Given it was a lazy Sunday with plenty of sunshine, my friends and I decided it would be a worthwhile use of our time to walk up the mountain pass to Earth Lodge and see what it was all about. Rumors of a laid back scene complete with horseshoes, live music, beer, and free spirits aplenty, we were excited about what lied ahead.
Originally we planned to attempt hitchhiking up the mountain, which I'm estimating would easily be a 45 minute uphill jaunt, but upon first sight of a tuk-tuk we bargained a decent price and made our way up the beast of a hill.
Guatemalan tuk-tuk
While the engine almost gave out carting 3 grown men (plus our portly pilot), we eventually made it to the top after about 12 minutes. Some more weaving through the dirt paths atop the mountain and we arrived at Earth Lodge. Thinking to myself that this place must have one hell of a reputation if people are going to trek all this way for a place to crash for a few nights, I had high hopes.
My friend ran into an acquaintance immediately as we walked onto the Earth Lodge patio area complete with some picnic tables and wooden lawn chairs, who told us we had made it to the last Sunday Picnic in what they had been doing each Sunday for a a few weeks/months. Now that rainy season/"winter" was coming (May-September), this would be the last picnic for a while. We put our burger order in with the grill master, grabbed a few beers, and enjoyed the live music that was put on by a local band.
As we sipped away a man approached us with his spiel on raising money for a local school that Earth Lodge partners with and does some really great work for. Employees and friends of Earth Lodge seem to have single handedly built this school with volunteer hours and fundraising drives, so we listened intently as he gave us his latest pitch to raise some cash for the school.
"For 30 Q ($4.50) you can take this slip of paper and write any suggestion you want for our drawing," he told us. "Our friend came up with this crazy idea and he's ready to go through with it today, so we're taking suggestions for the next hour or so with your donations." I took a glance at his jar-o-tips and pieced it together that this friend he spoke of was getting a tattoo for charity and apparently with your 30 Q donation you were entitled to enter your suggestion for his ink right there in that little jar he carried around. Where was he going to get the tattoo? On the inside of his lower lip (ouch).
Having the freedom to suggest anything was crippling. It was a blank check that I was ill prepared to take advantage of. "Anything you want, man..." repeated the guy, which only brought upon more pressure. "'I like boys,' 'Viva Guatemala,' and my personal fav, 'Enter here,'" were just some of the examples the guy listed for me to get my creative juices flowing. Pressure, or the guilt of ruining that guys life/lip forever, overcame me and I thought it wiser to pass on the opportunity.
Unfortunately, we didn't stick around long enough to see the tattooing of the guys lip and thus will never know what the final message was, but we did catch some peaceful views from high above Antigua.
Misty view of Antigua
Colin (short hair) pensive, Earth Lodge above (red roof), hippy bunker made of sand bags to the left
Colin (long hair) contemplating the meaning of life
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