Viva Las Vegas

Hola Amigos!

I am sitting here in the Vegas airport waiting for my flight to Guatemala city. The slot machines chirp behind me, their lights twinkling like fireflies with mag-lights duct taped to their asses, and in front of me out the windows I can see New York, Paris, and Cairo all at the same time. So its unexpected that the thing that strikes me as wierd in this place is the fact that the airport here is right smack in the middle of town. Seriously. When landing here you get nervous cause the pilot is blatantly ignoring the red lights on the street we are touching down on.

My computer and ipod tell me its midnight while my watch shows 2am. My phone assures me its only 11, though it doesn't have the best track record for accuracy so I'm not sure if I believe it either. I do know, however, that my flight has not been called to board, and I KNOW this because I have NOT had my headphones on (I'm trying to avoid a repeat of that Panama fiasco). I'm somewhat lost in time right now. I'm really not sure what time zone I sit in currently, or which one I am going to end up in tomorrow. When I finally get there, there will be a time, and that will be that. Its not that I am going far enough around the world to really feel like I am being displaced temporally, I'm just criss-crossing time zones (pacific to mountain to pacific to eastern to god-knows-what) and loosing track of where I am...

Anyhow, here is a map of Guatemala with my first three destinations marked.



Why these destinations, you might ask. Well, they are all in the mountains, and as we all know, I love the mountains. Also since my body is now acclimated after a winter at high altitudes, I intend to keep it that way. My first stop Xela, is a colonial city at about 7700 ft, where my old co-worker Joe is studying the Espanol. I thought I had a great picture of him in an apron, but it turns out, I just have this:

Which could in fact, still be how he looks, I don't know, I haven't seen him since August. I will also be studying in Xela too, although at a different school, and living with a family.

Also of note, I was reading through the Lonely Planet Guide to Central America and firstly, the key Mexican Phrases section (of which there are only two key phrases to begin with) lists the Mexican Spanish equivalent of "f'ed up situation" and secondly, the history and culture section has a list of the "Top Five Bastards" throughout Central America's history.