Random thoughts

.25. I've included some beautiful views from the road (and some not so beautiful ones). Just imagine what those roads feel like without shocks! (and none of the buses have decent shocks). The microbus shown above wasn't even the most crowded one we've been on. And, check out when the road fell through-- we ended up waiting on the side of the road for a few hours while the bull dozers rebuilt the road!

.5. A "Ferreteria" -- they must sell Ferrets! (in reality, they're hardware stores)

1. Trash. People in Central America don´t give a second thought to litter. Everyone throws their trash on the sidewalk, out the bus window, or in the river. It´s still very odd for us to see someone throw their empty bottles and candy wrappers on the ground wherever they are. It´s particularly suprising given how proud gutaemals are of their country-- you´d think they would want to keep their country pristine.

2. Reading. After not being able to find Harry Potter in Spanish while we were in Xela (it´s only the most popular book in the world), we started noticing that nobody reads books. And, I mean nobody. The bookstores (liberias) only sell paper goods and supplies (no actually novels). When Greg and I were reading in one of the microbuses, a child behind us asked us in Spanish ¨what are those and what are they for?¨ Surprised, we told him they were for fun and that we liked to read. The kid then borrowed the book just to flip through the pages and check it out. Our teachers from Xela even said that people in Guatemala just don´t read books including those who know how to read. We´re pretty sure its much easier to find English language novels than Spanish ones.

3. Note: do not steal our multi-million dollar business plan. since we have a lot of time to spare, we´ve been thinking about our future plans to make millions. We discovered a drink in Guatemala called Ades which is a soy-milk based fruit juice. Even Greg loves it and doesn´t care that its ¨soy¨. Our plan is to either become the US distributor for Ades (no pronounced AIDS), or to replicate the recipe and create a new product for the US. No, this is not stealling. We´ve been discussed possible target consumers, marketing, and other business plans in great detail.

4. When not planning the start of our Fortune 500 company for soy-juice (help us think of a good name, please!), we´ve been disucssing what kind of restaurant we would want to own. Shana´s favorite so far is ¨A la mode¨ where dishes are accompanied by an appropriate scoop of ice cream (e.g. rhubarb crips with strawberry ice cream). She´ll also do weekend brunch. Not surprisingly, Greg wants a sportsbar and steak house which organizes recreational sports leagues in its next door field.

Coban, Semuc Chumey, Lanquin, and of course more water

After Rio Dulce, we travelled to Coban, not to be confused with Copan. The trip there only consisted of 3 buses and took 6 hours ... nothing!

The town of Coban is not much, but we did find a nice place to stay, and a great place to eat: a restaurant in a spanish style courtyard where the waiters all wore bowties. The real reason we went to Coban was to make a day trip to Semuc Chumey and Lanquin, about 2 hours away. Semuc Chumey is a state park famous for its natural limestone bridge. Essentially a river runs a natural tunnel, over which you can swim in the aquamarine limestone pools. The sight of the water rushing into, and out of the tunnel was very, very impressive. It was worth the trek down a waterfall on a rope ladder to see. Words can´t describe how beautiful these pools were (so we´ll post pictures when we can).

The second part of daytrip was to the mahussive Lanquin caves. These caves run back 68 km, though we only walked through the lit part, which is about 2 km long. The caves have been used for mayan rituals and animal sacrifices for 500 years. The smell of incense and candles was still present.

Livingston and Rio Dulce

Greg:

After our stint of island living in Roatan and Utila, Shana and I made our way back to Guatemala, specifically to the Atlantic coast town of Livingston. Yeah, I know, sounds really Guatemalan, right! Livingston is predominantly a Garifuna community: meaning that it is people by former plantation slaves in from St. Vincent, a British-owned Carribean island, who were moved to Livingston and Roatan when freed. For this reason, the culture is very Carribean, english is commonly spoken, and the majority of people are black. Makes for a fascinating mix.

Our trip to Livingston was an adventure. We woke up at 5am and ended up needing 14 hours and 7 modes of transportation (not counting a fair bit of walking) to get there: a hour long ferry to La Ceiba, a cab to the bus terminal, a 3 hour bus to San Pedro Sula, a micro bus to Puerto Cortez, a chicken bus to the Honduras-Guatemala border, another micro bus to Puerto Barrios, and finally a white knuckle boat ride in the dark, in big waves, to Livingston.

While in Livingston, we explored the Garifuna culture, by which, of course, I mostly mean the cooking. The highlight was a seafood coconut milk and corriander soup (can´t remember the name). We also took a long hike to the ¨7 Altars¨, a series of beautiful waterfalls in the jungle a little ways from town. The waterfalls formed some awesome pools to swim in ... seeing a pattern here?).

After 2 nights in Livingston, we took a boat tour down the Rio Dulce to the town of Rio Dulce. The ride there, which mostly consisted of a protected park, was absolutely gorgeous. It reminded Shana of the mei-kong river in Laos, especially the way the jungle started at the very banks of the river. On the way, we stopped at a textiles cooperative, a hot springs (no, we are not getting tired of these), a bird island, and flower covered bay. We had a chance to also see manatees and fresh water dolphins, but they never showed their faces.

In Rio Dulce, we stayed in a ridiculously nice hotel on the river (right at the opening of a large lake). This place would be a 4 star resort in the States, but we got a room for about $7.50 each. We slept in a large, two level, open air cabanna, which was connected to every thing else by small boardwalks. The hotel had a great place to dive into the river, kayaks, a living room with pool table and library, a good restaurant, and the World´s Best Pina Coladas of all time! No kidding! Another nice perk were the showers, which were hands down the nicest and hottest we´ve had in Central America, which I guess is not saying that much.

On our second day in Rio Dulce, we visited the Finca El Paraiso (¨Paradise Plantation¨). This whole area is famous for its banana plantations. This is where United Fruit, now Chiquita, and Dole really started out big ... partly leading to the US led coup in Guatemala in ´54. The term ¨Banana Republic¨ was probably coined for this area. We could say that we visited the Finca to learn about the socio-economic conditions and effects of the banana trade, but really we were mostly attracted by the enormous hot water waterfall on the grounds.

Postcard Perfect Bay Islands

Unable to decide which of the 2 main bay islands to go to, we decided to go to both! and thank goodness for sturgeron (a stronger form of dramamine) because the ferry rides to each island were very rocky-- the crew even handed out a barf bag to each passenger when they boarded!

Roatan:
This is what the Caribbean is supposed to look like. The beaches are literally post-card perfect with soft white sand, clear, blue, and warm water. Even morning and night we went to gorgeous half moon bay to take a dip. This island was the most expensive place we´ve been to, but we decided to splurge and get a cabin with it´s own kitchen and deck (for a whopping $35 a night- which is still $10 cheaper than the rattiest motel we stayed in during our road trip). We took great advangate of the kitchen and made ourselves some pesto pasta salad and chicken burgers-- although the occasional cockroach scared shana away from most kitchen duties. Although the expensive resorts take up most of West Bay-- the best beach on the island, we saw a few beach houses (with double decker decks, BBQs, and private pools) nearby that we would LOVE to rent out with a big group of friends. It´s probably the cheapest place to relax in style in Carribbean. We went snorkeling and saw some cool fish and coral and even got to see 2 red sox games at the local bars.

Utila:
Just like the guidebook said, Utila is WAY cheaper, but without the gorgeous beaches. The young, scuba-bum lifestyle is fun for a little while, but it´s crazy to see people who spend years here. We stayed at a hotel-dive center where we met many other young travellers, played lots of volleyball, and went swimming off the dock. Greg went scuba diving finally using his PADI licence after 8 years. The hotel had a BBQ which was great fun and it was very easy to meet and talk with other travellers. Unfortunately, Shana stepped on a bee the day before arrives, and her toe swelled up to double it´s normal size. So she mostly hobbled around and stayed in the hammocks.

Ruins, hot springs, and birds in Copan

Getting to Copan in Honduras was a major pain. We had to take about 5 buses and cross the boarder twice (once from El Salvador to Guatemala and once from Guatemala to Honduras). Unfortunately, we arrived at the last boarder crossing a bit late (about 6pm), so we ended up having to pay the bus much more than we should have to take us from the boarder to Copan (only about 10k away). But, if we get swindled out of $20 only once on our trip, its not so bad.

And, it turns out Copan was wonderfully cheap, clean, and cute. We stayed in a private room for only $6 a night. The next day we visited an awesome bird sanctuary. We saw dozens of brightly colored Macaw parrots (the reds ones, blue and yellow ones, and green and blue ones). We also saw adult and baby toucans up close. Their beaks are truly spectacular. We even got to hold a few parrots at the end of the tour-- luckily no bird poop on our shoulders. The bird sanctuary also had a great little swimming hole made by creating a damn in the river than runs through the jungle. It´s pretty great to cool off surrounded by beautiful trees and even more beautiful birds.

The next day we took a microbus down a very rocky and windy road for about 1 hour to get to a natural hot springs. We skipped the concrete pools out front and headed straight for the river. A small water fall of scalding hot water pours into the river. We alternated sitting in the hot water near the falls and the laying in the cool river flowing around it. We had a bit harder time getting back to the city. After waiting for 45 min for another microbus, we end up hitching a ride in the back of the pickup. Hitching is the main method of transportation for the locals. At one point, I think there were at least 20 people in the back of the pickup. Luckily, Greg and I had 2 of the best seats so we didn´t have to hang off the back or anything. I sat on a bag of corn in the middle, and greg sat on the edge near the cabin so hat plenty of things to hold on to. Surprisingly, it was more comfortable and less nauseating going down the unpaved road in the back of the truck than in the microbus.

We got back to town then walked about 1k to the ancient mayan ruins. The copan valley was once the center of a mayan kingdom with over 20,000 inhabitants. The stone altars, carvings, and pyramid like towers were incredible. (wait and see some of the pictures). The buildings are literally built one on top of each other, as the successive kings tried to outdo their predecessor. This results in a series of courtyards, tunnels and squares among the various piramids, carven stair cases, and other buildings. There are also a bunch of statues that look similar to North American totem poles depicting the various kings. Most of these, though, depict King 18 Rabbit (which, btw, isn´t even the weirdest king´s name) who seemed to be quite the megalomaniac.

After decades of success, historians aren´t quite sure what happened in the demise of the mayans in this area-- they theorize that over-population led to a lack of food. Interestingly, when the ruins were discovered by a Conquistador, and then again by an American explorer in the 19th centure, the natives who lived around the ruins were as clueless to their significance and origins as the foreigners were. Also worth note is that Copan had a larger population in ancient times than it does today.

After a hot few hours wandering around the ruins, we went back to the swimming hole at the bird sanctuary for another swim. as i mentioned, we love our swimming!

It´s been a while

So, we´ve gotten pretty bad about updating our blog... sorry! The slow internet here and the temptation to spend all day outside in the sun makes us avoid internet cafes. Also, we´ve tried to post pictures, but the slow internet just isn´t fast enough to upload them while we´re on the computer. We´ll upload a whole ton when we return to the states the end of july.

it seems as if our central america portion of the trip has taken on a theme of sorts. unlike our road trip which was dedicated to great music and delicious food, this trip seems to focus on different types of water or places to swim (unfortunately, the food here is nothing to write home about). we´ve been to 5 hot springs and more different swimming places than you can imagine. I guess that what comes from living in HOT weather. The hot weather also makes us appreciate the cool drizzly weather of the highlands. we were actually excited to wear our jeans and fleeces after returning to the mountains in guatemala after several weeks by the beaches.

here´s a slew of new entries for you that´ll hopefully catch you up to the present.

Off the beaten path

(These are pictures of the main square in Santa Ana. Because I was sick most of the time, this is about all of Santa Ana that I saw. At least that was pretty.)

Confident with our Spanish and anxious for a little adventure, we decided to go from Monterrico to El Salvador using the public bus system. We also realized that not many tourist buses went to the boarder, so it was really our only option. Surprisingly, the chicken buses (old schools buses decked out with Jesus paraphernalia and techno music) were not terribly crowded and even a tiny bit more comfortable than the crappy minivans that are considered tourist buses. The locals were always very helpful and would help us flag down the right bus to wherever we wanted to go. However, we did end up having to take 1 boat, and 2 buses to reach the boarder, then walk about 1K across the boarder, and then take another 2 buses to our final destination of Apaneca. We just about randomly chose this small mountain town because our travel books remarked highly of this ¨very pleasant¨ mountain town in the middle of the ruta de los flores (route of the flowers). When we reached there, we had arrived in a VERY small, somewhat empty town with no banks, restaurants, tourists or street signs-- a big difference from everywhere we went in Guatemala. Eventually, we found a nice hotel (basically a house with rooms for rent in the back) and ate at the local Pupusaria (kind of like a thick corn tortilla filled with cheses, beans, or meat). Unfortunately, later that night I (Shana) felt the affects of not having any gringo friendly food.

The next day we headed onward to the 2nd largest city in El Salvador, the ¨Queen of the West¨, Santa Ana. I was expecting a cute, clean, touristy town like Antigua, but not in El Salvador. Although Santa Ana is larger with a very beautiful Cathedral and Municipal Theater, it is still void of any gringos. Unlike Guatemala, there is no obvious indigenous influence and everything seems a bit poorer. Unfortunately, I´m still sick (probably from the pupusaria), so I´m spending most of my time in bed enjoying our first cable television of the trip. Thank goodness the Food Network is in English! Greg is taking very good care of me, running to the (Walmart owned) local grocery store for Gaterade of Ritz crackers and has even agreed to go to the Mall to see Sex and the City with me (we hope its in English).

If I´m all better by tomorrow, we´re going to head north to Honduras to Copan where we expect to see some awesome Mayan ruins (and probably some gringos again).