México

This one's gunna be another long one.  Ready?

Reason number... I dunno... 3?... why it's not always a blessing to be able to sleep like a rock while traveling:

Hopped on the bus to Tekun Uman in Quetzaltenango.  Woke up to everyone rushing off the bus.  Donde estamos?  I was told to just get in the van.  I was slightly concerned that I was about to die, but the bus driver knew where I was heading to and was giving me a friendly look as he pushed me towards the van.  So I crammed in with a bajillion other people.  Eventually, I read enough signs to figure out that we were heading to the right place.  That, and I looked at my clock.  I had been told that Tecun Uman was 3 hours from Xela, but we had only been driving for 2 hours before the van. Yeah...

Anywho... Mexico was lovely!  I ate some really good food, relaxed on the beach, read a book, and generally wandered around.  Mexico is very similar to Guatemala.  At least the part of Mexico that's only a few hours from where I'm living in Guatemala is very similar to the part of Guatemala where I'm living.  :-p One of the biggest differences is that Mexico has lots of convenience stores that are much more like those you find in the US.  Also the roads are generally nicer.  There were a couple of busier stretches of road that reminded me of LA: multiple lanes of traffic, palm trees, Dominos, Mexican restaurant, Burger King, something I can't understand in Spanish...

It's funny to travel in Mexico and Guatemala in September because both countries have their Independence Day this month (as do Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua...but I didn't go to those places).  Therefore every city you go to is hardcore decorated in the colors of the country, and sometimes the city too.  It's like a caricature of itself.  Me gusta.

My first night, I checked into a hotel, and then went looking for tourist information.  I was told you can't get tourist information in the evening, but that there's nothing to do at night and I should just eat and rest and do stuff early in the morning.  So I wandered around a bit, ate a delicious torta, and went to bed.  I didn't realize till the next morning that there's a 1 hour time difference, so I didn't actually go to bed or get up that early.  But yeah, it was cool.  There was a little fair going on in the central park.  Good stuff.

Tuesday I went to the beach.  Wikipedia says that Peurto Madero and Peurto Chiapas are the same thing, and they used to be called Peurto San Benito.  When you get to that area, however, the locals will till you that they are three very different places.  I'm pretty sure I was in San Benito.  At first I took a motorcycle-taxi-tricycle thing to some little beach area.  I had said I wanted to swim.  I guess a lot of people in Mexico don't swim very well... so the guy dropped me off at this nasty little inlet where I could easily have swam (or possibly waded) to the other side in a matter of minutes.  The beach was covered in trash, and there was a humongous boat nearby that was clearly dumping nastiness into the swimming area.  I got the eff out of there fast.

I did find a very beautiful beach.  It has the same black, volcanic sand as Monterrico, which you do not want to walk on without shoes while the sun is out.  There was a wall of rocks all along the water, but I found an opening, where the swimming was pretty nice.  Found a spot at a little restaurant/place-to-put-your-stuff place, and settled in at a table, on the beach, in the shade, with my book.  I just lounged around on the beach all day.  It was awesome!

San Benito and surrounding beaches are definitely not a gringo tourist destination.  The tourists come from Tapachula and other Mexican cities on the weekends, but during the week it's a quiet little fishing village.  Good stuff.  Also the guy at Hotel Sport is really sweet, and the hotel was kinda adorable.

Speaking of the guy at Hotel Sport, I've found that a ridiculous number of people I meet--both in Guatemala and Mexico--have been deported from the US...some more than once.  You can recognize them right away because they speak really good English, and they'll always say "I lived in the US for a while," or "I lived in the states back in 2006," or "I lived in the US for 18 years"--all code for "I got deported."  It's really messed up.  The system is extremely broken.  I've realized that if you're poor in Guatemala, you can work your ass off your whole life; you can get an education and work super full time and only spend money on what you and your family absolutely need, but you will always be poor.  The only way to get ahead is to go to the states and work as long as you can before you get deported.  That's how it works here.  So that's bleak...

But yeah... Yesterday was an interesting day.  Met lots of people.  A guy with a statue of Buddha gave me a free stone.  Then he asked me my sign, looked at my palm, and gave me a frighteningly accurate, detailed description of my love life.  Then he gave me another free stone.  Then I met Timothy from Honduras.  He got deported in 2008, and he's making his way back to Texas now.  He said I could travel with him for a while and be his girlfriend if I want.  I would have considered it, but all my stuff was in Xela... Too bad.  Might have missed out on the love of my life.  :-p

Did a bunch more wandering, trying to decide if I wanted to stay in Tapachula another day.  Irse Hacia el Norte (español aquí) was going to perform in Tapachula Wednesday night, and I really wanted to see them.  Plus I technically hadn't been out of the country long enough to get a new visa.  I decided to head back though.  My last day at the seminary is October 5th, so I wanted to be there.  Also my music students were supposed to be performing in the Mass Thursday morning.  (Didn't happen, but they did need a substitute teacher since Profesor Alfredo went on a field trip with the older students. So it all worked out.)

So yeah...did some light shopping (Mexican flag coconut candies for the office, earrings for a friend, drugs...the medical kind...) and eventually found my way back to the border.  In immigration I had the following conversation (translated from Spanish):

Lady: How many days will you be in Guatemala?
Me: Umm... about 90?  Yeah.  90 days.
Lady: You needed to be in Mexico for 72 hours.
Me: Siiii...
*Awkward Silence*
Me: I have to work tomorrow.
Lady: Ok, that'll be 10Q ($1.25).

Slightly more relaxed than US customs.  Just a lil.

Walked through Tecun Uman on my way to the bus, just for fun.  On the bus I made friends with some missionaries from a super religious drug rehab program.  They gave me a free card with a bible quote on it.  :-)

There were actual chickens on the chicken bus!

What else?

I broke a bunch of my rules last night.  I was on a chicken bus after nightfall, I ate street tamales, and I ate evening street fruit.  The food, however, was delicious, and I seem to have come out of all three situations unharmed!  :-)

Here's a video about Irse (español aquí):

GOING NORTHBOUND - theater and migration from bonifaz diaz on Vimeo.