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Published: February 8th 2010
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Lago Atitlan
¡que bonita! So it´s been a while since the last time I updated this blog. And much has transpired along the way, so much so that to include it all here would be long, and tedious, and really, I am not really sure who cares about it anyway. (does anybody read this?) But, for the sake of my mother, who has been reminding me to update this blog, I will give it a go.
so.....
....THE ENDLESS SUMMER CONTINUES...
....with a slight interupption of wintry weather. Not here of course, but along the way I've found myself in some interesting positions. Like standing on a slushy Manhattan corner at 4 AM with airline blankets wrapped around my head. In a five star high rise hotel in Panama City. In the nosebleed seats at Fedex Field, taking in a game of Monday Night Football. Wading through three foot snowdrifts to get to the front door of my mom's house at 6 AM, finally arriving home (surprise!) for the holidays after an five day tour of Central and North American capitol cities. Christmas, with family, for the first time in years. Baltimore, at 6 AM, sliding down the slopes of a church
parking lot on cardboard boxes in the fresh snow with Bobcat and the Quaker crew. Philadelphia. New Year´s Eve in New York City with Alexis. North Carolina. Washington DC. Guatemala. El Salvador. and Guatemala once again.
It´s been a whirlwind tour to say the least. Back in September I found a good price on a roundtrip flight from Guatemala to DC and so I had been planning a trip to the states for some time. What I wasn´t planning on was the two feet of snow that closed Dulles Airport the night I was supposed to arrive. Hence the extended stay in Panama, and the rerouted journey through NYC. But, when it was all said and done, the twelve days I spent in the states with my family and friends was more than worth the five days I spent travelling from Nicaragua to Guatemala to Panama to NYC to DC and then finally to Virginia.
Getting back to Central America was a lot easier than getting out. I came back to Guatemala and made my way to the famous Lake Atitlan where I spent a week or so detoxing from all that holiday cheer and resting after my
and Atitlan one more time...
you have to take ferries to get around the lake. this is the rickety dock where i caught my ferry out.. tour of Mid-Atlantic states. Lake Atitlan, and Guatemala, for that matter, are amazing places with some of the most beautiful people that I´ve encountered in my six months of travel. The pictures of Atitlan say it all.
From Atitlan though, the time came to make my way back to El Salvador, where the sea and my surfboards were awaiting my imminent arrival. My friend Cheetah who, post outdoor school, is now known as ´Brad´ met me there at the beach for three weeks in the sun and the sea and the saltwater cleanse of El Salvador heat.
Now, I sit typing this hasty gloss over of the last six weeks in a hostel in Antigua, enjoying the cool climate of this highland tourist oasis. I´m really just passing through, stopping here to take in the Super Bowl this afternoon and also to do a awesome climb of Vulcan Pacaya (check out the photos in other entry). Tomorrow I´ll make my way further up into the hills to an elevation of 7,000 feet, where I plan to spend the next month or so volunteering with a group that is building a school and community center using some pretty interesting
Recycling!
This wall is built out of plastic bottles stuffed with trash- a great way to deal with the huge trash problem here. If you look closely you can see the bottles in the window there. green building techniques. Take a look at their website- www.longwayhomeinc.org - for a look at what they´re up to.
In this past week I´ve hit the six month mark of being on the road and living this life of vagabond wandering. It´s been nearly eight months since I´ve been stationary in any one place, and will likely be a few more before I find myself back ´home´, wherever or whatever that may be. And as the days go by, the heightened sensory awareness that accompanies the beginning of a journey fades away just a bit more, and this particular reality becomes more and more normal- I find myself in a state of mind not so conducive to blogging. Yet as the days of this journey wind down towards the day that I´ll get back to the states (date TBA?), I remind myself to open my eyes and ears a little bit more, to truly take in all that is, all around me. So thanks Mom, for reminding me to do this after all. I´ll try to make the next update come a bit sooner.
until then,
adios,
ryan
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