Travel Fever

In the fifth week of my travels, i have begun feeling the inexplicable
emotion of an unfounded connection between myself and the countries
that I am in, and the people who I have met. An article I recently
read puts it succinctly: traveling is a drug, a fever, and an
addiction that consumes ones real life. Read the article at
http://www.travelettes.net/lonely-planet-destroyed-my-life/ .

As the prospect of returning to the states and beginning my new career
draws nearer, the anxiety and the fear of settling grows stronger. At
a young age of 21, who am I to commit myself to a lifetime of work and
goal-oriented aspirations? As a person who is goal oriented and
ambitions, it's weird to hear myself say that I'm dreading it. That at
this moment in time I would much rather move to Nicaragua or join the
peace corps or work for the foreign service. As the German traveler
writes, lonely planet destroyed his life. By creating an addiction, a
compulsion to see and experience everything. A compulsion to learn,
but learn uniquely, of things so foreign in the homeland. Concepts of
language, culture, religion, and poverty that are so far buried in the
daily life of an average american. Despite the 5 weeks I will be
spending here, I feel I could have spent a year and still feel
unsatisfied, like I haven't learned enough, like I haven't seen
everything.

The biggest realization that I have come to, and I'm sure most other
independent or frequent travelers would agree, is that it takes very
little to make a vacation truly count. In terms of planning, plane
tickets, money and hotel bookings, I could arm mysel with a lonely
planet book and a debit card and see myself around the entire earth
without any trouble. Once this conclusion had hit me, I immediately
started wondering, why should I ever stay home then? Why not take
every moment I have, every penny of my worth and spend it experiencing
more in one day abroad than I could in a month at home?

Shake me before I go crazy. I surely hope i don't become that dirty
hippy that quits their job and spends their life washing dishes for a
few pesos or yen or kronas to make it to the next place. But I won't
be the last to admit how appealing it sounds, and how dangerously easy
it is to start.

Now I must write about our most recent sightseeing, and no doubt one
of the most incredible places I have ever been to. Yesterday we
visited the ruins of Tikal, a partially uncovered limestone city
belonging to the ancient Mayan kingdom. The earliest construction of
Tikal is known as 750BC, nearly three thousand years ago. Today many
temples remain uncovered, overgrown with jungle plants and canopy, but
the temples can be seen bulging out from the earth in the traditional
4-sided pyramid shape.

By now we have made it to the small mountain town of Lanquin, and will
be staying here until returning to Guatemala City to fly home. Photos
of Tikal to come!