Anitgua

Back on the gringo trail. On the bus here, ran into pretty much half the people from that linquin place. Ha. Well, it was a funny ride full of ipods.

This is where we are staying. It´s pretty neat and comfortable.

That is the window to our room, right under the volcano.

And this is the market.

Fruit is good here. Had mango with chili salt a few times. Might have to go for it again, after this internet session.

I climbed an active volvano yesterday - pacaya. It was pretty damn cool. There was lava and rolling chunks of glowing rock.

Heading to El Salvador tomorrow morning.

More Coban

The internet place where I first set up this blogger site. Horrible (pentium D?) computers running vista. 90 seconds for explorer to open, but rockin tunes.

Hole In the Wall

This was an awesome little local spot we just stumpled into looking for a place to have cervasa, which is often difficult to find. Ended up in here two more times.

Eggs, as in Hevos Rancheros, are often served for dinner. Or it´s what ever they old lady in the kitchen has cooked up. Check out that rice concoction.

Coban

Coban was awesome. Again, just an average place that we took a liking too. Had a great room, although two jack asses from Germany shared it the first night.

WEEK 1

DAY 1 - Portland to Tulum
- 6am flight ... bye-bye apartment forever (too much garbage for the bin)
- first flight to Denver ... woman who sits beside me is a 6am TALKER ... with breath that is a mixture of coffee and cigarettes and alcohol ... and she´s going to a funeral ... somebody help me! When we run into such annoying people in the future, we refer to them as ¨Colorado¨
- next flight to Cancun ... old lady is supposed to sit between Isaac and myself, so I offer her the aisle ... which somehow gives her the right to give MY seat to her fat smelly husband, so he can have ¨more room¨!! He´s also packing onion-loaded fast food. The ¨Colorado syndrome¨is in full effect
- 30 minutes at the Cancun airport ... customs is press the button ... if it´s green, life is good
- immediately hop an on ADO (love ADO - this one was showing Red Dragon) bus and head for Playa del Carmen ... adios Cancun
- arrive Playa del Carmen, walk around for a few ... see a beach ... eat some not-so-great food ... just not feeling it, so we hop another ADO bus for Tulum
- arrive Tulum and it´s dark ... we see one hostel kinda close to the bus station, so we try our luck there ... it´s full ... so we try the next one we find ... price seems decent, and we´re running out of options ... two tiny beds, a ceiling fan about to fall off, a cold water shower, and a toilet with NO SEAT ... luxury!
- time for a drink!!! cool bar with swings to sit on ... ths novelty gets old a few stops later
- first person we wind up talking to ... go figure, some guy from Portland!
- nice conversation with he and his girlfriend, and they gave us a few good recommendations for Tulum ... she works at 3 Doors Down (just off Hawthorne) ... I think her name is Rachel ... if you go there, and tell her we sent you, you might get a hook-up or something
- GOOD dinner at el Mariachi ... HOT sauce to go with the yummy food
- EoD

DAY 2 - Tulum
- get up and hit this cool bakery with yummy little sandwich thingies ... aka lunch
- take a cab to the beach/ruins area
- walk through the ruins ... takes five minutes, but it doesn´t suck
- then we hit Playa Paradaiso and enjoy nice sand and blue/green water
- dinner this evening is across the street from the previous day ... Don Cafe maybe ... more great food, and totally different, yet HOT sauce
- EoD

DAY 3 - Tulum to Belize City
- quick trip to the bakery for some more of those yummy sandwich thingies
- long day of sitting on a couple of buses and standing in line for the border crossing (both in Mexico and in Belize)
- finally end up in Belize City and it´s already dark ... enter sketchville
- bus stop is pretty empty, but there is an apparent employee (with a crazy wandering eye) who seems to think we should be giving him money, so we just used the bathroom
- next is an angry-seeming cab driver (it took us a bit to even trust he WAS a cabbie) driving a beat up old Mercedes
- at this point, we´ve teamed up with a fairly pleasant older dude named Rick
- he takes us the full five blocks to where the hotels are (in retrospect, the cabbie was pretty cool ... but we paid out the arse for the distance we covered)
- first stop is full, and the cabbie doesn´t want us to stay there anyway, because the guy that runs the place ¨looks the other way¨I think ... i.e. he plays for the other team
- second stop says they have room, but EVERYTHING is massively under construction (i.e. falling apart), and they can´t even get the lights to work to get up the stairs to show up a potential room!
- finally, we end up at Mama Chen´s ... seems alright, even if it´s just a king sized bed (we wind up putting our bags in the middle) ... at least the toilet has a seat!!!
- it´s like 8pm, and the three of us head out to hopefully find some dinner ... re-enter sketchville
- there´s no feeling of imminent danger, but spidy-senses are definitely tingling ... streets are littered with drunk and high locals, and not much of anything else ... restaurants look like they should be open, but everything is locked up
- later we´re told that if we´d banged on the door of one of the restaurants, someone would have come and made up Chinese food (we soon discover that Chinese food is EVERYWHERE on this trip)
- anyway, we find a little corner store that´s pen, and we settle on balogna and cheese sandwhiches ... they weren´t horrible, but had we thought to purchase some of Marie Sharp´s hot habenero sauce, they may have been gourmet
-EoD

DAY 4 - Belize City to Dangriga
- turns out that even with a toilet seat, this stay was worse than the prevoius place! Bed sucked, toilet area was too cramped, shower ... well the shower-head FELL OFF!!! I was wondering why we´d seen an entire shelf of shower-heads at the corner store!
- we having lunch at a place the Lonely Planet claims has *the* best stewed chicken with rice and beans in the entire country ... it was just so-so
- Belize City isn´t nearly as sketchy during the day, but we find zero reason to stay a minute longer ... so we hit the bus station (which again feels less sketchy during the day) and we patienty wait for the James busline that heads south along the coast
- a few hours later, we get bunk beds at Val´s ... our first non-private room, but the beds are comfortable, and the shower potentially offers hot (lukewarm) water. The toilet still has a door that is WAY too close to the edge of the seat (nowhere for your knees), but this place is still feeling like a winner.
- we even out tiny bit of laundry done, as Val offers laundry and internet services, to go with the dorms
- we walk south, exhausting the entire coastline of Dangria ... in hopes of finding ¨beach¨we can use the following day ... at the southernmost tip, we find the resort ¨Pelican Beach¨, and we think it might suffice (if we´re allowed to use it) ... up until then, any sand we saw was entirely covered in litter
- but there is still hope for this little town ... for one, the people here already seem genuinely friendly, and no spidy-senses are tingling
- we get a recommendation from someone at the hostel for a place to get a drink and another place for food ... so off we trop to Wadani Shed ... it´s a big open area (under a massive thatched room), and it´s full of locals (only) ... music (likely Bob Marley - at any point in time) is pumping out, people are singing and dancing, or sitting and playing dominoes ... everyone has beer
- there is one table open in the corner of the shed ... we grab it and get a couple of Belikins
- it doesn´t take long for the locals at the table next to us to start talking to us ... and next thing you know, we´re sitting with them, and we´re not sure who is buying which round for whom (for the most part, they were buying us rounds ... totally nice - if incredibly drunk - people
- we get our first lesson on Garifuna culture ... how the people all know their history, and they are proud to share it ... how those who have money take care of those who do not ... how the town as a whole looks out for the elderly ... and how pretty much everyone has a nickname that they go by
- our primary hosts for the evening are Mister Don and Mister Plax - who are both money-makers (working for the Fisheries Department in Punta Gorda) ... Don has family in Dangriga (most without much money), so it´s always a big deal when he´s in town
- that evening we also meet ... Black, Jackie, Charlie, Bongo, Doggy, Neil, Derek ... and probably serveral others
- a few beers later, the locals are telling us they want to go to another shed to see some live Garifuna music (drumming / punta rock) ... we, on the other hand, NEED dinner! We tell them about the food recommendation we were given, and they walk us there (it isn´t far away)
- we both get some fantastic fried chicken with stewed beans and johnny (jimmy?) cakes to dunk into the beans
- after the meal, we all pile into Mister Plax´s car (is this a good idea???)
- it´s all good ... a few minutes later we´re at Waraguna Shed, and there are 5 band members playing their music - four on drums, and one on guitar (then locals would take turns on the moraccas)
- we´re told these guys are some of the best drummers around, and they are from Honduras ... on their way to Belize City for a Garifuna convention ... several of the locals take their time in the spotlight, literally shaking their tails in front of the band ... again, we´re the only non-locals around, but everyone is cool, and we have a blast
- Don and Plax disappear for the night, but Derek insists he walk home with us, to make sure we don´t get lost ... turns out we were less than 10 minutes away from Val´s ... then again the town is not that big
- it feels like a crazy long night at this point, but checking the time, it´s still pretty early ... so we head over to this Karaoke place that supposedly gets going around midnight
- we endure so horrific wailing and squealing before we finally decide to head home and call it a night
- needless to say (as we find out the next night), everyone else in the dorm is already fast asleep
- EoD

DAY 5 - Dangriga
- it winds up raining for most of the day ... no beach after all
- we´ve been on a mission for conch (from my Belizean memories of San Pedro, many years ago) ... after asking in a few restaurants, we settle on a Chinese place ... simpy because they seem to offer conch in any style (i.e. any style of Chinese dish) ... we get conch chop suey ... not bad, but not what I remember
- by now, we´ve completely embraced the joy that is Marie Sharp´s habanero sauce
- we´ve read that her factory is not that far for Dangriga, and tours are free (sometimes given by Marie herself) ... so we´re thinking that may be a great way to eat up some of this down-day
- however, it turns out the taxis charge an arm and a leg (and another arm) to get there! Oh well, it was a fun thought while it lasted
- in searching for various taxi drivers (hoping to find a better price), we wind up going by Wadani shed again ... and of course, Mister Don is there ... drunk as a skunk (it´s early afternoon)
- we learn that we had no choice but to sit down and have a beer or two with him (we weren´t exactly in the mood for beer after the previous evening)
- it turns out to be a pretty good time though ... we meet Johnny and Max and Trapz (Trapeze) ... everyone is family to Don, but it´s impossible to figure out who is blood-related ... Don also loves to ask ¨is you racist¨ ... not so bad once you finally figure out he´s just playing around
- turns out they are all heading to a wake for a girl who died from a ruptured appendix ... she had gone to the hospital in time, but she wasn´t showing any signs other than discomfort, so they sent her home without any real tests
- anyway, we got invited to the wake (which is apparently a huge party) , but it better served as an excuse for us to part ways, saying farewell to Mister Don
- we chilled out at Val´s for a while, then decided to try some cheap local food for dinner ... 1 burrito, 1 gacho (burrito without meat), 2 sulduces (mini tortas), 2 granaches (bigger tortas), 3 panades (small fish empanadas) and 3 fried tacos ... all for like 5 dollars I think ... and we were full!
- back at Val´s, Point Break was playing on the mini-tv in the common room ... it ended at 9pm, and by then, EVERYONE was in bed for the night!
- EoD

DAY 6 - Dangriga to Hopkins
- we get on the James bus for Hopkins ... this chicken bus is pumping out some radio station that is mostly reggae ... enjoyable ride
- a couple of girls staying at Val´s had just come from Hopkins ... they recommended the smoothie shop, the bakery (with the best soy burgers ever), and the Lebeha Drumming Centre as a place to stay ... cabanas and live drumming every night
- we got a decent room with two single beds (not exactly comfortable), and each with its own mosquito net (necessary)
- our hosts were Dorothy (from B.C.) and Jabbar (cool local guy that ran the drumming centre)
- our room neighbours were Thomas and Shalini, from Bellingham, Washington
- after we´d checked in, we walked the length of town, looking for the smoothie place and the bakery ... Hopkins is small, but it´s fairly LONG ... both places were on the other end of town.
- the smoothie place is a house with a window ... Kadeesha (sp?) is an Italian New Yorker, who has moved to Hopkins (likely quite a few years ago), and now make smoothies ... the smoothies were tasty, but a bit pricey ... the conversation was nice
- turns out the bakery is the house across the street, but it´s closed (no one is home)
- on the return walk, we stop in a bar/restaurant called Octopus Garden ... aka our chomping grounds for Hopkins
- we get conch fritters ... which were tastey, but so ends our quest for conch
- we also get rum punches ... this yummy drink becomes our introduction to 1 Barrel ... Belize´s so-so yet potent rum.
- the bar has a tv and Carlos (the bartender) assures me that if I come by tomorrow, I can watch the Duke vs UNC game! Stoked ... if only I had a clue what time the game was on
- we head back to Lebeha, and then hit the beach for the tail-end of sunlight ... and we finally have a beach with decent sand!!! The water is still a bit polluted, and nowhere as inviting as Tulum ... but the main goal was to find a place to lie down and enjoy the sun - mission accomplished
- the sun goes down and the bugs come out (mosquitoes, sand flies, doctor flies) ... a bites received competition begins (in retrospect Isaac was always going to ¨win¨that one).
- we play some cards with Thomas and Shalini (casino - caseenit) ... they are very pleasant, and we wind up going out for dinner to this authentic East Indian restaurant that they highly recommend ... food is tasty, but the prices indicated we were eating at an upscale establishment
- the cook comes out to talk to us ... he´s drunk and funny ... he´s from India, but has been in Belize for a while ... he *really* wants to go out drinking, i.e. he´s looking to Isaac and myself to keep him company
- somehow we dodge *that* bullet and we all head back to Lebeha, just in time for the drumming
- it´s all teenage boys, and it´s pretty entertaining .... two bass drums, two snares, one guy beating drumsticks on turtle shells, and another rotation on the moraccas ... eventually they all take turns doing the solo dancing display ... basically a ten second ¨here´s my original method of shaking my rump to the music¨... pretty entertaining ... UNTIL ... they get one of their friends to dance (this guy has been watching from the door the whole time) .... and he gets so into his dancing, he doesn´t notice when his GUN (small pistol) falls out of his pocket and lands on the floor (at least the safety worked). That was not cool, and that was pretty much the end of the music that night.
- I head back to our room, and Isaac is there reading on his bed ... or he WAS ... he´s now trying to not freak out ... directly above his head ... INSIDE his mosquito net (which was still bunched up from when we arrived) is a massive (at least 3 inches) cockroach ... with wings!!! Neither one of us is cool with critters in general ... for me, especially cockroaches ... blech.
- anyway, we try to figure out our best course of action, while trying to avoid screaming like little girls ... the decision is that I will close off the bottom of the net, and Isaac will untie the top of the net, such that we can take the whole contraption outside
- a couple of panicked failed attempts later, I´ve finally sealed off the bottom, and we´ve hung the net over the deck, outside ... a well placed whack of a flip-flop (second attempt) sent the cockroach far away, into the night
- after careful examination of every nook and cranny in the room, followed by tucking in the mosquito nets under the bed mattresses, sleep was attempted
- EoD

DAY 7 - Hopkins
- this day includes several trips to the Octopus Garden, to try to catch the start of the UNC game ... finally I figure out it starts in the mid-afternoon ... so until then, it´s a bit of beach and a bit of reading
- the game starts, and it´s stewed chicken for Isaac and stewed pork for me .... with rice and beans, and a lot of Marie Sharp´s hot sauce ... and YUM ... now we´re talking!!!
- Thomas and Shalini show up a bit later, and the three of them hang out while I get completely absorbed in the game ... UNC wins, and the world is a better place
- back at Lebeha, there´s more reading and more card playing
- this guy named Larooney comes up to us and asks which one of us was looking for soy burgers!!
- turns out he and Kate (the baker) are a couple, and word of mouth had passed on the message that a couple of people at Lebeha were looking for soy burgers
- he tells us we can order a complete soy burger dinner and he can deliver it to us later that evening, around the time the drumming starts ... we say yes please, and Thomas and Shalini decide to make it dinner for four
- in preparation for dinner, Isaac and Shalini go off to find a store that will sell 1 Barrel rum ... in the meantime, Thomas and I hit the beach, looking for reachable big green cocunuts that are full of coconut water
- by the time the rum arrives, we´ve filled a big water container (enough for everyone, enough for the whole bottle of rum) with coconut water
- Dorothy joins us for a drink ... she likes her rum and coconut water!
- Larooney shows up with a yummy feast for all of us ... huge homemade soy burgers (spiced nicely), served on fresh homemade buns, accompanied with salad, and all the fixin´s (ketchup, mustard, mayo, salad dressing, and Marie Sharp of course).
- we dine as the drumming starts, and Larooney hangs around and has a couple of drinks with us
- then disaster strikes
- the drumming has stopped
- lightweight Shalini has gone to bed
- Thomas, Isaac and I have finished the bottle of 1 Barrel
- Isaac and I think we should go out and see the local nightlight (this was the critical fork in the road where a better decision could have made for a less memorable evening)
- Isaac plugs his iPod into his portable speaker, and we start rocking out to Icky Thump and we walk the gravel road towards the bar with all the noise (it´s called King Cassava, and apparently there´s live music tonight)
- we kill our music and head to the bar window to get a couple of Belikins ... we find a nice safe spot in the open area of the bar, and we just chill out and enjoy the atmosphere
- we see familiar faces like Carlos and Larooney
- a couple of beers later, I was foolish enough to ask Larooney what concoction he was drinking (as it clearly wasn´t beer) ... he told us it was ¨bitters¨
- whatever bitters is, if anyone ever offers you some, politely decline!!! Everyone who knows about bitters is positive that the rest of our night was entirely the fault of the two rounds of bitters we did
- so apparently, the band stops playing around 3am, and one of the musicians heads to Lebeha, hoping to score a room ... this wakes up Dorothy ... not long after, one of the Drumming Centre boys shows up and informs Dorothy that two of the guys staying with her are passed out in so-and-so´s front yard!!!
- she sends Jabbar to round us up, but we´ve already put our own ¨plan¨ into action
- I have a blur of a memory of waking up in some yard, and seeing Isaac taking off in some offward direction ... this leads me to get up and take off in a complete different direction!!
- Isaac chose the road, and was not far from Lebeha at all ... so he quickly ran into Jabbar ... then it soon became evident that I was nowhere to be found!!
- they did a couple of searches to no avail ... meanwhile, it turns out that I´m cruising along the beach, looking for a familiar spot, and recognizing NOTHING
- eventually, I find a bench that I´m sure I remember, and then I notice that I only have one sandal on! ... a frantic search through the nearby sand, I pick up something heavy and shoe-like ... and about 5 minutes later, I´ve magically returned to my bed at Lebeha (with both my sandals, go figure)
- EoD
- EoW

El Estor and Beyond

El Estor is this little out of the way place where we saw no other travelers. It was quite awesome. Stayed at that hotel in the background called hotel central. Cost just over 10 dollars for a room with two beds. This kid, maybe 8 or 10 years old, showed us the room, told us the price, got towells, took the money. Then he decided he liked us and started hanging around, playing with a ball with his sister, generally just monkeying around. He was interested in our books and in my camera.

Next day we left, never saw the parents. As far as I can tell this kid and his younger sister run the hotel.

Next stop was this place town called Lanquin. The only place to stay is this commune-feeling place teaming with travels, hamocks, thatched roofs, group dinners, adventure tourts, happy hour, bad food.

We got the hell out of there.

Here´s David blending in with the locals.

Guatemala

No picutures of Livingston. In the middle of Guatemala though, check out these cows. This was while we were waiting for a bus by the side of the road, after going to this crazy water fall with hot water (natural hot springs) coming down into cool water.

Punta Gorda (PG)

This is the switch for the fan, a very essential thing. By touching the wires together, which caused a spark, then jammin them into the hole, it got the fan moving.

This is where we stayed. Was one of the better rooms in Belize.


PG is really a lazy border town with boats to Guatemala. This picture pretty much sums it up.

More Hopkins

Hopkins

Small fishing town stetched along the coast. Stayed here about 4 days. This place had a decent beach.

We stayed at this place that was called the drumming centre, and they did have local drumming every night around 6 or 7. I really only managed to take pictures of the place we stayed.

More Belize

Belize for Real

Dangriga was the first dose of the Belize I have heard about. Belize is quite awesome.

Finally, the Perfect Beach!

First real hostel, dorms, etc. This place was great. Called Val´s. More rebar on top waiting for that second story. The dryer out front is officially used for empty bottles (or maybe it´s just trash)

Getting to Belize

I just like this picture. It was in the bus station en route to the border.

Belize (dodge) City

I´ve been to some sceevy towns in my time, like Salem, and this place was pretty up there. Once you got past the seedy exterior and interior, and lack of restaraunts that stayed open past 8pm, mucho rebar and security bars on every door/window, it was not too bad. The room sucked and smelled like sewage. We had an awsome taxi driver in a burned out late 80´s mercedes.

Got the hell out immediately. Generally people were super friendly - as in want to shake your hand, sell you mj, maybe smoke it with you on an old couch in an ally, and really honestly, that´s all they wanted to do.

Mexico, Tulum

Ok, I am back filling. Tulum was awsome. Two nights. Spicy food to a new level. Those are not just karrots. This is a town my brother went years ago with the Kyle.



And here is my favorite palm tree so far...
These excellent tree was at the myan ruin by Tulum, and possibly the best part.