New Years Eve on Lake Atitlan

There ended up being a psy-trance party at Freedom for New Year's.... surprise surprise.... Around 1 or 2 am, myself, Ric, Leslie, and a bunch of the other foreigners who live here filled up a boat and went to this “Universal Dance Festival” (or something to that effect). Advertised was 3 days&nights of partying, workshops, vegetarian food, djs, live music, etc. We got there, and Dave from England started playing music... good music. I had not heard him DJ yet. I had a few little boxes of wine, tequila (which was one of my choices for the evening), and my hulahoop which lights up. Things got crazy for many of us. I met one of the organizers of the event, David, from Berkeley. He had heard about me djing at Freedom the night before and wanted me to play the next day or Saturday. I said I just had to go get my stuff from San Pedro so Saturday would be better.

At one point, maybe around 5am, Antonio, the owner of the land/house, came down, freaked out, shutting off the music. Antonio is a crazy American guy, and the place that we were at can only be reached by boat, so cops can't get there. There have been some amazing parties on his property (over in the woods along the lake, just a walk away from the party this year). But I had more or less heard Antonio is a control freak, and this proved it to be true. So, the San Pedro people we came with left, and I continued to party (sin loud music), on the lawn, with the people who were left and these little kids that came around. I was hanging with the little kids, all sorts of fucked up, blowing bubbles with them. With wands and my bubble gun, of course.

Then I went up to the house to drink more...this amazing house, with stairs winding up to different levels built into a mountain I think. There was an awesome bar area that was in the shade of a tree whose limbs sprawled out 20 feet and were intertwined with a cactus whose limbs also sprawled out. I met some more cool people, including the guatemalan bartender who said that 2012 would be the collapse of capitalism. I liked this idea.

I slept down near the lake where my friends were, and awoke to the sound of waves crashing on the lake, a fire nearby, and the sound of a band playing relaxing music. Afterward, Ric went to play, and for some reason, the music was shut off. Beat scene. So, it was a chill night. I tried to drink a beer up in the bar but just couldn't physically get it down. I did meet some cool people though- an Irish welder who works on bikes in Guatemala, and also turns them into pedal-powered energy sources. Another slumber under a full moon, waves crashing. Bienvenido 2010.