My travels in Guatemala have been filled with laughter. One of the more memorable moments of laughter happened on my trip back from Lake Atitlán. Our shuttle driver had pulled into a petrol station in the middle of the Guatemalan mountains and while he was paying for the petrol, the other passengers had taken the opportunity to use the bathrooms. I was dozing alone in the back seat when I felt the bus start to rock. I looked up sleepily to see a terribly handsome man outside the window, rocking the bus back and forth.

Now, I knew, intellectually, that he was filling the bus with petrol, but for some reason felt compelled to push my nose up against the window and look down to see the nozzle of the hose. When I looked back up, he was wearing an expression of pure amusement. He turned to his friend and muttered something which made his friend giggle. I KNEW instantly, without a shadow of a doubt, that he’d just said ‘she probably thought I was peeing on the bus’ – I could tell by the expression on his face and the tone of his voice – and as he turned back around and met my gaze, he suddenly realized I knew what he’d said and blushed furiously. At that point all three of us burst into spontaneous laughter – proper hard belly-laughing, and by the time the others returned to the bus we had tears running down our cheeks and were weak from laughing.

As we pulled away from the petrol station I recounted my experience and our little shuttle bus filled up with the sound of laughter as we bumped along the road towards Antigua.