Friday, 02/26/2010 Copan Ruinas, Honduras

Yesterday I sat there playing with Erica - who could look into the others eyes longest w/out starting to laugh. Erica is nine years old and lives in the mountains around Copas Ruinas.

So on Wednesday at 12, after saying goodbye to Emma and Leona (the Irish girls - no women), Luise and I headed off to San Salvador. There we picked up Eddie from Ohio whom we meet the day before in the hotel. Then off to Honduras. It's a small road, we pass many villages. I often wonder if we are still going the right way, and locals assure us that we are when we stop and ask.
The we get to the border. It takes me twenty minutes with some guy from El Salvador, who just ends up making a copy of my car permit. Then we drive over to Honduras. A guy with a golden belt knuckle and golden sunglasses takes us to a room for our visas. Any other circumstance I would have sworn he is a drug-dealer. After almost an hour this is done. Then I have to head off by foot to another building to get the car imported. The guy takes 20 minutes to fill out a damn form. Then he tries to enter the same info into the computer system. Things don't seem to work as he wants them to. He starts sweating. Stares at the screen. Gets a cell phone call. This all goes on for about half an hour - so almost an hour total. I'm so pissed at this point I'm ready to shot people. Or take the authority to perform any border-immigration matters from the country of Honduras. I've waited in a lot of lines at borders, to which there are reasonable explanations. This was just dumb incompetence. The guy finally asks another, younger guy - the paperwork comes out of the printer 5 minutes later. I have to pay $35 - that's outrages. I control my temper, but do tell him that this was ridiculous. After walking with some random woman to get copies of the paperwork, we can head off - two hours later.

Later on we drive through the mountains - and encounter the worst fog/clouds I have ever driven through. For a short while I have a Texas truck in front of me that I can follow (sooo much easier), but most of the 35-min ordeal we have to master ourselves - desperately looking for the grass on the side of the road or the centerline. Finally, after  many hours of driving (and some great street food in Santa Rosa de Copan) we arrive in Copan Ruinas. It's a small but beautiful town close by the Mayan Ruins of Copan. These are the 2nd most visited Mayan ruins, famous not for their size but for the excellent Mayan artwork that has survived in them.
Yesterday (Thursday) we slept long and used the rest of the day to go to some hot springs.

 

We relax for hours in tubs with different temperatures. At the end, Eddie and I go down to the river where (really) hot water comes down via a waterfall  and mixes with the cold river water. We sit in a naturally formed pond that gets water from both - so it has a nice temperature. We start talking to them. They live out here. The place is about 21 kilometers (~13 miles) out of town. For the most part, that means they go to school until 5th grade and then start working. There are three young guys and two girls with us in there. The older girls is allowed to go to school longer - than typically means that all her siblings have to work as soon as they get out of 5th grade to help the family. She is taking care of the younger girl, Erica, who is nine. And will turn 10 next year in January. It amazes me how responsible those kids already are at this young age, while maintaining that spark of youthfullness and childishness. I wash myself in the river using their soap, and leave with the deepest respect for those people - who have so little, yet seem so happy. I'm sad I didn't get a picture of Erica - but I will keep her in my mind. 

This morning I went to the Ruins. Very interesting - but not that much more to say - watch the pictures. We are heading out tonight (Lise and I). Eddie is leaving earlier by bus. I'm giving three American girls a ride to San Pedro - their plane leaves at 2.30am tomorrow morning. Any help with gas money is always good. 

I also learned that Dr. Tom Mentzer from the Marketing & Logistics Department, and one of the most highly regarded profs at UT, has passed away this morning after a two-year long battle with cancer. I learn that until a couple of weeks ago he was still doing research - it makes me happy that he had found his passion in life and could do it until his last day. My thoughts are with his family, friends and all those that cared about him today. Joe

http://picasaweb.google.com/joegrass76/04dCopanRuinas#

Tuesday, 02/23/2010 Playa del Tunco, El Salvador

Last Friday we did a pool day - a nice local hotel allows you to use their pool and facilities for $3.75 / day.

Saturday the owner of our hotel, Blanca, offers us along with some other guests to take us to some small town of the beaten path where we also can swim a little. It turns out quite interesting. The town isn't very exciting, - but the drive is. We see modern transportation methods (sorry about the picture quality),

along with idyllic landscapes close to a remote village where we go for a swim with some locals.

To see the radical differences in these countries is amazing. On one hand you find internet cafes on every corner even in the smallest towns, while on the other we pass small, one-room houses built of clay brick and ochs-wagons that make you think you are set back at least a century. Even though for the most of us are aware that most of these people are very poor, it becomes a different pictures when you find out that normal families can't afford any kind of stove/oven or a fridge. They cook over open fires in the one-room houses, and hence many of them have respiratory problems (a lot of aid organizations build stoves in countries down here to fight this problem). Most kids only go to school up to 4th grade, then most have to start working to help support the family. I can't really say that I was that surprised by this. But what really surprised me is how those kids switch between acting their age (like in the picture above) and being quite responsible employees / part-time-mothers & fathers of their siblings. Being down here also reminds me how little we actually "need". I guess in the end happiness is rarely achieved by material things - and maybe those act often as an inhibitor.

Sunday morning comes along. Lise and I intend to head off to Copan, Honduras today. Lise already mentioned last night that maybe we should head south with Emma and Leona to the beach in El Salvador. I remember that many of the border stations close early on Sunday, so possibly I won't even be able to enter Honduras today. We decide to stick around today and all head down south tomorrow.

Monday. After another relaxing pool day, we are ready to hit the road today. I get up at eight in order to get an oil change. It's 3,300 miles since I left Knoxille, so it's time. After a little bit of asking around I find a place. They want $3 for the oil change. Then he tells me that we need to go buy the oil. It's not the kind of shop that has oil on storage. And not the kind of shop where I'd get an oil change under any other kind of circumstances. Enough of the pessimism. I have to call Jason in Knoxville from an internet cafe to confirm that I can use 20W50 in the car - it never get's cold down here, they don't use 10W30 etc. They do the job and everything is fine. After breakfast and saying goodbye to our host Blanca we head down south.
The first surprise: We come by a place called Playa del Sol. For miles and miles there are walls with gates to our right - it appears El Salvador's elite has bought up the entire beach front. Cheap, decent hotels are impossible to find. We stop by a "Comfort Inn" where they let us hang out at the beach for a while, which was very nice.

The beach is beautiful. But all the locals we meet are fairly unfriendly. We notice that nobody smiles around here. The (very) few budget hotels that we encounter all have lots of little sheds between them and the beach where all the fishermen hang up their nets when they come in. Where else could they do it. Essentially the locals access to the beach has been almost completely eliminated. I'd be pissed, too.
We head up to Playa del Tunca, about 90 minutes northwest. It's a surfertown. Cheap. And - as we encounter - great seafood. We end up in a nice little hotel with pool:

A room is $25 for two people - $12.50 a person, expensive for our standards - so this is a treat. The pool is beautiful, down here it's quite warm already. (yeah, picture that while you're shoveling snow next time ;-) ).
Tomorrow it's off to Honduras, the Copan Ruins. On the way we'll pick up Eddie, who I met here this morning in the hotel, in San Salvador - fellow travelers bring down my gas costs, and it's more fun to travel together. Nos vemos ...

http://picasaweb.google.com/joegrass76/04cOnTheBeach#
(also added more pictures to the Suchitoto album).

Thursday, 02/18/2010

Quick update:
Hung out with the two ladies in my hotel Tuesday night - getting to know those El Salvadorians a little. Nice;
My car window got fixed (but up to 4 guys) on Wednesday morning.After that I decide to head out, and figure it's time to go to the beach. Want to go up to Honduras.
I miss the proper exit by like half an hour. Who cares - it's a absolutely beautiful drive on this stretch along the Pan-American Highway. I turn around, half dinner at a nice little restaurant along the highway, and decide to head to Suchitoto, El Salvador. Old, colonial town by a lake, not touristy like San Miguel and Antigua. (Picitures to follow, camera fell into water this afternoon). I meet four girls in the hostell, two Irish girls and two Canadians. We went to some waterfalls today - with a (tourist-) police escort. Really cool. Gonna stay a few more days up here, then head on to Honduras.
Pictures will come later, ... praying the camera gets in shape again.

http://picasaweb.google.com/joegrass76/04bSuchitotoElSalvador#

Tuesday, 02/16/2010 - San Salvador, El Salvador

The past few days have truly been "exciting". But that doesn't mean they were pure enjoyment. Probably most people would be pissed to a certain degree now. But life is too short. And I WILL remember these days.

Read through some of the comments earlier (btw, please write - I really enjoy reading the responses) and will post some pictures again within the text - even though google takes forever to upload them.

Saturday - hiked up volcano Pacay - saw life lava-flow!

I met four Germans in Antigua - Wiebke, Karoline, Florian (Karoline's husband), and Johannes (Karline's brother). We apparently had talked Friday night while partying, of which I remembered little on Saturday morning. They had gone up Pacaya before, so I tagged along with them.
We hired a local guide, Domingo, to take us up there. The walk up was interesting. Along the way there are lot's of guys with horses for the people who suddenly figure out that they are not in good-enough shape to make it up there. Whenever you pass on of those guys they ask you if you want a horse. To which I typically answered some dumbass comment ("you want me to carry it up there"? ...).
There is a point passed which the horses can't go. Then the walk over the dried-up lava starts.

Then it get's cold and you need to put on a sweater/jacket. Then you get onto the warm lava and you get this really cool feeling of getting heated up from below.
Seeing the lava life really was worth the trip. Amazing. You've seen this so many times in movies, and then suddenly this super-hot, reddish substance is flowing right in front of you. As you move close to take a picture, you truly get to understand how hot the stuff is. I three in a small stick which started burning up immediately.
My four fellow Germans head off on Sunday morning after breakfast. Karoline and Wiebke both teach in San Salvador (the capital of El Salvador) at a German School. Florian is looking for a job there, too, and comes off and on. Johannes was here to visit. I spent the rest of the day wondering the city, encountered some really cool ruins and a fantastic 5-star hotel:

It's built on/around the ruins of an old monetary.  Some of the ruins are part of a museum, the rest you can wonder around inside the hotel compound. There is a pool, great hangout areas lined with palm trees from which parrots occasionally greet you. I decide that I like the city so much, I'll ask the owner of the hostel on Monday morning if they give me free lodging/food for a few days to do some maintenance work for them.

Then everything came different. Monday morning I'm woken up by the night-hotel-guard - the police is outside, someone has broken into my car on Sunday night. This is an 180-degree turn from Xela, where the police never showed up. These (four!) guys want to know everything, they probably would have called in forensics if they had something like that down here. Two pairs of sneakers, my air mattress + pump and - my electrician tools are missing. I scratch all plans. The side window was broken. I figure out that the only place to repair it would be Guatemala city. No desire to spend any time there.

So I just take off for El Salvador. It take me an hour to cross the border - even more than the typical (excessive) bureaucracy, but I find the people very friendly and I don't have to pay for any of that stuff. In the office hangs a poster with a number to call - in case anyone accepts a bribe. El Salvador fighting bribery.

I can't get a hold of my friends in San Salvador. I loved it so far - driving here was so much better than in Guatemala. Now I'm in this big city, don't know where to go or where to get the window fixed. I'm feeling helpless!

So what! This is what it's all about. This is what I'll remember for the rest of my life. I look at my guide book and find myself a hostel. Head over there. They have free wifi - thank God! I get a list of autoglass places in the city and the address of Subaru San Salvador.
This morning - Tuesday. I'm on a mission to get this done. I try calling autoglass places via skype - nothing. Seems like calling via skype isn't working here. Frustration! I ask the women from the hotel for help. They appeared somewhat cold last night, so my expectations are low. I was soo wrong!
After three calls to Subaru it turns out they have the window. After after much heated arguing with Sonja and Carina from the hostel with the Subaru reception lady I have directions.
Now I'm sitting on a beautiful terrace.

After getting to Subaru and scheduling the window-install for tomorrow (Wednesday) morning, I drove to the German school and asked for Karoline. Happened she was just between classes, and called up her husband who then gave me directions to their house. I'm hoping to leave the car here and then head down towards Panama by bus. If I get the chance, I'd even sell the car here. But I'm not sure how the formalities work here and I'd have to figure out how to get some of my stuff back.
So far so good. I think I'm ready for a nap in the hammock.

http://picasaweb.google.com/joegrass76/04aHeadingToSanSalvador#

02/13/2010 Antigua

So after almost three hours of driving I arrived in Antigua yesterday afternoon - and already survived my first party here.
As I got up yesterday morning, I somehow felt that I didn't want to stay in San Pedro any longer, so I packed my stuff and, after saying goodbye to my Mayan girls from the hotel, headed out. Driving down the Pan-American Highway is an adventure. It snakes it's way through the mountains,  so I tested the suspension of the Subaru while enjoying the view. As it get's less mountainous, the road gets worse, and at times isn't even paved any more. I also saw a head-on collision between a small truck and a semi, but luckily it looked like noone got seriously injured. It makes you aware again that driving here can be quite dangerous.
Arriving in Antigua, I got a dorm-bed in the "Black Cat", a really cool, relaxed hotel, with a hangout area/bar downstairs and a nice terrace on top. One of the buys in my room is an Australian who has worked here for the past few months, but is moving on now - so we had a good-bye party for him last night. This place has such a communal feel that I've already met almost everyone who is staying here. I also met four Germans, with whom I'm gonna go up the Volcano Pacaya later today. Caroline and Wiebke both teach in San Salvador, Caroline's husband and her brother are here to visit.
I really like the town so far. Ken, who I met in San Miguel weeks earlier, told me he thinks Antigua is much better than San Miguel. So I came here with high expectations. I really like how Antigua, despite many tourist, has maintained a more natural feel, and the park in the center is just an amazing place to hang out. When I visit the cathedral, of which only a small part has been reconstructed after it was destroyed by an earthquake, I wonder how imposing a structure this once must have been.
They have a central gas-powered hot-water heating system here - so I had my first real warm shower in almost two weeks. It felt awesome. So far for now.

http://picasaweb.google.com/joegrass76/03eAntigua#

Also updated some more pics from Lago Atitlan.

02/11/2010 San Pedro de Laguna, Guatemala

So I have very mixed feelings about this place.

For the past two days, the weather has been beautiful and I finally got to enjoy the beauty of this place. Yet two days ago I talked to some locals, and got the understand some of the negative consequences tourism has on this place.

On Tuesday morning I went for a run, pretty much all through the village. The village essentially exists of two parts, the "local" part up the hill, and the tourist part at the bottom. At the edge of town there is construction going on. I talked to one of the guys directing traffic, and he explains to me that they are working on widening the access road to town (which is not even entirely paved right now). Talking to him, once again reinforces my perception of how nice and friendly the local people here are. I don't think I've ever been to a place where I encountered such friendliness from the overall population. After my run I decide to fix my rear bumper. A few hours and two trips up the hill later, I took care of the dents in the bumper and it is solidly attached again. Afterwards I decide to talk to the two girls a little that manage the hotel "office", clean, and take care of the restaurant to practice my Spanish. It will turn out to be a very interesting conversation.
I had been trying to figure out the tourist crowd here, there was something that struck me as odd. I noticed that there was an amount of blond rasta-hair people with Che Guevara T-shirts that was way beyond a normal distribution. As it turns out, there are lots of heavy drug-user tourists here. Not that I have a problem with tourists smoking their occasional joint. But the girls tell me that last week a tourist overdosed in town, and that that is not a single occurrence. What really gets me mad though is that there are enough people like that that they really changed the culture in the town. According to the girls, about 50% of the locals are now drug users, and the local kids are starting to do drugs at the age of 12 or 13. The police is obviously bought by the tourist establishments (owned mostly by expats), since I haven't seen a single one of them in the lower part of town. It makes me mad as hell.
Yesterday I took a boat to Panajachel, the main town on the lake. The last ten minutes of the trip the guy was hauling ass, and there were quite some waves on the lake. It felt like getting spanked on the bud for ten minutes straight - by a BOAT! It's been a long time since I wanted to punch someone in the face so bad. As I walked down a street in town towards the lake, I finally realized why people like this place so much. The view was simply astounding. I took a little video clip, even though it doesn't do the real thing justice. I hung out on the lakefront, talking to two young Austrians, for the next two hours. However, the way back on the boat topped it all. There were hardly any waves, the the ride was really smooth, and I could enjoy the sunset over the mountain-ridge in front of me. It more than made up for the unpleasant ride earlier in the day.

So here I am - enjoying the relaxing, amazing atmosphere of the lake, while at times getting really aggregated about the influences of tourism on the locals here. Interesting scenario. But that is what this trip is all about - the unexpected.

I posted more picture under the "Lago Atitlan" link. J

Monday, 02/08/2010 - San Pedro, Lago de Atitlan

Aldous Huxley (Beyond the Mexique Bay (1934)) called Lago Atitlan one of the most beautiful lakes in the world, comparing it with Lago Como in Northern Italy. As I drove down the mountains yesterday, and, coming around a turn, I finally got my first glimpse of it: The sun had just come out from between the coulds, and down below I could see an ocean of beautiful blue, surrounded by little bays and lagunas on each side, and appearing to continue forever straightforward. I see some towns at the bottom of the hills on each side by the lake, and wonder what they will look like. I shall find out soon.
But first I'm gonna step back in time a little bit. I was lazy on Friday and Saturday, spending my last two days in Xela just hanging out, and getting to know fellow travelers better. On Saturday morning I went with Lilian to get my first, most likely also last, manicure. My main reason for going was that I strongly assumed that they gonna have comfortable couches/love seats, which turned out to be correctly. So after getting a good rest in one of those, I got my own manicure. I can't say it made a big improvement in the looks of my hands/nails, but at least my hands smelled damn good all day.
In the afternoon Lenka (the Czech girl) and I took off to "Chichi", a small sleepy town in the mountains in which every Sunday one of the biggest (or the biggest) market in Central America erupts. We got some great local food on Saturday night and Sunday morning in the market. An amazing amount of stuff. Anything you can think of and more. Western clothes (mostly T-shirts), Mayan clothes, cloth, jewelry, spices, dried fish, tools (used and new), Mayan artwork (souvenirs), and much much more. The streets and plazas have turned into a maze of rows of stands and little stores. You fight your way through the crowd, which is sometimes more dense then at others. You bump into people carrying supplies, women carrying baskets on their heads, men carrying heavy bags on their bag, attached to a leather strap around their forehead. Even though I don't like big crowds, it's an amazing experience. And despite all the hastle, haggling, and so on, the people are super friendly.
At around twelve I decide to head off, saying fare well to Lenka, who is staying for another night before heading north. I'm heading south to Lago Atitlan. The main town on the lake, Panachel, I've been told has gotten incredibly touristy. Hence I decided to go to "San Pedro de Laguna", a smaller town on the other side of the lake. I spent about 2 hours looking at hotels/hostals yesterday, and ended up at the one Verena recommeded: Hotel Paraiso, where I take the cheapest room (communal bath) for 25 Quetzales (about $3) a night - including parking in their courtyard). Strolling around town last night, I discovered a "Buddhist bar" (or something like that, it's their moto), where I meet some people with which I head to a super-bowl party in a sports bar later. Great game. Happy for the people of New Orleans. Sad for Manning. I think it's pretty clear the Colts are the better team, but I don't think they played with a lot of heart. Wonder what last night was like at Bourbon Street.
Now I'm sitting at "Zoola", a hip hotel focused on providing a really relaxing / hang out atmosphere. They were full yesterday. Today they only have a dorm bet or a room with private bath ($12, way too expensive). So I decide to stay in my place, and just hang out here.
I've been thinking a lot about finishing the PhD lately. Even though I am pretty much certain I don't want to work in academia later, it would give me a degree in the logistics / supply chain field, which is where I think I want to work in. I will probably soon formulate an email to Dan, our PhD program director, asking if it would be okay to return with those intentions. One of the main motivations for faculty to work with PhD students is the potential for joint future publishing - which would be voided in my scenario. So we'll see.
I think I'm gonna explore the bay a little this afternoon, and all the things you can do around here.

More pics to follow.
http://picasaweb.google.com/joegrass76/03cChici#

http://picasaweb.google.com/joegrass76/03dLagoAtitlan#

Friday, 02/05/2010

So someone hit my car last night. It was parked on the side of the road, no other car behind it, and some guy came and bumped into the passenger side rear bumper. It's a little dent in and deformed, but overall very little damage. The other guy, who took off afterwards, definitely had more damage. I hope he broke his hand for just taking off. But anyhow, as soon as I saw there was no serious damage, I decided there is no point in being mad about it. To the contrary, there was a positive and a hilarious aspect:
Neighbors who observed it were waiting outside until the hotel guy got me, and were telling me all the info they could - it was a green Toyota Yaris, and his driver side front end was pretty badly damaged. They even wanted to go through the neighborhood w/ me to look for it. I thought that was great.
Hilarious - so I decided we should call the police - who, despite two calls, never showed. That's what the hotel guy told me from the start. So this is a pretty serious law enforcement agency. The hotel guy even told me that they once were robbed, and he ran down to el centro to get the cops. The cops told him they'd just turn around and come right with him - but never showed from 'turning around'.

I tried to link picasa photoalbums to the blog, but it won't let me. Surprisingly google did a crapy job at this - not userfriendly at all. So here the links:

San Miguel de Allende, MX:
http://picasaweb.google.com/joegrass76/02aSanMiguelMexico#
Mexico City:
http://picasaweb.google.com/joegrass76/02bMexicoCity#
Way to Guatemala:
http://picasaweb.google.com/joegrass76/03aHeadingToGuatemala#
Xela (Queztaltenango, Guatemala):
http://picasaweb.google.com/joegrass76/03bXela#

Planning to leave here tomorrow afternoon, and take it easy until then. Adios ...

Thursday, 2/4/2010 Xela

This is getting better as the week is progressing.

On Monday I just hung out here, checked out the city and got comfortable in the hostel.

On Tuesday, I went with Lilian, a Guatemalian-born girl from Cali to Volcany Chikabal. We took the "Chicken Bus" (old US school buses they use for public transport over here) to a city close by. Then we hired someone to take us up to "La Laguna Seca", the official starting point to walk up there. The ride up was quite an adventure. We were sitting in the back of the pick up, enjoying a great view of the valley down below. The valley is full of steep fields on which they grow vegetables. It's a rough dirt road, and we get thrown around a bit. When the truck drops us off, we start the 40 minute hike up to the viewing platform. We get a brief view of nearby Volcano Santa Maria and the crater lake, just before they disappear in clouds for the rest of the day.

That evening I meet Lenka, a Czech traveller, who is asking me lots of questions in order to "perfect" her travel itinery. I'm trying to arrange for her to go up to the same place, volcany Chikabal, the next day with Verena, the German girl that is married to Lari, a Guatemala who grew up here. They have a 2-year old son, Arjumi, and travel around the country selling jewelry at artisan markets. The trip doesn't happen, but we all go have breakfast together the next morning. Lari and Verena take us to some place I would have never found on my own, and I get to try some new local drink: It's yellow, made of corn, and tastes like vanilla pudding.
Since their plans got canceled, I later went with Lenka to sulfuric hot baths called "Fuentes Georginas". We take the chicken bus, and then again hire a truck to take us up the mountain. This time I stand on the back, and enjoy absolutely fantastic views. As we get close, I already see smoke coming up from rocks by the road. The baths are super-relaxing, and a 5 our driver is waiting for us outside again to take us down. He stops after about 100 yards, next to some rock cliff going steep up to our right, which then turns into woods. He asks us if we can wait for 10 minutes, his wife is up there getting wood and he needs to help her carry it down. I'm a little shocked at first - this is super steep. Turns out, his wife was up there WITH his little daughter - and I was quite worried about her making it down there safe. But it all worked out well, and wife and daughter rode down in the back of the truck with me.
Today - Thursday - was a really cool day:
- Left hostel at 6am to go the Volcano Chikabal again with Lenka, Lari Verena and Arjumi (in car)
- Pushed the Subaru to it's limits on the dirt road up the Volcano (we tried to go all the way up - had to surrender half a mile before the top)
- Were the first people up there - and arrived just in time to witness (smoke) erruption of nearby volcano "Santiaguito" - which has small eruptions (smoke, some ash) almost every hour (see pictures)
- Got invited by some Maya people (they speak a language called Mam, some spoke Spanish) to eat beef stew
- Made it safely back home, sweaty, nasty, - and the water in the hostel was out again. Who cares, it's Guatemala ...

02/01/2010 The border Crossing

So last Saturday morning I took off from Mexico City. After fighting (almost literally) my way out of the city, I passed by Puebla and the Volkswagen plant, then Oaxaca. Even though Oaxaca is a beautiful town, I decided not to stop since it RAINED (and most of you know how I love rain). So I continued on driving through the Oaxaca mountains - very pleasant in parts, see below:

I headed down to some town called "Arriage" - expecting some form of nightlife since they had signs for the town 120 km away. Complete disappointment. Instead I saw an accident happen right in front of me in some remote little village when I got lost for a bit. One of those little Tuc-Tuc's suddenly swurved on the road right in front of me and flipped on it's side. I stopped and went over there. There were actually four people in there. After heaving the driver and two girls out of there, I wanted to help the last guy out. Turns out his leg was stuck underneath the thing. A group of guys came buy just then, and with combined forces we lifted the thing back up. Not sure if his leg was hurt or not, but there were at least no open fractures or obvious broken bones. So I headed on my way. Sorry - took a pic, but didn't turn out.
After sleeping in the car at a gas station, I headed into Chiapas the next morning. Very nice drive. I have amazing moutains, partly covered in clouds on top, to my far left. The immediate landscape around me starts to look a lot more jungle-like. Small, primitive settlements and individual "ranchos" appear continuously on both sides on the road. I'm a little sad I don't get to see any of the ocean.
About an hour before the border, at one of these semi-checkpoints, a young guys waves me down. He wears a "Aduana" (Customs) shirt and an "Aduana" ID. He appears to explain to me that if I want to cross the border, he needs to come with me to help me w/ all the paper work. I'm not sure if he's official or not. So I take him along, but tell him clearly that I won't pay for anything but what I have to pay the officials. Even though I'm feeling a little strange about this, he turns out to be a good guide: pointing out the endless banana plantations that start appearing to our left and right, as well as Mango-tree plantations. At the border it turns out he is not an official, and is trying to help out for a tip (I was warned about this).

First thing as you enter Guatemala by car, the fumigate the car. This cost 18 Queztales, which my buddy pays for me since I didn't change any money yet. After reimbursing him with pesos, and giving him a small tip, I tell him I don't need him anymore. The rest of the crossing goes fairly smooth, even though I had to run into town to get copies made to get the car imported. People appear really nice so far.
The drive through Guatemala turns out to be great. For a large part of the way, it looks like someone built a road into the jungle, and while going through the mountains towards Queztaltenango, I have some fantastic views to my left:

I've gotten a room (shared bath) in a hostel for $7 a night - might not live up to everyone's standards, but I really like it. I've meet lots of other (mostly) long-term travelers. Decided to spend a week here - and hopefully won't get shocked in the shower - they have a little different idea of hot-water heating over here:

So far for now. Time to get get some food. And some beer. Buena noche ....