El Vago en Suramerica

Rockin out in Managua, Nicaragua.

Yeah its been a while since Ive written, and Im sorry if anyone has been overly concerned. Im safe, and having lots of fun.

Its funny… Im not gay (honestly), but I could probably write the “Gay Travelers Guide to Central America.” I keep meeting gay people everywhere I go. If anybody is gay and interested in heading to San Pedro Sula, I could most definitely hook you up. Let me know.

I arrived in Managua yesterday. I was going to spend some time in Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras, but after looking several minutes at a calendar, i decided it was time to be on my way.

Managua is bizarre. On my previous trip to Nicaragua, in the summer of 2004, i never saw the capital, staying instead in the tourist center of Granada. This time, I decided to see something a bit different. It is a city without skyscrapers, but also without any big buildings whatsoever. Most of the city was destroyed in the 1970´s by an earthquake, and in the aftermath it developed haphazardly and randomly, resulting in the current city layout. The historic center is the site of the ruins of the pre-earthquake city, an interesting, pretty spot, but extremely quiet and empty. The city´s modern centers seem to be based around several markets and shopping malls quite far from one another. Public transportation is somewhat infrequent compared with other Central American cities. There are numerous parks, which are unfortunately quite polluted and lacking in shade. It is a hot place, comparable to San Pedro Sula, Honduras. I do like Managua, however, in several ways. The natural setting of the city is gorgeous; there is a beautiful lake below a tall hill in the center, and the city is located right on the edge of the enormous lake Managua. Also, I´ve had no trouble meeting people, and everyone seems very friendly.

Today I walked for hours, all over the city, and it was nice to do this type of exploration again. I havent spent so much time walking around any other big city in Central America. It was a good learning experience, and I found some true chaos during my wanderings. According to my Footprints Guide, “The Mercado Oriental is said to be the largest informal marketin Latin America, and its barrio, Ciudad Jardin, should be avoided at all costs.” I have to agree with them. You would have to be crazy, as a tourist, to go shopping there. In the sprawling mess, I saw not a single cop but hundreds of drunks and drug addicts, streets piled high with trash, and wild hordes of people. It was quite an experience. I dont think Ive ever seen a place so hectic, dirty, and poor as that market and the surrounding area. There was an empty lot full of trash 15 feet high, and on top of the trash were about 25 people, adults and children, looking through the trash for food. In nearly all of the abandoned buildings scattered around the area, destroyed by the earthquake, including former hotels, churches, and government buildings, are packed dozens of families, living one on top of the other. It was tough to see, even after having seen so much poverty and desperation during my travels.

I spent the past week in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. I never really thought I would end up in San Pedro, but thats just how things turned out. I ended up leaving San Salvador a bit late on a Monday, so I had no choice but to spend a night in the town of Ocotepeque, on the other side of the border in Honduras. In the morning, I looked at a map, and realized that I was far closer to San Pedro, so I went there instead.

As I wandered around San Pedro, several guys came over and began to talk to me. They were all clearly gay, but I had no problem talking to them. Soon, I had made about 8 gay friends, all crazy partiers and crazy people. At night, I ended up going to a gay disco, which had a great atmosphere but was obviously quite lacking in girls. I went with Johan, my best friend of the group, to the Caribbean at the city of Puerto Cortes, on Thursday and Friday. On Friday we made another friend, a Salvadorean living in Cortes, with a big house on the ocean. His mom cooked us a soup, and we sat gazing at the sea and talking all day.

I had a great time in San Salvador. I hope this doesnt sound repetetive, but i made a number of friends there as well (including one gay guy), who owned cars and were able to drive me around the city. We went to the best place in the country to eat Pupusas, the national dish, and we spent one evening at the beach by the city of La Libertad. The parties were good in San Salvador, and I usually started drinking early with friends from my hostel before going out. I also spent a lot of time there in a huge shopping mall called MetroCentro. Though I have always hated malls, young people don´t have any business in the city center or in the parks, so the malls were the best place to be around people my age. After seeing so much chaos in the markets of central america, sometimes the malls can be a relief, but I still get tired of them rather quickly.

I love you all, and will update soon. If anybody has any questions about my travels, dont be afraid to ask…

Dan

Im finally in a new country: El Salvador, the most violent country in Central America, and the most densely populated country in North or South America. Here they don`t eat tortillas, so there are no tacos, quesadillas, or any of that jazz. They just have these boring things called pupasas, which are like tortillas filled with cheese or beans or other things. I guess they`re OK, but my problem is that here they consider these pupusas to be a meal, while in other countries tortillas are just accompanyment to something more interesting. Also here the women are prettier, and people are friendlier, though the population is quite homogenous. There is no national beer company, unlike Guatemala or Mexico. It is both far better and far worse than the other places I`ve visited.

My last few days in Antigua were quite interesting. New Years eve was, as expected, a really great party. I was chilling and drinking in the park until about 11:30. I must admit that I skipped several cultural events that were going on because they all featured marimba music, which I hate. In any case, Tanael and I went to the central point of the celebration at midnight, and some of his friends and I drank champagne as the fireworks went off. Afterwards, we prepared for a big party. At 1, we arrived at the XL fieston, put on by the national rum company. It was big and crowded with people, and the music was great. Unfortunately, we were unable to find any girls we really liked (who were still without company) so we danced most of the night alone. At about 5:15, when there were virtually only couples left, we headed to the park. Tanael went home, but I met some cool guys from Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. We listened to Reggaeton, drank a bit more, and talked until the sun came up.

The following evening, I was sitting with Tanael and some other friends on a bench in the park, when we were challenged to each come back in a half hour with a girl. We left optimistic, but were unable to find any interesting girls. We came back five minutes earlier, defeated. Several minutes later, however, three beautiful blond guatemalan girls passed by, and they lingered by us for a bit. Some fat, 30-something year old guy we knew went over to talk with them, so after a moment we joined them. They liked us, so we decided to meet later in the evening.

Later, Tanael and I met them in a bar, and we talked for about an hour. The girls told us that they work for Gallo, the national beer company, as dancers in special party events. Our new friends were the famous ¨Gallo Girls,¨known throughout Guatemala, the closest thing to national cheerleaders. We went to the park at 1 am, and spent a while dancing to music blasting from the car. The girls were extremely fun and charismatic, and we had a wonderful evening.

Yesterday, it was time to come to El Salvador. I got on a bus in Guatemala city for the border, rather exhausted for lack of sleep the night before. Somehow, I missed the border town when we passed through (it looks nothing like a proper border town), and I ended up one hour down a rugged dirt road in a tiny, dirty, impoverished village of several hundred people. I asked the bus driver about the border town, and he just shook his head. “Only one bus leaves town each day,” he said. “You could try to hitch a ride, if you want…” As it turns out, no trucks leave the town either. I was in a place with no restaurants and no hotels, one hour`s drive from the highway. In the end, somebody offered me a ride to the highway, if I paid him the price of gas to get there and back. It was expensive, considering that this vehicle, in the worst condition I have ever seen, was burning gas at a ridiculous rate. Nevertheless, I made it eventually to the border, and then on to the city of Santa Ana.

And here I am. It is the second largest city in El Salvador, with 400,000 people, but it really doesnt feel so big. It is a tranquil place, and not nearly as dangerous as I had expected. In Guatemala, people told me to be really careful in El Salvador, but here people tell me how dangerous Guatemala City is. In northern Mexico, people warned me about Chiapas. It is all ridiculous, really.

I think I`d like to live in Latin America. I like it better here, overall. Nobody worries so much about the little shit that people are always stressing over in the states, and people just do whatever they want. It is funny, coming from America, the land of limitless opportunity, to say that impoverished Latin American countries are more free, but in some ways it really is true.

Keep it real,
Dan

I just got back from Tikal, and once again, Im in Antigua.

I had an interesting time on Christmas. I went out with Tanael, and two Chapines (Guatemalans) I met in Xela, to a party with loud music and dancing around several fires… suffice to say, I was there quite late. On Sunday, there were unfortunately no parties at all, so I spent the evening talking with 2 very cool people from Denmark in my hostel.

Also, beginning on Sunday, I got fairly sick and my stomach was extremely upset. I was feeling shitty until Tuesday, spending lots ot ime in bed and trying to chill out as much as possible. I was in no condition to travel at this point, and it kind of screwed up my plans to go to Tikal and then Honduras. I decided to fly to Tikal, so that I would be able to avoid the long, uncomfortable bus journey in my unstable condition.

My friend Tanael and i had planned to buy plane tickets to Tikal on Wednesday morning from the Travel Agency, so that we wouldnt risk buying the tickets but missing our flight. Unfortunately, the travel agencies dont open until 8:30 or 9:00… We took a shuttle to the airport anyways, hoping to find a cheap flight around 10:30. There was only one option however: leave in the afternoon, spend the night in flores, and fly back the next evening. They cited us a price of something like $215, far too expensive for my limited budget. Tanael decided decided he would go sometime after New Year`s, but without that option, I decided to take an overnight bus that evening. We spent the rest of the day wandering around Zona 1 of the capital and then chilling out in the Tikal Futura mall/bowling alley/concert venue, a major hangout for well-off teenagers from that part of town.

The bus was OK, though I was a bit angry that the tour company charged me so much for what turned out to be an average-quality bus. I could easily have just gone downtown myself and purchased a ticket for the best-quality bus at the station for the same price. I had to wait several hours in the station, which was dirty and crowded, and in a dangerous area. When I finally got on the bus I had to sit beside a lady with big bags on her lap, making it impossible for me to get out of my seat and use the bathroom. Nevertheless, I slept well and got there without incident.

My day in Tikal was spectacular. I arrived in Sta. Elena at 6:30 am, and got on a bus for the ruins at 7. I slept most of the way there, but for the few instants I was awake I met the girl sitting next to me, coming from Guatemala City. When we arrived, I met her two friends also, sisters around 25 years old. We stuck together through the day, and one of the girls acted as a guide because she had been there before. The ruins were really amazing, big and dramatic and detailed. The site is enormous, so much more extensive than any of the other ones I`ve visited. We were there from 7 until 3. At this point, we got on the bus back to Flores, a little city on an island in Lake Peten Itza where the girls were staying. We relaxed a bit, as we were all totally exhausted by the long day. I bought a bus ticket for an 11 pm return to the capital, and then we took a short boat trip, watched the sunset, and went out to dinner. It turned out that they were terrific company, absolutely wonderful people who I was very fortunate to have the pleasure of meeting.

I didnt sleep so well coming back, and upon our arrival I proceeded to get a bit lost in the capital… at least it isnt so dangerous at 7 am. I did see some new parts of the city, however, and eventually made my way to where i could catch a bus to Antigua. When I got back here I slept several hours, brought my laundry to the laundromat, and got a haircut.

Things are all going well. I decided it wouldnt be worth the long trip to Honduras for New Year`s, so here I am still in Antigua, and that really isnt a problem. I couldnt be any happier right now. I think ill go to El Salvador on the 1st or 2nd, and I cant wait to get to a new country again!

Happy New Year`s, yàll!
Love,
Dan

The title is the best Reggaeton song ever. I love it.

I somehow thought I had updated more recently than the last entry. I kept feeling like nothing new had happened, but i guess in reality its been a fair amount of time and ive been all over the country since the last time i wrote.

At the moment, I’m in Xela again. I came back to visit Maria, the closest thing I have to a girlfriend, before I head to Antigua for christmas. I am actually going to return to Antigua this evening, because it is quite cold here and I dont have appropriate clothing… last night it got rather uncomfortable. I drank to stay warm, but that just made me unbelievably tired. In any case, this is a nice city and it is fun to go back to a place that you already know fairly well. Yesterday evening i ran into another local friend, and it was cool to see her after several weeks traveling around the rest of the country.

So I went to San Pedro, a town on Lake Atitlan, with Tanael and his girlfriend Carlota, about a week ago. The lake is a gorgeous place, surrounded by volcanoes and lush green forest. The journey there was incredible; we took chicken buses, and arrived at the lake just before sunset. To get to San Pedro you have to take a boat across the lake, so the sun was setting as we got on board.

We only stayed in San Pedro for 2 nights, though, because despite its beauty, it was somewhat boring during the day. There are five things you can do there in the daylight hours: take a hiking tour, a horseback riding tour, rent a kayak, take drugs, or buy bread. The only one of these activities in which I participated was buying bread. The town is unbelievably full of gringos, and there is almost no contact with the locals there.

That night I did find a good party. I went to the two bars I already knew, and as I expected, they were packed with gringos, and there as not a single guatemalan in sight. I then checked out a bar that had been empty the previous night, and it was full of guatemalans from the capital. I was the only gringo there. The bar was awful; they played the song gasolina 3 times in a row, but everyone loved it. Afterwards we had an afterparty in a hotel, and once again i was the only gringo. In these situations, it is extremely easy to meet people, and i had an awesome time.

We went back to Antigua, making a stop on the way in Panajachel. In Antigua, I met some friends from the previous week, and then met more of their friends, so that now i feel fairly well known in the city. It is cool to be able to go out alone, assuming you will see people you know later in the evening. I always feel better leaving a place having met local friends than leaving like just any other tourist passing through.

On Saturday I went to the capital with a friend from California, and we stayed with the same girl as before. She is incredibly hospitable and friendly, and once again I had a wonderful time there. We (the Californian and I) met two of her friends, and they drove us all around the city. I went again to the center, but this time also to some of the main nightlife zones, which were packed with people after dark. I saw enormous american-style shopping malls (the only thing missing was americans) and fancy hotels. We drove to a gorgeous lookout point above the city, and ate dinner in a restaurant overlooking the sea of lights below.

Going out on Saturday night was lots of fun, way better than the nightlife anywhere else in Guatemala. There were few gringos around, and everyone was good-looking and there was fun music and loads of variety in the different locales. I was with the Californian, the two guys who had been driving us around, and their two other friends. We had so much fun, yelling and dancing and going crazy.

On Sunday we went to a soccer game, which was probably the highlight of my time in the capital. It was the biggest soccer game of the year in Guatemala, with the two best teams from the capital, the Cremas (whites) against Municipal (Red). My friends were Crema fans, so we went into the side designated for supporters of this team. Upon entering the stadium, it became clear that the whites were drastically outnumbered. It was the home stadium of the red team, so at least 3/4 of the seats were in the red section. Though the stadium never filled up, it got close, and the entire game we were looking out into a sea of red on all sides.

Apparently, Municipal has won the last several championships, and though the teams were equally competent, we were still cheering for the underdogs. It seems that this has made many of the white fans a bit more radical, and they were cheering nonstop during the first half, everytime we got possesion of the ball. During halftime, things got crazy. Somehow lots of people managed to sneak fireworks into the stadium, and a number of white fans were throwing fireworks into the red section, cheering whenever they managed to hit somebody. Other drunk fans were running to the fence and yelling at red fans and throwing coins at each other. Riot police came, they kicked some people out of the game, and the violence subsided somewhat. When the the players came back onto the field, everything calmed down and people began to focus more on the game than on each other.

Ten minutes from the end of the game, red scored a goal. After this, white began to play terribly, and red scored again. Crowds of white fans began to leave the stadium, but we waited until the end of the game. It was a huge celebration for the red fans, and it turns out that we had chosen to cheer for the wrong side. Instead, some white fans took to ripping up chairs from the stadium and throwing them towards the field. Luckily I was with my guatemalan friends, and they knew what to do in these situations, where to sit and when to leave. We got out perfectly fine, but it was a wild show. Since the game Ive talked to lots of Guatemalans who refuse to go to the stadiums because of the violence. Nevertheless, Im glad I went.

The next day I took a bus into the countryside, to the department of Santa Rosa. My family back home got me in touch with a family who lives in a small town called Teocinte, so I stayed with them for two nights. I met the whole family, all wonderful, hospitable people. It was great to experience such a contrast from the noise and danger of the capital to this tranquil, quiet village. Also, it was cool to be in a town that hasn’t seen tourists for SIX years. On tuesday I went with the family to pick coffee beans, up in the hills 45 minutes from the town. It was a lot like picking blueberries or something, except that you cant eat the coffee beans. I picked a fair amount, but then i went for a walk with a kid from the family with whom i was staying, and we got a bit lost. (not REALLY lost, only kinda. The kid knew his way around.) We ate lunch together, then resumed picking. It was a cool experience, though i know i wouldn’t want to do it every day. 6 am – 4 pm is a long day, and you are on your feet the entire time. I also got covered in mosquito bites, because i didnt think to wear a long shirt. Later that afternoon I saw the coffee distillery, where they separate the beans and prepare them for export.

The next day, I got up early and headed to Xela. And here I am.

I think I’m going to spend the New Year in La Ceiba, Honduras, which will mean a bit of a sprint after Christmas, up to Tikal and then across the border. Its fine though, I can deal with lots of bus travel.

If you dont hear from me again, then I wish everybody a Merry Christmas.
Love,
Dan

P.S. I wrote this entry yesterday, but was unable to publish it. As it turns out, I was unable to get a bus back to Antigua last night. I arrived at the bus station at about 5:30, and there were no more buses at that time. I was extremely frustrated, but I had no choice but to remain in Xela another night. I spent most of the evening reading and relaxing in my hotel room. The issue of transportation is quite a big difference between Mexico and Guatemala. In Mexico, buses run through the night, and they are usually comfortable and offer a fairly smooth ride. In Guatemala the buses are packed full of people, are old and sometimes dangerous, and run only during the daytime. It is far cheaper to travel in Guatemala, and a far more interesting experience, but it can really complicate things if you are running on a tight schedule.

I am so unbelievably hungry right now, i think i might as well just start eating my socks or something. Im waiting for my Swiss friend, who right now has lots of emails to write… i guess i dont really mind spending a lot of time on the internet, but not if its already 3 pm and i havent eaten anything all day, and i was up partying all last night.

So ive gotten to a weird state in my travels. Seeing new cities has gotten very repetitive, and quite often i dont have the energy to go out and walk all day or approach random groups of people to make friends. Therefore, i find myself chilling quite a lot. And partying, of course.

So im in Antigua, Guatemala, and i think it is a bit of a shithole, absolutely packed with tourists… it is a pretty place, ike everywhere i go, but it is also one of these “gringo hangouts” and “backpacker stops” that can be quite frustrating. I hate going to a bar and hearing only english, or walking down the street and seeing only blond hair and blue eyes. It is fun to meet people from all over the world, but that really isnt the reason i came to Guatemala.

Guatemala is frustrating because bars and clubs have to close by1 am, and so every night i have to look for some illicit after party. Ive been successful here and found an afterparty every night, but often they charge a cover and are almost empty.

I had a fun time in Guatemala city, and i didnt think it was quite the hell that other tourists described. I stayed with a nice girl from www.hospitalityclub.org, who lived about 45 minutes from the city center. I saw the center and the university there, and i feel like i got a much better sense of Guatemala as a modern country. Many tourists just come to the pretty cities and go to museums, but by only doing that I think it is impossible to understand the true state of the country and its people.

I saw this girl from Xela on Monday and Tuesday last week, and though we spent only several hours together each day, i think we each got fairly attached to one another. I may go visit her at some point in the next few weeks. The problem is that she is only 16, and her parents aren`t ok with her going out at night or anything, so im afraid we`ll see each other for very little time.

I`d really appreciate some comments… or just shoot me an e-mail… let me know whats up.
Rock on. At your next party, drink a shot for me.
Dan

Please excuse my short absense from writing in this journal. The reason I didnt write is because i didnt really have much new to report for the longest time; I spent a full week in San Cristobal de Las Casas, which was much more time than I expected to spend there. I obviously was having a great time, otherwise I wouldnt have stayed for so long. I made loads of friends in my first two days there, and every other day I would always run into lots of people I knew on the street. It is a small city, and in a sense this reminded me of Guanajuato in the way that I could always find people I knew. It is an interesting city, composed of a large indigenous population as well as a large hippie population.

I was at a party on my second night, and it was absolutely packed with hippies. At that party, I met a lot of the people I would see frequently around the city. There was a guitarist and saxophone player at the party, and they asked me to play for a bit. I ended up playing for quite a while with the guitar player, and it felt great to get back into playing music. Traveling, I´ve missed the saxophone more than I had ever expected.

In the city center of San Cristobal, the venders are worse than anywhere else in Mexico. Everyone from little girls to old ladies approach any foreigners they see and, presenting their goods, tell these people to “compralo.” They would often point out that their bracelets or hammocks “son baratos” or “son lindos” and then repeat their demand to “compralo.” For those of you who dont speak spanish, this literally means “buy it.” As far as these venders are concerned, selling their goods isnt a matter of salesmanship but of a direct command to buy the goods because they are cheap. I usually feel sorry for these venders, but when they are so persistent and pushy it quickly became annoying.

One day I went to Chamula, an indigenous village outside of the city. The entire indigenous lifestyle and the village´s self-sufficiency is completely visible, and it is fascinating to see the animals that compose the daily diet, people working in the corn fields, and others cooking and caring for their children and everything. Also, it was surprising the the village was quite prosperous. There were a number of very nice houses around town, and nobody seems to be hungry or without the means to survive and care for oneself. This was quite unexpected, as my earlier perception had been that the indigenous villages were very poor places lacking any opportunities.

One day I ran into a Swiss guy, Tanael, who is also traveling alone, so we spent a lot of time together. We went out a couple of times to a club called Blue. On Monday there were about 25 people there, and only about 8 girls. Two of the girls approached us, and danced with us for a bit. Later in the night, however, they ended up kissing two other random guys. These girls were dubbed the “bitches” by Tanael and I the next day.

The next evening I was supposed to meet Tanael, but I saw my friend from the hippie party and he invited me to hop in the back of a pickup truck with his friends (not hippies). I spend the night riding around in the pickup truck and drinking beer at the house of the guy driving the truck. At one point there were 3 hippie girls in the back of the truck with me, and the guys decided they didnt want the girls to come along, so we ditched them in the town center. It was a fun night.

I took a day trip to the mayan ruins of Palenque and really enjoyed the trip. We also saw a waterfall called Misol-Ha, and a set of cascades called Agua Azul. It was 5 hours both ways, but it was definitely worth it.

On thursday night, supposedly the best in San Cristobal, I went to Blue again. This time, though it was crowded with people, there were almost no good-looking girls there. Nevertheless, I chilled there until 6 am, listening to the music and talking a bit to the “bitches.”

On Friday, after a week in San Cristobal, I decided it was time to take off for Guatemala. I took buses to the border, then crossed onto the hectic guatemalan side in the city called La Mesilla. It was a wild, noisy place, with no real rules or order in place. The streets were packed with venders, cars, and pedestrians, with too little room for anybody to get where they were going. I like border towns, sometimes. They are never nice places, but almost always quite interesting.

From La Mesilla, the only option is to take a chicken bus to Huehuetenango. The bus ride was also interesting, as it was my first real chicken bus experience. An old US schoolbus painted bright colors, it was filled with a ridiculous amount of people. Not wanting to leave my backpack atop the bus, i sat on a seat with my backpack on my lap, and with two other adults sharing the seat with me. Every single seat in the bus had 3 people, and there were still people standing in the aisle. At one point we had to wait while a portion of road was being constructed, and we were in one place for about an hour. The bus got hot, and the incessant vibration of the seat got quite annoying. Finally I arrived in Huehuetenango at about 7. I had hoped to continue to Quetzaltenango, but no buses leave after 4 pm.

The next morning I headed off to Quetzaltenango, aka Xela. I checked into a hostel, and wandered a bit around the city. I like the place. It is pretty, and it has a crazy market. Last night was a big clelebration in the central park commemorating its opening after a long renovation, and there was lots of music and fireworks. I met a girl during some boring speeches, and Im going to meet up with her tomorrow afternoon. I hope everything goes well, because I really like her.

After the music ended, I went to a club with a Japanese friend from my hostel. It was a cool place, but almost everyone there came with a partner. The dance floor was filled with just couples, and my friend and I were the two weirdos dancing alone. The place closed at 1, so we checked out 2 more bizarre clubs, then decided to head back to the hostel. On the way back, a group passed us and invited us to come to an “after party” in a bar. It was apparently an illegal place, staying open far past the hours at which bars have to close. I was dancing for awhile with one girl from the group, and then we decided to go with her friend to a party at this guy´s house. We drank a bit of vodka and coke, and everything was OK, but it turns out that the guys at the house were all jerks. At 5 am they refused to drive us home.

We were quite far from the center, and this city isnt such a safe place at 5 am, especially on a dark, foggy night. We walked for a while, and then we waved down a car and asked for a ride to a park near one of the girls´s house. He was a taxi driver, but he let us ride for free. He was extremely angry and reckless, because he had apparently been robbed earlier that day. Also, the girls apparently saw a pistol in his pocket. We were holding our breathe the entire way to our destination.

This was a dangerous situation, and though I am always up for adventures, It isn´t cool when they turn so drastically unsafe. I do maintain, however, that it was not our fault that we ended up in such danger. If the people at the party had taken us home, as they had promised, things would have been far easier. And though it was risky to get in the car, it would be even riskier to walk miles through dangerous neighborhoods late at night.

All three of us had to sleep in a little bed, so it was obviously difficult to sleep at all. In the morning, we realized we had a problem: the girls´s grandmother was home, and she would certainly not approve of a random gringo boy sleeping in the same bed as her daughter. Therefore, I had to remain in the room, completely silent, until the grandmother left the house. I got back to my hostel around 11: 30.

Whether or not it was much fun (it wasnt so bad), it definitely makes another good story.

On Tuesday I´ll hop on a bus for Guatemala City, where I have a contact with whom I will stay. Then Ill check out Antigua and Lago Atitlan.

Everything is going very well. Yesterday I bought a new towel, as well as a new sweatshirt (I lost my old, paint-stained sweatshirt in San Cristobal). Exciting stuff, huh? I think so, at least.

Stay cool, everybody.
Dani

I was on the beach in Puerto Escondido with some good friends (i met them that night), all bien pedo, at about 5 am on Monday. One of the guys (Pablo), from a town called Pinotepa, about 2.5 hours north of Puerto, invited another american guy (Tim) and I to come home with him the next day. Neither of us had responsibilities, so we saw no reason not to. By 7 am, not having slept, we were on a bus north.

Pinotepa is a nice place. It isn´t a particularly interesting city, not a place for tourists. In fact, if a basketball competition wasnt going on while we were there, Tim and I would have been the only gringos in the city. Pablo lived down a dusty dirt road about 2 miles from the city center in a house with a tin roof. There you shower with a bucket, and you also flush the toilet by pouring a bucket of water into it to create enough pressure for the contents to travel through the plumbing system. They have 4 dogs and 8 kids in the house, and Pablo was one of 7 brothers.

The first day there I met many of Pablo´s friends, all of whom are really cool and chill. One owns a bar in the city center, and there was always somebody there, chilling or listening to music or drinking. We spent a lot of our time in Pinotepa there, as there wasnt much to do during the day. I also met up with a girl I had met in Puerto the night before, called Lirio. I really liked her, so we set up kind of a double-date the next day with her friend and Tim. That night there were about 12 guys drinking at the bar, and at about 3 am we all went to a mountain over the city where you can look down at the lights. I was riding with three other people in the back of a pickup truck, without question the best way to travel. Afterwards, we all had tacos. It was a real good time.

The next day we went with the girls to a pretty river and to the mountain again. At 10 pm they dropped us off at the bar, and assured us they would be right back after they got some money from one girl´s house. They never came back; im pretty sure it was Tim´s girls fault, because she had the car and was in control of the situation… we saw her the next morning wearing the same clothes and makeup, pretty sure signs she didnt go home that night. Well, we wouldnt really care if we hadn´t waited an hour and a half for them to come back for us.

The next day I headed back to Puerto, and it was another party night. I left on a bus at 7 the next morning for Huatulco, extremely tired and not having slept. I changed buses and went to Salina Cruz, then to Juchichan (?) then to Arriaga, Chiapas, then to Tuxtla Gutierrez, where i spent the night. Today I left in the morning for San Cristobal. This city seems to be a wonderful place. It is gorgeous, filled with pretty churches and colonial buildings… and im not saying that means shit about what kind of city it is… The indigenous culture is extremely apparent here, and the colorful dress and beautiful crafts make the place quite varied and interesting. Im ready for a party, though!

So my thanksgiving was spent traveling, but what can you do? At least I´m in Mexico, suckers!

Tell everyone whats up with me, cause im sure some people dont read this.

Love,
Dan

Well, I´ve finally reached the tropics. Even in central mexico it gets cold at night, and the landscape varies between desert and shrubland and forest, but until now I had seen few palm trees or coconuts. Here it is always hot, and the sun at midday is unbearable. The water is beautiful and warm, and the land is covered in green. I´m in Puerto Escondido on the pacific coast of Mexico, in the far south. I arrived on Thursday evening, and since then I´ve spent quite a bit of time relaxing on the beach and enjoying the waves for which this city is famous. I don´t surf, but here a big surfing competition is going on right now. Every day at 6 people head to the best surfing beach to watch the spectacle.

People party here like nothing ive ever experienced. I think it would be comparable to a spring break like atmosphere, staying out at bars until dawn every day then sleeping the day away, waking up several hours before dusk to chill at the beach a bit. On Thursday I went to sleep at 6, on friday at 7, and last night at 9 am. Ive spent most of my time here with foreigners which kinda sucks (lame gringos, mexicans are more fun), but last night I met lots of mexicans as well. There are these 4 alaskans who are cool, and Ive been chilling with them when Im out. This morning I went to the surf competition at about 7, but I fell asleep on the beach and I was feeling pretty awful, so I went to bed instead of sticking around till noon as I had planned.

Yesterday I was walking through the city at night and I stumbled upon an enormous gathering of people in a park, all carrying little yellow flags. I waited in the park with everyone, and a short time later Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, a presidential candidate for the PRD, a liberal/socialist political party in Mexico, showed up in the park. He gave a good speach, and the whole gathering almost had a party atmosphere, with lots of music and ecstatic people. I learned quite a bit by this whole gathering, and it was a cool feeling to be the only gringo present.

In 45 minutes a dance festival is going to start, and Im excited to see what its like.

I was in Oaxaca for a couple (3?) days, and I really enjoyed the city. It was a fairly relaxed atmosphere there, and thought there was a lot to see, there was no sense of urgency. In Oaxaca is a gorgeous church filled with gold, and beside it is an excellent museum about the history and culture of Oaxaca state from the prehispanic period until the present. Oaxaca is an extremely diverse place, with a very large indigenous population; something like 20% of the state´s residents speak an indigenous language before spanish, and many speak little or no spanish. People dress colorfully, and the fiestas are unique and exuberant. One day there I stumbled upon a party by the Zocalo where a person would run in a circle in the middle of a big crowd with a wooden structure on his head that shot off sparks and fireworks into the air. It was exciting, but though people told me it was safe I was certainly not convinced. at one point a firework shot through the crowd and people had to jump out of the way. There were these crazy guys there who were drinking rum, and they adopted me as their “primo” (cousin) for the evening.

My first day in Oaxaca I met these two girls selling Mezcal, and i really liked them so I spent a while at their store that day. The next day I slept at their house, and on Wednesday I went out with one of the girls to a bar, and we became “novios” for the night. I was hesitant because she has a boyfriend in the town where she´s from, but I guess relationships only count for so much here…

Monte Alban, outside Oaxaca, is the most beautiful ruins I´ve seen yet. It is atop a mountain, and from there you can see valleys all around and big mountains in the distance. The setting was quite tranquil, and though you can see the outskirts of Oaxaca below, you there you feel like you are in another world.

I took a second class bus from Oaxaca to Puerto Escondido, changing buses in the port city of Pochutla. It took 8.5 hours total, and it was a dramatic trip. Oaxaca is in a fertile valley, but we quickly entered a region of shrubland, then high into the densely forested mountains covered in pine trees, then south into the tropics. The scenery was absolutely gorgeous. In the mountains I got off the bus and was shocked by how cold it was. When I went back to the bus, little chickens were scurrying around the floor of the bus. People would get off the bus in places where there was nothing more than a couple of shacks on the mountainside. That trip was by far the best bus journey of my travels so far.

And here i am. Right now, Im maybe halfway between the mexican-US border and Panama. Tomorrow I might go to a beach called Mazunte, and then I´ll head to Chiapas via 2nd class buses. The adventure is only beginning…

PS. I have a funny story to tell some people about when I slept at those girls house in Oaxaca… Ill email it or something.

PPS. The monitor on this computer is like a fucking strobe light and i think im going to have a spasm. If there are any funny sentences or grammer errors in this entry, its because my head hurts and I can hardly think, and when i look away from the computer it seems like the whole world is vibrating.

God bless us, everyone!
Dan

Well, my camera is gone for good.

But its for the better, perhaps. I´m traveling, and it doesnt matter whether I lose things or something doesnt go the way I plan. Its all for the experience.

I bought a new camera when I got to Puebla, for about $20. It seems good enough, and if it gets stolen, the hell with it, its only 20 bucks.

I´m actually enjoying Puebla quite a lot. I had met several girls during the Cervantino from Puebla, so my main reason for coming was to visit them. I met up with one of the girls (Saydel) yesterday, and within 2 hours I had another novia. We walked all around downtown during the day, then I ate at her house. We went to a class of hers at 5 o´clock, and that was totally overwhelming. I haven´t been to class since June, and I dont plan to go again until next September.

Today we went to a pyramid in a town called Cholula, and that was pretty fun. Unfortunately, we were only novios for about 24 hours, because tonight she´s off to Mexico City. The other girls I knew from the Cervantino aren´t going out tonight, so I guess Ill have to find some new company for this evening. There is an international pantomime festival going on in the Zocalo, and its actually quite fun; not really something you would plan on seeing, but as I´m here, I might as well.

Puebla actually lightened my spirits as soon as I arrived. I was walking to my hotel with my backpack, and on the way two girls at some computer company stopped me and asked me out on a date that night. I showed up kind of late and they were already gone, but since then I´ve been flying pretty high in my travels.

Tomorrow I´m off to Oaxaca. I´ve heard really good things about the place, so it should be fun. Then Ill go to the beach at Puerto Escondido. I dont think you can do a trip to mexico justice without visting the beach.

I really do miss you guys. Im meeting tons of cool, interesting people, but it still isnt the same as the A-town crew.

Love,
Dan

So, thanks to the great Rocky, you can all see some pictures of my adventures in Guanajuato. Check out the following links:

Besos

More Besos

Besos with Esmeralda, though she looks terrible in the Pic

A Spontaneous Concert During the Cervantino

The Going Price for Hot Dogs

Party at Miguel´s! (Miguel is the guy on the left)

Party at Marta and Neri´s!

R0cky, Miguel, Esmeralda, and I dancing the night away at the “Grill”

Me and Gaby, a really cool girl from Piedras Negras

These girls all bought besos

Me, enjoying my nice HOT beer

Yeah…

This girl is the “vampira” who gave both me and rocky hicky´s

My teacher Luis, with a picture of tits

Rocky, Esmeralda, and I in Mexico City on Sunday

And I am honestly very sad now, and very nostalgic for my time in Guanajuato. Fucking Taxco. Its a pretty place, but the hills here are the worst ever. I can´t find anybody to go out with at night, and I dont think the clubs are even open during the week. All restaurants close at like 7:30, which kinda sucks since I eat dinner at 8 most nights.

And this guy stole my camera. I´ve tried really hard to get it back, and been incredibly lucky, but I still don´t have it in my possession. I´m leaving tomorrow at 9 AM for Puebla, no matter what. Fuck my camera, my 100 pesos I paid this guy to get it for me, and all that crap. I wouldn´t care so much about it if I hadn´t invested so much time and energy into finding it.

My God… and Esmeralda. I miss her so much. I didn´t think I could invest so much in a relationship that would only last a few days. Screw it all.

I´m happy now though. On the radio, good music is playing. I love latin music, and when I hear something I really like, nothing else matters.

Nothing.

Keep it real, and hold on to your cameras.
Dan