¡El Horror! ¡El Horror!
Trip Start
Jul 11, 2010
1
16
32
Trip End
Aug 22, 2010
Panajachel, Western Highlands, Guatemala
Sunday, August 1, 2010
I was reading quietly in a hammock yesterday morning and at some point I nodded off. Suddenly, I was woken up by dog noises--hideous hideous dog noises. I looked down to the patio and saw. . . the worst thing ever.
Two dogs, humping? Fighting? Humping and Fighting? Stuck? The owners of the place were trying to separate them. Lots of yelping. Then the male dog finally separated--leaving a trail of blood from his mangled dog dick. Part of it came off. I don't know what part, and I certainly didn't know that could happen. But there was a lot of blood, and the lady who runs the place yelling in her British accent "Oh my God, he lost part of his cock," and then unceremoniously shooing the dog off the patio with a broom. "Now you've gone and gotten blood everywhere."
Yeah, but why did that dog's dick come off? I don't know. That can't be right. It took me a while to get going after I saw that. I was just kind of stunned, sitting there watching the cleaning women scrubbing the blood off the patio.
But Guatemala isn't all about dicks falling off. Everywhere around the Lake is very Mayan. The place I'm staying at is only accessible by boat, and the scenery is pretty spectacular. I've attached another panorama-now that I have a fancy camera I've got to take advantage of all its functions. There are two main volcanos around the lake, but everywhere the land slopes down steeply to the shore and all the mountains are covered with jungle, or whenever possible some kind of cultivation. There is not much to do except admire the scenery and take it easy. Some people dive in the Lake, but it seems much too polluted for that, and some people climb the volcanos but. . . fuck that, there is a hammock here with my name on it.
Everyone who is staying at the place I'm staying at is there by seven at night, because that's when the last boat comes in. Then, dinner and drinks. They keep a running tab and charge it through paypal when you check out. Two nights in a private room, two dinners, breakfasts, Bloody Marys, lots of gin and tonics and Gallo (the local beer), and laundry, 60 bucks. Not bad. The shower, however, left a bit to be desired. I'm not big on exposed electrical wires in a shower, but the way they heat water here is in the shower head. Honestly, I'll just take a cold shower rather than risk electrocution for slightly tepid water.
Last night I met someone who literally lives five blocks away in Cambridge, and someone else who works in Maryland state politics who gave me the low-down on some of the shit that goes on in The Wire. Strangely, in the episode where Carchetti goes to talk to the Governor about bailing out the schools, the state trooper who shows him out of the building is played by Robert Ehrlich (douchebag), who was Governor at the time when Martin O'Malley, then Mayor of Baltimore, went, hat in hand, to get the state to bail out the school system. Carchetti didn't take the money, but O'Malley, who is now Govenor, actually did, and got hammered with that in advertisements by Ehrlich during the gubernatorial race.
So, off to Flores. This is gonna be a bitch but. . . they sell valium over the counter here so I now look forward to buses.
