Rob and Haley's Travellog

Maximiliano

2008-06-26T06:07:00.001-07:00

Heaven, we have arrived and thou art magnificent. It is about 7:00am local time here in Puerto Vallarta. I just woke up to the sound of thunder. There is a storm rolling across the bay here which is producing a good bit of lightning. Our Hotel is located right on the water with two incredible balconies that overlook our beach below and the entire bay. I wish that I were a better writer so I could more appropriately describe how awesome this place is. Haley found this place after many hours of pouring over the internet.

We are staying in a suite on the top floor of a hotel with only 7 rooms. As I said, it is right on the beach, though we do have to walk up and down about 5 flights of stairs to get there. They call the style of our hotel "Mexiterranean," which, while cheesy, is also appropriate. I think I'll just post pics so you can see for yourself how nice this place is. We were commenting on how in the states a place like this, on the beach, would probably easily go for over a thousand a night, but here it only cost about $180/night, shared between two couples.

Yesterday, after getting into town, we spent a couple hours at the beach in front of our house. It was Will and Paige's first time in the Pacific ocean - they weren't disappointed. after washing up in what has to be the nicest bathroom I have ever stepped foot into, we headed down to dinner. We went with the hotel's recommendation which was a little place about 10 minutes away, right on the beach. We watched an awesome sunset while eating shrimp tacos and Mahi filet. The food down here has yet to disappoint.

I'm kind of torn as to what we are gonna do here...part of me wants to go out and do all the activities we have planned and another part wants to stay here in the hotel all day. Today we booked a tour on a boat to take us out for some snorkeling. luckily it isn't until 2:00pm, so we will have the morning. We'll probably go into town and buy more stuff. Guadalajara ended up being expensive (and heavy), but I did get my tortilla press (solid mesquite) and a molcajete (mortar and pestle). I'll have to blog about guadalajara later.

Tour de Guanajuato, Part II

2008-06-25T21:18:00.001-07:00

This morning I woke up around 6:30 to go out taking pictures. Normally I would be a little reserved about going out alone, but this city feels really safe. There is a lot more money here compared to many of the other cities we have traveled to. Guanajuato is where the richer Mexicans come to vacation and the city does a great job of attracting tourism by keeping things clean and safe. At first I was worried that with my absolute lack of directions I would get lost and not able to find my way back to our hotel. The city is a labyrinth of side streets and staircases that climb forever. If you are on foot, there are no dead ends, no matter what alley you go down. Each alley/street is either going up or down, with only a small part of the valley being flat, down by the city's main square.

I managed to get a couple tunnel shots off, and a couple other cool shots during the 1st hour, but overall I was disappointed with the pictures I took. I think I regressed in my photo skills while sticking my nose in medical books for the past 2 months. The second hour was a little better as I climbed up into some of back alleyways behind our hotel. For some of those people who live in some of those houses, the nearest road is probably a 5-10 minute walk through the skinny walkways between other people's houses.

After getting back to the hotel and washing up, we headed off to breakfast on one of the city squares. On the way down, we saw lots of people on bikes, but thought little of it. Then as we were eating, it seemed the entire city started to come out into the streets, and the number of bikers grew exponentially. by the time we were done, it was difficult to get out of the restaurant due to the crowds. We hung around to watch (to our disbelief) that they were setting up for a bike race through the city. Keep in mind the first two paragraphs of this post where I talked about how narrow the little alleyways were and how there are only limited roadways...

The first couple races were warm-up races for kids and other age groups. They went around the blocks a couple times, getting the crowds excited for the main attraction to come. It was cute, but the most excitement came when the adult that was showing the kids the route to take totally biffed it just after starting the race - please see the video in the previous post. When they let the main race group go, they released them in groups of about 30-40 bikers at 5 minute intervals. As far as we could tell, they probably let out about 200 bikers. After a good half hour or so, the first group of bikers they let out returned for the second lap. It was pretty fun as they whole town cheered on the bikers. It was kind of funny, because nobody really marked off the race route and nobody was keeping the route clear of pedestrians. We saw a good half dozen people almost get run over by bikers. It was funny watching the giant crowd boo at the people for getting in the way.

Eventually we tore ourselves from the crowd and did a little shopping. After dropping our recently purchased souvenirs off at the hotel, we headed out for lunch. As we started to walk down some remote/narrow alleyways, some of the people on the street were telling us to be careful because bikers were coming down the walkway. We looked at them in complete disbelief only to find ourselves moments later almost getting mowed down by bikers with full suspension bikes coming down a huge string of stairs that we were climbing. We were so surprised/bewildered/impressed/shocked all at the same time. I can't believe the route took them up and down those narrow alleyways through the city. As we continued to walk (much more cautiously this time) we came upon another set of stairs (not near as hard core as the first set, but still kind of crazy to ride your bike down) and waited for the bikers. This time, I was ready with our video camera and my D200. Previously, I posted some video of that second set of stairs.

ESPN needs to get on these Guanajuato bike races. They were awesome. In fact, I don't think there was any video coverage from any local news stations. I would think that in a city like this, with a bike race going through it, and being as hard core as the route is, they could really draw some serious worldwide attention. Will and I kept joking about coming back next year and entering the race. I guess the only thing that would hold me back was all the ambulances we heard throughout the city the entire day - after we climbed that first set of stairs, we heard someone biff it on their way down. We also saw a couple different guys who had bloody legs/arms.

We finally made it to lunch on the other side of town. We had to walk through a really busy marketplace that made everyone a little uneasy. After lunch, we decided to walk/hike to a large statue on the hill called "El Pipila," which means "turkeycock" in Spanish. Turns out this statue was made in honor of a peasant who helped the Mexicans gain their independence by burning down the gates to the granary where the Spanish were holding out. The hike to the top of the hill/mountain that it was on was straight up a ton of little back alleys, which made for a good hike. The hike was worth it as the views of the city were spectacular.

Haley keeps raving about Guanajuato and how she has a new favorite city - move over Charleston. I also like the city a lot. It has a nice charm to it and all the people are really friendly. I think it has to do with the city being so rich and accomodating to tourists.

Tour De Guanajuato

2008-06-22T21:14:00.001-07:00

Here is some video of some bike races that were going on today in Guanajuato...I'll have to post more later on how crazy these bikers were. Enjoy:

Endo from Rob Egbert on Vimeo.

Urban bike racing from Rob Egbert on Vimeo.

Observations

2008-06-22T20:17:00.001-07:00

3 things to sum up the great city of Guanajuato: Hair gel, Making-out in the streets, and obsession with the dead.

Seriously, I'm not sure what the deal is with this place, but they LOVE their hair gel. I need to get some pics of some of the guys walking around here - Think vertical Mohawk, horizontal Mohawk, the combined vertical/horizontal Mohawk, the corn-row Mowhawk, the frosted, shaved side of head Mohawk, you get the picture. I can't imagine the amount of hair gel one must use to get their hair to do the things they get it to do, but they are masters of hair sculpting here in Guanajuato.

Making out in the streets: seriously, like everywhere. I don't know if this is a popular honeymoon spot, or just a good city to make out in - but people definitely take advantage of the make-out-ability of the place. Old, young, skinny, fat - you get the picture - all around you all the time there are people making out. If you ever visit Guanajuato, I would recommend staying out of dark alleyways at night - not because you will be in danger, but because you might walk up on something that would make you blush. If they are making out in the streets, I'll let you imagine what they are doing in the dark.

Obsession with the dead: We visited "El Museo de las Momias," or the Mummy museum today. Apparently the local cemetery got too full a while back and they started to dig up the bodies of people who's families never came to pay the "rent" or claim the bodies. The weather here is really dry and just the right temperature to preserve the bodies. Many of the bodies go back hundreds of years, and one body in the museum as recently as 1973. It was definitely kind of creepy, but at least this museum was tastefully put together...

The next museum was like a cheap Disney exhibit trying to scare little kids, only they used real bodies and then covered them in fake spider webs and cheesy lighting to try and make it creepy. I'm not sure what the thinking was on that, but I think dead people with their skeletons and eye sockets hanging off them is probably scary enough. The cool think about this museum was a bonafide chastity belt from the times of the inquisition - I'm not kidding - look at the picture. Those poor women.

Speaking of inquisition, our next stop was another cheesy museum (though it didn't need to be) of the torture chamber used during the inquisition to torture the accused. I guess there was some super perverted Catholic priest that was sent to Guanajuato to straighten things out - turns out this guy was one sick freak - all kinds of ways to twist certain parts of your body, dismember you, shove all kinds of spikes into you from all different directions, different ways to display what was left of you after they were done - you get the picture. Of course to cheese it up, they had all kinds of "special lighting," and our guide put on some kind of monk robes as he led us through the dungeon. C'mon guys, this was a torture chamber - already creepy enough without your cheesy music and fake cobwebs all over the place.

Lastly, we did get a chance to go to one of the mines. One of the reasons this city is so rich in colonial architecture is that for over 200 years, more than 40% of the worlds gold and silver came from the mines in the area. There is a labyrinth of underground tunnels that makes up the roads in the city as well as beautiful building abounding all over the hills in the area.

The city is rich with history, this being where Hidalgo beat back the Spaniards in Mexico's fight for independence. The city is also the birthplace of Diego Rivera and supposedly there is a cool museum, but we weren't able to find it.

Today was a really full day and we blew through a lot of money. I think tomorrow we are planning on just bumming around the city and maybe do a little hiking to see some of the city vistas.

Taco Time

2008-06-22T07:53:00.001-07:00

Alright, so took the boards on Wednesday – glad to have that over with. Paced up our bags that night/Thursday morning, then headed to Haley’s parents place. It was really nice because they had the boat waiting and as soon as we pulled into town, they took us out to the lake for some wakeboarding. Turns out Haley is pretty good at wakeboarding – got up right away and didn’t biff it too hard. Then this morning, we got up at 4:00am to head to the airport. Haley’s parents were dropping off Haley’s sister and her family at the airport for a flight that left at 6:45am, so we went in with them, even though our flight didn’t leave until 9:45am. We are experienced at spending some quality time in airports.

Then it was off to Mexico. Haley did an incredible job planning this entire trip, from the flights to the hotels, to checking the bus stations and taxis to get from city to city. She predicted that we would have enough time after we landed to get to the bus station by 2:00pm. Seeing as our plane didn’t land until 12:00pm, I was not as optimistic as her, but customs and documentation went really fast, we got our luggage really fast, we hailed a cab quickly, and as soon as we got to the bus station, we bought our tickets and loaded up on our bus that was already up and running. After 5 hours on a Mexican luxury bus, we almost didn’t want to leave it (no – really, those busses are quite nice – the chairs lean back to nearly horizontal and have this leg thing that comes down and allows you to lie almost flat – about as much let room as your bed). However, once we pulled into Juanajuato, our stomachs were growling for some Mexican food. We hopped a cab to our hotel (cost about $4 bucks for a ½ hour cab fare). We weren’t sure as to what to expect from our hotel, but Haley and Paige picked out an incredible bed and breakfast right in the middle of town. Turns out that we pretty much have the entire place to ourselves, and it is incredible. I’ll have to post some pictures. I’m really looking forward to exploring this city – there is a whole network of underground caves, a mummy museum, silver mines, as well as plenty of shopping to do (I think haley’s more excited for the latter).

Oh, for dinner we headed out and chose the first place we thought smelled good and had a bunch of tacos – you haven’t had good Mexican food until you have eaten it in Mexico. I also later bought a tamale off a street vendor. I feel I need to gain back all the weight I lost studying for the past two months (lost about 7lbs). I think after last night, I am off to a good start to gain it back.

Man, it’s good to be back in Mexico!

Panama

2007-07-16T21:12:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, July 10, 2007
1:07 PM

As always, the most interesting stuff first. Last night, after dinner, Haley and I went with the group to "La Bodeguita," a bar/nightclub/restaurant. We had decided that because it was our last night in Panama, we would go out clubbing with the group (not something we normally do). After sitting with the group for a while and having a few drinks (Coca Cola for Haley and I) things were starting to get boring. Then they started playing some decent music that got us shaking our heads. Haley and a couple of others in the group would have no part of it. As most of you reading this blog already know, Haley is very self-conscious of her dancing. I (as well as others) kept trying to get her to loosen up and dance a little. Finally she let some of her inhibitions go (after convincing her that we all look stupid when we dance anyway and that is partly why it is fun) and we got those hips shaking. Then they announced they were gonna start karaoke. If you will recall from last year, we ended up doing some karaoke in a bar in Costa Rica (Los Angeles), but neither Haley or I got a piece of the lime-light. With some convincing from those in the group who had a little extra alcohol in them, Haley decided to go up and sing a little "I Love Rock'n'Roll" with Chrystal and Myra. They did an awesome job. Chrystal let me record the thing on her camera and I plan on posting the video in it's entirety as soon as I get my hands on it. Later we learned that Myra had singed our group up for singing "Bohemian Rhapsody." Somehow, they managed to get me on the stage for that as well, though I am sorry to say I don't think there was any video taken.

It was definitely a weird experience for us, but a fun one. We are probably the last people you would think to get up on stage in the middle of central America surrounded by local people that don't speak English and start to sing. But yes, it did happen and we have proof (at least that Haley did it). It was a good last night of our vacation. As far as Haley goes…well, it is always the quiet ones.

I realize that I am writing this in reverse fashion, so bare with me. Before our Bodeguita adventure, we headed out to another new mall here in Panama to eat at the "Paladar." The atmosphere was nice and the food was good. However, the most entertaining part of the night came from a fellow group of diners. In an effort to keep this blog family friendly, I will just say that there was more silicone in the table next to us than on the Red Frog Beach we had just visited up in Bocas. Needless to say, they took up most of the conversation as more and more top heavy women rolled in. People in our group thought they were just some friends getting together, but the absurdity of the largeness of the artificial peaks on over a dozen 30 year old females screamed adult entertainment industry. It reminded me of an experience I had working out in a gym in Las Vegas (the same gym where many similarly modified women worked out). If you get a chance, ask me about that story. It is a good one.

Okay, now working my way back…we started our day with a tour of Panama city and the Canal. I quickly learned that the big changes here in Panama have not been confined to Boquete and Bocas Del Toro. My backyard on Albrook has been changed into one of the largest malls I have ever been to. After spending 3 hours there on Sunday, I don't mind if I never set foot into a mall again. Ft. Clayton, once the largest Army thinger outside the US, has been converted into the "City of Knowledge" which hosts all kinds of learning and stuff. The Miraflores Locks now have a giant visitor's center, complete with a theater and a large collection of Canal artifacts. Downtown Panama City has probably undergone the biggest change as they continue to put up one apartment high rise after another. Quite literally in every direction you look downtown, you will see a dozen new sky-scrapers being built. There is a new bridge, the Centenario, that goes over the Galliard cut and also a new highway that goes out to the airport, cutting travel time considerably. It was really nice to come back and visit the place, though I'm not really excited to come back any time soon. I think part of what made Panama such a good experience for me was all the great people that lived here. I don't think I know a single person here in the country anymore.

After the tour, we headed to the fish market and got a couple nice pictures off. After that, Mike wanted to walk downtown to get a couple pictures. Always game to go take pictures, I joined him. The only problem was that we started our walk in a really sketchy neighborhood and Mike kept on wanting to pull out his camera to take some pictures. I was definitely nervous as I pulled out my $1,200 camera to take pictures of the dilapidated boatyard and the dodgy looking bums passed out on the side of the road. Later we learned that the area of town we were in is notorious for violent theft. I guess Mike must have prayed that morning to keep us safe because we made it out unscathed. As we continued our walk, the presidential motorcade happened to pass by. I couldn't believe the lack of security as the president of Panama passed right by us. Later, we passed the first lady on the sidewalk outside her house (which you can walk right up to, by the way). The lack of security marks the stark contrast between the country of Panama and a country like America (note the use of the word America instead of the US--refer to earlier post).

Oh, and before closing I wanted to mention how poor the hotel accommodations were at our last stop here. They have been really nice up until now. I highly recommend avoiding hotel Marparaiso, unless you are going for the pee-stained, crack-house atmosphere. They did have AC, Cable, and free high speed internet, but these perks were not enough to detract from the moldy walls, cold showers, and threadbare sheets.

Cockfight

2007-07-16T21:03:00.001-07:00

Friday, July 06, 2007
4:03 AM

From the title of this entry, you may think it to be about Chris and Tyson. Don't worry, it isn't. I'll get back to the title later.

Before I start catching up on my blog, I'll start with some recent events. Rather one event in particular. We are now in El Valle de Anton, arriving yesterday after a long 7 hour travel day (3 buses). Unlike Bocas and Boquete, El Valle is much as I remembered it. Haley and I just got back from the zoo, whose cages are still far smaller than a more humane-minded institution would allow. I did get some nice pictures of the rare golden frog, who until a couple years ago, the world thought to be extinct. While the zoo was sub-par as far as zoos go, it did get us out of the hotel room and enjoy the scenery here in "the valley."

Before the zoo, we went out this morning to see "El Macho" waterfall. It was quite the waterfall and I look forward to playing with some of the pictures I took in Photoshop. The lady at our hotel said that the waterfall was only about a 20 minute walk from the hotel. 45 minutes later, we arrived with a light rain accompanying us. It ended up being about 3 or 4 kilometers, most of it uphill. 20 minutes later, was started back down. By this time, it was starting to pour and I reminded myself how glad I was that I bought the camera with all the weather seals. While it's not waterproof, I had already proved it's weather hardiness after leaving it out all night in the pouring rain a couple months ago. After about 10 minutes of walking, out of nowhere, my intestines began undulating in such peristaltic synchronicity that I had to politely usher the rest of the group in front of me. Haley was kind enough to stay back and ensure I was okay. We were in the middle of nowhere, and nature was shouting. I had no choice but to run off into the bushes, wait for the tourist bus to pass by, and then bake some machine gun brownies right then and there. Luckily Haley happened to be carrying some "papel de bano" which saved the day. The rest of the walk was quite pleasant.

While Haley and I are having a good time down here, I am glad that it is only two weeks this time instead of the four last summer. Central America is a lot of same. It is good to be back in Panama, and I am excited to get to Panama city tomorrow, but I am also glad that we are gonna be back in the states on Tuesday. Haley is really excited to get back home to Gob, and heaven knows we have a lot of things that we still want to get done around the house before things start back up again in a month.

The night before last, we all ended up attending a Panamanian festival complete with cock-fighting, billiards, "tipica" music and dancing, and lots of drunk Panamanians. Earlier in the day, we had gone on a small tour to some hot springs. Our guide, Plinio, had told us about this party and encouraged us to attend. We all decided it might be cool to see a local Panamanian party and decided we would head up after dinner. We caught a cab around 10:00 and headed out to Caldera, the location of the party. As we drove up, we could hear the ruckus from a half mile away. The giant pavilion was decked out with street vendors, beer, and a ton of Panamanian people. The 5 of us were the only white people there (minus Myra, who is Ecuadorian). After donning our "party time" bracelets at the door, we were admitted. We quickly made it to a corner, "purchased" rights to use a table (which we later found out was located in the corner of the pavilion where all the men went to relieve themselves--nothing like the fresh aroma of uric acid). After drinking a soda or two, we ventured out to the dance floor. At first it was fun as Haley and I "danced," or more appropriately, "moved around like uncoordinated gringos." After a while, some short fat dude started coming around stapling these little papers on our shirts. We weren't sure what he was doing, but he did it with such a surety, that we figured it was normal. But then he started shouting "six dollars." Apparently he wanted money for some social worker and was trying to get us to pay by giving us the "receipt" in advance by stapling it to both mine and Chris' collar. We of course refused only to find out later that it is kind of the macho thing to do to show the ladies that you are giving to charity.

The cock fight was kinda nasty. I did manage to get a little video on my phone of the event. I can see why it is outlawed in so many countries. Chrystal was really excited at first, saying that it would never gross her out. Well, after the blood started flying and the birds pecked at each other's heads, she quickly changed her mind. I can now say I have seen and cock fight and can also definitively say that I am against them.

After the cockfight, we played some billiards. It was a nice relief from the dancing and cockfighting where we felt so out of place. At least the billiards rooms wasn't as crowded and the deafening music wasn’t quite as loud. After we were done, one of the locals asked me if I wanted to play a game (I think it was more like he challenged me to a game) and I reluctantly accepted. Marcel ended up being a cool guy and was even nice enough to allow me to win in front on my friends (I had asked him not to embarrass me too much). He showed me how good he actually was early in the game as he shot his first 4 balls into the holes on his first turn. Luckily, I sunk a couple myself and the thrown game didn't last too long.

Later in the night, Marcel came up to me and said it was nice to meet me and also asked me not to forget Marcel from Caldera. I thought it was a nice gesture and now that I am writing about him in my blog hopefully I won't forget Marcel from Caldera.

During the time we were at the party, there was a certain man who took quite an interest in Myra. As soon as we walked into the pavilion, he was eying and following her, asking her to dance. She refused at first, but with continued persistence, she wore down and he had his dance, or I should say his first dance. That dude did end up being a fairly decent dancer as he spun Myra around the dance floor. After they were done, Myra rushed back to our table, followed by the guy. He then thanked us all very much for allowing her to dance with him. He then continued to thank us. Then he thanked us some more. It was strange. Finally, after shutting him out he left. He returned a couple songs later, but Myra told him she was tired out and maybe one of the next couple songs.

Later in the night, with a little more ethanol running through the veins, he decided the Myra was worth another shot at love and came back asking for more. Admiring the guys persistence, Myra reluctantly agreed. He was really drunk and uncoordinated as he tried to dance to a faster salsa tune. It ended up being more like spinning around in circles and I am still surprised that they both made it to the end of the song without projecting their stomach contents onto the dance floor.

I should quickly mention the really nice restaurant we ate at before the great Panamanian adventure. Our hot springs guide, Plinio, had recommended the restaurant "El Pianista." It was a $.50 cab ride up the mountain in the back of a pick up truck to the middle of nowhere. We were the only ones in the restaurant and I would have thought us to be the only ones to have gone in a week except that the place was highly recommended. It was on a coffee plantation, complete with a coffee trees all around and a nice little waterfall just outside the window where we were eating. The food (pizza) ended up being really good and a nice change from all the rice and chicken we had been eating (though it was more expensive).

I have gotten a lot more opportunity this summer to speak Spanish, compared to our trip last summer. I think it is because we aren't as with as many people which is pushing Haley and I to go out on our own and interact more with the locals. Yesterday, on our busride, we stopped at a little rest area where I was able to talk to a local Kuna Indian and purchase one of her molas. It was really cool to interact with and hear her story. She was even kind enough to allow some photos. I have also gotten to talk with a lot of our guides and the locals at the markets. It feels good to converse with people in another language, especially after not speaking Spanish for over 6 years.

I know this is a really really really long entry. Sorry.

Happy 4th From Central America

2007-07-16T20:52:00.000-07:00

Thursday, July 05, 2007
9:20 AM

We are quickly making a number of traditions as we travel. This is our second year in a row that we celebrated our independence day while travelling abroad. Luckily, the town where we are currently serving has a number of Americans living here and there was an impressive fireworks show. Last night, after dinner we all came back to our hotel to play a couple round of "scum" or "ash-loh," in German (you may be able to figure out the alternate English name from the German name, but this being a family oriented blog, I decided to leave that one out). During the game, we heard a number of gunshots at which time Haley and I realized it was the 4th of July and ran outside to see the streaming lights of gunpowder. The show went on for a good ten minutes and was especially impressive as we are in the middle of a canyon here in Boquete and the "boom" seems to be amplified on either side by the mountains.

Haley and I are sure starting to appreciate America and all that she stands for. This morning, the newest attack against our motherland came from an unexpected source: Our guide, Myra. At breakfast Haley was dressed in her Che Guevara t-shirt that she sleeps in. Myra questioned whether or not you were allowed to wear stuff like that in America. Apparently she didn't realize how free of a country America is. Once the bashing began, Myra started to give us a hard time for calling ourselves Americans. She, as an Ecuadorian, felt that she too was an American. Apparently many in her country feel this way, and she has spoken with many Canadians who are also upset with this particular naming strategy. I said fine, I am willing to call her an American if she wants, but she then said she would never want to be called an American. I said "okay," I'll be American and you will be Ecuadorian. She then went on and on about how our great country doesn't even have an original name to call ourselves and so we call ourselves the generic "American." She suggested that we come up with a new name or start calling ourselves "United Statsians." You can probably imagine how flabbergasted Haley and I were that she was even trying to argue this point. I suppose the British started calling us Americans and the name stuck. There are two separate continents, North America and South America. So, if the continent naming is an issue for her, there is no continent named America. She should be content, and proper, in calling herself a South American. Those north of Columbia who are not satisfied with calling themselves Mexican or Canadian can be content with the continent name of "North American" and not get confused with American. Those people who spend time getting angry at this naming scheme have too much time on their hands.

Okay on to other stuff. Tyson has now left the group. His partying ways didn't mix well with the family atmosphere of Boquete, Panama. This morning he headed back to Bocas with a couple Canadians and will rejoin us in Panama City on Sunday. Christoff is quite happy with this latest development, and isn't trying to hide his enthusiastic dislike of Tyson. I personally like Tyson, though our worlds are quite different. He enjoys drinking and hooking up with women, though he can never remember who exactly he ended up with the night before. He does have some good stories, however. Christoff is more mature and serious, and the two don't mix too well. I like Christoff as well, its just that the two men can quickly change into something ugly as displayed in our game of "scum" last night when the two got into a little quip over who had to deal. There was a bit of uneasy speech and "adult" words were dished out. I guess tensions had been building and the rest of us just kind of sat around not sure how to respond. If I were a great writer that made up quotes, I think for this story it would be: "A man's pride can be his greatest weakness." It is probably better that I don't become that type of writer.

Before I forget, I suppose I should touch on the Banco Nacional de Panama stealing $200 from my bank account. I had tried to withdraw that amount from the "cajero automatico" right after writing my last blog entry on the day we left Bocas. I withdrew the amount from the ATM, only no money came out, the screen said "transaction complete," and upon checking, the money had been debited from my account. I then high-tailed it to the local bank, and with only 20 minutes until our boat left harbor I was starting to perspire a bit above normal, even for the humid tropical climate. The lady I talked to couldn't be more apathetic to my cause. She gave me some drab form to fill out and said the money should be in my account in a week. I highly doubt that will be the case, and luckily I got her name and number and look forward to making many calls to the Bocas branch of the Banco Nacional de Panama upon my return to the states.

Stuck in Miami

2007-07-12T22:04:00.001-07:00

Friday, July 13, 2007
12:53 AM

As I sit here at home in my new Ikea armchair I feel happy. It is about 1:00am and Haley and I have been putting together new Ikea furniture for the past couple hours. We purchased a table that goes against the wall (you know, those skinny ones--I don't know what they are called), and a island thinger to go in our kitchen. Ikea furniture has a way of keeping us up late at night.

We were supposed to get home yesterday. However, if you remember my previous post where I wrote about getting stuck in the Miami airport you won't be surprised that we once again got stuck in Miami. I don't know if I dislike the city of Miami more or American Airlines. Our flight home on Tuesday night was cancelled altogether and we had to spend the night in the airport to catch another flight home the next morning at 11:00am. Of course we could have gone to a hotel, but being cheap and adventurous, we decided to stick it out. I think Haley got about an hour of sleep and I got 5 (she did do a lot of reading and catching up with CNN).

I still have a good number of things I need to put together before I am finished with this years travel blog, but that will have to wait until I am more coherent. Other thoughts for future blogging:

• Michael Moore is the problem with healthcare statistics in America: Fat Americans cause our statistics to look bad because their lifestyles lead to early death, NOT access to healthcare.

• America is really rich.

Red Frog

2007-07-03T05:51:00.002-07:00

Tuesday, July 03, 2007
8:05 AM

Right now it is 7:00am on maybe a Tuesday morning. I decided to wake up early today to go around Bocas to take some pictures as well as catch up on my travel blog from yesterday. I think I got a couple good pictures, but not sure they were worth waking up early for.

I am continuing to love Bocas Del Toro, especially after yesterday's visit to Red Frog Beach. It was a short 10 minute boat ride from Bocas town. Following the boat ride, we had a short walk through the rain forest to get to the beach. They wont drop you off directly on the beach because of the difficulty in navigating the large waves that in part make Red Frog so famous in Bocas.

The beach was awesome. It was definitely one of the nicest beaches I have been to here in Panama, or in the world for that matter. The water was crystal clear, the sand was white, and there was plenty of shade to take it all in and enjoy (yeah, most people don't want shade when they go to the beach, but for Haley and I it was a welcome site). After putting our stuff down on the beach, I decided to head off and do a little exploring while Haley and Michael stayed behind to get situated.

Here's my funny story. When I was walking back on my walk, I walked by these two bikini-clad women lying in the surf. When I walked by, they were both smiling and waving their hands in a flirtatious manner. The reason this is a funny story is because of my reaction. It was the last thing I was expecting and I had no idea how to react. I'm sure I must have blushed and I think I half-waved, but it was so incredibly awkward for me I'm surprised I didn't trip over my feet right there and get a face full of sand. Nice to know I still don't have it (and don't need it).

After the warm up walk, Michael and I set out to find the ever more elusive Red Frog that gives this beach it's name. The Red Frog has been on the decline since the commercialization of Isla Bastimentos, where the beach lies. The problem is that this island is the only location where the Red Frog is found in the world. I don't suppose we were helping the problem by visiting the island and then hunting out the frog to get a picture. However, Michael and I were careful and our "hunting" paid off. We ended up finding two frogs on our trek. Though you can't tell from the pictures, they are scarcely bigger than your thumbnail. We had to walk through the mud and back in all of this tropical ground cover, following the call they were making. We found plenty of the uglier females (at least I am guessing it is the males that are colorful and the females that are a drab brown color), and finally a couple males. When we were walking back, I kept imagining tropical snakes, like the Fer-De-Lance, crawling down by my feet ready to strike at any time. Luckily we got a few pictures off without any snake venom entering our bodies.

On our hike, we found another beach after following another trail through the rain forest and over a rather large hill. The beach was really nice also, but with more rocks than Red Frog.

When We got back, I decided to give body surfing a try. I was hesitant to do so after reading about the strong undertow, but after seeing some other older gentlemen doing so, I thought I could handle it. The waves were probably 6 or 7 feet tall and very consistent. I couldn't believe how much fun I was having riding those waves in on my belly and even managed to convince Haley to come join me. After riding some nice waves and consequentially showing her boobies to the world one too many times, she decided to call it quits. I stayed out there for another half hour tiring myself out. I wish we had more time to lounge around and explore, but we had told our boat guide that we would leave at 3.

Then last night, we had an amazing dinner at "La Pirata." I had the 2lb snapper which was flavored and deep fried to absolute perfection. It was some of the best fish I have ever had. Even Haley was a bit jealous as she ate her spaghetti pomodoro. Haley was happy, however, with her ice lemonades (which were quite good). We sure haven't been saving any money with the food down here, but we have been eating well.

Today we travel to Boquete, up in the mountains. It should be much cooler, temperature wise, and will give us some time to relax from our more adventurous sides.

Proud to Be an American

2007-07-03T05:51:00.001-07:00

Monday, July 02, 2007
12:03 AM

Man, do people from other countries hate America. Especially if those people from another country happen to also be environmentalists. Especially if those people happen to live off Americans and American things, but are unable to achieve the goal of actually being an American. Okay, not all people that hate America secretly want to be Americans, but I get the feeling that some do.

Today we set sail on an amazing catamaran tour of the archipelego of Bocas Del Toro. It was a rare sunny day here (being the rainy season and all) and the water was calm as we weaved in and out of small mangrove islands surrounded by coral reef. When we finally did drop anchor, we got to explore the amazing sea life that abounds here.

Much of the time out on the catamaran was spent just sailing along, listening to good music (not island reggaeton) watching the beautiful ocean. It was great and I highly recommend taking a slow catamaran tour instead of a speedy motor boat that will get you wherever you are going in a fractions of the time. Sometimes, especially here in the Caribbean, it is as much about the journey as the destination.

Our guide was really good and entertaining, except for part of the tour where he said things that provoked the opening paragraph of this blog entry. It all started when I mentioned having come to Bocas 10 years earlier, two years before this German had ever even heard of Bocas Del Toro. Then we got to talking about how things have changed over the years. Then he got to talking about how the area and the waters are going to pot (which he later admitted isn't really going to pot at all but continues to flourish) and the "gringos" are ruining all the rainforest on the islands. Then he got to talking about how evil America is for ruining the environment, refusing to sign Kyoto, the mess in Iraq, … It is no wonder that Americans have such pride in America. We have to stick together to navigate through tough international waters. The sad part is that the man was overly passionate about environmental issues and when we started to have good conversation about the topic, he let his passion get in the way and I wasn't even able to talk to the man. He just sputtered out things about how all Americans get so much propoganda about how China supposedly puts out more emissions than us which he said isn't true. It is good to have a cause, but try to keep things in perspective. The man was talking about how we need to have biodiesel fuel stations everywhere, but trying to explain that it takes crude oil to produce biodeisel was lost on the man.

Anyway, the conversation was good until the tour guide who we were paying started going off on us gringos for being American. When you read in books and see in movies that all foreigners think that all Americans are cowboys, well, they really do think that. I guess I kind of like country music, but I don't really ride horses that well, and I don't know the first thing about herding bovine.

Anyway, I am proud to be an American. We do have a great country with a lot of good things going. We do need a lot of changes, starting with our government, but we also have it better than just about anyone else.

On a different note, our group this year is so different from the one last year. Two in our group (one in particular) is dedicating the night to going out, drinking until you can barely walk, hooking up with who knows who (no, really, he has no idea the next day) and then doing it again the next night.

I might as well end this entry with another "anyway." So, anyway, we are really liking it here in Bocas. We might go to "Red Frog" beach tomorrow and hang out in the sand. We might also have a go at surfing, but we are both kind of fried after lounging in the sun on the boat all day today.

Home Again, But Not the Same

2007-07-03T05:50:00.001-07:00

Sunday, July 01, 2007
12:44 AM

Today as we crossed over a rickety, 300 yard railroad bridge spanning the Sixaola river separating Costa Rica and Panama, it felt good to be back in the country where I graduated high school. Ever since my trip to Bocas Del Toro, Panama, during the Christmas break of the 96-97 school year I have wanted to return. For that matter, ever since living in Panama from 1995-1997 I have wanted to return. Haley and I started planning our trip to Panama 2 years ago, took a detour last summer through the rest of central America, but now here we are.

Our journey to the Isla Colon within the archipelago of Bocas Del Toro began with an early morning bus ride, our long walk across the bridge, a van ride and an hour long boat ride. Bocas is much like I remember it, except a lot bigger and hippier (note that I didn't say hipper). Not that it has turned into a hippie town, just that there are a lot more rastafarian wannabe white travelers all over the place that were definitely not here 10+ years ago. I guess after this and the last place I am quickly realizing that I don't like these little surf towns where people smoke weed, sleep in hostels, and spend there nights in bars. I guess that means I'm getting old.

We just got in from having a deep conversation with the group about religion, politics, the universe and other subjects that both allow you to get an idea as to what kind of people you are traveling with and also force you to think of things in new ways as you mesh with people from other countries and with other belief systems. It is interesting to see how the rest of the world hates America. Now everyone seems to think Haley and I are alright people and there are certainly plenty of other Americans around that don't seem to bother them, but others don't like what America stands for. I guess I can kind of see their points of view. Some of us Americans are a little cocky and loud when we travel.

I am excited for tomorrow. We are gonna go on a full-day catamaran tour. These Catamaran snorkeling trips are quickly becoming something we do on every trip (with last years trip in Caye Caulker as well as on our trip to Puerto Rico a couple years ago). Should be fun. I hope Bocas proves to be as amazing of a place as I remember it being in my head.

Pacuare

2007-06-30T16:00:00.001-07:00

Friday, June 29, 2007
11:24 PM

Yesterday was rather boring, so I won't waste any time writing too much about it. We did go to a sloth "rescue" center, which was little more that a lady who likes sloths and takes them in to care for them. The people are in no way veterinarians, but feel that they are making a difference in the sloths life. I believe the story actually is that there is an overpopulation of sloths and these people just happen to like them, so the ones that mother nature tried to get rid of through death, they take in and treat as pets. After seeing the entire setup, you would think the sloth, or "slowth" as they call it, is endangered. I'm pretty sure that it isn't. It is probably about as endangered as the North American squirrel.

Don't get me wrong, they had a very nice setup with very nice facilities and a nice canoe trip through the rain forest. It was all entertaining, but very much overpriced to go see someone's pet sloths. Having said they, the sloths were awesome. I think about $5US awesome, not $15US worth of awesome, though. Oh, and then I bought the most expensive can of diet coke I have every purchased at $2US (oh, and it was canned just up the street here in Costa Rica, not imported).

We did end up having a nice bonfire last night on the beach where we messed around taking cool pictures with a flashlight. Tyson and Myra definitely take the cake when it came to being creative with the light.

Enough about the sloths…On to the good stuff

The Pacuare river emerges from a spring deep in the mountains of Costa Rica. As it makes it's way to the sea, it passes through two deep, fast, and beautiful canyons. The entire way is lined by dense green, primary rain forest. It has been named in the top five rivers for rafting in the world by the main rafting association (whatever that is), and National Geographic named it as one of the 10 most beautiful rivers in the world. It was easy to see why the river owns both those titles.

Most of our group went on the tour, so we got our own private raft with our own guide. The river was full of class 3 and 4 rapids, and with all the rain they have been getting down here the last couple weeks, they were really strong class 3 and 4. We went the entire time without any real accidents, though on the ride up they scare you about all the things that could go wrong and how to get rescued in emergency situations (they tell you this right before you sign your life away on the little waiver they give you). At one point we were going over a huge wave in a class 4 rapid and one of my fellow rafters jacked my chin which put a lot of pressure on my TMJ (temperomandibular joint--sorry, I now know the name and feel I should show that bit of information off) and now I can't bit down all the way because it hurts. I don't think I caused any real damage other that some mild inflammation of the joint--which does hurt quite a bit, but the way.

I was really proud of haley on the river. She paddled hard the whole time and when we were done four hours later, she wanted to keep going for another couple hours (everyone else including me was quite tired at this point). She even fell out of the raft at one point, but then we were all standing up with our hands interlocked in a circle as we went down a class 2 rapid. It just so happened that the way our boat turned that we all kind of pushed her and Chris (from switzerland) into the water. Don't worry, though, I rescued her quite swiftly. I also "rescued" a couple other girls in our group and when you pull them in you are put into a rather compromising position with the said person laying on top of you. It could potentially be awkward. Oh, and just to have a little extra fun, we went down one of the class 3's backwards (on purpose--some other groups repeatedly did it on accident) and then we also did another class 3 while closing our eyes. Our river guide, Diego, was really good and recently went to the rafting world cup in Ecuador (I don't know if he placed in any category, but impressive nonetheless). It was all a blast.

Oh, and it did have a light rain the entire time which both kept us really cool and enriched the already saturated green lining the canyon walls. There were so many vistas of canyon wall with clouds rising from the rain forests floor. Then there were over a dozen waterfalls along the river, some falling from over a hundred feet up. We joked that if we were to die on the river that we not realize it because we were already in heaven (unless some of us end up in hell, then we might notice a change in scenery). The only part that bugged me about the trip was that I was unable to carry my camera with me on the journey because of all the water.

One a side note, Haley and I have been listening to these books by Vince Flynn about terrorism and the CIA. They are really intense and hearing all the different stories kind of put me in commando mode where I am constantly on the look out for people that could give us problems (especially after the recent muggings in the area here).

I feel this entry was just a jumbled mess, but I wanted to get some of my impressions down really quick before I forget some of it. If you ever find yourself in Costa Rica, I highly recommend the Pacuare river, you won't be disappointed. It might end up being the highlight of the trip, depending on how Bocas Del Toro goes (I remember it being incredible as well).

Bodyguard

2007-06-30T15:58:00.000-07:00

Thursday, June 28, 2007
12:31 AM

Ah, Costa Rica. So we are getting back into the Central American spirit now. We had a 4 hour bus ride through the mountains and ended up in the little town of Puerto Viejo de Talamanca. We had previously heard about Puerto Viejo from our previous tour leader from last year. We had asked her if she had any advice on places to go and things to do and she said to avoid this place because it is getting dangerous. Then this morning right before we got on the bus to come here with our group our new leader, Myra, told us of her recent mugging. She was down here about a month ago and got robbed right outside our current hotel. Two teenagers came running up to her shooting off a handgun into the air and demanding all her money. She freely gave up all she had and went straight to the police who did nothing because the boys were minors. In the month since that time, there have been more muggings, including an entire group of travelers. While I don't think we will get mugged ourselves, I am sure to carry as little money as possible, enough to just get by.

Oh, and I'm also not worried because we have a bodyguard, Roberto. He seems nice enough and did come in handy when a local rastafarian kept on trying to sell us some "good weed." Of course I think it would be better if the gun holster he has on his belt were to actually have a gun in it. No, I'm not kidding, the man has a gun holster with no gun. He does have a cell phone however, and I don't doubt that he is prepared to use it.

After arriving into town, Haley and I walked around with Crystal, an aspiring schoolteacher from Canada and Tyson, a twenty-something professional traveler. Tyson has spent the past year and a half traveling to Switzerland, parts of Europe, spent the past snowboarding season in Canada, probably a couple more places I can't think of and is now doing the entire central America thing. He plans on traveling for the next three years as well. I guess he just got tired of work one day in Australia as an electrical engineer and decided to head out on the road for some travels. Us Americans don't really even think of traveling like that. In fact, we don't do much traveling at all. I'm proud of Haley and I for stepping out of the box and getting away this time. We have a good group and I think we will have a lot of fun in Panama. Tomorrow we are gonna go see a sloth rescue farm and have a bonfire on the beach. Then the next day we are gonna do a little whitewater rafting down the "best" whitewater river in central America. Should be fun as long as our bodyguard continues to watch and protect us. (there is both sarcasm and truth in that last sentence).

Manchu-Wok at the MIA

2007-06-30T15:46:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, June 26, 2007
11:52 PM

So, here we find ourselves once again in Central America. And here I find myself once again starting up "egberttravels.blogspot.com." Back on vacation. I'd like to say that this trip has gotten off to a good start, and to be honest it hasn't been THAT bad. However, our two hour layover in Miami quickly became a 5 hour layover and then turned into a 7.5 hour layover. We had planned on doing a little shopping in San Jose (Costa Rica--where we are right now), but seeing as we didn't get to the hotel until after 8:00pm local time, we just headed to the corner restaurant and ate a nice meal (arroz con pollo) for under $5US. The rest of our group was out to dinner and we have yet to meet them. We'll be up early tomorrow to get going to our next destination, so we'll miss out on San Jose all together.

About the title of this blog…In an effort to appease our growing anxiety about the layover, the nice people at American Airlines decided to give us each $10US to buy lunch. The dude at the counter told us to walk to this chinese place, which had the best food in the airport. We figured the plethora of time on our hands and an opportunity to eat some decent food would make the 15 minute hike worth it. Unfortunately, the food was everything but good. The sesame chicken was old and laced with catsup, the spring rolls were soggy in greese, the mushrooms in my mushroom chicken tasted like pool water and you get the picture. So, if you are ever stuck in the Miami International Airport, I would recommend that you go to a place other than the Manchu-Wok restaurant next to gate D35.

Just being down here in Costa Rica, I am remembering how much I love it down here. The weather is a very nice 65 degrees out (it's also midnight), and I don't think it gets much over 80 here in the city. I even love the smell of diesel fuel out on the crazy roads.

In other non-travel blog related news, we went wakeboarding yesterday for the first time. Poor Haley caught the front edge of her board her first time up and whacked that water with a brutal force. We were all surprised when she insisted to try it again. The next time she got right up and wakeboarded like a pro. Unfortunately, she is now experiencing what we imagine is whiplash from that first fall. Oh, and I got up too, but don't have any cool stories to share other than it was a blast.

On The Road Again Video

2006-10-18T12:48:00.000-07:00

Central America Video part 2

2006-10-18T12:47:00.000-07:00

Central America Video Part 3

2006-10-18T12:45:00.000-07:00

Central America Part 1

2006-08-17T07:00:00.000-07:00


The first part of our Central America Trip. So far I have finished through Costa Rica and halfway through Nicaragua. Lots more to come, just wanted to post this one now that I finished it. And yea, it only seemed fitting that I make the movie to our favorite song.

Recap

2006-08-04T21:25:00.000-07:00

Man o'live. Right now I am on the plane, heading back to Atlanta, catching up on blogs. I can't believe that the trip is coming to a close. It has been an incredible month and I would advise everyone to do a similar trip sometime in their life. Visiting other people and other cultures has helped me to get some good perspective on my own world. The fact that there is this entire world out there, with hundreds of different cultures astounds me. At times we get so stuck in our routine of waking up early, going to the office, coming home watching TV, then repeating the routine the next day that we forget there is more out there. Things are about to get pretty crazy for Haley and I as we buy a new house, start medical school, and start looking for a job. I am glad that we were able to come on this trip.

This is where I give a special shout out to Haley. She is every bit as amazing as I always knew she was. She braved the foulest of bathrooms, climbed the most difficult of volcanoes, and faced some of her biggest fears. She did so without complaining, and I even think she had a little fun along the way. She is an incredible woman an I am grateful she chose me in life as a companion. We look forward to our next trip, whenever that may be.

Looking back, my favorite place to visit is probably the place I would be least likely to visit: Nicaragua. The way you could wave at people who see less money in a year then I may see in a day, and their faces light up as they smile and wave back to you was an event I will not soon forget. The people were so humble on the island of Ometepe, yet so happy and content that I think we could all learn a thing or two from them. I am also left with the memory of our taxi drivers, whose taxis were more run-down than the worst of cars you would see in the states, who races each other along pot holed streets, banging on the radio to get it to work. Of course they had no AC, and when they had a flat tire, it was changed in a matter of minutes.

Other trip highlights for me were all the amazing activities we did up in Monteverde, Costa Rica. From riding ATV's around mountain corners, to zip lining across the continental divide high about the rain forest. That was an incredibly fun place. Then there were the lava flows in Antigua in which the pictures tell the story of how cool it can be to get mere feet from lava. I learned that next time I visit an active volcano to take an egg so I can fry it on the rocks we are standing on. Another highlight of the trip would have to be the ATM caves in Belize. To be able to get so intimate with so religious a site it just incredible to me. I definitely have to read up on the Maya and their culture.

Of course the beaches and snorkeling were also nice and amazing, but they just don't seem to compare to the cultural experiences our trip offered. Having said that, those days we spent bumming on the beach probably allowed us to keep our sanity as our minds and bodies readily welcomed the rest.

In recap, I couldn't have asked for a better group of people to travel with. In the short month we were together, we really became great friends. Haley and I are sad that we won't be able to call you guys up to hang out sometime, but if we are ever in your countries, you better believe that we will give you a call (and you had better look us up next time you are in Atlanta). We need to start planning the reunion tour to cross trans-Siberia, and Gemma had better start learning whatever languages they speak there. We will all have to keep up with each other through websites and emails.

I don't know what next summer will hold, but I hope it is half as fun as this trip was for Haley and I.

Day 32 - Saying Goodbye

2006-08-04T21:23:00.000-07:00

Last day of vacation. We woke up early, ate breakfast with the gang and then had to wish everybody goodbye. While it didn't get too emotional when we left, Haley and I were both really sad to leave all our friends we had made on our journey. We went through so much together, it feels as though I should be able to call some of them up to hang out sometime. Unfortunately, that will probably never happen. However, you guys had better call us up the next time you are in the US, and we may be calling you the next time we come to Finland, Australia, Scotland, South Africa, or Puerto Rico (but not Norway).

We had our final bus ride to the airport and were glad we got there so early because the power had gone out and Delta was doing everything manually. Took us nearly the full three hours to get through to make our flight. We did have enough time to burn the last of our pesos in the airport before boarding our plane for the flight home.

Back to the real world.

Day 31 - Last Day In Paradise

2006-08-04T21:21:00.000-07:00

After grabbing a nice buffet breakfast with the gang down on gringo street, Haley, Erin, and I headed down to the beach for some relaxing in the sun. We found some nice, soft beach beds with large umbrellas covering them to set our stuff down on and then we headed into the water. It was a little strange after coming out of the water as many people had joined the area around us. Many of them were topless European women. I guess that's how they do things over there.

We forgot our towel at the hotel, so we headed off to purchase a new one. We thought we would only be gone a couple minutes, but it turns out we had walked much farther down to the beach than we had thought. After a mile of walking, we found a nice little place and got our "Playa Del Carmen" towel. Haley also picked up a sarong and a couple waters. When we got back, we learned Erin had gotten kicked off our sun bed. So after finding her we headed back into the water to try to escape the heat. I have never sweated so much in my life. You wouldn't believe the areas of the body that are capable of sweat; the backs of elbows, shoulders, and even knuckles. I didn't used to think I was a sweater, but central America has changed that aspect of my self-image.

On the way home, we ate a little ice cream for lunch. Then for desert Haley let me stop by this shack that was serving chicken. I got half a chicken, a dozen tortillas, rice, and other toppings for about $3US. It was some of the best chicken I have ever eaten. I would eat it again for dinner if I could.

Later on in the day, Haley and I headed back to the beach for some more fun in the water. It was nice to play in the waves, just the two of us. We have really enjoyed our time with the group, but it has also been nice to have some freedom to spend time with each other. This has been a great trip and we are really gonna miss these times of freedom once the real world starts up again.

Tonight we celebrated Antonia's birthday, complete with a pinata, Mexican hats, and music. I couldn't afford the Sobrero, so I cut my facial hair such that only a small line of a mustache remained. Don't worry, I got pictures. The unfortunate thing about the party was that there were a bunch of other GAP groups there on our last night, so things were strange as we tried to celebrate our last night together, but then there were other people there, so it was just odd. Not a bad night, but not the greatest either. After the party, we did hang out a little at a bar on gringo street and then a few minutes sitting on the beach as a group. It was a good evening overall.

Day 30 - Uggggh!

2006-08-04T21:19:00.000-07:00

Today was a really long travel day. We started at 6:30 in the morning and got to our final destination in Mexico at 7:30. Today was a very bad day for intestinal cramping. At one point, I got quite sweaty, felt horrible pains shooting everywhere in my body, turned quite pail, and started to shake as my body tried to get rid of all its contents all at once. Everybody in our group kept asking if I was alright. They (and I) thought I was going to die. The bad part was that it was just after the Belize border. We re-boarded the bus to ride to the Mexican border (a few minutes away). Though the street is quite large, all along the way there are large 18-wheel trucks parked, effectively making the large street one lane, one way. In the middle was a white van, where the driver had apparently parked the car and left. This was when I was going through my ordeal. Did I mention this was on a very hot chicken bus?

So, we made it through the Mexican border and to the bus station, where I finally found a bathroom. I wouldn’t talk about it, but as a future medical student, I can appreciate the bodies violent efforts to get rid of what it no longer wants. I lost about 7.5 lbs in about 2 seconds. At this time I won't share with you how bad it was when I realized there was no toilet paper.

Much to Erin's pleasure, I finished reading Zorro, by Isabel Allende. She has been waiting in line to read the book as it has made it's rounds amongst our group. I highly recommend the book. It also helps the long bus rides much more enjoyable. After finishing the book, I got some good blogging in on the luxury Mexican bus. They really were luxury buses: Large Mercedes busses, decked out with TV's, lots of legroom, and AC (we actually got cold on the ride).

Playa looked interesting as we passed a Macdonald's, Office Depot, and Sam's Club on our way to the hotel. Tonight we had some awesome Mexican food. I could eat Mexican every meal for the rest of my life and die a very happy man (of course I would probably die earlier, but…). Mexico is going to be fun.

Day 29 - Swimming With Sharks (and big ones at that!)

2006-08-01T20:13:00.000-07:00

We went out snorkeling on a sailboat today. We had three captains, all very rastafarian. They took us out to three different snorkeling spots in Belize's coral reef nature preserve. It has been protected for the past 25 years or so and as such has prospered. It is the second largest barrier reef in the world, second to Australia's. After our first stop, where those unfamiliar to snorkeling got to practice, we headed out to play with some sharks. As we were sailing along, we came to a spot in the water, where dozens of very large fish started swimming around the boat. A couple of the captains dove in the water at which time we realized the fish were sharks. They were each about 6 feet long, and looked a little intimidating. We had reached "Sharkray alley." It wasn't too hard to figure where the name came from. We all jumped in the water after the guides and got to swim with and hold large sharks and sting rays. The shark's skin was almost like sandpaper, which the stingrays was very fishlike and slimy. Apparently, the sharks were nurse sharks, completely harmless. Sting rays are also harmless, unless provoked or surprised.

Our last site was a large outlet between the channel that separates the island from the coral and the open ocean. I know that doesn't make any sense, but picture island - deeper water - coral - open ocean, in that order. The outlet goes through the coral from the deeper water to the open ocean. As we swam around an saw all kinds of fish, including a grouper the size of a small car, we found an underwater cave about 20-25 feet down. After I saw the guide swim through, I wanted to follow. I imagine that anywhere in the states would strictly forbid a snorkeler to do such a feat, but I really wanted to. I was surprised when our guide came up asking if anybody was going to go through. He didn't even finish asking the question before I started diving down. It was a little scary, as I had to equalize the pressure in my nose three times during the decent, and then be careful once I reached the bottom to make sure I had enough air to make it through and then back to the surface, but I made it (I made that sound scarier than it really was, but it definitely wasn't for the weaker swimmer). The cave was teaming with schools of fish who all scattered at the sight of me.

Between the different snorkeling sites, we had a lot of time to lay out on the sailboat deck, reapply sunscreen, and shoot the bull with fellow travel mates. It was a lot of fun, just chilling out in the sun and I am glad that we have all these beach days at the end of our trip. While the beach days and not my favorite of the trip, they are a much needed brake from all the hiking and bus-riding.

I almost forgot to mention one of the coolest things about the trip today. During the sailing, the captains would stop at certain sites, dive into the water and bring up some conch and lobster. I thought they were catching dinner for themselves, only to watch them cut up the catch and throw it in some lime juice to later serve us as ceviche. It was incredible to go straight from the water, into the ceviche salsa, into our mouths. Definitely some of the best ceviche I have ever had (and Haley loved it too).

Dinner was another amazing seafood meal. We had a seafood buffet which included lobster kabobs, grilled lobster in the shell, red snapper, barracuda, and some other food which I cannot remember at this time. It was all incredible and only cost us $13US each. After dinner, Haley and I took a couple of people out to a dark corner of the island to do a little stargazing. Some drugged up local kept telling us to not follow the light in the sky, but the light in our hearts that would never go out. He then took out his mini-mag lite which he used as an example of the light that would not go out in the wind. We all got a good laugh out of it. Poor guy. Then after looking at the stars for a while, we started talking about the galaxies and size of the universe, and other intelligent life. We decided that things were getting too deep, so we quickly turned the conversation to Nintendo, beeping out our favorite theme music.

Day 28 - Calicabuttah Lobster

2006-08-01T20:10:00.000-07:00

Today was a nice easy travel day to Caye Caulker (that's pronounced Key Kawker). We had to wait on the side of the road by Trek Stop and wait for a bus to come by. Imagine all 13 of us suckers waiting in the hot Caribbean sun on the side of a busy road with all our luggage in a huge pile waiting for our bus to come. It was miserable, but also really cool looking back. Our bus ride was on a Belize chicken bus. Much different than Guatemala, it is unheard of to put three people to a seat, even if there is room. There is a strict two person limit, mandated by culture rather than bus regulations. It was fun riding along, watching the Caribbean colors on the houses, the people riding their bikes everywhere, and laundry hanging on clothes lines.

Once we got to Belize city, I got a little relief in the air-conned bank, but it was cut short as the BU started to cry out my name. I barely made it, and the relief was short lived. I don't know what's worse; constipation or the BU? Anyway, we got a little rest before heading out on our speed boat to get to Caye Caulker. With three 200hp motors on the back, we made it to Caulker in just under an hour. The Caribbean is very clear and blue. The pictures don't do it justice.

The island is smaller than Roatan, and I already like it better. Everything seems more accessible, as our hotel is right off the main pier and everything we need is within a five minute walk. Everybody here says the word man (or "mawn," as they pronounce it) after every sentence they speak. After a couple hours, we were all imitating the island accent (and doing a poor job at that).

Haley and I decided at the last minute to rent a two person kayak for an hour and see the sunset. We set off from main street (which is on the beach), traveled through a little channel that divides the island in two (created by hurricane Mitch a couple years ago) and paddled around a nature preserve while watching the sunset. There were starfish all around us, a giant Egret (or Crane?), lots of flying fish all around us, and beautiful skies as we made our short journey. I took a couple sub-par pictures which don't do the adventure justice.

After kayaking, we headed to Jolly Rogers for some incredible lobster on the grill. I should mention that Haley also had the lobster and if asked she may even admit to liking it. We also had some Ceviche for lunch, which was incredible. Haley may become a seafood lover after all (as long as it is fresh).

We also saw some topless Europeans on the beach, which was a new thing for us. You don't see that too much in the states.

Day 27 - Into The Underworld

2006-07-29T19:16:00.000-07:00

I won't say that today was the best day of the trip, because I haven't dropped a twosie in a couple of days and have been suffering some painful abdominal cramping. However, my excretion problems aside, today was incredible.

Last night we all decided that we would fork out the $75US each and go to the ATM (Achtun Tenochlin Mechlam) caves. John and Judy (owners of Trek Stop) and Gemma had been talking up the caves as one of the best things to go do in Central America. So, going against my better judgement that was telling me to stay home and find ways to go number two, Haley and I went on the trip (more like journey). It started with a 6:30am wake up time, a two hour busride, and an hour hike through the jungle to reach the entrance to the caves.

We had two guides, Eduardo and Jose (I can't remember Jose's real name). Gemma said they were the best, and they didn't disappoint. They were both descendents of the Maya, as we would learn, and both gave us excellent background on the caves. We learned that National Geographic and the Discovery Channel had both filmed documentaries on this particular cave and numerous archeologists are still studying the cave today.

So at this point, I was trying to figure out what was so cool about these caves. I have been caving before, and while stalactites are cool and all, I wouldn't give them all the hype we had been receiving. No sooner had we reached the entrance to the cave then I realized why it was such a cool place. Before I get into details, I should further explain the trip to get there. We had to cross through two different rivers in our van before we headed out on foot. After parking the car, we had to cross two different rivers a grand total of three times through dense Central American jungle. The water was crystal clear and cool, which provided much needed relief from the relentless heat.

Okay, so we finally reach the entrance to the cave. There is this large hole in the river that we all dive into with all our clothes on and swim around in for a few minutes before devouring our sack lunches that we had drug through the rain forest. Then we were off to enter the cave.

The entrance to the cave was more or less a continuation of the large hole we had just been swimming in, so we literally had to swim a good distance into the cave before we were on solid ground. The solid ground did not last long as we plunged in and out of rapids in complete darkness except for our meager helmet lights. Our guide, Eduardo, did an excellent job of explaining different aspects of the cave and the Mayan culture, of which the caves played an important role. Apparently, the caves were very holy places for the Mayan peoples, who viewed them as a passageway into the underworld. They believe that the living must first pass through the underworld on their way to heaven.

In Mayan times, the only people who were permitted to enter the caves were the holy people, or Shamans, as our guide called them. As an entrance to the underworld, the caves were a place of sacrificial offerings. After hiking for a good hour through the caves, we climbed a steep rocky ledge, took off our shoes, and then set out on foot. As we walked along the path, gradually climbing higher up into the cave, we saw literally hundreds and hundreds of ceramic pottery littering the cave. Many of the pots had been calcified by the gentle trickle of running mineral water throughout the cave. Others had been brilliantly preserved as the cave remains a constant cool temperature and climate at all times. As we walked along the path, we literally had to watch where we stepped because our path was lined with pottery that was put there thousands of years ago by what is a now extinct culture. While it was one of the coolest things I have ever seen in my life, I felt as though I was intruding on something holy, and the risk of ruining an artifact almost seemed not worth the price.

The ceramic pots were carried into the cave full of offerings. Often these was crops from their fields that they offered to the different gods. At other times, they sacrificed humans. This was often done to ask the gods for fertility or to plead with the gods to end a particularly severe draught. Just as many of the pots had been preserved by the calcium and mineral deposits in the cave, so too are many skeletal remains found in the cave. There were two different skulls we saw where the sacrificial victim was bludgeoned to death in the side of the head, and another nearly completely intact skeleton where a young girl was sacrificed by tearing her beating heart out of her chest in offering to the gods. It was so strange to get to close and personal to these people who died so many years ago. Again, it felt almost as though we shouldn't have been there.

It was an awesome and humbling experience at the same time, being able to see such an authentic site. We almost felt as archeologists must feel when they come across such a site.

In other news, I ended up taking some laxative that Nikki had on hand. Combined with way too many prunes and a diet coke, I paid a visit to Dr. BU tonight. Usually, it is not a good thing when you have to visit the good doctor, but tonight my friend, it was a welcomed event.

We also played a wicked game of "What If," which the group seems to be quite addicted to now. Haley and I are glad that we were able to introduce this game to the group. We also played a game called "I've Never," which totally ended up being about sex. It is supposed to be a drinking game where someone mentions something they have never done. If you have done it you have to take a drink. We substituted it with putting your hand on your head. Haley and I know our group much better now, after playing that game.

Day 26 - Speaking English

2006-07-29T19:15:00.000-07:00

Today has been a great day. We had a simple travel day into Belize, where things are a little nicer and the people speak English. So what do I do as soon as we come into the country? Order a burrito in Spanish. Oops!

Our van drive today was only about three hours, so as soon as we settled into our eco-resort (called "Trek Stop") we ate lunch and headed out on the local river for an afternoon of tubing. They say it has been raining here for the past twelve days straight, so the water was really high. We were given the usual disclaimers, and instructed what to do in case we get dragged under the rapids. A couple of people were really scared of the rapids, but after our reassurances of how easy it was going to be they decided to join us. The rapids were much higher than usual which meant much better ride than usual, but instead of lasting 2.5 hours, it only lasted less than one hour.

During that hour we saw at least a dozen huge iguanas along the side of the river as well as a plethora of birds along the shores and in the trees. That is the way to enjoy the rain forest, in an inner tube floating down a river. Of course we didn't get pictures, but the memories will remain. I don't know if Haley and I will be able to return to Helen to go tubing after realizing tubing's full potential through Belizian rain forest.

Trek Stop, the place we are lodging at is incredible. It is set up as an environmentally friendly eco-resort, where you poo into a large hole, you shower in rain water that has been saved up in large basins, and you refill your existing water bottles instead of buying new plastic ones. The people who own it are also really cool. They remind me of my old D.O.D. teachers in Panama; free, laid back spirits who go out of their way to make you comfortable. They most remind me of Mrs. and Mr. Petersen. Mrs. Petersen was my calculus teacher in Panama and her husband taught biology at PCC (Panama Canal College). They had met in the peace core and by the time I had met them, they were older but just as cool and laid back as they had ever been. They had an infectious love for learning and inspired me in many ways, including my decision to study medicine.

John and Judy (the owners) also have an infectious love of learning that is apparent in their hands on eco-museum for children and adults alike. They are older, John with a thick beard, t-shirt, long pants, and rubber boots. He always has a pipe in his mouth. Judy has double pony-tailed hair, thick glasses, and a kind smile. It is just nice how accommodating they are.

Tonight we are going to eat an early dinner and fight off the jungle bugs as we try to go to bed early in preparation for our caving trip tomorrow. Apparently there is this cool river that flows through a large cave system. We will follow the river down until we reach a large room where the Mayan performed ceremonies including human sacrifice. They say there are Mayan bones laying around the room that we will be able to observe.

Day 25 - The Empire Strikes Back

2006-07-29T19:13:00.000-07:00

After a 6:00am wake up time followed by an hour van ride, we arrived at one of the most amazing places I have ever been in my life. As soon as we entered the Mayan Ruins of Tikal, we knew we were in a different world. As we walked into the site, towering pillars of stone poked through the jungle canopy. As we reached the first small pyramid, the trees were alive with spider monkeys swinging on vines over our heads. They were everywhere!

I understand why Tikal gets all the hype we heard before coming on the trip. The site is huge, with many different building from many different generations of the Maya. The most amazing thing to me is all the mystery surrounding this ancient civilization. From their ball games, where the loser was sacrificed, to their gods, to the cause of their demise, there is much we have yet to learn about them. Unfortunately, massive looting from different sites has caused us to lose much of this information. Then there is that small fact that over 80% of Tikal still remains under large trees and mounds of dirt. Over thousands of years, the unrelenting jungle has completely overtaken Tikal and many other sites. We walked by mound after mound, which looked little more than a hill. I don't know how gigantic trees can grow on top of pyramids that are over 75 meters in the air, but when Tikal was discovered 50 years ago, the jungle had completely taken over.

Our guide, Eulogio (or Lojo, as he asked us to call him) was great. He was probably in his 50's and was very knowledgeable about the ruins and Mayan people in general. He was also very polite, as every time he saw us on the verge of doing something foolish would tell us: "I advise you, my friends, that you may want to be careful as you do that." At one point Brent challenged me to race to the top of one of the ruins. Unfortunately, Brent is very youthful and really wanted a challenge. I usually would have turned it down, but for some reason I caved. As we climbed the giant stone monument as fast as we could, I was thinking how dumb and dangerous it was; large vertical steps with no handrail. It was only later that I learned an American woman had died there only a few months ago when she fell down the stairs. (PS, I won by about a quarter of a step).

I should mention that while I really enjoyed Tikal, I felt pretty sick. Between chest congestion, a runny nose, and being unable to go number two, it was kind of hard to battle all the walking in the blazing sun. However, in such an amazing place, you kind of forget how bad you feel and become absorbed in Mayan legend.

Unfortunately, last night we all signed up to make tamales with another GAP group today after we returned from Tikal. I wouldn't have gone, except that we had already paid for the activity. After returning from Tikal, we had a small lunch and our group headed out on a boat to cross the lake to a small village, where our tamale mentor, Donia Gloria, was going to teach us the art of the tamale. Her house was meager and her kitchen wretched by US standards. There were pigs in the yard, wandering in and out of the outdoor kitchen. There were mangy dogs and chickens and small flies everywhere. As soon as we arrived, we got a sampling of some of the tamales Donia Gloria had already made. They were delicious. She then showed us how to put the tamales together, and we all had a go at it. Later we would learn that we are not very good at making tamales, as they all tasted horrible. But we had fun visiting her home, seeing how they live, and seeing the local tamale maker do her thing.

We had a great dinner tonight at Captain Tortugas, overlooking the lake as the sun set. The food was good, though it took over an hour and half before we all had our dinners. This gave us plenty of time to get to know each other a little better. We learned that there were other fans of the OC on the trip and collectively decided that nobody was going to miss Marissa after her untimely death by Volchuck. The topic turned to people we were not very fond of and I began the stories of Elder White on my mission. People always laugh at those stories of the Ex-Lax rice crispie treats, the habanero tasting, and the great water fight. Those were good times and I hate to say that the poor boy deserved all the mean pranks we played on him.

I also got the chance to talk to mom and dad. Apparently they decided last minute to take a week off and head out to Utah for family reunions. Now that they are empty nesters, they don't have all us kids to strap them down. They sounded as though they are in good spirits and enjoying themselves on vacation.

Day 24 - We Are Almost Done :-(

2006-07-29T19:07:00.000-07:00

Today was a pretty laid back travel day. We were able to wake up late and catch the boat that took us to our van around 9:00. Luckily, we didn't have too long of a ride. We reached the small island of Flores around noon. It is from here that we will take a van tomorrow to go to the ruins at Tikal.

Flores is a cool little island on some 42 mile long lake in Guatemala. It is a really small island and every square inch is covered with some type of concrete, be it sidewalk, street, hotel, or restaurant. It doesn't feel too crowded, as I imagine this is the off season. After lunch, we dropped off our laundry and headed to a nice corner of the hotel to just relax and get caught up on blogging. Shannon, Amy, and Erin joined us and it was really nice doing nothing for once. At one point, Antonia came down to tell us about the construction workers up on the roof who were smoking pot, while singing along to "Eye Of The Tiger," which was blasting on their radios. I love central America.

Relaxing is both a good and bad thing. It gave me time to think about the real world. After reading my sister Maria's blog about yardwork, I got very unexcited about our vacation ending. Oh well, you can't live in paradise forever.

Day 23 - What If?

2006-07-29T19:06:00.000-07:00

Today was a good day. I think we are all getting to that point in the trip where we are still really enjoying ourselves, but we are tired and don't need to overly exert ourselves every chance we get. We decided to lay fairly low and head out on a boat ride to visit some hot waterfalls. We first set out from our flooded dock at Tijax (pronounced Tee-hash) around 9:00. We rode past "bird island" on our little boat and got to see thousands of white and black birds crowd on some small island in the middle of the river (or lake?). We then went by some impressi9ve looking fortress the locals had built hundreds of years beforehand to ward off the invading Indians and Spaniards.

Once we arrive at the "finca," or farm, we wait around for a half hour for the tractor to come by that was going to take us to the waterfalls. Gemma had been to them before and assured us that they were worth going to, as the waterfalls were really warm and the pool below was nice and cold. So the tractor, old and worn down, pulled us behind in a cart that was even older and more worn down. The ride was bumpy and we all got to know each other a little better as we constantly flailed all over each other.

We were disappointed when we finally reached the waterfalls, as the recent rain had caused the river to ride and become quite muddy. Ready for a challenge, I started to climb the rocks on the opposite side of the falls (the side we hiked into) to find a good entrance point. Luckily, a local worker warned us of the dangers and probably saved me from doing something foolish. We showed us men (Andrew, Brent and I) how to safely enter the river (which involved diving blindly into the muddy water, against all our better judgment). We did so, swam against a strong current and finally reached the other side. We then hiked up a steep hill to get to the river that fed the waterfalls (the hot river). Once up there, we realized that it would not be as nice as we planned because the river smelled of rotten sulfur and was too small to do anything other than wade barefoot. So, we made our way back down. Some of the more adventuresome women in the group, decided that they wanted to give it a try. Shannon and Hanna did an exceptional job of fighting the current and were able to share in our disappointment with the sulfur water.

On the way back, a bird pooped on Haley's shoulder and Shannon's face. While Haley's was only on her shirt compared to Shannon, she was not able to wash it out and now has another nice souvenir in the form of a nice skid mark.

After getting back to the hotel, we all just shriveled like prunes the rest of the afternoon in the hotel pool. Because of the compromising shower/jungle situation at Tijax, we all counted this as our shower, figuring the chlorine would kill off most of the bacteria.

That night at dinner, after a small mishap when ordering our food (they thought Haley had ordered two servings of tomato soup (yeah, we didn't get it either)) we played celebrity "who am I" and another intense game of "what if?" Both were a lot of fun as I was branded as a transvestite and Haley was accused of being in the adult entertainment industry in what ended up being the best game of "what if?" we have yet played.

Day 22 - Welcome To The Jungle

2006-07-25T07:38:00.000-07:00

Traveling from Antigua to Rio Dulce today took us about 8 hours, which included a two hour stop at some Mayan ruins. Luckily, we were able to get a private van (actually, I don't even think there are chicken busses that run in this part of the country) with air conditioning, which really cut out on the heat. On the ride, I was able to read a good chunk of Isabel Allende's Zorro and watch a couple episodes of "The Office" on Haley's ipod ("The Fight," "The Fire," and "The Client"). With all that entertainment, I actually found the travel day to be quite enjoyable.

The Mayan ruins (Quirigua) we stopped at were pretty cool, though they were a little bit smaller than Copan and what will be Tikal. It was nice to not be overwhelmed by courtyard after courtyard of unbelievably large ruins. These were modest in size, but the attraction these offered was the preservation of the carvings. Apparently the limestone in this region (or is it sandstone?) was much harder than that at many other Mayan sites. As a result, there is very little wear and tear on the large statues that remain. The largest statue in the Mayan world is located here, and is a towering 35 meters (or was it feet?) and was quite impressive.

After hearing all the stories about Rio Dulce, we were all expecting the worse: Scorpions, being located miles from anywhere, horrible mozzies, and all the other expectations one would have when thinking of the jungle. This was definitely not the case. As we crossed a large bridge into Rio Dulce, Gemma (our tour leader) pointed to a place just off the shore, showing us where we would be staying. We thought we were going to be way out in the middle of nowhere, but it ended up being less than a 100 meter boat trip from a major Guatemalan town. It would end up that the bugs were quite normal and the place was quite enjoyable. Our hotel/lodge was called Tijax and because of the horrible flooding they had been experiencing over the past week was almost completely under water. All the huts are one stilts, and some did not make it. Luckily ours was spared, but we had to cross a narrow plank with all our bags (I had to carry two as a result of our shopping spree in Antigua). It was all quite exciting now that I didn't drop anything.

The best thing about our new lodgings in the swimming pool. It is a nice, clean pool, complete with two jetted tubs and plenty of room for our entire group. As soon as we dropped our bags and went over the next day's activities, we all jumped in. Shannon, Erin, Andrew, Nikki, Haley, and I all tried to form the letters G.A.P. in the water (the name of our tour group) in hopes they will feature the picture in the next GAP newsletter and give us a discount on our next trip. I was pretty impressed with how clearly we were able to make those water-words, but we'll have to stand by on whether or not the picture will ever be published.

One last cool thing about today. At dinner, Amy told us about this cool trick she picked up to find spiders. You take a flashlight, point it straight out from your forehead to correspond to your line of sight. Make sure the flashlight is on spotlight mode and shine the light on the ground (or in the trees, or anywhere you think you may find spiders). As you scan the area, you will undoubtedly see little sparkly lights shining back at you. As you follow these lights, you will find more spiders than you ever knew existed in your backyard, or the jungle for that matter. I thought Amy was fully of it at first, but when I gave it a go, she was right. It is really cool, I encourage you to try it out.

Side Note

2006-07-21T21:08:00.000-07:00

It is now after 11:00pm on what I think is July 21st. I am sitting high up on a balcony in our hotel in Flores Guatemala. I have been spending the past couple hours chatting with you all online while updating my blogs (I am still a couple days away from being totally caught up, but I'm getting there). There are still lots of cars in the streets as well as a father and his sons playing soccer down below in the street. The air is clean and the people are happy. The Constipation has left and the BU has seemed to return, and I think I am coming down with a nasty cold. I am being eaten alive by mosquitos (or mossies as our friends on the other side of the atlantic call them). I couldn't be happier. Good night!

Day 21 - I'm On Fire!

2006-07-21T20:55:00.000-07:00

So yesterday when they were asking who was gonna go on the volcano hike (that took place today) I totally was gonna bail out. It was going to involve another 5:30am wake up time and another 2 hour bus ride. On top of that, I was having another bout with the BU. This time, the BU was hitting me with a vengeance, and I think I blasted myself into the air a couple of times while on the porcelain crown (I am claiming artistic license on that one). However, with the promise of lava combined with the promise of it being a much easier hike than Maderas (see day 7's blog) I decided to take the plunge. I set the alarm and loaded up on the Biaxin XL (strong antibiotic).

5:45am did come pretty early (okay, I snoozed the 5:30). As I walked out the door, I longingly looked at Haley, still sleeping so comfortably in the bed. I couldn't believe I was doing another volcano hike. The bus ride did suck, as promised. After getting to the park and loading up on local bananas (which, by the way, are much better than in the states) and some cornnuts, we were off.

This hike was a walk in the park compared to Maderas. It was 3 kilometers instead of 5, and the we only went up in elevation about 500 meters instead of 1400. The weather was incredible. As we hiked through the clouds, we could see our breath the whole time and there was a nice wind keeping us cool. Then after a mere 1.5 hour hike, we reached this huge black lava rock field speckled with rivers of lava (see pictures). It was the most incredible thing I have ever seen today. We had the chance to go down and get mere feet away from the lava rivers and were able to snap a couple pictures. The rock that we were standing on actually had hot red lava underneath it that we could see. At one point, I even slipped off the rock and my foot got really close to the lava (it kinda freaked me out, but I am now laughing at it). The rock was so hot that when we dribbled water, it instantly vaporized and sizzled.

We took a bunch of great pictures, which I have already posted to my album (see link to right).

After some ice cream for lunch, a short nap, a shower, and some lunch, I got a chance to finally use the internet. It cost me 40 quetzales for an hour and 15 minutes, but my brain is too drained right now to figure out how much that is in US dollars. After interneting, we headed to yet another local artisan market and bought some really big items. I will not reveal one of them as it is a gift for one of you, but we did buy this really big wool rug (no, I am not kidding, it is huge). Our tour leader is gonna hate us when she sees how much crap we have bought and now have to carry.

About the market…I am so fed up with haggling, that today I was not going to play any games. Our giant rug was gonna cost us 550 quetzales, but I told the guy I had 200 to pay him and he could take it or leave it. He countered at 350, and I started to walk away. I ended up paying 220 for it which is I think about 28US. We were going to pay 100 buckaroos at Ikea for a similar one (I think the one we got is bigger). Then for the other item, I just ran around the market making an offer and walking off when it wasn't accepted. Finally, I found a taker and got a steal of a deal on it.

Tonight we are off to learn some salsa dancing. My hips don't really shake, so it should be good times. Hopefully somebody will get some embarrassing pictures to share with you all (I'm opting not to take my gigantic camera dancing).

Day 20 - Those Of Us With Genetically Modified Fins...

2006-07-21T20:54:00.000-07:00

We started the day with a boat taxi ride to breakfast at Café Mundo. Lake Atitlan is even more incredible as you ride a boat around it. Surrounded by sheer cliffs and volcanoes, you get the feeling that you truly are in another world. On the cliffs, there are patches of farmland where crops are actually growing on cliffs that must be at least 60 degrees steep. I have no idea how the crops are able to grow much less how the farmers were able to plant them there.

The breakfast restaurant was a resort built right on the side of the cliffs. I took some pictures of the restaurant from the boat and some of Haley lying in a hammock overlooking the lake and volcanoes.

After breakfast, we visited the small towns of San Pedro and then Santiago. In San Pedro we took some pictures of some of the local women bathing and washing their laundry in the lake. It was such a foreign scene that we all stood there watching them (don't worry, they were clothed) for a couple minutes before we were off to explore more of the island.

Santiago was a little more interesting and alive than San Pedro. When we got off the boat, we were attacked by some of the local boys who urged us to visit the house of Moshimon, the local patron saint. Gemma told us that it was local thing to do: Visit the Saint, and pay make an offering to him in the form of cigarettes and alcohol. So we decided to pay the boys a couple of quetzales and follow them to Moshimon's house. It ended up being a bunch of drunk (and/or high) dudes in this small house sitting behind this small midget statue of the town's patron saint. It was definitely a strange, if not stupid, scene. Apparently, it used to be a very important belief in the town, but since the influx of tourists it has become more of an excuse for the town drunks to get free booze money.

After Moshimon, we headed into town to take some more pictures (I was done with shopping). After walking for a while, I stopped in the middle of the market to take an overall picture of the hustle and bustle. As I did so, an older lady who was sitting on the side of the street selling some fruit started to hit my leg with her can telling me that I had to pay. I asked her who she thought I should pay the money to. She answered that I should pay the people I was taking pictures of. I tried to explain how that would be quite impossible seeing as I had just taken a picture of a couple hundred people, but after seeing the anger in her eyes, I decided to just walk away. After all, that whack of her cane didn't feel all that good.

Having learned my lesson, I ended up paying a couple of the older ladies a quetzal each for a picture. I guess they need to make some money somehow, why not as models? My favorite is of an older lady, not bigger than a normal 5 year old in the US, selling bananas.

After returning from the boat ride, Amy and I decided to hit a taco stand that the two of us had fallen in love with on the trip (Haley went back for a quick nap at the hotel before heading back to Antigua). While there, a small girl was quite relentless in asking for money, our lunch, or anything else we had to offer. Down here, the local vendors and beggars (often the same person) will come up to you in a restaurant and pester you to no end. I can't believe that the workers don't chase them off, but I guess that's just the way they do it. Anyway, this little girl spent most of our lunch with her hand touching my arm asking me to give her some money. This may sound like a touching story, but it was quite the opposite as the girl was quite demanding and got angry when we told her no.

On the ride home, we got a private van and got to listen to CCR. It was good fun.

I should mention that Erin and Nikki got really sick yesterday and had to head back to Antigua to seek medical attention. It ended up that Erin spent the night in the hospital taking IV antibiotics and 5 liters of fluid to replace her dehydration and combat the parasites that had infected her. We are still not sure what happened to Nikki, but she remain somewhat ill (though not as bad as Erin was). Tonight I have also come down with round two of the BU. We'll see how this one goes down.

At night, we celebrated Hanna's birthday by eating pizza at our hotel, listening to some tunes on my computer (once again reminded of how I don't have any good party music), and playing a wicked game of "What If?" My favorite question/answer combo of the evening was "What if a hurricane came along and wiped us all out to sea?" My answer was "then those of us with genetically modified fins would have the upper hand." I am still laughing at my response (though I am the only one doing so).

This ended up being a long entry for what was a long day.

Day 19 - Chichi

2006-07-21T20:53:00.000-07:00

Today started out with another sweet chicken bus ride. Our destination? The markets at Chichicastenango, or Chichi as all the locals call it. It is a huge local market for both tourists and locals alike. It is the ultimate market for finding the best bargains. Haley and I went with one goal: Start and finish all our shopping for the trip. We didn't achieve that goal, but we sure gave it a good try.

One of the things we were going to do down here was buy some things to decorate our new house. Today we bought a large wooden Mayan sun, a Tapestry with the Mayan calendar, a nice table runner and some matching placemats, a couple t-shirts (I have kind of been collecting them down here), and a bunch of other stuff I can't think of right now. I spent the entire day dealing prices with different vendors. Every time, it was the same story: "Pasen adelante!" and "Cual es su mejor precio?" Which means, "come in," and "what is your best price?" Every vendor says the same thing, and every vendor chases you down the street offering a lower price after you tell him "too high" and start to walk off. It is kind of fun, though the whole game drives Haley insane. I did find some nice aviator sunglasses for about 3 bucks (you can see them in the photo gallery (follow link at right))

At the end of the day, we opted to take the chicken bus back from the market instead of a private van. We lucked out in that this bus ride actually came with actual chickens. A family of four sat down next to me and we talked the entire ride home. They lived a couple hours away from the market and a couple times a month they go to market to purchase some baby chickens. They then take them home, raise them, and then return to the market to sell them. They were so interested in where we come from. The father couldn't believe that we have come from so many different corners of the world to a place where the locals have never even seen the coast that is probably not more than 60 miles away. I was really glad that I spoke Spanish, because you could tell that even though they always go to the market, they are never able to speak to the tourists that are all around them.

While riding the chicken bus, an egg actually fell from the baggage rack onto Andrew and Amy who were sitting at the very back of the bus. The funny thing was that it was Amy's birthday. They got soaked in nasty raw egg.

On our way home from the bus, we found a little stand that was selling these amazing stone/seashell Mayan masks. They are the size of a person's head and are quite heavy. They dude was asking around 300 quetzales (like $40US). Though I was interested, I decided that was too much and started to walk off. The vendor then shouted after me, offering to trade the mask for my watch. Now, even though I bought my watch over 3 years ago on clearance from K-Mart, I am quite fond of it. Just before the trip I bought a brand new watchband especially for Central America. Though the trade was obviously a good one, I decided to walk away.

Later on in the day, I began to regret my decision and on our way to dinner, I paid the guy a visit. Recognizing me and that I had come back, he realized that he now had the upper hand. I ended up trading my clearance K-mart watch for an incredible Mayan mask that I will probably keep forever. I'd say it was an excellent trade, though not being able to tell the time is driving me nuts!

Haley and I ended the evening drinking the most incredible hot chocolate on the dock of a restaurant overlooking the incredible Lake Atitlan. Good, full day.

Day 18 - Chicken Bus Surfing

2006-07-21T16:26:00.000-07:00

Today we had the chance to ride on real chicken busses. We were some of the first to get on and so we actually had seats. It is amazing to me to see how many people can cram on those busses. They seat three to a seat, which makes for six on a row. Add on top of that people standing the entire way down the isle, and then add to that the very large man going down the isle collecting money from everyone. I don't know how the fat man fit down the isle in between all the passengers, but they all got really friendly with each other in the process. At one point some guy's package was resting on my shoulder. That wasn't cool.

Speaking of the chicken busses, there is this guy that handles all the luggage for people (including boxes of vegetables, cloths, and livestock). He runs all over the top of the bus, loading crates while the bus is driving down the road at full speed. I imagine it is a lot like those Indiana Jones scenes where he is on a train, battling the Nazis, running around almost falling off at every turn.

On the nicer of the two busses that we rode today, I had a chance to talk to some of the new people on this leg of the journey. Antonia and Shannon have spent the past two months traveling across Europe and are finishing their journey here in Central America. Talking to them about Europe has gotten me excited to travel there sometime, but I still have to convince Haley. It may be more of a technical problem, seeing as she doesn't know what her job situation will be next summer. I always thought of Europe as really expensive, but apparently you can get by cheaply if you visit the right countries (like the Eastern Block nations). Many of the people on our trip are world travelers, including Amy who has been traveling non-stop for the past 6 years or so. Hearing about places like Tailand, China, and Africa have given me the travel bug and can't wait for our next adventure.

It has been interesting on this trip to get to know so many people from so many different places. We all basically have the same beliefs, with some subtle differences in political orientations. It is also interesting how people view America. Though some may not love us, we really are the world's only remaining superpower, and it is interesting to see what others think of us. Many in the group are disgusted at our going into Iraq after the UN didn't give us their blessing, saying we made a mockery of them. I countered that they made a mockery of themselves when they never backed their warnings to Iraq. Fun Stuff.

On an entirely different note, we are now in Panajachel, a couple hours from Antigua. The small tourist town is very nice, on the shores of Lake Atitlan high up in the mountains of Guatemala. It is cooler here (a welcome change from most of the trip), and the air is very clean (as opposed to Antigua, where there is thick smog). Our hotel is about a ten minute walk from where the bus dropped us off. All the roads on the way to our hotel are lined by street vendors, begging to sell us their souvenirs. We did end up buying a couple things, not because we need them, but because the people are so desperate to make a sale. They begin by almost making you enter their shops, at which point they pull out all their goods asking you to name your best price. At one point, we were looking at masks and decided that we didn't want it. They the guy kept lowering his price as we walked away, starting at 200 quetzales, and as we walked further and further away, he ended up at 60 quetzales at which point we just gave in and bought the mask for about $8US.

Day 17 - The Mayan Sun

2006-07-20T15:51:00.000-07:00

Today marks the first day of the second leg of our journey. The first two weeks were the Volcano Trail, and these last two will be the Mayan Sun. Peter, Martin, and Olga were only signed up for the first trip, and today we welcomed Brent, Antonia, and Sullim (or something like that). Brent is an American fresh out of high school, and the latter two are Aussies, and I don't know much about them yet. The Aussies are really taking over this trip, seeing as there are now 5 Aussies, 1 South African, 2 Scottish, 4 American, and a Finnish. They all talk funny.

The town of Antigua is really cool. Today was especially nice because we purposely didn't plan a thing the entire day. We woke up late, met a group for breakfast around 10:00am, dropped off some laundry, and then bummed around town all day. We dropped into a Jade museum (apparently the Mayans were really big into Jade, and Guatemala has a huge mine for the stuff), did a little shopping around town (I bought a nice Jack Bauer satchel, or manbag, if you will), and then did a little internet. I was still unable to post my writings, but in a couple days I will make a big push to do so.

I did, however, sit out in a courtyard outside of the internet place and catch up a little on my blogging. These courtyards are much like Grenada and are so peaceful. They have tables in an outdoor courtyard, with plants and shops all around. It is small, intimate, and very relaxing.

After bumming around all day, we all wanted to go to a local dinner and a movie place, except they were all booked. So we ended up at some random restaurant/bar above a shop. It was really good times, as the group relived every funny moment for the new people from the past two weeks. We have only been here 17 days and are already reminiscing. I am sure the new people were very bored by the end of the evening, but the rest of us were entertained. I am not sure if the stories on Peter will ever end on this trip, but they always provide a good laugh for all.

The dinner also brought embarrassing story hour, where we all had a good laugh at each other. Haley told of the time when we were just starting to date each other and I dropped off flowers for her at her house. I was supposed to get out of the house before she got home, but I ended up being caught in the house when she walked in the house. Her roommate had seen here coming and hid me in the closet. When Haley saw the flowers and who they were from, the started jumping for joy and saying very nice things about me. I knew at that moment I had her in the bag. Haley presented the story in a very funny way and we all had a good laugh.

I shared the story about the time I farted on accident in the testing center at BYU and couldn't stop laughing for ten minutes. That catapulted the conversation into fartland and we all had a couple more good laughs. I think this second leg of the journey is going to be very fun and perhaps a little trying as we are going to be spending some quality time in the jungle with some proper sized bugs.

Day 16 - To The Temple

2006-07-20T15:50:00.000-07:00

After our 11-hour roadie yesterday, we woke up at the crack of dawn once again to go exploring. On today's docket? The Copan Ruins. They were quite incredible. Hopefully I was able to take a couple pictures that captured the beauty of the place. We were the first to arrive (at 7:55am) and got to see some of the temples before the crowds, the heat, and the bad midday lighting (for pictures) arrived. When we first entered the site, it opens up into a huge field with a couple pyramid temples at either end. They say the large field was a field where they played a game with a ball. They also said that the ball they used may have been a human head, though they are not quite sure. They are sure that there was a human sacrifice at the end of the game, though. There were a ton of altars all around the ruins where I suppose they performed all kinds of sacrifices.

Though our group of 12 all went to the ruins together, the rest of the group moved much faster than Haley and I. We hung back and after the first field of ruins we were on our own. I can't imagine how the first people to discover it in recent memory felt when they stumbled upon it around 100 years ago, if I remember correctly. I would know more if we had taken a tour, but at an extra 15 bucks a person, we decided to wait until Tikal to get the guide (those ruins are much bigger and supposedly much more impressive.

Please check out the pictures, as I once again will not be able to describe the grandeur of the place. It is very cool.

Later on today, we drove into Guatemala. The trip got started on the wrong foot when the van we all loaded into started making this horribly loud metal on metal clanking noise. For some reason, the driver thought that maybe the noise would go away if he kept on driving. So, he just revved the engine faster and faster, at which point the noise became louder and more violent (the entire van shook). After finally admitting defeat, the driver pulled over and we rounded up a couple more vans to replace the broken one. I guess the transmission had gone out or something.

The van drive was long (about 6 hours), but I was able to finish a book I started yesterday. It was "The Summons," by John Grisham. I remember mom had mentioned something about it the last time I saw her, and I thought I would check it out. Haley had actually picked up the book way back in La Fortuna, Costa Rica on that rainy day (see entry for day 3). We are at that point in the trip where I am now bored looking out the window for 10 hours a day, so I have been reading non-stop in the vans and buses.

So, on to the book. It is the third fastest read I have ever done (after the Pelican Brief and A Time To Kill--just a coincidence that they are by the same author). I can't believe that I read it so fast, especially, because the book was mediocre to okay at best. But Grisham's style is very easy flowing and the read is very smooth. I used to love Grisham, but haven't read anything of his in over 12 years. I don't think I'll read too many more in the future.

So we are now in Antigua, Guatemala, and the city looks amazing. It is very similar to Grenada, in the colonial style. The difference is that we are much higher up, the power and water works, and the country is a little more stable. It is also a bigger city, with many more souvenir shops. I think we may brake the bank in this city…especially because their ATM's are actually working.

Day 15 - Short Entry

2006-07-20T15:49:00.000-07:00

So, right now I am in a hotel room in Copan, Honduras. We left Roatan early this morning at 5:45 and got into town around 5:00 tonight. What a long travel day. It consisted of a van, and ferry, and two buses (and a 15 minute walk). It is kind of strange taking a roadie every other day, and not everybody is cut out for it. Good old peter is one of those people and if he complains about travel one more time, we'll all go crazy. Luckily he leaves in two days…he won't be missed.

My blogging has definitely dwindled as of late. Roatan was an incredible island, where we played hard and rested equally as hard. I will have to write about our deep sea fishing, our snorkeling, and our awesome barbeque. I am sure those will end up being days 13 and 14. I have a couple good stories to share about the island boys ripping us off at our barbeque, the difficulty we had one night in finding food, and the drunken stupor some of our party found themselves in.

Day 14 - Fish On

2006-07-20T15:48:00.000-07:00

Early start (5:45), The BU, Drinking and boating (lots and lots of cuba libras), swearing like a sailor (I now understand the phrase), 6 tuna, haley chumming the water (leaving early), snorkeling, waiting till 9 to eat our tuna (latin america time), michelle getting some!

I cannot believe we had another early start today! I am supposed to be on vacation. I guess it is my own fault for wanting to do a little deep sea fishing. The last time we went, we had dual 80hp motors on a really nice fishing vessel. This time, we had Martin in his little 15ft, 40hp weenie-mobile. Martin was all decked out in his island gear, complete with cutoff shorts and a doo-rag. We were also accompanied by Arthur, the guy who picked us up in his van when we got off the ferry in Roatan.

I should mention that this marks the first day that Haley and I have come down with BU on this trip. We both know that it was bound to happen eventually, we were just hoping we could continue to put it off. After a thorough cleaning of our bowels, a nice pepto/antibiotic cocktail, we were off.

Okay, so back to our fishing trip. All went well at first. We started catching all kinds of tuna right away, and we thought we were gonna have an amazing fishing day. Then it got kinda slow, which turned our attentions to both our BU and for Haley, it gave her time to remember how seasick she gets in boats (or vans or busses, for that matter). Haley went and sat in the back of the boat, where things only got worse when she turned the color of her grey-green jacket. She then chummed the water and ended up feeling much better. However, the BU got the best of her, and we dropped her off at the hotel.

Don't feel too bad for Haley though. She was on the boat when we caught all our fish and didn't have to endure the following three hours of getting skunked. Luckily, we caught 6 tuna, weighing between 5 and 10lbs, which would end up being plenty for our whole group and the strangers who wanted a free meal.

While we were being skunked, we did have a couple bites. Arthur was manning the poles and each time we didn't catch a fish he would let out a string of obscenities that would make prisoners cringe. I now understand why it is called cussing like a sailor. Arthur was also funny because he kept downing the rum (or ron, as they call it) in his "Cuba Libras." That combined with a couple beers made for a very tipsy first mate, which may help explain the anger in his eyes each time we weren't able to land a fish. I couldn't believe it when we finally made it to shore and Arthur went to fetch his van to pick up some more tourists. Maybe he wasn't in the best shape to be driving. Oh, and who drinks rum at 6:00 in the morning, anyway? It reminds me of the bumper sticker we saw in Puerto Rico that read "Rum, it's not only for breakfast."

Later that night, we had the most incredible fish feast as well all partook of that incredibly fresh tuna. We had a local restaurant marinade the fish in a little lime juice and local spices and let me tell you, I have never eaten anything better. Fresh fish is amazing. Of course, we have to wait a couple hours after Martin and Arthur, who said they would be there at 6:30 with the fish and grill didn't show up until after 9:00. But it was well worth the wait. The BBQ went nicely, with one of our group going off into the dark with Arthur (I won't reveal any names), and Martin getting nice and high on some ganja. It is definitely a different world here than I am used to, but Haley and I are definitely enjoying ourselves.

Day 13 - Life's A Beach

2006-07-20T15:47:00.000-07:00

Today was pure heaven. We woke up late and got some breakfast at a place just down the road from our hotel. Then we rented a water taxi to take us to West Bay beach on the west end of the island.

The snorkeling was really good. At one point we even saw a barracuda that was staring back at us with this horrible looking scowl on its face. They have these huge teeth and the thing was as big as my thigh and as long as my leg. We quickly left that area. But there was a lot of coral with all types of fish. Though I have yet to visit the Atlanta Aquarium, I am sure it is nothing compared to the real thing.

Then stupid Peter (see day 11) was there, stepping all over the coral and swimming in his underwear. Something about a perverted old man swimming in his underwear just wasn't right. He kept swimming up behind the girls pretending to look at coral. Lucky for him, I didn't know this until they were talking about it later on.

It was really hot out there in the sun, but it couldn't get any better. We (Amy, Haley, Andrew, and I) took a walk on the beach and finally settled in a little cabana and ordered sodas (and beer for some). It was heaven as the waves crashed on the while sand, the baby blue sky melting into the aquamarine ocean. The call the Caribbean paradise for a reason, I guess.

The only bad thing to happen at our day in the sun was that Haley had to use a public restroom while we were on our walk. Of course we were barefoot. Nothing like having to walk into a Central American public bathroom barefoot. No strange foot fungi have started growing yet, but stay tuned…

Oh, one other thing before we wrap this up. After spending the day in the sun, we met for drinks at one of the cabanas by our hotel. We all had a good time as we listened to my limited music collection on the computer, did a little karaoke, and many of the group had some healthy servings of alcohol. We'll, we had such a good time that we nearly missed dinner. By the time we made it into town, all the kitchens had closed shop for the night. We literally went to 5 or 6 different bars/restaurants and had given up when somebody finally found somewhere to get some food. We were starving after a light lunch and all that sun!

Day 12 - The Light At The End Of The Tunnel

2006-07-18T14:49:00.000-07:00

On to Roatan in the Bay Islands off Honduras. Right now, I am on the buses we voted yesterday to take (it really is day 12, unlike a couple of my previous posts which were done on the day after). I am glad we went bus, because we actually have room to stretch our legs and even get a little sleep. Sure there is no music and no AC, but it is a beautiful day and with the windows open it isn't even hot.

Honduras has been an interesting country to drive through. As we crossed the border into the country, Haley and I were reminded of the Apalachian mountains with pine trees all around a very mountainous region. The city we stayed in, Comayagua, was surrounded by mountains on all sides and when we woke up the mountains were drizzled with clouds. It was cool, but I think we are all ready for Roatan. It is supposed to have incredible beaches and good food.

I just remembered a funny side note. The driving here is horribly bad. People pass going uphill when you can't see what coming, around blind curves, and generally whenever they feel like it. Naturally, those of our group that are not used to driving in Latin America really flipped out yesterday on our van drive to the hotel. Every time our driver passed somebody, many in the van protested and told the driver not to go. Gemma told him to ignore them, especially because the driver is one of the best they know. When we got to the hotel, Gemma and Michelle (and me, for that matter) explained to everyone that is how they drive here. The van is actually much safer than the buses we are also riding on, and that driver in particular was one of the safer ones we will use while we are down here. They still felt like the driver was putting their lives at undue risk and were upset. They better get used to it as we still have 3 weeks left.

So we have arrived now in our tropical Caribbean paradise. Roatan is definitely the relaxation we deserve after all the craziness in Nicaragua. Our hotel is amazing, complete with warm water, air-con (that's what all the Europeans call air conditioning), cable TV, comes with a huge room and a king size bed. Yeah, we're gonna like this place. I wouldn’t mind just kicking it in our room the whole time if I didn't know what was waiting us just outside our place: beautiful, pristine Caribbean beaches.

Day 11 - Trouble In Paradise

2006-07-18T14:45:00.000-07:00

Peter…Uggh!

Most of our group is awesome. We all get along really well and have had a lot of good laughs together. Most are younger people looking to travel the world. We have been experiencing a lot of different things down here together and have really bonded. This is with the exception on one person…Peter. You may remember him from a previous blog entry where I had mentioned he had a dream that he was Whitney Houston. I don't know what that means.

His son, Martin, is awesome. He is a 16 year old boy who is out to see the world and have some good times. He had originally planned a trip with his mother to Peru, when his dad wanted to also plan a trip and they decided to join us on this one (the parents are divorced). So along comes Peter to join us. He is about 50 years old, 5'10", and has a nice pot belly and graying hair. Since we arrived 12 days ago, he has worn the same shirt every day. I was not going to blog negatively about anybody on the trip, but his behavior is worth talking about…

About a week ago, I made the comment to Haley that Peter was looking to find a woman of the night. From the start, he developed this habit of getting smashed drunk and wandering off alone at night. Haley thought that was absurd and quickly dismissed the idea. Then one night when we were in Grenada, Andrew and Amy went out late at night to get some drinks at a local bar. After a while they saw Peter enter the bar and were about to say hi to him when a younger, cute blonde walks in behind him. They proceed to a booth where Peter is kissing her on the arm and being very friendly.

The next night, we had dinner around 7:00 at a bar across the street from our hotel. Drinking heavily, Peter became friendly with all the females on the trip. He kissed Clair's foot when she was showing everyone her new shoes. He grabbed Erin's butt when he was asking how her day went (she was sure to tell him very clearly that was not appropriate). He was stroking Michelle's arm when she walked by, when she very deliberately removed that hand and placed it on the table. Peter was completely sauced by 7:30, when he walked off (without paying his tab) into the streets. We didn't see him until the next day when we saw him with the largest hickey I have ever seen on his neck. Peter had a good time apparently. Our entire group is very upset that he (or anybody) would act this way, but ESPECIALLY in front of your 16 year old son. He is such a wanker!

A little later on the day of the hickey, Haley and I were coming down from the hotel room to meet some friends on our way to the swimming pool at a neighboring hotel. Peter then accosted me on the steps to tell me there was an emergency and that I needed to find Gemma to let her know. I told him I didn't know where she was and he then insisted that I help him out and come look at the problem first hand. My interest was piqued and I followed him to the hallway outside his room. Apparently, he had flushed some toilet paper down the crapper (though we have been advised again and again that we can't or the toilet would back up) and it had totally backed up into his room. Luckily, Martin had left his stuff on the bed, but Peter had left it on the ground and his bags were covered in crap (literally). It was pretty nasty, but I was left thinking about Elves and the Justice of the Unicorns (King of the Hill). When we later asked Martin about it, he just laughed and laughed and laughed. It is obvious that Martin feels some animosity towards his father, which is both sad and understandable.

Then yesterday, while we were traveling to Comayagua (today is 7/9/2006) we ran into some more problems. We all had chose to use local transportation as described in our trip itinerary instead of paying an extra $15 each for a private van. This had ticked Peter off slightly, but he seem to understand that is what we had signed up for and some people wanted to get the experience and save some money. So after a van ride, a border crossing, a chicken bus, and another van we arrived at what was the nicest hotel of the trip so far (though it was in the most dangerous city, so we didn't really leave it except for dinner and a quick run to the supermarket). At dinner, our guide gave us the option again of hiring a private van (in fact, they have kind of been pushing private vans on us for a lot of the trip because Michelle (the tour leader in training that is learning the ropes from Gemma) has a strong preference for them). Peter was all for the van, but after a very good experience that day on local transportation, we didn't want to cough up an extra $10 each. At this point, Peter went over the edge. He really wants a private van and argued the entire night with both the guides and members of our group. He feels that we are getting ripped off on the tour because he paid $650 for the 2-week trip (he's only going halfway) and figures that the trip only costs GAP $300-$400 per person. He kept telling the guides they should cough up the money and pay for the van themselves. We tried to tell him that the rest of us really value the guides and all the arranging of travel and hotels they do for us. We wouldn't have any idea what we were doing without them and are very grateful for their knowledge of the countries and activities to do while in them. He's just really messed up and the whole group (sadly, including his son) is annoyed with him. Enough of that-it is off my chest now.

Day 10 - Where am I?

2006-07-18T14:44:00.000-07:00

So, right now I am on a bus (not a chicken bus, but we did briefly ride on one earlier today) traveling to Roatan via Comayagua, Honduras. I thought I would write a little more on Granada. My last entry was a bit negative because I wrote about Nicaraguan politics and problems. Now that I have that out of the way, Grenada (and all of Nicaragua) was incredible.

The city of Grenada is made up of colonial buildings that line all the streets. They are very colorful, fairly tall, and all have the red tile roofs. The most amazing thing about these buildings is the courtyards in the middle of them. There is the main building, and then huge open areas exposed to the elements. Many of the homes and stores only have three walls and then open up to the courtyard. When I was talking to a lady on the street, I learned that you could easily buy one of these huge homes for less than $30,000US. After all the problems we experienced in Grenada, I'm not sure who would want to do that, but if you had power and water and a better government, I would be tempted (but then the price would be just a tad more).

Being a major city in a really poor country, many of the buildings were in ruins. In fact one of the houses next to our hotel had a wall cave in on the second day we were there. When we walked by it, we saw a downed power line and a load of rubble in the street. One of the mornings I was there, I went out at 6:00 am to take pictures of the city. Please check them out to get a better feel for Grenada.

One of the days in Grenada, we went out on the "Masaya Volcano Tour," where we saw an active volcano, went to a local artisan market, and went to a dormant volcano crater lake. Our tour guide, Bosco, was really cool. He definitely knew his stuff and worked to please our group. At all the destinations we went to, he got special favors for us, including a small hike into a lava cave where the local Indians used to choose the virgin women and children to sacrifice to the gods (really). He also told us much of the history and current political situation that I wrote about in my last entry.

As a side note our guide, Bosco, has an uncle in the US Army whom the family has not heard from in a number of years. He was wondering if I had a number he could call to find out information on where he is and what he is doing. I told him I would try to find something out. If any of the family has a number or web site where you can track down military personnel, please let me know and I will pass it on to Bosco.

Yesterday (I am writing this on day 11, 7/8/2006), I visited the local market in Grenada. Man, talk about your ghetto, Latin America market! There were literally miles of stands selling everything from bananas, to t-shirts (I picked up a Che Guevara one), to women's underwear (quite a bit of underwear, they must go through it really fast). It was incredibly crowded, and the entire time we were down there, I didn't see another white person (other than Erin and Andrew, who I went down with). While at the market, Haley spent 5 bucks on a half-hour massage.

Not to end on a bad note, but I have to get this story in about these incredibly annoying children we came across. After the market, Erin, Andrew, and I went down to the town square to play cards and have a Coke. After we sat down, three small girls, with ages between 4 and 8, came to us selling hair bands and to ask for money. When we said no, they started haggling us. At first it was just asking for money over and over again. Then it escalated to touching our arms. Then it became begging for my mango I had just bought. They when I refused them, it the oldest of the three took my mango and started tossing it around. Then when we ignored her, she gave it back. Then they started going around our table, calling us idiots and tapping us on the head. I then asked if they wanted to look and act like little babies and if their parents didn't teach them better than that. This offended the oldest and they walked away.

So, we got our cards out to play a little, thinking we were okay. A couple minutes into our game, the oldest one again got up the courage to haggle us a little more. They slipped up behind us and started bopping us on the head once again. I thought that for sure someone of their culture would stop them and make them sit down. I was now considering smacking them. It was ridiculous. I then called them babies once again and told them to get out of our faces. They left and I thought we were over our problems, so we again started to play cards. Sitting next to a stand, we decided to order our cokes. When we did so, the lady told us they didn't have any cokes, right as she was bringing some sodas out to another couple in the park. So, we didn't order anything and went on with our game. Then a couple minutes later, the couple that was able to order the sodas told us that the vendor was really mad at us and wanted us to leave. When we looked over at the vendor, we saw the most incredibly foul scowl on her face. She was staring us down with a look of death as she stabbed her knife into a block of ice to break it up. It was the most profoundly absurd experience of my life, and we have no idea what we did to anger the woman. We are almost sure there was no relationship between the girls that were bugging us and the scowling lady. We tried to order something from her, and when she didn't have anything for us, we figured it was a public park (which it was) and played cards. I still have no idea what was going on, but we are still laughing at the absurdity of the situation.

Day 9 - A Country On the Brink Of Collapse

2006-07-18T14:43:00.000-07:00

In my last entry I wrote of the incredibly nice banks they have here. After today, I know a little more on why the banks are so nice.

In Nicaragua, everyone speaks of the corruption, poverty, and revolution. On three separate occasions, I was told how Nicaragua was the second poorest country in the Americas, then in the northern hemisphere, and then in the world (the fish kept getting bigger). I don't know what the ranking on poverty in the world truly is, but I do know that Nicaragua is an incredibly poor country. Everywhere you go, you are reminded of this. With the revolution in recent memory, people are both wary of the government and uncertain of the future. This was all compounded by the power situation. The day we arrived in Grenada marked the first of many planned power outages throughout the city (and country). It turns out that Nicaragua's power runs on petrol-based electricity generators. With the recent rise in world gas prices, the cost of electricity went up overnight. As a result, the people simply don't have money to adjust to the shocks in prices. Power bills went unpaid and as a result Spain is shutting off the power to the country on a regular basis.

You may be wondering where Spain comes into the picture here. Well, I'm not really clear on the history on this country, but I will share what I do know. Spain has a long history with the rich families of Nicaragua. They had a part in the revolution and during the war they looted many of Nicaragua's national treasures, including the biggest and most exquisite of petroglyphs from Ometepe island (see one of them in the pictures from Ometepe). In Nicaragua, there is one rich family that rules above all others (to include the political process and country itself). Recently, this family sold off 60% of the country's power to Spain. Historically, when the power companies bill's weren't being paid and they shut off the power, people would riot in the streets until they turned the power back on. However, the rich families have found a way to avoid the problems of rioting, by selling the energy off. Now when the pwer goes out, the people can riot, but the problem is being caused by people in a far off land, and they have no way to fight back.

The gas situation has been much less problematic for the country because they don't really use cars and trucks. In fact right now I am on a bus heading to my next destination, and the four lane highway we are riding on has a car to bike ratio of about 1:3. Picture a fairly regular American four lane, and now picture hundreds of bikes riding along with you.

There is so much about the history of this country that I would like to learn. It is intriguing to me to see all the corruption in the government firsthand. Nicaragua gets billions of dollars from dozens of foreign countries every year, but a very small percentage of that money actually goes to the people. Last year, the government made it mandatory for all children in Nicaragua to go to school. However with a 74% unemployment rate and no infrastructure, there were over 1,000,000 children last year that did not attend school. I don't know what the answer is to the problem, but there is definitely a problem. Education is the answer to solving the countries problems, but how do you educate a country that has no roads, no houses, and an upper class that steals all your aid money?

Nicaragua has elected three presidents since the revolution and things have been going alright as far as democracy goes. There is another election coming up and people are pessimistic and worried. There are 4 candidates for president with one clear leader in the polls. This candidate (whose name I cannot remember) is pro tourist, anti-corruption, and a man of the people. The only problem is that this candidate died a couple days ago of a heart attack. He has been replaced, but the people are wary of the unknown candidate. Many people who were going to vote are now unsure of who to vote for. The fear in the country, is that the party of the bad guys in the revolution (not sure which one) will again rise to power because their supporters will definitely get out the vote, but the uncertain people will stay home. This is the point where the bad guys could very well give the power back to Ortega, whom the US spent a lot of effort to oust in the 80's (he was recently released from jail).

Did I mention that we went like two and a half days without water??? In the sweltering heat, it was quite miserable. The power pumps the water throughout the country, and without power, we also had no water. No water meant no laundry. Trying to pack light, Haley and I did not bring large wardrobes. While we were assured that we didn't stink, we could smell the mildew, sweat and who knows what else. Finally, on the 6th of July, the water came on at 3:00 in the afternoon and we dropped off some laundry. We actually got it back at 8:00 that night without incident (except for Andrew who nearly had a heart attack when his clothes were missing--luckily we found she had simply placed them in someone else's bag).

So, the banks are also owned by the same family that owns the entire country, and as a result, they are the only ones in town with electricity and air conditioning (and money--hmmm, a bank?). That is why the banks are so nice. It just shows the disparity between the rich and the poor.

Enough of the problems of this country. Next entry, I will have to be more positive (because it is an amazing place and Haley and I are having a great time).

JUST A QUICK NOTE...

2006-07-16T15:08:00.000-07:00

WE ARE STILL ALIVE, BUT THE REST OF CENTRAL AMERICA DOES NOT HAVE THE WIRELESS CAPABILITIES AS COSTA RICA UNFORTUNATELY. I AM TYPING IN ALL CAPS BECAUSE I CANT FIGURE OUT THIS DUMB SPANISH STYLE KEYBOARD. WE ARE NOW IN PANAJACHEL AND WILL RETURN TO ANTIGUA TOMORROW (MONDAY). I WILL BE SURE TO POST ALL MY BLOG ENTRIES WHEN WE GET BACK (PROB ON TUESDAY). I HAVE A TON OF ENTRIES WAITING TO BE UPLOADED, JUST HAVENT HAD THE ACCESS.

TALK TO YOU ALL LATER.

Day 8 - I Want To Break Free

2006-07-07T20:40:00.000-07:00

People of the world with arthritis, I feel your pain! Through what can only be described as a act of God, I woke up today without a single cramp through the night (or on the hike for that matter). However, I can't believe I made it out of bed. My legs were so stiff and my knees nearly gave out on my as I stepped down. PAIN!

Before breakfast, I was able to go out on the beach and snap a few photos. The beach was amazing (remember that it was a lake, though it could have been the ocean for how massive it was (I couldn't even see the other side through binoculars (just look up Lake Nicaragua on google earth)). As I took in the beauty of the place, the song "I Want To Break Free" was going through my head. It was a very fitting song that somehow my subconscious must have mustered up as I thought about how crazy it was that I am in Nicaragua, a country that just ended it's civil war 7 years ago. It is awesome to break away from everyday life and experience something so foreign and unique as Nicaragua is.

On the Van ride back to the ferry, I had a lot of time to think and was sure to right down three things that I wanted to now write about. They are: Laundry, Peter's Dream, and Girls Just Wanna Have fun. I'll start with the latter. In the van, the driver had a hits CD that apparently, every taxi and tourist van driver in central America owns. When the song got to "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun," I was quickly reminded of the ratio of girls to guys in our group. All the girls sang the entire song in it's entirety at the top of their lungs. I am sure the locals got a kick out of that one. And that brings me to the locals. If I could take a picture of all the cool things I am able to see down here, I would easily be photographer of the year for National Geographic. The only problem, is that I am in a bus going down a road with 15 people in tow and stopping is not an option. There was this one place, where a virgin stream is flowing though the rain forest off the side of the road. As I look down the stream, I see a lady washing her laundry on a rock. The light is still low on the horizon (7:30am) and a single ray of light is reaching the lady through the trees. She is dressed in white and scrubbing a shirt with soap as she stands waist high in the water. The scene was simply amazing. The people's faces here have so much character and beauty, that even the old lady tilling corn in the field or the dude with the afro and no shirt on would have made awesome photos. If only…Oh, and in other news Peter had a dream that he was Whitney Houston.

On our way to Grenada, we stopped in San Juan del Sur, a huge expat hangout on the Pacific coast (this was actually a side trip to allow those of our group who had never seen the pacific a chance to do so). It was a cool town with a nice beach (see photos), but unfortunately, it left a bad taste in my mouth. It turns out that the entire city (and as we later learned, the entire country of Nicaragua) was out of power for the couple hours we stopped there. When we ordered our food, we were told we could pay using credit card. Now, because there was no power or any way to get my debit card to work, we offered to pay everyone's bill if they would pay us in cash. They all agreed and I collected the money. When it came to add up the bill, nothing seemed to add up and we were short 15 dollars (or about 3 people's meals). It took us about an hour of adding up and figuring out who gave what money to who to realize that the restaurant was trying to screw us over. Then when the power never ended up coming on (though it was supposed to come on two hours before we left, never did) everyone ended up having to pay in cash and we had to bum a loan off someone to pay for ours). It got a little ugly, but it all worked out in the end.

Side Note: Haley and I were getting incredibly frustrated at not being able to get any money from anyone anywhere. Nicaragua is a very poor country and they do not have the resources to support the plastic fantastic lifestyle us Americans enjoy. Headaches ensued throughout the afternoon.

Grenada: The giant cloud has a silver lining. Grenada is a nice colonial Spanish town with lots of quaint churches and packed streets. Initially, the only problem was the incredible heat. It is hot here. However, after we got the hotel and dropped our stuff off, we headed into town to find a bank. Luckily, Haley's debit card FINALLY worked and we were able to take out quite a bit of money. Also, the bank was the holy grail of air conditioned buildings. As we walked up the stairs, we could feel the rush of cold air seeping out the seams of the building. Heaven!

So we walked a little bit though the downtown square, snapped a couple shots, and then the wind picked up massively. All the vendors in the square knew what was going on and pack up right away. About three minutes later, a huge rain came and we got somewhat soaked. On the way back, Erin slipped and bent back her big toe nail and got it all nasty. I was right behind her and couldn't believe it when she didn't complain or yell out when she slipped. Then at dinner she told us of all the other injuries she had endured (very active in sports) and I see why this was nothing comparatively.

It is now 12:00 and I am ready for some sleep. I have been catching up on blogs for the past three days (going off my notes I had made), and am dead tired. I hear they have just turned the water on (apparently they have been doing work in the street and we haven't had water since arriving earlier today), but a shower will have to wait 'til morning.

Day 7 - If I Wake Up Tomorrow

2006-07-07T20:35:00.000-07:00

Man, was today ever an adventure of a lifetime! First, we are eating all our meals at our hotel because there is simply not anything else around us. There are three hotels that sit in the middle of the two volcanoes (Maderas and Concepcion) and they are totally self-sufficient because the nearest town is over an hour away. So, as we eat breakfast outside our room, we have a couple blue parrots come eat breakfast with us. They are all around our tables, begging for a piece of fruit. I caved in and gave them some. Check out the pics (PS, this is the national bird of Nicaragua).

Seeing as the first two weeks of our adventure are called the "Volcano Trail," we decided that we were gonna have to climb a volcano. We ended up choosing Volcan Maderas because it supposedly had a nice lagoon at the top and was about 2 hours less of a climb than Concepcion (though they are both about the same height). Haley was a little wary of the climb, but reasoned that we had been training all spring with little hikes, so we could handle things like this…man were we ever naïve. Andrew was the third member of our hiking group. He is a hard core Scott, who has done a fair bit of traveling in the past.

So, we set out on the hour drive to the base of the volcano in our good old tourist van (the roads are no longer paved and we had people on bikes passing us because the roads were so bad). On the way, we pick up our guide, Pedro, who had just dropped his kids off at school (all the kids looked so clean in their freshly cleaned uniforms). As we get to the base and start hiking, we see a family of six howler monkeys directly over us. I didn't take any pictures of them, because Pedro told us we would be able to see some on the way back (we never did--sorry, no picture). Though they tell us the first two kilometers were the easiest to hike up in terms of steepness, it was incredibly hard for all of us, seeing as it was incredibly hot and humid. We were pouring out sweat. We were also booking it up there, with Pedro, the freeking pack mule leading the way. He was amazing and told us that he makes the 10-kilometer round trip hike 4-5 times a week.

At one point, Pedro stopped to show us some corn and then sang the national anthem, which talks of corn and how God has blessed the humble country of Nicaragua. Pedro also showed us many of the medicinal plants they use to cure everything from tooth pain to back aches. Still no cure for cancer, though. As you can see in the pictures, we saw some petroglyphs which speak of a king that ruled the islands over a thousand years ago. We also saw all types of wildlife, from grasshoppers (that giant one in the pictures landed on my right boobie and nearly caused me to BU myself) to mountain crabs, to turtles.

Okay, this is the point where I talk of how incredibly difficult this hike was. It was 5 kilometers up and 5 down. Please see the pictures of the volcano in the photo gallery to appreciate what I am trying to explain (I believe the pictures say it all). During that 5-kilo hike, we climbed to a height of 1,400 meters. Haley and I pushed our bodies to their absolute maximum on the way up and by the time we reached the crater lagoon, we could not hike another step. After a brief lunch and some pictures, we headed down. If the hike up was tiring and challenging, then the hike down was super tiring and super challenging. Almost as soon as we stepped one foot down, it started to rain. Did I say rain? I mean it was a tropical deluge. The trail is not like US trails that have switchbacks to them, it is straight down the volcano, following the trail of water and it slithers though the clay (which incidentally is used to make the local pottery). At first our Merrell's held up nicely and our feet were dry…then as the rain got heavier, all the water poured into the top of our boots. I don't know of a company that has figured that one out yet. All down the volcano, my knees, ankles, thighs, and feet were hurting. They were so incredibly weak from overuse, that I can't believe I am here to write this all down. My knees were giving out on me so bad, and we were all in pain (except for Pedro).

And then this is the point where I give a huge shout-out to my incredible wife, Haley. She is incredible. Not only did she make it to the top and then back down again, she did so without complaining near as much as me and she didn't slip even once (Andrew and I both hit the dust at one point or another). At one point, as she started to slip, her entire body was parallel to the ground, but somehow she caught herself and did not fall. It was exactly like the matrix, dodging the bullet scene. AMAZING. I kept joking that it was the Harding blood flowing through her veins.

When we finally did make it back, I ate the biggest dinner of my life. I was so famished. I started out with a basket of french fries, then went on to my main course of steak and fries, then cleaned up everybody else's leftovers, then ate some ice cream desert and after Haley didn't like her desert, I ate hers as well. I am completely tired and going to go to bed now.

PS, Happy Fourth of July.

Day 6 - Alpharetta to College Park

2006-07-07T20:30:00.000-07:00

Where Costa Rica is the Pearl of Central America, Nicaragua is the Pit of it. It took a van, a bus, a border crossing (more to follow), a hike, a taxi, a chicken-ferry, and another van to get us from Monteverde, Costa Rica, to Ometepe, Nicaragua. I'll spare you the horrid details of how hot it all was, but know that standing on a chicken bus for two hours can get quite warm (not to mention 110% humidity). The whole time, I was keeping an eye on two mosquito bites that seemed to be swelling in the heat. I was worried about developing a staph infection or even cellulitis (I have seen both at the dermatology office). I should note that I really didn't have any of the symptoms, but when you see so much skin disease working in dermatology, one gets a little hypochondriac. Luckily, it has now gone down and I am no longer worried about it.

On to border crossings. Well, it turns out that Costa Rica doesn't really like Nicaragua. Nicaragua is the second poorest country in Latin America (after Haiti). Costa Rica is an extremely rich nation when compared to most of central America. As such, Nicaraguans are flocking into Costa Rica. It was very easy to leave Costa Rica, and VERY time consuming to enter Nicaragua because that is their way to retaliate. Between the two borders, there is a nice 15 minute walk with all your baggage. Our tour leader, Gemma, tells us that we can use one of the little boys to carry our baggage on their little carts, but that would "take away form your experience." Plus, I don't want some little kid to show me up.

As a side note, as soon as we passed through what the locals call the "little door," we were bombarded from a million taxi drivers and money changers. They all yell at you as you tell them no and just don't stop shaking your head the whole time.

So, our saga continues of trying to get some money. While in Monteverde, all the ATM machines ran out of cash. So we walked a mile into the next town to use their ATM machine, only to find out that it was a VISA only ATM (ours is Mastercard). Yeah, did I mention that the walk was uphill the entire way??? So we knew there would be both a bank and ATM at the border. Well, again, it was VISA, and of course the bank would not do a cash advance on credit card. Ugghhh. So, we decide to try again when we get to our final destination for the day, Ometepe.

The very moment we crossed into Nicaragua, it was night and day difference. It is the poverty-stricken central America that we all think of, but much worse. After our hour taxi ride from the border, we arrive at the edge of lake Nicaragua, a gigantic lake with two mammoth volcanoes in the middle. As we wait for the ferry to cross the lake (our hotel, finca Santo Domingo, is in the middle of the two volcanoes), there is this old man haggling us, offering to let us take pictures of his chained up howler monkey. Even though I had my camera in my hand, I avoided taking a picture of the monkey right in front of me. Something about a sick, dying, chained up monkey didn't appeal to me, and I didn't want to encourage the old man.

Our ferry ride over to the other side was cool. The sky is a steel-blue color here and is incredibly clean (though it is also quite humid). The ferry was painted a baby blue and red color and I got some really good pictures. My favorite one from the trip so far is of a man hanging his feet over the edge of the ferry.

Driving from the ferry to the hotel was quite a humbling experience. Picture a slightly overcast day, temperature is in the mid-80's, and a 40-kilometer, and a hand laid brick road. Now picture the homes. Most are a room, no bigger than 16x16 feet. They are made up of wood slats for walls, and red Spanish tile roofs that were old and rotten. Their homes are smaller than the living room of the house I am moving into (they might even be smaller than my bedroom). As we drive along in our van, I have my arm hanging out the window, so I wave to the people who all stop what they are doing to watch you go by. As you wave, the people all seem so happy that you waved to them. Their faces light up, their kids wave their arms, and they all have huge smiles on their faces. The people are so kind and humble. They live incredibly simple lives, and they don't seem to mind that their homes are smaller than even the poorest of Americans.

The hotel we are staying at is a bit like dark chocolate; bitter-sweet. Yeah, it is the dirtiest so far, but it had AC. Yeah there are all types of bugs all over the place, and the geckos to eat them up, but it is located on the most incredible beach. Yeah, the showers are cold, but they take credit card, so all the food we eat, we can charge and not worry about the fact that there is not a single bank in the country of Nicaragua that works. Please see the pictures.

Day 5 Zip Lines and Mentos Bombs

2006-07-06T05:03:00.000-07:00

I suppose I will begin this entry with the disclaimer I should have written in my first entry. Namely, that my entries will not read very clearly, and are more a jumble of random thoughts that I have had throughout the day and later came to me as I write these. Sorry about the disarray, if I had more time up here, I would edit my blog a little better.

So, once again, I am outside my room on my patio that overlooks the small town of Monteverde. Tonight, I have an incredible view of the thunderstorm going on over the pacific (about 20 miles away). The distant sky is constantly being lighten up by flashes of lightning, but overhead it is completely clear and I once again have an awesome view of the Milky Way galaxy. If you are like most Americans and have never had a chance to see the Milky Way, I recommend finding some dark sky and checking it out. It is absolutely amazing. It is even more amazing, when you have some binoculars and can see a million more stars to boot. Enough on how incredible my view is right now.

Today was quite adventuresome. We spent the afternoon swinging on zip lines between the mountains here in Monteverde. Imagine giant cables one kilometer long and over three hundred meters in the air. Next imagine a little belt on your waist connecting you to that cable. Next imagine having a Costa Rican who barely speaks any English, pushing you off your platform. You are traveling down the line at 40 kilometers/hour, praying to the powers that be that your rope holds, watching the jungle canopy that is a quarter of a mile below you, and then realizing that the other end is closing in on you pretty fast and you need to try to slow down before you crash into the guide at the other end.

Yeah, the zip lines were a trip! We got to do eleven zip lines in all, dodging death for nearly two hours. While it was a huge rush (I think I am quickly becoming an adrenaline junkie), nothing was as scary as when we climbed the platform to reach the line that goes over the continental divide. We (10 on the tour plus 2 guides) climbed this spiral staircase that led us to this tower about 100 feet in the air. As we climbed, the wind only blew stronger and stronger, and the only thing you could do was pray that you weren't blown off the little rinky-dink railing that supported you. As we got near the top, the gusts were quite unbelievable as we hung on for dear life. Then when we got to the top, we quickly learned to stay away from the open side of the platform, where you take off from. The small railing on three sides seemed wholly inadequate to support the 12 people we ended up having up there. Once we got strapped to the lines and left on our way, it was much better. This one was actually the longest, highest, and fastest of them all, and we had some good wind blowing in our direction to heighten the rush. It was amazing! I can't imagine anything like that would every fly in the US because of safety issues, and then if you could, it would be nowhere near the $35US we each paid.

Now for the mentos bomb. If you ever read my blog, you will remember that a couple days ago, we were rained in at La Fortuna, stuck in a bar for about six hours. Well, during that time, we learned a lot out about each other, both to stay away from religion and politics, and of a common love for things that explode. So, naturally, I mention this thing I had heard about mixing diet coke with mentos, which is supposed to make an incredible reaction where the coke spews out the top of the bottle to reach a heights up to 20 feet. Only a few in the group had heard of this and non had ever tried it. So we resolved to give it a go sometime. That very same night, we went home and turned on the TV, only to see Dave Letterman doing the exact thing we were talking about. Haley and I saw his technique and told the group about it the next day. Our resolve was further cemented.

Today, we finally were able to find some Mentos (we looked ALL over La Fortuna, with no luck whatsoever). So after dinner, we headed back to our hotel with Diet Coke and Mentos, mixed the two, and watched an incredible eruption of volcanic proportions. It was kind of nice, as we all had a good laugh about that being the only volcano we would see down here (the trek we are on is actually called the "Volcano Trail," but due to clouds and rain we still haven't seen a single one). We will be sure to repeat the volcano once we are able to resupply in Granada.

Speaking of Granada, tomorrow we are off for our first border crossing, which happens to be into Nicaragua. This ought to be interesting as I have both read and heard of how Nicaragua is very much off the beaten path. We have to plan very carefully how to both have enough food and money to last us a couple days until we reach Granada, and how to properly bribe the border guards to let us through smoothly (apparently there is a one dollar surcharge that the men at the gate collect. Though this charge is "optional," you are not able to pass through without paying). We have been properly instructed in the fine art of border crossing. Namely, that we do NOT have a guide, we do not speak any Spanish, and we are NOT to take any pictures. I guess it usually goes though quite smoothly, but sometimes the border guards are cranky and you can run into problems. We'll see how it goes.

Well, I reckon that is enough for tonight. My computer battery is beeping and I need to go to bed before we catch our 6:30am bus.

difficult to upload photos

2006-07-02T09:23:00.000-07:00

Right now, the internet is super slow...sorry, will upload ph0tos when we can.

Day 4--Heaven

2006-07-02T09:13:00.000-07:00

If yesterday was a rainy hell, then today was a sunny, clear paradise. We arrived by both water-ferry and bus around noon. Then we went on a whim and decided to go on a 4x4 tour of Monteverde (the place we will be for the next two days). I should preface this by telling you about the balcony I am writing this on…Picture this: a beautiful tile balcony, with cast iron railing. I am sitting in a wooden rocking chair that overlooks the pacific ocean in the distance. The weather is a chill 65 degrees (it is 10:00 at night). The night air is as fresh and clear as it ever was. When Haley and I looked up in the sky to see what stars we could see, I commented that "we could see a lot more stars if that large cloud wasn't in the way." It turns out that the large cloud was the milky way, which shines as bright as a large white cloud. We busted out the binoculars and truly appreciated how nice it is to be down here. Even though we are surrounded by lights in our small town, we were able to see the Milky Way, open clusters of stars, and we even thought we may have seen the Eagle Nebula.

Haley and I are really excited for Ometepe, in Nicaragua. We head down there in two days. I guess they say Nicaragua is quite far off the beaten path and that we are gonna be roughing it for the next couple days. Ometepe is in the middle of the largest natural lake in central america and consists of two volcanoes (one active and one extinct, I believe). We are going to stay in a hotel in the middle of the two volcanoes in the middle of the lake. Again, we will be traveling via water-ferry (is there any other type of ferry?). Should be fun.

Okay, I meant to write about our ATV tour of Monteverde. Today was a beautiful, windy sunny day. We got to ride on these Honda 4x4's up and down all these mountains for about 3 hours. Someone in our trip had asked to do something a bit more "technical" and wanted to see some mud, so our guides took us up a mountain that was full of mud. Two of the ATV's got stuck sideways in a puddle of mud, but Haley and I made it just fine. It was quite thrilling as we winded up and down these back roads, revving up those 350cc engines to go as fast as they could. Haley was clutching onto my chest for dear life, threatening to kill me, all the while having the time of her life. It was so amazing. Then at every house we passed, the locals could hear us coming and came out to wave to us. We had to stop for cows a couple of times to let them pass. Our guides were really good sports and kept racing us, and spun their back tires on us a couple times, kicking up mud (be sure to see pictures of some of the people in our group that go really dirty). And to think that the 3 hour tour only cost us $30 each. Incredible!

We are really looking forward to tomorrow, where we will hike through the local cloud forest, go on massive zip lines through the canopy, and then walk through the treetops on rope bridges. I am sure it will be a full day, but worth every minute of it.

And Then It Rained--Day 3

2006-07-02T09:06:00.000-07:00

So, during the night, there was massive rainfall. Though there were droplets coming down when we went to sleep, it was nothing compared to the tropical deluge that happened at both 1:00am and then again at 3:00am. Luckily Haley and I have a tin roof and were able to be awake to hear both of them. Now, if you know Haley and I, then you know that neither of us have any problem sleeping (unless the problem is that we go to sleep to easily and don't wake up until we have been asleep for a very long time) but when you put a tin roof on the hotel we are staying at, each drop sounds like a cymbal going off.

So, we ended up staying around town in the morning, waiting for our "canyoneering adventure." We picked up some bread at the local bakery and watched the Germany/Argentina game. It was pretty cool to watch world cup down here, because unlike America, the people live for soccer. I can only imagine how the Brazil game is gonna go today.

Now, about the canyoneering. Because it was raining like crazy, we went to see if we needed to cancel. Actually, we thought we would have to cancel, because we would quite literally be washed away and drown if we tried. When we talked to the lady behind the counter, she informed us that they only give a refund if the cancellation is due to mother nature. They had cancelled every other trip except the canyoneering one, saying that the rain wouldn't effect the waterfalls that we would be rappelling down. When we questioned her (naturally, we were like "WHAT? It is pouring, and this isn't gonna affect the waterfalls?") she told us that the rain didn't effect the water in the canyon (my faith in this company was waning). Anyway, we figured we didn't have a choice, we had already paid $75 each and were gonna have to just make the most of it. We then went to the hotel and wrote up our wills. So we go for a little lunch to wait until they pick us up for canyoneering. (Though it may sound like we wanted to get out of it, we really DID want to rappel down waterfalls, as long as it was safe).

About a half hour later, some people in our group come find us to let us know that the trip had been cancelled and we need to go back to get our refund. They sent some people out to scout out the canyon, and sure enough, the river was massively swollen. So we go to get our money (a group of 4 of us). Then we learned that they cannot put money back on a card like they can in the US. Down here there is a process that involves signing some papers and mailing them in. And then the owner, that would need to sign the papers, was gone until Monday and she would mail them off then. This is where my faith completely was lost and I started asking lots of questions. She repeatedly assured me that there was nothing to worry about, which sent off all kinds of signals that I needed to be worried. When she acted offended because I was concerned, I made it very clear that I don't know her from Eve, I arrived yesterday and am leaving tomorrow, and I have no reason in the world to trust her. Even after spelling it out for her, she still acted offended that I didn't trust her. Oh well, I think she was forgetting that it was MY money, not hers.

Okay, enough of that story. Next time I pay in cash…much easier to refund. So, now that nobody in the entire town is able to go off and do a single thing, we all gathered together at the "Bar Rafino" and talked for the next six and a half hours. It was great to talk to people from around the world about everything from politics, to movies, to pranks we had played on people when we were younger (last week for some). Then after a long afternoon at the bar, we went back up to see if we could see the lava spewing from the volcano (we couldn’t) and headed to a local bar that was doing karaoke. I say local, because it was 10 minutes from our town, and we were the only white people there. I have to wrap this up because our bus in coming shortly, but the karaoke was awesome. It was almost like those people who go to the African tribes and see their tribal dances. I felt like we were having a total immersion, cultural experience. Amy and Erin in our group got to sing "Hotel California" and "I Wanna Dance With Somebody," respectively. Erin was singing as the taxi pulled up to take us home, and as you can see from the pictures, it was very much the highlight of the night. All the men were dancing and the entire place was totally partying it out. Everyone was sad to see us go.

Day 2

2006-06-29T21:40:00.000-07:00

Man, did our day ever get started on the right foot when we woke up to free continental breakfast. Not only was it free, but it was one of the best breakfasts I have had in quite a while. Haley and I both had our custom made omelets, some beans and rice (yeah, I know, for breakfast, right?), and we even went on a whim and got this greenish, potato looking thing that had corn mixed in with it. The green stuff turned out to be incredible…only we have no idea what in the world it was.

Then at 8:00am, it was on our first bus ride. We had to first take a taxi, however, to get to the bus station. Apparently, stop signs are not mandatory and our driver did not consider a single one. I'm talking not even slowing down, even when there was a bus speeding down to the intersection (I think the bus came to within inches of our rear bumper). Then we got to go on an awesome bus ride that lasted all of 5 hours. Apparently this was one of the slower travel days, which has me a bit worried. It was crowded, uncomfortable, and smelly. We had fairly decent seats for the first couple hours of the journey. Then we learned that when you stop to use the restroom, or simply stretch your legs, have someone save your seat. We had to stand for the remaining couple hours, which really sucked at we were winding through mountain roads. Not to mention that it got really hot once you crammed an extra 20-30 people on that bus.

Then we arrived in La Fortuna. Talk about tourist town. There are more Americans here than Ticos (Costa Ricans). We spent the afternoon planning tomorrow, to include rappelling down waterfalls (yeah, like 60 meter waterfalls, which I think is like 150 feet?). Cost us a small fortune, but hopefully it should be worth it. Believe it or not, that was Haley's idea.

Then tonight, we headed up to see the volcano and go to the Baldi hot springs. As you can see in the photo gallery, we couldn't see much of the volcano because we are in the middle of a cloud forest. If we wake up really early, we may get a chance tomorrow, but that would involve waking up really early…so we'll see. The hot springs were really nice, as you can see in the pictures. I couldn't believe that one of them was 152 degrees, and there was no disclaimer. I think you would get some serious burns if you were to jump in there. Luckily we dipped our feet in first (they are still red and tender).

Anyway, we are having a great time and think that the group will be awesome. It was nice to be joined by some other guys. You can see their pictures and nationalities if you look though the photo album link on the right side (under la fortuna day 1).

Meet the Group

2006-06-28T20:56:00.000-07:00

So a couple months ago, when I called GAP Adventures to inquire on the demographics of the group, they told me that the majority of travelers with their company were mid-30's to 40's married couples. So when we met the group, I was surprised to find 9 women and ZERO other men. Pretty good odds, eh? Well, actually, I would like a little more testosterone on my side in case the women get out of line. Luckily, the last three people to join our group are supposed to be men. The group is very diverse, with 4 Australians, 2 British, 1 South African, 4 American and 3 Finnish. The all seem really cool, with one particular group very excited about the cheap alcohol (I'm a little worried about them). But the group looks like it will work well together and we are excited to see what the next month brings.

A small disclaimer: We will not have this much time to Blog, seeing as we will hopefully be busy doing exciting things (and I am sure we will not have this kind of internet access available). So au revois for now.

Here We Are!

2006-06-28T15:30:00.000-07:00

Honest to goodness, I have no intention of blogging that much, but here we are at the hotel, and this bird out here in our super-lush courtyard won't shut up...when we looked up and finally saw the sucker, I realized it is a parrot? or maybe a parakeet? Anyway, here is a picture of heem (note the spanish accent on "him"). We flew in a couple hours ago and are already loving it. We had a chance to wander around the neighborhood and see a couple things (see pictures on our photo album). We have already seen a couple dozen different types of birds and a million different plants.

The courtyard I am in right now smells exactly like my old house in panama (Namely, the smell of rotten mangoes). As you can see from the pictures, our hotel is very well guarded (don't worry, Tami). And just to let you know, Linzee, we didn't even have to pass through customs, so we still have our antibiotic to prepare us for when the BU hits (that's a little acronym that stands for traveler's diarrhea--actually stands for Butt Urine--hey, I don't come up with this stuff).

I think we are going to like it here. I am a little worried, though, as I sit here typing this that either a mango, banana, or lime will fall on my head, as all three fruits are literally directly above me.

Oh, one other random thing before I wrap this one up and we go to meet our travel group for the first time. As soon as I got on the internet, everything instantly became Spanish. Yep, google, firefox, and picasa websites all talking to me in Spanish. Cool, huh?

We're Off!

2006-06-28T13:16:00.000-07:00

Doesn't that sound like a fitting title to us leaving for Central America? That is probably the title of every first entry of every trip ever taken. I figure I had better start this thing on the right foot by writing as soon as we leave. Haley and I are in the airport, waiting to board our plane for the 4-hour flight to San Juan, Costa Rica. Luckily, we got to the airport three and a half hours early. Plenty of time to grab a bite to eat, start watching the airport news for a second time, and get a little travellogging in. I think I invented that last word.

So, looking back on the preparation for this trip, I have a little advice to share with the world: DON'T EVER plan a move, buy a house, quit work, go on a month long vacation and start medical school all at the same time. Haley was watching Oprah the other day, where they were talking about the biggest stressors for marriages and what can lead to marital problems. The biggest problem makers? Finances, moving, and planning a vacation. Luckily, Haley and I have had a great time and haven't had any marital problems. We seem to work well together, which is probably a good thing, seeing as we have been together for every minute of every day for the past year (working together and all).

Now that the planning is done with (including packing up all our belongings, and setting up everything to close on our house) it is kind of nice sitting in the airport waiting to board our flight. The past week was rough, but then again, who goes on vacation for a month??? Yep, 32 days.

One thing we have been a little worried about was the crime down in central America. However, after reading up on things, we learned to not put up a fight and just give them what they are asking for. Nearly every tourist that has gotten in trouble, resisted would-be robbers. It is kind of nice looking around the terminal here, seeing as the majority of our flight is younger, college age kids, and older travelers. Hopefully they will look more attractive to would be thieves.

Well, I know these are all a bunch of random thoughts, but I do have one last one. I am very glad that we packed so light. We stuck to our packing list we were given, and consequentially, did not have to check a single item. Yep, we are carrying on all of our supplies that are to last us a month. The lady at the ticket counter could not believe that we weren't checking in a single thing! I was pretty impressed myself. Of course, early this morning, I had to shed items like my wetsuit and the box to the junior mints (the latter was a mistake, as all the junior mints melded into one giant senior mint).

Here is a picture of us leaving our apartment with our luggage (note the impressive lack of baggage--can you tell that I am proud of that one?). Haley is complaining that we aren't even on the airplane yet and I have already written a short novel. Time to wrap this one up.