Full nelsons speak louder than words

Well hello again, all. Sorry for not having written yesterday, but it was a heavy day of traveling. While looking for a new place to eat breakfast yesterday in San Pedro (which grew on all of us tremendously before leaving, by the way -- as soon as you quit the main strip and climb a few hills, you find a much more pleasant lake-side town and atmosphere), we had to fight off about 11 million men asking us if we wanted to go kayaking, hiking or on horseback rides.

Us: "Good morning!" (to our "hotel" owner)
Him: "Want to kayak?"
Us: "No thanks, we're going to get breakfast."
Him: "We can go hiking...want to go hiking to the volcano?"
Us: "Hm...no, still working on...eating that 'breakfast' meal we've heard so much about"
Him: "So hiking at 4:30 tomorrow morning?"
Us: "No...pretty much eggs...now...is what we're anticipating. Bye!"
Him: (now muted by the distance between us) "So a hike then kayaking?"

or

Us: "This place looks good for breakfast."
Evesdropping man: "It's closed."
Us: "Oh, thanks." (Turning to each other) "So where else can we go to eat?"
Evesdropping man: "You want a horseback ride?"
Us: "Let´s eat at that place over there, it looks good."
Evesdropping man: "Horseback ride?"
Us: "Yeah, OK, let's go there!"
Evesdropping man: "You want a horse? Perhaps a ride? On it's back?"

Then I think Tony put this last guy in a full-nelson and took him down. Some say music, sports or laughter is the universal language, but you'd be surprised how well wrestling moves transcend the language barrier, too.

So anyway after breakfast, we got on a boat back to Panajachel -- nicknamed "Gringotenango" (basically "white person village") for all the European "settlers," shall we call them? -- and then hopped a bus back to Xela, which was then followed by a 20-minute walk to our host-home.

"But," you may ask, "what happened to your planned adventure to Chichicastenango?" Well, my friends, it would have resulted in a massive loss of money and time, and possibly would have stranded us in Gringotown overnight. As we arrived with a list of 26-plus people to buy gifts for (which ah...might be cut down a bit as our bank account declines), any unexpected stays are a large blow to our financial situation and so we're planning on going next weekend.

"But Erin," you may now be nagging, "last time you told us you were going to do something, like with this Chichi thing, you didn´t follow through. How are we to believe you, now?" In this I say you're right. I have deceived you not once, but twice. Last week, I said we were going to go Salsa dancing, and we turned out to be EXHAUSTED that night and spend that night as recluses in our host-bedroom. The moral of this story is that I should stop telling you about my future plans, as it can only lead to deception and misinformation. So...forget I ever mentioned Chichi, and what´s Salsa dancing?

Last night we also found this amazing new cafe in Xela called "The Blue Angel," which is a cafe, mini-cinema and my new favorite place all rolled into one. We went early in the evening for a coffee and some studying and went later in the evening for a showing of "Frida" (in English with Spanish subtitles). The movie was excellent, and the subtitles were perfect for learning how to more appropriately use verbs and vocabulary we know, as well as teaching us a few new tricks (also known simply as "vocabulary words"). We plan to start going about once a week now, but as we've learned, my promises of the future should be taken with a grain of salt.

That's about all for now. My Spanish is still trudging along...slowly, but Tony and I have made a pact to speak Spanish to each other as our primary means of communication. This is off to a slow and non-comittal start, but we'll see what happens!