It's a jungle out there...

I am thoroughly enjoying this little village. There's weird bugs and giant plants. It rains all the time. A massive blanket of foliage is always hovering, ready to take back any man-made creation. It sounds a bit melodramatic, but you get that feeling while walking around.

Then Kyle told me about the original village of El Palmar, abandoned and destroyed by floods in the nineteen eighties. I'm not kidding. The entire village I'm staying in is where the inhabitants fled to when a river suddenly changed course and ripped their little village in two. When Kyle told me this, I imagined a small ravine, maybe five or six feet wide. This is what he meant...


If you look closely, you can see half of the church on the left and a buried market on the right. It's crazy to think this small canyon was created in just 30 years. I said that aloud, then Kyle told me that most of it was created in under 10.

So we continued to explore the recent ruins, which was very interesting to say the least. After seeing some of the excavated ruins in Greece and Italy, I understand so much better how bustling centers of trade (like Olympia and Ostia Antica) can suddenly disappear because a river changes direction. As of 1982, nothing in this village was wrong.

We crawled into the "market," a dark hole in the grass with about four feet of standing room left inside. Silt had piled up when the river was higher. I couldn't see anything, but with a flash you can see writing on the walls. Neat, huh?


The graveyard was especially creepy. I'm not sure if grave robbers ransacked the place before or after the vines took over.


An old church on top of a hill. People who went to this church are still alive.


An old grave. This is where the jungle ends and the weird, wet safari begins.


The canyon was definitely my favorite. That bridge is so stereotypical jungle-adventure movie. There was even a gap in the wood where your foot can conveniently fall through if you're that guy in the movie.


Here's Kyle. I've decided that he's a bit more jungle-photogenic than me.

It could be the hat...

So... this village is awesome. The people are very friendly and starting to recognize me. I'm starting to learn Spanish better and can actually have small conversations with people. Overall, I'm having a good time.

Oh yeah, there's also a small waterfall we can swim in, about a five minute walk away.
Yeah, I'm serious. Yes, It's nice.

Dogs

Dogs are very interesting here. If a dog bites someone in America they are put down. If I dog bites someone here, the person is laughed at because they let a mutt bite them. But at least in the day time, dogs are scared of people. It's perfectly acceptable to kick dogs or throw rocks at them. In fact, if a dog is picking on you, you just crouch low to the ground and they run away because they think you're going to throw rocks at them. I saw this in practice and it's crazy how well it works.

Of course, with this abuse comes an odd compromise. There's a dog that lives outside one of the Peace Corps volunteer's house. This dog has realized that gringos don't usually kick her for no reason. In fact, they actually pet her and give her left over food occasionally. She followed us all the way down a mountain yesterday. When we got to the bottom, we had to use a rickshaw to get to the beach. The poor thing happily ran after us for a long way, at least a mile, before it finally gave up.

We rode a bus back up the mountain and found the dog waiting for us back at the house. Seriously? This is the most loyal dog in the world. I think they gave it a treat, but the very act of not-beating it was enough.

Guatemala, Day One

Every time I go someplace, the first day is always full of first impressions that are great for blogs. Guatemala is no exception. By the time I get someplace where I can sit and write something, I'm never quite sure where to start. There's no way you can record everything. But... let me try.

For those of you who don't know where Guatemala is, it's just below Mexico. (I'll admit, I didn't know exactly where it was until I realized I might be visiting and I looked it up) It's not big, but it is geographically very diverse. There are jungles, mountains, fresh water lakes, volcanoes, and beaches. This morning I was riding a bus through a cold mountainous area, wishing I had a sweater. Now I'm resting on a hammock in a hot, humid, jungle-type area.

Just off the highway by Kyle's house. He said there's better stuff around the corner.

Guatemala is a center of Mayan culture. I don't know much about it, yet, but it seems very interesting. The women wear traditional clothing, mostly everywhere. They put a lot of effort into their appearances, even if they're just going to the market or something (which makes shabby bus rides a colorful experience). We've stayed mostly out big cities, but everything I've seen so far has been very clean. The air is fresh, trash is minimal. I've only had one person come up to me and ask for money. If you've traveled at all before, you know how crazy that is. Of course, perhaps I've just been in a nice part of the country...

Kyle, looking over Lake Atitlán.

Yesterday morning I arrived in Guatemala City and Kyle (a friend I've known forever from Elgin) picked me up at the airport. We took several buses to go up the mountains to meet some of his Peace Corps friends. They've all been here almost two years, so they know what to do and how to have a good time. We went hiking, swam in a beautiful freshwater lake, ate pizza in a hippy town, went back to a house that looks over a mountain valley, cooked fresh tortillas and apple pie. Very cool. Very fun.

Public transportation by the lake

Me and Kyle at Lake Atitlán

Kyle, jumping off a cliff

This morning we started the bus trek to Kyle's place, which is at the base of the mountains. I suddenly feel like I'm in rainforest... well, for good reason. It's so nice to travel to place where I can leave my stuff and settle for a bit. Now we're just chilling. I'll be here for at least two weeks, so I'm in no rush.

Seriously, this is real?

I was looking at an article entitled, "10 Pictures You Won't Believe Aren't Photoshopped" (or something of the like) and came across this:



No joke, I screamed a little when I saw this. Can you imagine??

"Oh, I'm just going to run outside to take out the tra-ahhh!!!"

I don't even know what I'd do if I saw this on my trashcan. I'm thinking pee with a blackout-and-go-crazy for a few minutes.

Anyway, it's called a "coconut crab" and I can safely say that it doesn't live anywhere I have been and I have scratched any country which lies in this monster's territory off my list of places I want to travel to someday in life.

It usually doesn't grow to be the size of this picture, but still gets to be obscenely large. I think we can all agree that arthropods should never, ever grow to be this size. And all that do should be doused with holy water and sent back to the netherworld they came from.

Fascinating creatures, though, huh?

-Dryad-

This was made using stock images and Photoshop a bit ago. If you're interested in this kind of thing, check out deviantart.com. There's a whole community of really talented artists on the site. I dabbled for a few weeks... this one seemed to be the best I came up with.

The plunge

Am I standing on the precipice of ultra-geekdom? Or have I already made the plunge? Let me explain.

My sister made a point yesterday. I'm really bad at keeping blogs. This is true. In my defense, my life really hasn't been very exciting lately. But I guess I'm also kind of tired of telling people I've been living like a bum the past few months. It's amazing what random creative outlets you discover when boredom levels are high.

I make boardgames now. It's really weird, something I never really saw coming... remotely. I guess I used to make monopoly-variations when I was in elementary school, but... my motivation to make these things is... obsessive, to say the least. Once I get inspired, I'm completely focused on the task at hand. The first one I made, back in January, I decided I was going to "dabble" in the idea on a Tuesday. Truly, I don't know what happened to the next few days. I remember little. I slept little. But Thursday night we were ready to try it out for the first time. It wasn't great.

This is not it. This was the... third one I made. It took a ridiculously long time to make. You have no idea. Unfortunately, paired with the lengthy construction is a lengthy gameplay. We never actually finished a game. After this one I tried creating one you can finish in 1-1.5 hours, is non-competitive, and where everyone feels like they're involved in the game (even with the possibility of winning) until the very end. It seems to be working. If you're in town, ask me about it. I'll be glad to divulge.

So yes, I'm a nerd.

Oh, what fun!

Today at work there was a calculator sitting on the desk. As the hours ticked by, I noticed that it read:

0.0000014

Why would it say that? Did someone type it there intentionally? Was it the end of a long, complex problem that was waiting to be continued when the desk owner returned? Secretly, I decided to create some mischief. I cleared the calculator and typed:

0.0000015

I smiled to myself, but not enough to catch a student's wandering eye and arouse their suspicions. No one will ever know!

Such was the highlight of my day.