The Epic Trip to Guatemala City

After leaving Antigua, we had the grand idea of taking "a shortcut" to the Pacaya Volcano.  On the map it looked easy...no problem! Well, after getting lost in Antigua for about an hour, we were finally on the road out of town towards our destination.

The locals bringing in their harvest.

Once clear of Antigua, we noticed the road getting narrower, only locals remained and the adventure started.  We hit an off road track in our little Hyundai passenger car riddled with rocks, potholes, and drop offs.  Locals made their way up the road on horseback with huge bundles of corn obviously harvested that day.

The friendly locals wondering where the Gringos are headed.

Leslie immediately said, "Turn back, please.  I have a bad feeling about this."  Once I consulted with the locals and found out it was only 16 kilometers, I felt confident.  My optimism and sense of adventure prevailed and we were on our way in a creeping fashion, navigating obstacles, scraping car parts here and there, and giving Leslie a little bit of stress in the process.

We finally reached the 16 km mark and still no sign of the road ending.  So, I asked another local driving up from below and he said only 16 km more, about an hour.  The first estimate was a bit off, so in total we were looking at about 32 km or 16 miles of extremely rough track.  Leslie's heart sank when she heard the news and she shot me looks of "I told you so".  We pressed on.

The ominous vulture.

Our shortcut turned into an epic and soon we realized that the volcano climb was out of the question.  We still had a substantial drive to Guate.  After negotiating corner after corner of dipping road, huge rock obstacles and more scraping, we had the town in sight and we all breathed a sigh of relief.

Navigating the dirt track.  One of the smoother parts.

Nearing civilization with the overpass in sight.

One of the many roadside dumps...so sad.

the triumphant end to a hectic passage.

The relief was short-lived.  Once on the cuota (toll road) we were heading in the wrong direction, going away from Guate.  There was no returno, so we arrived at the toll station and told them of our predicament.  We wanted to pass through, make a U-Turn and head in the opposite direction.  For some reason, they didn't want us to do this.  He wanted us to back up (in reverse!) the busy highway almost a mile.  The officer had cleared a path for us, and as soon as I started I realized this was a grave mistake.  HUGE chicken buses and semi trucks were bearing down on us and my stress levels reached new heights. So, after a moment, I stopped the mayhem and proceeded back to the toll station and told them I would like to just proceed and turn around down the road somewhere.  They obliged, and accepted the payment.  My question is this: Why did the previous attendant make this so ridiculously complicated?

I thought we were in the clear, finally.  That was, until we arrived in the busiest and most logistically complicated city to navigate in Guatemala.  But, that is another story in itself.  All in all, a successful driving day but extremely stressful.  The stress must've affected my health because that night I got sick, and the sickness would not stop for the next 3 days.