Light at the end of the tunnel...

I thought that things were getting from bad to worse. And when I thought there were going from worse to worst I saw the light at the end of the tunnel. 

I took a deep breath and I started running towards the light. Now that I'm getting closer, the light seems brighter and brighter. While things are still not optimal, I still have a few lose ends that need to be cut for good, what lays ahead of me looks promising. Very promising.

I have been able to sleep good since I don't work in the hostel. Although lately, I've had a lot of shit going through my mind and the lack of sleep made a not so welcoming come back.. yay!

Is the middle of February, 4 and a half went by super fast. I still haven't been to the Lake. It's become one of my top priorities to go there.  I have to go before I leave. Semana Santa is coming, I would like to go before it's full of people.

Not only I had almost no inspiration to write, suddenly I lost the little that I had.

There you go, this is the latest post. Enjoy, or don't.

Blah!

stupid visa problem strikes again...

I went to the Mexican embassy the other day to get the stupid visa to fly from Cancún back to Europe. I had one visa before but it was only valid for 6 months. 

I saw an ad on facebook of a company that can renew US visas. I took a look a it and just like I thought, it was very dodgy. But I checked the website of the embassy in Guatemala and indeed the visa can be newed if it expired no more than 48 months before. I'm still within that limit.  Last time I just send the passport to the travel agency along with the money (to pay for the visa) and got back my passport with a brand new visa.

Now, the process is the same as applying for the first time meaning that I have to ask for an appointment and might not be interviewed. Might.

For both countries, México and US I need to attach bank statements to the application. Bank statements that I don't have. Well, I do but they are from 7 years ago and the ones I need to show are from the three months prior. Mexican embassy told that I could go back with the stupids bank statements before noon. Of course I didn't. 

I was very disappointed and sad. I started to think of another way to get to Europe. I thought through Panama and the Dominican Republic but the flight from Panama to DR is double the price than the one to Belgium. 

Then to put the cherry on top of this disappointment cake, I received a message from my former boss in Portugal that I won't be working there anymore unless I have a working visa! For fuck's sake, is there a super natural power that doesn't want me back in Europe!?

Maybe I should go back to South America but then there is another problem: I need a fucking visa to enter Perú!!! And that is a huge country that could stop me from going to Bolivia, Chile and Argentina.

FML

New Year

I promised that I was going to try to write more. This is me trying to deliver that promise. 

New year, new post, new crap.

It's been three months and 3 days since I got back to Guatemala. A few weeks went by and I already had the first visitor and in the following weeks a friend of mine whom I haven't seen since Roskilde 2011 is coming in a couple of weeks. A couple of more and a good friend from Kraków is coming! And I'm in the process of convincing a guy I met in Portugal to come to Guatemala. Yes Ricky, it's you!

Three months went by, I have been working for 2,5. The last time I was here, I also stayed for three months but I didn't work. I couldn't find a job. That added the melancholic depressive stage I was going through was not not good. Not good at all.

Things are different now. I do have a job. I can put my mind to other things. My mind can drift away from reality for a few hours and listen to travel stories. 

Once, my good friend asked me if I was envious of people traveling (when I was working in Tallinn). I said that I was not. Actually, guests were jealous of me when I said that I had been traveling for X amount of years.

I'm at the beach. I'm staying in a Surfhouse in the Guatemalan Pacific. Makes me wish I should have learnt how to surf in Lagos. I set myself the goal to learn how to surf when I go back. That and also to go kayaking, it was free for me to do it for fuck's sake!

I'm at the beach. I'm in Guatemalan Pacific. I shouldn't be in front of the laptop attempting to write. I should and go into the ocean. Hmmm, maybe not that but still, I should go to the beach and finish reading The Beach (for the second time). 

Yeah, I should to that. 

Small post but it's the first of the year and I wrote something last week meaning that if I continue at this pace, this year is going to be good for writing... I hope.

Happy New Years peeps!

PS. no beer or Vodka Juniors were used in the writing of this post. Instead, three cups of coffee and a healthy breakfast... That's a first!

Hogmanays

It's been a while since I last wrote something. I apologize on my FB page about this but in case you don't an account there (jealous) I'm apologizing again. I won't repeat what I wrote there. Instead, I will (try to) write some (meaningful) words, something like a end of year thoughts.

First of all, I wanted to come back to Guatemala to see my mum. I was not here for my dad's funeral. I couldn't come for this or that reason. It had been three years since the last time I saw mum and when I left she told the exact same words that my dad told me that morning when I started to travel. I was not going to make them come true. My mum is getting old and so am I. I had to find a way to come back. If you are a regular reader of my crap then you know the story. If you are not, go back here. I  almost fucked things this Christmas but I managed to save it.

I'm about to close my third month in Guatemala. I'm about to break the record of long of 3,5 months. I'm actually excited about this. Specially because it's not like other times that I was here. I'm not even putting the links here because I don't want you to read that melancholic dramatic shite. Fuck no!

Having trouble to write. Vodka Juniors in the back is helping. I need a beer but it's not even 7:30 in the morning. Even I think it's too early... is it? No! I can do it. I don't need from alcohol to write good shit. I do have a bottle of Quezalteca really close. Naaaah.

The other day we had a kind of family reunion. Well, my mum, brothers and their families and one cousin and his family (whom I haven't seen even before I took off!). It was nice. I was not sure that I was going to make it for reasons beyond my control but I did. Man, was I glad I did. I think it's going to be the only time in the upcoming months that all us four brothers are going to be together with mum again. And honestly, and even tho I always say this but I don't know when I'm coming back once I leave. I have a feeling that if I ever come back it's going to take more than three years this time.

Found bicuits. They will do the job... Besides, breakfast was not that big so they will have to do two jobs now! 

When I went to watch the new Star Wars I watched (again but this in a huge screen) the trailer for the new Point Break movie. Although it has a new plot, the core is the same. I think. Made me want to watch the old Point Break movie. While I was watching it, it reminded me of my days in Bura SurfHouse in Lagos. Me, trying to surf. Convinced that the movie was a lie because one cannot learn how to surf in one day. Unless, of course you're Keanu Reeves. Happy days.

So now, here I am, in the lovely and Very Noble and Very Loyal city of Antigua (I title give to the city in 1566 by King Felipe II of Spain) attempting to finish what I started to write more than an hour ago. I'm going to spend Hogmanay here for the first time 7 years! Wow, didn't realized was that long.

Let me try to recap where I was since my last time in

2008 / 09: Antigua, Guatemala

2009 / 10: NOLA, USA

2010 / 11: Szczawa, Poland

2011 / 12: Poneloya, Nicaragua

2012 / 13: Tallinn, Estonia

2013 / 14: Granada, Spain

2014 / 15: Granada, Spain

2015 / 16: Antigua, Guatemala

2016 / 17: only time will tell...

Back home?

I have been back in Guatemala for over two months now. Felt weird at the beginning. Actuall, still feels weird. Haven't seen most of my so call friends. For fuck's sake, haven't even seen the rest of my family!

When I was still in Europe I heard that a friend of mine (we were best friends before I left) was getting married. I was even invited his stag... Last week I saw that he's already married. Good luck with you new life mate, good for you.

It's been over two months and nothings has change since last time. No, wait! I'm not depressed like the times before! I mean, I miss you but now it's different. Now there are different reasons to be not happy. Oh well...

Anyways, I will writing about depressive melancholic shit and something happy. Right the next day after I arrived from Madrid I met Gonzalo. We worked in the same hostel in Tallinn, the he stayed for one night at my mum's.

The following weekend while attending a CSing meeting something very interesting happened:  a girl from Graná showed up (she's Austrian but going to UGR). We immediately hit it off. We began talking about Graná and I told her that I lived there. Long story short, we lived two streets apart and we went very often the my second house! But we never met in Spain, we met in Antigua!!!

This is the second time I work as a bartender and let me tell you that is fun! It's like in the movies: many people come to bartenders to have a chat. Ok, ok, not quite like in the movies, no one has cry over my shoulder but I get to talk a lot.

Like any other hostel I've worked before, I get to know people from all over. Some nice, some...

It's been over two months. I miss Europe and I miss my friends there. I almost don't have friends here anymore. Oh well.

Of all the times I had been back to Guatemala only once it was not depressing. I only stayed for less than three weeks... This time I'm about to break my personal record: three months.

My best friend was here. At the beginning was a bit weird and not nice but at the end I was really happy she got to spend a few weeks with me. Now she's gone.

It's early, I'm awake since about an hour ago. For the past few weeks I haven't been able to get a good night sleep. Last week I was going to bed super early, sometimes even before 21:00!!! But that didn't translate into good sleep, I had not nightmares but really disturbing dreams.

I don't feel like writing anymore. I had all this things inside my head that now I cannot seem to be able type them.

Am I home or will I be going back home...