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Las Aventuras de una volcandiosa.
Right. Well, here I will try to compensate for the fact that I have been a horrendous slacker for the past week, or perhaps two. In the blogging department, that is.
Right now I am in Flores, sweating my butt off. I arrived here early this morning on the overnight from Guatemala City, staggered to my hotel, and passed out for a few hours. I just wasn't feeling the Tikal tour this morning, so I decided to go just one day, tomorrow. Instead I rented a canoe, paddled sloppily around the peninsula, and found a little playita on which to play. There are no actual sandy beaches on this lake, so I shoved my canoe into the reeds for security and played in the water. The sand is incredibly soft, with the consistency of poo, and hidden crabs (thank goodness I learned that word when I was translating the horrifically violent children's book) so I paddled around a lot. Whenever I tried to float on my back, a dragonfly landed on my nose.
Backing up quite a bit, on Wednesday I had a ¨clase interactiva¨in a nearby town. My maestro last week was my friend Carlos, so I was happy to trek next door with him. We saw the oldest Catholic church in Central America, but not the inside. But the keeper took us into his house, fed us alcohol soaked fruit, and showed us pictures. He then tried to get us to buy some of his ¨caldo de frutas,¨basically fruit flavored moonshine, but Carlos and Edna (my maestra from the previous three weeks) had warned us that there was a better ¨caldo factory¨closer by. And so it was, a pretty pink house right around the corner. We first went to the top floor where a man was using a traditional loom to weave fabric. He had about twelve different spools on the warp (or weave?? Can't remember...) side, and the process was incredibly slow but the results were, of course, fabulous. Carlos made me go and ask him some questions about the process, which I know a little about thanks to my kickin field trip to Nottingham a couple of summers back.
Friday was Independence Day, which the school bands in Xela have been preparing for since the dawn of time. Thursday there were parades all over town. Later that night we fought a more densely packed crowd than I've ever seen in order to join Carlos, Luis, and some of their friends for some concerts. It was another one of those moments when I was just so happy to have Guatemaltechos as friends. Firstly, most of the gringos just approached the edge of the crowd, which was, as I said, densly packed. However, once you got beyond the initial crowd, it was fine. Secondly, and most unfortunately, a group of girls just couldn't go and hang out without being groped, but with guy friends, you are protected. At least to the point that it is only your friend's friends who are groping you. Carlos and Luis are always gentlemen.
Saturday we went over to the fair, which is just outside of Xela and the largest of its kind in Central America. Since the Puyallup fair, south of Seattle, is the largest of its kind in the West, or something like that, it is obvious that I like cities near large fairgrounds. The fair was pretty typical, though more crowded, with sketchy carnie rides, games, and horrifically unhealthy food. We got there too late to enjoy La Plaza de Los Torros. Oh, perhaps I should tell you how we got there. Mom, stop reading.
On the way to Salcaja, we had passed a highway, roped off, with a sign saying ¨Welcome to the fair.¨ So when one of my roommates looked in the magazine and didn't see directions (they were there, I'm not the only idiot), I told them that I knew where it was. We took the bus and got off at the toll booth there, only to be told that the fair was another few km, and that they were just there to guard the road. Why yes, the Guatemalans do close their highways down in order to put up scary rides and booths with chocolate covered marshmallows. Why do you ask?
So our options were to get on the bus back to Xela, or to wait for a pick up truck to drive us up. Clearly, we did the latter, waiting only five minutes or so until a truck appeared, ready to drive us. The guards let down the rope (because the highway was closed, Guate style) and off we went. Up the road further there was another barracade, and this one they would not let us breeze on by. No problem! The solution lay in a dirt road through a local cornfield. We cut through the cornfield and ended up on the highway going the other direction. However, the fair was behind us. So the intrepid pick up driver (and indeed, others nearby) backed us down the highway, right up to the mouth of the fair. All for 10Q. We took a taxi home.
So I probably won't update until I get home. Tommorrow is Tikal all day, flight down to Guate, shuttle up to Antigua, shuttle down to Guate, flight to Houston, flight home. I have lots of pictures to upload, but cannot take these computers or the process again, so I'll do it when I get home, so check in on Thursday or Friday for the last entry. Thanks again for comments, messages, emails, encouragement, love, etc. This has truly been a phenomenal trip.
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