Party

Some friend from San Francisco arrived last week to visit Sune, Marianne, and me here at the lake. Sune and Marianne, in a brilliant show of hospitality threw an enormous party in their honor. The crew consisted of Toby, Erin D, Bryan, Erin L, and Rob from London.

We drove down the volcano to pick the crew up in Antigua and spent the night there. We also got a chance to do some quick shopping for things normally hard to find in a developing country, like a new charger for my shaver for example. We also picked up Sune´s "Freedom Bar Chicken Bus" which was being repaired there and drove the crew back up to the lake in Guatemalan style. In Guatemala, public buses are brilliantly painted former U.S. school buses, called chicken buses because of the livestock that sometimes rides along with you. They are generally operated by a crew of folks who are slightly insane, at least in the way they navigate the buses through traffic. One of them actually played "chicken" with us on the highway and we missed a head on collision by about two inches. That´s the main reason I like to stay put here at the lake and stay off the roads.

On Tuesday, Sune was struck by a vision of a grand private party for about two hundred friends, both to honor our guests and because there were some party makers in town that were up for the challenge. They had four days to come up with a location, DJ´s, transportation from San Pedro, sound equipment, food and drinks, and to spread the word. I was amazed to see how efficient Sune and his associates were at making it happen, especially since he was out of town two of the days picking up the crew.

They found a miracle location. A mansion near San Marcos that was available to rent that did not have much in the way of neighbors - important to avoid getting shutdown late at night. It was on the side of a steep hill, and so had many terraced levels down to the lake, perfect for a party. Mate´, a burner from Earth Tribe camp, decorated. He was responsible for decorating the Roots Society camp at Burning Man last year at 10 o'clock and Esplanade, and brought down some decor from a three day party he had worked on in Palenque, Mexico the week before. Sound equipment showed up, including some turntables for Jeremiah (aka J:Miah), part of our crew who had a load of breaks on vinyl he bought in London and refrained from ever playing out until this party. There was some nail biting when the turntables showed up without needles, but people prayed for them, and they appeared miraculously just in time for the peak of the party, and blew everyone´s minds with a fantastic set. The dance floor went insane.

I left the party at around eight in the morning and it was still mostly full of people having fun. Wow.

The residents of the lake who attended were astounded both with the quality of the party and the degree to which the various people involved made it happen in such a short time. It was an unprecedented show of cooperation. I heard that over and over again.

Both I and my friends were humbled by the gesture and impressed at how well it was executed. People will be talking about this one for awhile I think. The following day at Buddha Bar in San Pedro, it was deemed "Recovery Day" on their daily chalkboard message outside.

What a weekend.