La Isla de Utila

                                          

This crab was really fired up!

The Dang Chanticleer

Mangrove Swamp

                                        

This Conch is coming home with me thank you

                                         

The bridge we were supposed to take!!!!

 

Thursday, March 29 2012

We got up early and drove the 60km to La Cieba to catch the ferry to the island of Utila.  It was lucky we got up early because the drive, which should only take 35 minutes ended up taking about an hour and a half with stops and backed up traffic.  We arrived at the ferry terminal with just enough time to go to the ATM, buy 2 roundtrip tickets (1700L = $80) and register our truck with the parking area.  The ferry was an hour-long trip that left at 9:30am.  This ferry is known as the “Vomit Comet” and I was a little nervous because sometimes I get a little sea sick.  Only 3 middle-aged women ended up getting sick and I even took a nap. 

We arrived around 10:30am, and were immediately bombarded by people trying to get us to stay at their place or scuba dive with them.  We brushed them off and continued walking on one of the two main streets on the island to find someplace to stay.  We walked almost to the end of town looking for a certain place to stay called Ruby’s Inn.  We couldn’t find it even after we asked several people so we tried another place called Caribbean Dreamscapes.  The woman in the office offered us a room with private bath with hot water, fridge & microwave, wifi, cable tv, and AC for $25.  We could have had an apartment for $40 but we declined. We dropped our stuff off, relaxed a little bit and went for a walk to find someplace to rent kayaks the next day.  Upon returning to our room we read our books for a little while until the landlady asked us if our room was ok.  We let her know that the smell that was in the bathroom when we checked in had not gone away as she said it would.  We had been running the AC and the fan since we checked in about three hours before that and the smell had not dissipated.  The landlady didn’t like us using the AC that much so she told us we could have the apartment upstairs for the same price while she figured out where the smell was coming from.  The apartment was an excellent upgrade that we didn’t have to pay for with a kitchen, separate living room, purified water and a back porch.  We decided to cook our meals to save some money and went to the grocery.

At the grocery store we met a girl that went to Coastal Carolina and lived in Goose Creek, SC, which is very near Charleston.  She gave us some tips on things to do on the island.  One of those things was a fresh water cave system.  We walked about 3km outside of the island’s only town to the other side of the island but since Lonely Planet has such a shitty map of the island we were never able to find the caves.  It was a nice walk though and good to get some exercise.  On our walk back to the side of the island that we were staying on we saw 8 teenage girls dressed like they were going to a dance or something, riding on a single 4-wheeler.  We got back to our apartment and called it an early night because we were getting up early to go kayaking.

~Marcie

Friday, March 30 2012

Get up early we did and walked over to Gunther’s Dive Shop to pickup our kayak rental.  When we got there the big Euro white dude, assumedly Gunther, who we talked to yesterday did not remember us.  After I reminded him he says, “Whoa I just had like a flashback!”  He also made some Dungeon’s and Dragons references about falling into quicksand mud pits.  I assume that AC would know what he was talking about.  I’ll have to ask him. 

So away we paddled, Marcie and I in a large double kayak with glass (plastic) bottom sections for viewing under sea stuff.  It was about 8:00 am so it was not yet wicked hot while we paddled east along the harbor for a few hundred meters before beaching the boat on la playa.  We portaged the kayak over the beach and the road behind it into a lagoon.  This saved a mile’s worth of paddling up to the mouth of the lagoon where it opens to the harbor.  The thing is dang heavy to carry but Marcie is very strong so we made it.  Paddling up thru the lagoon we passed some minor shipwrecks and entered a channel in the mangrove swamp that cuts all the way thru to the north side of the island where it comes out on a beach at the Caribbean.  The channel is only about 3 meters wide but it is 3 kilometers long.  It was a nice enclosed sun shaded area.  Muy tranquillo. 

On the north side of Utila we beached the kayak on the strip of white sand immediately to our left.  Looking up and down, east and west along the beach there was no sign of human development (except for trash washed up on the beach) like houses, roads, electric wires or radio towers.  We could not stay long because altho it looked like paradise from a distance when you inspected a little closer the sand fleas went into a feeding frenzy.  I guess its justified on their part.  They probably only get to eat coconut with an occasional washed up rotting fish treat. 

So we got out of there before we contracted malaria (we think) and paddled out to a small rock island offshore.  There we tied up the boat with a made on the spot anchor of stick and coral and used this rock outcropping as a base to do some snorkeling in the adjacent reef.  There were muchos pescados todos.  Britely colored electric blue, shingled purple and black, puffed up puffers and sand shaded camouflage fish.

After that whole excursion was thru and done with I was craving some nachos, obviously.  And after that whole excursion was thru and done with we went back to our flat washed up and crashed out for a little.  That evening the whole town lost power until about 11pm.  I bought a candle and a book of matches and we read our books with our headlamps. 

~Jon

New Beige is Reborn and we find a Dunkin Donuts

Scarlet Macaws

Copan Ruinas

Hieroglyphic Staircase

Dunkin Donuts Adventure

 

Wednesday, March 28 2012

This morning we checked out of our hotel in Copan and walked almost 1km to the Copan Ruinas.  These ruins are Mayan and are most known for their sculptures.  They were quite extraordinary with many Estelas, which are tower-like sculptures about 10ft high and depicting Mayan kings and other notable figures. Also there was a hieroglyphic staircase that is covered with carvings on each block of the staircase.  Amazing.  The ruins are also known for a network of tunnels that visitors can actually go through.  We however, did not visit them because they another 285 L in addition to the admission.  We couldn’t justify spending $60 on one activity especially when gas costs us like $80/tank.  The ruins also are a breeding ground for Scarlet Macaws and we were able to hear and see the Macaws flying around the area.  A couple of them were flying around and actually dive-bombed Jon.  There was no question that these ruins had the best sculpture of any that we have seen.

We left Copan and began our long day’s drive to reach the coastal city of La Cieba, which is also the name of a sacred tree.  The roads in Honduras are not as good as the roads in Guatemala were but they seemed to have less congestion and there aren’t as many roads so less chance for getting lost.  We did find that we would get stuck behind slow moving trucks a lot and had to make at least 27 dangerous passing maneuvers. As we drove today we passed from the dry desert environment into the lush green tropical environment again. 

While we were driving through an unknown town Jon spotted a Automechanico Electrico so he whipped the truck around and we attempted for about the fifth time to get the electrical problem we have been having with the truck for two months fixed.  Jon tried to explain the problem to this mechanic who only spoke Espanol while I sat in the truck and looked up words he needed to know in our English to Spanish dictionary.  As is the case in most car repair places in Latin America the whole family seems to be part of the show.  Our mechanic looked at our fuses and then started checking out the ground wires and then he shouted “Hay la problema” with a finger in the air and a smile on his face.  We took that to mean good news.  There was a metal bracket that had fallen out of place from somewhere and every time a certain ground wire would touch it we would lose all power to the truck.  The power always came back immediately so it has never been a serious problem.  The mechanic pulled out the metal bracket and threw it on the ground saying that we wouldn’t need it.  Hopefully that's the case.  He fixed the wire area and then sent his little boy helper on his bike to get a fuse that we apparently had also blown in the process.  Jon and I discussed the maximum amount we were willing to pay this man and decided that would be around 1000L ($52).  When the time came he said we were all set to go and told us the price would be 200L ($10.50).  Heck yes!!!  We drove on and came to several bumps in the road where our electrical problem would usually occur and no problemo.  It seems to be fixed.

Driving onward it was hot and sunny.  We came to the town of El Progresso and we were both saying we needed something like an iced coffee.  This usually isn’t something you can get in Latin America because every drink you buy even from a cooler is at best slightly chilled, never anything icy and refreshing.  If it’s a little refreshing it lasts for only a minute.  Someone must have been watching out for us because what do we see shining ahead of us in all its glory, Dunkin Donuts.  We hadn’t seen one of these since we were in Las Vegas, NV.  El Progresso is really progressive!!!!  Jon whipped the truck around and we pulled into the drive-thru and tried to communicate to the lady on the other end that we want iced coffees.  It all worked out and I even used their clean, toilet paper and soap filled bathroom, which is a luxury in these countries. 

We continued to drive and had fully intended to make it to La Cieba but the sun started to set and we were still about 60km away. We have heard many times not to drive at night so I begged Jon to let us get a hotel.  We stopped and got a room for 250L ($15 US) and got a few groceries from the tienda downstairs.  We were able to cook our dinner in the kitchen at the hotel and are preparing for tomorrows boat ride to the island of Utila where we will stay for a couple days to kayak and enjoy the beach.  Hasta luego.   

Antigua, Guatemala & Honduras from the road

Antigua

Room in Antigua

Volcanoes in Guatemala

New Beige of old

New Beige in Antigua

Honduras from the Road

Copan

                     

Monday, March 26, 2012

Today was a pretty low key day in Antigua, Guatemala.  It seems like we haven’t had very many days on this trip where this little has happened. 

Out on my early morning coffee walk around the city I found out that the gas station right around the corner from where we are staying has the diagnostic equipment for the “maintenance required” light on my dashboard.  I thought that this indicator light might have something to do with the periodic truck troubles that we have be having since Baja so I got an appointment to get it done at 3 that same afternoon. 

Marcie and I walked down to the main local market.  I’m amazed every time in every city when we go to these things.  There is so much fruit, vegetables, dried spices, exotic flowers, live chickens, and so on that you can easily get lost walking around in all of the little rows and aisles.  We purchased for 1Q ($0.12 US) some vegetable that we’ve been seeing around a lot at markets but didn’t know what it was.  It’s dark green and shaped kind of like a puckered up pear.  But it’s not dried.  It’s very dense, hard and heavy.  When you peel its cucumber-like skin off it’s kind of slimy like the inside of a cactus.  When I ask people what it’s called they say something that sounds like “Whiskel” but I think it starts with an “H”.  So now we owned one but we didn’t know how to cook or eat it.  Do you eat the skin?  Do you eat the seeds? Do you mash it, fry it boil it, or what?

With our purchases we found our way out of the maze of the mercado and sat down on the upstairs patio of a small inexpensive restaurant.  We both ordered the vegetarian plate for 20 Q ($2.50 US) each.  When the food arrived there was something on the plate that looked like a boiled and peeled potato except that it had a greenish tint.  It was our mystery vegetable!  So we asked this young guy working there how to cook and eat it and we got all the info we needed. 

The daily afternoon rainstorm here coincided with the time that I brought our truck to the service station.  This delayed things for a little while but soon the rain stopped and Gunther the German took care of business.  Fortunately/Unfortunately the light was on for no reason.  I didn’t get charged for the service but I did get to talk with this giant dude Gunther in English about the problem that we’re having with the truck.  He thinks and I agree with him that it‘s probably a loose/broken ground for the electric system that’s getting rattled and disconnected when we drive over bumps.  He says there are “like 8” different grounds and it will take time that he doesn’t have today to check them all.  So no repair but I feel like I have a good grasp on the issue. 

Mystery vegetable was great. 

Tomorrow off to Honduras!

Tuesday…

…Was a long day but a good one.  Marcie drove us all over Southern Guatemala past infinite sugar cane fields and eventually we got to the Honduras border at El Florido with no mob interference or automotive troubles along the way.  There we had to wait in a line that was not moving for a while before some official said something about tourists and waived us over to a newly opened service window.  I felt bad about all of the locals that we were cutting but we were just doing as we were told.  But it turned out that we were not cutting in line at all but only going to the new window to get another form filled out and then returning to the back of the other line that was not moving.  Eventually though we did collect all of our official stamps, pay all of the official fees and we were on our way in Honduras. 

We got a large clean hotel room with hot water, internet and kitchen for 300 Lempiras (Honduras’ currency, 19:1 exchange rate with US) $15 US in the town of Copan Ruins.