August 6, 2006

I had to cut my entry short yesterday because we had to catch the bus and I ended up just playing PSP on the bus. Anyway, to continue on from yesterday...

The driver was still relatively slow so it wasn't like difficult to hang on. He took us on a tour of the town, San Pedro, and it was actually a little scary. I know they warned us that on the main road we traveled to get there that they have a lot of armed robberies, so that's why we couldn't walk. Also, though in San Juan, the children all shouted "Hola!" to us as we drove by, San Pedro seemed much less friendly. We also saw graffiti on a wall that said "Go home Gringos" which I'm sure had been there for a while, but someone obviously had the sentiment. The place we ate in town was decent and we had fun like we always do. Earlier, our boat had stopped in the middle of a lake and we all went for a swim. The water is so clear that you can see your feet. I hadn't ever seen water so clear, I think. I got really tired of shopping. It's so draining having people approach constantly pressuring you to buy stuff. One older Mayan woman tried for 10 full minutes or so to sell us US change in the amount of $.55. She only wanted six Quetzales for it, which is almost a dollar, so it was a good deal but we passed anyway.

Yesterday evening, at Ecohotel on the lake, I swam by myself for a long time. It was very peaceful and everywhere I looked were reminders of what a small speck I am on this planet. It's kind of scary in a way but also comforting too, when you feel you belong to it. I also tried the sauna, but it was my first time so I loaded way too much water and it got real hot real fast. I had to leave. Thankfully, it was just me in there.

Later, a lot of us, most of us I think, hung out on the 3rd floor and talked. John and Jessi brought a frog up an put it on Tony. Everyone, not just Tony, flipped. I probably would have too, but I was further away. That was the second good one of the night for John and Jessi as they had jumped out of the corn field earlier and scared the hell out of Tyler just as she was asking "Did you ever seen that movie, Children of the Corn?" Tony and Spencer said they were pretty startled, too.

One other thing that tripped me out as we walked through the town yesterday evening was there was this Mayan woman in traditional dress sitting outside her home and all of a sudden her cell phone rang and she answered it. It's not that I don't expect to see that in every big city in the world, but in a small pueblo where the taxi is a truck with standing room only and they're building houses with cinder blocks and rebar, it seems out of place and kind of amusing. The people who run the inn are Mayan and I heard them speaking to each other in their native tongue. It sounds really neat. She said between their Mayan dialect and the other common one around the lake, they are very different.

Not sure if I wrote this already but one time when we were playing soccer with the kids, we had to leave the field because a club game was scheduled. We hung out in the stands for a while and had a blast. Jason wanted to know who was the best soccer player in Guatemala, so we asked the boys. Daniel, one of the twins, hit is own chest with his palm several times in the "I am" gesture. Then he laughed. These guys are so awesome. They really had fun messing with John, poking him or pulling on his bandana. Another one of the boys said he knew English and then said "chit". We were all like "whoa!" and then he said "fucky". Each time all the other boys laughed of course.

(End of journal - to be continued by Dave)