Going to Guatemala City again

Today, we decided to return to the Mixco (pronounced Mish-co) Hiper Paiz to pick up some things that we can't find in La Antigua. We flagged down the first bus going to Guate (what they call Guatemala City around here) and headed out. The fare, each way, was Q9 ($1.17) per person. Our driver, was, without a doubt, Catholic.

Evangelicals (what we would call Pentecostal, primarily) would never use a crucifix, but would plaster the walls with Bible verses.

Our ride into Guate, what I call Disneyland/Disney World's Space Mountain with the lights on was O.K. It was fast at times, but fairly sedate for a chicken bus. They dropped us off next to the elevated cross-walk to Hiper Paiz.

This is the exterior of the Hiper Paiz from the cross walk. It's actually a four-story enclosed mall (the fourth level is a hospital), with the Hiper Paiz (one story) attached to the back. It's very upscale.

This inflatable slide and giant ball were in the parking lot. You know what the slide is for, of course. The ball allows someone to be strapped inside and be rolled around. When we left, the ball was at the top of the slide, but I don't think anyone was in it.

This is the indoor playground. That's some tree house, isn't it?

We had lunch, did our shopping at Hiper Paiz and several stores in the mall and then went out to find a chicken bus returning to La Antigua. This is where we made our mistake. We got on a "Norma" bus (all chicken buses have names). It was already almost completely filled. That should have been our warning. For the rest of the trip, the driver squeezed as many passengers on as he could, since more passengers meant more fares collected. We were crammed in, but everyone took it in stride. We were never so happy as when we got off at the entrance to La Antigua, since it's only a short walk to our casita from there.