They're really on their own schedule here

Our last morning in Xela I was up at 6:20am to get ready for our shuttle to Antigua, which was supposed to leave at 7am. Teryn was out the door at 7 or just before, so we waited. And waited... and waited. And called the tour company because the shuttle still wasn't there. And waited. And finally, at 7:45, the shuttle showed up. With only 2 other people in it. Now, you can't be that late when picking up only 2 people unless you leave late or you get really lost. After meeting our driver... well, it could have been either.

Teryn slept through most of the 3 hour trip, which was probably a blessing. We made some interesting driving choices (every time you get in a vehicle in Guatemala, you take your life in your hands). The kinda creepy driver asked me if I wanted a seat in the front, which I declined. When we arrived in Antigua, I'm pretty sure he got lost. Several times.

But whatever... we had 3 hours of scheduled free time in Antigua, so we ate some lunch and bought some stuff at the market (my bargaining skills are getting better but still lag behind what they probably should be). We went back to the tour office for our 2pm departure and waited. And waited some more. And finally, around 2:45, the shuttle showed up with a bunch of people in it. Unfortunately, that wasn't everybody, so we spent another what seemed like forever (45min to an hour) picking people up until the shuttle was absolutely full. 14 of us in this ancient shuttle van. Also, the fog when we got up north was pretty awful, which didn't help the speed of our arrival... so instead of arriving in Cobán at 6:30 like we were promised, it was actually closer to about 8:30. Then we waited in the rain for 20 minutes or so for our driver to get our bags off the roof (god knows where he went or what he was doing).

I had so much rage by this point that I developed an attitude problem. To make matters worse, the company we had booked through in Xela had sold us a trip to Cobán and a tour of Semuc Champey and Lanquín from there for the next day, rather than telling us we could go directly to Lanquín and book a tour from there. Adding that to all the problems we had with waiting for things, I was about ready to punch Adrenalina Tours in the face. I believe I threatened to.

But we arrived safe with all our luggage, and some days that's the best we can ask for.