Beautiful lava and dead fish.

Omoa(Honduras)
Trujillo
Tegucigalpa
Managua(Nicaragua)
San Jose (Costa Rica)
Panama city (Panama0

Soy Antonio.

Remember that waterfall I told you Andrew and I were going to bike out to after I posted my last entry?

I don't think it exists.

Or if it does I'm not sure it accurately measures up to the definition of a waterfall.
It's also apparently very dangerous to go there...(we read the warning sign AFTER we got back...)

WARNING: Backpackers are not to go to the waterfall. In April 2007 two hikers were robbed at gunpoint and chopped into little bits with a machete. Then they were fed to the fish.

(OK, I made the last part up....but the rest is true.) Apparently the guy who posted the warning is the same guys who gave us directions TO the waterfall......
He must not like Canadians.
He probably dated one once.......and she left him for some Russian hockey player. I guess having the blood of a couple Canadian backpackers on his hands is pretty good restitution.
Or maybe he IS the robber. He was just setting us up.
Man, we showed him.
We got lost.
A wrong turn took us to the city dump. Whatever was flowing here-I'm not exactly sure it was water....
We did retrace our steps and find the waterfall, but when I picture 'waterfall,' I see a beautiful blue shoot of crystal clear water cascading down the rocks into an aqua blue pool surrounded by lush green jungle. Something that yells "bathe in me!!"
I guess we should have looked up 'waterfall' in the Honduran dictionary.
We found, more or less, a stream dribbling over a few rocks about the height of my knees into a puddle that smelt like fish. (This might have had something to do with the dump next door, I'm not entirely sure.)
Well, I bathed my shins quite thoroughly.

Waterfall or not, Omoa has been one of my favorite places so far.

Now, I gotta tell you, as an Albertan born and bred, I grew up with milk in four-liter plastic jugs. Easy and efficient.
Then I moved to Ontario where they sell their milk in plastic bags... who on Gods green earth ever thought that this would be a good idea?
You have to cut the corner of the bag to pour it; and heaven-forbid you cut it too big or too small and end up with not enough or too much milk pouring through at once into your cereal. Half of it usually ends up on the counter too.

In Honduras they sell water in plastic bags.

Let's make one of life's essentials as difficult and frustrating as possible...
I poured my bag into a bottle. Me smar-tee Kanadian.

A couple days travel landed us in Nicaragua where we visited an active volcano. Volcan Masaya.
It's quite the experience to hike to the top of a smoking crater. It's also pretty fun to throw rocks into the opening to see what will happen.....
Nothing did.
C'mon, what is an adventure without a near-death experience?
Bolting down a volcano with liquid boiling magma hot in pursuit would have been a pretty cool way to start the day. (And maybe end it too....depending on how it went...)
Actually I read that the natives back in the 1200's used to worship a goddess that apparently came out of the crater to give them guidance. (We now know this phenomena as smoke.)
They would also sacrifice women and children to the smoke goddess for favors...
Could you imagine? The villagers all lined up along the craters edge...
"Oh great goddess of fire and smoke, accept this humble sacrifice of my mother-in-law..."

Push.

"...and my annoying little sister....."

Push.

I'm wondering if we really have progressed as a society. Things were much simpler back then.... You do something wrong........push.
None of this court system, probation garbage.

Today we went to the Panama Canal. Picture the Peterborough lift locks on steroids.
Exactly. Check mark for the life-list.

Spanish Lesson for the day:
"Hola hermosa, puedo comparie una bebida?" - "Hey beautiful, can I buy you a drink?"

(I don't ever plan on using this one, but it is in the need-to-know list of Spanish phrases for tourists...)
Keep Smiling!
Cheers from Panama!!
Anthony

The Same but Different

Omoa
Trujillo
Tegucigalpa
Managua

Hello everyone. Once again, I, the elder and slightly more cynical brother, am happy to chronicle how our trip has been going. Today, we made a side trip out to a place called Masaya (about half an hour from Managua, the capital of Nicacaragua) to see a volcano, and I was scalded by the billowing sulfuric fumes. Either that, or I got a sunburn. Some things about this trip aren´t much different from home...

Seriously, though. You might think that since we´re far away, things must be WAY different than they are in Canada. And a lot of things are. I was amazed at how different the people are, the language is, the methods of selling are (Masayamasayamasayamasayamasayaaaa! It´s never hard to find the bus you want, because everyone wants you on their bus), and many other things. But other things are disappointingly similar....

For example: in most of the larger centres, there´s at least a McDonalds. Pizza Hut has made a good show out here too, and in Tegucigalpa especially we saw several Dunkin´Donuts. Not to mention the ubiquitous Coca-Cola and Pepsi advertisements. They´re everywhere, including the small towns, and even random stores that are in the middle of nowhere. Tegucigalpa was actually a good example of that, too - there´s an enormous "Coca-cola" written on the hilll, Hollywood-style, only just lower than the large statue of Jesus that looks over the city.

Yes, the children of free trade and capitalism have charged in and made themselves at home in most places. It seems like much of Central America wants to be like the USA. There was even a Wal-Mart in Cancun. I was really worried about that when we saw it, but that´s the only one we´ve seen so far, fortunately. If they ever built a Wal-Mart in a place like Omoa, I think I´d have to retire from being human. Maybe I could be a lizard instead.

That being said, outside the major centres things are in fact very different from home. While in Honduras, we made a side trip out to Trujillo. There wasn´t much to draw us out there as tourists, but I think it´s been our best stop so far. The town itself is beautiful, but we didn´t actually come to see Trujillo at all. The reason we were out there was actually a very bumpy cab ride out of town, and a very wet walk back.

Let me explain. Before the idea of this trip was ever conceived, I spent a short while with a social justice club at the University of Alberta called Ignite. One of the activities we did as a group was to cook hamburgers and raise some money for a family in Honduras that needed a new roof. The president of Ignite at the time, Kara Elias, had volunteered at an orphanage close to Trujillo, and had come to know a woman named Maria Diaz while she was there. Once Kara had come back to Canada, she and Maria exchanged letters, and Maria mentioned that her roof was leaking... so, Kara and Ignite arranged to ´Raise the Roof,´and managed to raise enough money for Maria and her husband, Cristobal, to actually build a new house!

So, while this trip was still in the planning stages, I realized that we´d be passing through Honduras, and I asked Kara to put us in touch with Maria and Cristobal. She did, and we corresponded and arranged to meet.

The cab dropped us off at the orphanage, and we were brought to the house by a young woman who worked there. Maria and Cristobal were very happy to see us, and we managed (with our very sad and broken Spanish) a conversation. Amid some sharing of pictures and some good laughs, this is what we managed to find out: currently, family is living on a small acreage not too far from Trujillo. There are ten in the family all together: Maria and Cristobal, and their eight kids, the oldest of which is seventeen, and the youngest going on five. On the property, there´s a few chickens and turkeys, and some pigs - Anthony was excited to see them :). It was all indeed very different from home. Cristobal told us that the new house isn´t finished yet, because they´re waiting on a bit of material. But he knows it is going to be down close to the beach, so that they can go catch some fish, to supplment the rest of the food they have.

Sadly, our short supply of language meant we didn´t exchange much more in the way of words, but there was nevertheless a lot of warmth shared. As we left the first day, first they offered to let us use their phone to call home (we had explained to them that it was our dad´s birthday that day, and they wanted to help us offer felicidades)... when we declined (it was much too kind) they invited us for lunch the next day instead. We accepted :)

Pollo Frito! When we showed up, we sat and chatted with Cristobal in the shade as Maria finished up, and then Voila! A meal for a pair of kings! After we ate, we had a chance to speakon the phone with Maria´s brother, who lives in the west and speaks english - he told us that Maria was so grateful, she wanted to repay the whole Ignite group somehow, but wasn´t sure how to do it... so she decided the least she could do was cook for my brother and I.

It was the best meal I´ve ever eaten, in the warmest company I´ve ever shared. I still feel small in the face of their gratitude, which is toward the whole group. They welcomed us, though we invited ourselves; they endured our bad spanish and poor conversation; and Maria prepared a meal for us, the cost of which can´t be counted...

...I wish I could express it adequately for those of you who were a part of the fundraiser. I didn´t realize how much our simple flipping of burgers would mean for them.

Maria and Cristobal are very happy. And very thankful. They will soon have a new house.

Sorry to the rest of you Ignite members, though. Anthony got your share of the chicken.

Peace and love be with you all.

Andrew

Buses fly - In hurricanes.....

Cancun
Chetumal
Belize City

This is Anthony again.

Money is a funny thing here. It´s amazing what a difference a little amount can make.

When taking the bus from Chetumal, Mexico to Belize City, Belize you can pay $100 pesos (roughly equivalent to $10 American) for the Mexican Greyhound (ADO). You´ve got nice padded seats, an en-route movie, air conditioning and a pee-pot in the back. Now, for $90 pesos (roughly $9 American) you can take the ´economy´ bus.
We call it a school bus. A regular old cheesewagon. No AC, no movie, no pee-pot, and the one dollar downgrade even takes away your seatbelts.

So, we took the cheesewagon.

If not for the simple reason that it FEELS like you´re travelling. It also feels like you might die. Maybe that´s where the excitement comes from. Pure adrenaline.

I mean, in movies its always the school bus that blows up. I´ve never seen a Greyhound go up in smoke.......That one dollar can be precious.

It´s also the school bus in the movies that the 6-foot 300-pounds-of-muscle guy comes on board with an uzi and demands your passport, money and any gum that you might be carrying. (I only assume the gum part because their teeth are always so white....maybe it´s just a Hollywood oversight...)
I figured that if this was going to happen, it would happen at the Mexican/Belize border.
So when we pulled into customs, that´s when I started telling Andrew how much I cared about him.

Oh, by the way, when we got on the bus and the guy came around to collect payment, we both gave him $100 pesos and got no change. So we payed for an ADO anyways. ....He must have thought it was a tip. Or he knows we´re about to die and it doesn´t matter anyways.

Customs was actually a piece of cake, and I didn´t even see one uzi. Is it wrong that I´m almost disappointed?

---Random thought change---

Have you ever wanted waterfront property? Maybe a beachside cottage...? Every time I go to the beach I would think "Why can´t I live here? This is home..."

I am now living inland for the rest of my life.

As you may have heard on the news, a hurricane recently tore through parts of Belize... It´s like putting a city in the blender with a beach, hitting ´pulse´ a couple of times and voila! Blendo-Belizo Milkshake!
Living inland gives you the peace of mind that a telephone pole won´t come crashing into your living room when it starts to rain. Or that 500mph winds won´t carry your car up and crash it into the 7-11 eight blocks up the road. (Yes, for the record, they DO have 7-11 here...but no slurpees. In my opinion, what´s the point? A 7-11 without slurpees is like a pizze with no crust. All you have is a mess of sauce and toppings. Crust makes pizza PIZZA.)

So, no ocean-front property for me.
Lake front might even be pushing it. I just don´t know right now.

Belize City
Dangriga
Punta Gorda (Belize)
Puerto Barrios (Guatemala)
Omoa (Honduras)

We found a hostel in Dangriga that had hammocks for beds. I was pretty excited about that.
Until I tried sleeping in one.

Relaxing in a hammock - Perfect.
Sleeping in one - Not so perfect.

I think I was finally dozing off when a couple in the cabin a few down from us started making babies.
Loud babies.

Welcome to Belize.

Population: Growing.

Then it started to rain. I now know that rain on a metal roof if quite loud.

The good news is that we bused to Punta Gorda in the morning and took a boat across the Gulfo de Honduras, went through Guatamala into Honduras where we found a little oasis of a town called Omoa.
Beachside fishing town. Simply gorgeous.
Freshest meat I ever had too.
You´re stepping over live chickens on your way down the street. We had fried chicken at a restaurant.
I´ll let you do the math.

Spanish lesson for the day:

´Tengo hambre´ - ´I´m Hungry´

This has saved me from learning:
"Excuse me good sir, I´m from the cold land of Canada and have not had a scrap of food all day. Would you mind pointing me in the direction of a supermarket, a restaurant or any other means of nutrition please and thank you?´

Well, Andrew and I are biking out to a waterfall this afternoon. We love hearing from you! Leave comments or e-mail us! We miss you all! More pictures coming soon!
Keep Smiling!!
Anthony

Snake Nest (Cancun)

Toronto
Miami
Cancun
Chichen-Itza

This is Anthony.

So, apparently there is a world outside of that Canada place.
It´s really cool cause all you have to do is walk into this big metal cylinder, endure no leg room and miniscule bags of peanuts and BAM!!! you exit the cylinder to find palm trees, short people and no english.

I didn´t think this no english thing would be a problem until we arrived in Cancun and went to collect our luggage. For the record, Murphy wasn´t invited on this trip but decided to show up anyways. As we watched the bags go by on the carousel we spotted Andrews sleeping bag........ just the bag............no longer attached to the backpack.

Perfect.

We shared a laugh when his bag soon followed and continued to wait for mine.

And wait.



And wait.....







And wait..............................








Perfect.




Apparently the people in Miami thought my bag was so pretty they decided to keep it for awhile.
I guess this trip might be tougher than I thought. No english AND no deoderant.

I like to think of this as the perfect opportunity to begin trying to communicate something to someone who just stares at you like you´ve got a booger the size of Australia hanging from your nose but doesn´t have the nerve to tell you.
I expect this to happen often.

OK, bag sent to my hotel when it arrives in the morning? Comprede? Si.

After going through customs we went through a door that led us to what felt like a huge Mexican game of tennis... In this game Andrew and I were that little fuzzy ball that goes cluelessly back and forth...
All I know about tennis is that there are two people, some kind of controlled mayhem, and an end result.
We started at the door, ended at a hotel. I don´t know how.

No hablos espanol....

There were tour guides shouting at us-signalling-taxi drivers-maps-´buy this!´-no-this is cheaper-hola muchachos-dark outside-get in-stop-Espanol?-Centro-What´s a hostel?....

We were almost pushed into a cab with no idea where it was going and no address for a destination.
No english, no direction, no idea.

Perfect.

After the ride through language barriers and a foreign city we ended up at a decent (and cheap (and yes mom, it was safe)) hotel.
We flopped down on the beds and decided that planning from now on would probably save our lives.
Spanish might help too....

The next day went much smoother, we ate three whole meals and are still alive, I got my backpack, we found the beach, swam in the Carribbean and built a sand Chichen-Itza castle. We also found a hostel that gives you a free beer with your registration.....things are looking up.

Way up. Today we made it to Chichen-Itza, recently named one of the seven man-made wonders of the world. I used to think it was just a huge hunk of rock some ancient dudes put together. Then I learnt how much smarter than me they were. After learning of the complexities and details in the design, their own calender, the acoustics, even their sports.... made me want to be Mayan (ancient dudes).
Check it out. Honestly.
We then went to cool off in a lagoon with small waterfalls and a 10-foot hign jumping platform.
bragbragbragbragbragbragbragbrag-shut-up Anthony.
Spanish lesson for the day:
´Losiento, soy de Canada.´ -----´Sorry, I´m from Canada.´

Works perfectly.
Cheers!
Keep Smiling!
Anthony

PS. Pictures coming soon hopefully, this computer is beign tricky....it IS Mexican you know....

We leave tomorrow afternoon and typical of us, we're not ready. Anthony's malaria pills will only be ready to pick up tomorrow morning (because he only asked for them an hour ago, and he only got the prescription at noon), his travel insurance isn't bought yet, and he hasn't even packed... actually come to think of it, I'm in the very unusual position of watching him scurry around frantically, while I post a blog entry and write an e-mail or two. Wierd.

Anyways, everything looks good for us to leave for Cancun tomorrow morning, barring the sudden onset of traveller's cancer in my brother, or some tropical storm making landfall on the Yucatan (what are we naming them now? Gerry? Harrison? All of those names seem so inadequate for a death-dealing city-destroying storm. The next one should be called Grendel the bone-crusher, or Hellboy or something. Regardless of what they call it, though, it'd be an apt beginning for our trip...). Whose idea was it to travel through Central America during hurricane season, anyways?

One of the important things we did get done yesterday was to make a list of things that we're going to miss from Canada. We figure we'll get a good laugh out of it at the end of the trip, when we find out that the the thing we missed the most was the laser pointer we left behind (sorry Colleen - but you'll be happy to know I've already found a use for the hair ties :) ).

Things that we're going to miss:
Friends and family (sob!)
Oreo cookies
English
Fall and Spring (Andrew will miss winter)
Line-ups (we're so polite)
BC Fruit stands
Evergreen trees
Reliable electricity
Drinkable tap water
Thanksgiving

Things that we're not going to miss at all:
Bad pop songs (blah emo)
Souped-up Alberta trucks
Prime Minister Stephen Harper... actually, all of Parliament
Hockey season (sorry)
Toothpicks
Iced Cappucinos (well, Andrew won't miss them. Anthony will cry at night)

Anyways, also typical of us is the fact that we're taking a break in the midst of our preparations to go rock climbing this afternoon, and to get haircuts so we're all swank and cool when we head out. There'll be pictures on this site as soon as we have our brand new camera in the same place as the computer we're using to make updates (surprise surprise, when planning to make this entry, we forgot the camera at home...).

So, keep reading, and I assure you, the next one will be more entertaining than the last.

Peace be with you all!

Andrew