guatemala : japanese traveler

 I was in a small town in Guatemala. There was talk amongst the tourists about rebels finding tourists on popular hikes and sent them walking back naked.

I was in a bar one late afternoon. There were a few languages being spoken at different tables.

I ordered a beer at the same time as a Japanese man.

We ended up talking for a bit - in Spanish.

Neither of us spoke the other’s language, but we had equally weak Spanish!

I felt like I had met an alternate me. He had a warm smile and a bold curious face.

All of a sudden there is a loud explosion in the not too distant distance and the ground shook a bit while the electricity stopped working and the lights went out.

After a few moments we looked at each other with eyebrows high and then in unison shrugged and raised our glasses and said one of the few Spanish words we knew : “cerveza!”