hanging out in San Ignacio

This morning my mother was feeling sick, so we got to sleep in and then hang out in our room. Our hotel here has internet, so I got caught up with all the latest Michele Bachman news. Then we had to switch hostels, but then she took a nap so I got to hang out some more in bed. Vacation from my vacation!

In the afternoon, we walked around the town toting bottles of Gatorade. San Ignacio is tiny. We pass by a wall topped by broken pieces of glass (to keep out intruders?), a wall painted with facts about HIV, and a cement staircase leading to nothing (beginning and ending in someone's front yard). We also see hawks circling in the sky suspiciously.

On one end of town, we walked through the cemetery, which is the saddest cemetery we had ever been in. Rectangular cement crypts lie around haphazardly, in various states of upkeep, many of them painted and even more of them looking like they survived a hurricane. Some family crypts stand open and hollow, their gaps littered with garbage. There is only a foot worn path down the center of the cemetery; the rest is overgrown the grass and weeds. I spot a giant iguana sunbathing on a rock and it slithers underneath as we come near. This makes me more uneasy for what other creatures are hiding behind all of the cement?

On the opposite side of town is the Belmoral River. It is shallow and wide and surrounded by grassy banks and big, leafy trees. We spy a perfect spot to lay out, but as we get closer, we see two men shepherding a stray opossum away from their food cart. So we cross to the exact opposite side of the river and the opposite side of the bridge and lay out our sarongs and take out our books and spot a magnificent rainbow and remark that THIS is what we've been lacking the entire trip, this peaceful, grassy spot to lie down and relax--

--And then it starts to drizzle.

Thank goodness it was a light drizzle and lasted only ten minutes. For the rest of the hour, we got to rest and enjoy the spectacular scenery and the soothing sounds of cars bump-bumping over the wooden bridge. I read a book about two old Alaskan Athabaskan Indian women who survive a harsh winter. This is one of the prettiest rivers I've had the pleasure of sitting by.

Soon it is near sunset and we go back to our hostel and I attempt to take a shower but the hot water shower head switch is so confusing that we can't figure it out and I end up just washing my feet in the cold, cold water. It is while trying to figure out the shower that I notice the toilet lid has been secured in place using a Sharpie marker instead of a screw. You probably have to see this to believe it, so of course I took a picture. Then we visited a pharmacy and bought tons of drugs. For dinner I had the same vegetable soup as last night and IT WAS THE MOST DELICIOUS VEGETABLE SOUP I HAVE EVER HAD!