Odyssey complete, I have arrived in the last stop on my trip -- not quite home, but as close as I'll get on this side of the world. Today is a nice lounging-around Sunday, strolling through the streets of this calm touristy burb. Tomorrow I start "work" at the Camino Seguro school in Guatemala City. We start early, bus pick-up around 7:30am followed by a 45 minute ride to "work". I think we get home around 5pm, but I haven't checked my information recently. This will be my life, at least Monday to Friday, for the next __ weeks. Check back later for the number which goes in that blank space.
Let me give y'all a little run-down of the past few days.
Spent a full day in San Salvador -- which was the only time in the last week that I slept in the same place two nights in a row. The Hotel San Carlos! What. A. Place. I began the morning by learning how to wash my clothes by hand on the hotel roof -- a necessity at that point for several reasons. I bought a rounded brick of blue detergent with some minimal instructions. Luckily, the woman who washes the hotel sheets and knick-knacks appeared on the scene and taught me the correct way. I scrubbed, rubbed, sloshes, and hung 'em up, and managed to get a little sun at the same time. You can see some pictures I took from the hotel roof of some beautiful clouds and other such scenery.
In addition, I ate a lot of pupusas. I believe that I surpassed all known records for Pupusa-Body Mass ratios. Does the Guiness Book of World Records keep track of such data? As my great-great-grandmother used to say: "Well, if they don't, they should." She may be dead, and she may never had said such a thing (at least not in English), but you gotta admit that she makes a good point.
I took the 1pm bus from San Salvador to Guatemala City on Friday, at which point I found out that I am the smartest guy I know. Okay, third-smartest. To wit: On Thursday night the Honduran border was closed in all directions, which meant that if I had delayed any longer my journey from Nicaragua to El Salvador, I might not have gotten through (see map in previous post if geography is befuddling you). However, my feeling of self-confidence was slightly supplanted by a feeling of empathy -- there were several people sitting listlessly around the bus station whose journeys home to Honduras were cut off. I wish them the best, and hope that the politicians involved in that crisis won't let their egos get in the way of a peaceful solution. The world doesn't need any more countries plunged senselessly into violence and chaos.
What can follow that sobering thought? A joke? A prayer? Some run-of-the-mill travel observations? I met some interesting people on the bus ride -- a Dominican guy sitting behind me who kept getting harrassed by the immigration officer, and had been a pitcher in the Major Leagues (he showed me how it said "St. Louis Cardinals" printed at the bottom of his passport). There were two lost-looking Mexican guys with whom I chatted, and then we all decided to pitch in on a hotel room in Guatemala City -- they were taking the bus the next day to Mexico, and it was too late for me to feel comfortable taking the bus to Antigua. They got the double bed and I got the air bed.
The next morning I eventually figured out how to get to Antigua and then how to get to the house I am staying at. A nice older lady and her daughter, along with other guests at some point. They make me meals every day except for Sunday. I have a nice big room with a big bed with three (3) mattresses, a dresser, a table, a mirror, a swinging window, and a very small painting.
Like I said: not home, but much better than the last two months. I had a nice lunch-time conversation with my host mother, which ended with me boring her with some of my ramblings. But the important things is that I bored her with my ramblings in Spanish! Go me.
I got a chance to talk to my friend Yaelle yesterday -- I've known her since middle school, and she is the volunteer coordinator at Camino Seguro, which is how I got connected to this volunteer work. I'll see her tomorrow and find out exactly what it is that I will be doing during my time here. Exciting! Fun! Adjective!
It seems appropriate that at this point I launch into some philosophizing ramblings, something about my life or travels or the deep significance of my bowel movements, but it just isn't in me. Maybe tomorrow.
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