Sun, Feb 13, 2011 The Higher you go, the closer you are

6:30am
Had the worst sleep ever!! Woke up a zillion (that IS litterally) times. Which I often do when I'm worried my alarm will fail and or if I have to wake up for something important. I also woke up with hot flashes and cold chills again. Just can't find a happy medium with this sleeping bag and pajamas.

 My alarm did fail ironically enough...

I had a billion dreams too (another literal implication of course).


like this but longer and
flatter on the inside
scoop

1. The first dream I had  I was picked up by this outlandish spanish man, who switched randomly to the worlds most perfect sounding english, no accent even on a whim when he broke from he cell phone call to great me. He made us stop at a Walmart to pick up a Valentines Day gift for his Mother before going climbing. (He was not an attractive Spanish man either.. why must my dreams always be so real... just once I'd like them to lie to me and let me have some fun! Anyway... He had this Candle Holder. He had a small tea candle on the bottom. I told him to put the big long candle on top of it. for some reason both are lit. And the little melts the big one, trapping  the little one inside on fire. He sets it on a wooden table inside Walmart and it catches on fire! We managed to defuse the fire, but the fire department was ALL already on their way. I seem o recall and understand of the fire fighters mostly wanting to mooch some free McDonalds because they were corrupt. The manager was pissed she had to feed them all, and wanted me to pay. I said  basically.. "I'm gunna go now..." and woke up.
2. The 2 guys from how I met your mother (Jason Segel, and Josh Radnor) were hot tubbing naked (of my dreams curse me again with damn jacuzzi bubbles). Their clothes were stolen by some women who were in there with them (again my dreams curse me because, I wasn't in the hot tub, I was just observing their misfortune like a creepy stocker ghost). ANYWAY, They had to get a ride, but were naked. They saw the blonde transvestite hooker from Xela (a real person we saw almost everynight) get a ride with this big truck. so they ran naked to the truck to get a ride. They figured if the trucker would pick her up, then he'd pick them up too. Then I woke up... I'm nutz..  I'm aware..

I had more dreams but I couldn't remember them to write them down. too many.

Adrenalina is picking me up any minute. I was locked in the hostel this morning. There were 3 of us trying to get out. At 4 am I heard the door buzzer going off.

Fun fact I think I've forgotten. Every single door in Guatemala is locked up, and a lot have intercoms to speak thru, and most lock you in as well.

So the woman who runs the hostel was up at all hours opening the door for people who were out partying I guess. So she didn't get up to take the padlock off.

We scrambled up to the 

some of the writing I saw on rock. It
was all over the mountain top tho.

3:34pm Sitting at the coffee shop "& Cafe", with Karen and John. Today was overly incredible. My biggest fear was that my guide today wouldn't speak Inglais... and it came true...  But it was okay.
We scrambled up the moutain like 300 feet I think in total. I was gasping and panting the whole way up as Mayan men and women passed me with heels and babies on their backs. They were all flocking to various plateaus to pray. Their was writing on rocks all over the cliffs as well. I asked my guide, "Pourque (writing gesture), roca, (point)". haha he got me. He said it was the name's of the churches. The Whole Cliff and the property the rocks were on was owned by the church which I find incredible. I don't know how this came to be, but it was the same issue with Pannimaquem. So instead of going to Church, these people come here to the mountain tops to pray and chant, which my guide confirmed, is a way in their eyes to be closer to god, and heaven. They chanted for hours, some every day of the week, all day. The chanting was torturous and intense at most times, as tho some were crying out with all the passion in their souls for help.  So while I'm climbing I'm just surrounded by it all. I saw one man carrying a grande guitar down too.

the corner on the far left is the route I climbed

me coming up to the 1/2 pitches on the 2nd climb

coming up to the 2nd pitch

After the 2nd climb(5.8) which was a lot more fun and warmer then the first climb (5.9), we walked along the top. We did it in 2 pitches (the second outing I've done a multi-pitch at! Good thing I sorta randomly learned about multipitch belaying a couple weeks before I left with Ryzard at Altitude gym in Hull). The first climb was a corn one. but not an inside corner, and outside one, does that make sense? Anyway I wore shorts and a thing sweater, and it was one of the windiest and coldest days I've felt here yet.. yaaay.. Anyway I couldn't finish it because the rope was twisted so I had to come down. and it was right after I finally got over the Crux!! Booo. My hands were all cut up and cold. The rocks are quite sharpe there. When we got to the top tho.. wow...I saw about 3 medium sized groups up there praying. They walked up their too. I saw a lot of these white flag markers all over the place as well as flower offerings.

Sorta looks like a man wrapped up. I don't think it was anyway..

The Rock Clusters on top reminded me of Mount Roraima in Venezuela (movie UP) a bit. Just because they were so alien and really painful and jagged to grab.

Amongst these were random Sexy Gorges thru the mountain you could fall in. Fun stuff.

Then we had lunch, I booked the climb at 6:45pm last night when I got back from yesterdays excursion. So my guide Victor Miguel didn't have time to make up a really fancy Meal. So we had sandwiches on white bread with cheese and some kind of, meat (I think ham?), and some tomatoes and onions. It was fantastic. He hand split an "awacoti" (avocado) in half and then dipped Ritz crackers in it. Genious!

We talked about various things. He told me about the church owning the land and I asked about the praying, he told me about foot fetish. Leave it to me to find out something like that without speaking the other language. We also discussed how the Economy for coffee has gone way down and Guatemalan's don't get paid as much as they used to for exporting. I told him small groups of people in Canada are working to change this. People don't genuinely want to see the poor get F$%^'d over. But they do, and end up supporting that unknowingly. which is unfair to place people in the same position of the corporate manipulation nation. Bridgehead coffee is currently the only coffee shop that supports fair trading with coffee. Companies like Starbucks are getting their coffee from plantations that force workers to live on the farm, leaving their families for months at a time, and for unfair wages. I remember Starbucks selling special water that said something like. 1$ from every bottle goes to support WHATEVER. The idea that their using water in Bottles to do this is laughable. Lets help the poor and impoverished people who are already living in their own filth because they have no where to take their garbage by doing it with bottles that create the most waste on the planet. Good call Starbucks. Oh and you only make billions, so dont worry about being able to afford private recycling at your locations. Just send it all to the dump! But you say your green and you help the planet. So I'll let it slide.
Corporations in general who come here and plaster their advertising everywhere, without even bothering to change it for the demographic. Billboards with gringo's smiling drinking pop. WOO its a party! Coke, candy, and fast food! What it's all about! I mean its cheaper then the market vegatables so most families sell their vegetation and buy cheaper alternatives. Outside of all the schools are stores and stalls with nothing but candy and pop! And of course all the wrappers are thrown on the ground afterwords. Their Mouths are rotting to pieces by the age of 2 because mothers are putting pop in their children's bottles.

I love it when I walk by a hair salon and see this giant poster of a white woman from the 90's all did up.

Route number 3

More Sexy Roca's

The last climb was a 5.9. We just did half of it. People were finishing praying at this point and starting to trickle down the paths. I was climbing up and under a Roof in a crack. They started to gather at the bottom to watch. I suppose some of them haven't seen someone try to climb the mountain with gear before.

My heart just swelled today.

4:30 pm
Just heard some music start up outside in the town square I checked it out. Some freaky ass festival where everyone is dressed up like the population of workers or something haha.

There was an amazing sunset today as well.