Saturday, April 16: Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala

I compose these entries by taking notes during each day, which remind me, the next day, of those occurances I think might interest you. But a lot of this day (now yesterday, if all that makes sense) was spent on a bumpy bus and my handwriting is so bad that I can't deciper a lot of it. No matter; I'll do the best I can to remember today (now yesterday), without Proust's madelene to dip into my tea. More by process of elimination than by preference- several other choices included helicoptor rides, at very hefty prices, to Tikal or Copan, prominent Mayan acheological sites here in Guatemala - I chose to go on something called "an Auto Safari." And the trip was exactly that, an hour's bus ride to what was originally someone's private park but is now essentially a zoo, with tropical animals. I couldn't help thinking, as I was taking a close-up portrait of a gifaffe, that having seen these kinds of animals in their natural habitat, it was a shame to keep them far from home as slaves to tourist photography. I hope they are well-cared-for, but they looked sadly dog-eared and dusty. I had never before seen a jaguar, although I've always known that in Mezo-America they were sacred to the indians. And for those Guatemalans who will never get to Kenya, seeing a zebra in all its striped elegance must be a thrill. On the way to and from the park, I learned some facts about Guatemala I didn't already know: it's the world's fourth largest producer of sugar cane; mace and cashews (whose nut is on the outside, not the inside of the fruit) are grown here; Guatemala has over 3000 archeological sites; the classic period of the Maya was from 300 - 900 AD - they were gone by the time the Spaniards came, in 1524; the land has many volcanoes - 200-300 - and the volcanic ash has provided soil rich in nutrients. Aren't you pleased to know all that?

It's now every hot, so hot outside that one want to stay inside, in air-conditioning. or make frequent dips in the pool. Before the barbecue at the pool, a special feature of most cruises, Ted and Bill and I had a nice conversation with Gianni, the hotel manager (who keeps saying he wants us to join him for dinner but has so far not invited u s) about provisions for the cruise: 3300 bottle of wine, about 120 bottles for each dinner, 600 bottles of champange. Although he wouldn't disclose the costs per day to run this ship, our crude calculation of Silover Sea's income for a cruise like this is about a quarter of a million bucks, which translates into $160,000 a day. Not chicken feed! After the barbecue, we had a show on deck by the resident troupe - a male, and female singer, two lead dancers (one of which is our friend, Todd) and three female dancers. They stirred up the guests into a frenzy of disco - "YMCA"- late into the night. Tomorrow (now today, just to keep you confused) is another sea day so everyone can recover. Puetro Quetzel wasn't much, a container port with a few souvenir booths. Ted bought a fair amount of crafts for his store. It was very interesting to watch him negotiate, kind, friendly, laughingly serious, if you can imagine that.

Stay tuned.