Quetzaltenango, Friday

2204 Should be moving towards bed given not much sleep last night and need to be out by 7 tomorrow morning.

School OK, struggled to get up, didn't feel hungover so much as a little bit drunk. Was a minute or two late, perhaps, but no big deal. Class dragged a bit but generally OK.

Other chap from school (Joel) who said he might do 3 day trip to Atitlan wants to do QT trip; I gave him details of my agency and no idea if he will speak to them. Bit worried QT will be booked up by time I get turned down by my agency but can't be helped.

Found out during break the English teaching thing in San Martin Chiquito was on so agreed to go; just me, organiser and Joel, but poor turnout of students so we were 1-1 for conversation. My chap seemed to be pretty fluent once he got going, he told me had had been mugged at gunpoint in Xela about six months ago (at about 6-7pm I think) but he didn't worry about it there as everyone kept a lookout for strangers and anyone caught doing serious robbery would be torched (!). I think he was serious but maybe winding me up, can't rule it out, but pretty sure he was serious. He didn't answer my question if he had seen that happen, perhaps deliberately - I guess it would be illegal and perpetrators could get into trouble.

Got some tips re how to get to Lake Chicabal tomorrow from a bloke on the bus out there.

On the way back on the minibus (colectivo) (almost back in Xela) I suddently heard a loud bang/pop kind of noise immediately to my right. Turns out something (deliberate?) had impacted on the window right by my seat and the safety glass had shattered. Inevitable "was that a gunshot?" kind of thoughts for a few seconds but I was of course unscathed.

Cooked a gutbustingly huge rice+veg+tuna meal when got home - I went to supermarket to buy one or two snacks so didn't get back here til maybe 7ish.

I think that's all the main events of the day, didn't entirely feel like writing this now but I think worth keeping the record up etc.

2237 Had shower, drying off before bed. If I get back not too late and not too knackered tomorrow I may pop over to that tour agency in person and ask if the trip is on or not, rather than wondering why they haven't sent me an e-mail to say yes or no.

Wondering a bit if I will struggle with the walk tomorrow but probably be OK and only one way to find out.

2247 Bed. Random thought: did I remember to say that on public bus to Atitlan the other weekend, we got pulled over by the police and all the men had to get off to be searched (rather cursorily AFAICS) for weapons? Presumably just a random search. Given the bloke sitting next to me left his bag on the bus (I didn't) I can't feel it would be near trivial to evade this kind of search but maybe I missed something. Anyway, wanted to write that in case I had forgotten. This was on the first bus from Xela to Las Cuchillas, I think after I got off and back on again at 4 Caminos.