In March, 2003, my good friend, James, e-mailed me. He told me that he was thinking of going to Guatemala, to see another friend of ours, Natalia. James, Natalia and I went to university together, in Britain, about 5 years ago.
Natalia lives in Guatemala, Central America.
James is working in Texas, U.S.A.
I live in Japan.
It's already a recipe for an adventure!
We were all very good friends. I thought, "why not? - Sure, it's gonna cost me a lot of money, but it would be worth it to see my friends again." - plus, I'd always wanted to go to Guatemala, ever since I first knew about the country.
It looked like this holiday was ON!
James and I began to plan our trip. I checked the internet for a plane ticket to the US and James started looking for ways to travel in Central America. Natalia has two hotels in Guatemala. James had e-mailed her before, saying that he may come and visit. She was happy to hear the news. She didn't know I was coming too! We decided to keep it a secret - a suprise.
It took a lot of time to sort out our tickets and transport. We kept in touch via yahoo messenger and at one point we were online for about 11 hours! It was crazy, we must have broken some kind of world record. It got to the point where we were asking each other questions we'd just answered 5 minutes ago, but forgotten about. It was nuts! In the three days before I left, I hardly had any sleep. I'm sure James was the same.
Eventually, we decided on a route (after many unsuccessful attempts to book flights online, travelling through various cities). We decided our best route would take us by bus from Austin, Texas to Monterrey, Mexico. From there, we would fly to Cancun. Then, we would take a bus to the border with Belize (Chetumal). Then we would take a bus, across Belize to Guatemala and Flores. This would mean over 25 hours by bus and 6 hours by plane!
We thought we could come back the same way. We booked a flight from Cancun, to Monterrey (via Mexico city). However, we kept our plans flexible, up to Cancun, just in case we wanted to spend some time in Belize. Man, were we getting excited!!!!
Cool!
It was onnnnnnnnnnn!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I cancelled all my appointments and parties (over 7 of them!) and booked a flight to the US (I was lucky, I had the last seat on the plane and I paid for it with minutes to spare - just like me, I guess).
I tried to pack my bags as best as I could (not so good), and as light as I could make them (not so light).
I was ready for my adventure to begin!
