Tierra del Fuego or bust!

Wow this is crazy...

2009-06-28T11:07:00.000-07:00

Wow...nothing like being on the front lines as history is in the making. Honduras is tearing itself apart. The capital city is in flames and the military is cracking down across the country. Someone just asked me this morning if all hell was going to break lose... I said naw...and then all hell broke loose!

Its intense...you walk down the street and from every shop, every store people are huddled around their radios listening to news broadcasts. Its surreal. The military is taking over...no one knows who's in charge. Words fail me, when I try and describe the energy of the situation. There's this collective breath, similar to the moment when the rollercoaster pauses at the top before plunging down. People are nervous and getting more nervous by the moment. Buses, ferries, airports everything is shut down.

More updates as things develop!

Heres an article that explains the situation.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/29/world/americas/29honduras.html?_r=1&hp

Honduras....

2009-06-28T08:00:00.000-07:00

So I picked a good time to come here haha. The US Ambassador came a couple days ago and told us not to leave the island so I'm stuck here for a few days. Heres a short article in the NYT to explain whats happening.

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2009/06/28/world/international-us-honduras-president.html?ref=global-home

Summertrip #1

2009-06-20T14:59:00.000-07:00

Ok I just bought another memord card port. So here come the pictures. Most of the posts are from my back log of pictures but I thought I would take a time out and let you see what I'm doing now. The pictures of my students down below are from the fieldtrip a few weeks ago. It was a blast. I love my job.
Now as I said, the schools are closed due to the swine flu. I went back to Lake Atitlan for a weekend. And then...crazy enough I ended up going with some friends to Belize. Heres whats happened so far!

I spent the first three days deep, and I mean DEEP in the Belizean Jungle on an organic farm. It was incredible out there. No electricity. Just incredibly large bugs. But I ate Gibnut, that the resident hunter on the farm killed the other day. Their basically giant Guinea Pigs. Man the meat was tasty. There was a huge thunderstorm with lighnting striking all around super close. It was intense!!!!!

Then we got invited by some of Shad and Colleen's old friends to a wedding on the Belizean Cayes (keys). So now I'm staying at a 5 star resort right on the Ocean sipping gourmet cafe with the John Hopkins crowd! ...incredible, amazing, stunning, surreal don't even scratch the surface. I give you leave to be jealous hehe :D

Pictures of the Jungle.

Coleen!

And Shad

Ok thats all for now more later!

Semana Santa (Easter!)

2009-06-20T14:38:00.000-07:00

Pictures from the Semana Santa celebrations I saw. This one is in San Marcos at night. Also in San Marcos at night.

Ones in Panahachel...these were amazing!

Again from Panahachel.

San Pedro San Pedro

San Pedro

This ones from San Marcos.

Friends and San Marcos

2009-06-20T13:50:00.000-07:00

These are pictures of around the Lake and friends I've met. Better persons I've never seen!

This is Casa del Sol. Its a little cabin outside of San Marcos. Kerry from Ireland and Lere from Espana live here. Thats Kerry and Johanna is in the background.
Rock cliff as I was boating around the lake.

This is near Panahachel. I love the tree. I'd go say hi to it everytime I was in town.

Johanna from Greece on the left. Kerry and Lere on the right.

This is Lucia from Argentina. I like this picture from some reason....

This is Alex...he was big into juggling haha. This is Jessica with the three lovely sisters that ran the Unicornio which is the hostel I stayed at in San Marcos...Gosh these pictures are from April haha I'm so slacking.

This is a view from San Pedro.

And one from San Marcos. I love this picture. Its one of my favorites yet. It really sums up the spirit of San Marcos. I love that town!!!!

This is an Asian resturant in San Marcos. Muy rico!

Sorry this picture are a little out of order but Belizean internet (where I'm blogging from at the moment) is super duper expensive!!!!! This is from Guatemala City just a few weeks ago in June. Victor went to Mexico for a few weeks to finish some paperwork. This is the hostel we stay at in el centro! Love the pingpong!

Gringo skills!
Haha this is a great picture!

School days!

2009-06-20T13:37:00.000-07:00

Heres how I spend my days nowadays. With my students! These are pictures of our field trip to the museum. It was super fun!

This is Valerie...she basically a diva haha.

Rolling down the hill...sure was fun but made me realize I'm not 11 anymore haha. Can't keep up with the little firecrackers running around everywhere.

The 5th grade!

But man the scenery was gorgeous!

Belize!!!!

2009-06-16T10:23:00.000-07:00

So after planning all week to go to Utila, Honduras. I ended up at the lake for the weekend. Then decided to drop everything and go with some friends with Belize for a weekhahah. Life is random...and amazing. Loving it....looks like we're going camping on some of the Belizean Cayes (keys) . Then next week, its down the coast and take a ship out to Utila to see some good friends. Cheers!

The Case of the Sick Pigs

2009-06-11T11:14:00.000-07:00

So due to the now official worldwide pandemic, (first in 41 years!) all of the schools in Guatemala have been canceled for two weeks. So summer vacation has just been extended. I am going to the Lake for a couple days and then I'm headed out to the Bay Islands of Honduras, where I am going to enjoy the sweet easy life on the shores of the Carribean.

But alas this means I won't be coming home for my break :( So I won't get to see my friends before we all scatter to the 4 corners of the earth. So that makes me sad, but I am sure we will all see each other again at some point. Plus anyone is welcome at my house anytime! Or to join me in my future travels, whichev!

Ok, the lunch bell has rung and its time to rejoin the kiddos!

Peace!

2009-06-07T09:37:00.000-07:00

Ok sorry for the lack of pictures but at least now I have figured out the problem. The tool that connects my memord cards to the computers has broken. I thought it was a problem with the computers I´ve used but now I´ve pinpointed the problem so as soon as I buy another one I shall post lots of pictures.

So an update. I now have my own house up in the mountains. Its beautiful. I´ve started my own garden and the house itself is huge. I have a nice big kitchen and a terrace that my bedroom opens up onto.

My job is going great. I got to go on a field trip to a museum with my kids on Friday. We had a blast! The kids were super excited and I really got to connect with a lot of them in a relaxed setting. We spent the afternoon rolling down a giant grass hill. It was super fun but made me realize I´m not 12 anymore haha.

So hopefully I will be able to find tickets for my upcoming vacation. I have two weeks from June 26 to July 13 off. So hopefully I can find something for under $500. If so I´m heading in your guys direction. Is there anyone in Laramie that could pick me up from the airport? I would be most appreciative!

Ok thats all for now but hopefully pictures soon!

Medicinal Plants Class

2009-04-22T13:01:00.000-07:00

Living Green.

2009-04-22T12:26:00.001-07:00

A couple took me up in the hills down the lake from San Marcos. It was a lovely little place. The people had composting toilets, coffee trees, and they reused everything. It was extremely inspiring. Here are some of the photos I took.

This is their bedroom.
The living room and kitchen.
Another of the kitchen...while you are cooking you have an absolutely, stunning view of the lake. They´re up a hill so the view is expansive and freaking beautiful.
Some herbs growing in buckets.
The oven.

This is their pantry
This is a shot across the house. The people are standing in the kitchen. The couch and table are visible in the "living room". And I´m standing in the storage area. The bedroom is through a door in the far wall in front of the people.
This is the bathroom that is down the hill.
Inside shower.
Outside the shower haha. Very private haha but, man, what a view of the lake!

Ok let the picture posting begin.

2009-04-15T13:13:00.001-07:00

So I have a huge back log of pictures. I have posted them up to about 2 weeks ago. I hope you guys enjoy them. And I really love all your comments so don´t be shy! Some new news I have been offered a job to teach 5th graders English and Science for 6 months in Guatemala City. Thats where I am now...I just had my interview yesterday. So events in my life are moving fast. I just got down living in San Marcos which was one of the most important episodes in my life. I am seriously a more complete, more aware, more sane person than I ever was before. I feel reborn. I will hopefully post the pictures of San Marcos in the next few days and you will see these amazing people I have met and the events that have transformed my life. Nameste´to all of my friends and family!

San Marcos...Fesival of Conscienceness

2009-04-15T12:20:00.000-07:00

This is the first weeked I arrived in San Marcos. I´d say about 3-4 weeks ago. There was a festival of conscienceness going on. I attended numerous workshops and learned an amazing amount of stuff. The topics ranged from yoga, to acupuncture, to green buildings and green living, to merdian lines in the body and techniques of tapping them to uplift your mood, to pickling vegetables, to making your own wine. Lots in other words...theres more I just can´t remember them all.

Making Mango wine!!!!!

Chopping up the Panela!!! this is dehydrated cane juice...the best kind of sugar!

Pictures for you mom! These are an herb garden I got a tour off. The plants where amazing here. I ended up taking a course about medicine plants and learning how to communicate with them...it was an extraordinary experience. But pictures of that are for another day. I´ve been over three hours in this cyber cafe and the guys keeps spraying cleaner all around me. After San Marcos I can´t hang anymore!!! haha

More of the herb garden...I can wait to get an apartment and start growing things.

And here is another shot...whee!!!!

This was the music on the second night. The band was amazing, just a bunch of musicians jamming together.

One of the paths in San Marcos. This is a picture of the Tienda del Arbol. or tree store in english haha.

I think you might like these pictures dad. This is building with bamboo.

The bamboo is place on that bit of rebar that sticks out in the middle of the picture. Cement is then pored in from the holes drilled that you can see on the left most bamboo pole.

The front of the building.

Heres one of the more interesting buildings in San Marcos. Its three pods built together. The yard was gorgeous too.

Adobe bricks drying in the sun. I looked at all this while on the ¨Green Building¨tour of San Marcos during the Festival of Conscienceness.

So i gues the other bamboo picture ended up down here haha. Heres a picture of the full building.

This building is a example of the cheapest way to build with adobe. The indigenous people have been using this technique for centuries. It last for about 15 years.

Another path in San Marcos. Its much less westernized and more jungle like than San Pedro.

Wedding time!

2009-04-15T11:51:00.001-07:00

More pics of San Pedro...i think these are the last. The family that I was staying with in San Pedro invited us to one of the members wedding. Here are the pictures. This is the boat ride over to San Juan. This is a picture of the Cada de India. (Face of the Mayan). The resemblence is stunning.

This is a picture of the wedding its self. It was very crowded and I was in a side room so this was as close as i could get.

Here were are preparing the wedding feast earlier in the day. Watching them kill and pluck the chickens was crazy! They even let me help!

A farther out shot of the face in the mountain.

Plucking chickens!!!!

As an interesting aside. I´m pretty sure that it was the soup from these chickens that got me sick in the previous post hahah. Had I only known....

A typical street in San Pedro...its a maze of alleyways.

Heres a shot from the top of the families house. Breathtaking vista!!!!

Estaban with a soon to be dead chicken.

A picture of their house!

Giardia for the win!!!!

2009-04-15T11:33:00.000-07:00

This is the first night I fell ill. This was by far the worst of it. This night was truly horrible. I was running a high fever and kept having to run to the bathroom, which was outside and had no light...hence the head lamp attached to my head haha. I don´t know why this blogger can´t upload my pictures in the order I put them. This is Victor making me breakfast on the third morning of this fiasco. I couldn´t ask for a better traveling companion! Thanks Vic!

The morning of the third day. Believe or not I was feeling quite a bit better. Don´t I look fantastic!

Also from the first night! Mmmmmh....Grapefruit seed extract....

Wakey Wakey, eggs and bakey!

More of San Pedro

2009-04-15T09:52:00.000-07:00

Heres are some more pictures. Just to clear things up since I´m posting a bunch. I came to San Pedro in the end of February stayed there a little over a month (did that week in Xela in the middle of that) learning spanish and hanging out with the Slovienians and Victor. After that, the Slovienians and I moved over to San Marcos were they entered a retreat for metaphysics, meditation, and yoga. It was sorta for beginners so I didn´t join them, but they had an amazing experience. More on San Marcos later.

Here´s pics of San Pedro and my Spanish school.This is the roof of the hostel we stayed at for 3 weeks. Great place to hang out and the view was fantastic.
Looking down at San Pedro from the roof. You can see the sign of our hostel... Hotel San francisco.
The looking the other way.
This is where I studyed spanish for about 3 weeks. We just bunked out in these huts and practiced our grammar! Lovely!
More of the school.

Breakfast time in San Pedro.

2009-04-15T09:33:00.000-07:00

Ok to continue on witht he posts here are some pictures of were I ate in San Pedro for breakfast basically everyday. This stall was in the market and ran by to very sweet ladies.

Thats Jana and an English girl called Anne that was with us for a couple days. Man this food was tasty! My favorite food I´ve found in Latin America yet.

The stall from another angle.

Heres the selection of food you get. Its basically a tostada with all the fixins´ Refried beans, guacamole, vegetables, onions, beets, hard boiled eggs, and onions. (Also chowmein but thats gluten so I skip it.) The whole ensemble is then dusted with queso and splashed with a sauce. Muy rico!
Heres the finished product. The best part is each on cost 2 quetzales, or about 20 cents! Unbelievable. They also sold this drink that was chocolate mix with rice, it was served hot and was great to start the morning of with. A complete, fresh breakfast for under $1!!!!

MMMMMMMMMMHHHH!!!!! YUMMMY!

I´mmmmm baaaaaaack!

2009-04-15T09:10:00.000-07:00

So sorry it took me so long to post, i have been through some incredible experiences. I am not the same person I was a month ago. I have been living in a place called San Marcos on Lake Atitlan (google it if you want).

It is a place where healers from across the globe come to be trained. San Marcos is filled with this energy the causes everything and everyone to glow with this vibrant energy. I never thought I would experience anything like it. I have been meditating up in mountains, learning to channel energy, healing touch, yoga...the list goes on and on. Lake Atitlan is the most amazing place I have ever been too...and I think I´m understating it a bit. Anything you think about manefests before your very eyes. For example, I was thinking about what kind of job I wanted in Bolivia and this amazing opportunity to work in this private school for six months showed up so it seems I will be in Guatemala for a while!

I know I haven´t posted anythign for awhile as the internet is rather expensive in San Marcos and I just haven´t been to much in a mindset to deal with technology and the outer world but here for your viewing pleasure is some pictures.
This is a picture of the Nightmare before Chrismas wallet I won at a Latin American Carnival. Good times!

The technocolored church I saw!

More shots of above San Pedro. San Marcos is on the little pennisula that sticks out between the two little bays.
On the dock with Victor and Saso!

A Way to Help

2009-03-18T19:34:00.000-07:00

So all yesterday I was feeling better and better now with a good night sleep I´m 100%! But I´ve had a really amazing week besides that interruption. I went to a wedding. It was quite the experience. The two families got in a bit of a tiff so the whole thing was kind of a bust but something good did come out of it, tho I feel bad for the families.

I ended up sitting next to this little girl who was obviously very bored and struck up a conversation. I felt that this girl was important so I gave her a pack of crayons that I had been saving for just such an occasion. (I´m been stashing a bag of small toys for the kids I meet along the way). After I gave her some paper she drew this amazing picture and she´s only nine! The girl is very talkative, to say the least, and you can just see how intelligent she is.

So what I was doing the day I got ill, was shopping for some school supplies for her. I spent a grand total of maybe 4-5 dollars. The family was so grateful. Turns out the girl is adopted...the father threw the biological mother out of the house when she was pregnant, the biological mother, apparently a little crazy or perhaps just at wits end, left Rosa at some place where Rosa´s mother found her. Recently the family has been dealt another blow, the father has died so now it is just the mother, Rosa and her brother. They struggle to put food on the table with the revenue from their tiny two-table restaurant, much less worry about school supplies.

So I guess the reason I am writing this is to see if any of my readers wanted an easy way to help out. A gift of $5 goes so extremely far down here. You could drop it off with my mother or if someone in Laramie wants to volunteer to collect the money I can give you info of what to do to get the money to me easily in a more private manner than on my public blog haha. I´ll then go buy these kids enough school supplies to last all year.

I just write this because it is a situation where just a little money can make such a huge difference in a childs life (two childs lives actually...I initially gave Rosa a pack of crayons and a toy frog, she immediately gave the frog to her brother because ¨she has the crayons¨). Rosa has such potential, it breaks my heart to see any of it wasted. Anyway, keep Rosa in your thoughts and send her your love!

PS I´ll get a good picture of her and post it later.

The Screamers Strike

2009-03-18T11:13:00.001-07:00

So ewww....I´ve been down and out for the last 2-3 days with the screamers. Thats my name for that wonderful sickness us Americans get down here. My bodie was completely flushing everything and by the end of the second day I was so dehydrated the room started spinning. had to resort to the pharmecy. But I´m feeling much better today. Just don´t have the patience or strength to post any pictures. tomorrow I imagine I´ll be back to 100%.

Post of Past Pics II

2009-03-12T08:50:00.000-07:00

This is also a post of earlier fotos from Sarahs camera. This is pictures of the first town we stayed at in Gutemala in early February. Its called Flores and its an island in the middle of a huge lake. The beach outside of the hostel we stayed at.

A road running through the island.

Market day + lunch time = fruit salad!

A shot of the island from the bridge that connects it with the mainland.

They were ripping up all the roads on the island so walking around was a little crazy.

The walk on the way to the cave we heard about.

This is the entrance to the cave. It was definitely a unique cave experience as there was no paths and very few lights. We basically just wandered around in this cave for about 4-5 hours exploring any hole we could find.

heres a very basic map of the cave. We were actually trying to navigate by the camera when we were in there haha.

Some pictures in the cave.

There were some fairly large caverns in the cave.

Sarah!

Now on to the wild life we say in the cave. There were HUGE cockroaches. At least 4 inches long inside. And there were everywhere. A little nerve wracking when in a few spots we had to crawl.

A great picture of Victor.

One of the cooler formations inside.

Isn´t he a CUTIE! Almost put my hand on him. Keep in mind that the bumps on the rock are about as big as my thumb!

Jungletime!

2009-03-11T17:20:00.000-07:00

Hey blogreaders! (Whoever you may be, comments are always appreciated!) These are pictures of the jungle trip we took over a month ago. My pictures from the experience were lost but Sarah has been kind enough to send some to me and put some more up on the internet. They´re a little out of order but I´ll do my best to explain them. This was definitely some of (if not THE) most unique days of the trip thus far. This is an entire group picture. Our guide is in the white shirt (not Victor) and his two kids took care of the horses (ok so its not a complete group picture) that carried our supplies. This was taken the second night. We were absolutely in the middle of nowhere. No cars or trucks had been there, nada. The only thing that was there was a dugout fire pit and the shelter that was behind us, constructed out of jungle material that was all around us. The noises were extraordinarry. Howler monkeys are EXTREMELY loud. And they don´t howl, its more like a lions roar.

This is a picture of Sarah, Victor and me on the trail in the jungle. There really wasn´t a trail and in some parts it disappeared entirely, leaving us with just a guide and a machete. It was such an eye-openning experience. We would come across clearings where giant trees had collasped, taking out the canopy, thus creating these little pockets of sunlight.

This is us towards the end of the first day. This was our last piece of civilization we were gonna see for quite awhile. The next morning we hiked to these ruins that were just sitting in the middle of the jungle...pretty much untouched. But it used to be a huge city, rivalling Tikal (and consequently it was Tikals main rival). The temples were unexcavated so most we would hike up this "hill" and at the top would be the very tip of the temples sticking out. One of the greatest things was that from the top of the tallest if you looked in the right direction you could see the top of the tallest temple of Tikal rising way of in the distance. The Tikal temples are HUGE! Hopefully Sarah will throw some pictures of that up too. We were excited till we realized that Tikal was where we were hiking too haha. One incredible thing we looked at was they had a guest book to sign and we counted the names since 2005 and only 150 people had been through this area in 3 years!

I forget the name of this plant but it translates loosely to ¨Water Vine¨. You chop one side of the vine and then have to immediately run to the other side of the vine and chopp the other side. This is because as soon as the vine is cut it begins to suck the water to other parts of the plant at an astonishing pace! But once its chopped up it holds a surprising amount of water and it comes out at a rapid pace perfect for drinking. It tastes sweet too!

A picture of us on the first night I believe.

This is me at breakfast before the trip, boy i had no idea what i was in for. The one thing this trek taught me is that, if you by new shoes for a trip make sure that you break them in with the socks you will be using on the trip, not the thick ones you wear in sub-zero Laramie WY. My feet hurt so much on this trip haha.

On pic of the jungle.

Xela

2009-03-05T10:15:00.000-08:00

d
Time for another blogpost. The problems with my camera seem to have calmed down. I cleaned everything, dust is a pretty prevalient problem here. I have popped my head out of San Pedro for a few days and am now in Xela, the second biggest city in Guatemala. The people are very friendly here, you take out a guidebook and immediately have three people asking you if you need help. The food is good too! Its nice to have a large market to shop at again. And the kitchen where we are staying is phenomenal.

A few days ago I went and spent sometime in a hot springs on top of a mountain and did some soul searching. I realized that what I really want is a future in Latin America. I also realized that in order to make this a reality, Spanish is a necesity. In order to make this happen, I am taking an intensive course in Spanish in San Pedro. Victor and I have befriended a family that has just started out in the restaurant business. I will stay with this family while studying Spanish and help them get started in exchange for a place to stay and hopefully some food! No of them speak any English and I will instruct Victor to stop speaking English to me so it should be an interesting couple of weeks.These pictures are from the hot springs.
The rocks on the bottome of the water were brillants blues and greens.
This was the hottest pool.
The water shot out of the mountain at the back of this pool.
Heres the hostel were staying at...thats Jana in the background.
Heres the dorm were staying...theres 20 beds over all haha.
Heres pictures from the meat market. Interesting setup, lots of things I never expected to see...and the smell churns my stomach, so I thought I´d share, Figured you enjoy it most of all, Emily. :P
MMMMhhhh....cow hoof
I believe this is brains, liver, and intestines.
This is the center plaza at Xela.
Its quite the pretty place and surrounded by volcanos...we hiked one last night...its was truly incrediable. It was well below freezing but we watched the sunrise and then the volcano next store erupted! Absolutely one of the greatest things I´ve seen in my life...more pictures of this hike to come, but most of the nice pictures are on Jana´s camera.

See Below

2009-02-28T16:38:00.000-08:00

So theres a new post with pictures below the one with just typing. Still haven´t quite got this all figured out.

Latin America

2009-02-24T16:20:00.000-08:00

Hey guys back home! Just thought I`d drop a note and let you know how i´m doing. The trip has, this far, been unbelievable. I´ve met some amazing people and see some truly extraordinary things. Learned a lot about myself and focused myself on things that I truly want and found things that I thought were important only to discover how truly inconsequential they are.

Currently I have spent a week in San Pedro de la Laguna on Lake Atitlan in the highlands on the Guatemala. This whole area was a hotbed of hippie activity in the 60s and 70s and blessedly never recovered. Here Mayan culture mixes with the best of the Western world. Time rolls by slowly inbetween these volcanos. Numerous mediation retreats dot the hills and muscle testing abounds. At least three mayan languages are spoken on the numerous villages that exist on the outskirts of the lake and a day doesn´t go by that i don´t meet someone that met to stay a week and has been here for years. San Pedro has about 13,000 permanent residents banding a pennisula that juts out into the lake. I am staying in a cute little room with Victor (he finally caught up to me from Antigua, no luck with a job yet) and two phenomenally fun Slovenians, Sasha and Jana.

The only problem is that it seems that a virus has infiltrated my camera and picture posting has become a major hassel. My memory cards continually erase and will not connect to a computer. But I continue to make progress.

Another interesting thing I have discovered in my travels is how far English has come to dominate the globe. It is truly staggering. Just last night I hung out with two Slovenians, a German, and a Mexican and even if I wasn´t there they would have communicated in English as it has become the common language. On one hand it makes me happy as every traveler communicates in my native tounge, I find it disconserting as so many amazing ways of communicate are disappearing. I am currently taking classes in Español and my skills on the latin keyboard continue to improve. Today was day three of class and I am already improving rapidly. Time will tell.

Anyway, I send my love to all of you. Hope life finds you well!

Cheers from Latin America, where every face`s a friend and every fart`s a gamble.

San Pedro

2009-02-21T11:03:00.000-08:00

Heres a hodgepoge of pictures I have uploaded over the last few days. I´m still in San Pedro but mayhaps tomorrow we leave for Xela..second biggest city in Guate. These pictures are from various villages around the lake we have taken a boat to or from various hikes we have taken. This is a picture of the shore at San Pedro.

A hike we took up a mountain....the view was incredible.

A 15th century church in Santa Clara.

On the hike up the mountain. Thats Jana :)

I like this picture...its out the window of where we ate lunch in Santa Clara.

This is a playground...obviously.

This is a picture from Panachel. Its across the lake from San Pedro. San Pedro is at the foot of the left volcano.

Tuktuks...the locals choice for transportion. We took one home down a crazy road that curl back and forth down a mountain.

Jana, Sasah, and I at the top of the mountain. Thats San Pedro in the background.

The Lake Atiklan, San Pedro

The Lake

A street in San Pedro

These next two are from a couple weeks ago in Antigua. From the roof of the hostel we stayed at.

Another of Antigua.

Guatemalan Volcano

2009-02-21T09:37:00.000-08:00

This is the volcano I climbed with a group of people I met in Antigua in a hostel last week. I am still traveling with the two Slovenians and the German girl left this morning. Their awesome people, my favorite thus far. Victor is still in Antigua looking for work. I am currently camped out in a little village on a lake learning espanol for the next two weeks...see above blog when I get around to it... This volcano was freaking amazing...you could get right up to the lava. We climbed up the secondary cone...if you look closely you can see people climbing it ahead of us.

Adam vs. the Volcano

This is a picture of one the way up the actual volcano. This is before the path got way sketchy.

Yeah...thats not zoomed...

This is Alina! She is an absolutely amazing German girl I´ve been traveling with the last week. She left today...super sad face :=( You can tell how hot the lava is by how red our faces are!

So could get sooooo close. Within one meter!

And there were some many people...the whole hillside was unstable. Mini avalanches were happening all over with people crashing down amongst these extremely sharp rocks. It was CHAOS!

El anochecer (sunset en espanol!) was absolutely stunning...between the clouds the volcanos off in the distance I took about a gazillion pictures.

The clouds were absolutely surreal.

More clouds.

As we left the volcano started to get more active. Spewing out more lava. And heres the real kicker once we got back to the hostel the next day we heard that the volcano erupted! No tourist were seriously injured but one apparently dislocated their shoulder. Close call! But man was it quite the experience...definitely can cross that one off the life list.

In other news, I took an amazing multi day and night excursion into the jungle! We were in the middle of nowhere with 2 frenchpeople and our friend we were traveling with at the time, Sarah. Miles (and i mean miles) from anything but jungle and animals. We slept in hammocks and mosquito nets and horses carried all the supplies. At some points there really wasn´t even a path...just our guide. The bad news is that my memory card took a dive and I lost all my pictures but I will steal Sarahs once she makes it back home and will put some up.

Chiapas

2009-02-14T07:08:00.000-08:00

This is a picture from the bus ride from San Christobal to Palenque. Definitely entering the Jungle now.

This is the ruins of Palenque. We went here with a British guy named Pete we had ended up camping next to. He was awesome I love british humour. The ruins were absolutely amazing and the museum had THE most amazing Mayan artifacts I had ever seen. The best part is you were able to climb all over and even inside the pyramids.

Another shot of Palenque. The Ruins were massive. While at the ruins we ran into a Finnish girl and a New Yorker who we had met previously at on the bus over from San Christobal. Turns out the had met Pete earlier farther north in Mexico. I love how there is this little network of travels and you keep running into the same people everywhere.

We went to a swimming hole later that day.

Victor and Pete on the road to the swimming hole.

Coming back from the swimming hole. My first hitch hiking experience. Quite exciting! I´m holding my shoe because I had drop my camera into the water at the swimming hole and had to jump in with my shoes on. Luckily no damage to the camera! And the shoe was dry by the time we got back to town.

This is a picture of the actually swiming hole.

teh internetz R :(

2009-02-06T13:13:00.000-08:00

Picture of the crock infested waters inside the canyon.

Picture of one canyon wall, with the moon rising above it.

Some good-looking guy that keeps following me around.

The best picture I got of the canyon. The walls were about a kilometer high. And once we went into the narrow part, it turned to the left along the far back cliff.

Hey guys,

so the trip has officially begun. I am no longer staying with any of Victors family. We are currently staying in Chiapas in the town named Santo Christobal or something like that. But from now on I am pretty sure we will have slooooooooow (emphasis on the slooooooow) internet. But while I catch up on the news I will upload some pics! Hope you enjoy.

Adam

Cuernavaca - People

2009-02-03T13:01:00.000-08:00

This is the start of our trip. Midnight in Guadalajara.

We then went south for 9 hours to Cuernavaca. Where we stayed with Victors aunt. His cousin took us out clubbing on the weekend.

This is the fun group we went out with. All very nice people and not hard on the eyes either. :P

These two people we met the night before. Coolest mexicans yet!

Cuernavaca - Places

2009-02-03T12:22:00.000-08:00

This is in a smallish town south of Cuernavaca. The mtns were gorgeous.

And did i mention they sold some crickets. Very salty but high in protein.

These are some ruins we stopped out. It was filled with students, which provided a great way to practice my spanish which is finally starting to improve some.

This is a picture of downtown Cuernavaca. I love the old cathedrals with the TV towers.

This is the oldest castle in Cuernavaca. I had to take a picture because its hilarious to see a Skull and Crossbones on a church. Go Catholics!

Heres a picture of a gardens within downtown Cuernavaca. Lots of turtles in the river.

2009-01-27T11:41:00.001-08:00

Some Shots of Guadalajara as I leave.

Being a Part of History

2009-01-26T11:45:00.001-08:00

So I always knew this trip was going to be epic. But it seems the bad news grows worse with each news cycle. And as we are leaving tomorrow, there are some thoughts that I need to get out. With Icelands collapse the full range of this crisis has really sunk in. These events will fundementally reshape portions (all?) of the globe. A report was just released by an American commision about which countries were most likely to face a "rapid and complete" collapse of goverment. The top two: Pakistan and Mexico. If Iceland, which coincidently, was voted in 2007 as the worlds most developed nation, can collaspe so utterly, what up hope is there for poverty stricken nations such as Guatemala and Bolivia.

Half of me is freakin scared, the other half excited beyond belief. What truly historic events will I be witness too? Or you guys for that matter back in America? There seems to be this cloud of expectation that hangs over Mexico as it did back in the States. As I head to some of the poorest regions of the Western Hemispere I wonder how these events will play out in these places. What will I see? How will people who have nothing react when the are given even less? Or perhaps will their way of life, subsistence farming, be the least affected. (We´ll let global warming take care of these pesky folks in a couple years.)

In conclusion, I feel truly priviledged to be given an opportunity, such as this, to fully experience our world. I feel that I will come back from this with a vast array of new insights and new information. What I do with it will be determined by events on this journey. What land and its people will call to me the strongest? Where is my help most needed? I am ready to find out.

The Lake

2009-01-23T17:04:00.000-08:00

I have to figure out how to post the pictures at the bottom. It always sticks them at the top of my blog. But these are some pictures of the lake I went to last weekend. This was lunch on Sabado (sat).
This was the lake we camped at. With Victors sister y her husband
This is Victors family.

Sorry it took so long to blog, but its been a busy week. Mostly getting Victor ready to leave. And as I write this I realize he didn´t pick up his passport today soooo looks like we won´t be leaving till next week. But thats cool because we´ll be able to hang out with his sister, her husband and their kid, Leon. They´re a lot of fun and were really nice because they took me to this amazing lake last weekend which is what the pictures are of. It was a blast, super warm and the water was pleasantly cool. The food was delicious.

Today I got to eat at a vegetarian restaurant for this first time down here. It was delicious! Reminded me very much of Veggies in Rapid City...same setup.

How to leave comments

2009-01-15T14:46:00.000-08:00

Heres some help for those of you who are having trouble leaving comments.

1) Click on the comments link that is at the bottom of any blog post.

2) Type the comment you want to leave and select the first option (should be google) in the Comment as: pull down menu. Then hit post to post the comment.

3) This should bring you to where you sign in to your google account. If you don´t have one, there is an option to Create a Google Account beneath where you would sign in with your account info.

4) Fill out your information. This will be what you sign in with when you want to comment. There will be a "Remember Me" option to facilitate this process in the future.

Hope this helps!

The Right Path

2009-01-15T13:42:00.000-08:00

I love moments in life where you find yourself in a situation and just know that you are on the right path. The massage clinic I ended up going to had a happy ending but not in the usual sense. The clinic was run by two holistic doctors and after talking with them awhile they offered to muscle test me for some flower essenses. And then gave them to me as a gift! On is for muscle soreness that comes on with climate change, and the other two, which are both in one bottle, is for coping with big decisions and big changes going on in your life and the other is for help in making good decisions. The people were so nice and for the first time this trip, I really felt like this is a journey I´m really supposed to be on.

In more bizarre news, I had a very vivid dream about being on a plane that crashed into a river, only to wake up and find that all over the front page news is a plane that crashed into the Hudson River. Hope everyones ok!

Centro

2009-01-12T16:56:00.000-08:00

This is at a courtyard of a museum we went too.
A structure in downtown Guadalajara
This is a art school/museum in downtown Guadalajara.

These are some pictures of the day we went to downtown Guadalajara. Tomorrow its massage time!

Victory!

2009-01-12T16:37:00.000-08:00

First Mexican Sunset
Between P.V and Guadalajara

So we gave up on the cable and found another solution. Which turns out is cheaper and more convienent, so score!

We ended up just buying a data port for the memory card. So now, not only can we use if for pictures but also to bring extra music with us. Plus the data port fits into the case with the camera. So here are a couple pictures of Victor and me, and a couple pictures of the ride from Puerto Vallarta.

Camera cords...

2009-01-11T14:55:00.000-08:00

So the search for the camera cord has been in vain. The city of Guadalajara apparently doesn´t use Kodak cameras :( So know I´m looking into buying a device that will plug my memory card into a computer. I´m sure it will be huge and heavy but at least I will be able to share pictures with you guys.

These last few days have been mostly low key. Me and Vic have hit it off and are having a great time. We went downtown Gu. for his birthday and screwed around in an arcade and this mini-bowling place. A fun day. The food has been terrific, but dear god thats a lot of meat. My body is hating on me right now...I can´t wait till the seafood starts.

I met Victor´s sister and brotherinlaw. They are completely kick ass people. Next weekend were going on a little trip to either camp out on the beach or up into the mountians in some awesome forests. Each option sounds amazing!

The City Life

2009-01-07T11:19:00.000-08:00

So I´ve made it safely to Guadalajara, Mexico. And it is good... It always strikes me how a different country can seem so alien upon first arrival. The sights, the sounds, the smells, all are so different than what I am used to. Even the way the air feels is different. It seems to wrap around me so much closer than Laramie air. And its WARM!

The flight was a breeze and to top the first day off, two whales were swimming along the beach as we were eating lunch. It was awesome! I got some great photos to share, but that brings me to my first bit of bad news. So I knew I was going to forget something and alas it seems I have forgotten the cord the hooks my camera up to the computer... Looks like I have some shopping to do! But I will get photos up ASAP.

Uploading picture pratice :D

2008-12-20T17:59:00.000-08:00

Just practicing, making sure I want to use this blog. Can't wait to see the andes again!

It begins...

2008-12-20T17:43:00.000-08:00

This is just the start up post so I can start giving people the info. I order the last of the things I need for the trip and bought my ticket! Leaving on the 5th!