Guatemala, Day 7: Recovering from day 6
The live dancers never showed up at the restaurant; apparently their bus got caught in traffic instead. We did a fine job of filling the restaurant with joviality, anyways. El Pelicano Dorado is run by some guys from Livingston, on the Carribean side of Guatemala, and has a Bob Marley/Carribean theme going on. The house drink is a liquor called "guifiiti", which is a rum base heavily herbed and spiced with regional roots and the like.
After a few rounds of guifiiti, an excellent poached whole fish, and a round of t-shirts from Amy, who had organized the festival, we left the restaurant and headed back to the hotel, picking up a 6-pack of beer at a convenience store on the way back. We sat up on the roof of the hotel, drank the beer, sang songs and decompressed from the trying week.
Soon the beer ran out, and we set out for further festivities. We arrived at the club part of town, a few blocks away, to discover that things were shutting down, even though it wasn't much past midnight. Someone handed us a flyer for an afterparty, so we decided to check it out, led along by a number of guys on street corners shouting "after party" along the way.
Past the bouncer at the plain front door we entered a small antechamber where, past another bouncer, we stepped out into an open courtyard amongst the ruins of an older building. There was a DJ playing reggaeton and tending bar, and an open fire in the center of the courtyard. We danced for a bit, had another drink or two, and then decided to call it a night, walking back to the hotel as a group.
At six in the morning I woke with a violent need to regurgitate. After several minutes of heaving, I crawled back into bed, and stayed there, barring a couple more trips to the bathroom, until 11 or so, when I forced myself to shower and face the world. I hoped the shower would see me better, as I had an appointment with a volcano at 2 in the afternoon.
Still feeling like animated crap, I went out to the market to get some shopping done. On this early Saturday morning, the market was hopping; packed with people and vendors, I was stepping around children and merchandise left and right. I bought a few t-shirts and some CDs of the local music, and then retreated back to the hotel.
It was one in the afternoon; in another hour I was supposed to head off to the volcano with Dan, but I was in bad shape and on the decline. I sucked it up and acknowledged that there was no lava in the works for me today. I broke the news to Dan, wished him off, and crawed into bed.
Around 7 or so the group got back from Pachaya, a nearby lake with gorgeous scenery and plenty of shopping; everyone was laden with goods and gifts. I was feeling a little better, so I got up out of bed and talked with Mark about his experience in Chiquimula, the town he stayed in while he welded the rig. Shortly before 9 we got tired of waiting for Dan to get back, and headed out to dinner, leaving the team cell phone so he could call us and find out where we were.
Our usual comida tipico was closed, so we went across the street to a place simply titled "Weiners", which modelled itself as German style food. Schnizel certainly wasn't in the works for me; I just got a banana liquado (smoothie) and some rice porridge. Still feeling ill, I called it a night and packed it in, wishing Lara a safe travel for her 5:30am departure the next morning.
After a few rounds of guifiiti, an excellent poached whole fish, and a round of t-shirts from Amy, who had organized the festival, we left the restaurant and headed back to the hotel, picking up a 6-pack of beer at a convenience store on the way back. We sat up on the roof of the hotel, drank the beer, sang songs and decompressed from the trying week.
Soon the beer ran out, and we set out for further festivities. We arrived at the club part of town, a few blocks away, to discover that things were shutting down, even though it wasn't much past midnight. Someone handed us a flyer for an afterparty, so we decided to check it out, led along by a number of guys on street corners shouting "after party" along the way.
Past the bouncer at the plain front door we entered a small antechamber where, past another bouncer, we stepped out into an open courtyard amongst the ruins of an older building. There was a DJ playing reggaeton and tending bar, and an open fire in the center of the courtyard. We danced for a bit, had another drink or two, and then decided to call it a night, walking back to the hotel as a group.
At six in the morning I woke with a violent need to regurgitate. After several minutes of heaving, I crawled back into bed, and stayed there, barring a couple more trips to the bathroom, until 11 or so, when I forced myself to shower and face the world. I hoped the shower would see me better, as I had an appointment with a volcano at 2 in the afternoon.
Still feeling like animated crap, I went out to the market to get some shopping done. On this early Saturday morning, the market was hopping; packed with people and vendors, I was stepping around children and merchandise left and right. I bought a few t-shirts and some CDs of the local music, and then retreated back to the hotel.
It was one in the afternoon; in another hour I was supposed to head off to the volcano with Dan, but I was in bad shape and on the decline. I sucked it up and acknowledged that there was no lava in the works for me today. I broke the news to Dan, wished him off, and crawed into bed.
Around 7 or so the group got back from Pachaya, a nearby lake with gorgeous scenery and plenty of shopping; everyone was laden with goods and gifts. I was feeling a little better, so I got up out of bed and talked with Mark about his experience in Chiquimula, the town he stayed in while he welded the rig. Shortly before 9 we got tired of waiting for Dan to get back, and headed out to dinner, leaving the team cell phone so he could call us and find out where we were.
Our usual comida tipico was closed, so we went across the street to a place simply titled "Weiners", which modelled itself as German style food. Schnizel certainly wasn't in the works for me; I just got a banana liquado (smoothie) and some rice porridge. Still feeling ill, I called it a night and packed it in, wishing Lara a safe travel for her 5:30am departure the next morning.