Hi-jinx In Houston

The past 48 hours have been crazy busy, but in the end, my dad and I made it to this beautiful hostel in Antigua, Guatemala.

Yesterday morning, I woke up with a fever and headache 45 minutes before our wakeup call. I was pretty fucking pissed. I was about to spend the entire day in either planes or airports, and clear two customs agencies. It was lame. We got to the airport, caught our plane, and flew to Houston. I don’t remember the flight to Texas very well, just the pounding pain above my right temple and feeling sick to my stomach. After a four-hour flight, we settled down for a 7 hour layover. We were just sitting down when we were approached by two other Canadians off of the same flight as us. Steve and John had met up before our mutual flight, and discovered that they were both headed to Lima, Peru. We sat and talked in a corner of the airport for an hour about politics, weed, and world travel. Then we ate some tacos and they left to catch their flight. I was really happy to meet those guys. Not just because we all had something in common to talk about, but that they were just really interesting dudes. By the time the conversation was over, my headache was gone.

In the time we were in Houston, we ate Mexican, Italian, and Chinese food. Eventually it was time to board, and we caught our plane to Guatemala City. As we took off, I thought about how most airports look the same. Especially at night. Just a lot of steel-panelled buildings and runway lights.

As the plane descended below cloud level, I realized how massive Guatemala City is. Orange streetlights stretched as far as the eye could see, the urban sprawl was intimidating. The airport  not what I was expecting. One runway extended past a single terminal that could only accommodate ten planes. After arriving, we approached the customs booths.They didn’t even check our photos before stamping our passports and waving us through. For all the comments about narcotic trafficking that I heard from friends before leaving, it seemed that the Guatemalan border guards didn’t care about tourists.

Guatemalans celebrate Halloween the same way people do back home, apparently. Get wasted and wander around downtown in kinky costumes. The streets were full of techno music and parties. After a short taxi ride, we got to the hotel, and fell asleep in hard beds.

This morning we spent an hour and a half in a chicken bus, surrounded by shouting chocolate bar vendors and incredibly cute Guatemalan babies. We ended up in Antigua, 45km from the capital, but oh so very different. Where Guatemala City is crowded, ugly, and grey, Antigua is colourful, welcoming, and has better vibes, man. We’re now staying in a hostel that I can certify is wonderful via exhibit A:And that’s where we are now. Killing time after really long time travelling. I had to edit the hell out of this post because so much had happened since my last one. I’ll be updating more now that I have consistent access to wi-fi in this hostel.

Day one of NaNoWriMo. Word count: 0.

Thanks for reading.

-A

Thoughts From Downtown Vancouver

This morning I woke up with an unreasonable amount of sleep under my belt, drank the coffee that I sorely needed, and got a ride to the ferry terminal. I live on an island, in case anyone was wondering, and the only cheap way off is by boat.

My mom and I were half asleep while she drove me to the dock, so we got lost twice on a route that we’ve been taking for nearly nine years. Eventually we got there, and after a two-hour boat ride, I got to Vancouver. I love this city more than I can say. It’s clean, the people are nice, enough said.

I try really hard not to look like an out-of-town person. For some reason I assume that if I don’t look like I live in the city I’m in, people will laugh at me or look at me funny. I guess it’s all part of the normal human desire to fit in. I’ve gotten the hang of looking like I live in Vancouver pretty good. There are a bunch of business/modern people who walk around and look really self-important, and if you try to look like them you’ll end up looking arrogant. The trick to looking like a Vancouver person, is to look mildly content, yet at the same time looking like you have a lot on your mind. It’s a careful balance.

Anyway, I searched for an hour to find a coffee shop that wasn’t a Starbucks or a Blenz coffee, and I was successful. Not that I have anything against those establishments, but I’d prefer to give my money to a coffee shop that needs my business to stay afloat.

I’m also pretty sure that that paragraph confirms the fact that I am in the process of becoming a hipster. Fuck.

I’m preparing right now to start my next book. Writing while in a brand new city can be an incredible pain in the ass, because you need to write a lot, but there’s a whole new place out there that you need to explore, distracting you. But it can also be an incredible opportunity to get your mental gears turning. It’ll be an adventure.

I’m going to sign off for now, Vancouver demands some more exploring before I fly tomorrow. I’m going to leave a note on this table with the address to this blog. So if you’re reading this because you found my note, good job.

Next post will be from Antigua. Thanks for reading.

-A

Guatemalan Plans And What’s Happening When I Get Back

In ten days, I’m getting on a ferry off the island to Vancouver. Then I’m meeting up with my dad in Vancity and we’re staying at a hotel that night. The next morning we fly from Vancouver airport to Houston, and then to Guatemala City. I really have no idea what will be happening after the first few days in Antigua, an old colonial city near the capital. But I will have internet access, and I will be blogging. I’m planning on doing two posts per week that are updates on what’s going, plus whatever content I can come up with.

The other day, I was is Victoria, and I managed to talk my old boss into letting me work for the month of December, I’m planning on making a large amount of cash in as short a time as possible. I’m a dishwasher, so it’ll be sweet to get back into dish Kung Fu. I have my old job back. YES!

Anyways, last week I applied to a trip to Turkey. The organization, Unschool Adventures, is run by my friend Blake Boles. Next year, 15-20 Homeschoolers/Unschoolers will travel all around turkey, visiting ancient monuments, and experiencing the culture. I was one of the first people to apply, so I have a fair chance of being accepted, and I’m psyched. But it’s a tad expensive, so I’m going to have to work a lot over the next six months to make it happen. A good challenge, I think. Something worth working for. The link to UA’s website can be found here.

I have to get going. I have a squash lesson in 45 minutes, and no ride, so I have to skate there. Squash is a sport for bored white people, I know. But I fall under that categorization anyway, so I’m all good.

I’ll post plenty before I leave the country. Check often to stay updated.

-A