I have been loving it here in the Central Highlands at Panajachel, Guatemala and will have stayed here for about 3 months before moving on -- this is the limits of a forienger's (extranjaero's) length of stay before requiring a "Visa Run" to a neighboring country for 72 hours before being allowed re-entrance. There are other ways of extending one's stay in Guatemala, but none that include a "geographical cure". I am somewhat anxious to get going and will leave when my rent's up at the end of the month, around the New Year, 2010.

Here in Guatemala I have seen vigilantism with a thief robbing the mercdado battered to death and his 3 female (one pregnant) comapanions covered in gasoline for burning ... Police intervened (after watching the man killed by a mob) to extricate the women (Cops actually asked women to kill the 3 women but could only find one to agree to be an executioner) and the "lynch" mob burned several police pickup trucks when the women were not surrendered to the mob for burning by the Cathedral. I take it that the belief is that the devil inhabits the thieves, so they burn them, medieval-style. Effective and understandable to the locals where the Police are seen as corrupt

Happened to 3 thieves that shot up a bus a couple weeks ago in nearby Solola and Huehuetenango and now two attempted burnings here (and one mob killing) in a week. The streets are calm, but paving stones for throwing are still underfoot and I have at times felt uneasy , esp in the evening walking towards the markets and instead returning to downtown to my apartment. Probably nothing will happen, but others I know are planning on leaving soon too. I just am wary of police or military reaction to destruction of police vehicles and police stations frequently. This is a country with a 36 year Civil War against it's ethnic Maya majority and they are the ones burning down police stations and their vehicles. The next day or so, it is like nothing happened - life goes on - until several days or a week goes by and it starts up again. Beautiful here, but I am not Guatemalan and have appreciate the opportunity of getting off the road for awhile before continuing my journeys on. After 3 months, I'd see myself as a "resident" and not a traveler which has been my life-style. Gotta Go someplace!

Which Way?

I left Portland, Oregon after only one successful attempts to link up with my Son over his 23rd Birthday. I was his age once and can understand his not making himself more available...I figure he will make his own efforts to meet once he is about 35, give or take a decade - I had left Panama where I had been living with that intent, along with seeing all the rest of my family and filing my usa Federal income taxes (my expat tax filing extension was bout to end nd the required paperwork, called a W-2 was back in North America). My family was very supportive but re-gearing for extended travel and traveling about to see them ate up my funds, so in early October, 2009 I prepared to leave the expensive U.S. (for a retiree) with a stop first at "The Farm". Many years I had thought about visiting "The Farm" in Tennessee, the largest and most successful Intentional Community in North America. A Big Deal. Well, once there I decided that the 10th Bioregional Conference being held was in antithesis to me, so I became instead absorbed in washing dishes for about 10 days and got to know the real people behind this great experiment in Community. After all, Conferences are in essence meetings and I would anything to miss meetings, unless of course it's a Quaker Meeting where Silence is Golden and not a pontification fest.

After all, this meeting was mainly hosted by and large the good people at The Farm - they were only hosting it. Pitching in and washing dishes for the Conference attendees with The Farm's residents seeing it was me, was a no-brainer. I hate meetings and essentially all autocrats! Well, they both really Suck more than Gravity. Anti-Gravity is my Speed.

The Good Farm folks, the original 60's Haight-Ashbury Hippies (which I am too) were a perfect fit for me and being that I was next headed again to Guatemala for the 3rd time, where they had done good works through their own relief org, PLENTY, International in 1976 after the catastrophic earthquake and genocidal "Civil War". They are remembered fondly there and introduced that Nation's only Soy Diary which is still in operation in Solola fighting protein deficiency, thereby becoming the actual role-model for who Americans abroad should emulate. Feo Americano, no mas.

Enough said.