Guatemala, Day 7 (Friday 10/27/17)

Our last full day in Guatemala started a little later than normal and we weren’t up and moving towards breakfast until 7am. It felt like a vacation! (Ha. Not quite.)

Katie woke with her other eye red and swollen, so we knew the pink eye had spread. To make it worse, Hannah also woke with swollen, red, crusty eyes. The pink eye had spread to her too, so we started her on the same eye drops. Katie didn’t want to leave our room because her eyes hurt and she didn’t want people to look at her all day. I tried to coax her out for breakfast, and she finally went to eat.

During breakfast, Jaime asked me how Katie was feeling. I told him she’s struggling, and he said he’s never had anyone on any of his teams get pink eye. He said it’s common in Guatemala because it’s spread by mosquitos, but I told him that didn’t sound right to me. He said he asked his wife when he got home the previous night, and she agreed it was probably spread by a mosquito. After I finished breakfast, I made a beeline to the wifi area so I could do some Googling. Yep… I went down that terrifying rabbit hole.

I Googled “pink eye and mosquitos.” I didn’t find any evidence that pink eye is transmitted by mosquitos, but I found plenty of information saying pink eye (conjunctivitis) is a symptom of the Zika virus. So is a rash (I had noticed one on Katie’s face the day before) and achy joints (she had complained that her arms and legs ached). THAT’S when I went into freak-out mode. I read more and found that Zika isn’t a huge concern unless you’re pregnant, and there is no treatment for it. It’s confirmed with a blood or urine test, but even if you have it there’s not much to do besides wait it out. But I was worried anyway!

I tore down to the main house, found Dan drinking his coffee, and with wide-eyed terror told him we needed to get Katie to a doctor. He calmly told me to calm down and calmly asked what I was talking about. I didn’t want to be calm, and told him he should go to the wifi with me. Lisa (Hannah’s mom) decided to go with me instead, so we Googled some more. Lisa found out the same information, and I tried to find the travel warnings from the United States TSA so I could know if a person with Zika would be permitted into the country. Without any concrete evidence, I ran the situation through every worst-case scenario and decided I’d stay in Guatemala with Katie for a week or two until she was permitted to travel. I’d send Dan home to take care of Jackson and go back to work.

After a little while, Lisa and I ventured back to the main house to find Jaime and ask about seeing a doctor. That’s when he shared the best news with us: one of the Living Water employees who works in the compound where we were staying was a doctor and she could see our girls. Yay! We only had to wait for her to come to work, then she could see Katie and Hannah.

At 9:30am, Jaime took Lisa, Hannah, Katie and I to meet the doctor. We brought the eye drops we’d been using, and she looked at the girls’ eyes. She asked about the symptoms they’d been having, and I mentioned the rash and the joint aches. She asked if Katie had discharge in her eyes, and we confirmed she had. The doctor said the discharge was good – that if Katie didn’t have that, there would be concern for Zika. But the discharge was a clear symptom of pink eye, so we should continue with the drops and lots of hand washing. She said the drops weren’t the most modern medicine and would take a little longer to do the job, but they’d still work. I was so relieved to hear this, and I think Katie thought I was crazy to be so relieved. (But she didn’t realize I had already diagnosed her with Zika!)

Once our emergency doctor visit was over, our team piled into the van and we headed out for a day of sightseeing. Katie wasn’t too thrilled at first, because her eye hurt and she was still self-conscious about how it looked when she went without sunglasses. But at least Hannah could commiserate with her on this day (unlike the day before), so Katie had a little more pep in her step.

Our first stop for sightseeing was Cerro de la Cruz, the mountaintop where a large stone cross overlooks the city of Antigua.

We walked down the mountain to meet Nestor waiting for us in the van at the bottom.

Our next stop was at a jade store in Antigua. We learned where jade comes from, took a tour of their factory, and got to see the artists working on different jade pieces. A few months later, Santa delivered a little jade turtle underneath our Christmas tree.

We arrived next at La Azotea, the Museo del Café – the museum of coffee – and this sign made me chuckle. I think it’s telling visitors that no headless dogs are allowed inside.

A guide walked us through the exhibits that explain the processes of growing, harvesting, roasting, and drinking coffee. It was very informative (you know I like to geek out on that stuff), and Connie immersed herself in it.

We saw the terraces where harvested coffee beans are dried before roasting, then watched the roasters hard at work. (The smell was DIVINE.)

We walked through the coffee fields and saw coffee beans still ripening on the branch.

I found this gorgeous butterfly that appeared to have glass wings. You can’t tell from this photo, but the wings were transparent and so delicate.

Besides coffee, La Azotea grows beautiful gardens full of exotic flowers. We wandered for a bit, but I could have spent hours there taking photos and investigating plants. (Dear Lord, I have officially turned into my father – channeling the giddy way he acted when we saw tulips in Holland!)

What kind of plant IS THIS?

By this point, Katie was feeling slightly better. Good enough to let me take a few photos of her!

I wish I could share every single photo I took at La Azotea, because the place is stunning.

After our tour, we took some time in the gift shop and found goodies to take home. Some we decided to share, some we kept for ourselves!

Katie and Hannah sampled the coffee…

…which perked them right up.

As we loaded into our van, sprinkles of rain began to fall. We headed back to our compound for lunch and a little rest time. After eating, Katie and I found the hammock and set up my ENO. This moment was pretty fantastic for me.

In the late afternoon, we drove back into Antigua and had an hour and a half of free time for shopping and wandering. This was our chance to find our last souvenirs: silver earrings for me, sandals for Katie, a soccer jersey for Jackson, postcards, and a beaded Christmas tree ornament.

Dan, Katie, and I split off after a bit and wandered until we found a really cool restaurant with a patio on the roof. The view was spectacular.

Through the fog that was rolling in, I got a photo of Cerro de la Cruz, our first stop earlier in the day.

We walked back to the center of town to meet the team for dinner, and the town had come alive with people out on a Friday night. There was live music and lots of activity. This photo of the Palacio de los CapitanesGenerales (Captain General Palace) at dusk is one of my favorites. Down at the end, you can see the stage where musicians played.

Dinner was at Las Antorchas Restaurante, where the team eats often enough to warrant our own menu.

The highlight of the meal was the drink selection, all non-alcoholic of course. Katie ordered her favorite drink that our Hispanic neighbors introduced us to last summer (Jamaica, pronounced huh-my-kuh).

Connie told us about this drink called a Mickey Mouse, which was her favorite the last time she went on a Living Water trip. We ordered it and giggled when the waiter delivered it.

Our meals were so tasty; mine was squash soup, salad, a juicy steak with baked potato, and we all shared bites of our desserts. We took turns at dinner speaking about what we learned on our trip and specifically praising our leaders for the way they guided us all week. My favorite moment was when Dan spoke to Jaime and called him not only a leader but a pastor because of the way Jaime encouraged us spiritually all week.

Our dinner was winding down as other tables started filling up in the restaurant. As to be expected when the table is full of 15 people, we got pretty loud and rowdy. This is when Sonja told us the waiter passed a message to her from people at another table, saying we need to keep the ruckus down a bit. Personally, I was a bit offended but tried (not very successfully) to use my inside voice. Only after we left the restaurant did Sonja tell us she made the story up. What a stinker!

We parted ways with Blanca at the restaurant, promising to keep in touch on Facebook. When we arrived at the compound, we packed our suitcases and did our last preparations to depart EARLY in the morning. I used the wifi to make one last email check and found a slightly disturbing message from home. I woke Dan and we called my family member who sent the message, and realized it wasn’t an emergency. After that scare combined with the travel jitters, it was a little hard to wind down and fall asleep. Eventually, I did fall asleep but I did so wishing I had another day and night in Guatemala.

Click here to read about day 8, our last few hours in Guatemala.