Well I suppose it’s time for an update! It’s hard to believe that I’ve been in Guatemala for only a week. It feels much much longer than that.
The morning after my last post I caught the 8 am shuttle to San Marcos La Laguna, a small town on the shore of Lake Atitlan. It was supposed to be only 2.5-3 hours, but then there was the teacher strike. Almost every day for the last month teachers have been blocking the highway in protest of low wages and apparently the general unsupportive government. One woman …
Dreaming of Cairo, in Antigua Guatemala
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The name of his post is misleading. It is not that I have been dreaming of Cairo (although I have told the story about my brief time there a lot recently). Instead I am referring to a Rumi poem that I stumbled upon while I was at my Dad’s house in West Virginia last week. It is a long one, but here is some of it:
IN BAGHDAD, DREAMING OF CAIRO:
IN CAIRO, DREAMING OF BAGHDAD
“No more muffled drums!
Uncover the drumheads!
Plant your flag in an open field!
No more timid peeking around.
…
Either this deep desire of mine
will be …
Where I’ve Been So Far, and What it Cost
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This is my very delayed New Year Recap!
When people ask me how many countries I’ve been to on this trip, I say between 25 and 30, depending on how I count. Some countries I was only transiting through – but they stamped my passport. Do those “count”? I tend not to think so. (Although I wouldn’t particularly want to spend the night in Lichtenstein anyway.)
I settled on the official number being countries that I’ve slept in – 25. The others I will put on the list in parenthesis because I did experience a small piece …
Northeast USA
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I think it is time to give an update. I haven’t done too many photogenic things, but instead of risking your withdrawal (or abandonment), here is a download:
1) I HAVE RETURNED to the Northeast, and have been received with open arms by family and friends who love me dearly. It has been a lesson in itself; my people here have shown me that to be in one place, with all of the markers of “stability” that I occasionally crave (house, partner, occupation), does NOT connote an easy life, or an ability to coast through. I …
Cali Road Trip!
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Ellen and I have just come back from an amazing 5 day road trip around Northern California! We started by driving up the coast to Fort Bragg, through the Redwoods National Forest, and continued up to Eureka to spend the night.
The next day we transited east, through Redding, up past Mount Shasta. And spent the night in a tiny town within spitting distance of Oregon.
The third day we made it to Lava Beds National monument. It was a whim of a goal, rather out of the way, but we saw it on a map …