Sometimes - especially when your Spanish turns out to be a fair bit worse than you thought it was - you have to settle for peanuts for lunch.
When weaning your soul off several weeks of soaking up the comfort & love that comes with living in community, you can find yourself in need of some human contact; At that point, the Good Lord above may well send a very tired Guatemalan (who may or may not have been drinking) to sit beside you on the bus.
I was headed to Lake Atitlan where the plan was to R&R ... &RR (report writing).
When all on your own for lengthy periods of time you starting talking to yourself – and also to God (which isn't as crazy as it sounds, really - that's why silent retreats exist).
2010 was beginning to loom large, and starting to find rather mundane ways of entering into my common thoughts, which caused me to begin to seriously reflect on the year I was leaving behind and the year ahead.
If you must write a (self-imposed) report – write it over lunch beside a stunning view.
After a couple of days in Panajachel I made the move to San Pedro which is located on the far side of the lake.
The stand-out features of San Pedro are advertising, public affirmations of faith (neatly painted on concrete walls), and old school Rock’n’Roll tunes.
The nights were made far less dull than they would have otherwise been by the good conversation that was to be had with fellow travellers who were also finding the town a little too quiet.
After a couple of slow days & nights it was time to say farewell to the lake of R&R&RR ...
... and take the shuttle bus (past a homicide site) to the Mexican border and beyond.
No comments:
Post a Comment