Been a while..

... and I have a lot to catch up on but the present is too good to pass up right now. Besides, I can´t say that I am too concerned with chronological time here in Guatemala.

Yesterday my friend Rachel and I were picked up at 7am from our hostel for a 2.5 hour ride to Lago de Atitlan. The lake, surrounded by volcanoes and lush green mountain sides, with small villages dotting the shorelines around the entire lake, was lovingly deemed by Aldous Huxley as ¨the most beautiful lake in the world.¨ Probably not too much of an overstatement, if you ask me.

We were meeting Scott, a friend I made on my volcano hike in Xela who has been staying with people he knows in a nearby village on the lake, and the three of us were planning on just hanging out for a few days in a place that is known not only for its beauty, but also for the relaxing energy it emits and excess amounts of hippies and weed. No wonder I feel right at home here, coming from Eugene...

So, as it seems to happen a lot here, as Rachel and I are stepping off our shuttle van at the dock in the lakeside town of Panajachel (this one known for being a gringo-filled tourist haven), I hear my name being called by a woman. Low and behold, here is our friend Becki who was dealing with a misunderstanding between her and a guy working at the tour company who was supposed to take her to the city of Antigua at 9:30am, but who were now telling her she had to wait until 1pm. So it goes in Guatemala. This worked out nicely, seeing Becki one last time before she heads home to NY, as Rachel and I had to wait for a while for Scott to get to Panajachel anyway.

Once on the boat to San Pedro, I could almost feel the healing energy sinking into me (I know, probably my imagination because of what all I had previously heard about the lake, but I´ll take it regardless). During the ride, somehow, someway, we befriended an ex-pat from Canada who owns a restaurant in San Pedro and also coincidentally rents out rooms in his house. He gave us a deal for two bedrooms and open use of anything else in his house... we are paying approximately $2.50 per night each. So, we take up his offer to check it out upon arrivel to San Pedro, and although it is a bit of a jaunt uphill (which only means a better view of the surroundings) and a 15 minute walk from the main part of town, we decide to give it a go for a few days. The view from the house is incredible, and this man is a gardener so once on his hillside property you feel like you are in some sort of fanasy land...

This Canadian man, David, is a small friendly man who hates U.S. foreign policy and who I am pretty sure is always stoned. He´s got a great house--all things considered--complete with an abundance of books and movies, washer and dryer, at least four cats, a dog, chickens, a rooster, his own flock of geese along with a few ducks, and a little gecko who seems to have adopted a wall in David´s house for his current home. The front deck faces the lake and volcanoes out toward San Pedro, and the back faces a neighboring town called San Juan. In fact, once in the ´backyard´if you can call it that, you pass through a wooden door (kind of like the Secret Garden) and you actually are in San Juan. This place is stunningly beautiful, and the abundance of varieties of plants would be well appreciated by my father (wish you could see it dad!). As we are sitting on the San Juan side wrapping up our ´tour´of the place, listenng to the music of a San Juan funeral march echoing through the hillsides, David makes sure to let us know we are free to wander, but not to go too far without a tour guide becuase the ground is filled with baby marijuana plants. I mean, nobody would ever want to crush those now, would they?

So, we´ll likely spend 2-3 nights at David´s place. Yesterday we followed him to is restaurant when he went to open it up and were given three beers on the house. Tonight he´s got live music that I´m sure we´ll check out (which, coincidentally, while we were eating at The Burrito Factory yesterday we happened to meet the man who is performing at David´s restaurant tonight). When he came home from the restaurant last night he joined us in watching Ice Age, and it was only a matter of minutes before he was rolling and passing around the joint. When in Rome, right mom?

I´ll work on the past two weeks of my life one of these days...

Love and miss you all!