Do places change? Or those who change are ourselves...?
In my first visit to this selvatic, religious and welcoming country, mi intention was to explore it 100% with an adventurous mindset and to experience as much as I could while keeping an extremely - maybe exaggerated - low budget. By my own decision, I learned to live in a continuous state of scarcity and constant effort. Guatemala taught me that I am capable to accomplish a lot with very little, I learned that I´m not made of glass and that I can take several hits before breaking, I can grasp now how complicated is life when you are away from home, but it is completely up to you to change your reality.
My experiences in Guatemala span from being in a hospital with a possible broken back, a gun pointing at my head, a 39 celsius fever with no money for medicine, the first broken heart I left when I decided to continue traveling instead of staying with her, to living for a week with a local family with 6 daughters.
My Chapina (how guatemalans are called) adventure was about learning and self-discovery through risking my life every time I had the chance, but this time my travel style will be very different. Back then, Guatemala was the 4th country I visited in my whole life and it was the first one where I experienced several change of plans and goals; everything I had to go through during those 40 days marked an end and a beginning in my life, and whether it may be good or bad, it played an important role in who I am today.
This time Guatemala welcomes an Eric with a more specific goal, more than 20 stamps in the passport and a new way of thinking. I don´t have to prove to me what I am capable of, I already know that; I´m also conscious of my limits and I´m not planning on putting them to test - at least not this time, there will be a chance to do that in another ocassion. I still have a lot to learn and grow, but I feel that I´ve made a lot of progress compared to the man who came here a year ago.
I don´t know what to expect from this visit... The project I have prepared for this month involves having to re-visit every town I went the first time, but to explore them from a different point of view. I´m curious to see if these places are how I remember them, how I idealize the, how I described them in those posts I wrote when I was just starting on Steemit.
There is a phrase that I don´t recall who said it, or if I read it somewhere or if I´m just simply inventing it right now, but I have it engraved in my mind: "People and places, they don´t change, it is our own perception and mental state what makes them look different".
Well, it´s about time... I want to demonstrate the truth behind this phrase. I´m not going to say I´m not anxious about the outcome but, what I can say is that I expect it to be better than what I think. I wish my capacity for amazement is still there and I can enjoy this adventure to it´s fullest, I hope I don´t have to repeat to myself...
Half naked Eric - shut up and take my 100% :P :D :D :D xD
HAhahahahahahah oh my god, I should never had use that photo! Everyone is commenting about that instead of the ideas! :P lololol
What did you expect?? :P I doubt most people actually read the post - I skimmed through it ;))) :D We Love Eric! xD
I think people change. Maybe not as much as the person who has been away for a long time, but they still change. Everyone goes through their own travel in life and they grow even though they might be staying in one spot their whole lives. Places stay quite the same and mostly change because of people changing or moving away. That's my experience at least :) and cities that I used to spend time in start to seem smaller as I see more of the world.
Hope you have a great time in Guatemala :)
I read your post, I am so glad you are back :) Exactly, at least for me, we change, and with that change, everywhere we go changes with us.
How is California going? Are you going to post something about these past 3-4 months? I can wait to see how the hikes have bee, or the acting lessons (it was acting right?).
Thanks for dropping by, I thought we lost you for good, don´t ever scare us like that again.
Californias good! I will be posting some pictures of the trips I've made :) acting is going good too, I'm auditioning for some plays today!
You didn't loose me for good, I just had a busy period where I struggled a bit with my motivation to write. I'm back now :)
I think your findings would be different from the last time you visited towns in Guatemala.
Because now your mind is more aware of the details. In another word, wiser.
Have fun in your quest for new experience.
Thank you for sharing.
I don´t know if wiser, but at least better fed with experience haha
Thanks for dropping by and commenting my friend.
You are most welcome. Thank you for all the supports given.
Happiest of journeys, Eric! Woah a gun to the head, broken hearts and back, high fever! Wishing you perhaps lower key journeys this time 😂
“We see things not as they are, but as we are.” -anais nin
💞
I really expect this time will be uneventful, or at least only positive events hahaha. Damn, that ending quote, I love it. I have to reply to more comments, I saw yours from yesterday and it was on point, but I was on cellphone so it was too hard, and now I have to reply to like 50 comments from yesterday hahaha. Great to see you drop by, always nice to read your comments ^^
Haha! I can’t even imagine what it’s like to have so many comments like you do!! I have trouble and we don’t even have that many...
Yeah anais nin is a gem! 😊
i just recently got back from Florida 2 months ago. From being somewhere when it is almost always freezing Florida is a great vacation spot. But this time when I went it never felt like a vacation it never felt like a thrill. We done all the fun things you would so on vacation, go to amusement parks, go to carnivals, go swimming, get tattooed and eat at places you never been before. But this time it never felt like it did the first time we went to Florida.
The phrase you mentioned, definitely relates to me not finding Florida vacation a thrill anymore. As a kid I was blinded of all the chores that you would have to do to keep on top of things and I guess simple "adult" things. So my perception has definitely changed.
Its funny what you mention, I think it has happened to me a few times. At some point you out-grow a place, a sensation or a person (not because you are better or worse, but because you simply differ from that person you were when you enjoyed their company), and puff, you are just not interested anymore in visiting the place, conversating with the person or wanting to feel like that again, I agree 100%.
Being a nomad is by no means easy. It means giving up a lot to gain, in my opinion, something even more. There's a small window in our lives where we can undertake an adventure like this with the right mind set before life and experience change the way we think.
That's why I love the line you included, "People and places, they don´t change, it is our own perception and mental state what makes them look different." Because it's so true. We can never go back on the path of life, only forward, so that means even if we go back to places, they'll never be the same. Thanks for sharing!
As in life, some decisions take away other postive experiences from us, we just have to choose. It doesn´t mean we have to stick to that decision for the rest of your life, it just means that, at least up until you regret it, you may want to stick with your decision, even if it is hard for you to "miss out".
Yeah, life isn't about following the same path forever, it's knowing when it's time to try something different. A poignant moment that I'm going through right now. I think the modern marketing term is called, pivoting, hehe.
"People and places, they don´t change, it is our own perception and mental state what makes them look different".
Life is what we see or believe it to be, and that's exactly what works for us.. I hope you keep making impacts on the people you meet and I wish you luck.
Exactly, it depends solely on ourselves to take things as they happen to us, and what to do with them :D
Came here for the update but I can't stop staring at that sexy beast in the picture.
Lol this no shirt picture is going to haunt me forever, a lot of people has already commented about it hahahaha
This is RADICAL! I share many of your points of view, having been to Guatemaya on a scarcity trip 4 years ago... Unfortunately, I was infected with giardia after going for a leisurely swim in Lago Atitlan, and the following 3 months were pretty horrific until I came back home to Montréal to get cured... I believe that the only thing that never changes is change itself. I appreciate your words and look forward to seeing the world from the new perspectives that are inevitable as I grow and learn to know and love myself as a being of love and light, yo! Presence is the best present, this is where we need to be, right here, right now!