Last Post

We just have one day left in San Jose and then we will fly home again. This will be the last post of the trip.

Yesterday I took the Combo Tour. We started out having breakfast at a coffee plantation and getting a coffee tour after. I now know how to grow coffee, knowledge I will never have a use for. One thing was interesting (to me at least). The coffee processing plant was over a hundred years old and some of the equipment dated back that far. The plant had a belt and pulley system very much like the woolen mill at Upper Canada Village. It is now powered by a generator but apparently they used to divert a nearby river to power the mill.

We went from there to Volcan Poas, a volcano with two crater lakes. Apparently the last time the mountain really blew was 7,000 years ago but a few years ago they had some spewing. The volcano is on a mountain that is in a cloud forest. We got there and saw the crater moments before the clouds rolled in for the day. I knew from the book that this happened and had picked yesterday because the weather forcast was for clearer skies than either of my other two optional days. It was not a really clear view because the mists were already upon us but at least I can say I saw one (sort of). There is a secondary crater a kilometer up the mountain from the first one. By the time I got there, the clouds were in full force. I did get a picture of the sign that showed what you would see if there weren't any clouds. I had noticed at the entrance to the park a sign which said "by the way, the entrance fee is non refundable" and in Spanish it said that inclement weather was no reason to ask for your money back. Two young newlyweds said that they knew people that lived in San Jose that had been 6 times and seen the crater 1 1/2 times. I think we can count our view as 1/2 so we beat the odds. Nonetheless, it was a lovely walk through a cloud forest (with clouds) for an hour so I can't say that is a bad thing at all.

We then went to the obligatory souvenir shop where the driver and guide get their kickback on the way to lunch and a waterfall park. The guide was big on maintaining group integrity which was sort of a pain because we had to go through a zoo and most of you know my opinion of zoos. I would have liked to have been told right off the bat how long we had at the park and taken my time walking down to the waterfalls. Apparently the area had a 7.5 Richter scale eathquake in January and a lot of the roads and trails in the area were out. They used to let you off at the top of the park and you walked down to the waterfalls, then they picked you up at the bottom. Now you have to climb back UP the mountain too. You can only see two of the five waterfalls that run down the mountain because the of the trails being out, but they are impressive. Unfortunately they gave us just enough time to get down, snap a picture and climb back up. No time to commune with the falls or anything. I definitely got my workout for the day, not that it helped me sleep...I am typing this at 3 in the morning. I had been sleeping really well on the trip but it looks like that is over with now.

Tomorrow I am going to the gold museum, cathedral, etc. and that will be it for the trip. Home again, home again lickety split.

What the Sam Hill was I thinking?

Zip lining through the canopy is definitely not for fat fifty-somethings. I had already decided that maybe it was not such a good idea before I got there. I had been expecting that the tour would have some Aussies or something on it but it turned out that not another soul spoke a word of English. They strap you in a repelling harness and attach you to a steel cable with a little hand pulley. You are supposed to relax (ha ha) and zip down the line and land on the next platform. I was told the sign for brake and I broke too hard so I stopped before the platform. Then the guy said let go (30 or 40 feet off the ground) and turn around and pull yourself hand over hand to the platform. I did manage it but I was completely freaked out. On the second line I did not brake but still did not make it to the platform. This time I froze and had to be helped to the platform. Things were decidedly NOT GOING WELL at this point for me. The third line was fine because it ended on terra firma. Unfortunately we had to walk immediately to another platform. I had completely lost any nerve I had started with at this point and the guide had to slide in tandem with me on this and the next line. At this point they radioed basecamp and got someone to come and walk me out of the forest. Oh, well.

I think that if I had not been completely alone in the adventure, things may have been different. Not that I feel I need any excuse not to be completely comfortable suspending myself way too high above the forest floor and zipping down a cable. There were three other sets of people in the group. A young couple, a group of three buddies and a (I am guessing divorced) father and his twelve year old daughter. The father was obviously not comfortable at first but he had to step up in front of the girl so he ended up getting into it. Similarly the guy from the couple and one of the three buddies. All three of them I think were helped by being with someone else who was doing it and having to save face. It was obvious that another one of the three was a real daredevil because he was in like a dirty shirt from the beginning.

Anyway...I am not sorry I tried but I am equally not sorry I bailed. I know what ziplining is now and I don't think it is for me. Add it to the bungee jumping column (not that I have ever tried that) and give it a miss from now on.

Red Tape Behind Us, Big Adventure looms....

Well, I was torn between calling the whole thing quits and lying around for the weekend watching tennis or actually doing something. Doing something has won. I have signed up for two trips at this url: http://www.costaricaguides.com/costa_rica_daily_tours_.html I am going on the San Lorenzo Canopy tour tomorrow. The lady assures me that I am not actually too fat and will not fall out of the trees. We will see...

On Sunday I have opted for the Combo Tour with a visit to a coffee plantation for breakfast followed by a volcano and a big waterfall. Will let you all know how they turn out.

Nothing else much to report. The bus trip back to San Jose was the "executive" class of the same company we took to Panama City. This time for $35.10 you got the aircon bus with toilet AND two meals. There was also a steward serving drinks the whole time. It was very much like a long haul flight without the nice hot towels.

There was a bit of human drama on the bus. We got stopped again for the same two passport checks in Panama. There was a woman who had two kids that got hauled in at one stop. She apparently didn't have the stamps she needed or something and the driver ended up taking up a collection to bribe someone or help her pay a fine, I am not sure which. ANYWAY, it took about an hour to sort everything out and get back on the road again. When we got to the border they made us all go into a room and line our bags up, they then used a sniffer dog (cute little cocker spaniel) before they made us pick up our bags and put them on tables for inspection. They checked them all over, many quite thoroughly. Then we had to line up about 45 minutes again while the woman and kids were inside before they finally gave us our exit stamps. Really, isn't it the problem of the country you are going to not the one you are leaving to bring on the sniffer dogs?

As Charles said, turnabout is fair play so when we got to the Costa Rican side of the border, we had to line our bags up again....they mustn't have had any sniffer dogs on standby because we had to wait for about 20 minutes before they came to inspect the bags by hand again. All tolled it took 2 hours to cross the border and another hour before we even got there. What a bunch of malarky. As I have mentioned ad nauseum I HATE BORDERS. Only the good old USA to come before we cross home into Canada.

Last bus ride ahead...

We are off back to San Jose, Costa Rica for the weekend and will be returning to Canada on Tuesday. Today will be our last big bus trip and our last Central American border crossing -- yeah on both counts.

Yesterday we got up early and caught the tourist train that follows the Panama Canal from Panama City to Colon. It takes about an hour. It was nice but you don´t see a lot of details of the locks as you pass by. Most of the canal is actually a man made lake in between the two lock systems. There are three sets of locks, two which step up from the Pacific and one which steps up from the Atlantic in three stages. The rest is the big lake in the middle. The canal can handle the same size ships as our seaway right now but they are digging out a new set of locks at a cost of billions so they can handle the super tankers soon. Given the state of world shipping right now, I wish them luck. I hope they realize something in return for the investment.

I am not sure yet what I will be up to in San Jose...I still have some museums and I am going to see if I am too heavy for the zipline canopy tours...don´t want to come crashing out of any trees.

Things I have learned (or remembered again)

-Alt-64 is the ascii code for the @ symbol when you are faced with a foreign keyboard
-Sidewalks sometimes have gaping holes where grates should be in poor neighbourhoods
-In Central America, the basket beside the toilet is for used toilet paper---same as in China
-Toilet seats are apparently a frill
-There are not nearly as many mosquitoes in Central America as you might expect
-If you need bug screens and/or air conditioning, they are probably available even in budget accomodations
-Rice and beans are apparently the perfect compliment to any meal in the day
-Words are often superfluous for communication -- use lots of hand gestures
-Big hotels have nice air conditioned lobbies with cushy seating -- it may be the only upholstery you see for days and no one every seems to question your right to be there if you are over 50
-I like travelling on buses way more than I thought...as long as they are old school buses in interesting countries
-The internet is everywhere and in poor countries you can get access really easily because not many people have their own PC´s at home
-The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy was bang on when it comes to towels
-You really ought to have a compass when you are trying to follow a map in foriegn cities
-You can´t bring too many changes of underwear
-Hot water for your shower is apparently a frill
-You can only feel truly comfortable when you know where your next bathroom is
-It is easily possible to brush your teeth with one mouthful of bottled water
-Coins are heavy...collect the smallest bill from each country
-Always carry your own supply of toilet paper and hand soap (and sanitizer)
-Central American bus conductors seldom try to rip of tourists (unlike Asia where you are on your own)
-Borders are a pain in the ass
-Earphones take the edge off really bad really loud PA systems on buses (as well as the occasional itenerant preacher)
-I have an almost phobic aversion to taxi drivers all over the world

It`s not that gruelling, really

I have been getting emails from various people who seem to think the trip has been gruelling. I think I may have overstated the case in my previous postings. There was a time (around Belize/Honduras) that we may have travelled a tad far a tad fast...but for the most part I would have to say it has been thoroughly (sp?) enjoyable and interesting.

We have been exploring Panama City for the past couple of days. We have been for a longish walk each day (about 3-4 hours each). The first day we walked down to the Pacific Ocean and then into the newish part of the city where the highrises are, today we walked the other way into the old part. There is a LOT of construction going on in the new part of the city. The skyline looks like Shanghai did when we were there three years ago-- at least 10 new highrises going up on the horizon (a conservative estimate). You can tell that if you took a new picture of that part of the city once a year, the pictures would show a vastly different skyline each time. It is a similar story in a different way in the old part of the city. The section called San Filipe was apparently declared a world heritage site in 1997. There are a lot of buildings being converted back to their former glory as you walk around. There are also a lot of skeletons of old buildings too. All in all I would say a LOT of money is being spent on new and old construction all over the place here. I hope the general population ends up benefitting somehow.

We still haven`t seen the canal during the day -- I think that is on the agenda for tomorrow

Hats off to Panama

Well, that trip was surprisingly fine. We left at noon and passed some of the most impressive scenery so far in eastern Costa Rica. It went dark before we hit the border. They have some pretty stupid quirks at that border. As Charles says there are no signs anywhere telling you where you are suposed to go. Not even in Spanish, which we could figure out if they existed. You just exit one country and walk through no mans land asking people where you are supposed to go and eventually (hopefully) you will end up where you should be. I ended up at the window only to be given a stamped card and told to go back to a (previously unnoticed) window to pay my $5 tourist fee. Charles was tickled that he only had to pay $1 because he is on his UK passport. Then return to the first window to get the stamp. Then go back on the bus to get our bags off so we could stand in a room with them and fill out a form before being told to go back to our bus. All the while there was a man from the bus yelling at us to hurry up ... as if it was in our control...

...Then the bus got stopped twice in the next hour for passport inspections... what's that about? In Costa Rica a few days ago we were stopped 3 times in a row on the same bus by police inspecting ID.

I actually managed to get a few hours of sleep on the bus. It was very much like one from home...it had movies (unfortunately dubbed in spanish), aggressive air conditioning (the first time I have used my hoodie since Syracuse and I put my towel over me like a blanket too), cushy seats and a bathroom (I would never use it, but it is nice to know it exists for insurance purposes). We arrived 2am Costa Rica time which was 3 am here. There were a fleet of taxis to meet the bus and they all brought us to the same hotel. It was sort of funny to see the bus disperse at the shopping mall outside town and reconvene 15 minutes later in the hotel lobby. Charles and I slept top to tail in a double bed which wasn´t bad at all really. I got up 9.30 this morning and found a new hotel next door with two beds for $15 less than this one. I don´t even feel like I am down on sleep.

Off to see the engineering marvel

Had McPinto, will travel

We just went to McDonalds for breakfast. In keeping with my "McDonalds round the world" quest, I just had the local speciality---the McPinto breakfast. It is actually pretty much like I described the "desayuno tipico" or typical breakfast of this whole area--scrambled eggs, two small tortillas, rice and beans and fried plantain with a mayonaisy cream. It was not bad for Mc Donalds but not great in the scheme of desayunos tipicos...I would say it was middle of the pack at best. I think my money is still on the Maharajah Mac.

We are ON THE ROAD AGAIN...this time what I expect will be a road trip from hell ... 12 noon from San Jose until 4 in the morning in Panama City. What the f@#$ are we supposed to do at 4 in the morning...It will be hours before we can get a hotel...needless to say we are planning on breaking the journey on the way home. Our travel portion is almost done. This will be the only travel we will do before we come home. We are probably going to Panama for a few days and then may stop overnight twice on the way back. We fly from here (San Jose) a week from Tuesday. It has been a really interesting trip. I have really enjoyed myself for the most part and I think I will have had my travel fix for a year or two.

Hasta Manana

Gotta get right back to where we started from

We are back in San Jose for the weekend. Charles needed a TV sports fix. He is watching Man U play Everton in the tv room of the hostel. We decided to come back to the same hostel even though it is no great shakes. We went to 3 full ones before we found this one last time so we figured "better the devil you know" (as Uncle John once said about his old tractor).

We were trying to head for another beach resort yesterday but we realized looking in the book that there was only one bus about every 2 hours passing the crossroads we would be let off at. We weren't even sure they would stop for us. We have not seen hardly any of the old school buses here in Costa Rica so we thought local transport might not be nearly as reliable here. Charles basically wanted somewhere with a pub that showed sports and he figured a big city was as likely as anything. It just meant staying on the bus we were on and it seemed like the better part of valour. As I may have suggested before, I am no beach bunny so the big city with the museums and galleries was more appealing to me anyway.

I went to the Jade Museum this morning. All I can say is the chinese had it all over the pre-columbians when it comes to jade carving. It was interesting, as all museums are in their own ways, but nothing on that jade exhibit at the musuem in Hong Kong. In fairness, this jade may be harder to carve, who knows, but the carving was way more simplistic and repetative. I may wander out and take a boo at the National Theatre this afternoon if it doesn't rain. When I was coming back from the museum, it was threatening. I don't feel that I have to run around because we are coming back again to fly home after we go to Panama.

It's a good thing we are taking that malaria medication....

Because I actually got bitten by two mosquitos last week in Belize and I am sure they are the two that were carrying malaria! I actually feel a bit like a dork carrying around a premethyrin impregnated mosquito net in my pack AND taking the medication. I guess somewhere in Central America there are a lot of mosquitoes but we haven't come across them yet. I also haven´t had much use for the three rain ponchos I ended up bringing. I bought two (the heir and a spare we will call them) the day before we came away. I also bought a small flashlight. I have this MEC fanny pack that I took when we went on the big trip 3 years ago and I grabbed it to use again as my day pack. In a pocket of the fanny pack I hadn´t checked before we came away, I found 2 little flashlights and another rain poncho. I did manage to give the turtle light to the toddler on the bus the other day but I don´t know who I would give the other ponchos to so I will just hang on to them. I think I will be able to give the mosquito net to the people who we are giving school supplies to in the Dominican Republic when we go over new years. If not, I guess Nicky and Surya can give it away in India again next time they go....

For those who care about these kinds of things, Nestle is indeed still running reprehensible ads down here. I can´t speak for the rest of Central America because my spanish is not good enought to follow the ads on the bus radios, but when we were in Belize I heard and add for Nestle infant formula (aka ¨your childs best choice¨--aarrgh). At least at home they make them start the ads with ´breast milk is best but....´.

I finally saw school buses that were past working even in this part of the world when we were in Belize. One day I saw two that were growing into the ground and the top of another that was being used as a roof with a house built underneath it. I wonder every day how long the school buses were being used originally and how long they have been kept going here. Some of them still have the school bus rules in them (especially in Belize where they speak English). I noticed they had a definitely 70's feel to the school rules (trying to use ¨cool¨ language). They must be ancient by now.

Honk, honk, rattle, rattle, rattle, crash, beep beep

I have (as I mentioned before) been sitting near the front of the buses most of the time. I can stave off motion sickness that way. I have been observing the usage of the (air) horns on the buses and tried to decipher the meanings. I have put them in order from a friendly little beep to a loud sustained roar:

I am available to transport you - wanna ride? (to people standing on the side of the road)
(after dropping off stuff at what was obviously home) -- See you later
Hi fellow bus driver (going in the opposite direction)
In case you didn't notice me, I am here
I am making a new lane of traffic between you (what do those silly line painters know anyway)
I am about to do a u-turn in front of you
You might want to get back in line (that oncoming traffic looks awfully close)
I am passing you (on a blind curve while talking on my cellphone)
I am passing you on the inside -- did you notice? (and by the way, I am talking on my cellphone)
WATCH OUT (the front wheel of your bicycle seems to be in my path)
WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU THINKING (starting to back out in front of me)
GET OUT OF MY WAY YOU STUPID LOOSE HORSE -- quit trotting in front of me
(on entering a village) WE ARE COMING IN -- SCATTER (or come and get on if you want)
LETS GO ALREADY (when traffic is stopped)
and (just like at home) --- YOU DRIVE LIKE A DICKHEAD (only I am allowed to do that)

Oh I do love to be beside the seaside

We are in San Juan del Sur near the NIcaragua/Costa Rican border. It is a beach resort type place. It is like Flores in Guatemala where every house was either a hotel, a restaurant, a laundry, an internet or a shop. I think a lot of people that still live here rent rooms in their homes. We are staying in a place like this. There are two little girls and a puppy playing in the courtyard. I think it is going to be stinking hot. We may cough up the extra $12 for the air con before the night is through....

When you are travelling around here, you get used to the parade of sellers on the buses. I think I mentioned them before. I decided today it might be fun to catelogue them as they came on the bus. Each one stays on the bus for just long enough to make sure every potential customer is served. Often they are on and off before the bus leaves the stop, other times they go a few km down the road to the next stop and presumably catch a bus in the opposite direction home. The other day I said we should get off early in the morning and eat from the bus sellers but, as Charles pointed out, the food is a real crapshoot because you have no idea what is going to turn up.

Here is a list of sellers on the first bus ride this morning (about 3 hours)

tortillas (twice)
bags red and green peppers (three different sellers)
bags of tomatoes (twice)
chicken tacos
soft drinks (twice)
oranges
slices of banana bread
pastries (dry as dust -- I tried them yesterday) ...twice
flat round cakes (looked like ginger bread?)
tamales
snacks with tacos, cheese and tomato sauce
candy (pink coconut and some really sticky stuff)
candy (five varieties including above plus peanut brittle and two big question marks)

The second bus we took today was the first we have seen that didn´t allow outside sellers and had people on staff which sold cakes and pastries as well as a variety of soft drinks, juice and water.

Just can't wait to get on that road again...ha ha

Well, we are enjoying a day off travelling today...much needed after spending 20 of the previous 48 hours either on buses or waiting for the next one. We are in Matagalpa, Nicaragua today. We got up early and took a walk to the town square. We have found that it is much faster to get around in the early morning before the cities here really get going. What with all the vendors on the sidewalk and the traffic in the streets, it makes for some slow going in the middle of the day...not to mention the heat...The town square turned out to be really pretty with a bandstand in the middle and a cathedral in the background. There is also a monument to the sandanistas on the side of the square.

We took a little side trip to a coffee plantation called Selva Negra (=black forest in Spanish) in the hills just above the city for a few hours today. It was founded by German immigrants in 1891 and is now a hotel/plantation that charges resort rates to eco-tourists and employs 250 coffee workers. The plantation is at 4000 ft and the wind was playing on the trees. The vegetation was very much like home. It has a lot of pines as well as deciduous trees. From a distance, it could have been summer in Algonquin in the mixed forest part.

It was nice to go for a walk in the woods and have a coffee (a really good one for a change) on the verandah of the hotel. I had ordered a coffee at breakfast and left it after a sip. It was undrinkable in my opinion. I have decided that I am not going to eat or drink stuff I don´t like, Uncle Robert be damned. Following Geoff´s advice, if I buy something and I don´t like it, I keep the untouched portion and give it to the next beggar I see. It works really well....yesterday I didn´t have to eat the pastries that looked potentially good but tasted like dust and the kids who asked me for them were thrilled at the ¨treat¨--win, win.

There was a guy from Sherbrooke, Nova Scotia in the restaurant. It has taken him two weeks to get here from San Jose also, but he has yet to go to Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala and Belize not to mention back again. He was shocked at our pace (aren´t we all?).

Man, am I bushed

We have travelled half way across Central America in the last couple of days it seems. We left Copan two days ago. Yesterday we took one bus to a place called San Pedro Sula up near the Carribean coast of Honduras. It is the second largest city in Honduras. It has this strange bus station that is like a small airport. It has and arrivals area and a departures area with a huge food court and shops in between. Each of the bus companies has their own departure lounge. You have to figure out who goes where you want and find their lounge on the departure level. Apparently this bus station is several km out of town....weird...

We had breakfast in the super bus station. I had woken when the power failed and my CPAP machine stopped working at about 2.25 am. I never really got back to sleep and gave up totally by about 5ish. Charles was awake by then and we had no water for a shower (or even to flush the toilet...gross) so we just took off from Copan on 6 am bus. Of course nothing was open at that time but we were in San Pedro Sula by about 9.30. Our next bus was supposed to leave around 11, which morphed into 11.45 of course. We got a couple of km down the road when the bus broke. Everybody off and waiting by the side of the road....they had a new bus pretty quickly, probably because we hadn t gone very far. Unfortunately the new bus had about 10 seats less than our old (formerly full) bus....with what was supposed to be a 4 hour trip ahead. Charles had befriended a 15 year old boy who saved him a seat, but I didn t get one. After about 1/2 hour, the man from the boys party, whose relationship we never determined, gave me his seat. He shared with the woman in their party off and on for the rest of the trip. She was the older sister of Charles new friend and had a toddler. I played with him quite a lot. He was fascinated by the reflection of the sun off my watch face onto the seat in front of us. I could move it around and he was like a cat with a laser pointer. After the sun had moved, I remembered I had a turtle light from MEC so I gave it too him. Kids love flashing lights and buttons to push so he was amused for ages with that. Needless to say the four hour trip took more that 5 and we arrived in Tegucigalpa just after dark. Charles thinks I am silly when I believe the guidebook about unsafe areas but I made him take a taxi to the area the book suggested was safer to stay. The hotel was full so we had to walk about a mile to the next one in the book. We stopped at one in between but I refused to stay because it had the filthiest carpet I have ever seen.

This morning we got up and headed across the border into Nicaragua. We are now in Matagalpa, which is near where my friend Ruth picked coffee just after the war here. It took us a taxi and 5 buses for a total of 11 hours to get here. I am staying two nights. I won t get on a long bus for anything tomorrow. There is a coffee plantation with lots of nature trails a few km from here and I am hoping to go explore tomorrow.

Thank goodness for Mr. Letham....

...Our high school spanish teacher for those who don't already know. The tourist people here make no attempt to do ANY english. Charles finds that unrealistic and I suppose given the state of the tourism industry most places I have been before, he may be right. Anyway, we are actually doing OK because I think Charles may have taken grade 10 spanish. I only had grade 9 but that in combination with speaking english and trying to learn french lately seems to be doing the trick. We are pretty conversant now with most transportation, food and accomodation needs. Talking to others on buses and around does exhaust itself relatively quickly. I am still at the noun and verb stage at best. When they ask me a question, I try to figure out the verb and respond what I think is accordingly. From the puzzled looks I sometimes get, I am sure I get it wrong a lot.

Yesterday we had a very ambitious day of movement. We set off from our hotel around 8 am, had to wait till 9.15 for the bus from Dangriga, Belize to Punta Gorda at the south end. We pretty much only had time to have lunch before we headed for a boat back to Guatemala. Charles had wanted to watch rugby but the hotel we were planning on trying to stay at (that p.s. had 10..count 'em...10 satellite dishes in the yard) did not have the game on. We decided to push on instead. The boat was supposed to leave at 2 but they held it for a resident ex-pat until closer to 2.30. It was nice to be on a boat instead of a bus, if only for an hour. When we arrived in Puerto Barrios, Guatemala, we just stayed long enough to get a bus for Chiquimula, near the Honduran border. The guys on the bus sort of scammed us. I had noticed on the window that they were going where we wanted to go. There was another bus at the corner. I suspected that it was also going where we were headed but Charles thought we should just go with the one we found first. They actively tried to keep us away from the other bus. It left a few minutes later and we took up residence exactly where it had been. We waited another half hour to assemble passengers. We also stopped for 45 minutes en route to wait for other passengers while the conductor was on the cell phone constantly. I think he was in contact with several other minibuses which were coming from other places. Several of them came and gave us passengers. The last one seemed to finally arrive and we took off again. In the book it is supposed to be a 3 hour bus ride but from the time we found the bus until we arrived at our destination was more like 5. By that time it was 9 pm and we just found the nearest hotel and took a room. Not bad even though Charles thought the neighbourhood was the worst we had been in yet. I didn't go back out after we arrived because I had eaten some empanadas a lady sold me on the bus. Charles went out to get pizza. In the morning we walked through quite a nice market to get to the next bus...to here in Copan, Honduras. We now only have about 4 more border crossing to go before we head home. We are half way through the trip.

We left our hotel around 7 this morning and arrived here about 10. We had caught a bus from Chiquimula and we had to switch to another bus half way. I didn't understand at first that we didn't have to pay for the onward conveyance. It made a lot of sense since we were the only people left on the one we had started on and the next one was a van, half the size. I think they all work together and your ticket is like a transfer which gets you from town to the border.

Here in Copan is another set of Mayan ruins. They are not as extensive as Tikal although there may be as many structures. It is much more compact but has more fiddly bits. We were at the ruins for a couple of hours. I stayed an extra hour to go to the on-site museum where they have moved many of the original carvings. They have replaced them in situ with concrete casts. It is housed inside to protect them from the elements so that is great. Charles was happy at Tikal but I think one Mayan ruin was enough and he didn't seem nearly as interested today. It is nice to just stop and get our laundry done.

Oranges, oranges everywhere

Hello from Belize. We left Flores this morning after breakfast. We had breakfast (Guatemala style) at 7 am in the same restaurant we had supper last night. The restaurant was funny because it reminded me of Nepal. They had some specials posted outside that drew us in because they were significantly cheaper than the other restaurants around. They also had a very friendly waiter who had tried to rope me in each time I went by. They had a quite extensive menu in addition to the specials but it turned out they actually had very little of what was offered on the menu. I tried to order guacamole, which they didn't have and later on it turned out that the only dessert they had from the 10 listed was fruit salad. I just remember when we were trekking in Nepal how every restaurant showed you a menu and it almost always came down the the fact that they had only ramen noodles available.

The "typico" breakfast in most of the countries we have been in is eggs (sometimes with salsa), tortillas (today a piece of toast instead), refried beans, queso (a fresh cheese...sometimes fried so it really resembles the greek saganaki cheese), fried bananas and a sort of yogurty cream. This costs around $2-$3. After breakfast we walked to the bus station which was our only exercise today. It was about 1.5km probably. We found a minivan for the Belize border then had to get a taxi to a local bus. It took two "chicken buses" (I think I have mentioned before these are old american schoolbuses) to get where we are now. We are in Dangriga, Belize. Charles was shocked at the price of the room. It has two beds, private bathroom, cable TV, an ocean view with a balcony and free internet for $38 US. Horrific! Until now the most we have paid for a room is $28. The least was $9. All have had two beds and about half of them have had private bathroom and cable TV.

Some things we saw from the road today: unbelievable numbers of orange trees...I think we drove for at least an hour here in Belize when were rarely out of site of orange trees...a team of about 10 road workers clearing the vegetation beside the road with machetes...a dead horse...an accident where instead of flares, they had ingeniously hacked down brush and put several piles of it on the road before the curve that the accident was around, forcing the vehicles to slow down...a group of four police/soldiers with machine guns (they actually stopped the bus and one came aboard and looked everyone over) ...several loose pigs and innumerable dogs (the dogs here are quite varied in appearance...as opposed to Asia where they are all the same). That's about it for today. I will let you know how the Carribean swimming turns out to be next time...

If you go out in the woods today....

You will see Mayan ruins. We went to the Tikal ruins today. It is a very extensive site set in the forest. There are three (that we found) of the temples that you can climb up on wooden staircases and view things from the top. Very impressive, worth both the climb and the vertigo combined. One of the staircases was almost as steep as a stepladder....shades of Angkor Wat (sp?). At the best of the three climbs, we sat at the top for quite a long time watching the canopy of the forest with two of the other temples poking out the above the trees. One aussie up there said the view was used in Return of the Jedi, but I don't remember. It was one of those truly great places you end up at in your life. We were at the Tikal site for 4 hours and on the move for a lot of it. I am not sure how big it is but once we walked between two temply things for 15 minutes on a fairly good road at a pretty fair pace, so it is quite spread out. Needless to say the whole time we were on our way to and from those "outbuildings" we only saw two other people. There were probably a couple of hundred people at least at the main set of buildings.

We are off to Belize in the morning (That is country number six for those that are trying to keep up with the whirlwind pace). I am going to have to figure out where we are going so we can buy a ticket. I originally wanted to go snorkelling but I am beginning to think that my eyes may have deteriorated enough that coral reefs will be a bit of a blur without one of those prescription masks. I may opt for a jungle trek instead. Although today was in the forest, I really didn't get much of a wildlife fix out of it. There was a monkey throwing things at us from a tree at one point though, so at least that is something. Tapirs, here we come (maybe).

We got psssteam heat...

Man, is it humid here (Flores, Guatemala). I felt bad for dragging Charles to the tourist trap of Panajachel. When we were running away from there yesterday, he befriended a kid from Flores. He looked it up in the book and realized that we could get up here, close to the Belize border in ONLY ONE DAY -- how wonderful! My guilt made me weak and I agreed to a really gruelling (14 hour) bus day......as the hotel owner said when we arrived at 11 pm after setting out at 9 am....¨es loco¨. I had nothing to reply but ¨si¨. Luckily the kid had a cell phone and, being local, the language skills to phone ahead from the bus and book us a room. As you know from previous post, I have a horror of arriving after dark in a new place, let alone 11 at night.

Gotta go...bus to Tikal ruins leaves in 10 minutes.....more later

El tourist trappo

Well we moved from one tourist trap to another today but both are actually beautiful. We are now in Panajachel on Lago de Atitlan. I just watched a sunset that was worth all the hawkers that bothered me in the hours leading up to it. We got here on the tourist shuttle around 4 and we are going to eat soon (I hope). Tomorrow we will take off again, but we have decided to go back to the local buses. To go where we are going next (the Copan ruins in Honduras), we would need to get up at 4 am to get the shuttle. No thanks, we will take our chances on the chicken buses (the local name for the old school buses).

On the slippery slope to comfort and ease...

OOPS, we seem to be slipping off the local bus wagon. I guess after a taste of the ease of the luxury bus service yesterday, we may be spending a couple of days (at least) paying more for transportation. I must admit for the extra about $10 each it was nice to just take one bus up to the border, get your passport stamped and then take off again in our awaiting carriage. The El Salvadoran exit control police came right on the bus, as did the money changers and the lunch sellers. I even got a bracelet and necklace set for $1. I figured the beads were worth more than that and lots of other (not tourist) people made the same purchase so it must be an OK deal.

We got up early (as usual). I went up on the roof of the hotel at about 6 am. It was nice and peaceful as the city (Antigua, Guatemala) wasn´t really awake yet. I got a fair idea of the layout of the town from up there. It was quite beautiful with the mist on the mountains ringing the city. I could see both the cathedral and a really fancy convent place from the rooftop. Charles was up and we were out by about 7. We found an ATM, ate breakfast on the street (an omelette sandwich with refried beans --of course--plus tomatoes and onion on a really nice big bread bun for $1) saw all the main buildings, had a fancy coffee and returned to our hotel by 9 am. By this time we had both independantly assessed this as a tourist trap we had seen the best part of already so agreed we wouldn´t bother wasting another of our precious nights here. We do, after all, have places to go and things to see. Here is where the slippery slope hits. We were returning to the hotel to grab our bags and take off for the bus station when we noticed the hotel flyer said they had a shuttle for our next destination leaving in a couple of hours (door to door service for $10 each). From the guidebook I knew we would have to change local buses a couple of times to get where we were going. We opted for the shuttle and now have a couple of hours which we are killing in this internet cafe. I notice they have a shuttle for our next destination too.....

Money apparently did used to grow on trees...

I went to a museum when I was in Santa Ana, El Salvador yesterday and they had an exhibit on the history of money in El Salvador. Apparently in pre Columbian times, cocoa beans were used as currency. So money did used to grow on trees in this part of the world. The museum also had an exhibit on the jute industry and one on a huge volcano that erupted in 1917. They had a lot of old photographs of the Santa Ana area, train tracks buried under piles of lava and people hanging around the smoking caldera. It was a small museum but I usually find they (museums) are all interesting in some way.

One thing I like about hanging around near the equator is that there are always flowers around. Maybe not as many real gardens like people grow at home but there are some. Often there is colour on the side of the road. The other day there were miles and miles of wild flowers that looked like morning glories but they spread all over the ground and up trees. There was one place where someone was training them to go up a trellis. We have times at home when there is the same profusion of wild flowers but it tends to be concentrated in the summer.

Today was a travel day. The owner of the hotel we stayed in last night and the night before was a bit over the top in the accomodation line. When we arrived he figured all the internet places in the area would be closed so he phoned his cousin and had him come and drive us to an internet cafe where he left us for half and hour then picked us up and drove us to a restaurant. Yesterday I asked him how to get to the bus station to take us to Guatemala City. He insisted on driving us to the bus himself. He took us to a luxury bus. It had a toilet and air conditioning. The first bus like that since our arrival in Central America. It cost the grand sum of $12 each for a four hour trip (wow was that only 127 km--I just looked it up on Google maps). We got to the bus station at 9 and the bus was supposed to come at 10.30. It was closer to 11 when we set off. We got stuck for ages for construction and didn't get to Guatemala City until close to 4. It is in a bowl and there are LOTS of cars. I am glad we had decided to continue on to Antigua (where we are now) because the air looked like I would have to crack out my puffers for sure if we stayed there. This place is a tourist trap. We have seen very few foriegners in our travels until now. This place is wall to wall hotels, upscale shops and restaurants. We got here around 6 and the first few places we tried were already full. We got a place for tonight and may try to switch in the morning. We will see.

Thats all for now...tomorrow we will see why this burg is so popular....

Salud from Santa Ana, El Salvador

We are in Santa Ana and Charles called a day off (thank goodness). Partly it is because we made it as far as we had planned to go today by the end of yesterday. His real reason is he thought there was a football (soccer) game on today which is actually tomorrow. I am not sure if this means we travel tomorrow or not...we shall see. Yesterday was a bit gruelling (sp?). As I mentioned we started out at 7 am from Choluteca, Honduras. We made the El Salvador border by about 9 and got through no problem. We ate breakfast before we crossed and then walked over. As I have mentioned before, borders seem to be peopled mainly by rip off artists. We were lied to yet again but not too badly this time. A man helped us find a bus (I was skeptical). I believe we were ripped off and he got a kickback but since the fare to go from the border halfway across the country was only $6 each, by our terms the rip off was not much. They did lie when we asked at about 10 o´clock when they would be leaving. They said 11 o´clock but it didn´t leave until closer to 11.30 and they were blaring music and we were sucking in diesel fumes the whole time. They also said the connecting but was across the street in San Salvador but it was actually a city bus to another bus station. I guess maybe it was our fault for not speaking spanish. It worked out and the city bus was interesting.

I like to sit near the front of buses because that is where the action is. Charles likes to sit at the back because there are less people there. We have started to sometimes sit separately since we don´t talk much to each other constantly anyway. No real need to be joined at the hip. Anyway, I was at the front of the city bus, mainly because a nice stranger had told the bus driver to tell us where to get off for our next bus, so I thought it best to sit where he would remember us. On the bus there were turnstiles to get on and off. The bus driver was the only employee on the bus and he had to make change as well as drive. The fare was 20 cents. The passengers and the driver seemed choreographed. It must be when you see how it works. The passenger gets on and gives the fare to the driver. The driver immediately starts driving while the passenger moves through the turnstile. The driver must grab a nickel, then shift gears. If he got a quarter, he hands the nickel to the passenger before shifting gears again. If he got a dollar he grabs three quarters then shifts gears again before handing the change to the person. If he gets bills, it takes three gear shifts before the transaction finishes. This must happen thousands of times a day and it is just part of driving. I guess it becomes second nature after a while but it must take them a while to get it all coordinated at first.

So far we have spent about $30 each in total to travel from the airport at San Jose to where we are now, a distance of about 750km through 4 countries and on many,many different buses and two taxis. You can´t even get from Ottawa to Brockville on a train for that money at home. It is less than the price of gas but it must work out because the buses are always full. They basically don´t leave town until they are and constantly pick up people on the way. Like India there is always a parade of sellers that get on the bus whenever it stops in a town. They sell all manner of food and drink. You can get home made sandwiches, meals, cashews, all kinds of fruit both fresh and dried, etc. In the cities there are snake oil salesmen. They get on and make a big, long pitch then sell their cream or their set of 50 pens or whatever. It is really convinient, you never have to leave the bus on a long journey. I am always a bit worried they will leave without me if I do. One thing they seem to also sell on every bus are the cd´s they play. As I mentioned they blare music constantly. Inexplicably there always seem to be takers for what seems to me to be unlistenable. No accounting for taste I guess.

I have always been amazed in the past how the conductor manages to keep track of who has paid and who hasn´t as the passengers flow on and off a bus. Yesterday I realized that they don´t always manage at all. The kid (about 19) yesterday had a really off day. In fairness it may have started when two people tried to tell him they had already paid when they hadn´t. There was a lot of back and forth and discussion and eventually they were kicked off. By the looks on their faces when they got off, they had been caught dead to rights. After that he seemed to be second guessing everything. He woke one guy up who had been on all along. The guy was understandably pissed. He asked several other people that had already paid. By the end of the trip, the poor kid was visibly trying to wrack his brains after every stop as to who was an old passenger. I hope he has better luck today.

Enough for today, you are probably sick of reading if you haven´t given up already....tomorrow is another day....

Why does the coffee here suck?

No fair, you would think that the coffee would be good where they grow it but no, it sucks. All they have most places is instant and they don´t even make that well. The coffee wasn´t bad in Costa Rica but that was three countries ago.... Charles bought a couple of coffees at a place called Espresso Americano yesterday. I was put off by them steaming the milk right in the styrofoam cup. Call me crazy but I am sure that can´t be good for you. Charles is fearless when it comes to food. He eats salads and drinks iced drinks with abandon. He thinks I am pretty irrational with my fears of rabies, ice, salad, malaria and so on. He says he never takes any medical precautions or worries in any of the countries he has been in, which are numerous.

We are working quite well together most of the time. We are doing a whirlwind tour up Central America. Today we are in Santa Ana, El Salvador, our 4th country so far and we only landed on Sunday (it is now Friday I think but you never know).

We left Choluteca, Honduras at 7 this morning and got in to Santa Ana, El Salvador around 6 this evening. Talk about power touring...

Our internet time is a bit restricted so I will post more tomorrow.

Hello from Honduras

Well we have another border under our belt and we are in Choluteca, Honduras....about half way to the end of our northward travel if we decide to skip Belize. I am pretty sure that Belize is too far for this time. I will have to go there separately later. We are settling in to a routine of travel in the mornings and internet and not much else after. As most of you know, Charles is not much on tourist sites. I guess the 6 hours travelling on the bus today was enough. I think it might be for me too. The guide book says there is a nice central park here but no one seems to be able to point us in the right direction. One problem we are having is that we have to bother a lot of people before we actually understand what we should be doing. I think we are a bit off the beaten track. As Charles said, we haven´t seen any other (north american or european) travellers on any of the buses we have been on so far. Maybe one of the reasons is because we are taking the local buses. They seem to be the main way people get around here. There are private vehicles but not a lot. Mostly buses and trucks on the roads and at least half of the cars in larger places are taxis. Surprisingly not tons of bicycles...some but not a lot...there are also motorcycles of course but again, not a lot at least nowhere near as many as you would see in Asia but then again the population density is a lot lower.

Today we left Esteli around 8 am. We got a bus toward (but not to) Sonoma. The guide book had a hole in it´s description and we were asking people how to get to El Espina....the answer kept being ´you can´t get there from here´ (or what seemed to be that). I thought the first guy was telling me the road was dead but he was telling me I wanted Sonoma. I asked another lady and I understood her. Sonoma was the nearest town to the border on the Nicaraguan side which connects to El Espina on the Honduran side....We eventually understood and got on a bus, then had a short taxi ride from the bus to the town of Sonoma (only 50 cents each). From Sonoma we had to take another cab to the border ($5 total--still not a lot). When we reached the Honduran side, there were minivans which are halfway between a cab and a bus. They are similar to bemos for anyone who has been to Indonesia. We didn´t get in the first on which was almost full when we got there but waited while another load of people gathered -- a process which took about 45 minutes. Basically they put you in and make sure there is one more person than seats in each row - 4 instead of 3 across. Then when it is full, they cram in a few more for good measure. I told Charles they would have put at least 5 more in Indonesia with people hanging off the back and sides...

The minivan connected with a local bus from San Marcos to Choluteca. It was a really interesting ride, lots of scenery but also lots of people watching opportunities. One lady got on with a toddler and a baby. The baby and its diaper bag were put off into the hands of another woman a few kilometers later, the first woman and toddler stayed on the bus --who was the babysitter? A woman was waiting on the side of the road for a note that a man handed the conductor to give to her. It was a few sheets of lined paper in a baggie -- who knows what the handwriting said. Several times the bus driver was obviously expecting regular passengers because he tooted long and hard just before we got to people running toward the road to hop on. At one point we actually waited for several minutes for two very pretty young girls who giggled their way on and thanked the driver...oh to be young and pretty again! Anyway, we took the first hotel we saw after getting off the bus...pretty rustical as those friends of Martina´s once said, but it is two beds and a fan and a washroom and a TV so who can really complain. Off to San Salvador tomorrow....

Toot, Toot -- in the land of bushorns and beans...

I guess Canada is in the other half of countries-- the ones that don´t believe in frequent us of car and bus horns. It is probably because automobiles don´t do much road sharing with other vehicles at home. I know I am travelling when I hear the constant tooting of horns. No one seems to mind the noise here.

We have been spending a lot of time on buses because Charles is insistent we get to the far end of our journey licketysplit and then (maybe) spend more time on the return trip. We were up and headed for the bus by 7.30 this morning. We decided to get a start on the day and eat in Managua. Ha Ha. We ended up at one bus terminal in the middle of nowhere and ran away quickly to avoid the taxi drivers. Up and over the pedestrian bridge and onto a local bus which took us to the next dusty bus terminal in the middle of nowhere. It was at least in a market so I grabbed a banana (5 cents) to tide me over and we jumped on a bus for Esteli. We arrived here by noon when we finally got our breakfast. I think we will try to do this most of the time...except maybe eat something first. I have a horror of arriving late in places, born of bitter experience. Charles thinks this is because I am a girl but it is more that I have slept in cars and on floors of terminals of various descriptions in the past and I am way too old to do that anymore. It is also just too darn difficult to navigate in the dark when you don´t know where you are or understand anyone.

I don´t mind spending several hours a day on buses (yet). I find the scenery endlessly fascinating. We seem to be getting mostly mercedes benz buses for between cities and school buses for shorter distances. Nothing is very expensive. We went for 2 hours today on a relatively comfortable bus for only $3 each. So far it has been no real sweat finding our way around and where to catch the buses. Thank goodness for the guidebook with its maps though. I don´t know how Charles usually does it without the book.

We are firmly in the land of rice and beans. Every meal has them as a base. You should hear our room first thing in the morning. You can imagine what I am talking about I am sure. Today we have a room with cable TV. Heather could be watching all her usual shows right now. Charles could be watching Arsenal football and I could be watching Law and Order...but we are in a cybercafe instead. Off to Honduras tomorrow.....

Lies the border told me

We set out from San Jose yesterday morning. We didn't get a particularily early start because we thought we were only travelling about 4 hours to Liberia. When we got to Liberia, Charles wouldn't believe we should get off so we ended up continuing up and over the border into Nicaragua. We figured that getting there at 3.30 with the first town only 36kms over the border, we should have plenty of time. We didn't figure on a couple of things the major one being the fact that the border people seem determined to be obstinant and play with the people crossing the border. We all lined up outside one window and watched for over half an hour while 4 officials laughed and joked together inside. Then one got up and came to a different window than the line was from. As soon as the line moved over, another guy came and opened the first window causing a rush on it. As soon as the lines had been reconfigured, another window opened. The ensuing rushing about seemed to really please them.

By the time we got past this little power play, it was getting on for 5 o'clock. We were then accosted by the border shitheads who started jerking us around...

Lies the border told us:

1) The bank had to close early (but my friend will be happy to change your money)
2) (by a uniformed guard at the bank) The bank machine you can see is not available (but again, my friend will be happy to rip you off and change your money)
3) The last bus has already left (but I can take you in a taxi for $40)
4) (after we had found out from a woman in uniform where the local buses were). The local buses are not allowed to take foriegners (but I have a taxi)
5) That local bus you see is an express and will not stop before Managua (which we would arrive in quite late at night and we had very little local money because of 1 and 2... and p.s ...I have a taxi)

We did make it onto a local bus and went to the next town for $2 each and got an ATM, a hotel and supper by 7.30. Note to self...try to cross borders earlier in the day.

We are now in Granada which is a beautiful old city that was apparently important in the very early days of colonialism here. We are going to make a run for Honduras tomorrow. Charles is insisting we keep up the pace so we can get to Guatemala City within the first week then make our way back to San Jose more slowly. It appears that we may be doing a lot of it on crowded old school buses. This is apparently where our school buses come when they die. Heaven on earth (at least for the old yellow buses).

We have arrived in San Jose

Do you know the way to San Jose? Apparently it is via Charlotte North Carolina these days. We got up at an ungodly hour this morning and have fallen back not once but twice. I thought we were going to be dead south of home but apparently not. We adjusted our timepieces when we arrived at the airport in Syracuse at 5.30 this morning (to find out that the checking in I did on line meant we didn't actually have to be there until 7 am) and again when we landed in Costa Rica.



It took us a while to get out of the airport. Alan will know what happened since he has been through it with me several times before on a couple of different contintents. I really object to paying a taxi 10 times what it really costs to get downtown from the airport, so I had to figure out how to catch the local bus. My spanish is worse than my french so it does cause a wrinkle. The local bus costs 75 cents each and a taxi was around $20 although I had them down to about $15 when they saw me trying to manouver around their system. Charles had to power smoke multiple cigarettes after having been deprived since Syracuse many, many hours earlier. He was being chatted up by a taxi driver while I made forays around. I circled a few times before I found local people with no vested interest in getting me into a cab. I had to buy a coffee to break the large bill from the ATM so we could take the bus but we managed to save $12. I'm back in the travelling swing now! It's not really the money it's the challenge of bucking the system.

We are in a backpacker hostel that really could be anywhere in the world, but it is not... it is in Costa Rica and the city we walked through between the bus and finding the hostel was interesting, quite clean and with some old charm. I haven't really had much exposure, we landed at 3 and it is now 6.30 and we are off to seek sustenance. Tomorrow we forge on to Managua....