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Our Return to My Favorite Place on Earth

Our old driver, Alfredo, picked us up at the airport upon arrival in Guatemala. He drove us out to Antigua and dropped us off at our AirBnB for the night.

We got settled in, charging up some gadgets, and then went to grab a late lunch/early dinner at a vegan restaurant nearby, set back in a beautiful courtyard. 

Afterward, we wandered around town, getting reacquainted with it and where all of our favorite sites were. 

It got dark early, so we went ahead and turned back to our place, hoping to find somewhere to buy a bottle of wine on the way. 

We never passed a store with wine, but we saw a sign right before our BnB for a restaurant with wine and tapas, so we turned down the road to go there instead, and it turned out to be a little slice of heaven.

We were the only ones there, and we wandered back to the small courtyard, surrounded by greenery and a small stone fountain. The owner kept adding some mood lighting for us, first some fairy lights and then some candles. We got an order of mushrooms and a bottle of red to split, and had a lovely time.

We went back and read until we fell asleep.

The next morning, we headed into town early to try to avoid the people and cars. We weren’t super successful, and nothing opens in that town until 9, but it was pleasant wandering around in the chilly morning air. 

We went back to our place for breakfast, and then went to run some quick errands before Alfredo picked us up.

The drive to Lake Atitlán took just over 2 hours, which is much shorter than I remembered it being. As we approached the lake, the roads started winding sharply back and forth, and I worried my vertigo was going to act up, but we made it to busy Panajachel with no issues. We passed through and went to Santa Catarina Palopó instead, where we climbed a million stairs up to our house.

I’d like to say it was the view that took our breath away, but truly it was the climb that did that. But still, the view was pretty spectacular.

After settling in, we got a tuk tuk back into Pana for some food and groceries. Around the lake, there are really three modes of transportation: the 3-wheeled tuk tuks, a “taxi” which is a pick-up truck that you ride in the bed of, or boat lancha to get between villages.

Pana is probably the most chaotic town on the lake. Tuk tuks and taxis and motor bikes zipping by constantly, the locals trying to sell anything from bananas to paintings to clothing to dolls. You sit down in a restaurant, and an adorable kid will come in to try to sell you a bracelet. And then of course, there are stray dogs everywhere, but possibly my favorite thing about Pana is all the places you can donate some money for restaurants and stores to buy food for the strays. I didn’t see a single starving dog there.

After eating some amazing papusas, we walked to the supermarket to buy some groceries for the house. We messaged our tuk tuk driver, and he took us back home from there.

We watched a lovely sunset from our deck, and then we had a massage therapist come to the house that evening so that we could both get a massage. Aside from the sound of fireworks and cheering from the festival going on in Santa Catarina, it was a perfectly relaxing evening.

A stray pup found us after this, befriending us with hugs and kisses. I fed her some chips and peanut butter, and she kept us company while we spent the rest of the evening in the hot tub, and then we left her to go to bed.

I woke up to a beautiful sunrise, the soft light pouring in through the giant window in front of our bed. Soon after that, the fireworks started back up.

We spent the morning relaxing before heading back into town to go paragliding. Unfortunately, I had still been feeling sick since the last day in Mexico, and once it came time to actually leave on the van, I decided I needed to back out. Being stuck in the middle of nowhere or flying in the air and feeling sick sounded like a bad idea. Of course, as soon as I made that decision, my stomach started feeling a little better again.

We grabbed a snack and then wandered down Calle Santander, doing a little shopping. After awhile, we went back to the house to relax, cook some dinner, and hang out in the hot tub again after the sun set.

The next morning was pretty much a repeat. A beautiful sunrise, some breakfast and reading, and then back into town to try again at paragliding.

We had to wait a little while, so we went to a deli to grab some drinks and then went back to the office. This time, I felt more up to it, and we hopped in the van, just the two of us. 

We met up with our pilots at the landing zone. We started driving off, but then another pilot landed, so they invited him to come along with us to head back up the mountain and go again.

On the way up, we went through a town called Godinez, where some rando hopped in the van with us. I still haven’t figured out who he was or why he came along, but they had a great time joking in the back of the van, while we wound our way up through avocado bushes, eventually looking like we were going to head straight off the cliff.

But then we were at our take off point, and I climbed out, completely ecstatic. 

I got all geared up, we started running forward, and then got pulled back in a tangled jumble of legs and gear, but then the wind lifted us back up just enough that we ran off and caught some air. 

We flew over multiple towns and beautiful homes and gardens. My pilot, Christian, would follow where he saw trees and flowers rustling, knowing there’d be some wind there to lift us higher. We made it into some thermals, which lifted us so high that we were literally in the clouds and could not see anything but white around us. Christian kept cheering and calling me his “sky girl”. 

We did a few acrobatics, but since I still wasn’t feeling 100%, we mostly just floated peacefully around the cliffs and out over the water. I started feeling a little queasy eventually, so after around 45 minutes in the air, we started making our way back down.

Anthony took off not long after I did. At one point, our guides flew us toward each other so that our canopies were just touching. Anthony was still nervous about paragliding, but he seemed a bit more relaxed than the last couple times.

We stood around awhile after landing, people-watching. A few young Mayan girls came up to me to get selfies with me and then ran off giggling, and I’m still not sure why.

We walked back up Calle Santander and then stopped for papusas again. Afterward, we got a tuk tuk back home, enjoying one last sunset, home-cooked dinner, and hot tub time at the house. 

The next morning, we got our stuff packed up, went to one last viewpoint, and then headed into town to catch a lancha across the lake. 

I would have been sad to leave Santa Catarina, but I knew where we were going was going to be even better.

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Mexico City

Our day started at 3am, which was brutal, but it allowed Anthony, Cole, and I to make it to Mexico City by 12:30. One of our reasons for our visit was to see their friend, Fernando, whom Anthony hadn’t seen since I had been in the picture (so, a long time). Fernando and his wife, Loraine, picked us up at the airport, navigating the crazy traffic to take us to our AirBnB, which was a beautiful apartment in the Roma Norte neighborhood.

We changed, freshened up, and walked a few blocks to La Pitahaya, a vegan restaurant so that I could have something to eat, which was amazing. Presentation was beautiful, and the food was so delicious.

After that, we caught an Uber to Fernando’s parents’ house where they were having a rooftop cookout for us. I got to meet his super sweet parents, his adorable kids, some friends, and his brother and new sister-in-law who were so friendly and spoke to us in English all night so that I wasn’t a total loner. Their hospitality was amazing and very much appreciated. We drank way too much tequila, his mother gifted me a hat for the pyramids the next day, and then we made our way back to the AirBnB for a reasonable bedtime after a long day.

The next day, we slept til sunshine was pouring in, and got up to wander the neighborhood.

Anthony and I walked to a farmers’ market in the neighborhood for a cheap breakfast and a stroll around the park. 

Afterward, Fernando picked us up to drive us out to Teotihuacan, the ancient Mesoamerican city with massive pyramids. 

The crowds were huge and noisy, but the pyramids were impressive. We walked the avenue of the dead, climbing steep stairs here and there for the views, and then climbed the second largest temple (the largest had about the longest line I’d ever seen). 

We were still feeling pretty good at that point, so Anthony decided we needed to walk forever more to see the last temple. 

By this point, I was tired and thirsty and ready to sit down, so we walked back to the car, bought some water and chips, and headed back to Mexico City. 

That’s when things got a little stressful. We needed to pick up our tickets for the game the next day. The NFL puts on one game in Mexico City each year, and since we’re Chiefs fans, we decided it was an opportunity not to miss. But, we realized we didn’t have the credit card that was used to purchase one set of the tickets (we had to buy them in two sets – long story), which apparently was required. We hoped we’d be able to sweet talk them, and thank goodness, we had Fernando with us to speak Spanish to them (no offense to Anthony). 

But, they told him we needed to call and figure out what needed to be done. So he called, sat on hold forever, and finally they decided they’d cancel the one order and then put it back on our new credit card. Crisis averted.

We grabbed some food and a bottle of wine there at the mall, and then Fernando took us on a short tour back into town where we stopped at Coyoacán for a brief stroll and then some drinks at a bar so that we could try Mezcal. 

The next day, Anthony and I wandered around the neighborhood a little bit before the three of us went back to Coyoacán for a deeper exploration. Unfortunately, it was a holiday, so most of the things we wanted to do were closed. 

We did a little shopping, got some breakfast, and then walked over to the pleasant Chimalistac neighborhood.

After that, we went to the vegan street taco stand, Por Siempre Vegana, which was awesome (and, like, $4 for Anthony and I to stuff our faces). 

We went back to our AirBnB to pre-game with some wine. Fernando and Loraine met us there to help us finish off said wine, and then we met up with a couple more friends of theirs for the Uber on over to the Chiefs/Chargers game. 

The stadium was huge.  We grabbed some beers and settled in for the show.

It was way too close for comfort, but I screamed my little heart out, surrounded by Chargers fans, so that my voice was cracking and going hoarse by the end. I, of course, credit myself for their eventual win after Philip Rivers with the Chargers threw a game-ending interception. 

Getting out of the stadium was a little scary because of all the bodies packed together not knowing what direction to go, but we made it out unscathed and all together, and then walked for a century before getting a ride back home.

The next day, I was completely worn out. But, we managed to do a few touristy things – Palacio de Bellas Artes, el Zócalo, Templo Mayor museum… 

I had hoped to do Chapultepec Castle as well, but we weren’t able to fit it in. Instead, we went back to the apartment for some rest. We grabbed a little bit of food at La Pitahaya again before meeting up with our tour group for some Lucha Libre.

Our group got to know each other a little over some beer and mezcal, which is where we discovered two of the guys in our group were quite possibly the biggest douchebags alive, but I digress.

We then went to a taco stand for some street tacos. They threw together some vegan ones for Anthony and me, but unfortunately, I was feeling really sick and didn’t want any. 

After that, we walked the rest of the way to Arena Mexico for the match. We all got our own masks and sat down for the show. It was definitely unique and would have been a lot of fun if I had been feeling better. But unfortunately, we had to leave before the final match since I was feeling sick.

I had a lousy night’s sleep, and then we headed to the airport early the next morning, and thank God we got there early. At check-in, we discovered that apparently we were supposed to have kept the immigration form we had gotten upon arrival. Since we hadn’t realized this, they sent us down to immigration to pay for a new one. It was a really stressful situation where we felt a bit like criminals, but I’m sure it would have been even worse if we hadn’t had the privilege of being light-skinned, blonde-haired Americans. After they grilled us a while, they gave us new forms, sent us to the bank to pay for them, and then back up to the airline desk to finish check-in. All while I was still feeling completely nauseous.

And so ended our exhausting and fun-filled trip to Mexico City, but I’m sure we’ll be back in the future.

We made it safely to Guatemala after, where we planned to have much more time for relaxation.

 

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Colorado

Every year, we go on a floating/camping trip somewhere around southern MO or NW Arkansas. This year, however, we decided to trade that out for a hiking/camping trip in Colorado. Definitely more travel time involved, but I was optimistic the mountains would make up for it.

Unfortunately, I came down with some (not serious) health issues before the trip. This included vertigo/dizziness. The nine-hour drive to Denver was pretty miserable for me, and by the time I was out of the car and at higher altitude than I am used to, my vertigo was the worst it had been in months.

But our AirBnB in the Capitol Hill district was fantastic, so I sucked it up and tried to enjoy myself.

We were a short walk to one of the vegetarian restaurants I wanted to try, so we headed to City O City for dinner and a couple drinks. We had some awesome vegan buffalo wings, soft pretzel, street tacos, and an oyster mushroom po’boy because I don’t know when to stop when I have so many options. Once we were finished stuffing our faces, we stopped by a store for some beers and headed back to our apartment, where we all sat out on the patio and enjoyed the beautiful weather and hung out.

The next morning, I woke up to the room spinning which really freaked me out and put me in a not-so-great mood for our first full day of the trip. I was considering turning back around and heading back to Kansas, or maybe letting Anthony stay but me find a flight home, but the dizziness subsided a bit, and we went to brunch at another veggie restaurant I was looking forward to, Watercourse. The nachos were life-changing, and my “chicken” and waffles were pretty tasty as well, and by the end of it, I was feeling a little better.

But then it was time to get back in our car for the journey to Rocky Mountain National Park. This time I had snow-capped mountains in front of me to keep my spirits up. We passed through Estes Park, bought our national park pass, and made it to our campground at Moraine Park. They gave us the bear speech with direct orders to store any food items, drink items, or scented items in our bear locker or the trunk of our car and then handed us a map and ushered us on. Anthony stayed behind at the gate to wait for Cole and Zach since we didn’t have phone service, and I drove on to our site to set up camp.

We had a hike-to spot, which meant that our site was a few minutes’ walk from where I had to park the car. This made setting up camp by myself a bit annoying, but the privacy and views from our site made up for it.

We had planned on going on a hike that afternoon, but I wasn’t really feeling up to it, so instead, we went on a little roadtrip up Trail Ridge Road. I’ve heard the drive is spectacular, but the rain and fog formed around us, so we weren’t able to see a whole lot. (Is it really an Anthony and Brenna vacation if we don’t have views ruined by fog at least once?)

We made our way back to camp for dinner. The rain had died down and was just a slight drizzle, so we started working on our campfire. As soon as we managed to get it started, it was raining again… of course. Anthony held an umbrella over me and the fire so that I could cook our veggie brats. It wasn’t the easy dinner I had planned on having, but it worked out in the end.

Once the rain finally moved on, we had some pleasant lighting and weather for me to wander around and check out our surroundings.

We managed to keep the fire going the rest of the evening while we sat around it and hung out until it was time to put all our stuff up and head to our tents for bed.

We were up at the crack of dawn the next morning, listening to the elk bugling while we got ready for our hike.

We drove to the Bear Lake trailhead. I had planned on doing the Four Lakes loop hike, but when I mentioned this to the ranger there, he encouraged us not to because of a bunch of snow and mud in parts of it. So instead, we joined the masses (not really, we were there at like 6:30am, so the crowds were quite small at that point) and did the hike to Dream Lake and Emerald Lake.

The trail offered lots of beautiful forested views as well as plenty of wildlife sighting.

We made it to Dream Lake which was obviously stunning. We rested there for a while and then continued our climb.

Finally, we made it to Emerald Lake. We sat here, relaxed, and took it all in for some time. There was snow all around us, but we were pleasantly warm in the sunshine after hiking.

At one point, we noticed a couple of crazy people hiking along the side of the snowy mountain way up high, which I just can’t imagine.

We ate some snacks and then decided we had hogged the best views long enough, so we turned back around.

The sun was higher up, casting a different light on everything we had just seen.

We came across so many more people on the way down and were very happy that we had started as early as we did.  We went back to camp to make some much-needed coffee, eat lunch, change our clothes, and relax some.

After that, we decided to try Trail Ridge Road again with the hopes that we’d actually be able to see it this time. Which was the case, but it did start raining on us again after awhile.

We had time to kill, so we stopped by a visitor center and then went in to Estes Park to wander around and shop. I don’t understand how they have so many t-shirt shops in such a small radius, but we went into one after another after another until we had all succeeded in buying something.

Then we went to the Barrel to sit out on the patio and have a couple beers. We were in a severe thunderstorm warning at this point, but it barely sprinkled and we only heard a bit of thunder. Being from tornado alley, we laughed at this version of a “severe thunderstorm” but I wasn’t complaining.

Zach and I both ended up not feeling real great, likely having some altitude sickness, so we went back to camp so that we could lie down for awhile.

The weather was much kinder that evening, so we had an easier time relaxing around our campfire.

All we had left the next day was tearing down camp and making that long, awful ride back to Kansas City.

I can’t say it was the most successful trip I’ve ever had, but that’s no fault of Colorado’s, and any time spent in the mountains is obviously worth it.