As we left Panama City we saw what Charles described as the sail hotel.  Turns out it is the former Trump tower. 

We  made (what was, for me,)a disappointingly easy trip to Inaki's place,Burbayar today. Paved road and partly  4 lane toll road.  What used to take about 4 hours was about 1.5 hours. Charles is struck by the beauty and tranquility of the place. We will be here tomorrow and leave on Saturday morning for the islands. All is well and all are well too. Here are a few shots of Burbayar.

Ha ha. Life is continuing to throw us curve balls. I spoke to Inaki this morning and he has leased Burbayar to Ancon Expeditions for 6 years. How inconsiderate! It is theirs in two days and under renovation now. We are meeting him at 1:00 but he says it is “complicado.” So, who knows where we head next. The expression in Panama is “todo es possible, nada es seguro.” Everything is possible but nothing is assured. We may stay another night here then head out tomorrow. There are several other places we want to visit but I'm extremely disappointed. Another adjustment. I'll either come back much more flexible or insane. I'm working through a cold I caught in Santiago. I know, I'm to old and delicate for this type of travel. Waaaa, again. We will come out of this stronger and better. I need to get that engraved on something. Maybe a tattoo. More photos to follow.

We met Inaki for a three hour lunch and he said that there is a lot of work going on at Burbayar, but we can stay a few days, just can't interfere with the work. He seems to be concerned about our comfort more than letting us be there. He called a Kuna friend of his and arranged a discounted stay in San Blas. We will leave Inaki's on Saturday and have 4 days 3 nights in San Blas. By no means enough.  Que vida dura. He also said that I looked like a gay Papa Noel.

May 29  Halfway into our trip and we just entered Panama last night.  We chose to skip Nicaragua due to unrest (but more specifically because of dozens of roadblocks).  Panama City is a prosperous, friendly place, and Bill has met people he knew 15 years ago.  Our spending has accelerated, but no more free beaches; we had to leave the truck and gear at Freddy's house.  He and his family have been tremendous help, providing a hurried trip to the airport and a place to park the beast.  Check out the buildings in the background; doesn't that look like the 'sail' hotel in Dubai?

Tomorrow we will rent a car and head to Inyaki's eco-lodge.  We have not heard from him in weeks, so hopefully he has returned to Panama.  Excellent museum on the construction of the canal.

Well, we are reunited in Antigua despite my “google map estimated” 3 hour trip that took me about 8. Torrential rains, flooded roads, road closures and of course the market day stuff. Then there was a funeral that makes New Orleans look like rank amateurs. Tomorrow to Guat city and our flight to Panama. Charles is much more comfortable speaking Spanish now and I'm sure he'll be glad for the study. My toe is better after a week of flip flops only and I can walk as normally as I ever did in shoes. Freddy is letting us park in front of his house in a gated community so all should be fine. It's about 60 degrees here and this time tomorrow it will be stifling in Panama City. Life is rich and full and good.

May 25

I hit a wall yesterday.  La pared.  I was getting pretty good, spouting gibberish without regard to form or content.  Then my teacher introduced conjugation.  My enthusiasm and my confidence fell.  I graduated today, and I know I can carry on a conversation, but fluency is a fantasy.

This is a very pleasant place to live.  Established only 50 years after Columbus discovered America, Antigua retains its cobble stoned streets, inner courtyards and Mayan textile hawkers.  The city is dotted with churches big and small, most in some state of ruin or repair.  My own corner was idyllic, but I am ready to move on.  

Well, we've agreed that flying is the answer but now have to find safe long-term parking for the trip. The Guatemala airport parking is apparently a favorite place for thieves to disable your car, follow you and rob you. I'm going to stay one more night here and Charles will wrap up his classes and see what he can find about parking in Antigua so that we can possibly leave on Sunday. Once we get to Panama we will rent a car and try to achieve our goals there. I should have asked Maximon to settle Nicaragua down a little. Students and protesters still getting killed and injured with no clear way through the country because of anti-government roadblocks. So, “best laid plans of mice and men” etc. I don't think that the foreign policy genius Trump is going to do much good about the situation. I've spent all day trying to rejigger our plans and am seriously tired of it. We planned the trip for months and this seems a little rushed.

Is anyone in the States aware of what is happening in Nicaragua?  It looks like we are going to have to park the beast and fly from Guatemala to Panama and rent a car.  Not what we had in mind, but holy shit!

“We’re watching this with laser focus because we need to ensure that, the people have called for dialogue, the government participates; the people have called for investigations, the government does that; the military has said we’re staying out of that, they continue to do so,” a senior administration official told McClatchy.

The Nicaraguan government is just a few days into its dialogue that came to an impasse on Wednesday and suspended indefinitely, with students and other opposition groups over the political turmoil that has enveloped this nation after tens of thousands of Nicaraguans took to the streets of Managua in massive demonstrations that led to the deaths of more than 75 people.

Protests broke out after the Nicaraguan government approved a resolution that would increase payroll taxes and cut pension benefits to strengthen the country’s social security fund.

Blockades on 146 roads including major highways.

Well, I'm still in Santiago and still taking it very easy. This morning I went to the village by tuk tuk to visit Maximon and get some cash. I met “The Empowered Pool Boss” yesterday.

His name is Salvador a nice Mayan man who's daughter and son-in-law are hosting Maximon now. and He filled me in on Maximon a blending of Mayan and Catholic beliefs. He's not a saint but travels in the same circle of friends. He smokes, drinks and is said to be a bit of a trickster and womanizer. You are expected to bring gifts of smokes, booze and or money to visit him and ask a favor. I asked him to help heal my toe. It might be a little better. His location changes at least annually and he is attended by several of the faithful. They carefully give him a drink before offering you some and place cigarettes in his mouth and light them.

They also have a statue of a reclining Christ in the highly decorated room.

I took one of the hotel's canoes out on Lake Atitlan and got some sun.

Later I took a sauna in the wood-fired lava stone sauna. Wow!

Then the clouds/fog rolled in.

Charles and I are communicating when possible. My wifi and cell are intermittent. Waaaaaaa!

One morning we were able to see a small eruption of ash cloud from Volcan de Fuego from the rooftop terrace at our hotel. 

After a few days in Antigua we visited Freddy, a friend of Charles from high school and his lovely family in Guatemala City.  

Freddy was good enough to pick us up and take us back.  On the trip we congratulated ourselves for opting out of driving ourselves.  

Charles is stuck living this hell-hole for the week and I weep for him whenever I think about it. He can tell you about the magnificent gardens his private terrace etc.  He went on a trip to one of the active volcanoes you can visit while I was playing poker with police and getting lost etc.  He has some photos and will probably post them soon.  His class is truly intensive and I expect he will be pretty drained by the end of the day. 

 

While Charles was on his volcano trip I drove to Santiago Atitlan, Where I will be for at least most of the week.  First trip without a co-pilot/navigator.  I missed one turn and was then flagged down by police at an informal check point.  After looking at my papers and glancing into the Beast, they told me that they needed gas for their truck.  I said they could siphon some from the Beast.  They declined.  Then one said that he needed money for coffee and water.  I told him that I had a bottle of water that he could have.  Then he finally just said that I should give him money.  I declined and after a brief stare down I shook his hand and left.  He also told me where I had missed my turn.  Then a drive through a few villages, in both of which it was market day and in one the road was completely torn up and impassable. 

I'm now here and taking it very easy.  I'll arrange a horseback trip and probably paddle around in one of hotel's free kayaks or canoes.  The coffee is amazing!  Here is the Beast taking a well deserved rest and a view from my room. 

lake Atitlan from the hotel dock near the pool

May 16 or thereabouts
The border crossing was as bureaucratic as the DMV and took about as long.  Guatemala looked different immediately.  Not just worse roads, more expensive food, and slimmer people, but dramatically volcanic and lush -- pictures later, it was cloudy today.
As always, I took a turn around the city to orient myself, and, as always, I got lost.  I can make myself understood in Spanish.  It's only a problem when they talk back.

So I will do a week of Spanish immersion, and visit with my old friend Freddy Clark, AFS Exchange student in 1974.  Antigua, the capital until 1776, is a wonderful place to explore, and the center of years of landscape upheaval.  When I came in 1978 with Lloyd Wattenbarger, the city was in ruins.  A UN Heritage site, it was wonderfully restored.  Too many American food franchises, but at least they match the colonial style.

In the background you may be able to see people crossing the river into mexico on large inner tubes with platforms on top.Pedicabs just inside Guatemala, and some shots of our hotel in Puerto Escondido.

The beach and the hotel were beyond expectations (although the rooms were modest with two single beds).  This may be what Big Sur was like before it was discovered.  Although the place gets rave reviews from the hippy/surfer crowd, one grizzled veteran said it had already been "ruined by tourism," since his first visit 14 years ago.  With miles of perfect untouched beach, Mexico can produce new discoveries forever.  Great breakers, but heavy currents.

May 14
Early in our trip, a man walked into our lakeside campsite proffering a joint.  His name was Brian, about the same age as us, and he seemed to be seeking sanctuary while purporting to round up his wife's dogs.  He admired our tent, and ignored his wife the first time she yelled for him to return from his site on the hill.  By the third time, she was really angry and added a threat.  Brian shuffled back up the hill, but the dogs got there first.  She collected them and roared away without a goodbye. 

I saw Brian later, wandering around his campsite, looking forlorn.  I wanted to ask him to come down to our roaring fire, but I think he knew he was welcome.  Perhaps he was humiliated, or maybe, hurting.

May 14, Lost Things
I am on my third pair of sunglasses.  Bill keeps reminding me to get my Yeti cup when we leave a restaurant. I almost went back to the beach to search for my lost wallet. Like many lost things, it was in my vest.  The vest has now yielded to pockets.  And a money belt (don't tell anybody). Yesterday I lost the most valuable thing in my life.  No, it wasn't the $75 someone picked from my wallet. 

We spent most of the day on Zipolite beach today. 

It's a really laid back nude beach where Charles rented a boogie board for a while.  There were 8 to 10 ft. breakers and it is lovely. 

If you don't know where it is you should be able to triangulate it from this information. 

I seem to have broken a toe last night getting up to take care of some business and being interfered with by a heavy wooden chair.  So much for the virgin 1st aid kit.  I'm fine but hobbled a little. 
We have learned so much!  Like about evolution..

.

The Lion fish from La Pesca.

The roads we are driving are remarkable in that we transition from dessert to mountains,

then high dessert

followed by cloud forest and again dessert in one day.  We've seen Caracaras horned toads and birds I don't know.  In the cloud forest there were bananas in remarkable colors; red, orange, yellow and dark green. 

We drove today at an average speed of about 30 miles an hour on a road that seemed to be computer generated for sports car ads.  The sign said "Carreterra Sinuoso"  There are no such sinuous roads in the U.S. I'm sure.  Hairpin doesn't begin to describe it.  There were landslide zones and rockslide zones and a few places where one half of the highway had slid down the mountain.  

We have arrived at our accomocations for the next two nights, then an overnight and into Guatemala.

May 11
We have been pretty cut off from news.  Mostly by choice.  I only learned today that Trump pulled out of the Iran accord, and Israel blasted Iran in Syria.  The news hit me like a sledgehammer.  So much squandered, such risks for so little gain.  Such an ominous future. The Atlantic analyst opines that neither Israel nor Iran want a war.  I disagree.

May 12
We are staying in a beautiful old hotel in the heart of the colonial district.  It is a splurge, at $35. Given free camping, our total accommodation costs are about $100 for 11 days.  Food isn't much more, with skirt steak dinners of $5.  But the tolls!  Good roads have tolls (and construction), and bad roads are painful.  And painfully slow.  We spent around $20 on tolls today.

We have had two days of hard traveling.  Last night we found the address listed by Airbnb to find that the family there had never heard of Airbnb and after several confusing texts and phone calls we paid a taxi $2.00 to lead us to the rather prison-like apartment.  We were both exhausted and Charles showered first mentioning that it wasn't very pleasant as there was no hot water.   We remembered a water heater on the back porch and Charles lit it making my experience better.  After sleeping well we were on the road by 9:30 (a record for us), and drove about 10 hours to Oaxaca where we are sleeping for the night in a postcard beautiful hotel converted from a grand house built about 1879 with two courtyards and terraces on the second floor.  Filled with flowering plants and near several gorgeous churches and narrow streets.  The rooms have 20 ft. ceilings and we are very pleased.  Tomorrow we are off to Playa Escondido for a few days.  I am again exhausted and left the camera cord in the Beast which is parked 2 blocks away.  So photos will have to wait.  We are well and optimistic about our continuing success.

May 9, The Dogs of La Pesca
There are eight homeless stray dogs who scavenge the beach at La Pesca. All are malnourished, especially the females, whose shriveled teats bear testimony to litter recently spawned and lost.  One has a broken leg, another goes into automatic submission at any sign of affection, rolling over on his back with stomach exposed.  With no tourists at the beach, they lurk near our campsite, waiting for a scrap, ribs jutting out with mournful eyes.

It will be sad to leave La Pesca, with its powder soft sand and jade water yielding to emerald then azure. With no tourists, it has a natural pristine feeling, cluttered with driftwood trunks and the detritus of the waves.  It is not so much by the sea as of the sea.

Tuesday was a brutal day.  Charles couldn't seem to relax...

We went into to town for some supplies and looked for a good fishing spot.  We were told that from the end of the dock would be good and found some amiable fishermen who agreed to take us out for $10.00 an hour.  Today, Wednesday we spent a very pleasant time catching some decent sized sea trout and another type called rato'n.  Our captain cleaned them for us and we got some SIDES (Carol) and plan to grill fish with baked potatoes and zuchini for dinner.  

May 7:  Mexico is really coming alive for us.  The Monterrey Mountains must remain mostly a mystery.  Spectacular views were only glimpsed through the thick cloud cover.  Craggy and steep, but with verdant forests, they seemed a mixture of the Rockies and the Smokies.  The canyons hike fascinated me, but the weather did not cooperate, so we headed for the sea.

The guidebooks say excellent maps can be had at any Pemex station.  They caution against camping on the beach.  They advise that non-alcoholic beer is widely available.  All untrue.  We are still mapless, but Google Maps has provided steady guidance.  

This gorgeous beach, almost without people, exceeds those in Playa del Carmen, and includes none of the tourist hassles and expense.  We are travelling like Mexicans on vacation, pouring our cash into gasoline, and camping free.  Look closely at the rainbow cloud, a phenomenon I have never experienced before.  A good omen.

We arrived at La Pesca about a half an hour after dark and did not find the pay campsite but met some nice locals who said we could camp in the park. It looked surprisingly clean and pleasant with Palapas and everything. It was pretty late and there a strong breeze and no mosquitos so we just set up our cots and slept outside. Well, the breeze died down and guess who showed up.

After coffee we went to look at other sites and found the one that will be ours for at least a night more.

We went to town for breakfast and ice. We decided to buy a couple of folding chairs and a fishing pole w/tackle. Charles promised to provide fish for dinner and caught this beauty on his first cast.

May 5 (cont).  Our mountains trip included a stop at Horsetail Falls, a local attraction on par with Ruby Falls.  Crystal clear water, but opaque air obscured by clouds.

After our mountain trip, we returned to the friendly comfort of our Posada in Santiago, with WiFi, excellent coffee and approachable guests.  Hugo gave us the lowdown on bribing cops (5000 pesos for a Federales, 500 for a local policeman.) Life has mellowed as we get used to the road and the company.  Heading east tomorrow for beach camping on the Gulf.beach camping on the coast.  Apart frlf

Well, we made the mountain trip today.  About 50 miles total 20 miles of really rough road up and back.  The Beast suffered her first battle scar.  Nothing terrible but the driver side running board is no longer shaped exactly as it was at the factory.  Sort of matches the front bumper.  It was solid clouds and towards the top we were high enough in the clouds that the rain lessened.  No real views and an intense driving experience.  When we finally got back to paved road it seemed as though we had a new car.  Good test, bad day for it.  Tomorrow we are off to La Pesca on the Atlantic Coast, then Oaxaca on the Pacific in a day or so.  The Beast is still performing above expectations and we are falling in love with her.  It's still raining but the forecast is for better weather in the next few days.  We are both well and confidence is growing.  It's been a good week for getting a sense of things.  At some point soon we will completely unpack and repack The Beast for easier access to things we need most often.  No need for the first aid kit yet, unlike some weddings I've been to. 

Cinco de Mayo:  Our first night in day in Mexico did not define laid back.  We found ourselves looking for a hotel at 11 at night, and reasonable places in Monterrey were full due to a festival.  After a dispute resolved in favor of avoiding big cities, we settled on the clean but bland Hotel Nova outside of town.  Fortunate, because we moved on from there to the "magical" city of Santiago, avoiding the coast for now for the majestic mountains outside of Monterrey.  We parked ourselves at Posada de Colores, where we were the only guests in the hostel dorm room.

The odyssey finally began in earnest when we met Sylvia and Hugo Segovia, now good friends.  Hugo is an emerging star in Mexico, well received at the SXSW festival in Austin.  Check out his music on YouTube or Spotify.  Bill gave them hotsauce in return for a delightful recital, and Hugo recommended places to stay in dicey but "wonderful" Oaxaca.  Into the mountains today, where the canyon river tour attracts me, but we have  to remember we are not kids anymore.  Things are going well, and we will probably return tonight to our warm and welcoming Posada and Santiago, a tourist town for Mexicans, but few visible foreign tourists.

After driving through the Flint Hills of Kansas and into Oklahoma we camped at a state park next to a lake for free.

We got into Texas and saw some interesting places once we got off of the Interstate.  Lady Bird Johnson's wild flower project yielded some lovely results.  We then camped in a City Park in South Texas damn near in the shadow of an oil refinery.  Again for free.