Meeting up with a friend from the road

Bud hails from Georgia, USA but has lived all over. He fell off the grid for a long time. Living his life, keeping it simple. Now, in his 70s, he travels.

He too has a covid story. He was in Jerusalem and ‘escaped’ to Cyprus where he spent the next 120+ days.

He eventually went back home and in December last year, he flew to Mexico, which is where I met him. At the Andaina Hostel in Oaxaca. We’d be up on the roof for sunset, chewing the fat. I was only there for 3 days at that time but after my month-long stay in Zipolite, I went back to Oaxaca.

Our sunset ritual continued. We’d drink a beer or 2. Occasionally some mezcal.

After Oaxaca, he flew back to the US to reacquaint himself with his family a bit. He got his double dose of the Pfizer vaccine and flew to Guatemala.

He lives on his state welfare check. Back home it is nowhere near enough to live on. Accommodation alone would wipe out his entire monthly income and then some yet here in Guatemala and Mexico he can live albeit very simply, a good life. He was in Oaxaca for almost 6 months. He intends on sitting it out here for 2 months or so really getting into his reading and meditation.

I took the boat from Panajachel to Santa Cruz and found him sitting crossed legged on his yoga mat outside the front of his rented bungalow.

Over coffee, we caught up and then he takes me to the restaurant with the best view in town, the Cafe Sabor Cruceño, part of an NGO project where young women are taught to sew and make local artisanal products to sell and to work in the restaurant on the top floor.

After, we walk down another way back to the lake but have to abort the idea of a walk along the lake as the rain was coming in.

We sit on the porch listening to the rain and talk about the merits of simple life.
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Bud, a friend from the road.

​​Tagged under: Guatemala

Originally published at https://www.nomadicbackpacker.com.