viernes, 14 abril

well, it seems like I’ve lost a few days to distraction and a disinclination to simply repeat the same old things. things have been pleasantly and relaxingly routine and more or less uneventful enough to allow me to relatively guiltlessly ignore my blogging obligations. however, it being the end of the week and a beneficent opportunity for writing, I’ll try to catch things up a bit.

if my grandmother was still alive, today would be her birthday, and I believe it would’ve been her 99th, but I’m uncertain of her age, because it was never a topic on which she was prone to elaboration.

in addition to that, today is also good friday, which must mean that one thousand nine-hundred and seventy-seven years ago today (give or take) jesus was nailed to a cross up on Golgotha hill where he later died for our sins, spent the weekend going to hell and back, then he returned to his tomb from where, sometime that sunday, he ascended to heaven, taking his body with him.

the locals love this holiday. the mayans were reportedly readily able to embrace jesus as one of their own when the Spaniards introduced Christ to them half a millennium ago. this was partly due (according to something I think I read somewhere, but forgive me if my faulty memory has mangled it) to the Spanish clergy who, in the interest of assimilation, allowed for a relatively liberal interpretation of scripture by these new converts, and also partly due to the similarities in the existing mayan belief system and symbology, to that of the Christians. the mayan people believed that they had been created by a combination of corn and water, and as corn people, they could easily follow the idea of a springtime death and resurrection. they also had from what I recall, a four pointed conception of the cosmos and cardinal directions, symbolized as a cruciform world tree, which apparenty allowed the Christian cross to seem familiar to them also and thereby embraced and understood, when the Spaniards arrived bearing that. the maya also had various blood letting ceremonies and so the last supper thing was right up their alley too. these days, not only are most of the walls decorated with pro-christian slogans (and a few anti-gringo/americano ones) but also it’s rare to see a pick-up that does not have decaled a Christian themed message on the upper part of its windshield___ and last weekend, most vehicles sported palm fronds tied to grills, wipers, rearview mirrors, door handles, handle-bars, and any other spot available. as I’ve mentioned before, I like the way the guatemaltecos enjoy their religion… even if it doesn’t quite satisfy all my theological hopes and expectations.

the festivities here in san pedro will be pretty subdued compared to what goes on in Antigua, but so will the crowds, which is why my craving for tranquility has led me here. however things are lookink more and more like the Venice boardwalk out there, completed with conga drums, fire spinners, jugglers, hippies, and of course stalls selling trinkets and t-shirts.

so let’s see, apparently I posted the last entry on monday. that evening I went up to the allegre, had a few beers, and watched narnia on their rooftop screen. you wouldn’t ordinarily think of coming to Guatemala for the movies, or at least I wouldn’t, but it seems that this is the place to come, to catch up on American cinema. several of the bars show nightly movies, simply exhibiting the dvd, projected onto a homemade screen. clearly that intimidating fbi/Interpol warning is not nearly so intimidating from a Guatemalan viewpoint.

narnia really wasn’t too good, I thought__ but for that reason I was all the more glad to have watched it down here for the price of the beer I accompanied it with. the following night or maybe wednesday(?) I saw walk the line, about johnny cash, a d’noz__ I liked that one much more.

I’ve seen a couple other movies and read several books here, as I’ve mentioned this place really lends itself to a sort of decadent relaxation, which I’ve mostly interpreted to be a lot of reading and talking (but mostly with fellow English speaking travelers, so my Spanish is kinda getting neglected). I just today finished reading captain corelli’s mandolin, which I really enjoyed. I’ve read some mediocre things recently too, but even those seem to have wonderful little insights hidden within them that make them worthwhile reads.

the current batch of neighbors include Cyril and Annette. He’s French and spent five years in the military in Africa, and she’s from Sweden. he eventually got into a motorcycle accident which caused him to spend a year in a wheelchair and abandon his military career, but is now fully recovered and has largely embraced a more pacifistic way of life, but definitely has been able to express some interesting responses to my questions about violence, which he sees as a necessary and important side of humanity.

the bartenders at the allegre have all learned my name, which I have to confess, I find irresistibly endearing, which leads me to spend more evenings there than I might have otherwise. nevertheless, despite the ideal nature of my circumstances here, I think I’ll be more than ready to move on by sometime next week. as the crowds gather however, I’m very glad that I found a comfortable spot in which to ride out the semana santa, because judging by the number of travelers stopping in here looking for lodging, I think rooms are hard to find and at a premium. and with lots of tourists, as well as many locals on holiday, I think that’s the case pretty much throughout the country.

I’ll try to get backing the swing of daily entries – although maybe those are too long-winded to make for interesting reading anyway, although I think I’ll be glad later to have the writtrn record of thoughts… if I ever bother to reread them.