Our Man in Antigua

yep, finally over. I’d almost gotten around to thinking about watching it but…it got away or I just faded…probably ‘B’

Origami should be reopened by now…maybe this week? and maybe the rains are back, after a few weeks of absence..and a few more folks are making the move to come here permanently: having been thru those decisions/choices myself, unless you’re furnishing an entire house and bringing cars it all comes down to just getting rid of everything and traveling light. Part of the excitement is ‘starting over’..yeah, there’s stuff I sometimes wish I’d kept but there’s a joy in collecting art again, starting a new mineral collection (my bag) and just saying ‘screw it’ to all the stuff that’s taking up space in the life.

so, last weeks’ little excursion to Baja Verapaz and Salama? not quite a cluster f…k or a goat f…but close…you know, it IS Guatemala, where nothing ever goes as planned. The information is spotty/weird and sometimes just plain wrong. The front wheel fell off the little ‘flete’ pick up we rented but close enough to walk to the hotel, leaving him in the street with a few quetzals and ‘good luck’…..he’d run us ragged up mountain trails up/down, ‘just five more minutes’….I don’t think (often)that he had another phrase in English..I kept up, mostly, until the last trail down to the river…thank god I took water with me. and rum in the room…the $#@%! hotel, where we stayed last year (HBT, the ‘Perfesser’ Alabama Bob and I) didn’t have ice and there wasn’t any hot water…the price, 100q, was right and I got used to sitting up on the still-unfinished/unfurnished terrace with a BIG glass of rum and damn little water…hey, it was a  ‘field trip’, ok? question: the last/first legs of the final link to Salama’ were via a better class of bus than a  ‘chicken bus’….reclining seats and definitely not a converted school bus…any idea what the class or name would be? not a pullman, either…in between and for a three hour ride, acceptable to these old bones….you know, after hiking up/down on Friday, I didn’t have any sore muscles(except in my  head, from the rum…but it was good rum, Botran)

Yeah, I’m already making plans to return in August…got a good guide, a good mineral book, topo maps and so on…as usual, asking for information and showing them a map gets 12 different answers from four people…ok, fine, just back from a rum/cigarette break….anyone noticing a bunch of ‘for rent’ signs around town? I’m seeing a few back-packers but not in the usual hordes, altho there was one guy with a half-ass mohawk haircut and walking 5th calle in bare feet…WTF? why? and the usual ‘come save the pagan babies’ christian groups are flocking in/around…think about this: add up  the air fare, the hotel and food costs per group and what they could do with that $$….work with a decent NGO, donate the $$…there’s probably something about getting the matching T-shirts, the group photos and the feeling of righteous ness that warms the cockles of their hearts…cockles? don’t tell/don’t smell…