So in my last post I mentioned the scorpions in Guatemala, and I’ve had a couple requests to hear more about that experience! Those of you who received my emails while I was there a few years ago might remember this, but I thought I’d share it again since it was a “pivotal point” in learning to travel by myself – and taught me that I can survive ANYTHING I encounter in my travels – because I survived THIS!!
Well, it was quite an interesting ride from Antigua to Lake Atitlan. What in the past would have taken about 3.5 hours took us almost 5 because of the mudslides and damage done to the roads!! They actually have a highway that runs between Antigua and Lake Atitlan that normally has four lanes, but we had to detour into two-lane roads along the way because the mud, tree trunks, etc. covered miles and miles of highway (due to all the rain they had been getting that fall). At one point, we drove past a part of the road that had LITERALLY fallen away!!
The story was that a truck (a big one used for transporting things – not sure if it was an 18-wheeler, but something similar)…anyway, that part of the highway just gave way and the truck dropped into a hole and over the edge (yikes)!! I asked if the road had given way to the truck during Tropical Storm Agatha last May (thinking maybe they just hadn’t gotten around to fixing it yet), and the driver said, “oh no…that happened 3 days ago”….yikes!!! As one of the passengers in the van said, “we didn’t really need to know that, did we?!?”
We stopped about half-way at a gas station….the bathrooms were…… well, let’s just say it was a challenge!! No toilet seat (not that you’d want to sit on it…. ugh!!!!....very dirty!!!) – and no toilet paper of course!! By the time we got to the REALLY bumpy, winding road, it was almost dark. The road is usually much better (they said), but the water has washed away a lot of the supporting dirt and a lot of rocks have fallen onto the road. Sooooo…. it was quite bumpy, and a bit treacherous!! (Thank goodness there was no chance of us falling off the edge….at least I don’t THINK so.....then again, I couldn’t really see anything because by this time it was pitch dark!!)
I had asked the travel agency that sold me the shuttle van ticket if the driver could drop me off directly at the hotel and they said SURE!! Well, what they didn’t say was that he would drop me off on the road at the TOP of their driveway ….200 yards or more almost straight down-hill (in fact, the driver said his van couldn’t make it back up that hill and that’s why he wouldn’t take me to the bottom of the driveway).
Sooooo….after much discussion and begging (okay, begging might be a little bit of an overstatement, but not by far!!), I asked if he could at least let someone help me with my bags to get to the bottom of the driveway and he said, “no, no….we must keep on schedule and get to San Pedro!” So tell me this….when has ANY Guatemalan bus or shuttle driver ever worried about sticking with the schedule?!? We were already a couple hours later than expected…oh well….water under the bridge!!
So imagine this….I have my HUGE suitcase on wheels, my smaller suitcase with wheels, and my little backpack stacked on top of my smaller suitcase. It’s pretty much pitch dark and I really can’t see how far down the hill I’m going to have to go to get to the hotel (and at this point I’m just praying that the hotel IS at the bottom of the hill – and that there will be people there ready to welcome me with lights)!! And as a last comment to make me feel even MORE at ease, the driver says, “oh….I think they have dogs….be careful they don’t attack you!!” (SERIOUSLY.... how is that supposed to make me feel better?!!?)
Soooo….slow step by slow step, I made my way down the driveway. I tried putting the suitcases in front of me, but then they pulled me so fast I almost fell face forward!! So I tried putting them behind me and they almost ran me over (Oh…did I forget to tell you?!??….the big suitcase weighs almost 50 pounds)!! I thought about leaving one part-way down and coming back to get it, but the wheels had a mind of their own!! So slowly but surely, 2 or 3 steps at a time, I rolled one suitcase in front of me and one behind (stopping every few feet to slow things down because they could have easily gotten away from me and dragged me with them)!!
(At this point, of course, I remember thinking to myself, “why in the WORLD did I bring this much stuff with me?!??!” And then I remembered it was because I wasn’t sure if I was coming for a week or a year….that’s the disadvantage of trusting the intuitive Guidance that comes without many details… you sometimes end up in crazy situations like this with too much stuff or not enough if you stay forever!! And I’m pretty sure there was a “learning lesson” in this experience about carrying too much baggage around in life – it can really drag you down or overwhelm you on the journey through life, so it’s much easier to just LET IT GO!!)
At the bottom of the hill, the light came on automatically (woohooo!!), and I started calling out “HOLA…..HOLA….hello, anyone here?!?!” Liliana, the lovely woman who owns the place with her Canadian husband came out and was very surprised! She said something to the effect of… “oh, we thought that since it was so dark you would stay in town and come here tomorrow during the daylight…oh, it’s so much easier that way” (I thought to myself....oh gee....why didn't I think of that?!?!”) BUT, I was proud of myself for pushing on through and making it down the hill with my bags!!
I was extremely surprised that I didn’t freak out or burst into tears, but I just kept telling myself that I really didn’t have any other option – I had to make it down the hill intact because the shuttle van had pulled away the minute my bags were out and the decision had been made that nobody was going to help me!! (In hindsight, of course, I probably should have taken a room in town and come the next day – in the daylight!!! Then again, that’s what the other woman did who is staying here....and she ended up with flea bites from that one night in San Pedro, so maybe I made the right choice in the long-run!!)
Once I was here and had made it down the hill, I was just grateful for the clean sheets, clean room, NICE bathroom with actual hot water in the shower(!!!), and a gorgeous view of the lake (which I didn’t get to see until the next morning, but this was my reward for making it through the “GAUNTLET” of getting here)!!
After getting settled in and having a nice dinner on the balcony, I decided it was definitely time for bed. Imagine my surprise when I moved my suitcase and found a SCORPION! By this time it was much too late to wake anybody – and since I didn’t really have any other options, I just banged it on the head a few times with my shoe!! Ewwwww……it crunched when I hit it and although it didn’t move much before it died, it still TOTALLY creeped me out!! It’s a good thing I was exhausted from my journey getting here because my imagination ran wild with what else might be hanging out on the floor just waiting to bite me – or eat me alive!!
The next morning I told the owner about finding the scorpion in my room and he seemed a bit surprised. “Hmmm....,” he said casually (I never DID see him get very ruffled about anything while I was there) “we don’t get many of those here, but maybe it’s because we’ve been clearing out the land in front of this building. But I wouldn’t worry about it too much – it’s just probably a one-time occurrence.” Well, I wasn’t so sure about that, so I asked him to bring me a can of Raid for next time (cuz I just couldn’t stand the thought of having to listen to the body of the scorpion CRUNCH again….ewwww!!!)
The next night, there were 5 or 6 HUGE spiders (3-6 inches in diameter!!) in my room (thanks to more “clearing” of the vegetation in front of my room), and then of course there was another scorpion to deal with a few nights later. Let’s just say that can of Raid came in handy, but not in the way you might think!! I chased the scorpion around the bathroom with my can of Raid dousing it and almost killing myself from the toxic fumes in the process, but it seemed immune! I finally had to bonk it over the head with the CAN to get it to die!! (Apparently, scorpions are much more resilient to toxic fumes than spiders and humans are!!)
It’s been a few days, now, and I haven’t seen hide ‘nor hair of another spider or scorpion, but I make sure to keep my shoes upside-down in the CLOSED closet because they like to hide in shoes and sting you when you slip your foot into the shoe – and I turn the light on before getting out of bed in the middle of the night because apparently they don’t like the light!! And this way, I can make sure I’m not stepping on any “creepy crawlies” on my way to the bathroom!
So that’s the story of the scorpions in Guatemala – and as you can see, being close to nature brings with it pros and cons....the absolute beauty and peacefulness of the lake that was created in the mouth of a volcano which feels like a mystical doorway into another world in the morning light – held in balance with the “creepy crawlies” that are part of being in the less developed parts of the land. So as you can see, if it’s not scorpions or spiders in Guatemala that I’m dealing with, it might be rattlesnakes or bears creeping into my room at the Ranch! I think this is just God’s way of teaching me about how to come to terms with all the nature that surrounds us – and perhaps it’s all about learning that I can handle anything that comes my way, even if I don’t think I can!!
Well, it was quite an interesting ride from Antigua to Lake Atitlan. What in the past would have taken about 3.5 hours took us almost 5 because of the mudslides and damage done to the roads!! They actually have a highway that runs between Antigua and Lake Atitlan that normally has four lanes, but we had to detour into two-lane roads along the way because the mud, tree trunks, etc. covered miles and miles of highway (due to all the rain they had been getting that fall). At one point, we drove past a part of the road that had LITERALLY fallen away!!
The story was that a truck (a big one used for transporting things – not sure if it was an 18-wheeler, but something similar)…anyway, that part of the highway just gave way and the truck dropped into a hole and over the edge (yikes)!! I asked if the road had given way to the truck during Tropical Storm Agatha last May (thinking maybe they just hadn’t gotten around to fixing it yet), and the driver said, “oh no…that happened 3 days ago”….yikes!!! As one of the passengers in the van said, “we didn’t really need to know that, did we?!?”
We stopped about half-way at a gas station….the bathrooms were…… well, let’s just say it was a challenge!! No toilet seat (not that you’d want to sit on it…. ugh!!!!....very dirty!!!) – and no toilet paper of course!! By the time we got to the REALLY bumpy, winding road, it was almost dark. The road is usually much better (they said), but the water has washed away a lot of the supporting dirt and a lot of rocks have fallen onto the road. Sooooo…. it was quite bumpy, and a bit treacherous!! (Thank goodness there was no chance of us falling off the edge….at least I don’t THINK so.....then again, I couldn’t really see anything because by this time it was pitch dark!!)
I had asked the travel agency that sold me the shuttle van ticket if the driver could drop me off directly at the hotel and they said SURE!! Well, what they didn’t say was that he would drop me off on the road at the TOP of their driveway ….200 yards or more almost straight down-hill (in fact, the driver said his van couldn’t make it back up that hill and that’s why he wouldn’t take me to the bottom of the driveway).
Sooooo….after much discussion and begging (okay, begging might be a little bit of an overstatement, but not by far!!), I asked if he could at least let someone help me with my bags to get to the bottom of the driveway and he said, “no, no….we must keep on schedule and get to San Pedro!” So tell me this….when has ANY Guatemalan bus or shuttle driver ever worried about sticking with the schedule?!? We were already a couple hours later than expected…oh well….water under the bridge!!
So imagine this….I have my HUGE suitcase on wheels, my smaller suitcase with wheels, and my little backpack stacked on top of my smaller suitcase. It’s pretty much pitch dark and I really can’t see how far down the hill I’m going to have to go to get to the hotel (and at this point I’m just praying that the hotel IS at the bottom of the hill – and that there will be people there ready to welcome me with lights)!! And as a last comment to make me feel even MORE at ease, the driver says, “oh….I think they have dogs….be careful they don’t attack you!!” (SERIOUSLY.... how is that supposed to make me feel better?!!?)
Soooo….slow step by slow step, I made my way down the driveway. I tried putting the suitcases in front of me, but then they pulled me so fast I almost fell face forward!! So I tried putting them behind me and they almost ran me over (Oh…did I forget to tell you?!??….the big suitcase weighs almost 50 pounds)!! I thought about leaving one part-way down and coming back to get it, but the wheels had a mind of their own!! So slowly but surely, 2 or 3 steps at a time, I rolled one suitcase in front of me and one behind (stopping every few feet to slow things down because they could have easily gotten away from me and dragged me with them)!!
(At this point, of course, I remember thinking to myself, “why in the WORLD did I bring this much stuff with me?!??!” And then I remembered it was because I wasn’t sure if I was coming for a week or a year….that’s the disadvantage of trusting the intuitive Guidance that comes without many details… you sometimes end up in crazy situations like this with too much stuff or not enough if you stay forever!! And I’m pretty sure there was a “learning lesson” in this experience about carrying too much baggage around in life – it can really drag you down or overwhelm you on the journey through life, so it’s much easier to just LET IT GO!!)
At the bottom of the hill, the light came on automatically (woohooo!!), and I started calling out “HOLA…..HOLA….hello, anyone here?!?!” Liliana, the lovely woman who owns the place with her Canadian husband came out and was very surprised! She said something to the effect of… “oh, we thought that since it was so dark you would stay in town and come here tomorrow during the daylight…oh, it’s so much easier that way” (I thought to myself....oh gee....why didn't I think of that?!?!”) BUT, I was proud of myself for pushing on through and making it down the hill with my bags!!
I was extremely surprised that I didn’t freak out or burst into tears, but I just kept telling myself that I really didn’t have any other option – I had to make it down the hill intact because the shuttle van had pulled away the minute my bags were out and the decision had been made that nobody was going to help me!! (In hindsight, of course, I probably should have taken a room in town and come the next day – in the daylight!!! Then again, that’s what the other woman did who is staying here....and she ended up with flea bites from that one night in San Pedro, so maybe I made the right choice in the long-run!!)
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| The Gorgeous View from my Balcony!! |
After getting settled in and having a nice dinner on the balcony, I decided it was definitely time for bed. Imagine my surprise when I moved my suitcase and found a SCORPION! By this time it was much too late to wake anybody – and since I didn’t really have any other options, I just banged it on the head a few times with my shoe!! Ewwwww……it crunched when I hit it and although it didn’t move much before it died, it still TOTALLY creeped me out!! It’s a good thing I was exhausted from my journey getting here because my imagination ran wild with what else might be hanging out on the floor just waiting to bite me – or eat me alive!!
The next morning I told the owner about finding the scorpion in my room and he seemed a bit surprised. “Hmmm....,” he said casually (I never DID see him get very ruffled about anything while I was there) “we don’t get many of those here, but maybe it’s because we’ve been clearing out the land in front of this building. But I wouldn’t worry about it too much – it’s just probably a one-time occurrence.” Well, I wasn’t so sure about that, so I asked him to bring me a can of Raid for next time (cuz I just couldn’t stand the thought of having to listen to the body of the scorpion CRUNCH again….ewwww!!!)
The next night, there were 5 or 6 HUGE spiders (3-6 inches in diameter!!) in my room (thanks to more “clearing” of the vegetation in front of my room), and then of course there was another scorpion to deal with a few nights later. Let’s just say that can of Raid came in handy, but not in the way you might think!! I chased the scorpion around the bathroom with my can of Raid dousing it and almost killing myself from the toxic fumes in the process, but it seemed immune! I finally had to bonk it over the head with the CAN to get it to die!! (Apparently, scorpions are much more resilient to toxic fumes than spiders and humans are!!)
It’s been a few days, now, and I haven’t seen hide ‘nor hair of another spider or scorpion, but I make sure to keep my shoes upside-down in the CLOSED closet because they like to hide in shoes and sting you when you slip your foot into the shoe – and I turn the light on before getting out of bed in the middle of the night because apparently they don’t like the light!! And this way, I can make sure I’m not stepping on any “creepy crawlies” on my way to the bathroom!
So that’s the story of the scorpions in Guatemala – and as you can see, being close to nature brings with it pros and cons....the absolute beauty and peacefulness of the lake that was created in the mouth of a volcano which feels like a mystical doorway into another world in the morning light – held in balance with the “creepy crawlies” that are part of being in the less developed parts of the land. So as you can see, if it’s not scorpions or spiders in Guatemala that I’m dealing with, it might be rattlesnakes or bears creeping into my room at the Ranch! I think this is just God’s way of teaching me about how to come to terms with all the nature that surrounds us – and perhaps it’s all about learning that I can handle anything that comes my way, even if I don’t think I can!!
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