I’m getting bit up by mosquitos a lot now days. I’m not sure why it is, but it’s always been like that for me. I took a picture of my back the other day, it was just nasty.
I’ve been saving a bit of money now that I’ve been traveling with Fiona. I save on gas and boarding mostly, maybe $15-20 a day that I’m traveling with her. Today, we visited Palenque. I liked this ruin a lot better than Monte Alban. But I liked the view of the Oaxaca city from Monte Alban. Palenque was definitely worth seeing. I hear that in the high season, there are thousands of visitors here everyday. I’m just glad I’m here, there’s not too many tourists, and it hasn’t rained much. But the road to Palenque, some 150 miles away from San Cristobal, has got to be one of the windiest roads in the world. I do not remember going straight for more than a 150 meters at any point in time for 5 hours.
We went to Agua Azul, where the water is supposedly really blue during the dry season. Even though the rainy season made the water muddy and brownish, it was still beautiful and worth seeing (40 pesos total).
It looks like I’m avoiding some major Guatemala mishaps. I avoided a hurricane that occured first week of June, and just avoided a major earthquake a couple days ago.
I’ve met a lot of travelers here, just a lot of back packers going to and fro. This guy who is earning his ph.d soon has a girlfriend who had an eptopic pregnancy (fetus growing in one of the tubes). He’s prematurely ending his trip with his dad to go back to tend to his wife. I sure hope everything works out for him. I still feel like I haven’t driven far enough from California. There are still way too many travelers here, and none of them seem very amazed at the length I’ve traveled. I think only when I get to Ecuador will I really start to feel like I’ve accomplished something great on my own.
The place I’m staying at has no roof. It’s got a mosquito netting as a roof and thatch roof on top of that for the rain. But it’s got warm water and a decent bed and that’s all I need right now. I had some awesome garlic bread and grilled chicken for dinner.
I’m starting to think that some travelers see traveling as an end to the means. As in, that’s all they really want to do in life. Life is meant for some people to work so that they can travel. I’ve always thought that travelers are the nicest people, and I still think they are. But I just always also thought that travelers see traveling as a means to an end, not just as a hobby, something they like to do just for the sake of doing. As in, being able to use that experience to do something that they really want to do and help others in the process as well. Perhaps my expectations are just too high for myself and even for others? I really want to talk it over with someone that’s been through some tough times and/or at the least have any sense of what I’m trying to say. I don’t think most people would understand and would just frustrate me by answering some totally different question that I never asked.