So last night around seven, parades began through the main square for Semana Santa. There were children everywhere dressed up in little purple gowns (it's for Easter, but they looked like they were on their way to Hogwart's!), swinging smoking lanterns, people carrying gigantic religious floats depicting the crucifixion, and a man on the church with a microphone giving us a sort of mass. There was a huge cloud of smoke over the entire park, and everyone was holding a white candle.
Around 9, Anna and I had to be back at the house to meet the guy who lives here because he has the only key. So we seated ourselves on the stoop and began looking through the photos we'd taken of the parade. Anna had been playing with some little Mayan children the whole time, so as we were laughing about the pictures they'd taken with my camera, when suddenly a man in a black jacket walked by us, then spun around and grabbed the camera from Anna's hand. She held tight and he grabbed her wrists hard, freed the camera from her grip, and took off running. I dropped the books I'd just bought and my notebook on the sidewalk and started after him.
After two blocks he turned a corner and BAM, disappeared into the crowd.
Just out of being so shocked by the situation, I started to cry. What else was I supposed to do? I'd just been robbed. Anna showed up behind me and we hugged each other and I cried for a minute or two, totally scared but all right.
I consoled myself immediately over losing it. I only had about 150 pictures on it, so I didn't lose too much of the memories. It was an older (well, by technological standards...maybe 2 years old?) camera and I'd been thinking about getting a new one one of these days anyway. All right. It was all right.
We walked carefully back to the house, totally on edge jumping every time someone ran by. When we arrived back at the house, I looked around. You had to be kidding me. Someone had made off with my books! WHO STEALS BOOKS?!?! The realization hit that my notebook had been in that pile. The notebook I'd been writing poetry in since the beginning of my trip. That was the one thing that actually made me genuinely very very upset. I couldn't believe it. I'd been robbed twice in ten minutes! AND WHO STEALS BOOKS?
Since we had plans to meet Sam (the guy we traveled with in Nicaragua who we ran into yesterday morning) at 10 at the bar, and it was now 9:45, we decided to console our out-of-control nerves with a couple of drinks. We ended up having an amazing night, despite the circumstances, and at 1 when everything closed, went back to the house. To find no one was home, and Alex, the guy living here, was nowhere in sight. It was past 1 and we were alone in the dark with nowhere to go. Left with no other real option, Sam took us and walked us fifteen minutes to his hostel, where we spent the night in the extra single bed in the room.
And now today I'm fine. Buying a new camera, BRAND NEW model for $150, I'm getting over the loss of the notebook, and we have plenty to do tonight and tomorrow. So it's all good.
But just a word of advice, don't be retarded and sit on the side of the road at night with your camera out in Guatemala ;)
