JJ's Travelogue

Thanks to you all who have been commenting. It’s really nice feedback, and makes me happy to hear my friends are actually reading all this stuff.

Yesterday a group of us went for a hike up the volcano behind the town. It’s not an active volcano, unfortunately. There are many of those around, but this is not one. Left at 6:00 am. Lemme tell you something – I’m in pretty good shape. I hike, bike, run. But this hike kicked my ass all the way to Quetzaltenango. It was four hours straight up 4,600 feet. Oh My God I Thought I Was Going To Die.
We had a bit of a view partway up, and one could imagine the stunning view waiting for us at the top. That is, if the clouds didn’t roll in. Which of course they did. So we had a lovely view of white mist. Beautiful. Really. Not being facetious.
Of course I packed trail bars and water and a rain jacket, and… not my camera. But one of the other blokes said he would send me some of his shots, so I’ll post those when they come through. [Update: He never sent them. Bastard. Always follow thru if you say you'll send photos!]

My haircut today was good fun. Had to wait a bit, which made for good people watching and attempted conversation. The barber did a nice job. Took his time. Charged me twice the local rate, but it was still only $7. He said he guessed my age (from my hair) to be somewhere between 30 and 33. Aww, isn’t that sweet. I wonder if he says that to all the gringos.

My family goes to church three times a week. Good grief. Always at night, too. Interesting. Almost every night you can hear the singing and whooping and hollering from some service or other. My family is Evangelical, with a fair amount of local indigenous religion thrown in for good measure I’m sure. There are a fair amount of Protestants and only one Catholic church, the original one at the top of the hill.

Turns out the weekends boom around here. Like on Fire Island. The town really came alive Friday and Saturday nights. There is a Latin fusion band that plays every Saturday night at my bar, and they were fantastic. You know I’m shy and don’t usually initiate conversation, but after a while of watching the band, I did get to talking with the people next to me. Two women – one Dutch, the other from Colorado, but of Guatemalan descent. That made me feel good, to have a real conversation. Usually, I feel quite old here. Although I enjoy hanging out at my bar, they’re all really young. The other night they were showing photos of some party where they were all playing quarters. I’m not kidding.

An Israeli was on our hike, and I asked him why there were so many of them here. It’s an interesting explanation..
You’re probably aware that there is a mandatory draft in Israel, and everyone has to serve in the armed forces after high school. Boys for three years, girls for two. [Generally you don't have a choice of where you're posted, but he got lucky - since he's an only child, he wasn't sent to the front lines. They try not kill off the last of the family line. Snarky comment deleted.] After their service, it’s standard practice for Israelis to take anywhere from a few months to a year or two off to travel before going into University or the work force. (I knew Australians did this, but wan’t aware Israelis too.) He said one way to spot them is they’ll often be scruffy or have long hair – because the army doesn’t allow this, they all let their hair down after getting out. According to him, there are great swaths of Israelis in cheap destinations such as this one. Apparently in some towns in South America, you almost feel like you’re in Israel because of all the signs and shops catering to them.

I also received a plausable explanation why most of the houses look unfinished, and/or have rebar sticking out the top. You only pay taxes on a house once the house is completed. Houses under construction don’t pay taxes. So if the house is never finished, they never have to pay. Sounds plausable, anyway.

Oh, I have a new phone number. I’ve tried all three cell companies here, trying to find one that will allow international texting. I’m stymied – two of them will let me text, but I can’t receive texts back. You won’t get an error, it just won’t go through. So I’ve given up.
Here´s my new number: 011 502 426 714 95.