The Central American Dream

Sometimes, before going to bed and trying to see these images clearly, all the stories start to get mixed.

Yeah, a dark, dark night after an absinthe open bar in NOLA, climbing a wall to get to the dock on the Mississippi River and the the water, so loud, keeping us away from the big, luminous building on the other side.
The weeks and the days and the hours... How long ago did that happen?

I went swimming in Lake Atitlán yesterday. Guatemala.
Floating there, on the water, watching beautiful green volcanoes all around, I just thought of all the water I had seen and fought this year.
It's rainy season in Central America.
It rains every day. Usually, once it starts raining, it won't stop.

We got to Guatemala a few days ago and we have just been walking around coffee plantations, picking avocados up from the floor and hiding from the rain.

After leaving Veracruz a few weeks ago, I hitchhiked alone to Mexico City. One of the easiest days of hitchhiking of history. I didn't even have to ask for any rides, I would just be walking a few meters from one spot to another and a car would pull over and take me exactly where I needed to go. I even got free breakfast and some cake, while I kept approaching the hell that I had escaped from back in June.

It was really nice to see some friends and I really loved being around a lot of different people for a couple of days. In Mexico City I met with my friend Ben, who I met in Memphis back in February or March while I was hitching across the USA. He left Memphis a couple of weeks ago to come to Latin America and he will travel all the way South to the end of the world.

Who would have thought that summer was going to be so wet and cold in Mexico?
How can someone be ready for that?

Ben had never hitchhiked before. We left Mexico City a week ago and it took us three days and a half to get to San Lucas Tolimán, where I happily reunited with Jenny.
And here I am again, with a hitchhiking gang of American kids who are running away from the American dream. I'm La Coyota! Translating and following the routes of the map. Next destination: Nicaragua.

Central America seems like quite the dream to me: getting the last ride of the day in La Ventosa right when the sun is setting and riding on the back of a pick-up, seeing the sky turn from blue to orange to fire to dark. And then the stars that start coming out, little by little, and half a moon illuminating everything.

We woke up in the morning in a gas station in Tapanatepec, and walked a few blocks down looking for a speed bum and some shade and, oh surprise! In the other side of the street, guess what? A bunch of big mango trees with huge fruits hanging from their branches!
I ran there to discover the sticky, orange and sweet smell of the dirt under the trees: mangoes rotting all around!!! I tried to find one that wasn't half eaten by the bugs and an old lady came out of the house and saw me.
"Do you want some mangoes, güera?"
I nodded enthusiastically. She went into the house and came back with two big bags full of mangoes! I took only one bag because I didn't want to carry them both.
We gave most of the away. They weren't bad, but they were very fibrous and too much mango might just ruin the strong love I have for that fruit.

And that's how it goes...

And of course I realize I romanticize all these stories a lot. We also have to walk on the heath or the rain carrying heavy back-packs and sometimes we are sticky and dirty and hungry and bored and so, so tired of waiting. But somehow in my memory it all ends up being a lot of fun...
A couple of days ago Jenny and I ran out to the streets of San Lucas while the rain was falling furiously on us. My mom always told me about the rain: you get wet and then you get dry and what? what's the big deal?
It was true!
I had my rain jacket on and Guatemalan money is made out of plastic, so I took my glasses off and I ran, embracing the blurry lights that shone all over the night. Getting wet was nothing! We got totally soaked! Laughing and yelling and yes! The rain is not so bad!

We are heading out tomorrow towards El Salvador and it's exciting to be traveling with friends again!
The three of us will be going to Vipassana in two weeks near Granada, and then going to Costa Rica to renew Jenny's visa.

The rest... We will see about that.