the other day

we had an american couple last week who took light packing to a whole other place. they wore the same clothes everyday. appartently they stank beyond stinking. more pronounced against the backdrops of guatemalens who bathe theree times a day in the cooler season…klike now…and 6 or 7 times a day in the real heat.

i never really noticed. partially because i didn´t spent too much time talking with them standing still and partially because of my own paranoia about how i smell. don´t get me wrong -i bathe- despikte the ice cold water thqat errupts from our shower. i plop myself  in every morning-whoo away the waiting mosquitos and wash myself.

as for clothes, the guatemalens have made hand washing as easy as it can be with concrete sinks designed with washboard bottoms just for that reason…wo washing is easy. i´ve washed no less than 3 times. partially becasue the constant rain and humidity leave everything with a fine layer of moisture and a slighly souring smell amost imperceptible at firt -but seems to intensify as days pass.

for my part i didn´t smell them becaue of paranoia, ¨what if i smell¨so i sniff all day but i´m always sniffing me. who has time to sniff anyone else? and this morning rising from our tree hosue my sniffing was not in  vain.

but let me back up.

we, jackie and i, left for livingston friday. we made it to rio duce where we finallydecided on a plcae to stay. a boatride through the lake and overgrown rivulets and we were in a planked and wooded strucutre with people milling around food.

our lodging was a 9-years-old´s dream (or the dream of a 29-years-old who never got one) a tree house-or rather, a house made out of trees and banan leaes. nestled in the middle of the swampy outlying of the lake surrounded by damp trees and climbing vines.  it was perfect and less than $10 a night.

good sleep was had and upon waking and -as i said -smelling myself- i headed across the wood planks that line the routes to the showers, kitchen and bar.

as usual, no paper allowed in the toilets, but this time the note posted on the door read: DO NOT PUT ANYTHING IN THE TOILET THAT YOU DID NOT EAT FIRST.  i chuckled as i chuckled everytime  i saw it, and then headed for my usual cold shower armed with soap and razor. headed for the beach i decided the wooly mamoth look was a bit much -even for me.

bathed, shaved clothed, i now sit with a cat in my lap (i didn´t invite her she made herself comforable) and wait for ackie to rouse so we can head to livingston.

Tags: guatemala, travel