The Guatemalan Chronicles - Day 2

Click here to read about day 1.

I slept like a log at the hostel. I woke up just before 7, giving almost a solid 10 hours of sleep. Brilliant.

After 30 minutes of wandering around the hostel, trying to find some sort of hot caffeinated beverage, I ended up coffee-less and on the rooftop patio to check out the sights & sounds of Guatemala City. That's when I spied a mini-bus coming down the street with a familiar face in the passenger seat.

It was Jon, he of iFished.com

Of course, I had never met him in real life, but I recognized him from the sailfishing webcast he did with Salty and Captain Tom of Panamax Sailfishing. I quickly grabbed my backpack and rod case and headed downstairs to check out.

The Case of the Missing Salty

After some quick introductions with Jon's family and 'Fish Allen,' we piled into the mini-bus and headed to the airport to pick up Salty.

But he wasn't there.

Fortunately for me (& those around me), at least there was coffee at the airport. So we settled in to wait.

And wait.

And wait.

Finally, we called off the waiting to head to the local tackle shop to grab a few items and beg for some internet access to see where Salty was.

At Pesqueros, we also met up with our driver to take us to the coast. Our driver, aka The Puma, was on the job & wrangled Jon some internet access. Salty got hung up in Atlanta due to mechanical issues but was scheduled to arrive shortly.

Back to the airport, with a quick stop for a traditional Guatemalan lunch of McDonald's quarter-pounder with cheese ("Cuarto de Libra con Queso").

Close to 1PM, eight hours after his original arrival time (thanks, Delta Airlines), the elusive Salty walked out of the airport.

Off to the Coast

Salty, Jon, Fish Allen and myself piled our gear & ourselves into The Puma's compact sedan (his van was sick).

The Puma might have the physique more similar to a Latin American Stay-Puff Marshmallow Man, but behind the wheel, his puma-instincts took over. That guy had that P.O.S. car pinned the entire drive to the coast.

A couple of cramped hours later, we were in Puerto San Jose. We checked into our hotel and sampled the national beer, Gallo, at the pool bar (guzzled a few bottles of agua pura, too).

We wandered into the town to grab a few things from the supermarket, eventually meeting up with Captain Tom for a bite to eat.

The town was...interesting. Think of how the Mos Eisley spaceport would be in a developing, Latin American country, and you would have an idea.

However, dinner was pretty damn awesome.

Check out some pics.

Cerveza & agua puras, poolside

Main drag of Puerto San Jose

It was some Saint of Something celebration going on...

Shark jaws

Guatemalan meat fest! 

After feasting from the grill, we called it an early night, for the wakeup call for sailfishing was coming early the next morning.

Note: Salty posted some random tidbits of information about Guatemala; give them a read here.