In a Boat Without a Paddle

March 4, 2008

Sorry I haven't posted recently. I guess you might say I have had an exciting week. The bed bugs had us in a snit over the weekend on into Monday. Yes, believe it or not, the woman who stayed in this room before me brought them from Antigua. Andrea, the daughter of the house, and Katerina from Germany, washed the sheets and all Katerina's clothes, but nothing was done to the room or the mattresses, so after about a week of my bodily warmth, they started in on me. We washed all of my things, and I have moved into a different room. Both Susan (my current roommate) and I hope the stinkers don't follow us.

Monday about noon, Susan and I, exhausted from our morning washing, jumped on the local boat to San Pedro, about 30 minutes away on the west side of the lake. San Pedro is a gringo town, lots of Americans, and it reminds me a bit of a small neighborhood of San Francisco, not Guatemala. We met a weaver friend of Susan's, and after lunch, wandered up to her shop to look at the things her coop makes, all very lovely.

The women do what is called backstrap weaving. They tie one end of their rope looms to a large tree; the other end goes around their backs, and they sit on their knees (usually, although I have seen some sit on tiny stools) and weave beautiful, colorful material from which they make table cloths, placemats, bread covers (they cover everything with these lovely little towels to keep out the dust and the flies), bedspreads, shawls, scarves, little hand bags, yoga mat holders, you name it.

About 4 p.m. we wandered back to the beach to pick up the last boat back to Santiago Atitlan. Everyone headed down to the end of the dock and started getting into...WHAT? This tiny little motor boat?? I kid you not! About 15 people, maybe more, some with loads of wood and who knows what else in large packages all piling into this tiny boat. Well, I took one look at that boat and thought to myself, this girl ain't crossing that big old lake in that tiny boat with 15 other people and no life preservers!!!

My friend Susan must have read my mind (more likely the look on my face) because she immediately turned to this young kid and asked, can't we take that other boat, the larger one with the roof and seats for 50 people (but in Spanish, of course)? Well, I think the kid saw his chance for a quick buck. Sure, we could take the bigger boat, but it would cost more. We had only paid 20 quetzales each to get here and that was on an even bigger boat with even fewer people. Susan then asked how much it was going to cost. Well, he gathered up his courage and tried 100 quetzales each. At that point I walked off the dock and headed back up the beach, saying I would go and start looking for a hotel…I was not getting into that tiny boat. Long story short, poor Susan didn't want to stay in San Pedro for the night (although we had already heard they were showing Michael Moore's Sicko at the local bar!), so she worked very hard and managed to negotiate him down to 60 quetzales more for the both of us. I paid the difference, and everyone in the little boat happily jumped into the bigger boat and off we went, accompanied no less by the voice of Rod Stewart.

Oh, lest I forget, saw my first Guatemalan scorpion on Saturday night. Ken, from Pueblo a Pueblo, had us over for a lovely dinner at his new little house just outside of town. Coco, his sweet, young dog started barking wildly at the corner of the room and sure enough, there it was. Ken quickly killed it, and we got back to eating. This was my first meal with fresh lettuce and vegetables. You do not dare eat things like that out, even at nice restaurants. (We are definitely suffering withdrawal from fresh vegetables and salads.) Dessert was spectacular though. We had sliced mangos and melon covered with cream. While waiting for the tuc tuc back home, we stood outside and stared up at a sky you can only imagine. The stars were so bright you almost felt you could reach out and touch them.