Today was the day my return ticket was book back to the USA. But instead of being on a plane, I`m in a cafe off Antigua`s Central Park, a red wine in front of me and another week of Antigua on the calendar.
Antigua grabs ahold of you like a sea creature. I should have known. If I extend my ticket anymore, it will end up being cheaper just ditching the flight and booking a new one. There are plenty of people here who`ve racked up quite a tab with the airlines by extending their ticket in perpetuum every time their departure date clocks in.
Antigua is Paris in the 20s, New York City in the 50s and San Francisco in the 70s. Where do you go from Antigua except back to Antigua?
I`ve decided: I am not capable of breaking up with this town. Never forever at least. I suspect it`s always going to be on-again off-again.
I woke up on Wheel`s beanbag this morning. This isn`t a metaphor, Wheels has a massive beanbag in his living room. We ate avocados over toast with honey (a surprisingly epic breakfast) and talked business with a friend of his. This wasn`t a normal conversation. We took turns going off on incredulous monologues about the crazy shit we`ve heard and seen here.
For foreign owners of businesses, there are two roads to take with respect to how to run your business. You can do it your way, the way detailed in business management textbooks, or you can do it their way. As Wheels eloquently captured the second way, “In order to run a successful business, you must be willing to rain down bodily harm on others.” Their way.
Either way works and there are many examples of finding success on both roads. There`s the bar owner who pays his dues in the form of expensive legal fees to keep the special interests away and then there`s the hostel owner who`s been known to have people beaten and bribes the right people. Your way, their way.
Living here four years, you learn a bit. What you don`t learn is what you get from returning to a place you`ve lived in and left. It`s a whole new set of eyes and I`m enjoying the view. I`m bursting with the desire to articulate all this, and will keep scratching in notebooks until I figure out what it is exactly I`m trying to say.
This trip back is juxtaposition with getting off The Road with Tyler and spending almost two months in my hometown, good ´ol Bismarck, ND. I hadn`t spent that much time there since 2005 and two things are clear. I want to get back there more, but the place isn`t me. I doubt I`ll ever have an address there.
Where you live inevitably shapes you. It`s not something to decide other than doing so deliberately. You don`t want to pick your life out of a hat, even though where you debut in this world is decided at random. It takes discovering what`s out there, and deciding what`s for you. At least for me, Antigua makes a compelling argument for itself.
The plans for the second “annual” Mariachi pub crawl is underway. We`re leaving from The Terrace this Thursday at 7pm. For $20 a horse-drawn carriage will be shuttling us from one night spot to the next. $20 does buy dreams here. Wednesday I`ll go into the San Felipe village and track a band down. After last time, I don`t think we can go with Los Luceros again.
Tomorrow I need to get to Guatemala, City. Taxis are expensive and I`ve had my fill of Chicken Buses for the week. My plan is to seek out someone out on the town returning to The City tonight. That plan gives the night a purpose, and any night with a proposito seems to bode well.
Anyways, damn you Antigua for being so awesome. They should have a support group called Antigua Anonymous. The first step is accepting that you`re not going to get away from her for long. For better or worse, once Antigua grabs you, she holds you. It`s game over. Just sit back, finish your gallo beer and enjoy the ride.
