Transporter

Ah... If it were only that easy.. to just beam you from one country to another like in Star Trek. I entered said transporter at 4:30 am yesterday when I boarded a shuttle to Guatemala city airport from Antigua. The machine must have been on the fritz because it took about twenty four hours to get me to Buenos Aires instead of only seconds like on TV.

I flew from Guatemala City to Mexico City to Miami to Buenos Aires. Yes I know, quite a ride.. but it was the cheapest way believe it or not.

Ok so except for the language spoken, Buenoes Aires is about the exact opposite of Lake Atitlan. It is a great big bustling city, it is getting close to winter here, and for some reason, every single person you pass on the street does not say "Buenos Dias" to you.

Don´t get me wrong. Like my friend Jonathan told me after visiting here last June, "This place is legit." It is like no other Central or South American city I have seen. Everyone said it is "the most European" and they are right (although I haven´t made it to Europe yet.. June!). The barrio I landed in first, San Telmo feels like a cross between the Mission District in San Francisco and Greenwich Village. There is a mix of old time business and hipster stores and restaurants. It is clearly in the process of gentrifying. In the mean time, it is still gritty and on the cheap side. I can get a hotel room here for around $20 per night. I am still getting a feel for the power of the dollar here. It seems, for many things, the exchange rate is about accurate. One peso buys you about what you would spend a dollar on in the U.S. such as a bus ride. However, I did buy a 15 peso whopper at Burger King today. (Sorry I just had to). So the jury is still out.. but at first glimpse, it is still fairly cheap here especially considering the quality of the place. The people remind me of folks from Sydney in that they seem to walk around pretty put together most of the time. They have stylish haircuts and clothes and seem quite chipper from what I can tell.

I have to say it is quite nice to have just about any little thing I need available to me for a change. For example... For some reason, I never bought a guide book for Argentina. I never considered it might be difficult to come by in Guatemala. And it was.. and I didn´t have a book at all when I landed here.

Now I have learned that the hotel listings in the Lonely Planet are far from gospel. In fact, I think I have never stayed in a single place listed in there. But there is something comforting about being able to read about currency, culture, weather, and especially transportation. Being fairly clueless and with still only basic Spanish skills, I broke down and just took a cab to town after learning there is no train from the airport. An expensive move, but that´s what I get for being unprepared.

So today a guide book was at the top of my list as was a tour of some barrios and guesthouses that had been suggested to me. I nearly walked my feet straight off today. You see, book stores here have lots of travel books.... only they are in Spanish! Can you believe the nerve?

Well I am on track now.. only quite exhausted after my first day. The next order of business is finding some friends. I don´t know a soul within a thousand miles of here. That is a bit tough coming from a place where I couldn´t walk through town without running into a friend. I do need a bit of a social rest. But that won´t last long. I may try a Craigslist post or something.

So now I also have some time to reflect on my time at the Lake. It was a great experience for me living in a small town. Living in a petri dish with others in the same boat.. every day having only the most basic of responsibilities... knowing each others´ every move... It brought us all close together quickly... far more so than in the city. That said... I am a city boy. I know this. Although I could easily spend a couple of months a year this way, I need more variety.. more restaurants.. more activities to choose from.. and occasionally, some anonymity.

Although I truly felt like a resident of the lake before I left, and will always have great, great memories of that experience, I also know it is not my home. My home is still San Francisco.

Unstuck

Some of the friends I have travelled with have used the term "stuck" to describe that situation when you are enjoying your current town so much that it becomes quite difficult to leave. Thong Nai Pan in Thailand was one of those spots for me early in my journey. Lago de Atitlan got me stuck here for awhile as well. At this point, I truly feel like a resident after about six weeks here. Both San Pedro and San Marcos are both small towns where, after a few weeks, it is difficult to walk anywhere in town without bumping into a friend and chatting or joining up to eat or hang out. It is a whole new environment for me.

My original intention was to spend one month here relaxing and visiting with old friends, and then spend two months in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Early in my trip I began to feel that two months might be too much time in BA. However, I was never able to formulate a desirable plan to fill in the blank time. After overstaying my original plan by a few weeks already, I began to feel a bit hazy and confused about my short term future.

Rather than travel somewhere I wasn´t motivated to go, I allowed myself to stay here at the lake until a desirable alternative presented itself. I honestly was a bit nervous to travel to BA on my own, still not having great Spanish skills. I also found it hard to leave all of the great new friends I have made here. Starting over in a strange new place, especially a big city where I know no one seemed daunting. At the same time, that is the point of my trip. I welcomed this sense of unknown when I went to Thailand, so I was conflicted about this rationale. Eventually I decided I was just being a bit lazy and still wanted to go to BA, but alas, I had procrastinated purchasing the airline tickets, and here at the last minute, how could I possibly still fly so far away on short notice and still remain within my budget?

My good friend Shannon unknowingly provided the solution.

She wanted to fly with Michael, her husband, to meet me somewhere close by, Mexico perhaps and asked me where I would be. Having no idea, I left it to her to think of something. I toyed with the idea of exploring Mexico before her arrival, but wasn´t having much luck building enthusiasm from friends around here to help me choose a destination. I decided maybe I didn´t want to explore Mexico. Just then, Shannon sent me a flight confirmation for Puerta Vallarta. Done deal. That´s where I will be at the end of May. Now what could I do between now and then?

As much as I love the lake, I am not really feeling like staying here another month. I am beginning to feel a bit stagnant and need something to look forward to. But what can I do that will keep me near Mexico but allow me to see someplace I really want to see?

After some toiling on the Internet for a couple of days I thought of a new plan, and after a few hours in the Buddha Bar using a borrowed laptop and their free wi-fi, I had the solution.

My original plan had been to fly from Guatemala to Argentina, then on to Germany, and finally back to San Francisco... a series of expensive one way tickets. As we all know, round trip tickets tend to be cheaper, mile for mile, than one way tickets. Sometimes, I have found, one way tickets are more expensive than round trip to the same destination. Crazy.

My requirement to be back in Mexico before June has given me a new opportunity. Now I can fly round trip from Mexico City to Buenos Aires, then return to San Francisco and fly round trip to Germany. This gives me an extra destination in my travels (Mexico) and comes in under my original airfare budget for the remainder of my trip, albeit only slightly.

Presto! Now I am excited once again. Unstuck, excited for a new adventure, one month in a great city, I get to see Shannon and Michael on a tropical beach, and still head on to Europe for the last leg of my travels.

I rule.

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.