Plan Update #3
Hello everyone.....
I know it has been quite some time since we have last written, so you
are all probably wondering if the two gringos were killed by angry
gunmen in the mountains of Guatemala. No, you may all breathe a
collective sigh of relief. As a matter of fact, Jonathan and Bryan
are alive and well and are now in Ecuador.
Yes, quite a different scene from when our story left off. As you may
recall, our last communique was from Oaxaca, Mexico when we were on
our way to the Pacific Coast to catch a bit of sun. Well, a lot has
been going on since then, so let me give you all the Readers´Digest
condensed version.
We did head to the beach in Mexico (Zipolite, to be exact) which ended
up being quite pleasant (and not just because it was a nude beach, either.) As it turns out, we spent a couple of days there and just kind of hung out (sorry....)....
From Mexico, we headed to Guatemala. We took what the locals call a
¨chicken bus¨. Imagine your grade school bus, only with 50% less leg
room. Then imagine putting three large adults to a row on sticky
green vinyl seats. Add 65 people in the aisle plus 20 live chickens,
tie all of your luggage to the top, and there you have a chicken bus.
I must say, it was by far the most uncomfortable four hours I ever
experienced.
However, Lake Atitlan--our destination--was well worth the trip. There
we climbed a 9000 foot volcano (dormant of course.) We had a guide
with us so we could find the trail and also so we would not be killed
by bandits. The view from the San Pedro Volcano was spectacular and
luckily we were not robbed like the group that had gone up the week
before who was robbed of everything but their underwear.
From Lake Atitlan we headed to Antigua, the old capital of Guatemala.
It was a nice colonial city but we were only afforded a day there as
we were on our way to San Salvador, El Salvador on a direct bus.
We were fortunate enough to meet a great guy named Carlos on the bus
who invited us into his house after we couldn´t find a hotel in San
Salvador that was of budget quality. Carlos wanted to make sure that
we had a good impression of his country. Carlos offered up his house,
gave us food and showed us some the sites of San Salvador.
¨It is a dangerous city¨, his father told me as I read the ransom note
that had been slipped under his door just a few days earlier demanding
payment or his family would be kidnapped. Luckily, the note was an
empty threat but went to show the desparation of some of the people in
their country.
We were unscathed as we made our way to the border of Honduras-- eventually making our way to Tegucigalpa through a variety of hitched rides and broken buses. Tegucigalpa was severely damaged by Hurricane Mitch--as was the rest of Honduras--and we stayed there for a bit to help out with hurricane relief efforts. Through one of Jonathan´s relatives we made contact with an organization called World Vision, and we worked in their warehouse for a few days packing bags of provisions that were then trucked to outlying areas. It was a great experience--especially because the local people we worked with, junior high kids through adults, were so appreciative of the help that everyone was giving.
From Teguciagalpa we decided to head directly to San Jose, Costa Rica
via Managua, Nicaragua. Since is was already the 22nd of December, we
had to high-tail it to Costa Rica to be there for 24th where we had
made plane reservations to go (gasp) home for the holidays. Jonathan-- being the golden child of American Airlines and having more frequent flier miles than the Pope had rosaries--gave Bryan a bunch (of miles, not rosaries) so Bryan could fly home to Chicago while Jonathan went
to Toronto for the holidays.
We reunited in Costa Rica after filling up on good Chicago pizza (at least for Bryan) and the trip continued. Since we had both seen Costa Rica before, we decided to cut short our time there (Jonathan did spend some time at Manuel Antonio National Park,communing with nature and sea kayaking.)
After saying a quick hello and goodbye to our Costa Rican friends, we
hopped the bus the next day to Panama--stopping at the border overnight-- only long enough to comtemplate why we didn´t spend the extra money to get a room with air conditioning. After sweating out 35% of our body weight, we hopped a bus to Panama City. The weird thing was we kept hearing the Van Halen 1984 album playing over and over everywhere we went...okay, maybe not, but that would have been cool. (Not all of you will get this joke; if you don´t understand just smile and nod like you do.)
Panama City was neat--especially when you could tell everyone that you
had their ex-strongman Noriega in Illinois´ very own Marion Federal
Penitentary. Besides amusing ourselves with Noriega jokes, we did get
to the see the Panama Canal. Lots of valves and hydraulics on that
canal, you know, so we had to stay a while while Jonathan inspected
them --being an ex-valve and hydraulic engineer and all.
Not trying to break the continuity of surface travel (with the
exception of the trip home), we tried to get a boat through the Canal
and then into Columbia. Unfortunately, we were not too enthralled
bythe captain who said ¨Six days, seven men, one small boat, what
could be better?¨ In all seriousness, the boat opportunities were few and far between, and there were several volunteers looking for free passage who had arrived before us who looked much better in bikinis.
So we broke down and hopped on a flight to Cartagena, Columbia with a
friend, Brad, we met in Panama City. We arrived in Cartagena,
Columbia´s Carribean coastal city. The city was a rich in colonial
architecture, as most of the old city was surrounded by a large stone
wall built hundreds of years earlier. Besides the beauty, the city
was rich in night life.
Jonathan went out for several rum and cokes and soaked up the ambiance
with a guy from Illinois who´s now teaching in Cartagena, while Bryan
and Brad opted to partake in one of the staple tourist attractions of
the city--the Rumba en Chiva bus--like the very one Michael Palin took
in one of his travel documentaries. The bus was similar to a moving
drunken fest with dancing--kind of like the ski trip bus but with more
hip movement. Anyway, Bryan and Brad took the ride with a bunch of others--mostly Columbians on holiday from other parts of the country.
Needless to say, we didn´t make the early bus out of Cartagena the
next day like we planned. We had been warned about how dangerous bus
travel was in Columbia, but putting fear aside, we hopped a bus to
Medellin (yes, the ex-drug cocaine capital) and stopped there for the
night. The ride was truly unbelievable! We were driving through
mountains most of the way--and it was some of the most spectacular scenery that we had seen thus far on the trip.
From Medellin we took a bus to Cali, the current cocaine capital of
the world. The ride was no less spectacular! Cali is supposed to
have some of the most beautiful women in all of Columbia--for that
reason I bet LL Cool J wrote his "Going Back to Cali" song (just smile
and nod if you don´t get it). After making deliveries for some
strangers who urged us the packages were ¨boxed fruit¨, we continued
on our way.
We finally made our way into Ecuador, and what a site it was to see
the white line painted all of the way across the country. Just think
of the amount of paint that they must have used to paint that line so
it could show up on maps. Ecuador is beautiful and inexpensive, and the Incan markets are fabulous.
We hope to continue through the Andes into Peru, then Bolivia, and
then meet up with Bill and Todd in Brazil. We hope to update you at
some point down the line.....
Until then, hope that all is well.
Bryan and Jonathan.
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