San Blas, El Salvador

Aca estamos, en la playa. Despues de un par de dias en Santa Tecla nos vinimos a San Blas....es bueno tener amigos salvadorenios, no? La verdad es que con la familia de Mauricio y a pesar de recien conocerlos, tambien nos sentimos entre familia. Llegamos aqui el miercoles, y estamos haciendo lo que teniamos propuesto; nada. Desde la maniana a la noche nos pasamos en la playa o las diferentes piscinas de este lugar. Ni que hablar de la buena cantidad de mariscos y pescados fresquitos que estamos comiendo, como tambien las diferentes clases nuevas de frutas que hemos conocido y probado. La monotonia y tranquilidad de aca es justo lo que estabamos buscando, y lo estamos aprovechando al maximo. Corremos olas en la playa y vemos los hermosos atardeceres del Pacifico y de tarde hacemos algun fueguito, o nos tiramos en las hamacas a escuchar un poco la radio. Tambien es un honor, y una suerte el poder estar en este pais en un momento tan historico... como lo son estas elecciones. Aqui todo el mundo habla de eso, se siente la energia de cambio en las calles o con cualquier persona que uno hable. Ojala se de, de una vez por todas. El fin de semana lo pasamos con Guillermo, Luz, Betty, Carlos y los chicos; Guillermo, Fernando, y Fabi. Jugamos al futbol, al pool, al ping pong, fuimos a la piscina, y nos tomamos unos ricos licuados y unas cervecitas bien frias. Pasamos mas que bien, entre conversas, juegos y comidas, y cuando llego el domingo de noche y se fueron todos, quedamos un poco descolocados, tristes y aburridos. La onda que nos tiro esta gente es inigualable... no tenemos palabras para agradecer tanta hospitalidad! Ahora estamos esperando a Mauricio, Jose y Edgardo que se vienen en patota desde Toronto, un suenio hecho realidad, conocer a nuestros amigos salvadorenios en su propio pais... vos Pedro te nos quedaste en el tintero, pero siempre hay revancha, no?

We’ve spent the last few days at the beach, relaxing and taking a much needed break from the constant moving from one place to another. We actually didn’t realize how nice it would be to just stay in one place for a while, and I have even been able to concentrate a bit on some work! When we are not at the pool or at the beach, we spend our time cooking (we love your parrillero, Sharon!) shooting pool, watching the spectacular sunsets over the pacific and swinging in the hammocks. This place is perfectly designed for the climate, with an open concept which blurs the indoor/outdoor distinction in common living areas, and with separate (and air conditioned!) sleeping areas. One of our regular night-time activities has become lying in the hammocks and watching the antics of our favourite animal – the gecko! They are very cute and very plentiful, and they play around on the ceiling all night chasing each other and eating bugs. Mateo was tramautized the other day when he caught a baby gecko and suddenly it jumped off his hand, leaving its tail behind -- and the tail was still wiggling! It took him a while to recover from the shock and remorse, but once he realized what an amazing survival technique the gecko has (and that the tail eventually grows back) he was okay. We have also been going to the pier in La Libertad, where all the fishing boats come in. They have a huge selection of fish and seafood to choose from. Our first night here we made linguini with shrimp and chipotle cream sauce, and another night we made tamarind shrimp with coconut rice again, this time with green mango and lobster salad! Maybe next we will try to make a nice ceviche….San Blas is pretty much a gated community where people come from the city to spend their weekends, and as such we are virtually the only ones here during the week. There are many garden workers around, though, and it a veritable tropical paradise here in contrast to the dryness of the rest of country at this time of year (it is HOT here– the hottest we have been on the trip so far!). We are amazed at the variety of trees, shrubs and plants there are here -- mango, banana, cashew, almond, and lemon trees, coconut palms, and so many others that we don't even know the names of. Needless to say, there is a lot of bird action here too! Over the weekend, Guillermo and Luz and the kids (Guillermo, Fernando and Favi) came to join us, along with Mauricio’s sister Betty and her husband Carlos, who have a place right next door. We had a great time with them, between political discussions, lessons about the food and drink of El Salvador, ruthless games of pool, Guillermo climbing every fruit tree in sight to give us samples of fresh fruits and roasting fresh cashew nuts in the fire, and Luz making us delicious cashew-fruit milkshakes! We don’t have the words to describe their hospitality towards us, as even in such a short time they have made us feel like we are part of the family. One thing we can’t seem to get used to about El Salvador is the fact that everywhere you go – and I mean everywhere, from the beach to supermarkets to shoe stores to bakeries to hairdressers – there is at least one armed guard with a big gun. Apparently it has to do with the prevalence of gangs, or maras, which are a huge problem in the entire country. Apparently if there is no guard in view, they come and extort amounts of money from people. There are nieghbourhoods all over the country where they have a complete mafia-like hold over the terrorized people, who work hard to eke out a living and on top of that have to pay for “protection” to these gang members. This is a problem that was largely imported (or more correctly, deported) from the US when they decided to do something about their own gang problems in LA: now it seems that the Mara Salvatruchas have taken over El Salvador. The funny thing is that some of them, being second-generation Salvadorans in the US, had never even been to El Salvador before (and ironically, some of them didn’t even really speak Spanish!). Government measures so far have been a bit of a joke, partly because the members of the ruling Arena party apparently have a stake in keeping the gun trade going, and also because it is generally convenient to keep the population living in fear. People are hoping that a change in government might help to clean things up a bit. The election is looming, and just yesterday we looked up to see an airplane dumping hundreds of paper pamphlets out of its door. We picked one up off the ground and it was a totally ridiculous piece of propaganda from the Arena party, who are getting desperate because it looks like they are losing ground. It will be interesting to see what happens next Sunday. Mauricio, Edgardo and Jose are coming from Toronto, so it will be great to see (almost) all of our favourite Salvadorans in their natural habitat at the same time!

Esquipulas, Guatemala to El Salvador

Right now we are staying in Santa Tecla (just outside of San Salvador) with Mauricio’s brother Guillermo and his wife Luz, and their three kids who are more or less the same age as Ari and Mateo, and Figo the dog, so the kids are in heaven! They are being so generous and hospitable to us and our experience so far in El Salvador has been incredible. The day we left Rio Dulce we decided to head for Esquipulas, Guatemala, a small town close to the border with Honduras and El Salvador which is renowned as the religious capital of Central America; Catholics from all over the world make the pilgrimage here to pay homage to the statue of the “Black Christ,” which was carved from dark balsam wood in the late 16th century. As you descend to the town from the mountains, the bright white basilica dominates the landscape. People stream in all days of the week but especially on Sundays, which is of course when we happened to be there. I never thought I would say this, but it was sort of refreshing to see that at least it was not an evangelical church, as they seem to be taking over in Latin America! After a breakfast of cheese pupusas we strolled up the steps of the church and went inside to have a look. Because there were so many people lined up to see the Black Christ and light a candle to ask for help (often in the shape of relevant body parts!) we weren’t able to get a photo, but you can look up the fascinating history of it online. The most interesting thing for us was that there was a whole battalion of black-clad priests running all over the place with plastic buckets filled with holy water, blessing everything from lines of people to crosses to photos…at one point we saw a couple open up the hood of their car and a priest came over with a bucket to bless the engine (at first we thought the bucket was full of water for the radiator!) We were tempted to grab one to bless the westy ourselves….When we first got there we noticed that everyone who comes buys these multicolored fuzzy bands to attach to their vehicle to show that they made the holy trip, so we bought one to accompany our Virgen de la Guadelupe from Real de Catorce on the rearview mirror. Around noon, we decided to head for the border with El Salvador and made it there in about an hour. There were quite a few tractor trailers coming from the pacific port, but other than that there was not much border traffic so it was lucky that we did it on a Sunday. After filling out the necessary paperwork for the vehicle and running from office to office with photocopies we were in El Salvador (and we didn’t pay one cent!). We drove through the quaint mountain town of Metapan and got to Santa Ana, a nice little colonial town. Everything was pretty low-key because it was Sunday, so we decided to head to Lago Coatepeque for the night, an amazingly blue lake in the crater of a volcano. We camped out in the parking lot of a restauarant/bar that is right on the water’s edge and had a stunning view of the sunset over the lake. It was pretty noisy when we first got there because it is where a lot of well-to-do people from San Salvador come for the weekend, but then it quieted down as they all headed back to the city. The next morning we decided to head for Santa Tecla to contact Mauricio’s family. We spent the day getting to know Santa Tecla itself, doing some errands and checking out the market (which reminded us of Mexico). We ate lunch at his place called Cafeteria de la Fuente which was crazy cheap and amazingly good! Our favorite dish so far is relleno de guisquil, which is this squash/zucchini type vegetable that is stuffed with cheese and dipped in batter and then deep fried, and served with tomato sauce – yum! In general, Salvadorans eat really well (at least those that can afford to) lots of veggies (both cooked and raw), a bit of chicken or meat, rice, salad, and these fat, tasty handmade tortillas that are delicious (and of course, there are pupusas…..) In the evening, Luz picked us up in Santa Tecla and showed us to their place where we met the whole family. That evening the kids stayed behind while the parents went out to have a couple of drinks. It was pretty low key (it was a Monday night!) but we got a good idea of how industrialized – and, I hate to say it, North-Americanized - El Salvador is. It is very different from Guatemala, and apparently has the highest population density of any Central American country. We are excited about being in El Salvador, partly because we have always wanted to visit (I guess because we have so many Salvadoran friends) and especially at this moment in history as everyone is gearing up for elections in a week or so, when the FMLN party finally has a real chance of winning so it is pretty exciting. Mauricio has already convinced us to stay at least until next week when he and Edgardo are arriving from Toronto to vote. Yesterday we drove around San Salvador in the westy. We visited the Museum of Anthropology which had an exhibition of Mayan culture and arts. We enjoyed it in the (noisy, polluted, busy) capital, but were happy to arrive back to the cool, breezy outskirts of Santa Tecla. Today we are heading for the Pacific coast to hang out for a few days, where Mauricio and his family have a beach house in San Blas, close to La Libertad.
El domingo, despues de dormir en un estacionamiento en la ciudad de Esquipulas, en Guatemala, cruzamos a El Salvador. Por suerte el cruce de frontera no fue ni muy dificil, ni burocratico. El mismo dia pasamos por Santa Ana, y nos quedamos a dormir a orillas del lago Coaepeque. Ahora estamos en Santa Tecla, en las afueras de San Salvador, quedandonos en la casa de Gullermo y Luz, el hermano de Mauricio. La verdad es que esta gente nos ha recibido mas que bien, y Ari y Teo se la han pasado jugando con Guillermo, Fernando y Fabi, y por supuesto con su perro, Figo. Con Gullermo y Luz salimos el lunes por la noche y entre ceviche y cervezas conversamos y pasamos fenomeno. Raquel tambien nos malcrio bastante y siempre nos prepara ricos cafes, y desayunos, y hasta nos regalo su salcita picante para llevarnos a San Blas (en el Pacifico), que sera nuestro proximo destino. Ahí vamos a esperar a Mauricio y Edgardo que estan llegando desde Toronto para votar en las elecciones. De mas esta decir, que este pais en este momento es una fiesta, y sin cantar victoria, espero sea mas emotivo cuando gane el FMLN. Todo pareceria ser que asi sera. Ayer salimos a manejar por el centro de San Salvador, y a pesar de perdernos mas de una vez, conocimos un monton. Tambien fuimos al Museo de Antropologia, al mercado central, y por supuesto a comer por ahí.

Tikal

Salimos de Rio Dulce rumbo a la selva Peten. Paramos mas o menos en la mitad del camino en un lugar que se llama Finca Ixobal (cerca de Poptun) que nos contaron que era un buen lugar para descansar y comer almuerzo. Las ensaladas estaban muy buenas porque crecen sus verduras alli, y Ariel se comio una hamburguesa vegetariana riquisima con berengena y queso. Tambien hacen pan casero, y nos compramos un pan de banana para llevar. Mientras almorzabamos llovia torrencialmente, pero despues salimos a recorrer un poco la finca que tienen una piscina natural y algunos animalitos. Siguimos camino a la isla de Flores que esta en el lago Peten-Itza, y que para los Mayas era un lugar sagrado. Cuando llegaron los Espanioles habian muchos templos y altares alli, pero lo destruyaron todo y ahora no queda nigun razgo de esa historia, solo hoteles. No nos gusto para quedarnos alli, y seguimos hacia Tikal y encontramos un pueblo divino en el lago que se llama el Remate. A la orilla del lago hay una playa publica, frente a una reserva natural que se llama el Cerro Cahui, y alli nos dijieron que podiamos acampar. Cuando llegamos tuvimos la sorpresa de encontrarnos con los amigos de Tulum, Tibu y familia! Ellos habian ido a Belice y estaban entrando a Guatemala recien. Pasamos muy lindo baniandonos en el lago y escuchando los monos ahullar por la noche. Al otro dia, pasamos tranquilos en la playa (que estaba muy alta por la lluvia) y a las cuatro de la tarde salimos para Tikal porque si llegas a esa hora podes entrar con el mismo boleto al otro dia tambien. Cuando llegamos dejamos la camioneta en el camping debajo de un arbol con monos, y fuimos a ver el atardecer en la Plaza Mayor de las ruinas. Vimos un tepescuintle y muchos pavos Peten, y por supuesto los monos que los escuchamos gritar toda la noche. Al otro dia nos levantamos muy temprano para disfrutar de las ruinas. Al amanacer, Ariel salio a caminar y se encontro con: dos venados, un pisote (coati), un monton de pavos, un cocodrilo, un tucan, una gallineta y otros aves interesantes. Las ruinas son impresionantes, grandes y hay muchos edificios. Pasamos todo el dia recorriendo! Casi mas interesante que las ruinas es la cantidad de animales que hay en la selva. Vimos un monton de monos arania y ahulladores, cuatro pisotes (coaties), dos pajaros trogon (que son de la familia del Quetzal), muchos colibri es y pajaros carpinteros, mariposas, cotorritas, muchos montezuma orapendolas (un tipo de pajaro), una viborita y muchos mas! La verdad es que Tikal es impresionante: subimos a varios templos pero nada se compara con el numero cinco, donde tenes que subir una escalerita de madera vertical y cuando llegas pensas que estas en las nubes. Nos dimos cuenta que estabamos muy altos porque nos temblaban las piernas y se nos hizo medio dificil bajar de nuevo! Un guia nos comento que mas de un turista se cayo, y por eso cerraron un par de templos al publico. Luego de recorrer las ruinas (que nos llevo unas 4 horas) fuimos a caminar hasta un mirador bastante rustico que esta en la cima de un arbol. De alli ves las ruinas desde otra punta de vista. Terminamos mas que cansados, pero contentos. Fuimos a dormir de nuevo en la playa de el Remate, e hicimos una comida compartida con nuestros amigos. Mateo y Tibu se pasaron con su amigo guatemalteco Adonias, buscando piedras y cristales en las rocas y encontraron un par de piedras lindas, incluyendo cristales y jade. Ayer de noche dejamos la olla con arroz y frijoles afuera, y en medio de la noche aparecio un caballo y se lo comio todo! Los dias que estuvimos alli, paso un americano que esta viviendo en Guatemala conocido en el pueblo como el panadero gringo, y le compramos uns ricos panes caseros. Paramos a comer la rica comida de la Finca Ixobal (de nuevo), y llegamos a Rio Dulce con tiempo para ver el atardecer.
We left Rio Dulce around noon after our last post, and stopped for lunch at Finca Ixobal, about halfway there in Poptun, because we had heard that they had really good food there – especially homemade baked goods and nice salads because they grow their own veggies. The drive through the Peten area was beautiful, with rolling hills and lots of cattle (unfortunately, deforestation comes with the relatively new “development” of this jungle area of Guatemala). We headed for Flores, a small island in the middle of lake Peten Itza that used to be an important ceremonial site for the Maya, and was covered in temples and altars when the Spanish arrived. Of course, they destroyed everything (what else is new) and now the only things on the island are pretty much hotels and tour companies. We decided to keep driving to a little town across the lake, closer to the ruins, called El Remate, where we had heard we could camp on the beach. It is a sweet little town, apparently known for its wood carving families, and we found a public beach right in front of the Cerro Cahui nature reserve to camp for the night. When we arrived, we were pleasantly surprised to find our friends from Tulum, Tibu and family, camped out at the same spot! They had gone to Tikal that day and were headed south after spending a couple of weeks in Belize. After getting caught up with them, we slept to the sound of howler monkeys in the distance, and woke up to the birds chattering all around us. That day we spent hanging out and swimming in the lake, until around four when we decided to head to Tikal. We had heard that if you arrive after four your ticket is also good for the next day, so after the drive to the site we parked our vehicle at the campground (right under a tree with a family of howlers in it!) and walked in to the Central Plaza area to watch the sunset. That evening we saw and heard lots of wildlife – this is the thing about Tikal, that you are not only exploring a huge Mayan site, but that it is deep in the jungle and they work really hard to protect the animals here. That night we had the howlers screaming in our ears and the kids got up at the crack of dawn to do some bird and animal watching. Ariel saw two deer, a coati, a Peten crocodile (!), lots of wild turkeys, a toucan, a gallinule, and lots of other birds! That day we saw too many spider and howler monkeys to count, coatis, a piliated woodpecker, some trogons (related to the resplendent quetzal),
We set off early to explore the ruins and spent about four hours walking around the site. The temples themselves are pretty impressive, partially uncovered and covered in green moss. The most exciting one to climb was Temple 5, which you had to climb using these steep wooden stairs (which was more like a steep ladder). Once we got to the top our knees started to shake, and then we realized that climbing up was the easy part! But we made it back down, and one of the guides that we spoke to told us that more than one tourist has plummeted to their deaths from the tops of the temples here, and that is why some of them are closed to the public. We also found out that Temple 4 was used as a vantage point to film one of the rebel base scenes in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (anyone recognize it?). In this area there are many different Mayan ruins, Tikal are just the most well-known and impressive. Every mound/pyramid-shaped mountain is probably a Mayan ruin around here, there are so many that are still uncovered! We wanted to go on a 5-day trek to a place called El Mirador (it is actually just across from Calakmul!) which they think are actually even bigger and more important than the ones at Tikal, but it was going to be too expensive (and arduous) so we decided against it. That night we went back to El Remate and enjoyed one more collaborative dinner and a fire with our European friends before parting ways the next day. Mateo and Tibu enjoyed playing with their Guatemalan friend Adonias, who stayed and ate dinner with us. In the middle of the night we woke up to the sound of some wild animal eating the leftover rice and beans that we left outside the westy – when we shined the flashlight out the window there was a big horse looking back at us, and I think he enjoyed the rice because he cleaned the pot! We stopped at Finca Ixobel again for lunch on our way to Rio Dulce, and ended up by the pool once again at Nana Juana. Now we are trying to decide our next move, which is going to be south to the border with El Slavador, which hopefully we will cross in the next couple of days.

Livingston y Rio Dulce

Eva y Mary se fueron ayer, asi que nosotros cuatro seguiremos camino a Tikal. Despues de pasar un par de semanas bastante movidas, yendo de un lugar a otro, ahora estamos preparandonos y descansando en una marina llamada Nana Juana. Estamos en Rio Dulce. El fin de semana fuimos en una lancha a Livingston, en la costa del Caribe. En camino pasamos por diferentes rios, cascadas, lagunas, aguas termales, y antes de llegar al pueblito el rio serpentea un canion que nos dejo maravillados. Toda esta zona esta llena de diferentes tipos de garzas, comoranes, y mis favoritos; los pelicanos. En Livigston nos quedamos en una posada (del Delfin) y a pesar de que en menos de dos horas uno puede recorrer todo el pueblo, nos quedamos tres dias. Aquí viven ladinos, mayas y los garifunas, que lamentablemente estan mas que marginados. Una maniana conocimos a un musico garifuna que nos explico el verdadero origen de su pueblo, y su triste realidad actual. Livingston atrae a muchisimos turistas promoviendo desde la comida, hasta la musica garifuna, pero de mas esta decir que ellos son los ultimos en beneficiarse de ello. Los pobres ya estan desplazados del pueblo mismo, y a muchos se les ve con pequenios puestos de artesanias, y pidiendo lo que sea en las calles.
Uno de esos dias fuimos a hacer una caminata a un lugar llamado Siete Altares, a unos cinco kilometros del pueblo. Se trata de siete saltos de agua fresca, en medio de la selva. A pesar de que la caminata en si fue larga, y que nos aburrimos de ver basura durante todo el camino por la playa, fue refrescante el banio que nos pegamos. En camino a las cascadas, tambien nos topamos con una viborita verde (foto) tranquilamente colgada de una palmera. Al volver nos tomamos una rica sopita de gallina que tambien fue mas que gratificante. Esta zona culinariamente hablando, tambien es muy diferente al resto de Guatemala. Aquí usan mucho la leche de coco y el curry, que combinado con mariscos, y platanos son mas que ricos. Asi que se pueden imaginar que mas de una vez nos mandamos unas ricas sopitas de camaron! Uno de los platos tipicos llamado tapado es una sopa con todos estos ingrdientes. El domingo regresamos a Rio Dulce, despues de despedir a Eva y Mary, para encarar esta nueva etapa. Aquí, en la marina conocimos a unos australianos que estan recorriendo el mundo con sus dos hijas de cinco y tres anios en un catamaran. Ayer nos dieron un tour de su “casa” y quedamos con ganas de viajar de esta manera cuando vimos como viajan. Despues fuimos a comer unas pizzas al pueblo con ellos y alli a Mateo le cortaron el pelo. A la noche cocinamos una pasta en la combi, y ahora despues de un rico cafecito, estamos comenzando a empacar para salir a las ruinas de Tikal.

Eva and Mary left to go back to Ottawa yesterday, so once again it is just the four of us and we are in Rio Dulce trying to get organized for the next leg of our journey. Here is an update of the last few days: we left the westy parked safe and sound at a marina/hotel complex called Nana Juana, and all took a boat tour up the river to Livingston on the Caribbean coast. The guide took us first to see a small fort built by the Spanish to protect from pirates coming in from the coast, right where the river meets Lake Izabal. Then we cruised by a small island called Isla de Pajaros which was full of cormorants, egrets and big white herons, visited the Laguna de las Flores (also filled with cool birds hopping around on lily pads), and a hot water spring that flows into the river, all the while admiring people as they paddled around in their amazing dugout balsawood canoes. The river eventually narrows through a big canyon, with cliffs and trees on both sides, and the bird- watching there was pretty spectacular. In Livingston we especially enjoyed watching the pelicans with their disproportionate anatomy, and who seem to have taken over the boats floating in the harbor. We stayed at a little place called Posada del Delfin for three nights, where we just hung out in hammocks, took a hike to a place with waterfalls/freshwater pools 5 km along the beach called Siete Altares, where we saw a brilliant green tree snake on a palm tree, and got to know the town. It is a small and fairly grungy place and it is too polluted to swim in the water there, but it is fascinating culturally (insert rant about plastic bags, bottles, shoes, and other miscellaneous garbage that constanly washes up on the Caribbean shores….) There is a real mix of ethnicities here, with the town being divided into the Mayan, Ladino, and black Garifuna cultures (there is also an Asian element here). The Garifunas are especially interesting, as it is the only place in Guatemala where they live and they are marginalized (even more than the Mayans, and that is saying something!). Guide books play up the Garifuna element, and restaurants and business on the main tourist drag also take advantage of tourist interest in the culture while apparently the people themselves are quite discriminated against. There are of course different versions, and I am sure that the Ladinos and Mayans have their own perspectives, but it is pretty clear that not many of the people benefiting economically are Garifuna and that they have been pushed back further into the outskirts of the town. Next door to our hotel was a place that rents cabins that has a pretty good restaurant, and there we tried a soup that is advertised as Garifuna food (but that a man told us really is not) called Tapado, which is a seafood and fish soup with coconut milk and plantain – delicious! Another day Gustavo tried a “coco loco,” which is basically fresh coconut water mixed with rum (served in the coconut, of course). Another neat thing about Livingston is that they speak Q’eqchi Maya, Garifuna, Spanish and English so when you walk down the street you hear all kinds of languages. We woke up at six in the morning on the last day and took Eva and Mary to the main dock so they could head out to Puerto Barrios. After seeing them depart, squished into a loaded down boat, we went and had a sad breakfast of coconut bread and a cappuccino at the hotel next to ours. Teo and Ariel had one last game of fusball and played the marimbas for a while and we left at 9:30 am. On the boat trip back we stopped at some of the same places as before, plus the Tatin river where there was a place in the jungle where the river begins that sells artesanias made by a Mayan women’s cooperative, and where we bought a small bowl made out of banana husks. Once we got back to Rio Dulce we settled in to relax by the pool at Nana Juana for a few days to get used to being just the four of us again: the people running the place here have been really kind to us and don’t charge us very much to park here and use the facilities. Rio Dulce is an interesting place in itself, filled with “yachties” who come here during hurricane season because it is the safest place to be in the Caribbean at that time. The town itself, just a tiny strip along the road, is surprisingly well-provisioned – surprising until you realize just how many foreigners live here and all along the river! There is an Australian couple with two gorgeous little girls staying here at the marina who have been in the area for about a year already. Yesterday we were lucky enough to get a tour of their catamaran, which is very cool: next time we want to tour the world in a boat like that! We also went out for lunch with them to a place in town called the Sun Dog Café, owned by a friend of theirs from Holland, which had good pizza. Mateo was excited because he got a ride over there in their dinghy, and he also got a fancy haircut from the café owner’s Irish girlfriend. On the way back, the girls got a ride in our westy over the bridge (which is apparently the longest one in Central America). Today we are planning to head to the Tikal ruins in the Peten jungle (yay – more howlers!) and then probably on to El Salvador. We were thinking of going to the Bay Island of Utila in Honduras to do some more snorkeling first, but apparently there has been a lot of flooding recently and the roads in Honduras are in really bad condition.