Vacations

I’ve been off blogging, off social networking sites, off all Internet activity other than quickly checking important email and sending notes to friends and family for three weeks.

It has been wonderful!

My husband and I took a two and a half week trip to Guatemala—alone. (Our teenage kids had their own plans.) Even though we can rarely stay put in one location for more than a few days, it was one of the smoothest, most hassle-free trips we have ever taken.

We started by spending a week in Antigua, a somewhat touristy, but architecturally beautiful colonial city with over 70 language schools. We studied at one of these schools and lived in a Guatemalan family with two other students.

The rule of the house was “No English.” While my Spanish improved significantly, it did give me pause to think how grateful I was that words—in English—at least, came easily. When writing, I often chew over exactly which words I want and how to place them to achieve the nuance I’m seeking. In Spanish, I was happy when I knew the word (or at least a close substitute) for what I wanted to stay, and even happier when I could conjugate verbs correctly and make a grammatical sentence.

We spent mornings studying at the school, which consisted of one-on-one conversations with our teacher. For the first two afternoons we went on the school activities. Monday tested my embarrassment with a salsa class. Tuesday we went to park to see the exotic animals of the country, which turned out mostly to be poisonous snakes. Since we’d only been in the country two days at that point, I didn’t understand too much of the guide’s explanation, but I understood the general gist, which was “If this one bites you, you have ten minutes to live, and if this one bites you, you have thirty minutes to live.” A few of the snakes were not poisonous and were let out for petting after the tour. The brave part of the crowd, mostly the under-10 set, went for it.

On Wednesday, our Spanish instructor took us to La Azotea, a gorgeous tropical botanic garden and coffee plantation, with a museum of Mayan musical instruments and culture on the grounds, where we bought our son, Rafael, a Mayan double reed flute, since he plays the oboe. I know he’ll tell us it’s not really an oboe, even if it has the same type of reed, but I’m hoping he’ll appreciate the thought. He’s right in that it has a flatter, slightly more grating sound.

During our time in Antigua we also visited several other small museums, braved the “chicken buses” to tour an organic macadamia nut farm, and enjoyed the sweets at two gringo cafes in the town square. My husband, Shel Horowitz, who is also a writer, took voluminous notes and countless pictures.

I didn’t write a word.

For me, vacation, is often about memory, seeing what I can reconstruct (although, I am happy to have the pictures). One of my writing mentors once remarked in a workshop that we remember things for a reason, even if we might remember them slant. I’m more interested in the slant memories than in getting every detail right. As a matter of fact, I confess that in recounting stories about traveling or day-to-day happenings, I’ve been known to alter details for the benefit of a better plot or punchline. Even this blog is a new form for me, but what I’m hoping to do is to convey the feel of a place without getting bogged down, to try to create just the barest outline, so I can fill in later as it suits me.

But enough musing for now. The next post will be about the next stop on our Guatemalan journey: Lago Attitlan. Following are a few more pictures.