We arrived in Guatemala City early Wednesday morning after an overnight flight from LAX. The flight was full and neither of us slept much. It was a relief that Lester, our driver, showed up almost immediately after Richard texted him that we were outside and ready to be picked up.
After popping our bags in the back and settling ourselves in, we got on our way to our first destination— El Paredón, a small surfer town on the coast.
It was about a two and a half hour drive to the beach from the airport, with most of it just getting out of Guatemala City. What a huge metropolis with mind-boggling traffic! People commute to the city for work each day in as much time as it took for us to drive to the beach. Once we got out of the city, we both fell asleep in the car and slept the remainder of the drive.
We spent our first three nights at a place called Hidden Wave. It’s a small cluster of accommodations with a central pool and shared kitchen. You can book a bed-only A-frame with shared bathroom (serious surfers only), or rent one of the two bigger stand-alone rooms that have bathroom/shower and a patio. We booked the second option. Not surprising! Overall it was a nice place and we had air con. Thank goodness!!
At Hidden Wave, as you can imagine from the name, I also could have gotten surfing lessons with César or rented a board, but I decided I didn’t want to end up with too many injuries this trip. On top of the fact I can’t even boogie board properly, so any surfing attempt would certainly have a bad outcome for me.
The humidity here is intense. I can’t even begin to count how many mosquito bites I have now. We’re trying to use a lot of repellent because Dengue is a problem here and there’s Malaria, too. It’s hopeless though. They always find somewhere to bite you. After dousing myself in repellent the other day, a mosquito still got me on the sole of my foot. Argh.
Wonderfully, our little hut at Hidden Wave came with a cat. She promptly adopted us and we named her Biscuit. Almost immediately we were headed to the store with cat chow at the top of the shopping list. Not only food, but she got a lot of petting and kisses, too. Every morning she was either at the front door or in the rafters of the outdoor bathroom, quiet but then meowing as soon as she could hear we were up. She was very sweet, maybe a year old and not much more than a kitten. One of the street dogs chased her away from her food once, so I stood guard from then onward to make sure she ate first. We’d go back and get her in a minute if we could only take her home!
El Paredón is everything you’d imagine a low-key surfer’s paradise to be. The surf pounds day and night. The ocean stretches endless out to the horizon. There are small food shacks and small outdoor restaurants and lots of health food and nighttime bars with a few local tuk-tuks to get you back to your room in the early hours. It gets loud Friday and Saturday. The rest of the week is pretty quiet.
Smoked salmon and a smoothie bowl
It is hot and humid every day here. At Hidden Wave we spent a big part of each day in the pool drinking ice-cold El Gallo cervezas. The pool was partly shaded and as warm as bath water. Even warm, though, it still felt good.
Waiting for our 5 o’clock pupusas
Each evening we would wander up the street for delicious pupusas and yet another cold El Gallo. Lalendi, who owned the shop, opened between 4:30 and 5 o’clock and we were always the first there, seated at the picnic table and ready for the pupusas to go on the grill.
