The Accident

We planned to leave on Saturday morning around 9:00. Janet came to pick up Stephanie and I from our apartment. We got all of our stuff loaded and we were off. We were all really excited and after just a little confusion about which way we were supposed to go, we were headed to the beach in Monterrico. It was a long windy road to get down to the beach. There is just one road where you have to turn off to get to this ferry that takes you out to the beach town. After you make that turn it's maybe just another 15 or 20 minutes down the road. I had been dozing on and off on our way down, but since we were right at the spot where that turn was, I was awake trying to take it all in. When we were coming around this corner, I saw this semi truck coming right at us. Janet, calmly said, "What is this guy doing?" About that time I really think I kind of saw my life flash in front of me. I wasn't sure if we were going to make it or not if this guy hit us head on. This guy was full on in our lane, and he was going fast. Janet got over far enough that thankfully he missed the front end of her car. Otherwise I think we would have been goners. He was close enough though that he hit her side mirror on the drivers side and then hit the rest of the car on the driver's side and then drove off. All of the glass from my back window (I was sitting behind Janet) and the glass from the back hatch window all came in as well. The driver and passenger had their windows down which saved us from some glass. Since he didn't hit the front of the car, we didn't spin or flip or roll or anything. We just got knocked off the road and then stopped. We just sat there and made sure each other were ok. We could all move and didn't have any serious injuries, just a few scratches here and there. But then we had no idea what to do. Before we knew it, about four people had come up to the car and were asking if we were ok. Luckily Jenna and Janet's Spanish are both amazing!!! And the people spoke a little bit of English. So they ended up helping us out of the car, brushing glass off of us, wiping my nose, getting the glass out of our shoes, giving us juice, etc. They were SOOOO nice. The two men thought the car would be driveable so they got right down and changed the tire that had gotten demolished and put the spare tire on. The Guatemalan police stopped by, took some pictures of the car and of us, shook our hands, said "Mucho gusto" and drove off. Real helpful. So this one guy tells us he lives like three minutes away and we can drive the car to his house and he can take us to the beach and then we can figure out what to do with the car later. So, Janet and Jenna are driving in Janet's car and Stephanie and I are riding with our new friend. (Who by the way had a pistol tucked into the back of his pants......I mean, who wouldn't feel safe with this guy???) The girls behind us start slowing down, because the tire is completely flat (the spare tire they put on). So the guy gets out, asks if they would rather him drive that car and he let us drive his car!! We got to his house, I have no idea how the car made it there. Oh, PS, while we were on the side of the road and driving people were just driving by and staring like crazy at us!!! So we got there, his family was all there (brothers, sisters, daughter, cousins probably...) and they got all of our stuff out of the car, put in the back of the pickup truck, loaded us in the back of the truck and took us to the ferry to go to the beach. Such nice people. WOW. Things could have been a million times worse for so many cases!!! Check out the pictures.

I think Stephanie is either itching mosquito bites or trying to get glass out of her shirt!

I didn't know Stephanie was going to make a sad face or I would have too. This was after we were at the guy's house, so I was feeling much happier! :) If you look closely you can see the scratches on our faces.

You can't even really see the scratches on my face anymore, just one on my lip that I can feel all the time! Other than that, I walked away with a few scratches on my legs and a kinda bad bruise on my leg where the impact hit. I still can't believe it. I keep picturing that truck coming right at us. I'm thankful to be alive!