Finishing up in Guatemala

July 29, 2008

Last report from the field! We’re in Guatemala City now–our flight leaves tomorrow afternoon.
We’ve definitely slowed down since my last writing–hard to keep up the same pace. Makes me sad because we dropped a lot of activities and places from our itinerary that I had hoped to do–you just get too tired of hopping on buses every day and feel like sitting and enjoying one place a little more leisurely.

Our horseback trip was lovely–beats walking uphill. Pro: Large group of butterflies floating around us at times. Con: my horse hugging the sides of the trail, scrapping me along trees, thorny bushes and snagging me on branches. Had one of the best fillets with mushroom sauce ever that night for dinner (after a lunch of ice cream and pastries–we’re on vacation afterall)!
Back in San Salvador we enjoyed the metropolitan part of the city (similar prices to the US) and took in an Anthropology museum. Visited an overwhelming three level, 10 winged mall! On the way back to our hotel, we took the right public bus at the wrong time (last bus of the day) as it was returning back to it’s nighttime depot on the opposite side of town. Clueless we found ourselves in a dark, rough, neighborhood at "the end of the line" feeling helpless and scared–and walking fast uphill in search of non-existent taxis. Of course everything turned out alright.
We were up early the next day and traveled 4 ½ hours or so from San Salvador to Guatemala City and straight on to Antigua (another hour). We had laundry done for the last time–26 lbs of it–Bob sure does generate the most! Antigua sure is a gorgeous colonial town (do you see a pattern here–I love colonial towns with cobblestone streets, old churches, stucco walls, red tile roofs, etc.) We stayed at a place with the picturesque views of the surrounding volcanoes and most amazing gardens, fountains and grounds. We had a whole little "casita" with kitchen and living room for two nights so could cook a little, have a fire in the fireplace and play games together in the evenings. The king size bed wasn’t bad either! I could have poked around in the shops and courtyards of the many fine hotels and restaurants for weeks. But alas we had to move on.

Guatemala has been a much different experience from the rest of CA as it is 65% indigenous, with most of the women wearing their traditional wrapped skirts and embroidered blouses and woven belts. Only a few of the old men still wear traditional dress. The highlands where we were was much cooler than Nicaragua, though it was still surprisingly hot in the sun. Not all the tropical fruits–more vegetables and coffee grown. The driving is crazier, the selling much pushier (the indians use their smallness, cuteness and all their children to their advantage!!) In all, it’s a much more invasive experience and it got to us after awhile--everyone always offering their services, or "for you good price" or perhaps we’re just tired out and it’s time to go home. Still this is the country (besides El Salvador) I’d like to come back to most, since I feel there is so much I didn’t get to see that I’d like to see yet–just ran out of steam.

We spent 4 days in the Lake Atitlan region, staying in Panajachel, but visiting by boat other villages around the lake–Santiago and San Pedro. Bob and David tried to climb another volcano but didn’t have the time or money to make it all the way up and back home before the water taxis stopped running. Did a whole lot of shopping but not as much buying as I would have liked–so hard to know what stuff is worth. I’m cheap but I also do not want to in any way offend people for the hard work they have put into their beautiful handiwork.. Bad combination. You have to bargain on things and I’m pretty good at that, but I have no idea what a fair price is for most items and the price is often inflated 60% or more. A frustrating and exhausting process. All those colors overwhelm the eyes!

So we’re looking forward to our own beds and pillows, seeing Lucky again (will he remember us?) being able to park our toothbrush in one place, being able to drink water out of the faucet and flush the toilet paper down the toilet instead of throwing in the wastepaper basket, being able to use the computer when we want to (okay that doesn’t always cooperate even at home), and making a phone call again (we’ve been without for six weeks). And of course catching up

with family and friends.

Hope to talk to YOU soon.

Jenifer and Bob

Granada, Nicaragua and on to El Salvador

Sunday, July 20

My how time flies! Bob is all better and there have been many adventures since climbing Volcano Cerro Negro. Actually we’re slowing down a bit and taking it easier. And it seems each new place we go we like even more than the last–that’s a nice way for things to be. Leon was great, but the city of Granada in Nicaragua was even more beautiful in it’s colonial splendor with wider cobblestone streets, beautiful courtyarded hotels, the oldest churches in the Americas, the largest freshwater lakefront in the world (so they say–I would argue that Lake Victoria in Africa is larger). . .we walked it’s streets, and took a horse-drawn carriage ride. We spent a day at nearby "Laguna de Apoyo"–a water-filled former volcanic crater–kayaking and swimming at an American-run establishment that caters to the back-packing set. And spent another day at a nearby town known for it’s artisan’s market looking for souvenirs and trying our hand at bargaining.

We traveled 10 hours by a luxury bus line (worth every extra penny for the air-conditioning, no stops for extra passengers, pillows and blankets, meals, etc.) from Managua to San Salvador in a tropical storm–torrential rain and flooding in parts, but rain the whole way–good day to be in a water-tight bus on the Pan-American highway or we’d have been in two feet of water on some side roads!

After a brief time in San Salvador we moved on to our present location in Suchitoto, another picturesque colonial town an hour north of the "big city" with cobblestone streets, a central plaza complete with whitewashed church, a lake, volcano, and nearby waterfalls. We are enjoying our best hotel find yet–a recently opened place on the town square that really gets it with it’s decor and service and for a great price since it isn’t too popular yet. Loving it. Plan to go on a horseback riding expedition tomorrow morning–hoping it doesn’t rain.

But it’s not the good and pretty things that make it all so interesting. It’s all the oddities–the door falling off of a van you’re riding in. Fitting just one more body into a packed aisle of a bus. Being stopped on a bus ride and the men being taken off to be frisked by police. Holding someone else’s sleeping child on a bus because they’re already holding another sleeping child! Eating fried pork skin that still has the hairs sticking out of it, and blood sausage. Watching the strangest stage show in the central park at Granada on a Thursday night in advance of Saturday’s upcoming "Granada Day" celebration which included, in order, a children’s folkloric dance, group of teen boys breakdance/popping performance, an impersonation of a music-video type nearly pornographic presentation, followed by a tongue-in-cheek "Miss Sandinista" type contest where they interviewed 10 contestants who wore primarily guerilla-type costumes! And one of my personal favorites–money delivered to the bank in the back of a pick-up truck. I kid you not. Of course I should mention it had four heavily armed men in it as well–guess that does the trick!

Well that’s all for now. Hope I provided a few laughs! Talk to you soon. Jenifer

Volcano hiking in Leon and now back in Managua

Jenifer, Elena and David went on an adventure yesterday while Bob was sick in bed with some kind of virus--maybe Dengue fever! They hiked up a volcano to look over the edge into the crater. They had to hike at least 7 kilometers to get there. Once on top they breathed in the beautiful aroma of sulphur before sledding down the ash on makeshift "snow boards". I'll post a couple of pictures to give you an idea. But, in case the connection is too slow, I'll have to post them later.

Bob

We're back on line

Well folks, we almost dropped off the planet, or at least if feels like it since it has been so long since we’ve been in touch! We left off in Bocas del Toro and we’re over a week and two countries later now!
Our last day in Bocas we had a fabulous boat tour that took us to four locations–Dolphin Bay to see Dolphins of course, then To Cayo Crawl for our first snorkeling stint (and David and Elena’s first time ever), where in addition to large corals and colorful tropical fishes, David found himself over a large shark as well. After lunch, it was on to Red Frog Beach on the ocean side of Isla Bastimentos, and then to our second snorkeling site of Hospital Point of Isla Solarte. The highlights: making friends with the other tour guests, "diving" down for a closer look, drinking the coconut juice and scraping the flesh out of an immature coconut, the fishes incredible coloration. The lowlights: Bob’s blister from his snorkel fin, Jenifer not being able to see very far snorkeling without her glasses, and rain in the morning that felt like freezing pellets when the boat was zipping through the water.
The next day was spent in transit back to San Jose–not too exciting–the regular hassles of 3rd world travel. Slow hot buses, crossing borders, negotiating taxis, etc. I had made reservations at a San Jose (Costa Rica) hotel for us to return to and it was quite pleasant (though not air-conditioned) with a great breakfast buffet, lots of twisting corridors, gardens and seating areas. We had planned on only one night, but as we arrived on a Friday night, we found we could not get reserved bus tickets on to Managua, Nicaragua, on a more deluxe bus line (no stops, AC, etc) until Monday morning!! At 3am no less! Saturday I spent all day at the hotel with a bad migraine while Bob and the kids ran errands and did stuff around town. My migraine medication that was sent from the US never did arrive. I found a different triptan (migraine med) to try at a pharmacy and it worked well and was cheaper than Imitrex. Sunday we transferred to a "backpacker’s special" (i.e. nothing special) hostel in an absolutely horrific part of town (garbage and homeless drug addicts on the streets) two blocks from where the bus departs in the morning. We went to sleep at 8 pm, the hotel guy knocked on our door at 2 am, we were dressed and walking with our packs at 2:30. Bus left at 3:00. Tried to sleep, but couldn’t much after 6:30 when they turned the music on. Then there were the border crossings again (smooth) and a loud Bruce Lee movie played in Spanish making sleep much more difficult! Thought we’d be arriving at 10 am but got there at 12:30 pm–close to 10 hours!
The woman representing Henry Vargas, the missionary we know from our church, had been waiting far too long, I’m afraid, and spoke only Spanish–not a problem really. We piled our stuff in the back of the pick-up where it promptly got soaked by a deluge of rain which took us the next 4 days to figure out how to dry out in the incredibly humid weather. She drove us out to the school he runs on the outskirts of town (the school was not in session) where another team of 26 students and adults from Greensboro, NC, with Youth for Christ was serving this same week–small world. Elena recognized a bunch of them, but we really didn’t know any of them even though most of them go to our same church!
The accommodations for groups was rudimentary at best–a couple of outdoor toilet stalls, one sink, a couple of shower for the girls, outdoor showers for the guys. The others had come with their own blow-up mattresses and stuff, but we came without "equipment" so they scrounged up a couple of filthy mattresses and ratty sheets and pointed to a flooded classroom (from the rain) for us to "set up" in. The heat, humidity, bugs and dirt were utterly oppressive. And the work was heavy labor–planting yucca and plantains, macheteing fields of brush, clearing out trees and bushes to put up fencing, cleaning out garbage–filled swamps and dump areas, shoveling dirt from one area to another–nothing to do with the children (who return next week). The sweat poured off of us, our muscles ached, we drank lots of water, we got covered in bug bites at night, and we decided after 4 days we’d had enough–or prehaps I should say Bob and I had enough–the kids loved it and didn’t want to go!. The work was extremely disorganized, and often seemingly pointless. Many were getting sick from the poor sanitation (flies crawled all over the food) and work conditions. It was a good thing we left when we did, because Bob, not only unable to work half of most days because he would not pace himself well and overdid it, came down with a virus running through Nicaragua with a low-grade fever, body aches, weakness, diarrhea, etc. and was hardly able to walk around town, once we got here to Leon where we are now.
So we left the Vargas’ place on a Thursday evening, stayed the night in Managua–the AC and not worrying about bugs was pure heaven, even if the beds poked springs into our sides. We zipped to Leon in about an hour and a half in a minivan of people and had some trouble finding a hotel with a room for 4 available(it was Friday night again–the weekend) but found one with AC–Leon is a hot city- for a good price since we didn’t have reservations, but we did and promptly fell in love with Leon and Nicaragua. It’s so much cheaper and less touristy here, and yet has lovely colonial buildings and churches, the best modern art museum in all of Central America. It’s small and very walkable, and we’ve had great weather. The people seem friendly and there was a local festival going on yesterday in the central park.

At Bocas del Drago beach

Bocas del Toro, Panama

Tuesday JULY 1, 2008

More from Jenifer:

We left Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica this morning and headed for Bocas del Toro, Panama. Yesterday morning it rained but otherwise we've been blessed with sunshine and 1000% humidity. Never sweat so much in my life, and it hasn't even been that high of a temperature.

Riding on a grimy public bus with the wind flying in my hair and people crowding the aisles I felt truly happy and in my element. When a lady with a box of baby chickens (which, by the way, say "pio, pio" here, not "cheep, cheep") sat down beside me I thought "Yes! I can call it a real ''chicken bus.'" But standing in immigration lines at the border with a heavy backpack on, walking over a rickety bridge to cross the river into Panama, and then buying a tourist visa (which interestingly only Americans and Canadians had to purchase, not Europeans--yes we're the ones with all the big bucks?!?), and then being told we're going to have to stand in line and wait for another hour because their immigration window was closed for lunch (it was 11:45 when we got there) made me realize I could be a grumpy tourist! Strangely it opened ten minutes later, and after haggling for a taxi (instead of catching another bus, and then a collectiva) we were on our way to Finca 60 where you catch the water taxi over to the islands. 45 minutes or so at high speeds in a motor boat and we were docking at Isla Colon in the town of Boca. Another brief taxi ride to the hotel I'd made reservations at and we were there. What a dive I'd gotten for $75 a night! This one will need a few pictures for justification. Four beds crammed into a small room, no dresser, chair or anything. No windows. The shower stall is IN the bedroom. The sink burps out yellow water. The toilet seat has a crack in it. Someone had started to paint beige semigloss over white flat but never finished. There was one redeeming factor: it had AC! I can't believe this place was recommended by a travel guidebook. We're switching to an exceedingly nicer looking place practically across the street for the next two nights for the same price. I guess when it comes to tourism, the market can sustain just about anything when there are idiots (us) to pay for it. Just like someone tried to get us to go on a boat tour of attractions for $450 a day, when most are offering it for $20-25 a person a day! Go figure.

We walked the small town pretty thoroughly today and found a terrific place for dinner--a little waterside joint run by two American ex-surfer gals. Live music and great food for reasonable prices. My feet are killing me from wearing sandals instead of tennis shoes. I've scratched most of my bug bites raw and Bob and David are still complaining of sunburned shoulders when they carry their backpacks. La Vida is Buena!