Max

Only two days after I had left La Antigua my cousin Lennart told me that my good friend Max was there at the moment, volunteering and traveling through Central America. What a surprise... He had been there for a while and I was there too but had no idea that he was there. We even were in the same town at the same time but didn't meet. I contacted him and we agreed to meet in Antigua on Thursday which was also on my way to the north of the country.
Before that I went back to Helga and the kids who I was missing a lot and who had asked whether I wanted to come back for another day or two. I took the boat back in the afternoon and surprised the kids (Helga hadn't told them that I was coming back) when they came back from school. It was nice to see them again and we played around, walked the dog and went out and had an ice cream together. The next day we had to say goodbye again but it was a happy goodbye. I had lunch with Juan and Olga and took off around noon to get to Antigua.
I got a ride from a nice Guatemalan lady, Mary, who had been visiting a German friend at the lake who hooked us up, which I was very thankful for because it spared me from a 3 hour ride on a chicken bus. She dropped me off at the parque central the meeting point Max and I had agreed on at 5pm but I had a look for a hostel first to get rid of my bags. I ended up staying in the same place I had stayed before, even though I didn't really like the place due to the staff that didn't seem to like me very much either (I think because I didn't drink and buy them drinks...), because they had breakfast included and it was a very good breakfast...
30 minutes later I walked back to the park but failed to find Max. He was a bit late himself and when he came to the park, he found me (funny enough) listening to a wind ensemble that was playing nearby. Max and I who had been playing together in a similar ensemble for about 4 years met, in Guatemala, in a park full of people in that spot... Life certainly is comical.
It was great to catch up with Max. He was living with a local woman and had taken a month of intense Spanish lessons which made him a good Spanish speaker to my untrained ears (he said he was still really bad), he was teaching stuff like English and maths in a local Mayan school and when he had enough time he went for weekend trips to cool places in Guatemala. His stay was coming to its end and he was done with his teaching job so he had a lot of time and he was going to Cuba for a week after the weekend. We went to his place where he ate before we went over to a German friend from Hamburg, Kati, who was doing a similar thing there. We drunk cheap rum(2.60Euro), talked about Germany and I listened to them go on about all those foreigners (mainly Germans) coming to Antigua and making it impossible to learn decent Spanish. Later at night we went to a Salsa bar in town that had live music and was packed with people. It was good fun and I was quite buzzed, for the first time in Central America, when we were kicked out by the security when they closed at 1 o'clock. Max took me back to my hostel where I fell into my very uncomfortable bed for a long and (seemingly) never ending roller coaster ride...
The next morning was hell! I woke up feeling sick and I spent most of the following 5 hours running between my bed and the toilet. I don't know if it was the alcohol (diarrhea rum how Max called it) or because of a bug that I had caught because I hadn't been very careful about what I ate but what I know is that I don't want to experience something like that again. I won't go into all the details (even though I know that some of you are waiting for exactly that... :)) but it was bad!
The whole thing was accompanied by a nasty headache and wobbly knees but I couldn't let Max down when he came for the third or fourth time that day to pick me up. We went for a slow walk and the air and the movement did me good because I felt so much better, that we could even go to the market where the smells, good, bad and neutral alike are very strong.
I somehow made it through the rest of the day feeling better and better as time went. We bought a movie and watched it with Kati (ironically it was about being sick) and had a quiet night. I hung out with Max for one more day and we had a great time. He is such a cool person to hang out with and it was so much fun that I met him so far away from home and he could show me around his Antigua for a few days. He is one of those friends to me that I don't hang out with very often but when we do, we have the best time and get along really well. I hope that I can see him more often when I get back to Germany because he is a very good friend!