Livingston

Friday morning, at 10:15 Guatemala time (around 11am according to my cellphone), we started the long journey to Livingston.

After driving for probably 5 or 6 hours, we arrived in Rio Dulce, a medium sized pueblo on Rio Dulce. We stretched our legs for a few minutes and then piled into a boat and headed for Livingston. It started out as a beautiful, relaxing boat ride, but it wasn't long before a storm came rolling in off the Caribbean. The driver of the boat was in a hurry to get through the storm, so we went really fast, and the rain stung our faces - haha!

Ann-Marita and I were in the front of the boat and we got destroyed! We were bouncing over the wind-whipped waves for about an hour! When we reached our destination, it felt like someone had been repeatedly smacking me in the butt with a shovel for the entire journey!

Anyway, we stopped near Livingston where we were staying for the night. It was basically a few huts along the river complete with thatched roofs and mosquito nets. When we pulled up to the dock, there were a bunch of little girls diving into the water, and after we got settled in our room, Jeremy and I threw on our trunks and headed to the dock. I jumped in where the girls had been diving to discover that the water was only about 4 feet deep! Cut my feet up on the riverbed when I landed ...

The water, it turns out, smelled pretty foul. But, when you ducked under the surface, you could hear what I assumed were dolphins squeaking and squealing to each other! Later, however, our guide informed us that the dolphins aren't around this time of year. So now I'm thinking it was manatees! Evidently they're all over the place in Livingston.

Livingston is a interesting place. It's very small, and it's only reachable by boat. There are lots of people who live outside the city along the river and use boats to travel to and from the city. The population is also a mix of Latino, Maya, and Garifuna peoples. Garifuna people are the descendants of Caribbean slaves and evidently live along much of the Caribbean coast of Central America - especially in Belize. Gotta be honest, it was nice to see some black people again.

There are lots of large sailboats and catamarans in Livingston. I was told it's a fairly popular harbor for people who live on boats and cruise around the Caribbean.

Following a short break, our group boated across the river to Livingston for dinner. One of the frustrations I experience with these tours is how they choose which restaurants to take us to. We went to a restaurant owned by our boat driver's tour company. It was about twice the price it should've been and the food was just ok. But the guides get free dinner when they bring a group there, so that's where we ate.

Erin and Sarah ordered some kind of crazy soup that contained a whole fish, a whole crab, and probably ten whole camarones (shrimp). Sarah couldn't handle eating something with a face, but Erin dug in! I had the fried shrimp - complete, of course, with heads and legs - con papas fritas (french fries).

Shortly after dinner, the power went out ... in all of Livingston. For probably an hour, it continued to turn off and on (mostly off) intermittently. Pretty crazy.

Back at our huts (we occupied three) we had several encounters with wildlife that night. In the hut I shared with Jeremy, I found a tree frog clinging to the inside of our shower curtain!

In one of the ladies' huts, there was a scorpion! They killed it with Courtney's shoe ... not sure who the executioner was though ...

In the other ladies' hut, they were attacked by a giant spider ... supposedly. Evidently, Erin killed it with a metal pole, but the story keeps changing. At first it was a tarantula, then it wasn't a tarantula, but some kind of bigger spider. There are no actual pictures of the spider, but they claim they killed it ... the only thing this story needs is for the ladies to claim that they had a burial at sea - then the parallel to the killing of Osama would be complete :)

It was super hot that night. Even with the cooling effect that the rain had I was still sweating all night :)

Stay tuned for day two of our journey!

Made it!

I'm back in Antigua!

Erin is on her way back to the States - she should be in the air right now.

We did so much this weekend! Climbed Mayan ruins, jumped off waterfalls, visited Belize, killed tarantulas and scorpions, got robbed, and more!

I have class in a few minutes, so if I can stay awake long enough, I'll tell you about it tonight!

This weekend

Taking a tour this weekend with Erin, Kara, and Ann-Marita! We're going to Livingston and Rio Dulce today, Seven Altars tomorrow, and Tikal on Sunday! The tour heads back to Antigua on Sunday, but Erin and I are going to strike off on our own and go to Belize for a day! If all goes according to plan, I'll be back in Antigua (and Erin will be back in the States) on Tuesday!

Also, I may or may not have gone to an Enrique Iglesias concert last night with (from left to right) Erin, Kara, and Ann-Marita ... More on that later.

Ann-Marita is Norwegian! We have a sort of kinship since I'm a quarter Norwegian. Now I've met three Norwegians - Gram, Warren, and Ann-Marita! I know what you're thinking Gram, but she already has a boyfriend ;)

Guatemala City

Mi maestra y yo fuimos a la ciudad de Guatemala hoy! (My teacher and I went to Guatemala City today!) It was a good time!

We hopped on a chicken bus at el mercado en Antigua and we were in Guatemala City about an hour later. The bus dropped us off right at Miraflores, a huge, fancy mall. I felt like I was back in the States - it was just like any one of the nice malls we have back home!

We saw the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie in the theater! It was in 3D and Spanish. It was the first time mi maestra had seen a 3D movie, and it was fun to watch her jump from time to time. Although to be honest, I think Pirates 4 is another 3D movie in the long list of 3D movies that you don't really need to see in 3D - doesn't add much. It was in Spanish, but what I wasn't able to understand I figured out from what was going on - the fact that there was decent amount of action made that easy.

The theater also shows movies in English with Spanish subtitles, but only for certain (seemingly random) showtimes. But I wanted to see a movie in Spanish anyway.

For lunch, we had ... wait for it ... Taco Bell! Here's the crazy thing. We're in this huge mall - it's really nice and has a nice food court. Most of the restaurants in the food court were American chains - Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, McDonalds, Burger King, Subway ... The only one that had a line (and a long line at that) was Taco Bell - and I was the only gringo in the entire mall! Turns out Guatemaltecos love Taco Bell! Who'd have thought?!

And here in Guatemala, Taco Bell serves french fries! You can get the plain or supreme. Supreme fires are topped with tomatoes, cheese, sour cream - the works. The crazy thing was the fiesta fries were good!

So having ridden on five camionetas (chicken buses) now, I've realized that it takes two people to run a chicken bus. There's the driver, of course, and then there's the hype man. The hype man hangs out of the doorway and shouts the bus' destination to all passersby. He also collects bus fares once the bus is underway. And when the bus comes to a tight corner or blind intersection, the hype man gets out and directs the driver. Quite the system.

Yesterday, I made curry for dinner! I tried to replicate the recipe Simon taught me on the Mississippi. Can't remember if we used curry powder or curry paste ... All I could find here was curry powder, so I went for it. There were no instructions on the packets, so I just kept adding curry powder till the color looked about right. It was a yellow curry with chicken, mushrooms, potatoes, carrots, snow peas, onions, basil, and coconut milk. It turned out pretty well, I think, but I under-salted it. Also, the chicken to vegetables ratio was off - needed more chicken for that many veggies!

Paperwork!

I'm a little bit closer to having a license plate for my motorcycle!

I stopped by the VRC shop and the guy took me to some government office just south of el parque central. We waited in line for a bit, but when we got to the window, we discovered we were missing some paperwork. We went across the hall, bought the necessary form (for 1 Quetzale) and got back in line.

Not long after, I received a temporary NIT! It's evidently some kind of tax ID number. Somehow it helps you ... I think you can deduct a portion of the things that are recorded as having been bought with you NIT. Not really sure ...

There are some extra steps I'm supposed to complete in order to make my NIT permanent, but I don't think I will. All I really care about is the license plate and that should arrive next Tuesday.

See the picture at the top of the post? That's the front entry of Casa de Gilmore. Looks like about 20 people liver here right? Nope! Just six - haha! So many shoes!

This is mi prima (my cousin), Ellie chilling in the courtyard of Casa de Gilmore while everyone else attempts to move a plant from a broken pot to a new one. I'm thinking I'll start calling her Ellsworth - because I want to.

Check out this video of Sondro on the 400cc Yamaha Grizzly we rented in Monterrico.

Cruisin'

After church yesterday, Donna and I went for a leisurely cruise through the countryside!

Antigua is great, but there's some incredible scenery one you get outside of the city! On our journey, we passed through San Philippe de Jesus, Jocotenango, Pastores (the place where they make all the cowboy boots), and some other town whose inhabitants acted as if they hadn't seen a gringo for years, if at all.

This church is in San Philippe de Jesus. It looks kind of Scandinavian doesn't it?

In Pastores, there was a little block party going on. They were giving free makeovers! We stopped to check it out, but we didn't partake.

Check out these views! These little villages are built into the mountainsides and there are actually farms on these mountainsides too! Some of them are unbelievably steep.

In the evening, I joined Sondro and Aaron at Y Tu Pina Tambien - a cafe on the east side of Antigua that plays movies. After discovering that Sondro had never seen Pulp Fiction, we decided that it was time he was introduced to this little sliver of American culture. He enjoyed it! It was a packed house so the only seats left were the uncomfortable wooden ones, but it was still a good time.

Since Sondro and I didn't take our trip to Lago Atitlan this weekend, I have a free day in Antigua today! I've gotta got to the motorcycle shop and get my paperwork squared away finally. Hope they're in the mood to help me out today :)

I took several pictures of this building cause I love their sign! I think one of the pictures could become an album cover. Haha! In this one, that little girl almost looks like she's busting a move!

Quiet day in Antigua

Not too much going on today! Took it easy at the house mostly.

Did a little shopping with Donna today in el mercado! She didn't really wheel and deal very much, but I think we made out pretty well.

I had hoped to check out the Lucas Bros. Circus in Jocotenango, but it rained pretty hard for most of the night and I didn't feel like driving the moto in a rain storm.

Speaking of the moto ... she needs a name!

Here are the choices thus far:

Widowmaker - an ironic name in that I'm not married.

Simba - Sondro suggested this name after we got our pictures taken holding a baby lion!

The People's Moto - a nod to the fact that this moto was manufactured in the People's Republic of China.

Guate Cruiser - don't really need to explain this one, do I?

So it's time to vote!


If you have any other suggestions for a name, share it in a comment!

Alright, now be honest with me ... How many of you had a pool on whether or not we'd make it back from the beach alive? Conley? Come on - fess up! I want in on that action :)

I have a confession to make ... I watched Stealth the other day while I studied. But in my defense, it was in Spanish! I would never watch Stealth in English. Watching it in Spanish was a way to study!

Another one bites the dust

I passed my test for grade B! Onto Grade C! Pero, yo pienso que yo necesito estudiar mas la vocabularia de grado B. (But I think that I need to study the vocabulary of grade B more.) There were sooo many verbs ... Olga and I celebrated over lunch in an Irish Pub - that sketchy looking one that Nealy likes!

Anyway, day three in Monterrico was short and sweet. But it started early!

Our second day in Monterrico, we arranged for a guide to take us on a lancha (boat) tour of the mangrove forest. His name sounded something like "Edgar." Nice guy.

The next morning at 5:00am, our appointed meeting time, Sondro and I were both a bit surprised to be met in the street by a man and a woman - neither of whom was Edgar. The man, who was clearly still a bit drunk from the night before, explained that Edgar couldn't make it, but this woman who was with him (whose arm was in a sling, by the way) was la esposa de Edgar (Edgar's wife).

I'm guessing he brought her along to help explain the situation and to verify his story. The funny thing is he could've brought literally any woman with him cause we had no idea Edgar was even married! Despite the fact that our guide was a complete stranger, and a little drunk to boot, we decided to go with him.

We walked through the town, past his house, to where he kept his boat. After he scooped the water out of the bottom with an empty margarine tub, we were off! But shortly after coming through the mangrove forest into the main river (the one we had taken a ferry down), the engine died. Our guide added some gas to the tank from the old tide container he had brought with him but still couldn't get the engine started. He wore out his arm on the pull start, but some nearby fisherman were kind enough to take a turn while he had a cigarette. Haha!

Finally, a ferry driver who we were told has a reputation for being good with engines stopped and started it right up! I watched him do it ... the only thing he did differently was prime the engine ... The whole time we were waiting for the first two guys to start the engine, I was thinking, "surely they primed it, right? They must've primed it while I wasn't looking." I almost suggested priming it, but I didn't think it prudent to tell these fishermen how to start a boat engine. Oh well :)

Once we were underway again, it was a fantastic, relaxing trip! The countryside was really beautiful and the full of these cranes. Pretty cool.

On the way back to town, we towed one of our guide's friends who was shrimping (that's a verb, right?). And then ran out of gas. Fortunately there was a little left in the Tide container and we made it back to Monterrico!

Before we headed back to La Calle Real (the cheap restaurant we found the day before) for breakfast, our guide introduced us to his family and showed us his puppies. After a final dip in the pool, we headed back to Antigua!

This time we took a different way - we drove northwest along the coast before heading northeast through Escuintla.

I just spoke to Sondro an hour or two ago and he picked up some sort of ailment on our trip. This is a little disconcerting, cause not only is he sick, we were together the entire time ... we ate at all the same places and did all the same things. The only thing I can think is maybe I didn't touch the river? Not 100% certain. Anyway - hope you feel better soon, man!

Sun on the beach

First things first! Congratulations Dr. Micah Childress!!! Way to go, man! You are a superstar!

Our second day in Monterrico, Sondro and I kinda relaxed for awhile. We chilled (literally and figuratively) en la piscina (in the pool) and laid in hammocks and read. Pretty relaxing.

In the afternoon, we ventured into town to explore Monterrico. Not much to see, really. Mostly just a few restaurants and tiendas. At one tienda, Sondro bought some lentes (sunglasses). Check out this hat I found in the tienda! Hahaha! "Sample Text" must be some new cutting edge brand ... either that or the meaning of "sample text" was lost on whomever was printing these hats :)

The husband of the proprietor took us to the house of a guy in town who rents out his 4-wheelers and we arranged to rent one later in the evening. Around 5:30, he rode it down the beach to us and we took off! I was really surprised to find that he had a 400cc Yamaha - really a nice machine! We zipped around the beach for an hour jumping dunes and playing chicken with dogs before we had to return it. That was a lot of fun.

For dinner we went into town and found some unbelievably cheap food. It was good too! We had been eating at the hotel. The food was good, but caro (expensive). The hotel is owned by a Swiss guy and his Guatemalan wife. Pretty sure that's why we stayed there - Sondro being Swiss and all :) Sondro and I were both surprised to find a few Swiss dishes on the hotel menu!

Our first night there we had Rösti, which is basically hash browns made with onions and a creamy pale cheese with a fried egg on top. Really quite good! For breakfast, I had Birchermüesli which is kinda hard to explain ... It was a big cup of yogurt with chunks of fresh fruit and some kind of granola/müesli mixed in. It was good!

Before bed, we wandered the beach a bit, hoping to see some of the tortugas (turtles) that this part of Guatemala's coast is known for. I guess they breed there. No luck.

Our room was attached to the restaurant and was literally on the beach, but the first night, the electricity went out in our building ... which means that our fan didn't work ... I spent the night turning my pillow over and over - not to find the cooler side, but to find the side that wasn't soaked with sweat :( Reminded me of a few nights Simon and I endured on the Mississippi!

When the fan died in the night, Sondro woke up and saw that it was pointed at me and not oscillating. He assumed at first that I had fixed it on myself! Fortunately, he investigated the situation before he broke out one of his crazy martial arts moves on me! Haha!

Anyway, they moved us to a nicer room for the second night - one that had electricity and running water. It even had AC! There was no way to turn it on, but Sondro used to be an electrician and was able to fiddle with it till it came to life! Unfortunately, the management found out that our AC was on and shut it off with their remote! They said it would be $20 to use the AC! We only paid $35 for the room! Ridiculous.

We opted not to use the AC on principle ... and the happy coincidence that a rain storm rolled through the second night and made the temperature bearable.

Made it!

We made it! We're alive! We drove about 225 miles through the Guatemalan countryside on a 200cc dirt bike with no license plate and fake helmets, and we lived to tell the tale!

What a great adventure! The tops of my knees are sunburnt (I wore shorts on the motorcycle) and my hindquarters are nearly numb from riding a dirt bike seat for so long, but it was a fantastic experience!

There are two routes to Monterrico. We took the longer one one the way down so that we could stop by the Auto Safari Chapin. It's a really large, really well put together zoo in the middle of nowhere! They've got a kind of traditional outdoor zoo with lots of African animals and a few swimming pools (guess it's also a bit of a water park). They also have a huge lake you can take a boat ride through. It's got a bunch of small islands that are populated by various birds and monkeys.

We also got to hold a baby lion! They had a lion cub and they would let you hold it and have your picture taken with it for 25 Quetzales! It was an offer we couldn't refuse. Unfortunately, this is just a picture of the picture they printed out for me - Sondro took some pictures with his camera, but he hasn't sent them to me yet. Maybe this is the first step to my someday becoming a lion tamer like my uncle Jim!

After holding the lion cub, we hopped aboard a shuttle which took us through the driving part of the zoo - the actual safari portion! Normally you can just drive through in your car. But we only had a motorcycle and we figured it wouldn't be a good idea to tempt the lions.

The safari was really cool! The shuttle took us through large fields that held giraffes, zebras, lions, hippos, ostriches and more! It was almost like being in Africa! Haha - as the late Dr. Martin would say, "having never been there, let me tell you all about it." So, I just binged his name, and evidently he wrote a book! Did not know that ...

Guess you don't have to go to Kenya to have a safari after all. Go ahead ... click on that "Kenya" link ... you know you want to ... it's there for you to click ... Seriously, though, you should check it out - pretty funny link :)

Anyway, after we left the safari, we continued our journey to Monterrico! Much to our surprise, however, the road dead-ended into a river in the town of La Avellana. We were thoroughly confused, because on what passed for our map, the road looked like it went all the way to Monterrico. Undeterred, we loaded ourselves and my motorcycle onto a boat and were ferried down the river to Monterrico!

Turns out it's really, really hot once you get out of the mountains. We noticed that it was warmer when we got out of Antigua and into the plains, but only once we stopped riding did we really feel the heat! It was oppressive! We were both sweating constantly! At the Auto Chapin Safari, I'm pretty sure I drank about two liters of water!

We only stopped to ask directions twice on our way to Monterrico! Not bad for a couple of gringos, huh? The coolest part about stopping to ask directions was that we could! My Spanish has officially reached a survivability level! I can usually make myself understood and - if people talk slowly enough - I can usually understand at least the gist of what they're saying! Pretty exciting.

I'm also able to carry on some small talk now and I'm hoping to be able to have pretty decent conversations soon!

There's more to show and tell, but I've got lots of homework to do, so I'll tell you more later!

Happy Birfday Taylor!

Today is Taylor's birthday! Now we're into that special part of the year where there's only one year between us instead of two! Enjoy it while it lasts, cause next time you see me I'll be two years older than you again!

Cascos

"Casco" is the Spanish word for "helmet." I've scoured Antigua looking for a decent one!

Until today, every helmet I saw was suuuuper sketchy. They're all really light and the vents are fake (which makes me wonder what else is fake) and unbelievably cheap. But today I found a shop that sells decent ones! They're roughly 100 USD and have real vents, decent heft, and really legit padding!

Unfortunately they didn't have any in my size ... so I've got to return next week and choose one out of the catalog. It should be here within two days of ordering it. But I don't know if those are days in the literal sense or Guatemalan days ... Things move at a little different pace here, I'm finding. I talked to a lady in a shop and she said they'd have some new stock in on Wednesday. A day later I returned and she said they'd be restocked next Saturday :)

Here's another example - when I bought my motorcycle, they said to come back the next day so we could go to some office and put in an application for my license plate. When I returned the next day, they told me to come back next week ... I think they just didn't feel like going over there with me - haha! They're not too worried about me getting a license plate, I guess.

Anyway, for the time being, I bought a helmet to hold me over for this weekend ... It was $12 ... That's right - twelve American dollars. Needless to say, I don't have a lot of faith in it's ability to protect my head. But I'll only be on the road for 4 hours this weekend, so ... you know.

That was a picture of Grace, Tony and Sarah's daughter, enjoying my helmet at dinner tonight! We ate at El Sol Latino. It was good! I ordered ratatouille with chicken ... and I'm pretty sure that what they served me was not ratatouille, but it was good! Haha! I didn't really expect to get anything very true to the French original in a Guatemalan restaurant :)

They had live music as well. They were surprisingly decent! I think their name was Sol Latino. The restaurant is named after them - or vice-versa.

Tomorrow Sondro and I head to the beach! Probably won't take my laptop, so I'll let you know if I make it back alive on Tuesday!

Bang!

Did you hear that? You know what that was? That was the sound of me pulling the trigger. That's right - I bought a motorcycle today!

You know what gave me that final push over the top? A Swiss guy I call Sondro ... I say "I call" instead of "whose name is" because his real name is something else that's really long and probably impossible to pronounce without hours of practice. He also goes by Samba. But that's so close to Simba that I just can't call him that :) Haha! Click on that "Simba" link real quick! Why in the world is his Wikipedia page so voluminous?!

Anyway, here's how it went down. Sondro and I were chatting about travel and I mentioned that I was thinking I'd buy a motorcycle and drive to Honduras. His immediate response was "Can I come?"

In the previous weeks, I had visited every motorcycle store in town (with the exception of one which has been closed every single time I've gone) and narrowed my choices down. This afternoon, Tony and I stopped by VRC Motoshop and and I came away with a new motorcycle!

This thing is probably classified as a dual-sport bike. It's basically a dirt bike that's street legal and has a more comfortable seat. It's only 200cc ... which is actually pretty big for Guatemala. It's reeeeeally expensive to get anything bigger than 200cc. Which is kinda funny, since I don't think you can even buy a motorcycle in the States that's smaller than 250cc, unless it's a scooter, right? Pretty sure Nighthawks are 250cc ...

The brand name is AHM ... I think ... I can't find anything on the internets about it. But the proprietor of the shop said it's a Chinese brand. Not too stoked about riding a Chinese motorcycle, but it only has to last for 2 months :)

Anyway, I was a little sketchy on it to start out with. I've never ridden a dirt bike before and it handles a little differently. The biggest difference is the higher center of gravity. I'll be honest, I killed it a few times while I was getting accustomed to the clutch. But I took it for a spin around town and I'm driving like an old pro now!

Pero ... a mi no me gustan los calles de Antigua porque (but I don't like the streets of Antigua because) they're made of cobblestones! It's a cool look, but it kinda shakes you up on a motorcycle. Tonight I'm going to take my first night drive - see how that goes. Pretty soon I'll be ready for passengers! All aboard!

Success!

You know the VW pickup I told you about yesterday? I found it today! Pretty cool, I thought. But is it just me or have they gotten a little bit uglier?

So I said good-bye to my host family today. It's true that I moved out on Monday, but I returned today with my parting gift. I purchased a gift certificate for them from Casa Santo Domingo - a local restaurant with a fancy restaurant.

It's true that I'm a bit of a procrastinator, but it wasn't really my fault that the gift was late! I purchased it on Monday, thinking that I would give it to them before I moved out.

It took quite a while to get everything squared away ... it kind of seemed like they rarely sell gift certificates. After I paid for it, they asked if they could have it ready for me Tuesday ... I asked if it was possible to have it now, but they said no ... so I acquiesced. The woman who was evidently in charge of el certificados de regalos (the gift certificates) said it would be ready Tuesday morning and that she'd give me a call. Strange, right? Usually you get a gift certificate when you pay for it!

Unfortunately, I neglected to charge my phone and my battery died. I headed over to Casa Santo Domingo (which is beautiful by the way - I'll take pictures sometime) after class around 2pm figuring the gift certificate would be ready. I got there and it was chaos. No one knew where my gift certificate was. A different girl escorted me to an office upstairs, which she had to unlock with a key, and then shut the door behind us ... I was kinda nervous. Clearly she had some really bad news for me! But, she merely told me that the paper work got misplaced and she didn't have the certificate ready. This took all of two minutes and then we went back downstairs ... muy extraño (very strange).


Finally the girl I talked to the first day showed up and mentioned something about how she hadn't called me - haha! I explained that my phone was dead and I just assumed that the gift certificate would be ready ... after 24 hours. She said to give her a call the next day (today)!

So today I call at 3pm and ask if the certificate is ready. The girl asks me when I'd like to come pick it up - haha! I had to make an appointment to pick up the certificate! What?! So now I'm thinking that this certificate is going to be pretty fancy - maybe high gloss with some foil inlay - after all, it had taken 48 hours to produce!


This is the gift certificate I picked up today. Hahaha! Extremely underwhelming. Don't get me wrong - it's perfectly adequate - but it seems like maybe they could've just filled this out the first time I was there .... Haha! Oh well.

Cars

Pretty quiet day today. Not much going on.

Guatemalans seem to enjoy decorating their cars - a lot. Most of them tint all their windows ... and when I say "tint" I mean "black out." But beyond that there are all kinds of stickers and decorations. I've seen lots of windows and rear windows that say "Dios Es Amor" (God Is Love). After awhile, though, these slogans are kind of old news. There are a few that really stand out from time to time. I call this first photo "Wishful Thinking."

This next one just made me laugh. Tony and I both had a good laugh last night when we saw this. The sticker on windshield says "Regalo De Dios" ... which when translated is "Gift From God."

As long as we're talking about pickups, I gotta share with you that I've seen a Volkswagen pickup that has to have been manufactured after 1987. I never dared to dream that such a thing existed. I've only seen it twice so now I keep my camera at the ready just in case I have a chance to snap a photo of it.

In other news, this morning I noticed that the old toothpaste tube was looking a bit delgado (thin), so when Donna, Ellie, and I stopped by la bodegona, I found the toothpaste section to replenish my supply. To my horror, I found that la bodegona only stocks Colgate toothpaste! I momentarily froze like a deer in the headlights. All I could do is walk from one end of the aisle to the other hoping that somehow a tube of crest would magically appear. I had just given up and chosen dejectedly grabbed a box of whitening toothpaste when Donna came to my rescue! She packed extra toothpaste and it's Crest!

You're probably wondering why I think you care about  this toothpaste story, but I'm sure that Andrea OC is feeling me on this one. Haha! That's right - we've had a toothpaste conversation before ... it's amazing the diversity of topics you cover when you work crazy hours with someone!

An interesting turn ...

Check out this circus I found in Jocotenango! Lucas Brothers - don't remember reading anything about them in your dissertation, Micah. I'm thinking I might check it out if it's still there next week - if I do I'll be sure to take plenty of notes :)

So on Friday, a guy from a photo gallery in town stepped out of his shop and struck up a conversation with me. We chatted for a bit and he showed me a few of the photos he was selling. Then he told me about some school he teaches at on the weekends. He said that every Saturday he teaches Ingles to Mayan kids at a school about 20 kilometros outside of Antigua. Pretty cool, right? He said that if I'd like to help out, I could come stay at his place Friday night and then we could go to the school at 8 the next morning ... And that weirded me out a little bit ...

On Sunday, as I was heading to Cafe Condesa for breakfast, he flagged me down in the street. We chatted a little bit at we walked and he shared with me that he's gay. Which puts the sleepover invite in a whooooooole new light.

He found me again today. He wants to get dinners sometime. I'm gonna have to figure out how to explain to this guy that a mi me gusta chicas (I like girls). I'm sure that the language barrier will make this even more comical/awkward than necessary.

Awesome. On the plus side, this has been a learning experience. Evidently there's a secret handshake that gay Guatemalan dudes have ... and now I know it. Guess they'll have to change it now ... secret's out.

On a slightly straighter note, Joe, Tony, Ron, and I had a boy's night out at Hector's! It's enfrente de (in front of) La Merced. It's a tiny little place - really nice inside - with about 5 or 6 tables. They serve a fantastic fillet! The meat itself was great, but what really sold it for me was the sauce and the grilled tomato. Really excellent. If you come down and visit me, I'll take you there.

Arachnophobia 2!

Check out this spider I found in the sink this morning! Yee-ow! This thing was not quite as big scary as the first spider that came after me. I kinda just worked around it - let him alone while I brushed my teeth on the other side of the sink. When I finished my shower, he was dead. I think that's the first time I've ever seen a spider die of natural causes. Or maybe he tried some of my toothpaste and it killed him ... the world will never know.

Check out the other wildlife I found today! On the 30 minute walk to the Gilmore's house, I found this little guy clinging to the side of a tienda. He's got nerves of steel! Didn't even blink when I took this picture. I almost tried to catch it for Taylor's sake, but then I realized I didn't have anywhere to put it. Also, last time I tried to catch a reptile I ended up in the emergency room ...

I've been very conscious lately of how fast I'm walking. In Chicago, I walked really fast - everyone does. I think this is because it's so bitterly cold. Also, people are just more in a hurry. Here in Antigua, I'm walking about half Chicago speed, but I'm still lapping these locals. It's pretty chill here - not too many people seem to be in a rush.

I'm sooo close to making a decision on this motorcycle situation. Really the best solution would have been for Donna to bring down the Big Ruckus - I would've owned these roads on the Big Ruckus! But she's already here, so ... woe is me :)

I read a few novels last week! Before I left Molly gave me copies of Ender's Game and Foundation. They're excellent! I can't believe I've never read these books before! If you're a scifi fan and haven't read these books - get on it! I think I liked Ender's Game better, but I have a suspicion that the Foundation series will be better overall. Now I wanna read the rest of each of these series! Thanks again, Molly!

Finally, check out this video of the highest kite in Central America!