Day Four (Part Two) of Twelve Days in Guatemala

Upon leaving Comalapa, we headed back through the mountains. We were traveling in a new Hyundai diesel tourist van. Suddenly as we were climbing a steeper incline, the van conked out. The driver tried and retried the starter, but it wouldn't crank. And also suddenly, the Policia Nacionale showed up. They helped to alert oncoming cars that they needed to go around us, as we all bailed out and wondered what was wrong. After about an hour of waiting and the driver bringing back a can of gasoline, although we were under the impression that there was a mechanical problem...the police piled us into two of their Toyota trucks and escorted us to our next destination. We learned days later, that we HAD been out of gas and that we had been followed and closely watched over by the police. Interesting.

The van is descompuseto!

Here we are with our new friends. My head is sticking out from behind the gal in the yellow top. It looks like the policia are drinking Gallo's, but they aren't. I think they would have liked to after transporting all of us dizzy broads.

We were escorted to El Granero for lunch, which is on the way to The Finca at Los Tarrales. What a treat, once again. John Mellen is an American relocated in Guatemala, built a school, has a pork sausage production, teaches young kids the culinary arts, has his own line of sauces, preserves, jellies and cookies, just opened a restaurant in Antigua called Epicure. He was a very nice and interesting man. We ate lunch on the top floor of an old barn.

It was a beautiful spot, in the middle of the countryside.
On to the Finca (that means farm and plantation) at Los Tarrales. This place is owned by another American, who wasn't able to be with us. It rained such a storm as we arrived. We slept in the "Receivadore", a remodeled building with a few bedrooms. Four of the gals got to sleep in the forest in two tree houses. Straws were drawn for that sleeping space.