On the Road

Midnight, December 19: Already our Spanish is being tested. When we got to our gate, an announcement in Spanish came across the loudspeaker: something about “ah-dos.” While I sat happily at gate A-1 as originally instructed, scores of people flooded toward A-2…

Noon, December 19: After a stop in San Salvador, we landed at the Guatamala City airport on schedule, and stumbled our way through customs and out to where Don Toí±o awaited with his sign: “Jinna e Hija.” My Spanish is stunningly bad, but still we conversed about trees, weather, dogs and groceries. He delivered us to Maria’s wonderful little house on Callejon del Burrito in Antigua.

M and I took a nap for too many hours, during which I dreamed repeatedly of speaking ineffective Spanish. Then we roused ourselves and walked into town.

At La Bodogona, which sells everything from milk and pií±atas to hair dye and books on depression, a tiny girl kept eyeing M with fascination. The mother explained why, and I translated for M: “My daughter likes your firewood.” It was either that or “My daughter likes your bleach.”

Richard had warned me about Guatemala’s well-nourished spiders but I was hoping not to encounter them—certainly not on my first night. Oh well. This fella was hiding under a ledge with only two of its Jack La Lanne legs reaching into view. It was, as M put it, “juicy.” It inched forward and flirted another leg out: well-muscled and unshaven. And then it leapt at me, fangs bared, eight eyes glaring with undistilled loathing. As I confronted it, M convulsed with laughter. It was not funny, M … and if you happened to hear anything as I attacked, that would’ve been the battle cry of the brave.

Araí±as nothwithstanding it’s a great place to stay and, with a view of volcanoes and mountains outside each window, I couldn’t ask for more.

I got even with M for laughing at my interactions with spiders. Before bed I warned her not to bring any snacks up to the loft where she slept, for fear of attracting pixotes: a major problem in Guatemala, I said.

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