Moonlight Madness

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I had uhmed and ahed about returning to San Pedro for the full moon party, trying to reason with myself that I didn´t really have time, and that it wasn´t remotely on the way to the Bay Islands from San Salvador. In the end, common sense could not prevail, and the draw of seeing everyone again proved too great. From San Salvador I travelled to oban, spent a day at Lanquin, visiting the caves before returning to the little bit of Guatemala I had fallen in love with.

The grutes at Lanquin were impressive to say the least. As you enter, to start with there are lights and walkways but they gradually peter out until you are scrambling over muddy rocks in total darkness. Knowing my propensity for getting lost in famous places (the Taj Mahal, Isla del la Sol, Macchu Picchu...) IO declined to venture far after the lights ended, in spite of my headtorch. The limestone formations illuminated were huge and beautiful. Unlike the normal stalactites and stalagmites, here it looked as though the limestone had frozen in the act of running down the wall. I met one group of people leaving the caves as I arrived and a couple more arriving as I left, but apart from that I had them all to myself which was great. The only minor let down was the lack of the cave´s famous "huge, sky obscuring formations" of bats. Come sunset, I could see them streaming out of the cave, but where they were going after that was anybody´s guess. Slightly disappointed, I began the walk back to Lanquin - through the jungle, surrounded by fireflies. Beautiful.

Arriving in San Pedro after 16 hours travelling, my plan was to say hi to Seth and get straight to bed, in preparation for what would surely be a manic weekend. As I walked into Buddha Bar, Seth greeted me with the words "welcome home". 5 hours later I was bouncing around the bar telling everyone how much I loved them. Zina was there, and Jake, and Mike, and countless other people who I had remembered from my previous visit (all of a week ago). It was good to be back.

Thursday brought thanksgiving - something I have never celebrated, but it was fun to see San Pedro´s American Community so excited. We didn´t celebrate traditionally - Sabrina, Courtney and I made cookies, and Shuval made pizza, but we still celebrated - lots of booze was drunk and the night contains some interesting memories (such as freestyle relay races in the empty swimming pool).

On friday, I took over the kitchen again and made roasted vegetable ravioli in a blue cheese (I had found a pizza selling imported gorgonzola for 6Q per oz). Barring a few kitchen disasters, the meal turned out pretty well, and then we all headed to Buddha to watch the Blues Band - something else I had been looking forward to doing again. They were on great form, as usual, and Zina and I did a lot of dancing before dragging everyone back to Trippy´s to continue the fun when Buddha closed.

Saturday night brought my main reason for returning to San Pedro - the full moon party. Zina and I got ready together, amidst much gossip, giggling and wine. We went to Freedom first for pre-party drinks and chilled for a bit, and then headed out to the site.

As the boat approached the makeshift dock, fireworks were going off on one side of the garden and everyone cheered. We alighted on a small beach, which turned to grass as it sloped gently uphill. At the top of the plot was a covered dance floor, and indoor toilets (bliss!). The lawn was dotted with candles and people were grouped around a couple of bonfires. It was everything I had hoped for.

We had taken rum and coke, and some cookies, and spent the night alternating between the dance floor and the fires. The cloud that had shrouded the daytime had totally vanished and the full moon shone down on us all night. When the sun crested the mountains the following morning everyone went wild. The day was beautiful, and more than a few us ended up swimming in the lake. At about 10am, we got a boat back to San Pedro, made omlettes, and slept all day.

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