Dispatch Number 21 -Errant Thoughts III

Guatemala

How the Place felt on the First day

The police are few and the place takes on the air of self-rule. To live here you need to be aware of everything. At all times.

Money
Guatemalan money is so worn out, it is limp and lifeless in the hand. It feels damp easily. One does not like to touch it. Dirty worn paper.

Tough
I knew Ted was tough when I learned that he used newspaper at the toilet. He grew tougher in my eyes when I watched him blow his nose with newspaper as well. A single roll of toilet paper in Guatemala costs 12 cents. So it is not about the money.

Sleep

I sleep without charge if I promise to take my meals at the comedor. A comedor is an inexpensive family restaurant that usually offer one or two dishes; it is a pared down affair and the food is usually good. It is the only comedor in this village, I will sleep here. Out back.

I listen to the sounds of the family in the kitchen and late night conversation with their friends. I sit on the tailgate to write and capture the day. I will bed in my tent next to the chicken coop and smile myself to sleep. A splendid day.

Visiting the Same Place Twice
What once charmed now depresses.

On Not Being From There
What is normal for them is an adventure for me.

The British Traveler
Mexico is beautiful, are you planning to go there?
I can't go to Mexico.
Why?
Because my government says I can't travel there. Too dangerous, there are travel restrictions.
So you are not going because of that?
My insurance will not work in Mexico because of government warning about travel there.
So you won't visit Mexico because your insurance won't work there?
I won't visit Mexico.

Wow, I thought...I won't visit a place because I won't have insurance coverage. Industrialized nations and their peoples obsession with safety and predictability. A paralyzing dependence on insurance. It's nuts to me.

Misadventure
This is an interesting experience. I wanted some risky travel and here it is in my lap. The roads less taken and I am on them.

Conversation Stoppers...What?
"The first and only time I shot a gun was my first date with this girl." -Ted Joseph

Mighty Ants
Small ants are eating their way into my tent. A new set of tiny holes appeared every night for several days before I realized what was up. They eat holes in the floor pan of the tent, a rather tough fibrous form of plastic, but the holes are only large enough to get their own bodies through, on the return trip with food they cannot bring the coveted insect body parts with them.

Once I catch on my only defense is to hang the tent during the day from a tree, then lower it at night to sleep. It is starting to look like a duct tape quilt.

Shoeshine
Business is bad for the shoeshine boys. The sun is low and they walk town's main park seeking customers. Most are perpetually soiled characters that are 7 to 10 years old. When customers prove to be scarce a few of them begin to play, when only moments ago they were competitors scouring the park for a pair of shoes to polish up.

The purity of children. Instead of sizing up potential customers they build and fly paper airplanes, then their attention moves to faux kung-fu fighting. It is of high quality with kicks punches, spin kicks, hand chops and other moves I do not know the names of -just like the movies. They are good. It is entertaining to watch and especially when the the play action is filled with happy excited giggles.

Guests
I sit alone taking a meal at an inexpensive diner, comedor with so-so chicken. Lazy flies hover about and stake claims all over the table. Raids are launched against my plate of food, the coffee cup and the ever present stack of tortillas. I feel defenseless. The flies run free in this town. The fly strips are at capacity, where is the sheriff?

Differences
The difference between a man and a boy:

A man knows what he wants to do with himself when he is presented with unstructured time.

Time
Time alone in a foreign place has you contemplate yourself -your location in a time and place. I ponder the meaning of my solitude. Reaching no conclusions.

Amy Winehouse
My guide, Manuel and I are lost deep in the northern lowlands of the Guatemala jungle. We are happy, yet lost in this maze of dirt tracks leading in all directions. There are no road signs and few people are around. There are no buildings out here. Amy Winehouse blasts.

There is no line of sight in the jungle, no vantage point to be had. Only dense forest that you can barely see 20 yards in any direction, including up.

Sweet Old Lady
I take breakfast at the tortilla makers house, dirt floors with baby ducks and chickens running about the room. When my feet are still the chicks peck at my shoes. After this I will take a walk in the jungle and contemplate leaves and things like that. Her tortillas are excellent, made from scratch, the corn meal was made from whole corn kernels.

Gold and Silver

The people of Guatemala are born with natural beautiful teeth, they are square and proportionately broad, straight and true with an easy shade of white. However, where dental care and daily maintenance are concerned things fall off fast. The majority of men and women have tooth rot on their front grill. Depending on availability of money the damaged teeth are filled in like picture frames of gold.

Going Mobile
You have travelled too far.

Books Read in Past Two Months

The War of the Worlds, Midnight Express, Bourne Supremacy, No Country for Old Men, The Glass Key, The Discovery and Conquest of Mexico, Lives Per Gallon, Blink, The Maya, Civilization and Its Discontents, Rule of the Bone, Sweet Waist of America, The King of Torts. I think I am missing a couple.

David,
Coban, Guatemala