Our trip home from El Salto was scheduled for an otherwise innocuous weekend that turned out to be one of the worst travel experiences of our lives. We were scheduled to travel home on American Airlines, leaving three hours to transfer our bodies and our luggage in Dallas, but we unknowingly stumbled into a minefield --- American canceled over 400 flights and we were caught up in the chaos.

Part of the reason that we chose Guatemala for our winter getaway was the ease of travel. Of course, in the era of COVID – and in the world of the Robbins family generally – there always seem to be complications.

As our trip to Guatemala approached, several family members urged us to postpone the trip, but in the end we decided that our health and risk tolerance weighed in favor of going ahead as planned. Guatemala has required a recent negative COVID test to enter for several months, but only recently did the CDC require one for reentry into the United States. That meant getting our brains swabbed twice, but 10 seconds of discomfort versus 40-plus sailfish seemed like a fair trade.

Casa Vieja Lodge can’t control the weather or the fishing — although both have been exceptional each time we’ve visited — but they’re very conscious to knock it out of the park when it comes to variables they can control.

If you want to get out of a COVID-induced malaise, a trip to Casa Vieja Lodge in Guatemala is a quick way to jump start your heart.