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I'm currently on a bit of a world tour to learn about other cultures and ecosystems... Feel free to leave a comment or recommendation or say hello

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Nicaragua

I was lucky enough to get a ride to the bus station and lucky anough again that a bus was leaving within a reasonable amount of time!!! I got in Tica bus, which runs form Mexico to Panama and headed to Managua, Micaraguas capital! The rde while uneventful was beautiful and comfy and I had a double seat all to myself! I grabbed some pics out of the window and here they are.... I am not sure if one is a market or slums and I guess I will never find out...there was a lady selling corn on the side....this is common everywhere...I have not really taken pictures of people on this trip and for once I decided to as I was on a bus and figured the windows were tinted!

After taking a pic of the corn lady she stared at me and I waved and she waved back!!! I guess te window werent tinted, but she was not mad as she returned my wave and smile!

Walking around Managua in search of a restaurant I was told repetatively not to walk aroudn and get in a cab! I guess it is a scary place and people are looking out for me! I did take a cab to get home form dinner! After explaining my diet at a restaurant (the one highly recomended in my guide book was no longer in existance) I received a huge plate of veggies!!! yum yum yum! That was all for Managua as I headed to the beach the very next morning!

Again my guidebook failed me with bus times...and after telling my mother the night before I was probably done with chicken buses I found myself on one as I headed to Rivas, on the way to San Juan del Sur and the pacific ocean!

When I arrived I was told by a guy on the street no problem I can camp right on the beach...but I decidednot to take his advice and found a room in a surf shop, for this was my reason for heading to this area!! To try surfing!!! Hang ten dude!!! As I was heading down to the Pacific for my first dip in it since California in february someone called my name and it was some Aussies I had met in Honduras...We caught up a bit and then I slipped into the water! It was much warmer than in the winter in California! I wasnt the only one swimming this time! That night I went to happy hour with Australians at a beutiful bar/hotel they heard of....we watched the sun set over the pacific and had neat drinks....

That second pic is of a pool with a waterfall at the end, and it is up on a mountain, in the back you can see the ocean!

The very next day with the Beach Boys on my mind i headed to another beach to try to ride the waves!! My instructor didnt really speak english and my spanish is not full of all the little words you need to understand how to pop up on a surfboard! So with much effort I did make it! Your first time (and probably many more after) you are not riding the waves but rather catching them after they break and riding the white stuff! This is still moving quite fast and on my third go I was up and standing....then down and falling!!! I may have even invented a few new ways to fall off a surfboard and surely increased my bodies salinity tenfold!!! What a ride! It was lots of fun, but not great enough to hold me at the beach for another day as the forest called! After a dinner with a fellow yid from Toronto, and some fun philosophical discussion, I hit the hay and was on the 7am bus back to Managua.... Without taking a breathe I hopped a cab across town to another chicken bus terminal and found an express microbus to Matagalpa...a city in the mountains....and here I am...air is fresh and mountains are lovely...

Happy father's day pops!

La Tigra

The day after my journey to the statue of Jesus I headed further up that road to a national park called La Tigra. My first surprise was that on most of the signs there was a most familiar leaf to be seen! a red one, surrounded by 2 red stripes!
Apparently Canada has something to do with the park, although what exactly no one seemed to know. This park is the source of most of the water for the city of Tegucigalpa and is far up in the mountains....it may have been created to preserve the freshwater as clearcutting is a national sport in Honduras and that reeks havoc on streams and rivers. The visitors center had a beautiful mural! This is just half of it...


I arrived as the morning was ending and elected to go no a 2.5 hr. hike that would make a nice loop. I strolled along leisurly as I had about 4 hours, stopping to sit by streams and look at trees or read a book. I finally got to see a plant/tree that I have been looking for for the past 4 months! A tree fern!
Ferns are one of if not the first plant and this one is as big as a tree with trunk and all! I found it on the road outside the park as I was heading back to the bus. Usually they are no more than a meter ff the ground with no trunk, just leaves coming out of the ground.

At almost the same spot a car was coming down the road from the park so I decided to put out my thumb as the bus was still going to be a while.... After passing me the car stopped and I hopped it. It wasa family that I had passed on the trail and they were very friendly. It was a father, his son, and his grandchildren, although the kids were from another sibling. The sons name is Omar and after talking a while we decided to head back to the park the next day and see more of it. He is a teacher and had the week off. This proved to be very lucky for me as I finally met a local who also spole fluent English. I was able to pick his brain about tons of things to do with the city and country, from politics to the education system. The next day we did a six hour hike roundtrip to a waterfall and saw many plants and animals...The animals consisted of birds and lizards! One posed for a photo!



There were many neat plants and some great views, sometimes cloudy and sometimes not! Here is the wierdest leaf I have ever seen! You may need to enlarge it to see why! I discovered it by wiping my hand on it! Bit of a mistake!After a long walk and a stop for a snack of giant avocado and totillas we made it to the falls!

Here is Omar my companion for the day...He was also going to show me some of Tegucigalpas nightlife but after the return hike we could barely walk and called it quits! I made one other friend on the hike and here he or she is!! The next moring I was off to Nicaragua, the last country on my journey!!!

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Tegucigalpa!!!

The next stop on my journey was the capital of Honduras and what a weird and interresting place! Arriving there I felt quite lost as I knew nothing of the city and hadn't the chance to practice spanish in a couple weeks. I took a cab to a hotel recomended inthe travelers bible and checked in... There is a river dividing the city in two and I was on the market side....also known as danger town! I didnt find it too dangerous but heh.... I have been to some seedy areas of Guatemala so since the locals didin't have handguns in their belts I felt alright!


The bus ride was beautiful, passing through the mountains, and seeing some villages...

The first ngiht I walked through the market...it was still ight out, I wouldnt go there after dar...and headed across the bridge to find an internet cafe in town.... lots of pizza huts, almost one on every block, as well as the Burger King and his girlfriend Wendy. In this pic you can see the airport...aparently one of themost dangerous in the world.... One week before a plane carrying on e of the wealthiest men in the country started its landing too far down the runway and finished it in the street...2 people in cars were killed as well as several on the plane.... Honduras is trying to build a new airport there on or near the US military base which already has runways, but the US is not to pleased with this project.... They had put in the base in to control interests in latin america in the 80's if my info is correct. (a friend told me this) Either way how crazy is it to have the runway where it is!!! and the city is surounded by mountains!

The next day I went to visit Jesus! He is hanging out in full grandeur ontop of the city. A giant version and what a commanding view he has. Tegucigalpa is surounded by mountians and for that it is quite beautiful! Near Jesus is a small botanical garden and a zoo...I was hoping ot see some animals but the zoo was closed...the view was worth the trip! I also ran into some Quebecers who were volunteering in the city and got to speak some real french! (atleast they spoke real french and I spoke my cersion of it!)
Jesus himself....he was so big you couldn't get a picture form close up!

That morning I had wanted to wash the ocean out of my clothes and couldnt find a laundromat...On my hunt I came across a feather suspended in the air...it was hovering 10cm above the ground, straight up and down and I was mesmerized...thjere was nothing above or below it nor any wind! While I was staring a drunk man noticed it too and said Hi.... Needing a laundromat I asked for directions and he made it his personal mission to help me.... drunk at 8am may not be the best way to go about your day but after much seeking we found it! The funny `part was any time he went to ask someone they would not want to talk to him...then they saw me with my bundle of clothes and answered.... No one really knew where it was and we were sent in circles for 15 minutes until a constuction worker pointed it out not 1 block from where we were! (By the way that morning I decided to have a moustache day....maybe that is why I met Carlos...so we could be a pair)To celebrate my friend Carlos (above) took me to the skethiest part of the market...people lying passed out in the dirties sidewalks imaginable etc... and we went into a little store with 3 other not so clean people inside and one guy stnaing guard at the door....It was some kind of illegal alcohol distribution center.... He ordered a drink which the man at the counter poured forma big bottle into a smaller one and handed it to my frined who quikly chugged it all down...about 3 shots worth... Then he looked at me waitng for me to pay, which I did happily....as he found me the laundry! It cost about 30 cents! So that is how I was reintroduced to spanish! I got to practice with Carlos who despite his drunkeness was quite a gentleman. The streets were full of holes and crazy drivers and he kept pulling me this way and that to keep my footing sure and ensure I was not flattened into a pancake!

Upon returning form my visit with Jesus I had some trouble finding the laundromat! When I did it was closed but I knocked on the window and got my clothes!

Then it was supper and the tv in my hotel for the rest of the night!
One more thing about Tegucigalpa...while it was dirty and dangerous the city it rmeinds me of themost in the world is a toss up between jerusalem and Tel-Aviv!!! The reason is a weird one! Just about every streeet corner downtown has police or military on it....and in every aqwuare or park.... People with metal detectors search you as you enter banks and even some stores, and there are guards at almost every shop as well. These guards are hired security with shotguns, just sitting outside everything form an electronics store to a store that sells underwear to internet cafes! Every McDonalds, Burger King and Pizza Hut also had an armed guard! Look out Hamburgler!!!

Sunday, June 8, 2008

Weirdest Hockey Game ever!

Last night I attended the weirdest hockey game I have ever seen! Myself and 2 friends from Denmark whomI had met on the small island shared a cab to a hotel from the ferry in La Ceiba.... We noticed in the streets tons of people wearing Honduran flags and selling t-shits and other Honduran propoganda. I figured it must be a crazy hockey game! So after finding a hotel and having a great meal at a steakhouse (I didnt realize it was a steak house but the beans were top notch...I just oredered 3 side orders and had a tasty meal!) we headed towards the arena! There were many scalpers, just like in Montreal and after figuring out their game somewhat we went for the more expensive tickets which were in the section with seats...we were told it may be a little more dangerous in the other sections!
So in we went and the first thing I noticed was that the arena had no roof! in Honduras! How they thought they could keep ice cold in such a climate without a roof I had no idea! And to tell the truth they did a poor job!! The ice was so melted grass had grown right over it! And it was huge...bigger than an olympic rink! And not only that but the players who were warming up left their sticks on the bench and were practicing only by kicking some giant rounded puck! And their skates....so weird...instead of one long metal blade they had many spikes on the bottom! Almost as if they did not want to glide! I think it was the fans that gave it away for me and made me realize that I was at some sort of other sporting event than the one true sport! It was (and is) called football! (or soccer) And boy were the people into it!
Almost everyone had an air horn and no one was shy about using it! I guess it makes sense...for one thing, all over centeral america people cant stop using their car horns...beep! im turning...beeep! im braking...beep beep! Im saying hello...beep beep! im behind you...beep beep! im infont of you...so this must have been like heaven for them......30 minutes before the match started everyone was gong crazy...there was not an empy seat in the house...horns blew continuously and the wave went round and round and round! The players were still stretching!!! By the time the game started someone could have offered a million dollars on the nonexistant PA to anyone who came to the main entrance and not a person would have had enough hearing capacity left to make out the words!
Soccer, while not hokey, has some similarities...mainly in how players can pretend to be hurt and then when they see that the other team does not get a penalty they are miraculously cured! As a matter of fact the acting was so good, faking injuries may have been invented through soccer! And when ever this happened...and this is the honest truth (I can't prove it with a picture but can you blame me for not taking a camera to a soccer game in honduras) 4 men with a stretcher would run out onto the field for him....on its own this can seem normal as most of the injuries are to the legs but here is the kicker...they were dressed in light brown fatigues and wearing bright white hardhats!!!! They looked like a cross between WWI fighters and the overembelished cartoon graphics of a video game! But of course before they ever reached a player he would be walking around!
The section we were in had seats....we assumed they were assigned but alas only the section was, so when we arrived half an hour before the game there was not a seat to be seen! But we were at midfield and got to sit on cement steps...It turns out we had some of the best seats in the house! And surrounded by some right drunk people. I feel like talking more about the atmosphere...first of all our higher priced tickets meant that ontop of the giant fence between us and the field there was no barbed wire as there was ontop of the fences surounding the other sections! What this permitted was that in the event of a riot we could run down the isle, jump down into the place where journalist and other people were and climb a fence with no barbed wire and get onto the field the quickest and draw first blood...a coveted position in any soccer riot no doubt!! Every seat and step was filled and people must have been there for hours waiting! In our more prestigious section there was a limit of 98% for one's blood alcohol level, where in other section it could go as high as infinity! The absolute worst time to buy any beverage or food was right before one of the many waves went around.... this is because there is a law that anything in your hands be it full of bubbly or brewed liquid, french fries or bull testicles (yes they were selling them there just like cotton candy) or anything else had to be launched as high into the air as possible as soon as the wave came by! People we not shy about throwing full cups of beer as far as possible! I have never seen this before...Atleast at a Canadiens game people finish the molson before launching the empty cup...and even that is risky... here it is risky to hold onto your food or garbage!! Luckily we only received minor splatterings!
The fans were loud and the cheering was non ending! the energy level was incredible and puts all fans of all other sports to shame! When Honduras' champion, coincidently number 9, known as the Panther came into the game everyone went bonkers! And he was quite good too...from what I could gather about soccer anyways... Of course a coach almost punched a ref...fans booed the other team alot and eveyone left incredibly happy with a 3-1 win.... for the rest of the night car horns beeped honked and tooted out my hotel window and I now know what it is like to be a soccer fan!

Honduran Bay Islands

Howdy mon! I be livin in dee bay Islands mon! On the northern end of Hinduras there are 3 islands famous for some of the best and cheapest diving in the world....what i did not expect is that people speak the bob marley talk! At first I thought it was heavily accented spanish but alas it was english!!

From Flores I took a bus starting at 6am towards Honduras and arrived at La Ceiba at 6pm, which is the city from where you can take a ferry to the islands. It was a crazy journey but quite easy by central american standards.... I had met some people on the bus going to the same place the next day so we all went to a hostel together...In La Ceiba I was surprised by the amount of crappy american cuisine! Everywhere you look is a burger king or wendys or pizza hut.... we ended up at some kind of high end italian place with a rude waiter and delicious food! It took 10 minutes to explain that I didnt want anchovies in my pasta but i got a garlic party in my mouth that is still keeping the bugs off me!!

The fairy took an hour to get to the isands and was quite boring compared to the roller coaster ride we had getting back.... The island had a couple streets and tons of dive centers...It was nice but unfortunately I was not to impressed, the food was mediocre at best and people were not upset to see you but maybe not happy either.... The diving was fun and when i went for a night dive we were floating in the ocean dong buddy checks watching a thunderstorm! I have never been swimming and watching lightning before...and I don't plan on doing it again! But aparently it is safe in the ocean.... felt as safe as dipping myself in honey and walking into a bear den right at the end of the longest winter on record....but here I am to tell the tale...to bad about Christina though! (just kidding there is no christina)
Diving at night is super! All the corals change as the polyps come out...coral looks like plants or some weird growth in the day but at night hairlike tendrils come out all over so they can feed, that is when you see that they are indeed animals...although it was hard to get any info on them more than the simple identification books yielded. Also different fish are out and there is abundant phosphorescence (sp?)

After the diving I spent a couple days at a much smaller island and went on kayak and snoreling trips fom there....I finally got to the white sandy beaches a bit as Utilla (the big island) had docks and boats all around.... I will admit it for the very first time here..I like snorkelling more than diving! You have more control over what yo want to do, and if the reef is not too deep you can see just as much! And even more because there is no group hurrying you along! I saw some more turtles and a friend showed me that yo can hold certain jellyfish if you turn them upside down! And they actually feel like jelly!!

One of the highlights of Utila was getting to see the stanley cup be won! Too bad it was the wrong team though!

Getting back fom the little island was an insane adventure, only to be topper by the fairy back to La Ceiba. We were in a noarrow and long boat, maybe 8meters long, and the otboard 80 horspower on back...the ocean was very windy, huge waves and we kept ridig up one and slamming back down with such force as would put your boys in your throat. There were many times we thoght the boat was gong to split in 2. It was a rocking seasick motion, just a gong up and slamming down....we had to sit as far back as possible to limit the pounding or asses took with each descent.... we felt like chapions when we arrived! We had a couple hours before the next boat which is a catamarang ferry back to the main land...this was the seasick ride! The atendants were very busy handingo t plastic bags and paper towels....and one mother was just clamly breastfeeding the whole time! Here we were gong up down and side to side in sickening turns, and I bet some people would pay good money for such a ride, but you would normally find them on things called stomach twister and death coaster.....It was close but the veggie sub I had for lunch behaved as all enemy subs should and kept sinking, never to come back up.....

One more island thoght...peple just never get sick of Bob Marley! While I was exposed to some new reggae, just about every place is playing Bob Marley...and it is the locals who are bobbing along with the music! Even as I sit now I am hearing...get up stand up, stand up for your rights.... It seems like they are stuck not jsut on one artist but one album...for 30 years! I guess that is the island life....it also smelled like Otto's jacket

cheers

Sunday, June 1, 2008

El Mirador

For 3 days I waited in Flores Guatemala to begin the Jungle trek. It is a hike I was told about several times over the last 3 months and was looking forward to immensely. I had heard it is the hardest hike in Guatemala and you walk through knee deep mud. At first I was disappointed when I heard the trail would be dry for us, but after seeing the large seas of dry mud, and guessing optimistically at their depth, I am very happy that we went in the dry season, although it proved to not be completely dry!

I met up through the tour company with 4 other people and we were off. The trip started with a ride to the town of Carmelita, where we met up with our guides and horses...all our gear went on the backs of 4 horses and a mule, we just had to carry water and cameras! Most of the trek was over dry mud and it was apparent that it would be atleast knee deep in the rain, but now was dry and solid, just somewhat bumpy, a minuture version of the moon with cow foot meteors having impacted the surface the last time it was wet.
The hike was super hot, but there were patches of shade. Our two guides were Carmelito who stayed with us, and Angel, the g is pronounced like an h, who was with the horses, usually ahead so camp was set up by the time we arrived. The first day we hiked 5 hours to some ruins called Tintal, and camp was set up for us. We went to climb one of the pyramids there and it was the most breathtaking experience of the whole trip. We followed a trail to the foot of a mountain, but there were stairs going up... It was steep enough that there was a rope with the stairs making one into a self propelled elevator.... As it was pretty steep you couldn't see what you were coming to until you were there.... A 360 view of the entire jungle!! I had no idea it would be such a view as the pyramid/temple was covered in trees, but hoo boy! And the sounds, and sights, you could see another pyramid in the distance... pictured below, and there were monkeys swinging in nearby trees! Here is also a pic of the sky in the other direction...


This is what a meal looked like, our guides treating us like royalty....although I became permanenetly known as el vegetariano, our chefs catored to me extremely well, and we even had some fried plantaines on a few occasions! Their specialty was trotillas though and with more dedication and willpower than the worlds greatest mailman they delivered hot tortillas 'weather' drizle, rain or jungle downpour! The next day was our seven hour hike and we made it to El Mirador and scurried up a pyramid known as El Tigre... El Mirador was the first large city on this side of the world, it is the location of the first highways, which can still be seen from space and the worlds largest pyramid! It is surrounded and mostly covered by beautiful trees of all kinds, which are crawling with life...from hanging plants like orchids to swinging monkeys and butterflies, to Jaguars, ants, tics and tics again! The causeways, one of which we walked on for 7 hours from Tintan to the main sight are 20 meters wide, 4-8 meters off the ground and covered in trees, but while your walking on them a lot of the time you can see the slope down to ground level if you look for it! The city itself was the first center of the Mayan world (most probably) and was bursting at the seams with about 80000 people around 300 BC. Many of the temples are aligned with the stars and phases of the year.
Here's a view form another pyramid, and what getting there looked like. It was hard to capture these buildings in a photo as it looks like a pile in the jungle, only when you climb it does it look like a building of sorts....


Here's a local...The paths between all the ruins were all clear and wide, much nicer than any path we had seen on our entire journey ( on the road to Carmelita we crossed a bridge with a sign saying 'caution dangerous bridge' and it was!)...this is because for 3 months (starting 2 weeks after we left) 300 archaeologists and support staff would be there.... they had a decent camp set up too. A not so big coincidence occurred when on our last day the head archaeologist arrived with a bunch of people form the world heritage fund as well as some other investors...he was giving the big wigs the grand tour and we got to tag along! One girl in our group had an incling that this might happen and timed her trip to coincide...this is also the reason we were there for a week, most trips are only 5 days, 4 in and out and 1 at the site, it was great to have 3 there and just have all the time in the world to explore.... So we got a tour from a man who has been working there for 30 years, and learned alot about how much effort (not only physical and mental but also in raising funds) is required for a project of this magnitude...the place is barely uncovered, but in 10 years it will be a major tourist attraction, what is stopping it now is that you either need to fly in by helicopter or do a 2 day very hot hike....



This is the group of folks who came, before we were all caught in a torrential downpour! We saw it coming from on top of the largest pyramid in the world...and it came in fast, we were done and on our way back when it hit and it was juicy! (someone in this group got peed on by a monkey...can you guess who??)

Here is a close up of the picture next to the people, it has been re plastered to keep it intact, but this layer can be peeled of easily to expose the original when an adequate solution (that is a pun in this case) will be discovered to preserve it better.

This is looking down from the top of a pyramid, where it stops is another level then it goes down again 2 more times...
Showering in the jungle was quite a trip... You would walk down to the beehive by the lake and then do a boogie dance with the bucket. First job was to get the bucket away from the bees/wasps in order to fill it up in the pond. Step 2 was walking on the sketchy dock thing and filling the big bucket with water, then of course making it back to land safely. The problem with land was the wasp bee things...they stung and would not leave you alone...and the water is brown! So you would dip a smaller pail into your bucket but as you poured it on your head you would have to run aways from the wasps, wasting water faster than a cattle farmer! On both ocasions that I washed there I was chased naked my a bunch of swarming stinging insects.... But the water was cool and refreshing!
Here is our last supper in the jungle... no one was killed and reborn a few days later, but the whole trip was taking a huge step back in history. The moment really clicked for me when we slept on one of the pyramids.... spending lots of time up there, getting a view that only a few privileged mayans ever got was nuts. Of course in their time the Mayan chiefs would have seen something entirely different, instead of jungle it would have been several square kms of planned out city! I am sure that if you were a good kid and did all your homework and had a good piercing through your unmentionables you would be allowed to climb the pyramid, but thats just romantic dreaming....probably very few folks got to go up there in the times it was active, and they were all the rulers.... Today its anybodies temple...if you are willing to risk the tics and rain!


Followinf the last dinner and some sleep there was the last sunrise ontop of a pyramid...We were back at Tintal on the way home and a few of us got to see this great sunrise!On the way in and out there were many things looking like this...any ideas what it could be??


Does Indiana Jones or Lara Croft make a good hint??
Its from Treasure Hunters and tomb raiders! They just dug into the side of ruins looking for treasure! No one knows what may or may not have been found!
Here is our other guide Angel with out trusty steeds...
So that was El Mirador.... Although I half-assed tried to get in a bit of the description I can't even begin to convey the wonder with spoken words let alone written ones where no emphasis or hand gestures are really perceived. To be able to lie on the floor of the jungle in an ancient city and watch a family of monkeys or climb the equivalent of the empire state building 2000 years from now when New York may be covered in trees and look out over the sights and sounds of nature returned, is something that is not only gulped up by eyes ears nose mouth and skin but digesting all this information firsthand gives you goose bumps on the inside. Yummy insightful and inspiring gooselike prickles and tickles....

(if you have been perceptive enough you may have realized that I have finally found a Tom Robbins' book to jiggle my brain with....)

Monday, May 26, 2008

Tikal

Hello! Just got out of a week in the jungle! It was hot! Before I left I went for a sunrise tour of Tikal....Some old ruins that have been copletely uncovered...a whole city! They told me the bus would come by around 3am to pick me up, and ofcourse it was at 3:45! After a 1.5 hour uncomfortable ride we got there and hurried through part of parc and climbed alot of stairs! The view was great and the sunrise too!

Our guide grew up in New York so his English was perfect and he knew alot! Showed us some animals, including monkeys, here's one.... They were atually swinging through the trees!

Here are some of the ruins...i enjoyed being there but I didnt get much sleep the nigh before and it was hard to stay awake! All the pyramids are completely filled in, solid blocks of lime stone!

Here's some fruit on the ground! and a giant tree that has passed on to tree heaven!


Saturday, May 17, 2008

Ixcan continued!

The family who owned the hotel invited Lucie and I to all the things that they were doing during the week..It was super sweet of them and we couldn't thank them enough. The folks were Carmen and Cesar, and while they have 5 kids 3 of them left the day after the lake to go to Coban where they live together and go to school. David and Diana the two youngest still live in Ixcan as do Carmens parents, and they were all around every day. Carmen's mom was really sweet and smart, wanting to learn English as I wansted to learn spanish...if I asked he how to say somethign in spanish she would want to know the english translation as well... She had made tamales....some mixture of cornflower and a green leafy plant at the lake...or heated them up there i think, and I asked her if she could teach me and she did!!! Here are some pics of that....when made they are wrapped in banana or other nig green leaf and then put in a pot with some water and steemed..... Looks like I will be doing it at home with tin foil...if you happen to have a banana tree (plant!!) in your yard let me know!


So that was one adventure and another was a couple trips to the river. The importance of these trips must not be underestimated as the humidity was so high that there were actually fish swimming by in the air! I thinkI took more showers there in one day then I did on my whole trip!!! It was also the first time there wasnt this electic heater hooked up to the shower head, so not only was I able to not worry about getting shocked in the shower there was actually cold water! No idea why in some other places they give you hot showers!!!! In freaking Guatemala!!! Who wants a hot shower!?!?!¿¿!¿!¿ (don't those upside down question marks make this authentic?!?!?!¿!¿¿!)Just down the river big trucks were hauling out gravel, I think it majorly reshaped the river in the area, but hey...the water was nice and wet! On the way I saw something I found quite a amusing at another river we passed that was much smaller...a car wash!!! people drove their vehicles right into the water and washed them!!! Interesting idea....
The next great adventure, which took alot of convincing to get me to go to was the Jalipero....aka Rodeo!!! When I foudn out it was only bull riding and not lassoing the babies I desided to go.... Got to see everything atleast once! And it was lots of fun....The bulls were quite wild and impressive.... The dude in the dress is a rodeo clown, there were a few dressed less feminanly but what they did to the animals made me a little sick....at one point they had a bull on the ground holding him down and pulled out his toungue and one guy held it in his own mouth! They were also yanking the tail like crazy and while I assume that would hurt I am no Bull anatomist.... If anyone knows what the huge weird camel hump some of them have between their shoulders, please let me know!

In the town and all over there are guys making snowcones on adapted bycicles.... here's one example, they grind a huge block of ice infront of you, then add syrop to it...mmmmmm....
The maeket was also really neat! The internet connection is awesome hear, hence all the pictures!!! here is more of the market...



As the family took care of us so well on the last night I was there (and supposedly Lucie's too but I left before she did and it is entirely possible she is still there so it may not have been her last night, we both planned on leaving every day for each day we were there but we just couldnt.... anyways on the last night....) we deicded to thank them with dinner and a cake... I wipped up a peanut sauce and a curry and lucie delved into the world of chocolate! Here is the kitchen! There is a fire under the flat thing on the right and the smoke kinda just comes out the other end!

You can see Carmen and Cesar and Lucie and Diana here, and they really liked the peanut sauce...the curry was not as pleasing for the kids and that is when i remembered how long it took for the taste to grow on me! But the gramma liked it the next day when she tried it! That made me really happy!

Somehow during this time I met another organism that I really didnt like.... It made me lose lots of liquid form places where there should be no liquid exiting! And poor Lucie..... As I mentioned before the walls between the room and bathroom gave no sound barrier and atleast the first time as it was the middle of the night I didnt have the tv blaring! But by the end I said I have one mother in Canada and now I have 2 in Guatemala! Carmen and Lucie were both really sweet to me, Carmen giving recipes and Lucie getting the food for me.... Papaya smoothies and garlic and lemon juice...(not at the same time!) I was very well taken care of and eased back into solid food with BBQ'd Plantane, which aparently was the right thing as I am much better now! So there is one more experience I got to have while at the hotel.... for the record I am 99.9% sure the bug came from something I had at the fair!

So with much heartache and a surprise goodbye gift from Carmen I was off again on my own! It took most of a day to reach Flores...the absolute best part was when I reached the fork in the road where I rejoined the asfalt!!! What a moment to remember! I had come form the south and turned left there, and now I headed north! The ride here was crazy as usual and for the first time there were actually live chickens in the microbus! and a puking kid who I got to sit next too....but boy did I jump for the first open seat! I tink I was almost sick again but managed ok.... sorry if that is way to much onfo on bodily functions in this post but I wasnt to give a realy feel for the place!!!

Now I am waiting for trip to El Mirador, some ruins you can only get to on foot with a 2 day hike.... Tomorrow I am off to Tikal, aparently some of the craziest ruins in the whole mayan world... they will only be topped by El Mirador in 10 years, as most of it is stillunder Jungle!

Adios!