22 March 2009: Woke up early and showered before breakfast. Got my backpacks all repacked but could not find my glasses anywhere. I looked in the bedcovers, on the desk, on the shelves and in the bathroom. Nada. I proceeded to unpack my packs. No glasses. Then I picked up each bedcover and sheet and folded them up. At the bottom I found my glasses. Great start. But I had a great breakfast with Raquel of panqueques, cereal and "bananos" with milk and "café negro." She told me about her family, gave me the address and phone number of the school and changed $10 for me into quetzales. Then off to the Linea Dorado bus station where she helped me buy a ticket to Xela. After a security check I found my seat and settled in for the 4-5 hour ride. I looked up and found the driver holding up my wallet and iPhone looking for the owner. I had left them behind in the security tray after I passed through the detectors. I am most thankful as well as asking myself "What next will I leave behind or misplace" The bus ride was actually uneventful as well as interesting watching the Guatemalan countryside roll by. The photo I have attached from the gallery is of the assistant bus driver starting a loud Mexican movie about two banditos with 20,000 pesos prices on their heads who join up, kill a bunch of rich people, defend some villagers from government harassment, sing a ballad with bravado and then meet up with a pretty, gunslinging daughter of a patron. I have no idea how the movie ends because it stopped about half way through. After our rest stop, where I meet a couple of young, gringas on their way to Panama learning Spanish and doing service projects, the assistant bus driver starts the movie over again so we can see the macho meet up, hear the bad songs, see the gratuitous shootings and have it stop in the same place. So the photo was taken not too far from Xela when Mr. Assistant decides to start the movie over again, from the begnning, so we can all loudly enjoy the macho meeting, the singing bandito....you get the picture.
