Overnight roadtrip!

Okay, so my plan was to leave Sipacapa this morning and come back to Guatemala City with the mayor of Sipacapa, Delfino, who was headed into town for meetings. Actually, my plan before that was to come back on Friday by myself. But plans change. And they change repeatedly. Yesterday at about 5pm I learned that Delfino had just learned that his meetings were not in the afternoon as he had been told, but actually began at 8.30am, and on account of this he would be leaving very soon, as in, half an hour or so, and driving through the night.

I had completed my interviews by this point, but not my group learning activities. One thing came up after another to derail all such efforts, and it seemed pretty clear that staying around for another day would not yield any different results. So I packed up my stuff and was soon in the backseat of a navy blue Toyota Hilux pickup truck almost identical to the one my family used back in the day on the very same roads.

There were four of us in the cab and we picked up two others who rode in the bed. The road out to the highway meanders through the mountains with a great many bumps and switch-backs, and since it is dry season and we were driving in the dark, the headlights danced off clouds of dust whenever we-d pass another vehicle. Soon after we reached the highway I was able to fall asleep, resting my head on a pillow consisting of three yellow t-shirts Mario gave me from a recent presidential candidate who lost.

We stopped for a late dinner in a town called Los Encuentos, at a little roadside comedor, and then checked into a hotel across the street. Los Encuentros means The Encounters, and is a somewhat shady place. Fortunately, the only encounter I had - besides a four-hour encounter with sleep - was when I closed the door to my room as we prepared to hit the road again, and the pane of glass above the door fell on my head and shattered on the ground. No worries, I sustained no injuries. But for a moment I did feel like a movie star, at Los Encuentros, at three in the morning, sneaking silently away into the night.

I got dropped off at the place I-m staying at 6am, and shortly thereafter enjoyed my first shower in four days. So here I am, plotting the next four days in the city, and somewhat wishing airlines didn-t charge exhorbitant fees to switch to earlier flights. Also, sort of confused as to why this keyboard will not allow me to use apostrophes.