Gracias Senor San Simon

Laid low in Xela a bit longer than expected while I tried to kill a parasite in my belly. OK, that´s just one illness too many. We´re heading for the U.S., clean water, conversations where we can use verbs, and no exotic fruits. The car is getting tired too ... all kinds of ominous noises. On the way out of Guatemala, we stopped in a little mountain village that has an effigy everyone prays to called "San Simon". He gets passed around from house to house so as to share the attention.

We asked around and found our way to the house where he lives now. You pay 5 Quetzal (about 50 cents) and, if you like, you can buy something to pay tribute with - herbs, flowers, candles, cigarettes, rum. He´s a plastic head that looks like a handsome young Latino. He´s wearing nice pants, shirt, poncho, really nice boots, gloves, a bracelet, a super cool hat, and slick sunglasses. He looks like a guy you´d like to drink with.

He sits on a big high-backed chair in the middle of a dark bedroom. People come in, light a candle, say a prayer, ask him for things. We sat for a while and watched a few people who came to do some serious praying and asking. These folks opened a small bottle of rum which they sprinkled through herbs over their companion. Then a guy - clearly a caretaker for San Simon - tips the chair back so that they can pour the entire small bottle of rum into San Simon´s mouth, which is conveniently O-shaped. I have no idea where all the rum goes. Another guy lit a cigarette, put it into a long, thin pipe, and put that in San Simon´s mouth.

This is a God I can relate to. Alan bought a candle and lit it at San Simon´s feet. Seemed like a respectful thing to do. I quietly asked for my belly to get better and for safe passage across the border to Mexico. Both prayers worked, so laugh all you like at the silly customs in the highlands of Guatemala, he´s a cool God as far as I´m concerned. And the people who visited him seemed at least as full of faith as anyone I´ve seen in a Catholic church.

We´re making our way up the Pacific coast of Mexico now. Getting anxious to return to the states, so we decided to skip the currently somewhat dangerous city of Oaxaca, and just do beaches. Maybe one stop in Guadalajara - if we time it right, we might get to see a bullfight there. The Pacific coast is gorgeous, lined with beached and surfers. Some of you have probably heard how much I enjoy watching surfers.

Currently taking a brief pitstop in Puerto Escondido, about 200 km south of Acapulco. Expecting to pop out in Arizona much tanner. Several visits with old friends along the way, and we´ll be home for Spring in Minnesota.