Guatemala was beautiful. My sister and I rented a lovely little house in San
Pedro de la Laguna, on the shores of Lago Atitlan- this magical crater lake
surrounded by mountains & volcanoes and 13 little pueblos Jorge and my mom and our friend Ricardo from d.f. visited so it was fun and very relaxing. I
had a small kitchen (that was half indoors & half outdoors) so I did a lot
of cooking! and laying in a hammock under a jocote tree!and swimming in the
lake and walking through the corn fields that made up the paths through the
village. I learned a lot about getting by with a little.
I got back into the city last Saturday morning early - an overnight bus from
palenque and 3 nearly full days of rough traveling before that- so tiring!
We left san pedro in the afternoon tuesday b/c we had a lot of food to eat
and didn¥t want to leave. Ricardo was especially sad b/c he befriended about
15 local children. ( he said he felt like Michael Jackson! ) We stayed
tuesday night in panajachel (the most touristy & hip of the 13 villages) &
met some very friendly chinese-guatemalans & other travelers. When we left
Pana we had to take 4 insane chicken buses (at one point the road cutting
through the mountain was not paved)& a taxi to arrive at the border and then
another van to Comitan where we felt as we had arrived in the first world. A
beautiful clean mexican plaza, a pharmacy that made deliveries, public
phones, cable tv- MEXICAN tacos! very very nice. We said bye bye to ricardo
(he had to work Friday!) and made are way very slowly to Bonampak via the
frontier highway- which was wild! Our passports were checked at military
points 10 times in 10 hours! Bonampak was gorgeous. Its a fairly small
sight in the Lancandon jungle- discovered by outsiders only in 1946. There
are 3 small buildings covered with murals on the inside and all the other
temples.. Very impressive. In spots hard to read, but the colors are still
saturated and vibrant.
I am happy to be back in d.f. In my apartment, with a computer and nearly a
kitchen (rental apartments here don’t include stoves & refrigerators!),
parties to got & movies to see... I just get a new 180 day visa and I only
have enough money for another month or so...so I will be working on getting
a job. should I try to get a job with american airlines so I can come to nyc
on the weekends?& maybe they would sponsor my visa- but that would violate my rule of never working for corporations. For the immediate future, I think I will be teaching some english classes. How hard can that be, right?
