guatemalan experience | Local Ne…

It all started when the plane couldn’t land — I should’ve known it would only go downhill from there.

I traveled to Guatemala in October with my brother for my vacation this year.

This was our first time flying and our first time leaving the country. There were a lot of “firsts” on this trip.

On Oct. 4, we flew from SeaTac to Houston, and from Houston we flew to Guatemala City, the capital of Guatemala. Flying on a plane wasn’t as scary as I thought it would be, actually, it wasn’t scary at all, it was very exciting.

When the airplane arrived at Guatemala City I noticed it did a U-turn and started flying away. I was confused because the pilot had just announced that we’d be landing soon.

He came on the intercom again and said that he was unable to land due to cloudiness, so he had to turn around and try again. After four attempts he was able to land.

I’ve seen videos online of people clapping when the plane lands and I thought that was dumb until everyone began clapping when our plane landed. It was a humbling moment when I found myself clapping too.

This is when things got worse.

When we arrived the first thing we did after having a well-deserved good night sleep was watch the news channel. As it turns out, just two days before our trip, people began to protest around the country.

Guatemala had their general elections in June and announced the newly elected president, Bernardo Arevalo, in August. The election has caused conflict in the government. Attorney general of Guatemala, Maria Consuelo Porras, is attempting to prevent president-elect Arevalo from taking office Jan. 14 by investigating his party and discrediting the voting system.

In response, many Guatemalans are fighting back with protests to force Porras to resign. Porras is being accused of corruption and has been banned from the U.S. over the same corruption allegations.

The protests began peacefully but escalated very quickly during my stay.

I went to Guatemala to celebrate a family member’s birthday. To get to the party we needed to travel from Guatemala City to Coatepeque, which is a 5-hour drive, give or take.

Before we left to Coatepeque, I wanted to tour Antigua Guatemala, since it’s a popular tourist place because of its volcanoes and beautiful sights. Well, we couldn’t even make it out of Guatemala City because protesters were blocking roads, making it impossible to get through.

It was a little scary: if we couldn’t make it past the exit of Guatemala City, how would we get to Coatepeque?

We tried to stay vigilant to the news. They said it was safe to drive at night since most blockages were lifted in the evening. We planned to leave that same day and travel through the night since traffic was low.

We packed our things, and got in my aunts five seater car. There were six of us: my two uncles, my aunt, my uncle’s wife, my brother and me.

It was very uncomfortable to say the least.

We left at 8:15 p.m. on Oct. 6 and came across the first blockage 30 minutes into our drive, and we waited 30 minutes until the blockage was lifted.

I was so happy because I thought that was the only blockage we would have to go through, and it was an easy wait since it was only a half hour.

After that I stopped having expectations.

We were on the road for what felt like forever. The speed limit on the freeways there is around 70 kph which roughly translates to 45 mph and since it was raining my aunt was driving at like 35 mph so it was taking forever.

We drove for another two and a half hours when we drove past this town that had a long line of cars parked on the road, leaving only the lane headed in the opposite direction open.

It didn’t take long for us to figure out we had come to another blockage, this one was longer than any other we had seen. We went on the opposite lane and started driving, the backup of cars was longer than a mile.

Thankfully, we weren’t blocked because we took back roads to surround the city and drive around the blockage, which worked.

It was then 3 a.m. and we only had 45 minutes left to get to our destination, I was so happy, but I celebrated a little too early.

We reached another blockage near the entrance of the city of Retalhuleu. This one wasn’t as long as the previous blockage but it appeared that cars had been there for long time since there was a lot of garbage surrounding them.

My brother and uncles went to check out the situation, and after 15 minutes they returned with what I wouldn’t describe as excited faces. They had spoken to some cops and were told that the protesters weren’t letting anyone through. The only exception they were making were for medical emergencies.

We didn’t have a medical emergency, we were going to a party.

I thought that maybe if we showed them our U.S. passports they would let us through. All of us walked over to the protesters and tried to reason with them and explain our situation, but nothing worked.

We were so close to our destination but there wasn’t anything we could do. We sat in the car in silence for a few minutes. We turned around and headed back to Guatemala City.

Seven hours on the road were for nothing, clearly I was upset and I could hear the sadness in my aunt and uncles voices, they were excited to celebrate their brother’s 69th birthday.

We were on our way back when my uncle switched with my aunt since he had driven most of the night. It was now 5:30 a.m. we were all exhausted and just wanted to get back.

Even though the backseat was the most uncomfortable we couldn’t help but fall asleep. We didn’t think about the fact that the driver was also sleep deprived, so she ended up falling asleep on the wheel.

I opened my eyes and I could no longer see the road. All I could see were fields of tall grass. I closed my eyes and when I opened them again and we were parked on the side of the road. For a second I thought I was dreaming, but the screams that were still going reassured me that we’d driven off the road.

We all got out of the car to see what happened. It all happened so fast my brain hadn’t processed everything yet. Miraculously the car wasn’t damaged. No flat tires, no dents, it was fine.

She was crying and in shock. I went over to hug her and assure her that everything was fine.

Weirdly, I didn’t feel worry or shock. I was perfectly fine. Not to toot my own horn or anything, maybe I’m OK with the thought of dying or maybe deep down I knew we weren’t going to die. To this day I don’t know why I wasn’t freaking out.

After that we kept driving and everyone was wide awake. About an hour after the almost-accident we came across another blockage. This one was impossible to get out of. We couldn’t take back roads or turn around, we were just stuck.

It was then 7:30 a.m. Saturday Oct. 7. We hadn’t slept since Thursday and I hadn’t eaten since Friday morning. The local food was making me sick so I stopped eating all together. But I was starving. We parked the car on the road and walked a half-mile up the road to the blockage.

Next to the protest was a grocery store. We walked over and bought a rotisserie chicken.

It was undercooked, but we were so hungry that we took our chances with salmonella and ate it anyway. The chicken didn’t make us sick but it was hard to eat.

We sat and ate right outside the entrance of the grocery store next to the shopping carts. Afterward I was so tired I ended up laying down and falling asleep.

I never thought I’d be able to say one of the best naps ever was on the concrete floor outside of a grocery store but here we are.

I was woken up by my brother. He said I had been snoring and that he couldn’t sleep because I was keeping him awake.

Disclaimer: I only snore when I’m tired and I was really tired.

We walked back to the car after our short nap. It was hot. The heat in Guatemala doesn’t compare to the heat here. My skin felt like it was on fire and the humidity was making me sweat rivers.

The day went by so slow and I was in and out of the car most of the day. Later in the afternoon my aunt and uncle decided to go check out the protesters, and I tagged a long since there wasn’t anything better to do.

It made me a little angry seeing how unbothered the protesters were. It almost seemed as if the were throwing a party in the middle of the road.

They had loud music playing, coffee brewing and a buffet of food while the rest of us were stuck. And that the fact that the police were just standing there not doing anything made me more angry.

In the middle of all that anger the only thing missing was the cherry on top.

Pause for dramatic effect.

And then came the cherry: rain.

Like the heat, the rain there isn’t like the rain here. I’ve never seen it rain so heavily. The roads were flooding and creating streams. We ran back to the car and sat in there until they opened the blockage at 8 p.m.

Traffic was heavy for a few minutes but then we were able to go on our way. We drove for about 15 minutes when we got to another blockage, at this point I was ready to cry, but I also wanted to yell at how annoyed I was. There were a lot of mixed feelings.

Protesters killed and a helicopter flight

As we were waiting in traffic a newscaster reported that eight people were shot and killed near the entrance of Amatitlan. That was about a mile or two from us. I saw the ambulances go by.

I had never feared so much for my life. The thought that someone could come to my window and just shoot me was terrifying. My phone also wasn’t working so I couldn’t even call or text my parents to let them know what was happening.

Thankfully they lifted the blockage at 1:15 a.m. Oct. 8. That marked day two of being on the road.

The roads were cleared the rest of the way to Guatemala City and we made it back at 2 a.m. It was the first time experiencing that level of exhaustion. I called my parents and then went straight to bed.

The next morning, we reached a fork in the road. My uncles were ready to give up and just fly back to the U.S. but my aunt, at the suggestion of my dad back in the U.S., started calling helicopter companies and booked us a flight later that day.

I was so happy that we were still going to be able to make it to Coatepeque and celebrate my uncle’s birthday.

The helicopter ride from Guatemala City to Coatepeque took 55 minutes, and we had the prettiest views, it almost made everything that we went through worth it.

The party had started at noon, and we got there at 5 p.m., better late than never, am I right? There was dancing, singing and a lot of eating, but most importantly we were with family.

Everyone was so welcoming when we arrived. Happy tears were shed, and many hugs from family members I’ve never met were received.

It was overwhelming, but in a good way. I created so many bonds and memories with cousins and aunts that will stick with me forever.

We spent a few days with family and were planning to come back Oct. 10 because my brother and I had our flight scheduled for Oct. 11, but it was impossible to get to the Guatemala City by land, I had to change our flights to give us a few extra days to brainstorm ideas to get back.

The extra days that we spent there we were able to visit beautiful places and enjoy some of the most delicious food.

We went to the beach, Playa Tilapa. The water was so warm, and the shaved ice cream locals were selling was the last thing that I needed to make the moment absolutely perfect.

A few days later my aunt and uncles were able to book a flight on a small plane to get us back to Guatemala City, but the closest place with a runaway was a military base in Retalhuleu which is 118 miles away from Guatemala City.

We planned to take off Thursday, Oct. 12 to give ourselves enough time in case something happened on the road. The news was saying that it was a little safer to travel by road since some places were lifting the blockages.

Unfortunately for us, we only drove for 25 minutes when we came a blockage. My cousin had to drop us off there so we got our luggage and started walking to the nearest city where another family member would be picking us up.

We got picked up and taken to the next nearest city El Asintal. There was a blockage there too and this one was the worst one of all, it had to had been at least two miles long, semi trucks, cars, trucks, they were all backed up on the road.

The city of Retalhuleu wasn’t too far from El Asintal. We walked for an hour until we started getting rained on — again. We got to a spot where motorcycles and tuk-tuks, an auto rickshaw, were able to get through. A few of us got on the tuk-tuk taxi and my uncles got motorcycles to take them.

They dropped us off right in front of the military base where we had to go for our flight. We paid for our flight and then stayed the night in Retalhuleu.

I can’t lie, the service was extraordinary, and the bed and breakfast where we stayed had some of the best food I’ve ever had.

The next morning we toured the city before leaving for the military base again. I tried more shaved ice, which was delicious.

Later, we went to catch our flight and, again, I wasn’t scared to ride in a small plane which is weird because I have a huge fear of heights, but my aunt and my uncles were terrified. There were a few times where there were so many clouds that I thought we would run into a mountain.

In an hour we arrived to Guatemala City.

We grabbed a taxi and went back to my aunt’s house.

My uncles changed their flight from Saturday, Oct. 14 to that same day — they just wanted to get out of the country. Then I started thinking about switching my flight because we had heard rumors that protesters were thinking of burning the airport and that would’ve had stuck there for who knows how long. So, I changed my flight to 1:30 a.m. Oct. 14.

My brother and I were happy to finally be leaving and going home to family.

We arrived at SeaTac International Airport that same day at noon. I almost kissed the floor because I was so grateful that we made it back home in one piece.

Now that’s it’s been a few weeks since the trip I’ve had time to really look back at everything that happened and I’m so glad I didn’t die.

But guess what, I’m going back next year! Not around elections though — I’m not that crazy.

Featured image: Guatemala City, August 2021. (Wikimedia Commons/Rene Hernandez)