Back from South America... and car crash!!!

So, before we get started regarding the South American adventure, I have to let u guys know I was involved in a small car crash last Friday (14th). As any other day, I did some work at home, hit the gym, and met up with Jud around 7PM at Monoloco to catch the Bosox play. I had rum and cokes, since the day before I had gone out with my cousin and had beer all evening (Rattle and Hum), so I wanted to switch it up on Friday. Zac (bartender) was nice enough to pour me some strong rum and cokes, actually they’re rum and Pepsis, but whatever. Anyways, stayed at Monoloco the entire time, watched the Sox win, and when the bar closed, I was ready to go home. Got in my car and started driving back to the city… I was going kinda fast, not extremely fast, but fast enough, when I stupid dog got in front on my car, which made me pull strongly to the right on the driving wheel, my car swerved and skidded, and hit an embankment and the car ended up on it’s side (driver side).

Thankfully nothing happened to me (except being scared shitless), but I had to get out of the car on the passenger side, since the ground prevented me from coming out of my door (weird thing, airbag didn’t pop out). A couple of people were nice enough to offer some help (we actually tried to tip it over, but the thing is way too heavy), and finally to cops arrive and I called my insurance company. Making a very long story short, the tow truck didn’t get to where I was till about 5 AM, and they towed the car directly to the body shop (the same place where I take my car for service). I didn’t get home till about 6 in the morning… but I was so shocked that this had happened to my and my car. I am very grateful that I wasn’t hurt physically, but I’m so pissed at how damaged my car ended up. I took out all of my CDs and things before they took it away, but again, I can’t believe my car will need to be in the shop for about 3 weeks and the total cost of the repair will be around US $7,000… my insurance deductible is around US $600, but I’m still extremely pissed at myself. Moral of the story: No need to drive extremely fast from Antigua to the city (or vice versa); home (or Antigua) will be always here waiting for me.

Saturday we had a lunch to celebrate my brother Rodolfo’s birthday, which I really didn’t have the mood for. I was so pissed still because of what had happened in the morning, I’m sure I wasn’t as charming as I usually am. All I wanted to do was sleep and forget what had happened.

Sunday it was off to Argentina! My flight was from Guate to Mexico City (2 hours), and from Mex City to Buenos Aires (10 hours). The second leg of the flight was such a pain, especially since it was a red eye flight, with me arriving at Buenos Aires around 9:30 AM on Monday. My problem is that I have never been able to get a deep sleep in a plane… sure I doss of for about an hour or so, but I can never get any real rest. That Monday afternoon we had a conference, with a small cocktail afterwards… and the rest of the week I was in conferences and meetings all day. Funny thing is I did bump into a lot of people who are friends with my dad from the World Health Organization. Anyways, almost everyday we finished late so I didn’t get to do much sightseeing. Saturday morning I flew back, and got to Guate around 10:40 PM…. On the way back, I did catch a couple of movies I had on my list: Stranger than Fiction and The Holiday, both just OK. I’m still quite tired from the trip, but glad to report we got a lot of stuff done and plenty of future meetings have been arranged.

This week should be pretty chill, since I have plenty of work to do and I’m sorta like in home arrest since I don’t have a car to move around… or get to ANTIGUA!!! We’ll see how I manage this upcoming three weeks.

Hope everybody is doing well, especially my fellow bloggers, since I haven’t seen any updates in some time now. Un fuerte abrazo para todos and let me know what’s going on with u.

Later and drive safely,
CRCP

P.S. - Bosox swept the Yankees, with the Sox hitting 4 straight homeruns at some point (tied a major league record).
P.S. II - NFL draft is this upcoming Saturday, and the Patriots have plenty of picks…
P.S. III - My cable took away my CBS, so I haven’t been able to watch the last three episodes of Survivor!!!
P.S. IV - Looks like one of my best buds from Antigua might be moving to the city, we’ll see how much he enjoys the city life.

Green go! Gringos are leaving...

Can you believe it, Steve and Alice have left us…err; I mean Pete and Allison, or whatever their names are. Pete and Allison are going back to Arizona for awhile; hopefully they’ll be back in Guatemala at some point (Allison is a lawyer and wants to get involved in Human rights or something like that down here in Latin America). Pete had already been down in Guatemala before, he was actually a bartender at Monoloco way back, and I believe it was Allison’s first time down here.

Anyway, they were having their going away get together (despedida) on Sunday night… I usually don’t like drinking on Sundays, but I this was a special occasion. Anyways, went down to Antigua to meet up with them at Monoloco, but it turned out that it was closed… so we all headed to La Sala, Ricky's and then to Reilly’s. Afterwards, it was off the Zac’s house for a small afterparty, with Pete as our entertainer. I can’t remember any of the songs he played, but he should have played: Happy trails to you, until we meet again…

Here's the gang... by the way, Luke and Andrea also left... I actuall know Luke from DC (or so he claims). That's the one thing about Antigua, it's similar to DC in the sense that most people are only there for a certian amout of time and the move something else. Good luck in North Carolina Luke and Andrea... and keep in touch.

Here we are at Reilly's... our last beers together!!!

Let's have one last one for the road...

Here's Pete singing and the crew just hanging around... Here's to Pete, Allison, Luke and Andrea: Another turning point, a fork stuck in the road, time grabs you by the wrist, directs you were to go, so make the best of this test, and don't ask why, it's not a question, but a lesson learned in time, it's something unpredictable, but in the end it's right, I hope you had the time of your life...

Rumor has it that they were driving to Arizona from Guatemala, and that on their way over there, they experienced some car trouble and ran into some dirty cops, so that they had to pay a “mordida” and then sell their car and fly to Arizona from Mexico instead. I’m really sorry that their last experience in Guatemala turned out to be such a crappy one…

On other news, I had a great Easter week… I went to the beach for a couple of days, went to another XL party, and headed down to Antigua and saw some processions.

Sports wise:
* Bosox are not doing that great… 4 – 4 so far. Saw their home opener were they trashed the Mariners, but also saw Dice-K lose the next game.
* Carlos Ruiz is off to a great start with FC Dallas… two goals and one assist so far.
* Celtics just keep on loosing (2nd worst record in the NBA)… hopefully they’ll get the first or second round pick in this year’s NBA Draft, it could be Ogden or Durant to the Celtics!!!

I’m off the Argentina (Buenos Aires) this Sunday… going to some work meetings. Excited about it since I haven’t been to Argentina since 2002, when I was working at Winstar (Telecom Company). Hopefully I’ll be able to do a bit of more sightseeing this time.

Hope all is well with everybody,
Carlos

P.S. Hope surgery went great Will… good luck with the rehab of the ACL. Hope you recovery turns out like mine and not Ciskanik’s… by the way, was Kate’s brother in law operating on you???