young blood, craters, el lago, end of BPY?, move yo feet don't stop dahncing

Bam Bam's quick trip was quite the whirlwind.  Besides rattling his cage and welcoming him to daily life in Guatemala, we did quite a bit in just a few days.  Hiked Chicabal, an extinct volcano that now hosts a crater lake and some pretty money views.  It's now used for a myriad of Mayan rituals, which was an added bonus seeing the altars around the lake.  The SF duo thought the hike was killer but I'd say it was about 10% as difficult as Tajulmolco...sorry friends haha.

Partied our faces off, owned the dahnce floor as per usual on Wednesday then headed to Lago Atitlan on Friday.  Finally made it there and wow how awesome.  The lake's surrounded by a handful of extinct volcanoes with views galore.  The chicken bus creeps in over the mountain tops and you wind down into town, the meanwhile having your mind blown by the views.  Did some eating, drinking and kayaking then came back to Xela on Friday.

Came back on Friday just in time to start boozing again.  On the way to dinner I called an audible and took the ladies to a local cantina.  AKA a kinda restaurant/bar in the back of a typical tienda.  So a few plastic tables, loud music, wasted Guatemalans and cheap booze and food.  I'm not sure who enjoyed it more.  Us or the wasted locals shocked to def that three white people would come in and drink there.  Went to dinner then obvi out to da club.  In some wasted stream of thought I asked my friend Ailsa out to dinner.  I've been thinking for a while that the time's come to ease my way out of BPY.  I mean don't get me wrong, it's been undoubtedly one of the best times of my life.  Just I feel that two years of BPY'ing has refreshed me and granted me new perspectives on life, love and relationships after the two cunts I dated back-to-back before.  So as my teacher says, it's time for the next step.

Anyway, la chica's a pretty interesting dichotomy of a party-loving princess and an ICU nurse that wants to work in disaster relief.  Yeah, my kinda person.  So we went out to Thai, yes Thai, and it turned out to be phenomenal.  Went out with the other homies again that night, back to class after a few hours of sleep then back out on the town last night.  I'd like to say I'll be taking a break from the sauce but I don't see that happening.  Leaving for El Salvador this afternoon.  Likely will fit in Nicaragua and Honduras but vamos a ver doggies.  Que Dios les bendiga.

silicone, you can dahnce if you want to, smores, dead jesus

Gross if you thought I would start a blog post with fake breasts from the title.  No, this week we broke ground on the aquaponics gig hur in Xela.  I brought the materials over to Juan Pablo's house and the chickies from my program came along as well.  We didn't have all we needed so we really just started with siliconing the seams and filling the spaces in the wooden growbed.  Mas to come this week.

Wednesday turned out to be quite the day.  Played soccer between schools on a mini astro-turf soccer field.  It was kinda a battle of the incompetents but fun nonetheless.  I've never seen someone miss a soccer ball so much as I did with Ailsa.  Well maybe Rosita.  Then I picked up Chinese food and the lot of us met at my place to watch the debate.  Actually, not bad Chinese food.  Warmed my soul a bit.  Ended up getting my drank on witnessing the debacle before we headed out around 11.  We were on the way to the usual dank and divey Pool and Beer when I called an audible and we headed to the somewhat douchey Parranda.   I mean sure it was douchey as usual but with my wasted state and the lack of appropriate dahncing I've had recently, I think the whole town knew we had a great time!  Yeah, I mean Randy pants and his latino culo over there was dancing up a salsa storm but I do maintain that Ailsa and I held up our own even if we might have caused a few danceflo casualties.

Headed to Tulate otra vez this weekend and again, the WTF am I feel of Tulate didn't disappoint.  Hopped on a bus around 11am (thanks pareja lenta) and made it to Tulate around 3:30.  Fishermen were just unloading their catch on the dock so naturally we picked up a couple lbs. of jumbo shrimp.  Took the boat across the river, walked along the black sand for 30 min or so and arrived to our ruvrey beach bungalow without another soul in sight.  Hit the sauce, soaked up the rays brah, cooked dinner and passed out around 10.

Awoke round 7am the next day, Jason Bourne'd it down the beach again, bought food and came back to mimosas and a veggie scramble.   Continued on the train to blackout town during the day, met up with Breh's friend Kristen and then helped the local sea turtle program release hatchling Leatherbacks into the sunset.  I may or may not have had a semi.  Cooked some mas shrimp for din and then got a bonfire started.  Sorry for drinking all your booze Kristen, but yeah, the Xela crew did as they do best and lost themselves.  Spent the night storytelling around the bonfire (with smores!), went skinny dipping with bioluminescent plankton and then watched as Randy and Ailsa collapsed like dead Jesus.  Put the kiddies to bed then had like a forever therapy sesh with Jenn (dat her job) about life and que putas I'm doing.  Good times.

Got up, bussed it back to Xela and met up with Bam Bam in the hood.  So bro'ing out this week, que dios les bendiga.  ciao.

herro der, ugh just go on sin mi, nuevo hombre

So this writing gig turns out to be pretty sweet.  Sure, like realistically, I am really just writing college applications (the drafts they give me are garbage) but eh, I like to write, it's easy and it allows me to keep my feet moving around the world.

My package finally (!!!!) came last week and with it, contacts, shoes, clothes and obvi my preciouuuuus.  My computer.  God what a relief.  People tell me I seem like a completely new man with shoes and all, not to mention my morning after flanny.  For them ho's that be cooking me bfast the morning after.  No, not really.  But it does make me sound cool and significantly less celibate than reality.  For XMAS I think I'm going to mail the cronies at DHL my poop.  Let's hope it doesn't get stuck in customs for 3 months like my package.

And with my precious I've been downloading an obscene amount of fresh music.  Gawwd I miss the rollnrave diet.  Can't wait to rock out stateside in a couple months.   Also, the lion mane I have on my head has really become untame.  Not sure when the transition to brush is supposed to happen but combing my head hurts.  Maybe it's cuz I use a cheap Cathay Pacific comb or is there some cutoff length when you gotta start using a brush?  Solo dios sabe supongo.  That would be a great article for a men's version of cosmo.  Or is that what GQ is?  I donno.  If you're straight and reading GQ you should rethink some things.

Las gallinas convinced me to hike Tajulmoco, the highest point in Central America, last weekend.  I do love hiking but usually just too lazy to do it knawadimean?  So we went with the local Gringo organization, Quetzaltrekkers, really a group of half-retarded 20-something ex-athletes with little in the way of career prospects and overly inflated egos.  Oh right, and they've only creeped on like 10 of my friends in the most juvenile manner.  "Oh well since my hand just slipped into your pants can I just take them off of you!?!"  Idiots.  Anywho.

Woke up at 4am on Saturday morning.  Turd.  Smoked a J and ate some saltines.  Felt slightly better.  Met up with everyone else at HQ.  Hopped in the back of a cargo truck and stared at the stars en route to the bus terminal.  Jumped in a thankfully uncrowded chicken bus for the 1.5 hour ride to San Marcos where we ate some bfast.  Took another 1.5 hour ride, this time on a painfully crowded chicken bus, to the base of the beast.

And there she was, that bald bitch eyeing us in the background.  We geared up and started trekking.  Not exactly sure how heavy the pack was but I was carrying enough layers for a Snowpocalypse, 4L of water, a tent and a sleeping bag.  Through the combination of my pack, the altitude and probably the fact that I smoke, the hike up the mountain was pretty tough.  Not like the hardest thing ever but I definitely enjoyed our breaks along the way.

We had uncannily perfect weather the entire time.  The journey up awarded us jaw-dropping views of the surrounding towns and mountain ranges.  We hiked until about 1pm when we made it to base camp, nestled in a lil meadow.  Set up camp and spent the afternoon relaxing, napping and soaking up the views.  The fog started to roll in and since we planned to summit for sunrise, I spent the evening passing the time precisely as you should when you're in the middle of nature.

The guide shook us awake in the tent at 3am.  Mahh.  No J this time.  Hopped out of the tent to be punched in the nuts by the cold.  But I complain too much.  The fog had cleared while we slept, giving way to stunning night skies.   We hiked (really crawled and climbed) the remaining 1500 or maybe 2K feet with headlamps lighting the way.   We finally reached the summit as the first few rays of sun poked up over the horizon.  Behind us sat the full moon illuminating the volcano's crater.  To the right, Santiatiguito, the volcano behind Xela, started erupting.  And in front, the sunrise.  Had a michelada toast and a morning sesh to welcome the day.  Pretty epic morning.  All in all, def def worth the hike.

Heading to the beach manana for some warmth, finally.  hasta la proxima vez muchachos.