FUERA YANKEE

Happy New Year from Guatemala.

If I do not find a little cord for my camera, and hence cannot upload photos, then I will probably abandon this blog for the time being until I find another use for it, or until I take another trip somewhere (which I do about once every five years, so make sure to add this to your RSS feeds ASAP). Otherwise, it may just devolve into links about the ongoing massacre in Gaza, which should end now, and the continually unfolding soap opera in Illinois, which will hopefully never ever end, ever.

Speaking of Illinois - so much reggaeton being played here that I feel like I am back in Chicago. This is Daddy Yankee world headquarters.

Quick plug for Patricia´s Bed and Breakfast in Zona 13. If you ever find yourself in Guatemala City, stay at Patricia's. It´s walking distance from the airport and the family that runs it is incredibly helpful if you happen to steal the luggage of a Danish woman named Sara, and inadvertently leave your own luggage riding around on the carrousel for a day and a half. They also have a dog and a beautiful little backyard to hang out in. You get a nice room, a bunch of fruit in the morning, transit arranged to your next stop, and Danish Sara gets her luggage back all for 22USD. Patricia and family are just about the nicest people I´ve ever met.

I walked back to the airport twice today, once to get my luggage and another time to exchange money. On the way back from one trip, I stopped into a little place to photocopy my passport. A young woman with hummingbird tattoos under each collarbone greeted me, and I mangled some Spanish words together in a way that said, "You know, what your business does here, do that to my passport." She of the battling hummingbird tattoos looked at my passport and in perfect English made fun of my terrible Spanish and the fact that I am an American. Incidentally, many hummingbird species are really in danger throughout Central America.

Quick Internet vote - should I stick around Guatemala City another couple days to check out Deicide and Malevolent Creation in Zona 7? Should I just head on to Quetzaltenango in hopes that I can get my Extreme Death Metal fix there?

It took about a day and a half, but I have finally found some reminder of the war here, which I guess ended a while ago now. There is a graffiti artist who writes ¨¿Donde Estan?¨ in silver and gold, often accompanied by wheat pasted flyers with portraits of those disappeared during the war. Most - but not all - of the other graffiti is also politically minded:

"BIENVENIDOS HUGO CHAVEZ. MUERTE A LOS YANKEES.¨ (Presumably not Daddy Yankee, though.)

"ABORTO LEGAL"

"FUERA BUSH"

That last one provided sort of an odd experience . . . my initial agreement gave way to the realization that wait, he's actually pretty much gone at this point. And of course there are the posters everywhere of Obama, stylized portraits in blue and red that read HOPE and PROGRESS and CHANGE and OBAMARAMA and so on and so forth.

(I made that up.)