The transition from the US down to Guatemala also saw me transitioning from the very pleasurable and easy Second Phase of my year-long travel plan (which involved spending extended time with old friends in new places) into the move difficult and lonesome Third Phase (which involved travelling solo (most of the time) and volunteering my services as an eye specialist in places of need); I needed to change gears, which was difficult, because being pampered by friends in their homes for so long had made me reluctant to fend for myself in foreign environs; I wasn’t feeling that great about the second half of the year (which sounds like such a long time when in that state of mind).
A DAY IN DALLAS
Enter Nelson Rivera, Co-Ordinator of Latin American Region for the International Centre for Eyecare Education (ICEE) organisation, which is helping to arrange most of my volunteering opportunities this year.
Nelson pretends to be an optometrist by day (and I believe he is convincing in the role), but this front conceals his real talent, which is booking flights and accommodation in any part of the world you care to be in; It took just one (long) night in Dallas for the two of us to book all the flights I needed to get around the Caribbean Sea, which was a huge relief; In the process Nelson must have saved me around a thousand US dollars with his knowledge of the local airlines and their bizarre online booking antics. (Even now he is watching over my movements like a wingless guardian angel with a blackberry.) In one night he restored my enthusiasm for Phase Three.
GUATEMALA
Another reason for feeling blue about Phase Three (before Dallas) was that the volunteer work I had lined up for Guatemala had fallen through (at the last minute) on account of my inability to speak Spanish.
I made a visit to the clinic anyway and discovered that they were well equipped, well staffed, and extremely well organised – they didn’t really need my assistance at all. (The privately owned vision centre caters for both ‘private’ and ‘social’ patients; The private patients enter through a door on one side the building and get charged much more for the same services that the social patients, who enter through a door on the other side of the complex, are charged much less for (hopefully the people with money will never find the other side of the building or discover Robin Hood hiding beneath one of the white coats)).
An upside to not having any volunteer work to do was that I was totally free to visit the local zoo with all the sparkly new friends I had just made in the hostel.
Spider monkeys are probably the most entertaining animals on the planet.
While at the zoo I worked out what I want for Christmas …
… a tiny little marmette will make me the happiest kid on the planet (they’re no bigger than an adult thumb and they are super-cute).
Two of the people I met at the hostel had recently been assaulted, so I knew from me second day in Central America that the crime was 'really real'.
Note the blood stained chucks above and the knife wound in the leg below.
In direct defiance of the danger, I took a bus into town so as to sightsee the streets of Guatemala City (in broad daylight and not for too long).
I was reunited one evening with the amazing Gabriel, a friend I made on my first ever trip to NZ (an organised tour which was a 21st birthday present from my parents), who has recently moved back to his homeland (Guatemala) and who is going to incredible lengths to ensure that the city his children are growing up is a good deal better than it is now.
The conversation we shared was inspiring and his willingness to sacrifice for the greater good is extraordinary – he is one of my (major) heroes.
I was joined in Guatemala by Jerson, who has set his sights on becoming an optometrist so as to be useful in areas of need around the world, he is a friend of a friend (also named Luke) who heard about the trip I was making and organised to join me for a leg of the journey after reading this very travel blog.
Because there was no eye work for us to do in Guatemala, we had time to do see some of the local attractions, including a day trip to the active volcanoe ‘Pacaya’.
There is nothing like a real live lava flow to invoke bona fide childlike excitement in a grown man.
Marshmallows never tasted so primal.
Coming down the hill was made thrice as much fun by the fact that there were two little French girl who had but one father to help them both down the mountain, which triggered my paternal instincts; I can still hear them giggling ('ooh la la') as we ran through the loose shale (before it poured down with rain and those of us who weren’t wearing plastic got absolutely saturated).
We also saw the nearby township of Antigua, which is something of an anomaly in Guatemala.
We also headed deep into the jungle to see the ancient Mayan city of Tikal.
On the way back through Guatemalan (after Belize) I had the good fortune of meeting Jamie, another inspiring (semi-)retiree, who is choosing to live in Guatemala City (rather than in America) and offer his assistance to a State run childcare centre that caters for children with severe developmental issues (which I briefly visited).
His positive can-do attitude is seeing positive changes being made for staff members and clients of the centre alike.
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