Long Time

---

I know, I am really lazy, but sorry, I´ve been living and not wasting my spare time on the internet. Things are going here, new adventures (which are often always the same) happen daily.

I remember one morning, we left here (Xela) at 8 am on a Saturday morning. It was almost still dark out and clouds filled the views, giving everyone awake slight chills. We made our way to the bus terminal, a grudgey, gross place and a long ugly walk from where one urban mini-bus drops you off to the massive bus Terminal called Minerva. Here you can find buses going almost anywhere in Guatemala.

That day we were going to Lake Atitlan. As we came out from the heart of the highlands, to just a little bit lower (though not too much, still very mountainous) the clouds began to disappear and out came the sun. It is really magic and hard to describe with words, "heaven" is a good start though. Our ultimate destination was San Pedro La Leguna on the southern side of the lake, but we had to go to some other towns before finally getting there. Our first stop was in Sololá, a small indigenous town just above Panajachel. From Sololá we met up with Elena who is Julia´s sister. Julia is the president of a women´s sewing cooperative in the area. Two years ago I worked with her in another organization called Mayalan. She has since departed from this organization and is now running this one (**If anyone has old computers laying around, feel free to donate them to this organization. Don´t worry about getting them down here, I can figure that out**). After explaining a little about the organization, the students had the opportunity to purchase some of their products, which are of the highest quality (in fact they don´t like to mix their products with those of other organizations because the raw materials they buy are of TOP quality and by mixing with others who don´t do that they have found they lose business and respect).

From Julia´s house, we went to Panajachel and took a boat to San Pedro La Laguna and stayed there for the night. The following morning we got up bright and early and hopped on a boat to San Marcos La Laguna for some fun in the sun. We also got to do some great cliff jumping!! It was lots of fun.

The weekend before that I had a long one. Four whole days off in a row. Graham and I had plans to go to a beach in Mexico cause I needed to renew my passport. However, things didn´t work out so smooth, however, but in the end to (what I think) was a better time...

About an hour into the voyage to MX I realized I forgot my passport!! So we returned and chilled in Xela Thursday. As it turns out, this is the biggest night of celebrating in Xela (possibly Guatemala) for Independence Day. Because we had a ´rough´ day, Graham and I decided it was a good night for a bottle of rum. We had to celebrate, right? Eventually we made our way to where the big party was. Three of Guatemala´s most famous and popular bands were playing right down the road from my apartment. The streets were blocked off and the people were rowdy.

When we got to the music, we pushed our way through the crowds and got a good view. We helped celebrate with a few local young folks around us by jumping and jumping and yelling and yelling. Great fun. Well, Graham and I get bored of that and decide that we want to get on the roofs for an even better view. Nobody lets us in saying, "Its private". That just won´t suffice! and we go climb up walls and through a broken-down house and finally make it there. Of the three roof-top party spots, we managed to get kicked out of every single one of them, the last one having 3 people escort us downstairs and out the door.

Friday we did not leave the apartment at all.

Saturday I made the long trip to Tecun Uman on the border of MX for some passport stamping. I went and got some enchiladas and 20 minutes later I was back in Guatemala. Nothing exciting.

---