Pension Bonifaz Hotel Quetzaltenango

... he's asking all the people he meets to write a prayer (no matter what religion) which is personal to them, he is then passing them on from person to person, whilst writing them all up on the internet for the world to see. He's a pretty inspiring/loco guy, but he's planning on crossing the Darien Gap between Colombia and Panama, which has been closed ever since tourists got repeatedly captured and killed by guerilla gangs, so we were trying to persuade him out ...

... err" and we should swap (mass laughter then ensues - not sure why).


¿Quien estan mi famila en Guatemala ahora?
It´s inaccurate to describe the people we are staying with as a family. Our Spanish still isn´t quite good enough to fully understand the set up but there is a "mother" figure who runs the household plus a small shop which operates out of the front room three days a week.

A girl of my age lives and works there. She is ...

... a tall white girl, without trying to shake my booty on the dance floor.

Something has happened to me in Guatemala this week. It happened yesterday while I was riding on a micro, the big vans that take you all over the city. They have absolutely no limit on passengers, though they are made from about 12 people. There is usually a man hanging out the sliding side door calling out the destinations and cramming people in ...

... kitchen and 4 rooms. She and her husband have lived in guatemala for 17 years, and she is a nurse who works with indigenous people (over one million of them in xela) in the hills, teaching english etc. her husband helps run a collection of baptist churches in central america. Xela is a beautiful town with lots to do, so we are going to stay in her house for a month (for 45 pounds each!), and study spanish (there are lots ...

... in difficulty, as it continued to become even steeper and even more slippery. There were significant amounts of brush to contend with, and although the guide attempted to remove some of the obsticles with a machette, it only helped a little. About halfway through the descent, they reached the beginning of the riverbed, which they followed the remainder of the way down. Now, you may think of a riverbed as being flat, smooth, and easy to walk on. You ...

... group, and political organization. I worked with them yesterday, spending most of the day in meetings, but going out in the community a bit in the afternoon. And I was very happy. There are few things I love more than bouncing down a dusty country road in the back of a pickup with some curious kids, a skeptical mother and a few chickens to boot. Xela is fantastic, but this is the life for me.

Last night I spent a very solitary and ...

... jungley volcanic crater. As we were enjoying that lovely patch on the bank, whisps of clouds would creep over the crater's edges and sweep across the lake, then crawl back over the other side to blend in with the rest of the clouds that surrounded us. We were in a cloud forest! It was very moving to watch these whisps knowing the spiritual value of the place.

All around the lake was a trail, so we walked it. As we walked, we would encounter a sign explaining one of the ...

... the left.










To the left is the bathroom/toilet with flushing toilet (a luxury) and hot water electric shower which will electrocute you if you touch it.









Next to that is a concrete trough, common in all Guatemalan homes, where you wash your dishes and scrub your clothes. All in cold water. (Though we always used a local laundry to wash our ...

... for a place to stay?' Classy, I know.

Dave and Guy, two French Canadian ****ers (they were quite clear that I refer to them this way), in the military and on leave from Afghanistan. We hung out all night. At first, the conversation was deep and important-- the nature and nurture of people, good and evil, perspective. After quite a few beers though, we talked about sex. Exclusively. It was fun...and ...