Chapter 11 Rio Dulce, Lago Isabella, Guatemala, May 2014
Sat alone in the galley, with a tiny backpack at my feet, the Captain's father's expression had changed from comfort to pity.
A month earlier The Captain had been called away to Canada and let me stay on Matey until it was time for me to move on. A few weeks into my stay, one morning, docked on the edge of the Rio Dulce, I emerged from the boat, a little fragile. Other boaters spotted me and began to bring me food supplies and medicine to help me gain strength. I had cheated Dengue Fever, skipped around crocodiles, and dodged snakes but nothing had prepared me for eating the wrong thing. Earlier that week I had been volunteering in an orphanage. Feeding so many, then later set to work washing giant pots and pans in their travelers' hostel, I was too lazy to wash or even cook my vegetables and ate them raw before dozing off. I awoke to a terrific tummy rumble and I ran up to the deck and threw. A humiliating experience made worse when the night watchman shone a torch directly in my face. I must have given him a fright, as my hair was a shocking shade of burnt orange, and my face drained of all colour. He cleaned me up and put me back to bed, like a kindly parent. I muttered "Soy un Barco de Papel" as I drifted off.
I was a captainless paper boat waiting to be steered in the right direction or otherwise I would eventually sink. As a parting gift, the orphanage gave me a ticket to Tikal, a Mayan temple that stood in a tangled jungle far north of the tranquility of the river. The ticket to sun worship held some hope. I would go in search of the sun gods, on foot and alone. I picked up my smaller bag, which now only contained a few clothes, shells, and my tile from the island. Strange, as I had originally set sail with a bigger bag filled with my ghosts from the past and all my hopes and dreams for the future. The captain had taken the bigger bag with him and now I had almost nothing left.
YOU ARE READING
Alice in the Jungle
Non-FictionIf you were Alice what would your adventure be? Follow the author through the magic tunnel of social media to the reality of the unpredictable jungle world and beyond. As one world crumbles, she finds herself pulled into a totally different one; a b...
