The Jungle, the Lake, and the Sweltering Heat

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Dear Friends,

Today I write from a hostel that could be the set of a movie. A multi-colored place filled with white kids from all over the world. Next to me, a Briton who said, "cheers!" when I moved my chair for him. Behind me, two Israelis using Skype. There is a table of German´s playing Risk and an American reading "The Life of Pi" in a hammock. (That American is Jin...)The place is half indoors, half outdoors, with jungle foliage growing in the garden, reaching up well past the nearby rooves. We´re listening to some sort of Reggae remix, there is a host of young Guatemalan women working in the kitchen, and a friendly boxer dog is sitting beside my feet.

I sat outside the hostel at 8 o´clock this morning and watched the city wake up. The street we´re on is cobled with narrow sidewalks that butt directly up against the short, very colorful buildings. Two toned pink, orange with blue doorways, key lime green, white with maroon below the knee. I helped a woman lift a refrigerator onto a flatbed truck, nobody spoke a common language. The paperboys came came by on motorcycles, complete with megaphones on full blast announcing their arrival. Everyone who walked past me wished me a, "buenos dias." I watched school children skip to school, in full attire, and women walk door to door with baskets of vegetables on their heads.

This can be a quiet place, especially in the heat of the day. But despite the many discomforts of the jungle, there is a charm that is quite endearing.

I´ve seen countless amounts of exotic wildlife since I´ve been here. One night, at a jungle hostel we stayed at, a turantual scared me away from the bathroom. The same place had a hammock outside our room, but a spider 4 inches long had strung a web from it. We´ve seen countless types of ants, in all colors and sizes, including my favorites, the leaf cutters! Two large green birds live in this hostel, and fight on their perch pleasantly all day long. We´ve heard stories of snakes and janguars from fellow travelers who venetured deeper into the jungles on their journeys. This thing we call traveling can be a magical experience, and here, deep in the Guatemalan jungle, it definately is.

Tonight, Jin and I embark on a ten hour bus ride for Guatemala City, where we´ve changed our plans, to meet up with friends in San Pedro a la Guna. There we will stay until we fly out so soon, on Wednesday. There is plenty to do down there, from kayaking to swimming and climbing volcanoes.

Love, as always,
Carl

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