Groundhog Day!

"Groundhog Day" (you know the movie, right?) feelings have probably hit many of us to one extent or another in recent weeks.  For me, I wake up every day in the van, open the door and say to myself "yep, I'm still in Guatemala".  Don't get me wrong, I am in a little slice of paradise with people I've come to think of as family, but come on!  I really want to go somewhere!  Again, I know I'm not alone in these feelings.  There are many many people traveling similar to me all over the world that are stranded.  Some in great places and some in not so great circumstances.  I view myself as one of the lucky ones.

So, yes, I feel like Bill Murray at the beginning of most every day, but each day brings something different here.  Joan, my wife, reminds me when we talk that I am very lucky to be able to interact so closely with the people here.  Since we are a closed community of ~30 people who have been together for at least 5 weeks, we are confident that we are "rona"-free here.  We have parties, pot luck meals, poker nights, movie nights, pancake breakfast, random gatherings, trivia nights, chess games, private veggie market, gardening, etc.  There are many a discussion on what our future will look like as overlanders (I don't know why, but I still hate that term to describe me).  Where will we go from here?  Continuing our individual journeys as originally planned seems not in the cards for the near future.  When will the virus be eradicated, when will travel restrictions be lifted, when will borders open, when will parks and recreational areas open, will locals be accepting of foreigners everywhere, etc.  For many the answer came a month or so ago as people found places, wherever in the world they were, to store their vehicles and fly home.  For others, like me, we found a place to hunker down and see what path things take.  Over the last week or so I have come to the realization that for me continuing the adventure I'm on to South America this year doesn't look promising, so it is time to figure out where to go from here.  The natural conclusion is to head back home.  This isn't quite as simple as packing up and just hitting the road (or is it?).  All the travel restrictions that are in place and the potential rejection of foreigners by some locals along the way makes for a lot of research, monitoring, and planning.  Luckily this little app called Facebook has some wonderful groups of people in situations just like me looking for or offering information to help each other out.  You hear of the success stories and some challenging stories, but it all helps put the puzzle pieces together to reach a decision.  I'm not there yet though, so here I sit, in paradise with great people.  Not so bad!

Oh, and I'm actually getting a bit in shape with running stairs every other day and using the TRX and slack line.  If my shoulder stops hurting and they open the lake back up to activities I will get back on the paddle board.  So, whenever I do get home I hope to be in much better shape than when I left!

A little sampling of my life here lately.

Easter pot luck dinner

Random party

Our own private vegetable market.

Going away party for one of our own flying back to California.

I have yet to win at chess!

Pancakes!

Walking to town to buy food.

Movie nights

Farmers Jen and Denise.

Random evening gatherings (the blue light made for interesting faces)

Living vicariously (again) through DirtSunrise video blogs.