February 2022 – Basgallop Blog

swimming in a pool in the rain
duck dive, a few powerful dolphin kicks, deep within and beneath the turquoise, channeling my inner ‘man from atlantis’
break the surface, air gulp, flip over onto back, lily pad float
the torrential rain pummels and pelts, pooling in eye sockets, cleansing, baptismal
ricocheting, with some force, off my third eye
lotus lotus, om mani padme om, jewell in the lotus lotus
i am part bing crosby, part one of those 1930’s synchronised swimmers… a solo synchronised swimmer?
curiously ungainly on land, in the water i am slee-eeek, creature of grace and flow
next, with a whoop, it’s up and down the water slide, a deceptive hurtle!!!
the waiter comes out to smile, i am the days only customer… earlier, camaraderie, both staring mournful aghast at the continual downpour
trees, awnings, almost everything drips and ripples, a constant kerplonk
mucho juvia… deluge
…………..

audio of text

yep hotel kin ha, palenque, halfway along the road to las ruinas
actually a motel, think whams club tropicana meets crossroads. i the love child twixt andrew ridgley and benny?
really like it here… a huge sprawling site, littered with concrete faux mayan sculptures, half the huts derelict, mildewed and overgrown, a solemn recognition that one day, one day soon, the jungle will take back everything
these weird baby hippo like creatures scurry by, i guess they are some sort of rodent on steroids? humming birds, as small as butterflies, supping at preposterous blowsy flowers,
parakeets ungainly flap overhead, a terrific screech
oh and howler monkeys, at sunset, their guttural growls competing with, blending into, the cacophony of mexican kids at the on site roller disco… not tonight tho, a different tenure of howl when soggy bedraggled
at tikal i saw toucans!!! TOUCANS!
rain days… days to pause and reflect… out of time, out of place, out of time, out of place… reflect on what? no blooming idea! which, with the soft subtle forgiveness of sunset, I guess, is completely as it should be
……..
oh and i’m guffawing my way through the audio version of ‘my family and other animals’, not my usual taste, must have read it, and loved it when i was 12… comfortable, soothing for the soul

Lakes and Sunsets

a tableau… 3 from Lago Atitlan (last week) and 2 from Flores this eve… no post complete without at least one selfie! X

waves of water, waves of land…. boat wake and volcanos

My faves are the boys jumping onto the dock…. I’m not much of a photographer, always preferring to express in words, but occasionally you get a twitch of Cartier Bresson
Sunsets are the best time of day… I was sitting at the back of the boat waiting for it to take me home… A framing of dock with backdrop of volcano, boats arriving at a beautiful angle, the boys silhouetted by the light of the setting sun… Of course the photo I wanted never quite happened… One of them in mid air leaping
But hey ho, with my bewilderment of phone buttons, normally I manage to turn it off rather than taking a snap, so just be happy
One of the things I loved was the speedboat across the lake as a normal means of travel… Me whooping at every bump, the locals cheerfully non committal… Just going about their lives … Beauty so constant, it is worth neglecting, is to my mind a wonderful notion
Used to get a similar vibe on the top deck of the sunset bus home from work along the cliffs. Humdrum sumptuousness x

Tikal

Ruins and Jungle… Parrots, Spider Monkeys, Pisotes (a friendly, funky long nosed Racoon critter), err a psychedelic Turkey… And me… From atop the temples the canopy of trees reaches to the horizon
Tho on reflection, with my 7:00 am face I could be more ancient and stoney than any Mayan carving
34 years (tho only a small slither of a baktun) since I was but an hour away in Flores, yet never made it here… Always good to arrive, however tardy!

Rich P: Remarkable likeness.

I liked the likeness

Yes! Doppelganger for the legendary and benign late classic ruler ‘squinting manatee’