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Published: March 15th 2007
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Wish You Were Here
A message in the sand to all those we left behind to be here. The word for boat is lancha, for iron is plancha. . . it was an easy mistake to make. I was talking to one of the guides at our hotel about our journey and he laughed hard and long before trying to explain why what I said was funny. I wasn't sure exactly what I'd said till I checked a dictionary later, but I learned the word for boat pretty well and I don't think I'll make that mistake again.
Unlike our trip to Lake Atitlan, we were not able to take a bus directly to the beach at Monterrico. No, we had to take four buses and a boat to get there. Remarkably, we were able to find our connections despite the lack of bus terminals or any discernable organization. Apparently there is some method to the madness. As soon as we stepped off one bus, someone would ask us where we needed to go, we'd give them a name of a town and they'd point us to the next bus. We only had to wait for a bus once and only for about fifteen minutes.
I forgot to mention that this time we left at six in
the morning on Friday to make the most of our weekend. We arrived in Montericco before noon. We were met at the boat docks by a representative of the visiters association and he took us to a hotel through some back roads. Some of us were skeptical that his badge was legit and that he wasn't just leading us into a secluded place to do us harm, but he wasn't. He took us to a nice hotel a short ways from the beach. We were able to get just the right amount of beds, which was surprising since we were an odd number this time. This time Alida and I traveled with Katrin, Sara, and Katrin's boyfriend Jeramiah who'd just flown in from Portland to spend the rest of her trip with her.
We ate lunch and headed for the beach. I love how the sand is so diferent from beach to beach in different parts of the world. In Cape Point, South Africa, the sand is like finely ground white shells. In Monterrico, Guatemala, it is almost black, though I've heard other beaches closer to Xela have sand that is even more black. It also has lots of
Boats on the water
I love the colors. silicon that sparkles like little pieces of glass. There are some odd colorful sparkles too, like pink and blue. Most of the shells are white but some were brown marble, and there were little crab holes all along the beach. You can tell from the pictures that I was a bit obsessed with the sand. It was also very salty. I would lie on the beach and dig my feet and hands into the sand. I couldn't resist.
The beach slopes steeply into the ocean, which creates a strong undercurrent and violent waves. I realize I have not visited any beaches that are conducive to surfing and that there are waves that are much bigger, but these were the largest I'd seen. Not being a very good swimmer, I did not get into the water much past my calves. It was beautiful and the crashing waves were oddly peaceful.
Friday night was Sara's birthday. We ate dinner at a nice restaurant called The Pelican, in which there sat, on a fountain, an enormous live pelican that had been injured and rescued and which the restaurant apparently now cared for. Then we had drinks on the beach and went
Sindy
picture perfect, this boat just begged for picture after picture after picture. to sleep early.
On Saturday we bought fresh fruit and bread for breakfast and I spent the morning on the second floor patio overlooking the ocean. The girls went to the tortugory, a preservation area that seems to mostly be preserving mosquitos, but there were also alligators, iguanas, some fresh water turtles, and one salt water turtle. There were more turtle nests, but no other turtles while we were there. It was quite disappointing after imagining a sea of turtles. There was also a small museum with various sea creatures preserved dead in jars. I was not impressed.
We spent more time on the beach, met some guys from Germany who joined us for dinner which was much easier to find once Katrin was able to convince Jeramiah that she was not a vegetarian. I had chow mein noodles (read roman noodles)with shrimp and veggies. Then we went back to our hotel and drank and talked by the pool until it was happy hour and the main bar and discotec on the beach. We went and danced the night away. There were many Guatemaltecos there as the beach is a hot weekend destination. But the throngs of locals
didn't really come in until Sunday morning as we were leaving. A boat and four buses later and we were back in Xela.
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