As we often find with our schedule getting tighter and tighter (we are 2 months behind where we should be already) we sadly had to run the day after the wedding. That day I woke up with tonsilitis and Alex left me in bed and headed into ‘town’ to the islands only cash point to get some cash so we could get the dreaded ferry back to the mainland. The queue gave the game away and before long there was no cash left in the machine. The Island didnt want to let us go! It was like an episode of Lost!
We spent the day mooching, blogging, me mainly feeling sorry for myself and enjoying our extended stay in the bungalow. Luckily the cash point was due to be filled the next morning…unluckily after the first ferry had sailed but we would at least be able to leave on the afternoon crossing. As I had spent the day feeling sorry for myself I managed to talk Alex into letting me have ribs again from the Driftwood as they were the only thing I could manage to eat (teehee). We got an early night and the next day we finally got the cash to pay for the ferry. While we were there we asked if there was anywhere to get some anti sickness tablets for the crossing which they happily handed us for free! That was a relief as I couldn’t cope with being sick whilst having tonsilitis! We packed up and said our goodbyes to the driftwood and friends we had met on the walk to the ferry. The journey wasn’t as bad going back, I think it was because I knew what to expect and because I had taken the tablets I could concentrate on reading my book instead of finding the nearest receptacle to be sick in. Back on dry land we ran back to Peggy and decided to get out of Honduras, it certainly hadn’t been our favourite place. Someone had called it ‘the armpit of central America’ while we had been on the island and I sadly have to agree. We didn’t like the mix of urban richness and total poverty. Although we loved the Island, the mainland was a dirty, miserable place and we just didn’t feel particularly safe staying there. We knew it was a long road back to Guatemala but we set off and didn’t stop until we had to. We kept going until it was dark and the road started to get bad. We stopped at a 24 hour gas station in Quimistan and spent the night there. The next morning we hot footed it straight to the border control and sighed a huge sigh of relief when we were finally back in Guatemala. You are probably asking why we are going back to Guatemala when we have already been? We had been lucky enough to be invited to Antigua for a wedding and couldn’t miss the opportunity even though it meant driving blind through Guatemala city!The road map we have is a basic road map of the whole of central America. You know when you watch a funny movie and the woman opens this huge map and spins it around a few times to work out which way is up??…yup, thats me! We have a huge map with 1 road on it! So driving into a city is generally asking for trouble but driving blind into GUATEMALA city is like being a gnat in a noodle factory…you dont stand much of a chance in hell! Anyway, we tackled it head on…in the dark! By the time we had crossed the border and driven the 250 km to Guatemala we were only 35 km away from Antigua and we we had 2 options…spend the night in the middle of Guatemala city (NOT safe or cool…or quiet) or drive the last 35km to Antigua. It was a no brainer.

We were lost in the city for no less than 3 hours. 3 hours of hell. The problem is that there are no roadsigns. I know you dont believe me when I say that because how could the largest city in Central America, inhabited by 3 million plus people opperate with no directions?! Well I have no idea but there are literally NO signs for Antigua in Guatemala city. We drove til we were dizzy and then by some miracle we stumbled upon a 30 foot Star of David, took a left and found ourselves out of the city of the damned on a road vaguely heading in the direction we wanted to be in, which by this point was better than anything. We
finally found ourselves on an ever spiralling downhill road just hoping we weren’t going the wrong way!

Find out what happens next on our travelling wedding adventure!