Waiting for the world to change...

Or at least just waiting. This is what I became really good at earlier this week. Everything in Central America runs on its own time, so you have to be patient. My ability to be patient was really tested though when we arrived in La Ceiba, Honduras on Tuesday evening. Wednesday morning we got up early to go to the port where we were going to catch a boat to Utila Island to do some diving. Unfortunately, there is only one boat that goes to Utila, and on Wednesday it was broken. So they told us to hang out because it might be fixed. We waited for over 7 hours only to discover that there would be no boat that day at all.

This day turned out to not be a total waste though, because a group of us banded together and we ended up having a fun adventure team of 6: two Yankees, two Spaniards, a German girl and a Welsh lass set off to find some hot springs. We didn't, but we did stay in a dumpy little hotel on the beach, went swimming in some waterfalls and ponds, partied with the locals, and swam in the ocean at midnight, so it was definitely a day that ended better than it started.

Back to the dock Thursday morning. More waiting. One of our Spaniards abandoned us and hopped on a boat to a different island. At last they announced that a boat would be coming, so yesterday at 4pm we got on the Utila Princess and surfed some very rough waters (which made me turn green) to get to Utila. Which as it turns out is vale la pena.

I don't need to walk around in circles...

But I have accidentally-on purpose come full circle. Back to Antigua. I think I like it better this time around. Despite the insane amount of water that insists on falling from the sky. Oh, by the way, it's rainy season in good ol' Guatemala!

I'm doing a couple of days of Spanish class because - hey, why not? It's cheap, it's useful, and it's a way better use of my time than partying in Guate - as fun as it would be to go out with the cats from the consulting team their last weekend in the country, I really need to reset. I feel as though I have been here forever and a day, and can't even fathom the fact that my time here isn't even halfway done.

Even though I am sitting in a cafe working on reports and toolkits and scopes of work, I am beginning to feel a little bit more like this is a place I could love, instead of just a place where I had a really stressful two weeks of work. At this precise moment, I can even say I'm looking forward to the next 5 weeks. I do miss home though, both Oregon and DC.

This is where I long to be...

Here. Home.

Or here. Dancing.

I miss home. I miss people. I miss tango. I know this trip will get better, but at the moment I'd rather be anywhere but here.

It's all just a little bit of history repeating...

Alright, I'm going to give this whole blogging thing another shot. We'll see how it goes this time. Maybe, just maybe, I'll actually maintain this one. At least with posts about my travels.

I'm sitting in an empty classroom at 1am on a Sunday night on a rural college campus in the highlands of Guatemala. I've been working all day today, and the day before, and the five days before that, on a tourism consulting project with 23 other "consultants" - most from GWU, some from a local university.

If you asked me how Guatemala is right now, I'd just complain about the fact that I'm trapped in the middle of nowhere, living in a crappy dorm building built by USAID, eating terrible food in the mess hall, and wishing the electricity would stay on and the internet would work reliably. These things wouldn't seem so bad if it weren't for the fact that we are supposed to be a consultant team getting work done for our clients, but the conditions for working are... welllll... less than ideal.

However, I've really enjoyed what I have managed to see of Guatemala so far, and can't wait to get off this campus. Given the internet situation, photo posting is going to be limited, but I'll try to throw a couple up now and then.

*The above pic finally uploaded after 85 tries -- this was taken up on Mt. Pacaya, an active volcano that nearly burned my feet off.