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Articles Tagged ‘central america’

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Jan. 30/Feb. 1 – Costa Rica

Wednesday, February 1st, 2006

Day 182/184 – Good news, bad news, good news. Henry is locked up secure in his own personal hotel room for the next ten days or so. I hope he enjoys his solitude and the rest from driving. We didn’t get to go on the ship with Henry. The port was backed up and the captain wouldn’t be coming ashore for another day or two – so we decided it was a better use of our time to backpack it by bus and plane to Chile, especially since we had no idea if the captain would even let us come with them. We get to visit the Panama Canal and see the Seahawks kick butt in the Superbowl, which we would have missed if we went on the ship. 🙂


waiting and sunset at Caldera

We spent two full days of sweating, waiting, doing paperwork, and drinking coffee at the port of Caldera, until we loaded up the van and locked it up. Not too exciting.


loading Henry up into his temporary casa.


tied down and locked up


now fully homeless with just our bags and two feet

We met a nice gentleman who offered to give us a cheap ride to San Jose from the port, in one of the nice turismo vans. It was a very pleasant ride and our first time being in the rain since leaving Seattle. Now we are in San Jose at a youth hostel; man, seeing all the young ‘kids’ makes me feel old! We are now looking for bus tickets to Panama City. The Tica bus is full for the next nine days! That was the bus we wanted to get on, but now we are looking into others. Once we get down to Panama we are planning on trying to get a standby ticket at the airport, to fly down to Santiago, Chile. This is the cheapest way we can think of getting down there. Any suggestions or help on cheap flights to Chile would be wonderful!!! 😉


there was a line of ants outside our hotel that were carrying leaves and petals back home, it was really cartoon like to see.

Posted in 13 - Costa Rica | 2 Comments »

Jan. 8 continuation – Mexico

Saturday, January 14th, 2006

Thank you for all of your comments and views on the cockfight. We thought we should write more about our feelings on the cockfight since the post was more about the event instead of our views on the event.

Surprisingly, neither of us felt disgusted by the cockfight. But before you judge that sentence, please finish reading this entry. Now, this event is not legal or common in the United States (for which I am glad), but it is common here. I personally don´t agree with the idea of raising animals just to watch them fight. I think it is cruel and a waste of animal life for sport, which I don’t agree with. But from our observations of this culture, they do not view animals in the same light as most of the people in the states. Animals like roosters, chickens, cows, donkeys, etc.. seem to be viewed only as resources for food and labor. I doubt that animal rights even cross their minds. Now I am sure that some people in these countries don´t agree with this, but overall, they don’t even flinch at cockfighting, due to their cultural upbringing.

We feel that experiencing an event is a big part of understanding the culture and the social life of a country. It is something we think is important, in order to get closer to the true identity of a people. Jesus was so excited to show us the roosters he has trained, and was excited that we were interested in going to an event that was such a big part of his life. It also gave us a setting in which we could get to know him on a more personal level. The fights are not gory, bloody, or by any means visually disturbing. I am not saying that that makes it okay, but this gives you a better idea of what we saw. They occur every Saturday and Sunday, going from 6.00pm until 1.00am. It is one of bigger activities that locals partake in, and as you can see, it is very time consuming. Watching the roosters fight was not the interesting part. The interactions between the people and the hierarchy involved was very interesting; from the main guy who is respected by everyone, to the guys who bring their girlfriends to show off, and to the socializing ~ they look at it as a way of gathering with friends and spending time together. It did bother me that they juiced up the roosters so that they would fight more aggressively, and that because of the coca they didn´t use the roosters for food (so we were told). I have to say, being at the fight was one of the most interesting parts of our trip so far.

Overall, since the fights were such a normal part of everyday life down there, it did not seem as bad as we thought it would, partly because there is so much more to the experience than just being there to see the birds fight. We were interested in observing our surroundings, and the deeper layers of this cultural phenomenon, than in just watching the fight itself.

Posted in 08 - Mexico | 8 Comments »