Day 16 (7/25/07): INCAP

i am a retarrrrrrrrd. thats all there is to say about it!

Día 10 (7/19/07): Atitlan -> Antigua

After a morning stroll to the lake, we spent the majority of the afternoon shopping. I bought a non-garish Guatemalan shirt and contemplated renting a moped (I'll save that for when Dr. Calderon takes us to Atitlan). For lunch, I swung by my favorite Guatemalan taco chain, Orale, and took my Q15 (~ $2) tacos para llevar (to go). Much to my amazement, they packed every type of salsa, onions, and cilantro separately (photo to come soon). On our way back to our hostel, a four-legged joined our coterie and followed us for about half an hour. By some fluke, our shuttle driver was punctual, and as the only 2 passengers on the shuttle to Antigua, Wilson and I each took claim to our own row, stretched out, and passed out. Back in Antigua, we wandered over to the pool hall to inhale copious amounts of second hand smoke and stare at the pool tables; Wilson won 3 games by default but I still won. :P Before calling it a night, we watched a pirated and subbed Russian copy of Sunshine which Mana purchased earlier in the day.

Día 9 (7/18/07): Antigua -> Lake Atitlan

Today I had an epiphany, and curiously enough, it wasn't about the terse poststructuralist arguments with references to Humpty Dumpty and Alice I was reading about during breakfast, but rather about why there aren't any amusement parks in Central America. Why would anyone pay an exorbitant rate to go to one when you can simply hop on a chicken bus for about $1 to just about any destination and experience the same nausea and have your derriere airborne for at least half of the several hour long ride. Wilson and I arrived in Lake Atitlan and yes, the ride was fairly miserable mostly because I was trying to sleep, but was plagued by potholes and cobblestone roads encompassing the majority of the narrow steep mountain inclines compounded by rain and manual shift. What's a run on? :) By the time we reached Atitlan, it was pouring gatos y perros. We wandered over to the internet cafe after checking in just so I could wallow in the misery of my MCAT score. We then went to check out the second most beautiful lake in the world where we were incessantly hounded by some man who insisted on selling us a lake tour. After deciding against flinging myself into the lago mas lindo, we went shopping and somehow got talked into buying 2 flutes. However, we didn't do this before we bargained the price for both to less than the cost of one. After dinner, it started to pour again so Wilson and I just sat under some random covered area of the sidewalk serenading passerbys with remarkably raucous melodies on our flutes. Nearing 10 o'clock, the rain wasn't letting up so we made a mad dash for the internet cafe. Mid-use of my flashdrive, the power went out and I nearly soiled my pants at the though of losing our only copy of over 1 GB of photos, but all was swell. Back at the hostel, Wilson and I played card games till 1am. In fewer words, we didn't do much.

Dia 8 (7/17/07): Antigua

What started off as a seemingly innocuous day took a quick change for the worse. About an hour before we were to leave for Pacaya, Mana came storming into the room screaming my name. Bewildered, I hadn't noticed that she had tears streaming down her face. Apparently, while getting up from a chair, she had lodged a splinter about half a centimeter wide under the entire length of her nail. To spare the details, I pulled the splinter out and after rummaging through my first aid kit along with a few trips to the farmacia, Wilson and I managed to patch her up fairly well. To ease the pain, Mana took a vicodin which left her in a state of euphoria for a bit. Once we reached Pacaya, we trekked to the top of the volcano dodging heaps of horse dung on the steep narrow trail. Wilson did this in his flip flops. The majority of our entourage and strangers alike had dubbed him with the moniker "flip flop man" by the time we had reached the top. (I think his flip flops were even melting at one point from the heat of the volcano.) Anyway, the treacherous trek to the top had paid of with an absolutely exhilarating view of luscious green mountains and hills below as well as bright red lava flow (pictures to come soon). I couldn´t help but complement the view with some of Keebler´s Pecan Sandies which I toted along a few hundred miles and 2km uphill. :P We also ran into James and Katie - friends from Los Amigos in Flores - at the top. The locals completely got a kick out of one "gringo" who climbed to the top of the lava flow and lit his hiking stick on fire. They were shouting "vas a morir" and were yelling at him to come down. (He didn't die seeing as how I idiotically exclaimed "you're alive!" when I saw him walk past my room back at the hostel.) Btw, the hike back down was near pitch black which didn't go too well with the haphazardously abandoned heaps of horse crap, rocks, and steps. We got back to the hostel at about 10 pm when I patched Mana´s volcano booboos and took out Wilson´s volcanic splinter. Having missed lunch and dinner, I wandered over to one of the few placed open at midnight for some Antiguan (French?) onion soup and papas fritas. Back at the hostel, I went to the roof level to soak in the view and the soothing patter of rain.

I´ll try to keep you all posted more frequently. All my previous entries are in my journal - and some in spanish - so we´ll see what I can do. I miss you all and I miss my not-so-paper-thin mattress, double-ply toilet tissue, and my fish.....has someone been feeding them??? ¡Ciao!