part one: mexico

the mexico part of my trips feels a lot more like a vacation. not to say that i haven´t seen interesting things or haven´t encountered great people with great stories, but i think maybe i´m just taking it all a bit more with stride. i mean, it's hard not to on the beach, or in a bar putting back a few victorias. i did have a moment with my grandmother in guanajuato though. i showed her a picture of my father and for a second she had trouble recognizing him, and when she did, she wept a bit. she cried at the fact that my father is now an older man, who at one time left for the US as a teenager. my grandmother softly said "the united states took my son and there he became a man." it was sad to witness my grandmother at that moment, recognizing the few times she had seen my father since he parted for his new life, lamenting that she wasn´t by him when he was a young man. unfortunately, he wasn´t the only one. most of my aunts and uncles followed, with only one aunt remaining in mexico to make a life for herself, in a city a couple of hours away from home. it´s extremely sobering to listen to these stories from my family. it helps reveal how extremely fortunate i am. i have just recently arrived in guatemala, about to embark on another part of this trip and i don´t know if i can feel any luckier to be here. to travel because i want to and not because i have to.