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rob in central america
good morning from antigua, guatemala.
i hope all is well with everyone back home or wherever you are in the world. i last wrote from san jose, costa rica a week ago. the next morning i jumped on a bus with jesse, a guy from dallas, tx whom i met at school. we made it across the border of nicaragua into san juan del sur. san juan is a small beach town on the pacific side. only a couple thousand people but i see a lot of promise in it. it looks to be the next "costa rican" type tourist destination. beautiful beach surrounded by mountains with great surfing. in town there are several new buildings being built which is a good sign for development. if any one of you is looking for a place to invest money in real estate...this is the place to do it. land values doubled from last year and from the word around town, will do close to that again this year.
i spent most of my first two days there lounging on the beach or eating $7 lobster in a resteraunt on the beach. i don't know what i did to derserve this experience but i'm thanking God every day for it.
one of the afternoons i spent with a century 21 real estate agent driving just outside the city walking around mountain lots with beach and ocean views. i won't go into all the details but if you want southern california views, climate, surfing (warmer water) and greener trees for about 1/20th or the price, look at san juan del sur.
its cheap too. i stayed in a simple hotel on the beach for $4 a night. however, the most impressive thing about nicaragua was the people. every town i went into someone would come and ask me where i was from, what i wanted to see, and then tey would take me there. a couple local guys saw me on the street, asked me if i surf. i told them i try and they invited me to their secret spot. that is unheard of in the states or costa rica.
the only shady part of nicaragua was the next day in managua. in order to meet russ and katie mohr in guatemala, i had to take a bus to managua (the capital of nicaragua) and then another bus the next morning to el salvador. then the next day another bus to guatemala city.
since my bus left managua at 4 a.m. i had to walk from my hotel to the stop just before that. i was up, had my bags packed and was walking out of the gate when the guard stopped me and asked where i was going. i said to the bus and he told me to hang out a minute. he called a guy over with a handgun and machete the size of my leg and said that if i paid him $2 he'd protect me while i walked. i thought it was kinda weird so i asked if that was really necessary. it was. the day before an american girl was walking the same route i would be when she was punched in the face and robbed 30 meters from the bus stop. it didn't take me long to pull my wad of whatever money i had on me.
he walked me to the stop blowing his whistle and hearing a return call in the distance. i guess it was a good thing it was so early because later that day, coming to my senses, i wondered how much protection i would have gotten for $2. that's probably one time you actually pay more than the asking price.
anyway, i made it to the bus and then to el salvador.
i only spent a night in san salvador the capital of el salvador. they city is very poor after being hit by hurricaine mitch a few years ago. the gov't only gave relief in the form of sheet metal for housing. the mountains and rivers are beautiful however. i wanted to check email so i walked a few blocks to an internet place and checked email and baseball scores. when i looked over at the screen next to me, i was surprised to find the guy watching hardcore pornography and giggling. writing about the situation even now i loose track of thought wondering if that really happened.
after that experience i was walking back to my hotel when i was invited by a nun on the street to church. considering what had just transpired, i was more than ready. not understanding a word and being a foot and half taller than everyone else, i already felt a little out of place. but that all changed when everyone in the church suddenly turned around, kneeled on the floor and put their heads on their chairs, and prayed together. the strangeness of the situation distracted my from the internet scandal of before so i didn't mind.
the next morning i made it on my bus heading for guatemala city. this ride was fairly uneventful other than watching disney movies in spanish and having to sprint after the bus as it was leaving the border without me.
in guatemala city i found russ and katie mohrs hotel easily and ran into them in the hallway with their new baby. they couldn't really leave the hotel building with the baby for safety reasons so we pretty much hung out there for two days...which was ok b/c there was a bowling alley, movie theatre, pool, tennis courts, mall, and arcade inside.
russ and i went out of the hotel one evening to grap some dinner for us all. not even two minutes after we walked outside did hte sky changes colors and the rain began. soaking wet we walked into a local resteraunt. it was just like out of a movie, three amigos style. every guatemalan person in the place stopped talking, turned their heads and stared at us for a good 5 seconds. russ and i looked at each other waiting for the music to come to a screaching halt and hear crickets in the background. then they said to us, "tell us we will die like dogs". that didn't really happen but it should have.
as for guatemala city, i didn't see to much of it. i spent both nights and most of the days puking every hour and watching the hunt for red october in spanish. dad and uncle jim will appreciate that. you guys would have loved to hear them say "uno ping, y uno ping solamente"
i had a great time with the mohrs and the baby especially. he's very small and sleeps alot. i'm very honored that they invitedme to meet him.
monday morning i jumped on a "chicken bus" as they call them heading for antigua, guatemala. a chicken bus derives its name from the luggage allowed on...chickens and more. they're old u.s. school buses painted bright colors and they're everywhere. they pack people in three people to a two person seat. i don't know if i smelled bad or what but i got a seat to myself while people were purposely walking passed my row to triple up on other rows. i guess being a gringo worked to my advantage. another time when it didn't though was attempting to wear the bathrobe in my hotel...i guess they form the robes after smaller people than i.
once i got to antigua i walked to a hostel, found a bed and then headed out to get lost in the town. i'm not sure how to describe antigua except through pictures. i've set up a website for pictures that everyone can check out.
www.statraveljournals.com/rob
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