Home in Asheville

Well, we're back for one last entry. This blog wouldn't be complete without photos of our new home in the mountains. It's truly wonderful to have a "home" again, after three and a half months of wandering!

For those of you who know Asheville, we are in the Montford neighborhood, which is a gorgeous area filled with 1920's mansions (clearly we are not living in one of those!), and is walking distance to downtown. We have this million-dollar view of the mountains, and the sunsets are spectacular! (If only we could remove those darned power lines....)

In addition to a great front porch, we have a sweet deck that wraps around the side and back of the house, and a nice size back yard. I can't wait for summer - I may never go inside.

We're mostly unpacked, and dealing with the challenges of a tiny house (under 700 square feet) with only ONE tiny closet. We're having to get a little creative............

Our next challenge - we'll have to begin the job search after the holidays. It's sad, but the time has come - after four months of "playing", the bank account is looking a little weak. We'll keep you posted on any news on that front!

Well, the last quarter of 2007 has been an adventure. Here's hoping that 2008 brings health, happiness and peace to us all........

Happy holidays to everyone and thanks for "tuning in" to our blog!

And the Journey Continues......... (Lisa)

Hello to anyone out there who is actually still checking our blog!

As some of you may know, we are still on the road. We spent a week in Asheville, finding the perfect rental house, but it won't be available until sometime during the first week in December. So, in the meantime, the vacation continues!

We've had time to visit some wonderful old friends (the Shaw family in Atlanta, Sean in Milledgeville, GA, and Stuart in Atlanta) and some wonderful family (Anthony's sister Elizabeth and her kids in Milledgeville). We are currently visiting Anthony's mother in New Orleans, where we'll spend Thanksgiving!

Today we had the full New Orleans experience, starting with a streetcar ride to the French Quarter, and Cafe du Monde (a coffee stand dating back to 1862) where we had beignets and cafe au lait. We walked through Jackson Square, and admired all the gorgeous architecture in the quarter. We had lunch at Johnny's Po Boys, a New Orleans institution. (Click here for info on Johnny's and the po boy.) It's all about the food, isn't it?

On our way here, we stopped to catch the LSU vs. Ole Miss game in Oxford, Mississippi. That was an experience (especially for someone like me who doesn't even understand the game). It was actually a lot of fun, and I kind of got into it! (By the way, LSU won - that's "our" team.) For those of you following such things, LSU is currently ranked #1 in the SEC. Yay LSU!

After Thanksgiving, we'll be leaving New Orleans (and the nice warm weather) heading for Indiana (and my family). Brrr. We're hoping to squeeze in a visit to friends in Chicago (why not?) also. We will be ready to settle in and never leave our house once we move in, let me tell you!

About that house: It's tiny (only one bedroom), but very cute. It has a front porch, and a deck that wraps around two sides of the house. It has a woodburning stove, and a view of the mountains! It's in an awesome neighborhood called Montford, which will be great for walks. It's walking distance to downtown Asheville and Greenlife Grocery. It's about a thirty second walk (literally) to the park where the Montford Park Players perform plays in their Shakespeare Festival from June through October. And there's a handy little nook in the house where our inflatable mattress will fit nicely, when you all come for visits.......... Oh yeah - it's on Gay Street. (Not that there's anything wrong with that.) We'll post photos soon.

Stay tuned - we'll update you on our wandering soon!

Back in the USA (Lisa)

Well, we made it back to the good ol' US of A. It was a mostly uneventful journey - well, with the exception of our taxi in Belize City breaking down on the way to the airport. (A good samaritan picked us up and drove us the rest of the way and all was well.) It's a bit weird readjusting to the pace here after six weeks south of the border! But, we're doing our best to re-acclimate slowly. In the meantime, here's a list of some of the things we'll miss, and others we're happy to be done with:

Things we'll miss:

• $15 hotel rooms
• the turquoise waters of the Caribbean
• CD's being sold on the street for $2 or less (yeah, they're pirated)
• the sound of grackles (bird) in the morning
• fried plantains!
• fresh fish dinners for $6 or less
• meeting interesting people from all corners of the world
• Mayan ruins
• hearing the wacky Kriol language of Belize ("bwoi, you daag oagli!" = boy, your dog is ugly)
• candlelit dinners on Turneffe atoll
• howler monkeys!
• strolling through the streets of 500-year-old colonial cities like San Cristobal de las Casas

Things we're okay doing without:

• sand flies
• language barriers ("No hablo bien el espanol.")
• the constant worry about food and water making us sick
• having to put used TP in a trash can instead of flushing (Guatemala & Mexico)
• always having to track down a waiter to ask for the check (we were given the check without asking exactly TWO times in six weeks)
• milk from a box (very little fresh milk available)
• having to "do math" to figure out what things "really" cost (pesos, quetzals, and dollars, oh my!)
• really crummy quality TP and napkins
• worrying about botflies (go ahead, click on the link!) and malaria

Anyway, I'm sure there are many more things for the lists, but you get the general idea..... Overall, we're kind of happy to be back, and a little sad, too.....

We'll keep posting to this blog, as the adventure will continue. Phase one of our adventure is complete, now comes phase two: creating our new life in Asheville! Stay tuned.....

Turneffe Atoll (Lisa)

Hello all! Well, we have been absent from the blog for a while now. We've been on a semi-deserted island for several days, without electricity and running water - and it was awesome!

While we were in San Ignacio, I became re-acquainted with my friend Maria's uncle Elias, who owns a dive camp out on Turneffe Atoll. He offered us a sweet deal to go out to the camp for several days, basically paying only for his boat fuel. We couldn't pass that up!

We left the dock in Belize City, and two hours later we were on the island, in our little cabana on stilts. The camp is in fairly rough condition right now, post-hurricane (Felix). Normally they have a generator to provide power and pump running water, and a butane stove to cook with, but both were stolen after they evacuated for the storm. So, we cooked over a fire, and bathed with a bucket. We lit our room with candles. It was all good. There were only four of us out there - Anthony and me, Elias, and his helper Victor, who lives out there and guards the place (when there's no hurricane).

The food - well, it was beyond awesome. Victor whipped up a fresh batch of coconut rice daily (made with fresh coconut milk). We snorkeled for conch, which Elias turned into a magical stew. We ate fresh mutton snapper and fresh hog snapper, caught by Elias' fisherman pals (he ran us around in the boat to visit various rickety old fish camps and meet his friends - and scavenge a fish or two). We ate like kings.

Besides the snorkeling for conch, we also snorkeled at a reef called Coral Gardens, which is gorgeous. The reef there is very alive, it's amazing. Lots of fish - including one very inquisitive barracuda, which made both of us nervous when it made a beeline for us (I'm sure he was just curious, but damn, those fish look mean). Anthony helped Elias clean the bottom of the boat, and a good time was had by all.

We also stopped by the Blackbird Caye Resort (fancy resort, closed right now), and the staff who live out there fed us some lunch (rice and beans, slaw, and pig tails for those non-vegetarians among us). Elias is quite good at scrounging a free lunch, as well as fresh fish! (These folks out on the remote islands seem to help each other out and share whatever they have. It's nice.)

The first cold front of the season blew through while we were out at Turneffe - that was exciting. Our little cabana was shaking in the wind gusts - it was quite an adventure. (It wasn't really cold, just windy as heck.)

Anyway, this morning we came back in to civilization, and hopped a boat out to Caye Caulker (a pretty well developed island with all the tourist amenities). No cars, just golf carts and bikes. Nice..... We're at the Tropical Paradise Hotel , for just $20US a night. Beachfront, private balcony. We're happy! We'll be here for another few days, and we'll fly back to the good old USA on Halloween.

Actun Tunichil Muknal Cave (Lisa)

Hello from Belize!

We made it safely back into the land of English speakers! (Although you hear as much Spanish and Belizean Kriol here as you do English.) My friend Maria (from my 2000 and 2001 visits) has rolled out the red carpet, and we are staying for free at one of her hotels here. Incredibly sweet deal. That has allowed us to do some more expensive tours such as:

ATM Cave: I'm not sure I can describe this place and do it any justice at all, but it ROCKS! We drove about an hour into the bush, mostly on a very rocky, bumpy road. We hiked about 40 minutes through the jungle, feeding the mosquitos and wading across the Roaring River three different times on the trail. Then, the fun stuff. We put on our helmets with headlamps, and jumped into the (very deep) pool at the mouth of the cave. We swam through the entrance, and crawled out inside the cave. We then began a half-mile journey into the depths - not an excurison for the faint-hearted or out-of-shape! The river runs through the cave, so we alternately swam, waded through rushing water, climbed and clambered up boulders, wedged ourselves through crevices - all in complete darkness with just our headlamps for light. (There were only the three of us, Anthony, me, and our guide Juan Carlos.) The deeper we got, the more stalactites and stalacmites we encountered, glittering in our lamps like diamonds. Incredible.

Deep in the cave, we came to the "dry chamber" where we continued walking in stocking feet (so as not to damage the limestone with the oils on our skin). We began to see pots everywhere, just lying around. The Maya used this cave for offerings and sacrifices, and the pots contained food offerings over a thousand years ago. There were bowls there which they had used to collect the blood from bloodletting ceremonies (piercing penises and nipples, according to Juan Carlos). Ouch. We were allowed to walk freely among the artifacts, which is incredible. (Tourists have already crushed a few pots in the 8 years or so the cave has been open.) Then, we were walking among some skulls. Again, walking freely around them! (That would NEVER happen in the US!) These were the bones of the sacrificial victims the Maya offered up to Chac, the rain god. The archaeologists can tell that one of them died with hands tied behind his back, facing the wall. Definitely an unwilling victim. We were standing at a 1200-year-old murder site.

The grand finale was at the end of the dry chamber. We had to climb a very high ladder up to a ledge, and there lay a complete skeleton, frozen in the limestone. They call her the "Crystal Maiden". The skeleton is a female, about 5 foot 2, according to the archaeologists. Another murder victim, frozen in time. (It almost feels like you can still hear her screams echoing through the chamber.) Creepy. According to Juan Carlos, these sacrifices were most likely performed during times of drought, and the victims were often prisoners captured from enemy tribes. (Although it was also considered an honor to be sacrificed, and they sometimes sacrificed one of their own.) Either way, the Maya were kind of a rough bunch, in my opinion!

Anyway, we spent about two hours underground with the bones and whatever spirits remain. Pretty incredible experience.

The Blue Girl Lives! (Lisa)

Hello all. I'll add my two cents to Anthony's post, concerning our day chilling out in the Flores area:

Back in 2001 I went to Spanish school in the villages across the lake from Flores, and I lived with a local family. They were wonderful people, and really treated me like part of the family. They didn't have much - the kitchen is outside, they cook over a wood fire out there, they use an outhouse, and a family of at least 11 people lived and slept in a house the size of many American families' living rooms. (They had reserved the only bedrooms for students such as myself.)

Anyway - I decided I wanted to go back and visit "my" family. We took a minibus around the lake to San Jose (it used to be more easily accessed by boat, but now the road is paved), and started up the hill in the hot sun(these are incredibly steep hills, too). I found my old school, and the road I thought the family lived on. Things looked very different, and I had to ask around to find them. (They had built a whole new street next to the house since I left!) Once I had my bearings back, I found the place, and my "parents", Berta and Carmen. They were as welcoming as I knew they would be, and sat us down for some homemade limeade while we caught each other up on the last six years (and I introduced my husband!). The baby I knew back then is now a sweet 8 year old boy, full of hugs and kisses for the gringa he doesn't even remember - it was all wonderful.

Berta also gave me an update on the little girl who used to live next door to them. Some of you may have read my "Blue Girl" essay, about this girl - she was sick (her heart), and had a blue tint to her skin. I had agonized over what I might be able to do to help her, as her family was incredibly poor (I had done nothing, and it had bothered me for years). Berta told me the happy news that the girl is doing well. She is still a bit sickly, but is going to school and is happy. This was welcome news.

We wrapped up our day in San Jose with lunch at my former Spanish teacher's new restaurant (he quit the teaching business, married a gringa, and opened a cafe and bar). All in all, the day was a success.

Tikal - Back in Guatemala (Anthony)

Greetings All,

The last posting had us teetering at the border. We are currently in San Ignacio, Belize at the moment but that's getting ahead of ourselves. I've got some Tikal photos downloaded so I'll stick to that for now.

The border crossing went fairly smooth, considering it involved a van, a boat, a truck driven by a twelve year old and a shuttle that was missing it's top gear. I think we were taken for $5 each at the border crossing but they were very friendly about it. Our bus driver (Eddie) was very nice but he turned out to be an agent for San Juan Travel in St. Elena. He drove us to the ATM, then gave us his sales pitch. We stopped at the agency, within sight of our destination (Flores, Guatemala) and he gave us the "everybody off" sign so we could buy tickets for his tours. No one did, and after 2-3 mins of uncomfortable silence, he got the message and drove us onto the island of Flores and tried to sell us on a hotel. After 6-7 hrs of heat, dust and potholes, we were not in the mood. Everyone split up from there and we found the place where Lisa had stayed in 2001. He was a nice guy though.

We relaxed in the Flores area for a day (I'll let Lisa fill you in this portion) and booked a sunrise tour of Tikal. It was 40% less then our good friend Eddie had quoted and, although it was booked through a 3rd party company, was actually run by (dramatic pause) San Juan Travel!

We got on the bus at 3:30 in the morning to get at Tikal before the sun came up. We got out of the van in the pitch black darkness with 30 other people and met our guide, Luis, who spoke perfect English. We grabbed our flashlights and headed on the trail towards Temple 4, a tower that peeks above the trees over the surrounding jungle. On the way there we could hear the Howler Monkeys in the trees above us but we could see very little else. We got on top of Temple 4 just in time to see daylight. Although the sunrise was obscured by clouds, the view was amazing. The other temples slowly came into focus as the darkness and the mist disappeared. The sounds of the monkeys and jungle birds added to the atmosphere perfectly.

The rest of the day was very cool as well. Tikal doesn't have as many wall carvings as the other major ruins but it makes up for it in pure grandeur. You really get the feeling that this was a place where 100,000 people lived. We saw an anteater, oscillated turkeys and a harpy eagle, which is just being reintroduced to the area by conservationists.

Bonampak & Yaxchilan (Lisa)

Our adventures continue.... We left Palenque and took a minibus/van three hours east/southeast to visit the ruins of Bonampak and Yaxchilan. They were amazing, and very different. There's no real way to describe how awesome they were, but I'll try to do a brief summary:

Bonampak is a small site, but is known for the painted murals which are preserved inside one of the temples. Most Maya paintings have been lost to time (it has been over a THOUSAND years), but these are incredible. There are three rooms with paintings on all four walls, each a different theme. (One of them supposedly depicts a pot-bellied dwarf, but we really couldn't find him.) Anyway, we just stood in awe looking at them....

After Bonampak we took a boat 45 minutes up the Usumacinta River (which forms the border between Mexico and Guatemala), to Yaxchilan. (Our boat captain was maybe 11 years old, and handled that thing like a Jaguar.) Yaxchilan is a remote site, only accessible by boat, and it is pretty darned mystical, in my opinion. It sits deep in the jungle, and everything is overgrown with moss and vines. There is a passageway through one of the temples (completely pitch black inside), and it is populated by a whole lot of bats and some big-ass spiders (at least 10 inches across). Extremely creepy, and extremely cool.

We stayed the night in the Lacondon jungle, in a Lacandon Maya village. It was a pretty weird place, but I'm glad we did it. We really didn't get to talk with any of the locals, which was a shame. They are an interesting bunch, many of the men still wear the traditional clothing, which is basically a white nightgown made out of a cotton sheet-like material. We saw men riding mountain bikes in their gowns, and one guy (boy do I wish I had gotten a photo) pushing a wheelbarrow in his "nightie" and rubber boots. We took a walk in the jungle with a French couple who were there with us, and met up with a shirtless Lacondon guy who turned us around, afraid that we'd get lost in the jungle because dark was approaching.

The next morning we were driven to a crossroads where we met up with another minibus. Our driver to the crossroads was a boy so young he could barely reach the pedals of the truck, and had to crane his little neck to see over the steering wheel! (He was actually a pretty good driver - and it was a stick shift!) The minibus took us to the river, and we took another 45 minute boat trip on the Usumacinta, this time in the opposite direction - across the river to Bethel, on the Guatemalan side. We cleared immigration and got stamped back into Guatemala, and were off to Flores in a bus.

Tomorrow we're off to Tikal - we'll keep you posted!

Palenque! (Lisa)

We made it to Palenque! This is an amazing Mayan ruin, much more impressive than I ever expected. It rained off and on all morning, but that didn't even take away from our experience - in fact, it may have added to it. The temples were shrouded in a swirling mist, howler monkeys' roars were echoing through the jungle......pretty cool ambiance. (I'm leaving out the tour bus full of Germans, which did NOT add to the ambiance, at least not in a good way. But once they had waddled off, peace was restored.)

The heyday of Palenque was in the 600 a.d. to 900 a.d time period. Those folks were pretty darned industrious, hauling all those stones around without the aid of a bulldozer...... There are some amazing carvings, both on site and removed and preserved in the museum. There are a bunch of tiny sculptures taken from the site and in the museum now, they are from 1 to 6 inches high, and so intricate. Amazing...

Anyway, we are staying at El Panchan, an area near the ruins, in the jungle. Pretty rustic, but we have a huge room (with a kitchenette) for less than $17 a night. Even has hot water..... (Which is less of a draw now, as it is HOT and humid!) Getting here from San Cristobal was interesting, though...... We took a minibus instead of a chicken bus, which was a great idea. (We got to stop at a couple of cool waterfalls along the way.) The route is 6 hours or so of driving time, down out of the mountains on a very winding, twisty, speed-bump-laden road. The driver (Alfredo) was a bit of a maniac, and the tires were literally squealing as he rounded the bends at a high rate of speed. (The word "plummet" kept popping into my mind, for some reason....) Alfredo also likes head-banger music and thought it would be nice to share that with all of us. Marilyn Manson, Metallica (with an inexplicable dash of "Who Let the Dogs Out"), it all just added to the fun. We will buy stock in whatever company makes Dramamine when we get back - yes, once again, just say YES to drugs! Anyway, we made it here safe and sound.

Tomorrow we are off to Bonampak and Yaxchilan, two other Mayan sites, more remote and deeper in the jungle. Then Saturday we cross the Usumacinta River and we'll be back in Guatemala!

More from Guatemala........

The San Cristobal Update (Lisa)

Well, hello! We're still here! Here's a small update on what we've been doing:

Anthony did a boat tour of Sumidero Canyon, which is outside San Cristobal. I had planned to go too, but instead I stayed behind and dealt with a second round of the dreaded beasties. (They are really gone now, and I promise I´m fine, Mom.) Anyway, he says it was pretty gorgeous.

Yesterday we went through the Maya Medicine Museum, which was pretty interesting. The indigenous people in these mountains still do a lot of plant healing, and still do some wacky healing techniques and ceremonies. For instance: they have a curandero (healer) do a ceremony and chant while they burn certain quantities of candles, and certain colors. They incorporate Coke into the ceremony, either by sprinkling it on themselves, or drinking it and burping (the burping expels bad spirits). They have certain healers who are "pulse readers", they feel your pulse and tell you what's wrong and how to heal it (how many candles and what color?). Sometimes they wave a chicken or egg over the patient a few times, which supposedly really helps. (Why haven't I tried that??)

We were lucky enough to watch two Maya women who came to the curandero at the museum, they did the candles and the soda (sipping, no sprinkling), and then the pulse reading. They pay a small fee to the curandero for this service. (As Anthony so keenly observed, "Heck, I can get a pulse reading at Wal-Mart for FREE!") Anyway, it was interesting to watch. They have a video on childbirth rituals, and displays with mannekins which are creepy, but interesting. (The guy in the photo is making this stuff of ground wild tobacco and limestone, which the Maya swirl around in their mouth and swallow slowly - for good luck and good health.) The museum also has a "pharmacy" on the grounds, where you can find a plant-based potion for whatever ails ya.....

The walk back from the museum took us through the market, which was, of course, interesting and totally chaotic. We did stop briefly and admire the CDs and DVDs for sale - all bootleg homemade copies. Turns out you can get a copy of "Big Wet Brazilian Asses" for a mere 10 pesos (about a buck). We passed. (Sorry to disappoint those of you who might have been hoping for a souvenir.)

Today we spent some time just soaking up some more of the city. It's really pretty, and there is a lot to see just wandering around. I'm rather sad to have missed some time here because of being sick! Here´s a shot of the area around the park, showing all the Maya ladies and children surrounding a poor tourist. (They are tough, you have to say no about ten times before they give in and leave you in peace. What's sad is all the children selling - at all hours of the night and day.)

We spent some time in the park this morning, there's a cafe right in the middle where we could get out of the cool drizzle and have coffee upstairs and watch the goings-on in the park. (Of course the Maya children/salesgirls found us up there. Anthony bought a bracelet and they were happy.) It´s nice and cool here (unlike Wilmington right now, from what I see!), it's in the low 70's in the day, and low to mid 60's at night. The first rain we've had in San Cristobal was today, so we're not complaining.

We visited a cool museum called Na Balom this afternoon, with all kinds of photos and artifacts from the Lacandon Indians, collected by a European couple in the 50's. Pretty impressive stuff. (I tried to find a Flickr photo, but no luck.)

Anyway, we're off tomorrow, headed for the lowlands and the Mayan ruins of Palenque. And the heat and mosquitos, I´m sure. The fun part is that we get to stop at two waterfall areas and spend some time along the way - that should be pretty nice!

More later, from the lowlands.....

Say YES to Drugs!

Howdy, all! I´ll bet you´ve been wondering where we´ve been. Well, we´ve been busy doing touristy things like an all-day tour, a border crossing into Mexico, and spending a couple of days being sick as dogs.

I´ll start with the non-fun stuff: Right after we crossed from Guatemala to Mexico (7 hours in a van full of Israelis chatting nonstop in Hebrew), it became apparent that we had brought some Guatemalan beasties over the border with us (and Customs didn´t even notice!). It hit Anthony first, and I was right behind. I eventually wrote a note in Spanish describing our symptoms (it´s remarkable how similar the English and Spanish words are for diarrhea, fever, and nausea), and sent Anthony to the pharmacy (he was in a little better shape than I was at that time). Ya gotta love Mexico, after reading my note they set him up with some antibiotics, over the counter, and they cost less than four bucks. Yay Mexico. Anyway, we are starting to feel human again, ready to venture out and see San Cristobal de las Casas.

Now the fun stuff: So, before we left Guatemala, we spent a few days in Panajachel, then headed to Quetzaltenango for a couple of nights. It´s pretty darned chilly in Quetzaltenango. (You all know how much I like chilly.) We did a great tour one day, and saw some pretty cool stuff. We visited a factory where they make hand-blown glass stuff (glasses, goblets, decorative things), they just let us walk around amongst the guys with glowing hot gobs of glass on the end of tubes, sticking them in and out of fiery ovens. (We didn´t even have to sign a waiver.) We visited a whole bunch of villages and saw the oldest Christian church in Central America (1500´s).

We visited two more Maximon statues (see photos below). We watched ladies preparing cotton yarn to be dyed. We visited some guy´s house where on the third floor there are two looms, and we watched the fabric being woven (the weaver makes about $6 a day). The same guy with the looms makes this home-brewed wine called Caldo de Frutas (fruit soup), it´s a wine they only make in this village. Of course we bought some. (It´s gone already.) Oh, and we also visited some hot springs that were pretty neat. They are way up in the mountains, everything is covered in swirling fog and steam from the springs. The water is HOT, as it drips out of the mountain, it´s actually too hot to touch. We soaked for quite a while there.......

We are currently in San Cristobal de las Casas (Mexico), which appears to be an amazing city. Very cosmopolitan, it feels like Europe (but with cheap food). We plan on staying a few days, and taking a tour or two. We started out in a kind of iffy hostel, with very loud music right outside our door for hours (ranging from rap to Smashing Pumpkins to salsa). After staying in bed for 24 hours there, sick, we decided to move. We´ve now got some awesome digs at the Casa Margarita. (See photo here.) It´s so lovely I think even my parents would enjoy staying here! (I can´t say that about most of the places we´ve been...) It´s a splurge at $27, but we felt like we deserved something nice.

Well, that´s all for now. We´ll post again soon!

RANDOM PHOTOS (Anthony)

Hola amigos,
We are currently in Panjachel for a couple of days, resting our calves and our minds. I am going to try to post some trip photos. If the gods of mass media are awake and smiling (just who IS the patron saint of the internet. Someone get the Pope on the phone! STAT! ) we will be able to give you a little show. OK. Are you sitting down? Here we go.

CLICK ON ANY PHOTO TO ENLARGE

Photo 1. Mario´s Rooms, Panajachel (It´s like we have our own little patio!)











Photo 2. San Pedro (Local dude, local duds)











Photo 3. JESUS ES EL SEÑOR (I asked who Da´Man is in the next town - Apparently it´s David Hasselhoff.)













Photo 4. Beware of overhanging, melon-sized avocados.













Photo 5. Catholic priests call him Saint Simon, the local Maya call him Maximon, king of the underworld. He likes offerings of cigars and rum. I´m going to call it a toss-up.














Photo 6. I SWEAR that sign wasn´t there when we first arrived in San Pedro.











I´ll try to get some more scenic photos up next time.

Me like food. Food good. (Lisa)

Well, the food has been pretty amazing on this trip so far - both the local food and the "gringo food". I hadn´t really counted on the fact that a whole lot of vegetarians travel the same route we are on - therefore, there is a vast array of veggie food available. Some of my favorites have been: the Indonesian Gado Gado I mentioned earlier, German spaetzle in Antigua, mango curry in San Pedro (eaten with chopsticks, of course), a tofu burger in Panajachel, "Pepian", a local dish of veggies and rice with a sauce made from sesame, pumpkin, and cinnamon, and "espagheti Diablo" ("devil spaghetti") in Antigua (regular spaghetti, but with the addition of some pretty darned hot peppers).

The food at our family´s house in San Pedro was pretty good, too. Rosa was a good sport about cooking my food without meat (though I´m sure she was wondering why the heck someone who can afford meat would not eat it). She made us the most amazing fried plantains I´ve ever had in my life. I could (and did) eat a whole plateful of those things. (See photo for an example.) Rosa also came up with a broccoli dish that I intend to replicate when we get back home - the cooked broccoli was dipped in egg batter and fried in butter, and topped with tomatoes that she had roasted on a stick in her wood fire. Yum. We sampled some "tortilla tea" one morning, Rosa just tossed some tortillas (that woman is always making tortillas) into a pot of boiling water. That was interesting, but I have to say I prefer the coffee.

Another amazing thing about this area is the fruit that´s just lying all over the ground! We had an avocado tree in our yard, and there are just avocados lying all over the place. I started doing the math in my head: "$1.99 times ten, there´s at least twenty dollars worth of avocados lying around on the ground - not to mention the hundreds still on the tree!" Anthony picked one up this morning on the way to the boat, just lying in the middle of the street. There are also key limes everywhere, oranges, etc. all just lying around for the taking. Pretty cool. We visited a handicraft co-op in Antigua, and the employees were whacking at a tree in the back to get some fruit down - they were nice enough to let us sample it. They told us what it was, but of course we don´t remember. Whatever it was, it was amazing.

Anyway, me like food. Food good.

The San Pedro Report (Lisa)

Well, we're officially students. I had forgotton how hard school is! We're spending four hours each morning attempting to get some kind of grip on this slippery language of Spanish. The school is awesome - it's on a hill (well, everything's on a hill here!) overlooking lake Atitlan and several volcanos. Anthony and I each have our own teacher (mine is Ruben, his is Chino), and we sit at desks under little thatched roofs, with a view of the lake. (The gorgeous view is a little distracting, actually!) We have about an hour of homework every day, too. Did I mention it's hard? Our Spanish is improving bit by bit, although it's still hard to have a normal conversation without resorting to Tarzan Spanish (Me like food. Food good.)

The town of San Pedro is pretty interesting, with a mix of locals (mostly Maya, but a lot of latinos, too), and gringos. Almost all the Mayan women wear their "traje", colorful hand woven wraparound skirts, often with a hand embroidered blouse. Most of the men dress in modern clothes, but there are a few of the old timers in full traje, with very cool colorful hand woven pants. (You can actually take weaving classes here...)

When you walk through the streets you can hear the clapping sound of women making tortillas from scratch (they slap the heck out of them to shape them), and the really bad singing of the Evangelicals in their churches. (The singing is very loud, and can go on for hours. Our house is right next to a church. We have live music every night. Yay.) You'll also hear a whole lot of people in the street speaking to each other in their Mayan language. (Some of them don't even speak much Spanish, from what I understand.) To me, their language sounds like a combination of Dutch and one of those African tongue-clicking languages.

The family we live with is very nice. Our "mother" is Rosa, and our "father" is Domingo. Their kids are mostly grown, with the youngest in high school. Domingo doesn't do any work that brings in money, but he has crops up in the mountains which feed the family. He grows coffee (which we drink in the morning), maize/corn (which we eat every day in the form of tortillas), and other veggies. The only income the family has is from hosting students like us. Domingo heads up into the mountains to chop firewood every day, because they cook tortillas and other things over a wood fire in the kitchen. (They do have a gas stove, too.)

Anthony and I actually have our own little building next door to the main house, which belongs to their grown daughter. We have our own toilet, and our own TV! We actually have dozens of channels, Discovery, Animal Planet, HBO - we didn't have any of that at home! Cable here is cheap, around $3.50 per month. (Electricity is expensive, though, my teacher actually unplugs his fridge every night to save money.) Anyway, it's entertaining watching Jeff Corwin in Spanish...

The best thing about our house is, there is HOT water in the shower. The water is just a trickle, and you have to jump around to get wet, but by God, it's HOT. It's actually pretty cool here, in the low 60's at night, so the hot shower rocks.

That's the end of my report for now. I just re-read the above, and I'm realizing that for every thing I've shared, there are a dozen more that I don't have time to write about. It's truly amazing to spend time in another culture - entertaining, educational, and humbling........

School in San Pedro (Lisa)

If anyone is out there checking up on us - no worries, we´re still here! We´re in San Pedro la Laguna, on the shores of Lake Atitlan. We´re quite busy, studying Spanish at the school for four hours in the morning, plus an hour or so of homework in the afternoon. School is hard!

 

We´re living with a family, and our "mother" is feeding us well. I´m not sure if I´ll gain weight from all the food I´m eating, or lose weight from all the hill climbing on the streets and paths of San Pedro!

 

Anyway, we´ll post more when we have more than a couple of minutes. There is so much to share.....

 

 

A Morning in the Park (Lisa)

Yesterday I had a goal - to meet someone new and have a chat. I didn´t care who, or what language it was in. I found a comfy bench in the central square of Antigua, got some Guatemalan coffee, and planted myself for three hours. (Anthony was out playing with lava atop a live volcano.) Here´s a brief synopsis of some of the people I met:

A 10-year-old Mayan girl, selling hand woven scarves. She came running up to me, hurling all the English she knew at me (mostly along the lines of "I make you good price"). She made me laugh, and I bought a scarf after an exhilarating round of bargaining. I probably still paid twice what I should, but I had fun. The little girl works five days a week selling her stuff - no school.

A homeless (I think) alcoholic (I know). He shuffled up to me in dirty clothes and stocking feet, reeking of urine and alcohol. I was ignoring him until I realized he was speaking (broken) English to me. I decided to open my mind and hear what he had to say. Turns out he lived in Portland, Oregon for years, working at McDonald´s. He´s actually legal to work in the US. I asked why he left, and he said, "Because I am stupid." He wanted nothing from me, just a chat. In fact, he told me about one of the restaurant owners in town who helps him - "But when she gives me money, I just go drink". He told me he wanted so badly to change, but didn´t know how. He complimented my blue eyes, thanked me for listening, and shuffled away.

A retired expat, a man of around 60 or 65 from L.A. He lives in a five bedroom house all by himself (he pays $300 per month) on the outskirts of Antigua. He went back to school to become a nurse at age 51, and still works and volunteers here in Antigua, using his nursing skills. He´s livin´the good life in Guatemala on $1000 a month.

A Belgian traveler, here for a month visiting the family she lived with 7 years ago when she was studying Spanish in Antigua. We chatted a bit as we were both sitting on a bench writing in our journals.

I enjoyed my morning in the park, and my goal was accomplished. And I have to admit, the folks I met gave me some things to think about.....

Happy Birthday! (Anthony)

I would like to report a birth of serious significance. At 9 am on Sept. 20th 2007, on the Pacaya Volcano (90 minutes outside of Antigua), a small glowing blob of molten discharge was plucked from the womb of an active lava flow (with a stick no less) and flung onto the cooler surface of the adjoining bank and left to solidify. Celebratory notices will be forthcoming.

Not bad after a 6 billion year gestation period.

More fun in Antigua (Lisa)

Ya gotta love a town that has a fountain like this in its central square! There´s one of these lovely (lactating?) ladies on all four sides of the fountain, too - so folks on all sides of the park can enjoy.....

Still enjoying Antigua - my legs and ankles are actually sore from walking for hours on the cobblestone streets (trickier than it sounds, actually). One of the many highlights: dining on Indonesion food while listening to 80´s music. Nothing says "Guatemala" like Air Supply and a plate of Gado Gado....

We´ve arrived in Antigua! (Lisa)

We made it! We arrived in Guatemala yesterday afternoon, and it couldn´t have been easier. Got the TriRail to Miami Airport, took a short flight (2 1/2 hours) to Guatemala, grabbed a shuttle to Antigua. It went like clockwork!

We´re staying at a pretty cool hotel, a few doors down from this church (La Merced). Our second floor room looks out over the top of the church, and has a view of three volcanoes! It´s pretty awesome for just over 18 bucks a night. Fun feature - some dude goes up in the bell tower and smacks the heck out of the bell with a hammer or mallet or something at 6am. So, there´s a free wakeup call. He goes up again at 6:15 and 6:30, just in case it didn´t rouse everyone the first time. (Kind of like a snooze alarm.) Of course, the fireworks at 6:10 worked, too. We were actually glad to get up that early, we wandered around with our cameras and took advantage of some great early morning light.

We met up with my ex (John) last night, he is flying back to the US today. The last time we saw him was in Thailand on our honeymoon, which was actually much weirder (this time our meeting was planned, and we had a nice chat over some cold Gallo beer).

That´s it for now. More updates to come!

(P.S. Photo courtesy of a nice guy posting on Flickr, offering Creative Commons usage. I´ll probably continue to use that, as it´s much easier than trying to upload our photos in internet cafes. We´ll post some of those once we return from the trip.)

The "Butt-Kickin' Bakounis" (Lisa)

As we finish packing our bags and getting ready for our departure tomorrow, we just wanted to say a big ol' THANK YOU to the Bakouni family.

Raed, Terri, and Amanda have welcomed us into their home, have fed us some awesome food, and have agreed to take care of our mail and Anthony's car while we're gone. They are part of our extended family, and we love them.

(Of course we HAVE to say nice things about them or they'll kick our butts. They are studying Karate...........)

P.S. Thanks to everyone else out there who has helped make this trip possible (Beth, who is keeping my car safe and sound in Wilmington, and many others - you know who you are.) We couldn't have done all of this without your support.

Key West Highlights (Lisa)

We spent five awesome nights in Key West - here are some of the highlights:

Taking Anthony on a tour of the eight different houses I lived in over my fourteen years in Key West (pictured is the oldest house in KW - it's a museum, I was a live-in caretaker there).

Visiting Key West Watersports (where I worked for 10 years), seeing all the changes that have been made since I last visited.

The mini-reunion party for all the old Watersports employees - lots of laughs, lots of "remember when" stories. ("Remember when our work uniform consisted of a bikini and a pair of flip-flops?")

Chillin' on the beach at Ft. Zachary Taylor State Park, watching the sailboats coming in and out of the harbor.

A late afternoon trip with the Quirk-Murphy family on their flats skiff. We headed out to Snipe Point to stroll in the beach shallows shark-spotting, and fished a little as the sun came down. Tony Murphy is an awesome fishing guide - check out his Key Limey Charters.

Watching the Key West sunset at Mallory Square. It's a KW institution, with singers, vendors and performers. It was kind of quiet this time of year, but some of the old regulars were still there - Will Soto (juggler/tightrope walker) and DW Blademaster (sword swallower) have been doing their thing at Sunset since before I arrived in 1986.

Getting my hip "fixed"! Some of you may remember that I was limping around before I left, with a mystery pain in my hip. Turns out it was trochanteric bursitis, which was diagnosed at a dinner party by Mike Quirk (dad to my old pal Colleen), who is a P.A. in Key West. One stop by his office for a freebie cortisone shot, and I was good as new!

Riding bikes around old town, balancing cafe con leches in the basket. I think that's what I miss most about living in KW - pedaling lazily through the streets, roosters scattering ahead. (Thanks to Rich and Ema for lending us their awesome "conch cruisers" - as well as putting us up in their home and guest cottage!)

El Siboney. Black beans, yellow rice. Plaintains. Cuban toast. Yum.

It was hard to pull ourselves away from Key West's spell and head north on US1 again. But, we have another chapter of the adventure ahead (it begins tomorrow - adios, Florida, and hola Guatemala!).

The Mystery of the Emerald (Lisa)

Some of you may already know the story - but here's a brief synopsis: In 1987 I was given a rough emerald by a man who worked for Mel Fisher, the famous Key West treasure salvor who salvaged the 1622 wreck of the Spanish galleon Atocha. (Read more about the shipwreck here.) The man never told me how he came by the emerald, but I always assumed it was from the Atocha. I threw it in a box and forgot about it. (I was 22 and not very smart.)

Twenty years later, I thought I should find out more about my emerald (especially after seeing similar stones selling for tens of thousands of dollars!). The king of emerald knowledge - especially Atocha emeralds - is in Key West, at Emeralds International. His appraisals ain't cheap ($250), but we decided to go for it. We brought the stone with us to Key West, and went to visit with Manuel Marcial.

Manuel was pretty excited about my emerald at first glance (and we were too, when we saw one in his display case that wasn't much bigger, and was listed at $48,000!). We left the emerald for him to study, and went off to plan our early retirement.

My cell phone rang a few hours later, when I was out on a flats skiff in the Key West backcountry with friends - and it was Manuel. Of course I immediately thought he was calling because he couldn't contain his excitement and wanted to share great news. Alas, that was not why he called. He wanted to pop our balloon earlier rather than later.

Turns out, the emerald did NOT come from the Atocha, or any other shipwreck. (Manuel is able to tell a lot of things about a stone when he puts it under the microscope, including whether it was on the bottom of the sea for 400 years.) And it is NOT a Columbian emerald, which was his original assumption - it is from Brazil, from a mine in the Itabira region. Manuel apologized profusely for his initial bad assessment, and assured me he would refund half the appraisal fee. But just when I was ready to ask him to just toss the stone in the trash bin, he sadly informed met that it was worth "only" $700 to $900. (My question is: how much did he THINK that sucker might be worth when he first eyeballed it???)

At any rate, the mystery continues. How did my friend come to have a Brazilian emerald that did NOT come from the wreck?? He worked for Mel, and was surrounded by nothing but shipwreck treasure all day! I'll never know. We didn't keep in touch, and I don't even remember his last name. I guess it really doesn't matter.

I'll eventually have the stone "free form" faceted, and hang it on a pretty chain around my neck. The mystery will live on........

Cuban Coffee in Key West (Lisa)

I know it doesn't look like much, but Sandy's Cafe (located inside the M&M Laundromat) is a little slice of heaven. There's a crowd every morning, lining up for cafe con leche and Cuban toast and sandwiches. (And for the the hard core addicts, "buchi" - a tiny little cup with a concentrated "shot" of thick coffee.)

Who knew that fourteen years of memories could be concentrated in one styrofoam cup of steaming hot Cuban coffee? I swear, tears came to my eyes with the first sip. Anthony and I took our coffees (and egg/cheese/lettuce/tomato/mayo/on Cuban bread sandwiches) down to the beach to watch a storm come in. It was paradise........

Spoiled in St. Augustine (Lisa)

Well, if our first night on the road is any kind of omen, we're headed for wonderful things! Our intention was to stop at a Motel 6-style motel near the interstate, and have a short visit with John and Sarah Zaruba - friends and coworkers from my Key West beach days. Well, the Zarubas pulled out all the stops, and rolled out the red carpet. They called in some favors and got us a comp room (yes, FREE) at the Casa Monica - an amazing colonial hotel in the heart of St. Augustine, built in 1888 (yes, that's it in the attached photo). This place rocks - absolutely gorgeous, luxurious as all get-out. Pool, hot tub, valet parking, and a matching his 'n hers set of Hugh Hefner robes in the room. (Did I mention it was FREE?)

The visit with the Zarubas was a lot of fun - though Anthony may have gotten tired of all the "remember when" Key West stories being shared! It had been about 8 years since I'd seen John and Sarah, and their kids Sydney and Jack (now in 7th and 3rd grades, and so grown up!). They are wonderful people. They run charters on a big, gorgeous sailboat called "Schooner Freedom". If you're ever in St. Augustine, you should look 'em up! (Check out the boat at http://www.schoonerfreedom.com)

Goodbye House

Well, it’s official. Most of our things are packed, and the house is all empty and sad-looking. Our landlord has signed a lease with the new tenants, who will move in before our departure dust has even had a chance to settle. We’re almost free. And homeless. And unemployed.

But really – this is a good thing, this new adventure. As Helen Keller so wisely said, “Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.”