Wednesday, January 17, 2007: FREEDOM!!!!
It's the end of an era. After one final night on the piss to fete the end of the Iguana Red Team...
...not to mention some giggly goodbyes to the chicas in the kitchen...
...I finally broke free. I'm leaving the lake! I'm leaving the laaaake!!! For a week, anyway. After a couple of failed departures and missed boats Airek, Alice, Jimmy and I waved goodbye to the Iguana from our private lancha with the whole of the remaining Iguana team waving back. Even though I'm coming back, and even though I've needed this holiday more with every day I stayed, it was strange to be going so far from home for so long. This is only the second time I've left the lake in the three and a half months I've been there, and the other time was just for one night. I've barely set foot off Iguana property since my arrival in this country. C'est l'aventure!
[I did make sure that I didn't leave the diving centre high and, er, dry, before leaving; Andy, the new instructor, arrived last Saturday, just in time for the cross-dressing party (I gave him fair warning...) and a few orientation dives. I think he's going to fit right in]:
Airek and I timed our holiday to coincide with Alice's departure so we could all go to Tikal together before she flew back to London. Then we convinced Jimmy to wait another night before leaving so we could leave en masse. Spent our first night off the lake in Antigua, the tourist capital of Guatemala where thousands of young people go to study Spanish. Heads as big as they were from our many tresspasses the night before, it was supposed to be just a quiet night between the four of us, but when the Black Cat hostel pub crawl found us over dinner there was no going back. What the hell, if you're gonna have a(nother) last night, may as well make it a good one.
Hard to fully appreciate Antigua on a hangover, but even so, I don't quite get it. There was far less colour and colonial architecture than all those photos I'd seen over the last few months had led me to believe, and all the students who hang out there for weeks rave about what a happening town it is when they come to the Iguana, but it didn't seem like that exciting a place. Okay, no shortage of funky little bars and cafes on the main drag—I could've been in downtown Ottawa—but beyond that there's nothing. Still, the city was plenty big to give me a bit of reverse culture shock: people! cars! our choice of said funky bars and cafes! people fashionably dressed! and what's with all the scary looking guards with massive guns?
Probably Antigua's most famous sight:
Street scape the morning after the night before:
This one's for the fam. T-I-T, I-A-N. Honest to God. I bet she's an actress and an entertainer.
(For more photos of Antigua, check out Antigua Daily Photo.)
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
btw... managed to finish off Alice's and Jimmy's open water training before we left, and squeezed on staff dive in before the end.
Definitely a lot more fun for all the people who didn't have to worry about counting heads every couple of minutes in low-visibility water, but a good laugh nonetheless. I'm now in Flores waiting for Alice to finish her final exam so Airek and I can catch the bus to Rio Dulce and go hook up with Rusty.
...not to mention some giggly goodbyes to the chicas in the kitchen...
...I finally broke free. I'm leaving the lake! I'm leaving the laaaake!!! For a week, anyway. After a couple of failed departures and missed boats Airek, Alice, Jimmy and I waved goodbye to the Iguana from our private lancha with the whole of the remaining Iguana team waving back. Even though I'm coming back, and even though I've needed this holiday more with every day I stayed, it was strange to be going so far from home for so long. This is only the second time I've left the lake in the three and a half months I've been there, and the other time was just for one night. I've barely set foot off Iguana property since my arrival in this country. C'est l'aventure!
[I did make sure that I didn't leave the diving centre high and, er, dry, before leaving; Andy, the new instructor, arrived last Saturday, just in time for the cross-dressing party (I gave him fair warning...) and a few orientation dives. I think he's going to fit right in]:
Airek and I timed our holiday to coincide with Alice's departure so we could all go to Tikal together before she flew back to London. Then we convinced Jimmy to wait another night before leaving so we could leave en masse. Spent our first night off the lake in Antigua, the tourist capital of Guatemala where thousands of young people go to study Spanish. Heads as big as they were from our many tresspasses the night before, it was supposed to be just a quiet night between the four of us, but when the Black Cat hostel pub crawl found us over dinner there was no going back. What the hell, if you're gonna have a(nother) last night, may as well make it a good one.
Hard to fully appreciate Antigua on a hangover, but even so, I don't quite get it. There was far less colour and colonial architecture than all those photos I'd seen over the last few months had led me to believe, and all the students who hang out there for weeks rave about what a happening town it is when they come to the Iguana, but it didn't seem like that exciting a place. Okay, no shortage of funky little bars and cafes on the main drag—I could've been in downtown Ottawa—but beyond that there's nothing. Still, the city was plenty big to give me a bit of reverse culture shock: people! cars! our choice of said funky bars and cafes! people fashionably dressed! and what's with all the scary looking guards with massive guns?
Probably Antigua's most famous sight:
Street scape the morning after the night before:
This one's for the fam. T-I-T, I-A-N. Honest to God. I bet she's an actress and an entertainer.
(For more photos of Antigua, check out Antigua Daily Photo.)
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
btw... managed to finish off Alice's and Jimmy's open water training before we left, and squeezed on staff dive in before the end.
Definitely a lot more fun for all the people who didn't have to worry about counting heads every couple of minutes in low-visibility water, but a good laugh nonetheless. I'm now in Flores waiting for Alice to finish her final exam so Airek and I can catch the bus to Rio Dulce and go hook up with Rusty.
posted by Unknown at
12:55 p.m.
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