An amazing day spent with Anita, my 24 year old Spanish teacher from San Pedro. She boats 20 minutes across the lake every day to spend two hours with me. We get along very well and I look forward to spending the next 4 or so weeks with her studying. This day though in particular began at Moonfish cafe on the main road coming into San Marcos. Alex and I went for our typical morning coffee with milk (cafe con leche)...that we always share as we try to mange our addiction - the coffee here is unreal... And for those of you who know us well, know we are die hard tea drinkers and rarely, if ever, touch coffee. Its just that good here!
Moving on with the day, Alexander wasn't feeling great and ventured back to the casa (me finding out later, he slept all afternoon).
I enjoyed a calm quiet meal of soup and tortillas (I obviously asked for butter to serve my other addiction) and shortly after finishing my meal at La Paz Hostel and restaurant, ventured to meet Anita in the terrace garden patio of acculaxx hotel.
So back to the beginning of this post, I spent an amazing day with Anita. My Spanish is coming along and particularly flowed this day as we laughed and joked surrounded by colibris (hummingbirds).
After class we wandered around the town and decided to bring Alex up some of his favourite soup - the same stuff from LA Paz. The walk/hike to our casa is pretty intense and I am sure I will write about it in more detail another time.
So we finally made it up, dropped off the soup, checked on Alex and I told him I was about to join Anita on a boat to San Pedro to go to the bank, her house and would be back soon.
His last words to me were "don't do anything I wouldn't do, and I probably wouldn't get on a launcha this late". (Fyi the launcha's always stop running at sunset.)
So off I went - BEGIN ADVENTURE.
Of course I got on the boat, haha. Anita could have sworn there would be a boat back...but as I have now learned, don't trust the Mayans on anything related to time!
As soon as we pulled off the dock my friend Jessie, randomly in the boat with a crew of people I also know - heading to the yoga farm, turned to me and was like dude - the last boat back from San Pedro was at 5! It was of course already after 5:30 and I now held a one way ticket to another town with no way to reach my love to tell him what I had got myself into. And as he will later tell me again gloatingly - shit can get fucked up quick here, as I clearly didn't believe him before when he was giving me warning stories about travel and his past experiences. Yep. Things had definitely escalated from pleasurable boat ride to - stranded, in a matter of minutes.
I have never been one to really listen to advice when adventure is at steak... admittedly so, I like to experience things on my own...luckily it worked out.
An idiot mistake. A big lesson. And a great story.
Here i am now, Down almost three days of my budget, I sit in my hammock laying low for the next few days to make up the 300 quetsals (30 dollars) I dropped to get myself home.
The boat not only had a crew of friends en route to the yoga farm, but also my buddy, Kyle - a friend who works at San Marcos hostel who I have known for two weeks.
Kyle! I yelled at him, to the bow of the boat where he was sitting. You going home tonight? I asked him.
Ya buddy, he tells me, on a tuk tuk at 8:30.
Cool, can I meet you!? He says yes and we arrange to meet at the bar by the dock.
So immediately I at least have a plan, I will just have to chill out for a few hours until I can get home.
Off the boat now and figuring out my next order of business in operation "Retardidly take boat to San Pedro at sunset."
Not wanting to worry Alex (and of course we have no phone yet) my first order of business is get a message to the info hub in San Marcos and get our friend there to get a message to another friend who can come up and tell Alex where I am and when I will be home.
Obviously don't have the number so this leads me into an internet cafe to acquire the number.
Two numbers for the hub don't work, can't find the number to the hostel to tell another friend where I am - on another note both bank machines have no money...so now all I can think is why am I still here - I have to get home! Can't wait 2 hours to share a tuk tuk with Kyle...gotta venture home now, so as not to worry my boyfriend even more who has already spent the whole day sick in bed.
As I have rambled on and on..,you get the gist of the story.
Probably should have listened to Alex...spent almost three days of my budget on a privado (private boat) and a tuk tuk from el centro San Pedro to San Marcos to get back to my house at a reasonable hour.
Silver lining... One of the most epic boat rides of my life. I gazed up at the sky littered with stars, the moon's light beaming onto the volcanoes; I was perched at the bow of the boat. At that moment nothing else mattered... I was in the middle of the most beautiful lake I have ever seen, with a view of the perfect landscape contrasted by the twinkling lights that made up the surrounding villages. A moment that cannot even properly be described in words.
300 quetzals, 300 dollars, 3000 dollars, wouldn't matter, I could never put a price on this little accidental miracle.
These accidents are everyday miracles and are moments that serve to define the best experiences in life.
No comments:
Post a Comment