Shocking Showers

Not in the sense of being shocked by cold... more like with electricity. I haven't taken a picture of the water heaters here yet, but I'll have to do that soon. Quite honestly, they worry me; and apparently for good reason. Basically, the showerhead is an electric thing with a couple of rubber-coated wires coming out of it and going into the wall/ceiling. As the water passes through it, it is heated. Sadly, this means that the lowest-pressure showers are the hottest, but at least you don't have to take cold showers. I just took a shower at the hostel I checked into here in Coban, and the showerhead had an especially weird bit sticking out the front of it. In an effort to figure out what this weird bit was for, I touched the showerhead and got myself a mild electric shock. Safe, huh?

Before I got to know these water heaters for myself (Utila has only cold water showers because the water in that climate isn't ever actually cold), I heard stories from other travellers. One girl once stepped into the shower, turned on the water, and the showerhead burst into flames. This makes me wonder: how many deaths are related to these water heaters each year?

So, aside from showering, I've been beating myself up in all kinds of ways lately. After writing my last post, I did indeed go horseback riding. It was quite fun, but I still feel guilty because the horses were rather skinny. And naturally, after bouncing in a saddle for three hours and not being accustomed to this, I was left feeling fairly bruised.

My plan had been to leave San Pedro immediately after horseback riding, but I decided to get some lunch and stop by the bank to get some more cash first. It's a good thing I did, because the only bank in San Pedro would not work for me. I was told to go to Panajachel at the other end of the lake for a bank. Feeling tired and not in the mood to attempt to run all over the lake, I gave up and spent an extra night in San Pedro. This time allowed me to finally figure out where the locals eat on the streets, and to see an awesome jazz concert. I'm quite glad I got stuck.

Next morning, I took a lancha (passenger boat) over to Panajachel, got myself some cash, and made my way back to Santa Cruz. By this point, I had given up on hippie town (San Marcos) because it's relatively expensive and I didn't feel in the mood to pay someone to practice something I already know [fairly well]. So I just went straight for diving town. There the bed was cheap, the surroundings were amazing, the company was great, and the food was really expensive. I guess you can't always have it all. But I got my altitude specialty, and had a great time diving in the lake (there's an underwater tree, and an area where you can stick your hands into magma-heated mud). I also spent two nights sitting around a fire listening to music, chatting, and gazing up at the stars. I know nothing about astronomy, but you could see the Milky Way with the naked eye. Talk about awesome.

The bed at this hotel, La Iguana Perdida, was so cheap because it was an open-air dorm. There was a roof over our heads and some partial walls, but we were by no means in an enclosed space. It was really beautiful to sleep listening to the insects and birds, and it wasn't overly buggy. Admittedly, I am now covered in bites I cannot identify, but I expected I might have hated it the first night. Night number one I was awakened twice by a mosquito buzzing around my head looking for blood. Night number two I woke up at some point with a painfully swollen left eyelid. Beautiful. It was almost definitely due to some bug bite, but another thought occurred to me later today: Earlier that evening while rubbing on bug spray, I accidentally poked my left eye. Could my eyelid have swelled up because of that? And if DEET in the eye wasn't the problem, why did a bug then bite that very eye? It was full of DEET after all!

Now I am in Coban. That's more or less in the middle of Guatemala, and so far it's proven to be cool and rainy. I'm here to visit Semuc Champey and the caves at Lanquin. It took so long to get here from Lago de Atitlan (nine hours) that I decided to stop off here for a night before proceeding to Lanquin. Over the last nine hours my eyelid has gone from being swelled half-shut to looking fairly normal. Now if only my bright red nose's sunburn would fade...