navidad en el remate

merry christmas. what went on back there?
i was out in el remate, on the shore of lago petén itza. it´s a huge lake, and some of the towns near it are polluting it enough that you wouldn´t want to swim there...but here in el remate it´s plenty clean and a gorgeous temperature and highly swimmable. the hotel i stayed at had a windsurfboard (minus the sail) which i could borrow to go paddle out away from the shore a bit to get some perspective on the town, and to enjoy some quiet and a rare moment of being totally alone. i didn´t expect to do alot of "chilling at the beach" on this trip, i´m not seeking out the relaxing places...i feel like more than that i want to look for interesting cultural situations - but there are so many gorgeous places, and the people there are really nice, and it just seems to happen that once again i´m in a beautiful place and it´s pretty relaxing in spite of myself.
it might have something to do with hooking up with other people for travelling. most of them appear to be a bit more into chilling than me. i am ready to meet someone who´s doing something really adventurous and inspiring and going beyond the comfortable confines of our trusted lonely planet guidebook that binds us all together.

but christmas in el remate was sweet. it´s just one street, with alot of typical guatemalan mini-stores, built into the front of their houses, all selling the same basic groceries, sodas, and fireworks. fireworks are huge here, especially at xmas but i am thinking maybe any occaision is a good one here.
my first reaction upon seeing all the fireworks in guatemala was "oooh, these silly evil people, they don´t know any better than to play with fireworks...bad people!" all of a sudden, in el remate i thought, "wait a minute...that looks like fun! now´s my chance!"
so i went and bought some and threw them around on the soccer field, in town, on the street...just like everyone else. it was fun, although short-lived, and my friend jonas was living proof of why they were banned in california when one with a short fuse blew up in his hand, forcing him to spend the entire night with a supply of cold beers icing the pain. thankfully, i survived unharmed.




on christmas eve, which is a bigger deal than christmas, there was a town party on the basketball court. some intriguing performances by local kids singing pop songs, a rousing 20 minute re-enactment of mary and joseph´s journey to the manger, in which virtually nothing happened except for the 5 or 7 actors moved from one side of the court to the other (and not in the name of performance art), and finally, an all night dance and foosball party. before the sun went down it was a bit more free-form, kids riding around the court and enjoying the human powered merry-go-round.






we did find some great stuff to do out in el remate. hiking in a local park and watching more monkeys, watching football at one of five local fields, all with similarly spectacular lakeside settings, and renting the local motorcycle to cruise out to another mayan ruin called uaxactun. (wa-shak-túng)










the ride to uaxactun was rad. first it was about 50km on a smooth paved road, to tikal. past little roadside villages, over some hills with great views...then, after tikal it´s just dirt road cutting through the jungle, occaisional mud crossings, and not a single other vehicle for the entire one and half hour ride. as we were walking to rent the motorcycle, i realized that i´ve always wanted to rent a motorcycle in a foreign country. i usually figured it would be more like riding around "the island" than through the jungle...but this was maybe even better. so i can check that one off my list.
the ruins themselves were quite nice, if unspectacular. the temple pictured here was part of their astrological observatory...from the top, looking east, there are three temples. on the longest day of the year the sun rises directly behind the northernmost temple, on the equinoxes, it rises behind the central temple, and on the winter solstice, which was less than a week before i was there, it rises behind the southern temple. it was already up by the time i got there this day.
and the village next to the ruins was great. it´s built more or less around an old abandoned airstrip, so the main street is like 200 yards wide and made of grass. i played some fun soccer with some of the kids out in front of their house/store.
then it was back on the moto, zooming through the jungle...and back to flores, the tourist island, to form a plan for what comes next.
ciáo, bella.
cc



"riding a moto through the jungle, flores, petén, guatemela"

sitting with my nuts atop the gas tank
and my buttocks firmly held by the inner thighs
of my platonic german amigo, jonas

i am reminded of the stunning vista of a female ass
when properly situated
on the rear of a motorbike

if done correctly,
the jeans struggle to crease where the skybound thighs
meet the forward tilted hips

feet very nearly above
the twin cups of her
oh! so grabbable rump

if she tilts her hips far enough forward
i can feel her belly
pressing into the small of my back

but jonas isn´t holding on that tight
which is okay with me - because although i´m not highly homophobic,
it wouldn´t be quite the same