Guatemala City

For the last several years, my partner D and I have arranged end-of-year trips, in part with the idea of celebrating New Year's Day in an exotic locale. Some previous trips have been to New Zealand, the Galapagos, and Cuba. This year, we selected Adventure Life and a trip to Guatemala. While Guatemala has not been a ''bucket list'' destination, it has been at the back of my mind for some time. Perhaps this is due in part to a wonderful piece of art that I see daily hanging in my study. My parents brought this collage-like stylized parrot from a trip to Guatemala when I was a child (all too many years ago). So this year we celebrated Christmas day with a flight to Guatemala City. Our first flight from our home city, Las Vegas, was fine. However, the connecting flight in Houston was delayed by considerably over an hour, putting us in Guatemala City well after 11:00 PM. We were a bit concerned about missing the person from ViaVenture who was to meet us and drive us to Antigua. We needn't have worried as a most friendly driver met us at the airport with our names prominently displayed. During the hour-long drive we engaged in an animated and informative conversation about Antigua and the country as a whole. Arriving in Antigua well after midnight was eerily exotic as the small colorful streets were totally deserted. Our driver knocked on the locked door of the Hotel Aurora, and soon we were in a stunningly beautiful courtyard. We were immediately ushered to our room where we quickly unpacked and gratefully headed to bed.