Lilli Cloud

Who knew that the smell of a freshly peeled orange could be overpowering? I about flipped over the smell of it when I landed in the scruffy fishing village of Livingston today. That orange aroma sliced through the tropical heat like a laser. I’ve never wanted an orange so badly.

It could also be extreme fatigue, which does funny things to the mind, or the fact that I only had part of a truck stop hamburger for breakfast around 9:30 a.m. (For those of you worried about e-coli in uncooked beef, don’t. Most of the hamburger was filler, not meat anyway.)

My wake-up call came at 4:45 a.m. — the driver from the hostel knocking on my door. He was to take me to the bus station at 5 a.m. so I could arrive half an hour early for the 6 a.m. bus. I ended up catching the 5:30 a.m. bus, which was just as well since I was up so ridiculously early. I expect at least two or three more similar mornings coming up. Tomorrow I will get up early to catch a boat down Rio Dulce to catch a bus north to Flores. From there I go to the Maya ruins of Tikal, deep in the jungle. There I hope to get up early enough one morning to get into the park at or before dawn, to experience the jungle awakening. It’s very cool.

I also plan to be wet for the next several days as I’m now in the tropics. Last night on the ride in to Guatemala City from Lake Atitlan I was comfy in my fleece with the window open. Now I’m just a sticky mess.

I’m camped out at La Casa Rosada, another favorite waterfront hotel. This is a simple hangout with very clean palapa-roof bungalows, shared banos and the second best food in the country, after La Casa del Mundo. There is chance for wildlife entering the room here also, but it would probably be a crab or a lizard.

This is the second day in a row I’m glad I’m such a good swimmer. I keep telling myself, it’s okay, you know how to swim really well. This morning I went to Puerto Barrios and took a collectivo launcha (speed boat with nearly 20 other people)across the Bahia de Amatique, which is the mouth of the Carribean. I guess, officially, it is not open water, but when you look out and only see horizon, it might as well be.

The boat driver manuevered his way out of the dock area packed with similar vessels and then stalled. And started. And stalled. He kept adjusting something on the engine and trying again. Then he put-putted us a little further out into the open water. More stuttering. More messing with the engine. Further out into the water. Sort of like when the plane leaves the gate, and then they decide they have a problem. Of course, I can swim for real. I only fly in my dreams.

Not sure how or why, but he eventually got it going full speed, enough to push my eyelashes up against my face. The guy next to me, sitting on the outside, held his glasses on. In a half hour, we arrived at land, greeted by black Garifuna men who come on to every tourist with the musical sounds of the Carribean English, promising the best hotel in town. In the restaurant next to where I’m writing this, two women are braiding another woman’s hair — a local speciality. And you can get coco locos in all the local bars.

As for yesterday, I was more concerned about the water problem because I had my laptop with me. I can swim, but my computer cannot. Now it is safely locked in a hostel in Guatemala City. I spent so much time chatting with the proprietor of La Casa del Mundo on Lake Atitlan that by the time I got to the dock the lake was a sea of whitecaps. The wind always comes up in the afternoon, but yesterday it was wild, and inky from the clouds that often cool down the afternoons.

At first I was the only person in the boat, just me and the driver slamming up against the waves, until we picked up a couple of other people at villages along the way. I was feeling the need to reassure myself as I listened to the creaking as we pounded away across the lake until I realized most of it was coming from a wooden awning, not from the boat itself. The boat, being fiberglass, is much sturdier, or so I told myself.

But it’s all part of the adventure. After all, these people drive these buses and boats every day along these routes. And what stories would I tell if everything was normal and boring?

Enough adventure for today. From the boat on the way here I could see Belize way in the distance. It made me want to just grab some scuba gear and go! But I have other plans. I need a nap. As you can tell by the length of this blog, there isn’t anything to do here but hang out and rest. The heat and humidity demand the laid-back lifestyle. There is no other option, at least not for me. Not today.