Rocking that *International* Paradise

I hate Friday traffic in Guatemala.  Hate it.  With a passion.  From 3pm until about 8pm, trying to leave the city is horrendous and takes twice or three times as long as it would with no traffic. On Friday afternoon, a group of us left right after school to go to the beach for the weekend.  I was one of the drivers, and I was adamant that we would leave the school parking lot at 3:02pm and we would make no stops until we were out of the city.  We did leave the parking lot by about 3:05, but after that my master plan to arrive at the beach early in the evening started falling apart.  First of all, we didn’t make it fifteen minutes before we had to pull over because my car was making odd grating sounds with every turn of the wheel or bump in the road.  We deduced that there was too much weight in the trunk, and we were able to transfer some of our load to one of the other cars.  Back on the road again. Traffic was unusually slow leaving the city, but we finally were pic

I really expected our long weekend at the beach to be uneventful.  Carrie, Michelle, and I planned to spend two nights at a beach hotel on the Pacific coast over our 4 day weekend.  I thought we would relax, perhaps even bore ourselves. What was I thinking? That sort of thing doesn’t happen to us.  The trip started innocently enough.  We set off on Friday morning at 6:00am, missing the Labor Day holiday traffic and sailing down the scenic road to the village of Las Lisas, where we took a lancha (boat) to our hotel, Playa Quilombo.  That day was fairly uneventful.  We read books poolside, enjoyed a phenomenal seafood lunch, played a bit of Uno, took a stroll along the water’s edge, and went to bed early. Looking at the hotel from the shore.  Our bungalow was on the right, 3rd building back. It was Saturday that the excitement started.  Saturday, the ocean waves started growing in size.  We spent some time down at the beach just watching them.  Michelle, who