5 Month Fun Fact Update

Thanks to all of you for following our journey for the past 5 months! This seems as good of time as any to post an easy fun fact blog. We have been moving slowly during our first 5 months and have decided that during the next 5 we will be moving much more quickly! We are planning to be wrapping up our time in South America by December/January and we aren't even in South America yet! But I'm not looking at this as, “Oh man, there is no way we are going to see enough of South America in only 5 or 6 months.” Instead, I'm looking at this as, “Oh man, we get to travel in South America for 5 or 6 months! Imagine how much we will get to do!” So we won't get to see every nook and cranny, but who ever does!

In numbers so far...

Countries visited: 5 (Honduras, Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua)

Accommodations stayed in: 48 (mostly hostels, some hotels, and 1 homestay)

Days since our initial departure: 155

Highest elevation: 8,694 ft (El Baul, lookout point Xela, Guatemala)

Lowest elevation: 102 feet below sea level (Haliburton wreck dive, Utila, Honduras)

Friends from States we've joined up with along the way (excluding wedding): 1

Average weight of my pack: 16.5 kilos (too heavy!)

Local (national) beers tasted: 9 (Tona, Victoria, Gallo, Salva Vida, Imperial, Brahva, Brahva Extra, Golden, Pilsener)

Beaches visited: 9

Self-treated infections: 2

Hospital Visits: 0

Muggings: 0

Known items lost: 4 (sunglasses x 3, Hydroflask)

Flights: 9 (counts each different physical plane)

First class buses: 2

Chicken buses: 50+

Hair cuts: 1

Approximate daily average budget for the 2 of us: $56USD

Average exchange rates:

$1 = 20 Lempira (Honduras)

$1 = 13 Pesos (Mexico)

$1 = 7.5 Quetzales (Guatemala)

$1 = 1 dollar (El Salvador uses the US dollar!!)

$1 = 26 Cordoba (Nicaragua)

We will have to see how the next 5 months compare!

Let me know if there are other numbers/stats you are interested in and I will tally them for you!

Belated birthday wishes (and other dreams)

I know that my husband and I are biased (and maybe a little narcissistic), but I think that we can all agree that June is the best month in the whole entire year (at least for those of us in the Northern half of the globe). Unofficially summer starts (on the 1^st), 3 weeks later summer officially starts (on the 21^st), school's out for summer (and for some, “school's out for eva!"), the city pools open, boat and beach season are in full swing, BBQ, beers, backyards, and, of course, birthdays abound. That is where the narcissism comes in. It's when I have my birthday. And my husband has his. And a strangely high percentage of many people I know have birthdays. My husband seems to especially love June between June 5 and June 20. It is every day during this window that my husband constantly reminds me that I “robbed the cradle” as for 2 weeks, I am 2 years older than him, making me so old.

I know I shouldn't even be going on about the best month anymore since we are well into July, but like my birthday celebration, this blog is a tad belated.

Trying our best to stick to a total budget of $50/day doesn't leave much room for birthday extra-curriculars, but we took advantage of a rainy season special (buy 2 nights, and the 3^rd is free) and spent a few days at a lovely mountain retreat just outside of Antigua, Guatemala. The Earth Lodge is more than just another hostel; it's a lovely layout amidst a large avocado farm, gracing the mountain side. Multiple private cabanas, a famous tree house room, a dorm and deluxe camping allows for whatever accommodation one desires. Since we were celebrating, I made a reservation for the deluxe tree cabin: a cozy loft cabinita with two stories, two double beds, a window seat, a tree growing through the whole thing, and an entire south-facing wall of windows overlooking Antigua.

Good morning view!

You see the tree?

Adjacent to the cabin was a private outdoor toilet and shower. I suppose that could sound like a bit of an oxymoron. Private in the sense that it wasn't shared, and outdoor in the sense that the 4^th wall was in fact a shower curtain. Yes, I showered with it open. Let me tell you, that is the best shower in the world!

View from the toilet, through the shower

There is also a very lovely lodge area where the guests typically share vegetarian-fare dinners family-style, tell stories, make music, play cards, and the like. After 7pm, the internet is out until the morning. It's like life before 1998 and it's really nice.

We went on a hike, practiced yoga, read our books, and enjoyed meeting other travelers from the comfort of a hammock. I intended to use the stone sauna but it never seemed to happen. To top it off, we shared a bottle of Chilean Cabernet on our final night. I reminisced about our wine-drinking days in San Francisco and enjoyed the effects a half bottle can bring when you haven't had a glass in months. :)

View of the  fields during our hike.

I like the story of how this place came to be: a Bay Area gal left the “rat race” as she tells it, traveled Central America, received her Divemaster training and met a Canadian fellow. He also frequently traveled to South America and was looking for something more than just a place to warm up during the winter months. Between the two of them, with little to no experience in this particular field, they decided to purchase land, learn to farm, learn to build, and together, created a special haven now well-traveled by people from all over the globe.

This isn't too different from one of my own dreams! I've got lots of dreams so chances are, they won't all come to fruition. But with some good luck, some of them will. One is to own a bed & breakfast/hostel with my best main man. Our eyes are always open for the right spot! We both love Central America (and are optimistic about South America too) and could imagine finding the right coastal spot to settle down a bit. I don't know if we would revamp something that already exists and make it our own, but I like the idea of building it (with hired help of course) ourselves. Lacey, you know what I mean when I say the design dreams in my mind have no boundaries!  I dream that we would live in a little casita out back with a view of the ocean from our deck. Stays would include delicious breakfast and coffee and offer family-style dinners some nights. We would grow our own fruits, veggies, eggs, and chickens and we would know where our food came from.   I might lead yoga every morning, Brandt might teach SCUBA divers or surfers (ok, well he doesn't know how to surf yet but he will...), our kids would grow up playing in the sea with our dog. The cat would just be lazy. I would make a small hammock for the cat and the cat would love it. He would rest there when he wasn't killing mice and cockroaches.   

I mean seriously.  If it was even half that cute.

Like I said, I have many dreams, and we still have plenty of traveling to do so don't book your reservation with us just yet!  Instead, sit down with your partner or your kids or your best friend, and talk about your dreams.  Especially the ones your share.   Even if they are completely far-fetched or crazy or include hammocks for animals.  Someone might tell you it's a waste of time, but I'm telling you otherwise.  It's the absolute best way to spend an afternoon.  Dream big and don't miss out on sharing your dreams with the ones you love!

Tomato, tomatto, potato, potatto

There is more than one way to skin a cat... Many paths lead to the same place... Same same...

It seems as though we have come up with many cute phrases to suggest that there is more than one way to get something done. Sometimes we even try to trick ourselves into thinking that these many different ways are all good ways. To each her/his own, right? Come on, who are you kidding? Deep down we all think our way is best way, don't we? I mean, seriously, probably it is...

Traveling abroad can certainly challenge one's way of thinking though. Sometimes the way you do something or want to do something just isn't an option so you are forced to adapt. As I've explained before, sometimes you learn it the hard way.

I've always thought that cultural differences were intriguing, and now I am learning many of them first hand. Some are subtle and take days or weeks in a place to pick up on, and may take even longer to explain, or at least explain well. So I'll start with the obvious and easy cultural differences we've encountered and go from there.

Category: toileting

Incredibly there are books on the cultural differences in doing one's business. Crazy, right? I mean we all go #1 and #2, can there really be that many ways to get it done? The answer is yes. And we haven't even made it to Asia where squatting and rinsing (rather than wiping) is the norm!

1. The paper goes in the bin, not in the toilet. Ever.
2. Sometimes you have to pay to use the bathroom. $0.15 gets you permission to enter and 6 squares of TP. Hopefully that is enough for what you were planning to get done.
3. Sometimes the stalls intentionally have no paper. Wait, you mean you didn't see the king-size roll permanently mounted and chained to the wall when you walked in where the others were taking what paper they needed? Well that's embarrassing then...Hopefully you can manage some sort of wiggle and shake to dry off and that you chose full-coverage undies today.
4. Bathroom etiquette says you stand in a single queue and wait your turn for the line to shrink person by person until a stall with your name on it opens, right? Almost always. Unless you are in a rest stop in the middle of Honduras. Then (and how the hell are you supposed to know this), the protocol is to treat the bathroom like the portapotty lineup at Austin City Limits. Pick the stall you want and start to form your own line in front of it.. Instead of drunk co-eds budging in front of you it's a mom with 5 kids. Seriously strange. 8 lines in one bathroom. Why not the one line? I thought it worked so well...

Category: transportation

United States buses are so boring. In Central America buses:

1. Are painted in brilliant colors. Many brilliant colors at the same time.
2. Are decorated with faux shark fins, teeth, etc.
3. May include a turn-style or two. Yes, two turn-styles on a bus. One at the front door, one at the back side door.
4. Usually don't accept payment when you enter, rather each one has a money collector who walks along the bus and collects your fare.
5. Have no max capacity. None. This is not an exaggeration.
6. Use the back emergency exit (think elementary school bus back door) to get you on and off the bus. I was really excited the first time we got to use this service! Now we are pros at it.
7. Encourage solicitation. People very regularly get on the bus to sell you things. This is allowed and encouraged. A superior sales tactic we have noticed consists of passing our your good for sale to every person on the bus. Then going back through the bus and either taking the item back or selling it. Interestingly, this works surprisingly well and daily, we witness people buying stuff they probably didn't need or had no intention of purchasing. We don't fall for this trick!
8. Stop anywhere they want. Bus stops sometimes exist but more frequently don't. Just stand where you want on the road and flag down the bus. Same goes for getting off where-ever you want.
9. Are flagged the same way as a cab in Manhattan. How to call for/wave down a bus: extend arm out in front of you, parallel with the ground, palm down, limp wrist. Now flap your hand up and down really fast. Try it. There you go. Just like that. You just hailed a chicken bus!

Buses are not the only mode of public transit either! Other common ways to get around not frequently seen back home:

1. Stand with 25 others in the back of a pick up. We haven't been in one quite this crowded, but we did have our first pick-up ride just a couple weeks ago. There were 8 people and multiple crates of recyclables getting a lift.
2. Hitch a ride. I know your mother told you never to do this, but here, hitching is quite common. It often amounts to the above mentioned scenario (riding in back of someone's pick-up). The other day though, we had our first hitching experience and it was rather first-class! While waiting for a bus a couple of days ago, a pick-up slowed and offered us a ride. We didn't even call for him (again, limp wrist hand flap would have done the trick). His truck was super nice and we got to sit in the cab/extended cab even. We enjoyed a chat with a local and shaved 30-60 min off of our travel time.

Category: other

1. Very rarely do you pay for your hotel room or show proof of payment when checking in. I particularly love this about Central America. It's a way to show that people trust one another which sometimes seems to not exist in the United States any more. The norm for us is to stay in a hotel/hostel for 4 days, then pay the tab when we leave. You could walk out on your tab, but most people are honest people so this doesn't happen often.
2. Milk costs extra. Almost always. As a person who takes her cafe con leche, this drives me nutty! But I guess the cafe negro drinkers appreciate it. And the other side to this coin is that often, sometimes when you order something and have them “hold the bacon” (I know, what a ridiculous example. Who would ever have them hold the bacon??!?), they discount the cost from the price. This would never happen in back home! You don't want all the crappy side dishes that come with that platter? Too bad, you're paying for it anyway! So I guess over all, paying extra for milk is just fine. Just different. Sugar is free though. You don't pay for sweetness.
3. In a restaurant, you must ask for the bill. If you don't, you can just stay and sit all day if you wish. The server will come and ask you if everything is OK or if you would like anything else, but will not ask you if you want the check. So if it doesn't come, don't think your waitress isn't doing her job. She is and you aren't doing yours. You must ask!

And now I will attempt to convey a more subtle yet very substantial cultural difference: people are very friendly here. I don't mean that Central America is like one big cheer-leading squad, it's not like that. But they are friendly in a different and significant way that I was not used to living in the Bay Area. Again, I will fall on examples to help illustrate what I mean as “friendly” doesn't say enough.

1. When people get on the bus, they often have the biggest smile on their face (imagine my dad, Diesel, walking on to a bus filled with the Swedish Bikini Team. That's how happy they often look). Then they say hello (or good morning/afternoon) to every person they pass until they find a seat. At fist I thought everyone just knew everyone else on the bus, but no. This is just what you do. You say hello to people and you smile.
2. When you stop in the sidewalk to take a picture (there is still room for people to pass. No, you are not being the jackass standing in the middle of the sidewalk stopping foot traffic in all directions, oblivious to the queue starting to wrap around the corner), the gentlemen both in front of you and behind you pause and patiently wait while you get the shot you want. After you realize their kindness and quickly apologize (you didn't even hurry up!) one man says, “It's a beautiful picture. Did you get it? It's a great country here...” Holy cow! “Friendly” doesn't really explain that.
3. A few weeks ago we escaped the rain and went to a small cafe. Three large tables were occupied and 2 smaller ones were vacant but the one further from the door had a woman's bag on one of the chairs. Nearly immediately a woman looked up at me with a huge smile like I was an old friend arriving to have coffee with her. She moved her things wished me a good afternoon and asked how I was. All the time, looking me straight in the eye and smiling so big. She was sitting at a bigger table adjacent to where her bag had been placed. When she got up from doing her business meeting she offered us her larger table and she swapped us.

I just thought of this situation happening to me back in SF. I'd say I'm even one of the more wiling patrons to often offer up a chair or move my things, but typically I feel the attitude and behavior is eyes averted, headphones in, and just willing and hoping that the unlucky shmo who just walked in will take the single available table even if it is the crappiest seat sandwiched between the garbage can and the door.

I know it doesn't sound like a big thing, but they say the small things are the big things and I believe that to be true. It's really nice to walk into a cafe and feel like someone there might actually treat you like they would want to be treated instead of acting like you don't exist. Why do we so often chose avoiding people instead of having small interactions? Why do some of us perceive strangers talking to us as annoying or bothersome? Why do we assume that if someone we don't know starts talking to us they are probably drunk or crazy or trying to sell something or trying to proselytize or trying to hit on us? Sometimes this is the case, but also, sometimes a person just needs directions or help with something. And sometimes the person might have a great story to share, be really interesting, or be just like you. They might be a stranger that becomes your friend. When we ignore everyone assuming the worst, we miss out on what could be the best. And even if that stranger is drunk or crazy or selling things or Bible-beating around town, is it so bad just to listen for a minute? Is it really one minute of your life so wasted? Maybe sometimes it feels that way, but if you have a different perspective, then maybe it never has to feel that way. Instead it can feel human and it can feel really good.   

These recommendations don't apply to that guy.  He couldn't help himself from talking to a stranger even if he tried!  I love you dad!

Please excuse my typos and grammatical errors.  My husband is slacking on the proof-reading.