May 20, 2003
Antigua, Guatemala & South to El Salvador
~3600 miles

antigua, guatemala...

ah... antigua... i am in love. what a place. yes, overrun with tourists...  but for good reason. it is a marvel.

a town of perhaps 50k i think, antigua is nearly entirely devoid of any recent developments. all construction seems focused on the restoration of older buildings... many of them extremely old. i think some must date back to the 17c....

the streets are cobble.

it is a time capsule back to the great earthquake which forced the capital to guatemala city.  it is finding a rebirth now as a tourist town and it is quite well advanced in that process.

there is quite obvious conscious effort to keep it authentic and original, and to promote excellence amongst the businesses that cater to the tourists. i sense the presence of a powerful zoning commission that regulates new construction, signage, and business location and distribution.
the combination is powerful. and the total effect puts anything we have in the states (williamsburg, va comes to mind) to shame.

the tourists here are a different lot as well. not the cabo wabo senor frog's crew... not the rio jet-set.... but a combination of low-key eco-traveler types and ethnic goods buyers.  buyers of textiles... for that is what the guatemalans excel at... their traditional wooden looms and their human touch give the desirable uneven, non-factory effect, and their brown cotton has a softness that feels good next to
the skin.

antigua feels *sustainable*. like it could exist like this for another 1000 years.

...

it is perhaps appropriate that here in antigua i am finishing one of my all-time favorite reads: The Clock of the Long Now, by Stewart Brand. it is a contemporary blend of a chronicle of an effort to build a 10,000 year clock combined with the philosophy of that effort. and it is a beautiful summary of some of the most important trends of our time. most importantly, the trend that time is increasingly foreshortening; observed by parallels to moore's law, the pace of life today, the expansion of knowledge, etc.

when you read it, you begin to realize how many things, observed over time are increasingly getting faster and faster and you wonder if there is a climax coming here anytime soon....

in reading the book, so many obvious indicators of this acceleration become evident around me... the increase in speed of turn indicators on automobiles... (ever buy an old car with original blinker relays? they blink at an absurdly slow rate.... these days, your car would be in a heap in as the rear-ending car behind you completely missed your intention in the time between two blinks!)

... the increase in speed of music... techno etc. ... actually, i think that an interesting study would be to take the BPM (beats per minute) average of the top 10 pop songs charted each year since 1950 and plot them on a chart...

...

sometime momma you and i will return to antigua and we will sit and drink cafe con leche together at the little "peroleta" coffee shop where young lovers and old friends sit and talk about things of little importance but great consequence...

....

the drive from antigua to the salvadoran border through escuintla is one of the best night drives i have ever been on ... a broad and comfortable road, brand new and in immaculate condition... nearly no traffic... and no electric lights of any kind... banyan trees bowing tightly over the pavement and a warm, no slightly cool, air wafting through jessie's cockpit... the sounds of a thousand goliath beetles and a hundred frogs and dozens of unidentified mammals and marsupials ... birds squawking and screaming...

[i am writing this by the side of the road... 3/4 of the way through this drive... i had to pull-over and tap this in... its 11pm and jessie idles, her headlights on... an insect the size of a baseball whizzes through the cabin... ]

i am truly in the tropics now.... the air is beautifully moist and pregnant, smells of a million living and dying things blending together in a heady organic snuff. i breathe it in while  jessie floats over this undulating unpainted black ribbon of delight... am i even pushing on the gas pedal? coasting, idling it seems, she eats it up...  she is 26 years old this year, and she is just as full of vim and vigor as she must have been when she rolled off the factory floor .... her bright wide-eyed headlights taking it all in while her carburetor sniffs the air and her meaty tires feel the road. three hours of bliss for the two of us as we enjoy this best of possible moments.... i scan her gauges and listen to her rumble, her every sound.... i review her checklists in my mind... she is my girl.

can i sing the jessie's praise one more time? do you tire yet? the international harvester super scout is truly the epitome of automobile perfection... the open top and low-slung door cut-outs let the outside in, and break that invisible barrier between driver and environment that motorcyclists seek to bridge... it is more like a moving slide-walk or a engine with a seat strapped to the top. it is a viewing platform with a motor and a joystick. it is heaven on earth.