For those who we haven’t stumbled into…
Saturday, April 12th, 2008We’re back in the States on route to Pittsburgh via JFK, Austin, Boston, and Troy. Congratulations to R & C on a beautiful wedding. We mostly missed the pillows and the showers.
Archive for the 'CentralAmerica' Category
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Big Rocks
Saturday, April 12th, 2008
There are three ways to sleep at Tikal, a national park almost as well known for its wildlife as its grand Mayan ruins: in a hotel room, in a tent, or in a hammock. We felt a hammock would be the most ‘authentic’ and we were right. We saw many pictures at Tikal’s museums of former archeologists and workers strung up in hammocks for the night (we suspect they didn’t have mosquito coils though). We ignored that we had never hung a hammock or spent the night in one before.
Two things to note about your first night in a hammock:
1) If it cools down at night, no matter how warm you were in the day, you will be cold. Dress appropriately.
2) Every crunch of leaf, squeak of bat, and croak of frog feels unbearably close.
Dreams not withstanding, we tossed and turned and otherwise survived the night, awaking in the dim light of early morning to enter the park before all but the most fanatical. The great pyramids were devoid of people but harbored plenty of noise courtesy of the howler monkeys and the toucans, parrots, and others whose names are lost upon us. In Maya times, only priests and kings would have felt the joy at being atop the temples, but they would have been gazing at a bustling city of people and temples for miles around instead of jungle.
While lying in our hammocks the night before, we did not feel the need to climb a temple to see the amazing starscape above us. In fact, we didn’t even want to leave our hammocks.
Chicken Bus
Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008
Supposedly the old retired American school buses that they use for public transportation are known as 'chicken buses' because of the large amount of live poultry that are carried by its passengers (not very common anymore). We posit that it ... [Continue reading this entry]
Xela
Monday, March 31st, 2008
Every day in Xela we wake up a little later and drank a little more coffee. We were just going with the flow.
Xela is like quicksand and people tend to stay there for months. We claim we were stuck there ... [Continue reading this entry]
Semana Santa
Sunday, March 23rd, 2008
Market Days
Wednesday, March 19th, 2008
Cliques
Thursday, March 13th, 2008
During 2 1/2 months of low-budget travelling in Central America, we rarely get the opportunity to mingle with ... [Continue reading this entry] Pase Adelante
Tuesday, March 11th, 2008
Our first impressions of Guatemala were the dry volcanic landscape and the snail passing our bus uphill. Almost ... [Continue reading this entry] The Weekenders
Tuesday, March 11th, 2008
El Salvador is the smallest country in Central America, making most destinations a short hop from the capital. While travelling ... [Continue reading this entry] Art and Music
Friday, March 7th, 2008
Throughout Suchitoto posters hang for a gallery opening on Sunday. Adam joked they might have wine so we should go, continuing our favorite Pittsburgh habit. I laughed. But lo ... [Continue reading this entry] 
Adam