Tikal last weekend was pretty incredible to see notwithstanding the logistics involved: drive to Guatemala City, fly to Flores, drive an hour and a half to Tikal, then back an hour and a half to Flores. I stayed overnight in Flores which is a very cool city on an island in the lake, connected to the mainland by a causeway. The Mayans built the island in the thirteenth century. The previous weekend, the hotel had screwed up our reservation at the beach. The glitch this week was that I got up at 3AM (yes, me, 3AM) to do a sunrise tour at Tikal but the van never showed up. Who do you call at 3AM in Flores? Especially if you don't have a local phone anyway. Then when I got back to Guatemala City on Sunday night, the van back to Antigua was not there. At least it showed up twenty minutes later. Guatever. With all that, Tikal was worth it. Probably the most impressive Mayan ruins around, and it is remote enough that it is not overrun and they still let you climb some of the pyramids.
I was pretty disappointed in my Spanish school here in Antigua and decided to move to Lake Atitlan for the next week or two. I will attend a different school and found a private cabin to stay in a little bit outside of the town of San Pedro. The main city at Lake Atitlan is Panajachel. The shuttles all go there and then there are launches to all of the other villages. I specifically found a shuttle to San Pedro Saturday morning so I wouldn't have to drag my suitcase through Panajachel, on a boat ride, and then through San Pedro. Tonight, the travel agent came to my house to tell me that there was a rock slide and the road to San Pedro is closed so I have to go to Panajachel, drag my suitcase …. Finally she said that if I take the afternoon shuttle, the road will probably be open. So I'm taking the afternoon shuttle. What are the odds that the road will be open and I will make it to San Pedro without a hitch? Guatever. I'm also planning on going to the local market in Chichicastelnango on Sunday. I had tried to go there three Sundays ago since everyone says that is really interesting, but they shut it down that week because of demonstrations against corruption in government. The townspeople had burned down the mayor's house.
I have learned a few interesting Spanish words. For example, the word for jigsaw puzzle translates literally as "head breaker." But only in Guatemala did the word "balacera" come up in conversation. It means shoot-out. The road to Guatemala City was backed up one day last week for the whole day because of a shoot out between the police and some gang members who were trying to kill someone in a police caravan.
Anyhow, don't read too much into all of this. Guatemala is a beautiful country with really interesting people. Unlike in Costa Rica and Cuba, they did not kill all of the indigenous people. A high percentage of the population has some Mayan ancestry. Put it this way: here I am tall. Unfortunately, there are some serious problems here in Guatemala and the government really is the problem, not the solution. That's not just a Republican slogan here.
Perhaps next week at Lake Atitlan things will go smoothly. Yeah, I'm not counting on that. Guatever.
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