Pausing Here and There

So, I left the states at midnight to arrive in Guatemala in the early morning. My mission was simple: get to Antigua and meet my sister by the fountain. She expected me around 9 since this would allow a reasonable amount of time for travel between the capitol of Guatemala city and the tourist town of Antigua. I stepped out of the airport run over with that similar attack on the senses I got when I arrived in Dheli in 03 and Yaounde in January of this year. After asking several taxis, I found that no one was willing to leave the city. I don’t blame them. It was christmas day after all. So I looked for another option. This too failed as the shuttles to Antigua wouldn’t leave for several hours. Little did I know, they would have gotten me there before my delayed arrival at 1pm.
What did I do during all that time you might ask. Well, I got me a ride…
I walked back into the airport finding two familiar faces of some gentelman that were on my flight. I asked where they were headed, and was pleased to hear Antigua. Naturally, I asked if I could hitch a ride. They accepted without revealing that there was some other buisiness along the way. About an hour into the trip I asked, ¨how far is it from here?¨ The response. ¨Oh man, Antigua? that´s the other direction. We have to go see our mother first. Then we will take you.¨ We went up into the highlands passed rolling green hills and small subsistence farms. We wrrived at the house, where I was greeted with hugs and ¨feliz Navidad¨ The family was very excited that I had come to join them and upon my arrival brought me beans rice and tortillas.
We only stayed a short while, as there was much to be done on this christmas day. Riding in the back of the pickup´s cab, I gazed out the window excited to be in a new country, anxious to see my sister. We made on more stop before going to Antigua. It was a little sketchy, but who was I to contest. My driver, wearing a shirt with Carmen from south park, went into a buisness building with one duffel, and came out with another. The switch was quick and to most unnoticed. Don´t ask me, because I don´t know. But my theory is the Guatemalan Mafia gave me a ride.
We got to the fountain, where I was encouraged not to get out. My new friends wanted me to join them for the festivities at the track. Drinking and horses were the only promises. So, I gracefully turned them down, and left them there to find Elizabeth.
Jacob

So I’m in Antigua, and awake in my bed all tingly and giddy. It’s Christmas morning and my brother is arriving (his plane having landed at 6:45 am)! At 8 I wander outside with my book, enjoy the beautiful light shining on the cobbled Antigua streets with very few people about, sit on the stoop outside the locked hotel door and wait cheerfully. Around 9 I think that perhaps my time will be better spent inside the hotel. I pen a quick note and tack it on the door for Jacobboy. I make some new friends who have also been studying in Xela and exchange Feliz Navidads with other hostel folks over steaming cups of hot chocolate and an omlette the size of my head. I cheerily tell them that my brother is arriving today and isn’t that grand.

Around 10 I start to question where Jacob could be. With the help of aforementioned new friend I discover ¨flight tracker.com¨and determine that, yes, indeed his plane landed on time. I figure there are few taxis at the airport and he was struggling to find one to Antigua. The folks I’ve met tell me not to worry. Around 11:30 I begin to panic in earnest and talk to the hotel people who paste a bigger sign reading “JACOB” on the door and tell me to wait. I go call my parents and burst into tears. My brother has disappeared and it’s all my fault because I didn’t want to go to Guatemala city to pick him up. I meander around the central park and fountain looking, in vain, for my lost bro, but only see the throngs of tourists foreign and Guatemalan enjoying Christmas in Antigua (complete with three santas!).

Back at the hotel, I check my email for news but nothing, when, all of a sudden I get a phone call and it’s Jake. What the hell happened? I shreik. I’ll telll you when I get there he replies and we arrange to meet at the fountain. Well, alls well that ends well, eh? The brother finally arrived bearing those mini pecan pie cookies that I love so much (as well as many other very kind gifts!) Thanks Mama and everyone else for all the little travel goodies, they are wonderful!

This morning we enjoyed another 4 am ride to the town of Copan Ruinas, Honduras, which is very very cute, has very interesting ruins, and is surprisingly freezing. We saw mackaws and lots of big trees. Copan is a very different site from Tikal, much smaller both in area and in terms of the heights of the monuments, but I really enjoyed seeing all the intricate hieroglyphs on the statues there.

I spent the rest of the day reading Into the Wild, which is an AMAZING book that I stole from my brother and that makes me think a lot about the idea of a constantly changing life, that ebb and flow of being permanently transient. Tomorrow morning we head to La Ceiba, and hopefully Utila where we’ll take a dive course and celebrate the coming new year.

I’ll leave you with a quote from Everett Russ, a 20 year old who ventured into the desert, to Davis Gulch in Utah in 1934 seeking an exteme that I am pretty sure I am not seeking, but still empathize with. He writes in a letter to his family, after describing some wild adventures he had recently had, ¨But then I am always being overwhelmed. I require it to sustain life.¨