XELA (More to come)
We found a pretty cool language school after searching for a few hours and going through about 5 or 6 with most being blahzey, whatever. We finally ended up at Escuela Espanol de Juan Sisay, a language school cooperative that also did social justice community work and were placed into our host families, mine being perfect for me and exactly what I needed, which was a family, with a little miniature poodle and a mom that reminded me much of mine own except more outwardly friendly and hospitable, obviously a socially cultural difference. Making new freinds from Denmark, two guys and three girls (Casper, ?, Mari, Katarina, and Anna). Anna had an impact on me immediately and in her eyes I was drawn in like a bee to an amazing flower filled with delicious nectar and potent pollen. My spanish at this point was full of wrong rules and bad grammar, with only about a handful of verbs remembered accurately enough for me to confidently use them at least on a somewhat regular basis. It was perfect for me to get reacquainted with the second spoken language in the USA, but now I realize that this is one big america just different countries, cultures, and colors.
I was enjoying the challenge of studying espanol for a week and hanging with my new danish friends, my brotherhood laughing clan from France/Israel. Relearning the basics, feeling like I had a family again, a home even if I was only a guest for it was the first time since i left mi casa in Santa Barbara that I unpacked all my stuff and put it away or at least out to breathe the fresh polluted air of this beautiful cobblestone city.
Suddenly Shauna and Nick came sick too to Xela and they spoke of leaving soon to go travelling, specifically backpacking from Xela to Guatemala, a 3 hour bus ride. We walked over 60 kilometers and took two days instead of the three prescribed by the tour flyer and what most do, we were in fact the 4th or 5th group to complete the journey more quickly out of the 30 groups led by our guide, Carlos. I was hesistant to go on this trip after only week in spanish, but while reading The Alchemist, which speaks of watching and paying attention to the omens from the universe. So I took the finding out that Anna had a boyfriend, the decision of my friends to stay another day after I told Shauna and Nick to go with out me. When Anna and I arrived to a Jazz bar called Ohala they left me a message since they returned home and said that they wanted me to go with them and that they were going to go on Saturday and that was that and I knew my path was to leave and go on a jounrey across the mountains. So with an explosion of drunken sweet romance and possibility in my hand with a confused questioning young goddess and my desire to learn more spanish, but feeling the ancyness that comes every week or so for me when I haven´t left the town that I was in at the beginning of the week, I knew to go at least it felt right at the time.
I was feeling funkalicious and was at the point that I felt like seeking help outside of my GSE magic medicine that I apparently wasn´t taking enough of and also not spending the time to replace the bacteria that i kicked out of my stomach. Seeing a homeopathic doctor and being prescribed chemical antibiotics seemed pretty ironic and it effected my ability to recieve information and be present on top of my time adjusting to a new place. Needless to say it was good to put a concerted effort in the glory and struggle of learning, especially something as complex and integrative as a new language no matter how familiar and how much I have been hearing it for the past 6 weeks. Finished the Alchemist and remembering the importance of listening to our hearts and trusting their power especially to speak to us and be our friend and that which looks out for us even if we are not conscious of it. Seeing the beauty and the everywhere presence of the language of the soul of the world, it really is all around and is always speaking. Combined with reading Secrets of the talking Jaguar, which i started reading Atitlan the night I arrived here in San Pedro. How much overlapping beauty it speaks of the poetic ability of the Tzu´jil people to speak their sacred secret coded language and the more high you reach in the community the more complexity and regalness of language you gain.
FROM XELA TO THE FABLED LAGO DE ATITLAN, NOW THIS IS PARADISE
The jounrey was ohh soo intense, slightly insane and although I said good bye to every one except my housemates who I started my journey with I felt good about the freedom of newness and familiarity wrapped up into a package of lets go hike the mountains of the beautiful sacred mayan highlands. My muscles ached like no other since when I was in Track & Cross Country back in High School, which was a welcome rememberance. It is amazing what the body can handle and what we are capable of especially witnessing little mayan men and women carrying huge loads of wood from the mountains to their high haven villages. They schooled me for sure but then rocked me with their sweet smiles and their willingness to always greet one another, stopping to have a brief conversation with us occassionally. What people, hard working, simple, honoring their cultures, ancestors, and old ways of life with the occasional cell phone breaking the pure silence and wind song. After two intense days we arrived last night and are here now by an ancient beautiful awe inspiring lake and I feel strangely at home in this strange whisper dream land.
Lago Atitlan and ancient asteroid volaconoe 1000ft deep lake that is beautiful, expansive, peaceful, and occupied by the T´zu-jil mayan people. I am reading a book called The Secrets of the Talking Jaguar, written by Martin Prechtl about a man from New Mexico and a member of the Puebla Indians to his journey through mexico and Guatemala until he arrives in Lago Atitlan, in particular the ancient village of Santiago Atitlan. I have mirrored his journey in a lot of ways and I just finished last night, The Alchemist, by Pablo Coelho and am remembering my personal legend, learning to listen and speak the language of the soul of the world. Ohh how to live with out fear in our hearts, what a challenge, but what a triumph to know the power it is capable of and how magic magnets we be housed in these human bodies.
I am in love with this place, as we hiked out of a ghost town mayan village after being essentially in the back country for two days with the occasional mayan puebla it was a shock and our achy muscles and bones yearned to leave and climb the lip of the sacred lake to reach our final glorious destination. As we descended down the rim and caught our first view, I knew that I was where I was supposed to be and all that I had worked for on this journey could not prepare me for this place. I wouldn´t necessarily say that I was home, but that I have arrived to where I was exactly supposed to be, my heart sings with thankfulness and smiles to have the gumption to get here and play in the blue perfection waters. Yesterday, Shauna, Nick (24th Birthday woo hoo it was fun yesterday), and I rented kayak/canoe´s and went across the lake to the pseudo-hippy village of San Marcos known for it´s yoga healing meditation center, para gliding points, and 10 meter rock jumping cliffs. We had a beautiful day and then went to Zoola´s a Hebrew bomb joint where we ate some of the best food I have had yet, albeit middle eastern/european/new age creations. It was soo good and we spent 6 hours there, reading, eating, drinking wine, listening to amazing flute music, relearning playing dominoes, celebrating toasting to Nick and his wonderful life thus far, where I wrote the piece in the entry below, which inspired by life and this place and rememberances of a haven in the storm of tiempo, Time Traveller´s Tavern.
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