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 ....

Mexico City

So initially the plan was to arrive in Mexico City on Friday night at like 10.30, and go have dinner with my good old friend Jose and his wife Tesha. But - wrong turn once - took me an hour to get back on track - that's Mexico City for you! So I arrived at 12a, had drinks with Jose until like 2.30pm, and decided to spend another day. I ended up spending two more days, and it was sooo worth it. On day one, Jose picked me up at his place at noon, and then took me along all day to their factory (see below),

Then we went to a couple meetings etc. and dinner. Amazing insight into Jose's daily life. That's what I could deal with. Eight hours in an office every day - NO. The next morning we first went and had breakfast with the kids, then dropped them off at school. For those of you who've seen "Man on Fire" (w/ Denzel Washington), you know that there is a high emphasis on security at Mexican private schools. Even though they know Jose, they first checked the trunk before letting us into this gate:

Then Jose had a business-breakfast, in which they pre-negoticated the new wages and conditions for the workers with the union. For the rest of the day, we headed for Toluca, a small city on the outskirts that is slowly becoming part of Mexico City (which now has about 30 million people). While Jose and a coworker went to some event, I went to explore the city: Very nice, relaxed, beautiful city square, a botanical garden inside a building done with beautiful glasswork (see foto).

In the evening, we went to Jose's in-laws and they took me along to a traditional Sabbath-dinner (on Friday night, start of Sabbath). Great experience, great time.

As always, things that happen unexpectedly are the best. I'm in Guatemala now, I'll write more about the travel here later. First I need to go and get a hotel. My sincerest thank you to Jose and his family. Hasta luge ...

Thursday, 01/28/2010

Finlanda, Pulque, & leaving San Miguel - things are getting exciting!

So on Monday night, after doing some "work" in Starbucks, I was walking towards my car to drop off my bag and go have a beer in Casa Payo (sportsbar). As I walk by the church and pass two western-looking girls, they ask me if I know a cheap place to eat. I told them "follow me". The two girls are Susanna, originally from Finnland (but who lived in the US since she was 9), and Michelle, her American friend. What can I say. First there was beer. Then there came Tequilla. When Casa Payo shut down at 1am, we went over to "La Cucaracha" - a well-renown whole-in-the-wall. More beer. More Tequilla. We finally leave at 2.30pm.
Susanna and Michelle invite me to a party at Susanna's parents house (where they are staying) for the following night.
Well, first off, buying a bottle of wine in San Miguel is not as easy as it seems. But after asking about 3 people for an appropriate "tienda", that is solved. Finding the party-house turns out to be much more of a challenge. It's in a little "colonia" outside town, reachable via dirt road. Ok, getting to the colonia I only got lost once. But they happen to not believe in street signs over there. So after asking about 5-6 people I finally find it - and the search was well worth it. My hosts provided fantastic Mexican food, excellent Margeritas, and I met various very interesting people that night. Pictures to follow.

BTW, on the way to the party, there was a power outage in San Miguel - that's what it looked like:

On the way back from the party, at 12.30am, I encountered this:

They are currently in the process of putting all the electric, cable TV and phone wires under ground. I've never seen them working at night before, why they were working so late that night I have no idea.

Pulque

So I went to say good-bye to Josh on Wednesday afternoon - who greated me in his Egyptian bed-rope that he got when he lived there for a few months 10 years ago. Despite the serious face on the picture, he is the happiest and easiest-going buy you can imagine. We we are drinking is called "Pulque". He's given it to me various times before, always pouring it out of this porcellan jar. Comes from some fermented plant. But how does it get into the jar I wanted to know? Since I've never seen this stuff sold anywhere. Well, there is a guy on a burro (donkey) coming by every few days, and he buys it directly from the guy. 

Well, the crown got finished yesterday. Before that I went to lunch with Adriana to say good-bye - really cute place, with "Torrero-ambiance" and an older man playing the guitar. I invited my dentist for dinner - which turned out to be a great conversation, and finally I got to practice my Spanish more extensively.

Arriving in Mexico city turned out to be quite a challenge, but after a small one-hour detour I finally got to my friend Jose's place - which is the, by FAR, most modern living space I have ever encountered in Mexico. Really cool. I'll post some pictures later.

Monday, 1/25/2010

I got sick on Saturday. Lay in bed all night with stomach cramps - not how I envisioned my last Saturday night here. Got the cramps under control Sunday afternoon w/ 2 Tylenol. I also met a guy last night in a bar (Kirk) who spent 2 years in Guatemala with the peace corps. He's lived for four years down here, and work in - online marketing (Phil, if you need someone for your sample ...). He gave me some awesome tips, for example that the pacific coast is fairly laim until you reach Costa Rica, and that the eastern part of Guatemala is the pretty part. So I think I'll adjust my travel schedule based on that.
I also discovered, to my big disappointment, that the Mexican K-12 education system is not nearly as good as I thought it was. I tutored my friend Adriana's son for the math part of their university entrance exam here. Even though he is a bright kid and seems to be catching on quickly, I cannot forgive their school system that a graduating senior is barely familiar with the sine, cosine and tangent functions. So far for that.

Yesterday I went with my new buddy Josh to "El Ring" - a dance club that, to be politically correct, does not cater to the upper class, and in which we were the only two gringos. It got exciting, too: first a bunch of guys started a fight, and ten minutes later two girls started a fight on the dance floor. I loved it! ;-)

By for now. Next blog might come from Guatemala.

Joe

(Sorry - no new pictures - forgot the camera in the car)