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I really hate “Survivor”, by the way…

So I’m up to my armpits in dirty laundry and umpteen boat projects, when Mitzy (of the Guatemala City gang) mucks up my plans once again. This time, she skypes me and invites me to meet up with her in Flores the next day or so for a couple days of checking out ruins and other stuff.

At first, my better judgment said I should stick around the boat and get some more work done. Yet, somehow, I find myself hitching a ride last Wednesday with Gabriela and Juan, some friends of Mitzy’s who live in Peten. They pick me up when they pass through Frontreras on their way back from the city and I’m off to Flores. I really don’t know how these things happen, but they do.

So a couple of hours later, I’m in Flores. Mitzy is already there, having flown in earlier that day to deal with some stuff for the magazine she works for. After we all meet up, we’re off on our way to Gabriela’s lodge which is just outside Yaxha national park, about an hour away. Yaxha is the ancient Mayan city that earned its claim to fame by being the backdrop for “Survivor:Guatemala”, which aired last fall. Not that I got to see any of it, nor do I care, since I think the show is dreck. The lodge is right on Lago Yaxha, and overlooks the ruins on the other side, elevated in mountains and hills. Really quite magnificent.

Yaxha is still basically being discovered. It is a city that’s pretty much the same size as Tikal. And, it’s actually OLDER than Tikal. But what’s particularly interesting is that the city of Yaxha is still underneath the jungle in a big way. Over the years, Tikal, which is also in the belly of deep guatemalan jungle has been excavated and somewhat restored to the tune of about 20% of its overall city layout.

Yaxha, by contrast is only about TWO percent exposed. Which means, there’s still quite a bit of city to excavate. Everywhere you look, you see “hills” that are actually buildings and temples buried under dirt, foliage and trees! This park just recently received national park status (after being made famous by “Survivor”), so the work has just recently begun in earnest. I have some great pics that will be on the gallery soon, if not already.

After a killer day of climbing temples, hiking ancient trails, exploring jungle, watching spider monkeys, and observing spectacular lightning storms, we headed back to Flores. On the way back, we dropped off a friend of Mitzy’s who accompanied us, Cristina back at her beautiful house that was right on Lake Peten. We had beverages on the edge of the lake, while Cristina’s dogs romped around in and out of the water. Quite a nice place. Cristina and her husband Carlos own a popular restaurant in Flores, which I’ve actually been to a few times before I ever met them.

After that little jaunt, we got to Flores. I decided that I’d try to leave the next day being that there was still quite a lot to do back on the boat. I was on a bit of a pressing schedule due to the fact that I’m trying to get out of here end of this week to work my way down to Costa Rica on the Tica bus, by way of El Salvador, and Nicaragua. So we found out what time the bus back to Rio Dulce was leaving the next afternoon. We stayed in a hotel in town that night owned by some friends of hers, and had a most excellent dinner at a restaurant owned by some friends of hers. BTW, did I mention that Mitzy knows pretty much EVERYBODY in Guatemala?

When we got to where the bus was supposed to be, we found that there was NO bus that day. It was simply cancelled without explanation. We went into Santa Elena, the bigger town just across the bridge from Flores to check out their bus station. Unfortunately, all the safe buses were gone from the day, and all that was left was the dreaded “Fuente del Muerte” bus. Which I simply refuse to get on for a myriad of reasons.

So, the writing was on the wall, I was stuck in Peten for another night. Dammit! =P Mitzy didn’t seem to be too upset about it, being that she was flying out the next day back to the city. We got a major hookup at a nice hotel in Santa Elena, since Mitzy’s also in the travel biz. So hotel lodging for us that nite was FREE. Boy, do I love that word…

Next morning, I had to scramble a bit to make the bus. But I did. I said bye to Mitzy, and off I was back to Rio Dulce. Made it back in time for lunch, but decided I’d wait until I got back to Marios before eating. By the time the lancha showed up, I was starving. But then I got to the restaurant and saw that they were closed for a WEDDING. One of the guatemalan girls who works in the restaurant, Glendy, was getting married that day. So they decided to close the restaurant to prepare for the festivities.

This was a rather bizarre wedding being that the word was that Glendy didn’t want to actually marry this guy she was marrying. Apparently, he was quite the “playa” in local circles here, and already has at least one kid around here. Nothing new if you’re a guatemalan guy that is. Unfortunately, the number of kids you have with other women is nothing more than a sign of machismo and virility. Nevermind that they don’t support the kids in most cases. Despite the fact that I really like Glendy, I didn’t really feel like I wanted to participate in this kind of wedding. Personally, I think anybody who gets married these days is nuts, but who am I to judge? =)

Well, anyway, I wasn’t thrilled at all being that I was hungry and didn’t want to stick around to raid the wedding food.

Needless to say, I survived enough to get a few cookies in me on the boat, shower, change, and head back into town to have a bite and head out for a few drinks that night. I made it back to the boat, got a splitting headache, and went to bed.

Since then, I’ve been pretty much knocking off projects left and right. A couple of guys are handling the sanding and varnishing of my exterior wood. And doing a bang-up job of it. Should have most of the varnishing done by the time I leave, which is great. I’m installing and fixing several items inside the boat, which I should have mostly done by end of this week.

And then, if all goes well, I’m Costa Rica bound this weekend… woo-hoo!

Still working on my mom’s story, hope to have it up before I leave…

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