After arranging so much of my travel myself, and worrying about how to get from community A to community B on a microbus (no chicken buses, because they go too fast and fall off cliffs, but microbuses are exciting in a different kind of way, picking up and dropping off passengers every few hundred yards and occasionally getting 27 people into a space we might use for 8 or 9), I am thrilled that my only responsibility is to show up for the next few days. Places I am going between now and Sunday include:
- the ruins at Quirigia
- Lago de Izabel and an old pirate castle
- Tikal, massive Mayan ruins in the jungle
- the Petèn town of Flores
- the town of Rio Dulce
- a 2 or 3-hour journey up the Rio Dulce to...
- Livingston, where I think they actually speak English, on the Caribbean coast, opposite Belice
Tonight I am staying in a hostel, in a coed dorm room in which I am sure to be the oldest person, but it's already 7:20 and I will be gone by 4:00 am, so I am sure my middle-aged vibe will not disturb anyone too much. Why pay a lot for less than a whole night of sleep?
I saw and learned a little more about Mayan rituals in the Quichè and look forward to really immersing myself in this culture in Tikal. I asked Santos, Gloria Kanu's Ki'che husband, whether Mayans are making as much as westerners are of 12/2010, when the 5,125-year cycle in the Mayan Long Count calendar comes to an end. "Well, they don't say much, and they don't think that the world will end that day, but yes, they believe something significant will happen," he told me.
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