Three Volcanoes

Three Volcanoes
Originally uploaded by thegreatplotnik.

Back in town, it's a little weird to start thinking in English again. The Great Plotnik and The Great Ducknik will put four Guatemala pins in their map: Antigua, where Ducknik went to language school; the Maya Highlands of Lake Atitlan/Chichicastenango; the Caribbean tropics of Livingston and Rio Dulce; and the amazing jungle ruins of Tikal.

The last three days were hot and humid. Plotnik and Ducknik spent sunrises and sunsets on tops of Mayan pyramids with howler monkeys screeching in the dark; a long Thursday covering several hundred kilometers on a river launch, a bus that smelled like pee and a slightly scary van heading into the bumpy blackness; several mornings eating delicious huevos a la ranchera, beans, bananas and thick, homemade tortillas, but they gave up trying to find a decent cup of coffee in a country with coffee plantations everywhere they looked.

Last night at a guest house in Guatemala City, one of the most violent and polluted cities in the hemisphere, Plotnik realized once again how much he likes hanging around in hostels eating chicken and rice and talking to kids who love to travel. In his heart of hearts he thinks he's still one too.