When an airplane is about to leave, and there’s still room on it (taking into consideration pre-planned, unchangeable limits, like “we only put in enough fuel for 170 people”) there are sometimes seats the airline would still like to fill, if they could get some money for them. They know about these seats so late, they cannot offer any kind of reservation system for them. They let third-parties sell vouchers to get people onto the planes, but the airlines don’t want the third parties competeing with them, so the third parties are prohibited from advertising. So there’s this little micro-industry of people who sell these vouchers, and you basically have to hear about it from someone who has done it to know about it. It’s called air-hitching, or standby travel. I heard about it from Erika of Pangaea. ...

Tomorrow morning I will be getting on my easyJet flight back to London. I have been having a nice time here, and so I’ve postponed and delayed and conveniently forgotten to write anything down about my time here until the absolute last second. Which is now. I have been meaning to write in Spanish, to keep from losing what I’ve learned so far. But that takes a long time and there always seems to be something more interesting to do. At least some of the things I’ve been doing here are preparatory study for my RedR class next week, so it’s not like I have been completely slacking off. ...

I arrived in Geneva this morning to see my friend Sima, who I met in Montreal a long time ago. Better not to count the years back, at least in public. I will stay here a week or so. Sima and I don’t really have a plan, but it will involve a little of me on my own, since she has to work next week. Here’s a little globalization for you. All through my trip to Guatemala, I was haunted by this annoying song called Gasolina. It’s like the song for the Macarena, but about gasoline. Well, if you listen to the lyrics and the interplay between the man and the woman, it’s pretty clear she’s not at a gas station when she chants, “Give me more gasoline!” Ahem. ...

Hoy tomé mi primera clase de RedR. Este clase se llama “¿Etonces, piensas querer trabajar como ayuda humanitaria?” En sentido estricto, no era necessario, porque yo se querer trabajar como ayudar humanitaria. Pero visitaba Londres en cualquier caso, etonces uno mas clase era facìl para atender. Eran muchas ingenieros civiles allì, y algunos ayudantes de sanidad. Pero eran poco trabajadores de informatic, solamente yo y uno otre. Estoy comenzando a pensar que debo haber sido ingeniero civil. ...

I just enjoyed a few days with my parents up at the cabin. I got lots of my stuff cleaned up and ready for a new trip. Mom and I cooked one of my favorite dishes we cook together (Vegetarian Lasagne). Dick and I finished cleaning up the lot so that it is ready for the summer fire season. Alas, my cold did not abate. I’m on my way to London in a few hours now! ...

According to Karl, who is picking me up at the airport tomorrow night, I am flying home tomorrow to SFO. So ends several days in Mexico City, and over two months in Guatemala and Mexico. My time in Mexico City has been spent on three things: feeling a little crappy, being hassled moving around the city, and seeing cool stuff. So in absolute terms, I guess it was more bad than good, but it doesn’t feel that way. ...

It is the weekend, so I’ve decided I don’t have to write in Spanish. Also I am in a bit of a hurry, so here’s what I’ve been up to the last few days. I spent several relaxing days in Oaxaca. I spent a morning doing museums. I found an artist I think Evi would like. I kept hoping some of his seascapes would have a sailboat instead of big passenger ships, but no luck. I think it was Francisco Guiterrez, but I’m not very good at rememberinbg artist names. ...

Anteayer, pensé no visitar Oaxaca porque el viajar allí tomaría demasiada hora. Pero encontré un bus de la noche de Palenque a Oaxaca. Etonces, llegé en Palenque para los 8 horas de la mañana y salí a los 5 horas de la tarde. Dos noches en buses serían mortal en Guatemala, pero el buses de Mexico son mucho mas confortable que lo. De hecho, los buses de Mexico son mas confortable que todos lo que voy. ...

Hoy estoy todavia en San Cristobal de las Casas. Tambien, no tengo dicionaire, pero decidí no es una buena excusa. Etonces, hoy posible esta diario es un poco mas malo, pero esta es solamente para mi mente. Algunas veces una hospedaje tiene personas muy interasante. Aquí en Backpackers Hostel, estan un chico y una chica de ingleterra quien quieren viajar a Tejas, después alquilar un carro y conducir a Alaska. Tambien, lo tiene un hombre de un universidad en Chennai, India quien escribía muchos libros. Y tambien una chica de ingleterra quien quiere trabajar como un nutritionalista en paises quel necesitan ayudar para desarrollo. ...

No tengo mi dicionario, etonces hoy voy a escribir solamente ingles. I left San Pedro yesterday and started my trek north to Mexico City. Yesterday morning as I got ready to leave I thought I might go to Chichicastenango for the world famous market. But it turns out I was off by a day and would have needed to kill some time. Time is not on my side right now, as there are lots of fun things between here and Mexico City airport. ...