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Into the Cranial De Sol

(Excerpt from my Travel Journal)

12:52 AM — Treefort, Finca Ixobel, Poptun, Guatemala — 10, May *?*, 2001

· I´m beginning to think that the use of “bullet-points” is the most useful thing I learned in Business school.

· Note to self: Don´t drink three cups of Guatemalan coffee before sleeping in a tree-fort for the following reasons: a. Climbing down 15ft, wet, horizontal ladders every 20 minutes to get to the outhouse isn´t all that fun. b. the caffeine excites your nerves…and imagination, especially the day after being robbed at gunpoint in the jungle. c. it keeps you awake at 12:52 AM writing silly bullet point journal entries to pass the time.

·Dirty Food for Thought: In Guatemala, instead of making mud pies…the children make mud tostadas.

· I know I´m always dissin´ Oregon, but the one thing it DID give me, was appreciation, and sincere love, for the sound of rain. Similar to how Ben and Jerry´s soothes the nerves of heartbroken chicas…so the comfort-sound of rain soothes me. *ahhhhh* Of course, if you listen really, really hard to the rain, while alone in a tree-house in the jungle…you can always hear scary footsteps climbing up a ladder. *stops listening really, really hard*

·It´s much more difficult that one would think to hold a flashlight and write at the same time.

· Fear is really only a play on imagination…and I should appreciate it as so. It´s okay to have fear, it´s just a sign of an active imagination right? Just gotta remember to “let feeling flow…and then let em go.” (Dan Millman). *tries again to stop listening really, really hard to the rain*

· Interesting fact I learned on a guided rain forest trip in Costa Rica: All the life in a rain forest exists twenty-plus feet in the air. Why? This is where the trees climb to expose their leaves to their energy source — the sun (it´s too dark under the canopy). Thus, all the small insects cruise on up to the top to munch the choicest green. Of course, the birds, big bugs, snakes and reptiles smack their chops and follow them right on up. Only natural that the small mammals also hang out around the dinning hall too. So, you see, the entire food chain is way up in the trees…which means you really don´t have to worry about running into a bunch of poisonous snakes or spiders while cruising through the forest (my guide had seen only two *dead* snakes in his two years of rain forest tours). I usually take comfort in that fact….except when I´m sleeping in a tree-fort.

*sews up a hole in her pants and does a little reading*

3:25 AM

· I will never drink coffee again.

· The solution to achieving world peace? Mandatory and enforced one-hammock-per-person law. And of course…all negotiations would take place in round hammock circles. *laughs at visuals of George W. Bush in a hammock* (Refrains from posting further commentary on the…*winces*….president.)

*peels wax off the bed and reads some more*

4:30 AM

· Finished “Another Roadside Attraction” and, holy hit squad, Tom Robbins has just secured a spot on Solbeam´s “all-time-kick-ass-author” list. Oh, Amazon…I miss you and all your point-click-doorstep-book service. How am I ever going to find more Robbins in Guatemala?

5:30 AM

· Um. Conclusion: There is absolutely no sound worse than a mosquito buzzing around your head in bed. *slap*

· And in this case, nothing is more comforting than a flawless mosquito net…

· …Until you realize that in covering yourself with the net you have somehow managed to capture the skeeter in the net with you.

· I´ve captured the mosquito in the mosquito net. Oh the irony. Okay….I´m going horseback riding in two hours. I wonder if they´re serving coffee at the kitchen yet?