Catching Up

Okay, I`m tired of being so behind on our entries, and I want everyone to know what we`re doing NOW, so I`ve decided (unilaterally!) that I`m gonna just give the highlights, and we`ll have to fill in the stories later, or maybe even save them until we get back.

So, after Teotihuacan, we spent Christmas in Xalapa in a gorgeous, but empty house belonging to friends of Juan`s (they were away for the holidays). The three of us toasted the holiday with tequila and discussions of cultural relativism.

Then we moved on towards the Caribbean coast, in the direction of Vera Cruz. We didn`t want to stay near any resorts, so we ended up camping on a very hidden beach (Playa Escondida), right on the ocean. It was so amazing, totally isolated, beautiful landscape, swimming in the ocean. It`s been one of my favourite experiences, by far.

After that we went to Palenque for New Year`s. Juan had information about a friend of a friend living there...but it was just his first name and that he worked in an Italian restaurant. So, that info was pretty much useless, and the three of us instead decided to stay at a backpacker`s resort within walking distance from the Palenque ruins. The resort was crazy, full of new-age hippy kids, but still a resort all the same...just with a theme. It got a little overwhelming to be surrounded by so much stereotyped idealism; I wonder how many of those guests transfer the mantras they were spouting over to their usual lives. Still, the New Year`s party was one of the best I`ve been to in a while. We went to a field party that was theoretically a fundraiser for an eco-tourism project (see my thoughts about that in previous entries), but really it was just a rave in the middle of a farmer`s field. We got to see the sun rise on the morning of New Year`s Day, and then we crawled into the tent exhausted.

When we left Palenque we hurried for the border (Juan`s motorcycle permit had expired a few days previously), spent the night in an over-priced, boiling-hot room, then crossed the next day, thankfully with no trouble at all. We were headed for a hot springs hostel in Guatemala, but we hit quite a snag in Huehuetenango...though Juan got through on his bike, Bryan and I were stopped for hours by a peasant protest that was taking place. We tried everything to get around it, even going to a neighbouring town, only to arrive there just as they were blocking that highway as well - very effective! Finally, after about six hours of waiting, the crowd dispersed a bit, enough for some cars to squeeze through, and we were on our way again...but hopelessly behind. We actually did make it all the way to the hostel, only to find their gate locked and no way in. So, we spent the night elsewhere and caught up with Juan at the hostel in the morning (he was calmly drinking coffee beside the hot spring!).

While in Guatemala we were guests at a private natural reserve, and toured another, both through connections of Juan`s family...but those are stories that deserve the telling, so I won`t get into them now.

We said goodbye to Juan at the reserve in Atitlan (we needed to start moving much faster than he did), and went super-fast through Honduras and Nicaragua into Costa Rica...trying to get to Venezula for the World Social Forum. We passed through three confusing borders in three days, which was just about as much as I could handle. In Costa Rica we stayed in Monteverde, which is famous for it`s Cloud Forest Reserves (one of which was founded by a group of American Quakers after WWII). We got to go on a Canopy Tour - on zip lines through and above the forest! - and to do some great walks in the forest. But we hit one huge problem...