Quick Update

I'll start by saying that I'm sorry for the lack of blog posts.  I am happy but staying very busy doing things that arent very interesting.  There are tons of things that I would love to blog about but my free time is pretty limited and when I find a few minutes to sit at the computer, I just dont feel like writing.  I used to write at night but now I am working at the bar pretty late and when I'm done with work, writing is the last thing that I want to do.  Maybe I'll pick it back up later but for now, dont expect too much from me in terms of blogging.  Just know that I am enjoying it here and actually very excited for my parents to visit for Thanksgiving. 

El Mochito Mine

Its good to know people.  One of our favorite customers is the GM of a big lead and zinc mine in the area and he took Vicky and me down yesterday.  We went all the way down to 3050 ft.  It was very hot and wet but very interesting.


FYI, my keyboard which had magically fixed itself is acting up again.  Sorry for so few details on the mine but it is not easy for me to type like this.

Santiago

We have been dog sitting for the last few days for little Santiago, otherwise known as San Diablo.  He is just so cute but kind of a little terror when he wants to be.  I think he is probably a pretty normal Jack Russell, full of energy and a bit yappy when he gets worked up.  He likes to chase guys on bicycles down the road and mess with the guys when they are working.  He also loves attacking brooms and mops and anything else that is moving.  I'm pretty much smitten with him.

Hurricane Matthew

Well the hurricane was a dud here in Honduras.  We are in the middle of the country but only got a steady rain all night long and now it looks like it will be a nice day which is good because I need to dry some laundry and sun is very helpful for that.  We have no guests besides a couple that is camping in their camper van.  I have a feeling that we will get walk-ins today since the weather is better than was predicted.  Otherwise it will be very quiet here.

The good news is that my keyboard seems to have magically fixed itself.

Music

I know this picture is dark but I didn't want to ruin the vibe. Bob is a great guitar player and singer and every now and then will get a jam session going. Since neither Rob or I is musical, we just sat close by and enjoyed the live show.

Dogs Life....

There are 2 great dogs that live here.  I'll post some pics of them another day.  I walked by their food dish the other day and just had to take a picture.  French fries, garlic toast, tomatoes and popcorn.  I'm sure that they had already eaten the hamburger.  If you have never been to Central America, you are not aware of how pathetically skinny most dogs here are.  You can quickly spot a foreigner owned dog because they are healthy.  People freak out (in a good way), when they see the dogs that live here because they are so healthy. They may end up with cholesterol problems but these guys eat better than anyone.

Rob's Work

Here are some pics of Bob's house that Rob is working on.  Its going to be so nice when its done.  Today they are already painting the inside.  Its so damp here that hopefully, someday the paint might even dry.

Old school working

Its pretty different working down here. Rob needed to bend some pipe and used this very low tech technique. Working here really makes you have to think outside the box which I think is really good for us.

We will miss you Ed

We have enjoyed the company  of Ed, Bob the owner's brother.  He just left to head home to Oregon and will be missed by all of us.  He is such a cool mellow guy.  We really will miss him around here.  I wish he was staying another week but he had to head home to his cool house that floats right on the river.

Beware of falling avocados

Every now and then, while sitting here enjoying the peace and quiet, there is this huge BOOM that sounds like a gunshot.  Everyone jumps.  It turns out that it is avocados falling from a tree.  They are hard as a rock when they hit the metal roof over the restaurant tables.  2 have already fallen this morning while I've been typing here and drinking my morning coffee.

On the Lake

On Sunday, we went out on the lake for a nature tour with Malcolm.  Malcolm is the guy sitting on the bow of the boat in the bottom pic.  His specialty is birds and he knows everything about the birds in the area here and    in most of the 3rd world.  I won't take credit for these pics though.  One of the guests here was with us on our trip with his great camera and he took most of these.        

computer problems

FYI I'm having some problems with my keyboard. It is randomly inserting the letter c when I type a space or N or B. Its driving me up the wall. Not sure what to do. I will not post here again until I fix it. sorry.

Saturday

The internet here really sucks and I'm getting a bit behind on the blog.  Yesterday was my 2nd full day and so far so good.  I didn't do too much during the day.  Just another trip into town with Victoria.  The evening started really slow and then ended up insane.  Not only did we have the 20 guests and all of their food and non-stop drinks but also groups of locals came in to drink and eat.  Every seat was full with some folks even sitting in the hammock and ground.  I think it went pretty well and was assured that tonight would be less busy.  I'm getting along well with Victoria which is a very good thing.  This past week was a Honduran holiday which is why it was so crazy here at the hotel.  I'm glad that I survived and am hoping that things are calmer for the next few days.

Here is a map of where we are at:

Day 1

Sorry.  The internet is difficult here and I'm a little behind on the blog.  When I cant get online, I try to still write and then post it later.


We pulled into town and everything came back to us.  We knew exactly where to get off the bus.  It is so nice to be in a familiar place.  I can't explain it but I just feel so much more relaxed since we got back to Honduras.  Life just seems simpler down here.  I haven't quite put my finger on why since it seems a little counter-intuitive to be more relaxed in a place where we arent fluent in the language.

Well, we walked down the road from where the bus dropped us off and came in the gates of the hotel.  It was all just as we remembered it.  It took a while before the owner came around to see us and I was a bit nervous about what we would be doing and whether there is enough work for us.  He has a manager here now who wasnt even aware that we were coming which only added to my anxiety.  The rest of the day was a blur.  I hit the ground running.  First, I went into town on a grocery trip with Victoria, the manager and her sweet little Jack Russell, Santiago.  I came back and relaxed and showered and then the dinner rush started.  There were 2 groups of Americans totalling almost 20 people and they ordered drink after drink after drink.  It looks like I will be waitressing which is brand new to me.  Hopefully I wasnt too much of a nuisance.  The nice thing is that by 9pm everything is done and boy was I tired.

Now I'm just kind of hanging out trying to figure out where I'm needed during the day.  The lunch rush should start soon which is a little scary for me since that will be mostly local people and spanish interaction is still a bit scary.  We'll see.  More later.

Ahhh, back on Honduras bus

We awoke the next morning and got a taxi to the bus station. By this time, any anxiety that we had about traveling down here was gone. We knew exactly what to expect, what the bus station is like, what bus to take and everything. It all feels so easy this time around. Every single person that we have dealt with so far this time around has been so nice and helpful and I dare say that our Spanish is much improved from the last time which has made everything even easier. The scenery was beautiful and I sneakily took some videos on the bus to show you guys.

One of the best parts of the buses here is all of the food vendors that are constantly getting on the bus. We usually refrain from buying bus food but when I saw the guy with the leechee berries, I just couldn't resist. Here is a picture of one. They peel easily and on the inside is this fruit with a seed. I think the fruit tastes like a big grape and it is perfect bus food. Everyone here just throws their trash out the bus window which is a bit disturbing but I felt very Honduran throwing the peels and seed out the window as I munched on them. I highly recommend these if you are ever lucky enough to see these at the grocery store. I think they would make great kid food since they are so cool looking and fun to peel and eat.

Arrival

Now that I have a few minutes, I thought I would post a few thoughts about our experiences in the last 2 days. I booked us on the the cheapest flight that I could get to San Pedro Sula which took us from Dallas to Tampa to Miami and then to Honduras. I was a bit worried with all of those connections but everything went very smoothly and we arrived in Honduras on time...although after dark. We landed at the airport and immediately hit the ATM machine to get some Honduran money called Lempiras. The ATM machine spit out some 500 Lempira bills which are equivilant to around $25 US. I quickly remembered the big money problem here in Honduras. The ATMs only give 500s but nobody here can ever make change for them. It can be a major pain for all involved.
Our next step was to find a taxi to take us to our hostal. The taxi driver was so nice but was unfamiliar with our hostal. One of his buddies gave him some bad directions so we had a nice tour of the town while Rob and I looked for anything familiar to help get to the hostal. Eventually we found it, though, and were so relieved that they actually remembered us from our last visit there. The guy Carlos is even facebook friends with one of my friends from home from when she joined us for a week and remembered that he saw it was her birthday that day. We talked to him for a while about Honduran current events and the Dallas Cowboys.
A nice little thunderstorm broke out on our way to the hostal and when we went up to our room, the little hostal schnowzer, Mikey, ran into our room and under one of the beds and wouldnt come out. He ended up spending the night in our room which was kind of nice.

We have arrived...

This will just be a quick post to let everyone know that we have reached our destination here at D&D Brewery. It is just as we remembered with a few nice improvements.  We haven't seen Bob yet but he should be back soon and then we will have a better idea of what is going on and what he has in mind for us.  I took some video on the bus and will post it later.

Tampa Airport - One step closer

We are here in Tampa for a short layover before heading to Miami and then Honduras.  The weather is perfect so it looks like our flights today will work out ok.  We will arrive in Honduras at about 8pm so we wont be arriving at our hotel until much later than that.  I hate arriving at night but will just have to deal with it.  Tomorrow we will catch a bus to D&D and our travel will be over for a little while.  I'm not sure if we will have internet access tonight at our hotel but I will try to post as soon as possible.

Hitting the road again

Our flight leaves tomorrow morning to take us back to Honduras.  Yep, we know we are crazy but we have decided to go ahead and made a whole year of it.  We contacted one of the hotels that we enjoyed our stay at and asked if we could work out a deal for us to trade work for room and board and he accepted so we are off again.  This will be a very different trip.  We will be working and staying in the same spot for the whole trip.

I'd been debating whether or not to blog this trip and obviously, have decided to go ahead and blog.  It was a nice way for me to process my thoughts and some people really enjoyed reading it.

Today, we will be doing some last minute shopping, packing and cleaning up our room at my wonderful friend's house where we have been staying during our brief 5 weeks back at home.

Home...more or less

We arrived home to Dallas yesterday afternoon.  Our flight wasn't bad.  The plane was pretty empty so nobody had to sit next to anyone that they didn't want to sit next to.  They also gave us a surprisingly big breakfast.  My mom picked us up from the airport and I was a little surprised at how great it was to see her.  After a few hours of hanging out with my mom, we headed to Rob's parent's house to see his family.  It was great to see them, too.  Finally, we headed to our friend's house that we will be staying with until we get our act together.  By 5pm, I was completely exhausted.  After 7 months of travel, I'm not sure why it continues to surprise me how tiring travel days can be.  It doesn't make a lot of sense that sitting around on a bus or plane would take a lot out of me.

Thankfully, we left some fresh clothes here at our friend's house.  I am so ready to put on something different. I'm also going to make a run to Target for some new clothes today because...dammit...I deserve them!  Most of our stuff is in a storage unit, including some of my favorite summer dresses.  Hopefully, they aren't hidden too far in the back of the unit because it is hotter than hell outside and probably twice as hot in that storage unit.

Dallas is super hot!  Far hotter than anywhere we have been in Central America.  Thank God for air conditioning and cars.  We will be busy for a while catching up with everyone.  Rob is well connected and it looks like he will be back to work very quickly.  For me it will be different.  I've thought a lot about what I want to do next but have made no decisions and made no steps towards anything definite.

I laid in bed last night for a while debating whether or not I should continue the blog.  I have loved blogging the trip.  Sitting down to get my thoughts out has been really therapeutic.  I've never been one to bare my soul publically, though.  Blogging about the trip was easy because I had a topic to focus on.  I can easily continue blogging my life as a continuation of our adventure...especially as long as we are staying with friends which, so far, kind of feels like being at another hostel, although it is the nicest hostel we have stayed at and is not very well known since we are the only ones here.   My issue is more that now that we are in Dallas, I feel like my adventure is tied very closely into my career and I worry about perspective employers reading about my feelings about working.  I still need to put a lot of thought into this.  I'm sure that my posts will get a further apart but I would like to keep up the blogging at least a little as we work on getting settled again here in Dallas.  Who knows, maybe our next foreign adventure will pick up faster than anyone could expect.

Diablo Rojo

No blog about Panama City can be considered complete without a post about the Diablo Rojo (Red Devil) buses. These are the normal city buses. From my understanding, they are privately owned and decorated to lure customers onto the buses in a highly competitive industry. I love that the buses are brightly painted but these buses are also so rediculously noisy. Our hotel was on a small hill and starting from 5:30 in the morning, we could hear these buses trying to get up the hill. You can't have a conversation on the street at all. They are fun looking, though!

Ugly American

We witnessed a really ugly American today and I can't stop thinking about it.  The ugly American is a stereotype that you hear about all the time but we have been lucky enough to run into it very little.  Most of the travelers that we have crossed paths (Americans and others) with have been exactly what you would hope that they would be...patient, nice and most of all respectful of the people whose countries we are guests in.  We understand that the cultures in these countries are different from ours and we generally act like students, learning about people and trying to have as little of an impact on their society as possible.  We know that as gringos we stand out without doing anything.  Besides our pale skin, we dress differently, we act differently and often we can barely communicate in these people's language.   It can be awkward but we have all been to places that have been ruined by tourism and the last thing that we want is for the local people to resent our presence as tourists.  We know that people assume that we are rich to be able to travel at all but we know in our hearts that we are not as rich as people think we are as we try to make our small budgets stretch as long as possible.  We spend most of our times in this precarious balance constantly being taken advantage of and on our guards to not get completely ripped off while still trying to contribute to the poor economies and to help out the people whose society we are invading.

Today on the beach, we witnessed a horrible display of ugly an ugly tourist and were horrified that this American would represent us so poorly.  On this beach, like many others that we have visited, some entrepreneurial locals support themselves by renting umbrellas and beach chairs.  A few others had built champas (temporary structures built of wood and covered in branches) to rent out to larger groups.  A solo American guy had camped out in the shade of one of these champas near us.  We soon heard an angry local woman speaking loudly to the guy in Spanish and then heard him cussing her out in English.  Our Spanish is still poor but our ability to interpret situations is strong.  We immediately knew that she was trying to tell him that he needed to give her money to sit under her champa or move to another part of the beach.  We have been in his shoes before but the interaction was always different.  When it happened to us, we offered an apology and moved away.  It was always friendly and no big deal.  This guy was irate that she would treat him like this.  It was obvious that his Spanish was as bad as ours or worse that that he didn't really understand what she wanted from him.  He was saying truly awful things that I cannot repeat on this blog.  She was calling him things like pinche americano.  The guy had a Canadian friend who I don't think was traveling with him but maybe they had crossed paths before.  He looked over at us and Rob politely explained that she just wanted money for the use of the champa because that is how she supports herself and when the ugly American walked over to him after a while, he repeated what Rob had said as an explanation.  Well that just set off the ugly American even more.  He went back over to the lady and started yelling in English that she didn't own the beach and that the beach belongs to everyone.  We were relieved when he finally moved on down the beach talking under his breath about how awful "these people" are to tourists. A few minutes later, we were listening to a group of Panamanian teenagers that were hanging out in a nearby champa.  They were talking and laughing about the whole dramatic incident and then we heard them repeating some of their newly learned English phrases..."piss off, b&*h" was their favorite.

I'm so glad that we have witnessed so few interactions like that but I recognize the huge amount of damage that this behavior causes.  Even though every other American on that beach was polite and respectful, this lady and everyone else on the beach will continue to think that all Americans are rude and think that they are entitled to special treatment thanks to this guy. Its people like that who give all of us a bad name and I honestly wish that the ugly Americans would just stay home.

FOOD!!

I've been thinking about this post for a long time.  As the trip draws to a close, I want to do some summary posts about our trip and the most important one for me is this one about the foods from our trip.  We love to eat and there are some foods that will always remind us of this trip.

• Spicy Onion Vinegar sauce - This will be a staple in our kitchen from now on.  We have seen variations all over Central America and we practiced it in Roatan and ended up eating tons of it over that month.  Basically, we take water, white vinegar and sugar and boil it.  Then we slice up onions and the hot pepper of our choice and pour the liquid mixture over it and let it sit for a few hours.  We will be making it by the gallon because it is great with everything.
• Tapado - I can't wait to figure out how to make this delicious Caribbean seafood soup that we ate in Livingston, Guatemala.
• Ceviche - This was our staple food on Roatan and was perfect because all of the ingredients were cheap and readily available and as a bonus there was no cooking required so it didn't heat up our kitchen.  Its great with some mango cut up in it.  We eat it with slices of avocado and chips or crackers.
• Sushi - I never would have thought that sushi would have anything to do with this trip but it will forever remind me of Volcan Arenal, Costa Rica where we learned how to roll our own sushi.  I've been dreaming about sushi parties with our friends ever since and can't wait to perfect my rolling techniques.
• Rondon - This is another Caribbean seafood soup that is thicker and creamier than the tapado.  We ate Rondon in Cahuita, Costa Rica.
• Jen's stuffed onions - Paradise Gardens was not just about the animals.  We also shared some incredible meals with people who love food as much as we do.  We can't wait to make Jen's stuffed onions for Rob's family on Christmas.  Imagine hollowed out onions filled with a mixture of cream, chopped onion and bacon, wrapped in bacon, garnished with rosemary, topped with asiago cheese and baked until yummy and delicious.  
• Irish Stew - This is another great Paradise Gardens recipe that was cooked for us by a real Irish girl.  The secret is red wine and guiness beer...we will have to figure out the rest.
• Yuca - We have been eating yuca all over Panama.  The are best fried but can be used just like potato.  I think it will be delicious in winter stews or even mashed.

Isla Taboga

Today we took the last big outing of our trip. We went with our friend David to Isla Taboga to celebrate his birthday and enjoy a day of fun on our last tropical island. We were worried that the weather wouldnt work out but we lucked out with a perfectly sunny day. The island is a great getaway from Panama City. Its only about 20 km away from the city but the extremely slow ferry ride over made it seem much much further. The island is so cute and small. What you see in the first picture is the entire town on the island. We rented an umbrella for $5 for the day which was money well spent. From our spot on the beach, we could look to our left and see the sky scrapers of Panama City in the distance but in front of us was nothing but beach and ocean. We are exhausted from the sun but happy that we chose to make this day trip as our last big outing. Tomorrow we will rest and pack and try to dig up some semi-clean clothes to wear home on Thursday morning.

Canal video

Gatun Locks

The train took us to Colon where we took a bus to the Gatun Locks. Most people go to the Miraflores locks in Panama City but since we had really wanted to do the train, it made sense for us to check out the northern locks. The lock has a great viewing area where we could watch the huge boats go through the 3 gates. We sat for a few hours and watched these gigantic boats slowly make their way through the locks and marveled at how big they are and how well the whole system works. The pictures just dont do it justice, its really one of those things that you have to see to understand.

Panama Canal Day Train Ride

Today we checked something off of our to do list that we have both been looking forward to since starting the trip....the Panama Canal.  We have been talking for a while about splurging on the train ride that goes from Panama City on one end of the canal to Colon on the other end of the canal and I'm happy that we actually ended up doing it.  The sucky part of the train trip is that it only leaves from Panama City once a day at 7am which is really early.  One of our friends from Paradise Gardens met us near our hotel at 6am and the 3 of us caught a taxi for the train station.

The train ride was just an hour but was totally worth the cost.  We enjoyed our free coffee in the glass roofed car that was packed with tourists from all over the world.  Despite the drizzle, the views were great.  The ride went along the canal and through the jungle lining the canal.  After so many months in and around the jungle, this was absolutely the most luxurious way to see it.  About halfway through the ride, water started dripping from the glass roof right only our seats so we decided to check out an open air cabin.  I'm glad that we did because it was even more fun. The rain was clearing and we got an even better idea of what those guys who built the canal in the early 1900's accomplished.

Panama Causeway

Yesterday, we went to check out the causeway. Its a cool, high end area here. There are 3 small islands that have been connected to the mainland with a causeway. They have built marinas, hotels and restaurants with a great bike trail. It is so different from what we have seen in the rest of Central America and even in the rest of Panama City. This is setup for the other half. There is no poverty and everything is clean. From there you can see only the canal, the ocean and the huge skyscrapers of downtown.

After our first few days here of sun, the weather has changed to clouds and rain. We were going to see the canal today but we woke to rain and decided to hang out in bed until it stopped. Its after noon now and its still pretty crappy outside. I hope that the rest of the week is nice because we only have a few more days to see the things that we want to see. One day, we plan to take the train up the canal to Colon and then take the bus back, hitting the miraflores lockes on the way back. Then one day we want to take a boat to Isla Taboga for a day of islands and beaches. Both days will be much more fun without rain.

Our hotel is in kind of a boring area and with today being Sunday, even the few restaurants that we have discovered are closed. Oh well, we have Tv and internet to keep us busy. We also have a friend that we met at Paradise Gardens who just got to Panama City this morning so hopefully we can hang out with him a bit this week, too. Other than that we are thinking a lot about home and what life at home will bring. Its scary and exciting.

I had to take a picture of this sign. Panama has the best signs of every country. I meant to take more pictures of them. For the most part they use these great pictures with no words that we cant really tell what they are showing. I guess that this sign from the causeway is saying to beware of very muscular joggers with huge calves.

Changing plans????

I decided that the most fitting end to our trip would be a change of plans.  Yesterday we had planned to head to Isla Grande for a few days but today, I decided that we will just spend the next week, our last week, here in Panama City.  We are officially at our 1 week mark and I think that there is plenty to keep us busy around here. Mostly, I'm tired of moving my backpack around.

We made 1 final move this morning, from the first floor of our hotel to the 3rd floor where we can have internet in our room.  I'm happy with our hotel (Pension Corona) where for $25 we have a nice room with everything (TV, AC, hot water).  Our room last night didnt have a window and we ended up sleeping this morning until 10am.  We checked out a couple of rooms up on the 3rd floor and chose 1 with a window so that we wont sleep away our last week.

Panama City

After a lovely night in David, we took a very long bus ride today to Panama City.  We got to ride the whole way on the 2nd story of a double decker bus.  We have taken all kinds of transportation on this trip but double decker bus was a new one.  It actually just felt like being in a normal bus except was very very bouncy which made it pretty hard to sleep.

Either tomorrow or the next day (depending on how we feel at 6am), we will be heading to Isla Grande for a few days in the Caribbean.  We will be adding another new form of transportation to our list...train!

We will probably be without internet until we get back to Panama City so I just wanted to post a short update.

The Future

I wrote this one night last week when I was feeling especially thoughtful....

As our trip is coming to a close, I've realized that the best part of the travel is not necessarily the places that we've been (although they have been great) but really about the people that we have met. We have been touched by some of the locals that we have met although in truth, they have been few and far between. Our spanish just isnt good enough to really connect with them. For the most part, its the other backpackers that have really made our trip. We have learned as much about their countries as we have about Central America. We have met so few people that we dont like. These are all outgoing, adaptable, tough, interesting, intelligent people. The atmosphere of a hostel is so different from that of a hotel. Hotels are full of people who are mostly on short vacations. Hostels are homes for travelers. They have kitchens and a communal sort of vibe. Although we are all wanting to see and do thing to experience the places that we are visiting, we also want to feel a bit of home. We want to kick up our feet and read books or watch movies or just sit around and talk. We have learned to make our home wherever we are and to make friends with whoever is sitting closest. I came on this adventure, hoping to figure out what kind of life and career would really fulfill me and I think that I know. Rob and I have discussed it a lot and coming home will allow us to remove ourselves from this atmosphere to decide if it really is something that we would like to do long term. I think that the perfect way to continue to experience my favorite parts of travel would be to run a hostel. It would allow us to continue to be surrounded by interesting people while still being settled down. I'm confident that between the 2 of us, we have the skills and experience to do it well. I've learned enough to know that maybe we will come home and forget all about it, slipping happily right back into our old lives with our friends and family and jobs and all of the things that we left behind in January. I know that is what our mothers would like us to do and I love them for that. I also remember how I felt, sitting at my desk feeling a little trapped and a lot unfulfilled. Putting this out on the blog makes it seem very real but I'm doing it anyway. My goals when I get home are first, to get some sort of income...any sort of income really. Ideally, I would love to find something that I could do online and from anywhere in the world but that might be unrealistic. Second, I want to continue working on my spanish, since that would be imperitive to running a hostel down here in central america, in this part of the world that we have fallen in love with. Third, to find a hostel, whose owners are looking for a break and would like us to come and take over for a while to get a taste of that side of the life to see if it is really something that would make us happy.

Treasure Hunt

One of our best days at Lost and Found was spent doing their treasure hunt. We joined up with 2 guys from Kentucky and spent the day hiking around and solving riddles. It was both physically and mentally challenging. I dont want to get too much into the details in case someone reads this who plans on visiting there and doing the hunt. All that I will say is that we enjoyed the day and earned our bottle of rum.