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Published: July 27th 2006
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A Toast To Travelling Friends
Peter, Tom, Sarah, Emma, Yves, and Prisca OK, let me catch everyone up on what's going down in San Pedro. Sunday afternoon two guys from Australia showed up to take classes at Mayab´ Spanish School. One of the guys (Peter) is staying at the Puac household with me and his buddy Tom is staying two doors down. Peter and Tom had met a couple from Switzerland during their travels and they are all surfing their way down the West coast. Monday night was Peter's 21st Birthday so everyone went out to celebrate.
Monday night Elena prepared dinner early so we could get the night started. We all met down at Nick's Place and sang Happy Birthday in Spanish to Peter, who is by far the youngest in the group by about 4-5 years. Peter thought it would hurt his chances with the women, but I told him at least he had his hair. Since we are all in Spanish classes, we converse in español most of the time, which wears me out since they are all much better (being that most of them speak 2-4 languages already). The Swiss couple (Yves - pronounced Eve and Prisca) are so cute together. Prisca has a little trouble understanding my
accent, so Yves has to translate sometimes. Yves has been travelling now for 8 months hitting Russia, Asia, the U.S., and working his way down through Mexico into Guatemala. Prisca met him along the way and they will be going another 8-10 months driving a van, that they just bought in Guatemala, down to the southern tip of South America.
The guys at the table couldn't help but notice the two Swedish birds ( In AUS birds = girls or chicks) that had just walked in and were sitting on the other side of the terrace. Yves, who is incapable of being embarrassed, waved the two girls over and pulled another table against ours to make room. Our table was now fluent in six different languages (English, Spanish, French, German, Swish-German, and Swedish), with everyone bringing their own very unique accent. After we had all become acquainted, Tom (The crazy Aussie) started chanting drinking songs from his motherland. Soon everyone at the table took turns teaching a chant from their home country, of course I was unable to come up with one so if any of you back home have a good one please e-mail it to me asap.
Learning to Salsa at Chiles
Sarah and Peter have it down! The two Swedish birds (Sarah and Emma), had the most popular song so it was repeated by the group numerous times. We finished the night with some song and dance at the Freedom Bar.
The following day while walking towards Casa Elena’s dock to take a swim, I came across a German girl (Mareike) who was lost and looking for a place to stay. I walked her to Casa Elena, where I'd heard was a great hotel for the money. Poor Mareike had been in Guatemala for two weeks and has been alone, sick, her luggage was lost at the airport for 3 days, and she decided not to take the job she had planned on. Her boyfriend will not be here for a few weeks and she really needed to just talk with someone, so we decided to meet later at a lake side restaurant. Before we met up, I had to get my swim in so I made my way down to the dock.
The waters were rough that day I tell you. I got a couple of good gulps of contaminated water and I'm now eagerly awaiting the effects it will have on my stomach.
After my swim, I met up with Mareike for a tea and a chat. She is a very sweet German girl that moved to England to be with her boyfriend and to study non-profit organizational development and theory. Just like every other European, she has traveled many places but never by herself. As we sat there a hummingbird hovered close by and Mareike became so excited because she had never in her life seen one (pretty weird what some of us take for granted). We talked for a bit longer and then I invited her to meet up with all of us that night and I would introduce her.
That evening we continued our worldly discussions and country chants. We soon moved over to Chiles just across the way for some Salsa lessons. We really didn’t get much instruction, but mainly improvised as we went along. It was a good night. Everyone had fun laughing at each others salsa moves. We drew in a small crowd of Guatemaltecos from the street that watched and got a big kick out of our antics.
Wednesday afternoon after class, I took a boat over to Panajachel to meet up with one
Hanging Out on the Street Corner
Peter, Yves, and Tom play music for the locals. of my father’s best friends Woody Woodson. Woody was just finishing up a week long mission trip and invited me to join them on their final night. I have written a separate entry for this experience, because I believe it is well deserved. Click on
A Spiritual Recharge to view.
Thursday, it was back to studies and life with the family. It was the same song and dance that night, but one of the Swedish girls was sick, some girls Prisca met had gotten sick, and I started to feel a little rough myself towards the end of the evening. I had a good conversation with Yves and Prisca about travel, and I think I've decided to try going through Colombia instead of bypassing it. We figured that all I need is a little change in appearance so I don’t have American stamped across my forehead. Yves recommended a
Che Guevara (the revolutionary from “Motorcycle Diaries”) T-shirt for starters. Hey, I’m kind of doing what he did, but I can call it “Chicken Bus Diaries”- Sweet! Check out the final photo and let me know if you think I can pull it off. I will tally up the votes and decide from
that whether or not I should attempt Colombia.
That next morning I had an IBS attack to beat all others. Soon followed cold chills and a fever. I had to stay in my safe zone, which was never being more than 20-30 feet away from the bathroom at all times. I missed class, dosed up on some Cipro, and spent the entire day and night in bed. I did come out of my room that night for dinner, just to get some food in my stomach. Elena prepared some beans, goat cheese, and bread; not exactly what my stomach was craving but what can you say. The fever broke later that night and I awoke the next day feeling back to normal.
That day I had my clothes washed at the local laundry to get the bugs out, which haven’t been so bad since I changed sheets and dowsed the bed with deet. I had my final Spanish class that afternoon and finished my 40th hour of lessons (If you met me now you would think I was born here - right!). Peter and I ate our final meal with the family. We saw they had a chicken
Los Muchachos de Mayab´
Now that was uncalled for guys! tied up in the backyard (a 15sqft area), so we question if it was for dinner. Elena said that it was for Sunday...of course they would have meat the night after we leave. Although, we did get to watch grandmother wack the chicken and prepare it for the following day. Later, we all said our goodbyes. I sure will miss the Puac family, especially Tulita. I will also miss studying with Javier...he was quite a hoot. The Mayab´school was great to me, but I would have to recommend that other travelers first try out San Pedro Spanish School unless they get Javier as their teacher. Some of the people I spoke with were not happy with the other teachers at Mayab´. The two weeks spent in San Pedro were great! I really got attached to San Pedro after being there for awhile. Peter claims that he wants to come back and retire here, but I just think he had simply inhaled a little too much second hand smoke from the hippies. I bid farewell to San Pedro La Laguna and I will write to you all soon. I’m Out!
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