After 8+ hours of buses I am now in far eastern Guatemala in the small city of Chiquimula, about 60 km from the Honduran frontera. At least this trip I took first class buses, which means it costs maybe 2 dollars more but you are sure to get your own seat with adult-sized legroom. But, they still stop at random places to pick up people by the side of the road and squeeze them into standing in the aisle. Anyway, I wanted to make it all the way to the border and to the Mayan ruins of Copan just across, but it was just too long of a trip to make it before the border closed, i realized, so i stopped here. Also I met with Otto, who lives here and works with Sister Schools International. He found out about the Bolivia computer project and wanted to meet me to talk about getting computers here to Guatemala. So we

Last weekend I went to Lago de Atitlan, which was formed thousands of years ago when a huge volcanic explosion made a giant crater that then filled with water. It

Hola, well I said I would write about Guatemalan food so vamos. Premiero, queiro dicer que WINDOWS SUCKS. Again I

Wow, it has been so long since I've blogged. Disculpa. But if you know what I've been up to it will come as no surprise that i've been busy, and have not been able to get much internet access.

Also, I have for the last week or so always been envisioning this grand blog entry in which I completely describe in great and eloquent detail my experiences here in Guatemala for the last 2 weeks, or since I last blogged. But this very idea has daunted me from being able to do it, because it seems like such a big task that will take a lot of time that I don

Well, I'm out of the sweltering heat of Monterrico and halfway up into the highlands, in Antigua. And as you can see, I've made it to a place with a much faster internet connection and managed to upload 3 photos. The first is an example of a typical chicken bus. the second is a section of beach in Monterrico, and the third is the fountain in the central square of Antigua.

I arrived here yesterday after taking the boat and 3 chicken buses, with virtually no waiting. The whole process was much faster than getting there from Guatemala City, but no less stressful.

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I am typing this in an internet center on the Calle Principal of a tiny town in Guatemala called Monterrico, on the Pacific Coast. As I sit here typing this my body is dripping with sweat. This is just about the most humidity I have ever experienced. Maybe Corrumba, Bolivia was worse. If you are outside, on the beach, laying in a hammock as breeze from the ocean blows in, it is quite pleasant here. But right now Im in a little stucco building into which very little air is circulating, even though there are numerous open windows and doors.

So, I will make this short. I basically want to say that I am here, and having a wonderful time. AFter a day of travelling to get here which consisted of 2 hours of driving to OHare, 2 hours of flying to Houston, 6 hours of waiting in the Houston airport, and then 3 hours of flying to Guatemala City, I arrived at the very pleasant Hostel Dos Lunas. After a night there I spent another day travelling from Guatemala City to here, getting my first experience of "chicken buses", the main mode of distance travel in Guatemala - these are actually old school buses from the US and Canada, usually painted some garish combination of colors and given a name and other decorations. I am attempting to upload a photo from my camera of one of these.

Suffice it to say that I eventually made it after 5 hours of travel to get what i think is only about 150 kilometers. But it was fine. The last half hour featured a small boat which took down a mangrove canal from one little village, La Avallana, where the bus route ended, to Monterrico. Monterrico is a dusty little town devoted mostly to weekend Guatemalan beach enthusiasts, and the beach is supposed to be the best in the country. It is a black, obsidian beach, very beautiful, very hot, with beautiful crashing waves. Im staying at a hotel that is literally right on the beach, called Johnnys. I woke up and stepped outside, blinking, and had one of those moments where I couldnt quite remember or believe where i was. Its a paradise. palm trees, hammocks, little bungalows and a bar that serves cheap food and drinks. Various tourists, including several gringos, but not too many, since this is during the week. Overall I am having a thoroughly wonderful time. I am still getting over my cold, but I feel the hot weather burning it out of my body as I lay on the beach.

On Sunday I am due in Xela, the small city in the highlands, not far from here )nothing is THAT far, Guatemala is fairly small. where I will be studying Spanish. Till then, Im just trying to relax, and get some hot climate time in, since Xela is very high altitude and is quite a bit cooler temperature. This sweltering place will help me to appreciate that, I think. Anyway, learning spanish is the important thing, and I feel like even lounging here in this beach town for the last 24 hours i have learned, or reinforced, a lot.

ugh, i am beginning to wonder if i will be able to upload a photo. i have already spent an hour installing software, etc, which has costed me 12 quetzals. only about US$2.70 but i was hoping to be out of this hot room sooner! see what i go through for you? well, screw it. another time. this connectino is too slow, the computer is too slow. fuck it.

but anyway, here i am.

Well, I'm almost all completely packed. It seems like whenever I go anywhere, I not only have to pack what I'm taking but also pack what I'm leaving. It's a bloody pain. Especially when I don't know where I'll be returning to. Oh hell I don't even want to try to explain it right now. I'm tired.

At least I managed to get the rough draft of the Juarez doc done, and copies mailed out to people who will hopefully look at it and give me their thoughts, and then when I get back I can finish it up, taking their advice into account

Anyway, this seemed like a good time to upload my collection of all the best photos I've taken over the last month back here in Iowa. It's pretty interesting.

In other news, today I also mailed out a screening copy of a short video of mine, The Pitch which is appearing in the Portland PDX Film Festival this month. It's interesting how this piece that was done really quickly and is really just a silly joke video is the one they wanted, as opposed to the short Bolivia doc that I also sent, which I spent far more time on and really is more important and needs to be seen by more people. sigh.

Well heck, it's been almost a week since I last blogged. Not good.

Well, it's been crazy lately. The Collage Conference in Iowa City was nonstop intensity, fun, and thoughtful but energetic conversation with really smart people from all over the world. It was really great. I don't have time to say much more except that I got far too little sleep and so shortly after, I got sick. I'm getting over it now but am still full of snot and just sort of feeling crappy. Anyway I took a bunch of photos at the conference. I hope to write a little more about in the detritus blog later.

So, now I'm scrambling to whip my Juarez film into good enough state to at least be able to show it to a small select group of people I trust to give me constructive advice about how to finish it. I'll send them copies and then jet off to Guatemala and in 2 months come back and finish it, taking into account all the wondeful and wise suggestions i'm sure they'll have. :-)

Meanwhile other preparations for my trip are gradually coming together. Medications, mosquito stuff, etc etc. This time next week, I will hopefully be on a black sand beach on the pacific coast of Guatemala, and especially important, I hopefully will not be worrying about anything.

I'm sitting at the Java House in Iowa City killing a little time before the beginning of the Collage Conference, In about 45 minutes. It's been a busy day, and the next 2 will be busy also. I was out late drinking with the Tape-beatles after their show in Cedar Rapids. Then had to get up early to drive to Davenport to get a prescription for malaria pills. Next I got here a little early to have lunch with a friend. Now I'm online and I just saw like 3 things that I would probably blog about if I had a more normal amount of time. Which I have not in a long while. Even if I was back at the homestead I would be working away on the documentary. As it is I feel frustrated to have to take a 3-day break from that in order to be at this conference. I'm reluctantly going to focus on art and neglect videoactivism for a weekend, basically. Although I am excited about some of the more politically-oriented panels in the conference, like the one about collage and neo-colonialism. It should be fun and fascinating, and maybe a little break to think will be good for the documentary project.

I have pretty much been spending 90% of my time working on this documentary. It's really a good feeling, actually, especially now that I'm done with all the not so fun preliminaries: the logging, transcribing, paper edit, capturing, etc. On Saturday I finished capturing all the footage I needed. What a huge project. On Sunday I started doing the first edit, simply following the paper edit. Of course lots of problems have surfaced but that's good. Today I think I'll finish the first assembly, the very very very rough draft, and I can watch it all the way through and really get a feel for what I have here.

Sunday I thought about going to the anti-war manifestacion in Iowa City, but I really felt like I should just keep working on the video. Plus, I realized that I'd be burning 120 miles worth of gasoline to go to a protest of a war that's about oil, so I decided that was not right. But I was very curious to see how big the thing would be in Iowa City.

Anyway, like I said I feel really good about just spending ALL my time working really hard on this Juarez project. This is what I want to be doing; editing video, full time. (For a project that's mine and that I care about a lot. I'm sure if I was editing cooking shows, like a friend of mind does in San Francisco for a living, I would be less into it.) It's really been great to take this time, sort of like an artist's residency at my parents' house, where there's very few distractions, and just concentrate on this project and bang it out. There's really nothing to do, nobody asking me to go to a movie or have coffee at a neighborhood cafe, just me editing video, or looking out the window at the dead cornfields.

I only wish it was possible to completely finish it before I leave here, but in less than 2 weeks I'm flying to Guatemala. However, I think I can get a 2nd or 3rd draft done, and then think about how to finish it as I travel, and send copies to a few people to comment on.