me falta mi voz

It's been about two days since I've been able to utter a word above a whisper. I think I have a sinus infection. But, all things considered, mi vida esta rosa.

I'm eating on my second breakfast of the day and drinking ginger tea, courtesy of some brilliant friends. On writing this blog: it's been three weeks in coming, but time has eclipsed my motivation. Xela is a bit intense, and i suppose quite a lot has built up. normally, i wouldn't subject everyone to such long entries, but i really think this experience is worth it. also, i think some version of it is to go on the website, so.

it'll be easier to start with now and work my way backward.

in an hour, i'll leave for Lake Atitlan with a few friends. it's three hours away, and we'll take a few cameonetas (chicken buses) and a boat to get to San Marcos del lago, and hope that the rain holds off. I'll be glad to be getting out of the city and away from diesel exhaust and the noise at night. though, the contrast may not be so stark. there is, after all, a rooster that crows at me from the roof as i shower every morning.

Xela (Quetzaltenango) is where i've been living, and where AIDG is based in Guatemala. (see www.aidg.org. no really, do.) it's at about 7,600 feet, the weather is similar to what you'd get in san francisco. it's way up in the western highlands where a large number of Mayan villages are located. there's a beautiful theater that seems out of place in the center of town, surrounded by low scale adobe-style buildings. the city itself sprawls at the feet of mountains and volcanoes, some of which are active. there are days when gray ash covers everything.

someone has a geography coloring book, and from it we've learned that central america is, in fact, a part of north america and not south.

more to come later, with photos if i can get everything working.

this is a travel blog

I'm going to try to reconstruct the past few weeks - hopefully it will still seem as intense as it was even though I've now settled in..

I flew into Guatemala City and met up with Anna Maria and Kelly from Xelateco (AIDG's workshop in Xela), and we caught a camioneta (chicken bus) to Antigua and stayed there for the night.

Antigua. I was there for less than 24 hours, but it's something of an odd fixture in what now seems to me to be an anarchic place. It is really low scale (maybe two stories high all over), and it's an UNESCO World Heritage Site. What I've been able to gather from other Sites that I've visited around the world is that this breeds a steady and expected tourist industry that tends to be manipulated by foreigners who have the capital to realize the economic opportunity. Lots of upscale shops and guest houses, lots of machine gun-toting policemen on patrol at night, a sense of safety probably not felt in the rest of the country. Certainly not in Xela. (Antigua, along with Panajachel and Tikal, has its own apparently-uncorrupted 'tourist police force')

It was, however, beautiful with the parque central lit up at night. And clean. With more time, maybe I'd have been more greatly impressed.