New Year´s in San Marcos

My first full day in San Marcos was an interesting one.  I LOVE La Paz, the hotel /hostel I stayed at last night, but I didn´t sleep worth beans.  I´m not sure if it was the hard dorm bed, the COLD night (I shivered under 4 blankets) or the constant noise.  Apparently New Year´s partying starts here a full night ahead.  Wow. 

So I woke up grumpy and indecisive.  I have learned that my decision making abilities when I am over-tired or not feeling well are exceptionally poor and I am very prone to emotional distress.  This day was no exception.  I was supposed to meet my friend Guyta at 2pm and I needed to make hotel arrangements for us for the night.  I had stopped at Hotel Aaculaax when I first arrived yesterday, and had a tentative reservation for tonight, but there was that indecision thing. 

Guyta and I had discussed where we wanted to spend New Years I still wasn´t certain what we were doing.  Were we staying in San Marcos and going to the Full Moon ritual at Las Piramides, or were we grabbing our gear and heading over to Santiago, across the lake for the"Universal Dance" being put on by Project Nuevo Mundo.  The Dance / festival looked amazing, but I admit I was daunted by the idea of heading over there, unsure of where I´d be sleeping, with no reservation.  Other travelers have assured me there is no reason to worry - it´s all a trust journey anyway . . . but between my status as a newbie traveler and the still daunting amount of crap I´m carrying . . . . let´s say I was hesitant.  Not to mention I couldn´t reach my friend and didn´t want to make the wrong decision on her behalf.  

So, finally I headed over to Aaculaax to confirm our reservation, only to find out I was 10 minutes too late, and it had been given away.  I headed back towards my hotel . . . having left there just after the last bungalow was claimed by someone else, and stopped en route to have a good cry.  I was fully aware that my reaction was overly intense, but I do believe home-sickness was setting in, I was feeling tired and crappy, and I didn´t know where my friend and I were going to sleep.  sigh. 

Fortunately, before I fell too deeply into the deep well of self-pity, one of my new friends from La Paz came across me, grabbed me by the arm and led me to another hotel where I was able to secure a passable room.  After that we returned to La Paz, and lo and behold, the bungalow had opened back up . . . and I took it.   I was even able to get my deposit from the other place back.  A nap was definitely in order . . .but apparently not to be had, as our room wasn´t ready.  My psyche, however, was already much improved by the security of a lovely room, in a place I liked, with the promise of HOT water for my shower.  Phew.

I was able to meet Guyta, show here where we were staying and then finally get my nap while she wandered the little town.  Before long, we determined we were both content to stay here for New Years and, in fact, Guyta was highly inspired to facilitate a women´s circle down by the lake.  We spent the early evening wandering for the perfect site, gathering wood and then we found a nice place for dinner. 

After dinner we returned to La Paz and unexpectedly discovered that our little group of 2 or 3 women had grown to 6, and off we went to the beach.  It appeared the little scamps who had offered to ´help´us earlier to gather wood (for a price, of course) had disappeared with our stash.  Of course, it could´ve been someone else, but my bet´s on those boys.  Fortunately, many hands makes light work and we had all grabbed an armful of wood on our way down, so we had what we needed. 

After a beautiful circle under the full moon, we headed up to Las Piramedes, where some of the men from La Paz ended up meeting us and we attended the full moon ritual there also.  It was beautiful.  It helped reinforce my decision to attend the moon course.  Perhaps my only disappointment, as we ´Om´ed in the New Year was that I could hear the incredible fireworks in the sky, and caught little flashes of green and red, but I didn´t get to see them.  As I´ve said before, Guatemalans love their fireworks, and based on the duration of the noise, I would say this was a spectacular show.  Oh well . . .can´t have it all!

Of course, New Years remained incomplete without some good partying, and as we returned to La Paz, the bar ´Ganesh´right outside the gate was in full swing.  So we went inside to grab water, money, etc. . . and my hoops, of course, and headed back out. Before we defaulted to the closest party, my friends wanted to see what else was happening around town, so we took a wander.  We walked up the ´village´where the locals live and hang out, and there was a fully attended service happening in the church - at 1AM!!  Across the square a Marimba band was playing at full ear-blasting volume.  We wandered up to check it out, but I couldn´t get all that close as it just hurt my ears.  Finally, we headed down to the lake to check out a couple of other potential party spots, but it turned out Ganesh, where we started was really the only hot-spot in town.  So we finally settled there for about a half hour/ 45 minutes of hooping and dancing, before I finally had to head for bed. 


As it turns out, the party went until dawn (not much sound barrier where I was, right next door, but I think I got a pretty good few hours sleep before the morning evangelical prayers started over the town-wide loudspeaker.  Did I mention that Guatemala is LOUD??  I thought it was just the firecrackers . . . but it´s really not.  It´s just LOUD here.  If it´s not firecrackers, it´s evangelicals, or dogs barking . . . or music . . . or whatever . . . but there´s always something.  Wow.

Happy New Year´s Everyone!!!