At this point in the days activities, I put down my camera. But the action didn't stop.
When I got home from coffee on the lake, I met Joy. She was a caterer in North Carolina when her hotel said they had no events lined up for a few months. So she moved to Guatemala and she's been here for 3 months now. Quite pleasant.
She wanted to go play basketball in the town square, and Cadari and I didn't hesitate to join. There were nine Guatemalan men, ages from 17-40, and we played 3 on 3 in the court downtown. Of course our team was named The Gringos.
Being about 10" taller than most of my opponents, my questionable shots were balanced with my insane rebounding numbers. Like, seriously I think I grabbed over 80 rebounds.
Without anyone blinking an eye, 8 young girls started playing basketball on the same net as the men. This became incredible confusing. These games were intense. Dodging little girls in a very competitive match was scary. There was also a very drunk older man walking around asking to play with us. He held up Quetzales in his hands, offering to pay to play. He was super schnockered.
I scrambled for loose ball, and then a little girl ran in front of me. In order to avoid hitting the little girl, I shifted sideways into the drunk man. He flew to the ground smacking the back of his head on the pavement.
He was out cold. I was in complete shock and felt my heart racing, trying to find Spanish word to defend how I had knocked him over. Had I been too aggressive for the ball?
BUT I looked up though and everyone was just like, "No biggy". They took his arms and flipped him over. He had blood in his hair where he hit pavement. They simply dragged him to the sidelines and told me to check the ball from the top of the key.
It was uncomfortable for a couple minutes.
And then I went to the top of the key and we continued to play. That was it. It was all very strange and felt wrong.
About 25 minutes later, he woke up and continued to ask to play with us.
After returning to the hostel I sat down with the group in the common area: 1 New Zealander, 2 Australians, 2 Brits, and 2 Americans. We drank rum and played Uno.
Around town, the buzz has been that the "Full Moon Party" was going to be "the biggest party ever". Intrigued, we all headed down to the night club. We paid 20Q to get in ($2.50) but it included a drink. Also I got a free tequila shot with my flier. There was a DJ, a lot of gringos, a couple locals, a bonfire, and more buzz about the "after party".
I looked up into the night sky with my rum and coke in hand and had a look at the moon for a moment. It's not even full.
I ask about the after party and find out that it's across the lake, in a house kinda by itself. "Crazyness, and Trance music. You coming?"
Of course at home I'd respond, "No, It's bloody late, and I'm not trusting some tiny midnight boat to take me back at 4 AM. (I heard whispers about boats not returning until 7 AM). But taking a midnight boat to some beach house in the jungle of Guatemala for a "Dance Party" was not something I wanted to pass up.
So I got on the boat. We arrived and walked in to the house and there were about 40 people (Maybe 16 people dancing). There was one tiny, lil' DJ light and the music wasn't even very loud.
I'm playing the role of "fly on the wall," when someone recognizes me as the "rebound guy", and buys me a rum and coke. Afterwards I went outside and made chit-chat with a couple of British girls. Louisa had just finished studying abroad in Washington DC, and she joined a sororiety to get the "American experience," which is kinda hilarious.
She recounted, "These girls would send me the most insane messages about how much they loved me, and how they wanted me to never change. I had just met them a few hours before. I was so confused."
Around 3 or 3:30 I got on a boat headed back to San Pedro. Around 4:30 I laid down in my bed. The party being a bit of a bust was kind of perfect. A calm night on the beautiful lake with an (almost) full moon, quiet trance music with an eclectic mix of traveling hippies, Guatemalan couples, Europeans who generally keep themselves quite clean, and all sorts in between.
