And so, onto a nothing day. It had been our first impulse to take the boat out of Livingston as soon as possible, wanting to sever all connections with the place as soon as possible. But we had chatted the day before with Michael, + he was of the opinion that we might be able to find something out, so that decided us to give the place another day. And when we did run into Michael today, he was able to give us some information, not that it was really of any use: it seems that Livingston is worse than we thought – we had been assailed by 2 different, independent thieves at the same time. The only possible benefit this conferred was that we might be able to get our camera, or at least film, back. However, Michael said he had tried to find the camera thief again, so we had better wait to leave until the afternoon boat tomorrow – this we agreed to do.
Apart from this, our day was totally unproductive. We lazed around our hotel room for a while, strolled the town a couple of times, played cards, read – or at least Val did. I am at present book-less, except for a philosophy book which is far too heavy for too much at a time. So, to amuse myself, I am devising a crossword. And in the evening I was able to acquire another book, swapping Lawrence for a novel called “Something of value” with Michael. This cheered me considerably – as Val will testify, when I don’t have a book, I am a dreadful fidget. And all the worse when she does.
In the evening, we once again treated ourselves at the African Place. It really is an excellent place, marred only slightly by a surly young waitress (“full of shuffling insolence” is how Val described her) with excellent food + at remarkably cheap prices. Val had a menestra de verduras, a sort of vegetable stew, while I had a tortilla espanola, an incredibly filling concoction of eggs, potato, + onion – marvellous.
Inevitably, both of us feeling very flat, and attempting to do some negotiating, via someone else, was simply dispiriting.
On the plus side, we do seem to be appreciating the positive side of moving from Mexico to Guatemala, to a place where suddenly, the bonus we had hoped to achieve by moving from the USA to Mexico has at last been realised. We can afford to live much better, and have found places to eat which are aimed at a Western market, at a most affordable price. Suddenly, we are a good bit more cheerful.
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