Maybe it’s because I have three weeks of ropa slightly sucia neatly piled in the corner. Or maybe it’s the cluster of incense sticks from a former tenant hidden in another corner combined with the lovely odor of thrice-worn socks. I have a rule when I’m traveling that I won’t officially do a load of laundry until I run out of clean underwear. And miraculously I haven’t yet (I pack A LOT of underwear). Who am I kidding? This is pretty much my modus operandi cuando estoy en mi propia casa también. (Fancy, huh? Latin AND Spanish!) I do lots of unofficial laundering which consists of taking items of clothing in the shower with me and washing them. I often clean my bathtub this way. Multitasking at its very best.
Got some catching up to do, busy, busy weekend. And I think this week is going to be even crazier. Carol, Deborah & Chloe (the Doña Mercedes chicas), all left this weekend so there was some celebrating on Friday and Saturday nights. Friday we went to Royal Paris, Stef’s restaurant in Xela, for some French food and live music. He uses part of the profits from his private venture to fund the clowns and another initiative called Teatro del Oprimido. I just finished designing a solicitation flyer for the TO website—will try and upload this week. This computer is running IE7 or maybe even 6 and anytime I try to upload anything it crashes. Grrrrrr. And internet cafes aren’t much better, very inconsistent.
I was going to work on the flyer and calendar all day Saturday, but Stef was driving to Panajachel on stunning Lake Atitlan and invited me to go along for the ride. I mean it’s got to be okay to goof off if the boss coerces you, right? Glad I did, the lake is as amazing as I remember. Pana itself isn’t that great, kind of touristy, but this is the off season so I did get to see it raw, sans lotsa gringos. Of course, there was a torrential downpour during the few hours we were there and I was absolutely soaked and wandering up and down the same 10 blocks that comprise Pana, in my elegant red plastic bag, looking for the wrong restaurant I was supposed to meet Stef at for lunch. Didn’t he hear that I get lost in lobbies of apartment buildings (wink wink Roe). Being lost wasn’t entirely my fault this time, he did describe one restaurant and gave me the name of another. And I was able to find the wrong one, and even found the right one, but I didn’t know it was the right one because the name was wrong. Okay, writing that sentence just made me dizzy. It was too bad the weather was so crappy because the drive from Xela to Pana can be incredible when there is good visibility. There’s a point on the road, at the highest elevation in Guatemala, where one can see a perfect line of volcanic peaks. And this is the freakin’ second time I didn’t see it. I did get to see a lot of the road damage from the recent mudslides. Terrifying. There was one area along the narrow road where it looked like some gigante espantoso took a huge bite out of the mountainside road. I honestly can’t imagine being on one of those archaic buses while it maneuvers through any kind of tormenta fuerte. There’s still damage along this stretch from Hurricane Stan, and bridges named “Puente Stan I” and “Puente Stan II”. Recovery of any kind is really slow in this country.
We returned to Xela in the evening and was glad we got back pretty quickly because I had to meet Debbie and Michelle for dinner. Michelle is la dueña de Casa Doña Mercedes and Deborah is one of the guests I met there during my stay who left for Mexico yesterday. Michelle is trying to learn to speak English so we all speak Spanish to her and she answers us in English. It’s very efficient. And she doesn’t usually get an attack of what I call “la cara confundida” that most people who speak Spanish fluently get when I start speaking to them in my newbie Spanish. I thought Carlos was going to pass out from laughing when I explained my “la cara confundida” theory to him today.
More about that, the beginning of my second week with Carlos, my surreal afternoon trip today to Zunil y más mañana…have to do un poco de trabajo ahora, y mi tarea! I really hope I can upload some new pics tomorrow. I still have incredible market pictures and FANTASTIC photos of a Maximon shrine in Zunil.
P.S. Does anyone know if there is a Spanish word for ¨funky¨?
No matter if you get lost, you still seem to make it to all your meals. Hmmm.
Maybe it’s good that you have to walk around a lot to find them.
LOVE YA
Yup, I always find da food. Hee hee.
xoxo
conveniently “funky” in Spanish can be “cobarde” which also means coward o.O
Muy interesante…un poco de cobarde! Solo mi habitacion, a veces cuando trato hablar! But you would be so proud of me, I´m finally losing my shyness and speaking more, unsolicited. Uh oh, watch out! And using different tenses!! Wooo hooo. I am having a lot of trouble with los pronombres. All that se, la, le, lo, me, te, nos, les, las makes my head explode! Was this easy for you to learn?
Lotsa love and hugs and kisses,
titi
YOU ARE SO FUNNY, YOU CAN TRAVEL AROUND THE WORLD AND NOT GET LOST, BUT U GET LOST ON THE SAME BLOCK AND IN A LOBBY. MAYBE U CAN FIND A DROP OFF LAUNDROMAT, I THINK WE CAN STILL USE THE BEACH IN OCTOBER, BUT U SOUND LIKE U R HAVING TOO MUCH FUN, I DON’T THINK U ARE COMING HOME ANYTIME SOON. BE CAREFUL
I know, it´s hysterical. It´s really a miracle that I find my way home from anywhere. I´m scared to send my clothes to a laundromat for two reasons…1) They don´t use soap. and 2) I like a lot of my clothes and would like to wear them again and not see them on random people around Xela.
I´ll tell you, I wish I could live here for 6 months…you could ignore both me and Alex at the same time when we speak in Spanish.