updates

Below are the email updates sent out during the March to May, 2001 travels, in order. Hint: print this out for easier reading.

Subject: Update: southern cone

Hello again,

Further worldwide adventures: I thought I would keep the travel updates going for the next two months. After Asia, I was in the USA for a few months, mostly working. Now I am on an American endeavor. The last couple weeks have been in what is known as the southern cone, namely the five southern countries in South America. Below is the update.

P.J!

January through March: Spent time in Colorado, got new U.S. passport (old one full/damaged), got a Brazil visa, paid taxes, got a contract for Philmont Boy Scout Ranch (Camp Director Ring Place), visited Chicago and the east coast, and went to work on a UXO (unexploded ordinance) project on an Arkansas pine tree plantation. This project involved remediating rockets using the science of geophysics (rocket science?), and was a good experience with satellites, sunspots, swamps, southern culture, and silviculture.

Mo326 Left Denver with a few benjamins (in small bills), exactly 25 plane tickets, two passports and a debit card, all distributed among four hidden places on my person. I had heard that parts of Latin America are shadier than a Syrian souq, so I didnt want to risk it. (Then again, the southern cone has been very safe.) I also had about half the luggage as I had previously, which is much nicer. Flew Denver to Newark, and across the Caribbean Sea and Amazon basin to...

Tu327 ...Brazil...roamed Rio de Janeiro, including the Copacabana beach, downtown, and Niteroi. Caught a night bus out of town to...

We328 ... Sao Paulo, the most populous city on the continent, and one of the worlds densest. Met with Yara (who I had met in Kofu Japan while visiting Mary Zimmerman last November). Roamed the Ibirapura part of Sao Paulo with Yara. Caught a night bus out to...

Th329 ...Foz de Iguacu, a Brazil town near the triple border of Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina. Visited Iguacu falls (where the Iguacu river falls off a basalt plateau), located in a National Park quite developed for ecotourism. (I had heard that KBCO radio in Boulder, CO is currently giving away a trip to Iguacu). Caught an afternoon bus out of town, across the Paraguayan border, and to the capital city of Asuncion. Found a cheap hotel in Asuncion, cheap being 25,000 Guaranies ($6.47USD), which is alot more than the $1.5 average in Asia.

Fr330 Roamed Asuncion. Caught a 20 hour bus out to Montevideo, capital of Uruguay. Although border crossing is supposedly easier within the Mercosur countries (something like NAFTA, EU or ASEAN), I swear that like 5 of those 20 hours were spent at the two Argentine border posts, making the busload of people walk across foot and mouth disinfectant mats. Much of the region is cattle country, home of the legendary gaucho (cowboy), and actually much of it looked like the US high plains.

Sa331 ...arrived in Montevideo at noon. The city is very first world. "How to tell when you are in a first world country": see list at bottom of this message. Roamed town, including witnessing Saturday afternoon music and festivities in the central plaza. Caught a night sleeper bus out (cheaper than the boat across the bay). This sleeper bus only reclined you to about 30 degrees (Chinese version was much nicer.)

Su401 ...arrived in Buenos Aires, Argentina in the morning... in a country that is full of hard core meat eaters. Figured out how to get to tierra del fuego, roamed town (caught some music and yes some tango at the Sunday open air flea market). Caught a 36 hour bus out...

Mo402 ...through the Pampas, which must be spanish for West Texas. Went the length of the eastern coast of Argentina through the Patagonia region (the eastern part of which is as exciting as the Pampas)...

Tu403 ... arrived in Rio Gallegos, Argentina at 9am. With luck caught a plane across the strait of Magellan and on to the island called Tierra del Fuego (land of fire)... to Ushuaia, which is about as far south as one can reasonably go. Jagged Patagonian mountains rise around Ushuaia, which sits on the Beagle Channel. The town is 7,000 miles south of NYC and only 700 miles (and $3k) north of Antarctica. Walked from the airport into town, found a hostel, met three American girls (meeting Americans is rare in the world travel business), and did a few mile hike in the Parque Nacional Tierra del Fuego with them. Ironically, one of the girls was wearing Patagonia brand hat and gloves.

We404 Caught a bus out of Ushuaia, and along the length of the island of tierra del fuego, through Rio Grande. Then the busload waited for like 4 hours at the ferry crossing to get off of the island. While we were waiting I noticed "danger minefield" signs along the shore (Falkland war remnants?), and wondered if they needed uxo remediation. The Straits of Magellan were extremely rough, and when the boat finally braved it, the waves were still over 10 ft. high. Bonus dolphin sightings in the straits. I am sure this is the type of thing Luke Fitzgerald deals with daily (who I hope to see soon). Bussed to the city of Puenta Arenas, found a cheap hostel.

Th406 Puenta Arenas has the distinction of being the first major population center (Ushuaia further south is too small I guess) to be 100% exposed to the hole in the ozone layer...which happened for a couple days last fall. Roamed town..I wanted to see some penguins and catch a ferry along Chiles fjords, but the penguins had "gone north for the summer last monday", and the boat was broken. Caught a flight north to Puerto Montt, on the west coast of Chile. Everywhere except the USA one can buy cheap air tickets and get on the plane much like buying bus tickets. In this case it was much cheaper ($80) to fly. Puerto Montt is much like Portland, with two Mt. Hood like volcanoes looming on the horizon. Caught a night bus out to...

Fr406 ...Santiago. Roamed Santiago, saw the Chilean President roll up with some Chinese bigwig. Met with Geo (who had visited in Denver a couple years ago with Kate Vermeer) and her friend Rosario, stayed with them at Rosarios place.

Sa407 caught a 24 hour bus out north... from Santiagos smog and mountains into the Atacama Desert in northern Chile...

Su408 ...along the coast (0 ft. elevation) until morning, then arrived in San Pedro de Atacama (8000 ft) in the afternoon. San Pedro is a dusty hole of a town, where electricity and water work only every few days. My goal was to see flamingoes in the desert at 18,000 ft, in salty red lakes, at freezing and windy temperatures.... and San Pedro was the place to start from. Found a cheap hostel.

And now for....."Late night (waiting at border posts) with P.J!" presents: "Top ten way to tell when you are in a first world country (or city)".

1. A majority of the people look "good". (they have time and money to tend to appearances).

2. People form orderly queues (wherever a queue is necessary), rather than mobbing and shoving.

3. You see people on the street exercising (running, walking etc for health).

4. Sleeping in a park (train station, etc) with the bums is a viable lodging option.

5. If toilet paper is used, it is provided where there are toilets.

6. There is a six items or less line at the grocery store (or, there is a grocery store at all).

7. There are shopping malls.

8. You have the ability to be shadier than the people are (as opposed to the people being guaranteed shadier than you).

9. The bus (minibus, truck, etc) only stops at scheduled times or places (rather than stopping for anyone that flags it down, even if it is packed already, and even if the person only needs to ride one mile and the bus is going 20 hours).

10. You hear Brittney Spears being played.

Next update: Andes Candies, cold flamingoes, and "Top ten ways to tell when you are in a third world country"

Subject: Update: altiplano, andes, amazon

Hola,

The last couple weeks have been spent (still traveling by myself) in Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador, which are more third world than the countries further south (see "how to tell when you are in a third world country" at bottom).

P.J!

Mo409 started a 3 day organized tour in San Pedro de Atacama, Chile (well off the Panamerican Highway). The tour was full of gringos (white backpacker tourists), and was Bolivia bound. Left San Pedro and went straight uphill to the altiplano (high plain), and to the Bolivian border at about 14,000 ft.

Then things got very interesting, there were green lakes and red lakes, all in the desert, all rather cold (below freezing at night) and very windy, constantly surrounded by snowcapped volcanoes, and there were flamingoes in the lakes... white, grey and pink flamingoes, and llamas, and vicunas, and foxes trying to eat the flamingos. All of this was between 14,000 ft and 17,000 ft. (I started the previous day at sea level, so the elevation change had some effect.) Spent the night at a weird compound, at about 15,000 ft, next to Laguna Colorada, which is a red lake (iron oxidation) full of pink flamingoes. The Toyota Land Cruiser is vehicle of choice in that desloate territory.

Tu410 more of the same weird stuff, dropped slight elevation to about 13,000 to spend the night at a very small village named Alota. It was alota nuttin.

We411 dropped to Uyuni, Bolivia, a town about as big as Cimarron, NM, and at 12,000 ft. Visited the Salar de Uyuuni, a salt flat 60 miles in diameter; currently with 6 inches of water over the whole thing...again surrounded by snowcampped mountains...eerily reflected in the still salty water surface, broken only by driving across it (driving to the point where you can not see land). The locals pile up the salt for sale, and one even made a hotel out of salt in the lake. Spent the night at a hostel in Uyuuni.

Th412 caught a bus out of Uyuni, through rolling green mountians (like NM), then canyons (like UT), to Potosi, which is the "highest city in the world" (about 14,000ｴ), and was at one time the largest also. The silver mine boom has faded, but miners still work in extremely hazardous conditions, by choice, and die within 10 years of starting mining. I did not have enough time to visit the town (even by my quick travel standards). Roamed it briefly, then caught a night bus out to La Paz.

Fr413 the bus had flat tires twice during the night, and arrived in La Paz, capital of Bolivia, in the morning. Roamed La Paz, where, like Potosi or San Francisco CA, the streets are very steep, and the 4,000m altitude doesnt help. Witnessed the good friday (locally Santa Semana) parades, found a cheap hostel.

Sa414 caught a bus out to Lake Titicaca (worlds highest navigable lake), a boat across the lake at the Straits of Tiquina, a bus to Copacabana (town was full of LaPazian Santa Semana revelers) then across the border to Puno, Peru. This journey was full of French on an organized tour. Roamed Puno (still on the Lake), and caught a night bus out to Cuzco, Peru.

Discussion:

That night bus to Cuzco was a tourist bus, full of younger international backpacker tourists (umm... like me?). The bus had video, and the most ironic movie was played during the ride: The Beach. I have not read the book, but the movie, although somewhat sophmoric, gives good perspective on the backpacking travel culture (and on some of Thailand for that matter). Actually it puts any travel in perspective. Whereas my "see the world quickly" travel style is critcizable, so too perhaps is the "spend alot and travel in luxury" style of the French tourists I was with earlier in the day, or the "frat party Ko Penang as portrayed in The Beach" travel I often encounter. While the movie was on, I literally heard a french accent behind me in the bus say "that is us".

"...and as for travelling alone...thats the way it has to be..." deep line from main character in The Beach.

Su415 ... arrived in Cuzco at 3am, and slept on the parked bus until 6am. Cuzco is the backpacker traveler center of the Americas (as Bangkok is for SE Asia, Prague for E. Europe, and Kathmandu for Central Asia), and is also the gateway to the Macchu Picchu Inca archaelogical site. There are a number of ways to get to Macchu Picchu, all of which first involve a train, but then range from: transport the whole way to hiking what is known as The Inca Trail 20 miles (3 to 5 days). I caught the train at 7am, and got off at "km 104" to do the 2 day Inca Trail hike. The Peruvian Andes scenery is phat, and I spent the night at the one hostel on the trail. This hostel had a problem of overcrowding, and also with encouraging a frat party type atmosphere, except instead of The Beach in Thailand it was The Mountain in Peru.

Mo416 slept a few hours on an ashtry like floor, then hiked early morning to Macchu Picchu. Meadow crashed for a couple hours on the Inca terraces above the site (at the classic picture spot), toured the site, walked down the hill to Aguas Calientes, and caught the train back to Cuzco with two German girls who I had met on the trail. Found a cheap hostel in Cuzco with the girls. The hostel was very high quality (best value for $1.25 I have ever seen), but had a weird Frankenstein motif.

Tu417 caught a flight out of Cuzco, via Lima, to Iquitos, in northeastern Peru... located on the Amazon River. My brother Pammi is currently living in the town, and doing work researching leptospiras in the Belen population. Belen is a shantytown of thousands of residents living on the Amazon River. 100% of the kids have some type of worm, which is not surprising after seeing the conditions (although nothing worse than parts of Delhi or Damascus).

The last time I saw Pammi was in Saigon, Vietnam, which is almost exactly on the other side of the world (both lat and long). I pack an inflatable globe to be able to discern such trivia.

We418 Caught bus and boat over and around the Amazon and a tributary to roam part of the jungle. Got slightly lost and came upon the Bora, a National Geographic wannabe type tribe which, although perhaps traditional, now only dress up (or undress as the case is) for tourists.

Th419 Rode a bus as far as possible out of town (Iquitos can not be reached by road, only by air or river), then toured the local zoo... which had amazing Amazon animals in squalid conditions (one even dead in its cage).

Fr420 Said adios to my brother, and flew back to Lima. Roamed Lima, including patronizing the Hare Krishna restaurant in town (which curiously serves mostly Chinese ("Chifa") food. Caught a bus north out of Lima, through the driest desert on earth. The Panamerican highway runs through the desert along the coast.

Sa421 ...arrived at the border town of Tumbes, Peru in the morning (only one small crash with the bus and a car en route). Altough border formalities were easy, the two border posts are quite seperated, so I needed to utilize a minibus, rickshaw, walking 3 miles, a taxi, and another bus. Caught a bus into Ecuador, passing miles of banana plantations, through the lowlands to Santo Domingo de Colorado... found a cheap hotel.

Note that Ecuador recently switched to using the U.S. Dollar (to stabilize their economy). The only other thing which came close to this which I have seen was Cambodia, which used (not by design) U.S. paper money, but for less than $1USD they used their own paper money. Ecuador officially uses even U.S. coins (the newest state quarters are circulating). I guess Panama does the same.

Su422 Left Santo Domingo in a tropical downpour, and bussed straight up through the clouds to the capital city of Quito. Visited the "mitad del mundo" monument... that is, the equator. The site is just north of Quito, and quite touristy. Every Quito family was spending their Sunday there, listening to open air local music. Even Barney the purple dinosaur was dancing on the equator. Stayed at a cheap hostel

Mo423 roamed Quito, stayed at same hostel

And now, time for Late Night with P.J! (in cheap hostels) presents "Top ten ways to tell when you are in a third world/developing country"

1. Women perform significantly different functions and act quite differently than men.

2. Shopping tends towards of buying items from individual merchants (vs some type of store).

3. Police or military on the street are armed with weapons like you have only seen in movies.

4. Most people over age 20 are missing at least some of their teeth.

5. There are a significant number of stray dogs (or other animal) populating the streets.

6. Relief of human waste occurs many places besides toilets, often even in ancient national monuments.

7. Major streets, sometimes even highways, are unpaved. Also, there is a lack of curbs.

8. The local currency has recently been devalued, has an exchange rate with the U.S. Dollar greater than 1,000, is pegged to the U.S. Dollar (or the German DM etc), or the U.S. Dollar (or some other currency) is explicitly or implicitly used everywhere.

9. There is rebar sticking out of many buildings.

10. There are open sewers, or sewers which have recently been covered (with concrete pieces) in the last few years.

Next update: Northern South America, the Caribbean, and "Top ten things that apply to any country in the world".

Subject: Update: Caribbean

Hello again,

Recent travels have been in the Caribbean. My logic: although overland travel is usually my style, safety warnings (US Dept. of State) suggested that I bypass Colombia. Also, I needed to be in Panama in a couple weeks. So my thought was to visit Philmont friend Alex Avelallemant in Barbados. For the same price as a flight to Barbados and onwards, I found the BWIA (British West Indies Airlines) airpass, which allows travel to all of its destinations for $400. 17 of the flight segments mentioned below are part of that single ticket. I then also bought one ticket from Quito to Caracas via a planned layover in Bogota, and another from Kingston to Panama via bonus layover in Havana. These three tickets were bought in March.

A downside of airplane travel is the airport departure taxes, which vary from $10 to $30USD・and apply to you differently for each country痴 airport. One of my goals was to evade this tax, which I managed to do about half the time.

The people in the Caribbean are mostly black, all descendants of slaves. "Indigenous" populations were all killed off manually or by disease. In the south caribbean they are also from India, brought as indentured servants (so this now is Columbus' India). Language is all English, except it is all creole forms that I can not understand, and varys per island. Also, islands got more developed as I headed further north, in general (see last emails to define developed counries).

Tu424 Flew Quito to Bogota early morning. Roamed Bogota. Although I was expecting shady central, Bogota was in fact quite pleasant. Continued the flight in the evening from Bogota to Caracas, Venezuela. Caught a bus over and through the mountains (the end of the Andes) to the subway to a city bus, then walked to the residence of Scott Brandon. Scott is a friend of Alex Avelallemant who works for the U.S. Dept. of State in Caracas. Stayed at Scott痴.

We425 Roamed Caracas, went out with Scott and his great coworkers. Stayed at Scott痴 again. In Caracas, the people are every color from white to black, with the average being brown. This trend of a greater standard deviation about the brown mean developed slowly as I headed north from all brown Bolivia and Peru.

Th426 bussed back to the airport, and started my BWIA adventure by flying to Trinidad (the larger of the two islands in the nation of Trinidad and Tobago, located just off the Venezuelan coast). BWIA has a hub in Port of Spain, capital of Trinidad. Flew to the island of Tobago, to the west end of Crown Point. At that point I realized that no dirt cheap hostels exit in the Caribbean. As I was roaming town wondering what to do, a local woman who was observing me invited me to stay in her spare room for a fraction of the price of local lodging.

Fr427 Tobago life is very slow. All blacks, no browns. Roamed Crown Point痴 beach areas, roamed the city of Scarborough, flew back to Port of Spain (Trinidad), then to Georgetown, Guyana.

The Guyana area was the only part of South America overlooked by the Spainards. So the British, Dutch and French fought over it, resulting in today痴 Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana (from west to east). The first two are now independent nations while the third is part of France. Of course I wanted to go to all three, but this was not one part of the trip which I planned well, so basically I missed the second two.

Guyana is over half East Indian people, the rest African. The population is very young on average, and they all dress like something you would see at a Reggae party. So you have a bunch of brown boys with goofy hats, speaking creole and eating variations on India food・and you have Hindus and Sikhs and Moslems. Although this was all very fascinating, the city of Georgetown itself is frightening・more than Bogota. I felt significantly scared for my well being. About then I realized I could not piece together a trip to the other Guianas. So as a dog walking next to me started foaming at the mouth and vomiting, I ducked into the BWIA office and changed some tickets. Spent the night in a cheap scary hotel above a bar blasting ・0s pop songs and Hindi reggae music. I slept with all defences in place: groundcloth on the bed, mosquito net over me, and light on all night. These precautions are to minimize contact with critters (with people is another worry).

Sa428 Returned to the airport to get out of dodge, but was given trouble by BWIA people. As I was standing there wondering how to leave, a woman from DHL (the shipping company) approached me and said she heard me talking to BWIA. Two jolly DHL pilots offered me an extra seat (free) on their cargo plane. So in a single prop, 4 seat plane filled with 22 boxes I flew back over the coast and across the water to Port of Spain (POS). Caught a late flight (back on BWIA) from POS to the island nation of Grenada. Roamed the capital city of St. George in the rain at night・found the cheapest place, which was not very cheap ($20).

Su429 Roamed St. George and part of Grenada, including historical sites of the 1983 U.S. invasion. No more brown people・everything north from here was all African/ Black. (plenty of tasty mangoes though) Flew back to POS. Roamed Port of Spain (which is a hole of a town) and found the cheapest place to stay.

I have never liked customs inspections. They never even thoroughly check your stuff, and it is only a game of power, like rape. While going through airport security in Grenada, the woman was hand checking my bag (and showing her "girrrrlfrien" all the neat coins I had collected) when she dropped a glass souvenir I had bought・which broke. It was a small, inexpensive thing I bought in Quito, but the only thing I bought on my whole trip (I don稚 buy much). I was perturbed, and I scolded her to be more careful. Her reply was a call for further security・a guy who took me into a small room and made me take of my pants. He didn稚 even check my pockets, he just wanted to make me drop 粗m for his entertainment. So he found my money stashes, one of which is a home made thing strapped to my calf full of plane tickets and USD$. He tore my construction to pieces, insisting that he had to see it (still never checking my pockets). Don稚 go to Grenada.

Mo430 Roamed POS, flew to the island nation of St. Vincent. Walked to the capital of Kingstown and found the cheapest place to stay. These islands were getting progressively nicer as I moved away from Guyana.

Having many Indians, Trinidad and the region has Indian food. Roti is the basic Indian flat bread which my mom makes when I go home (all Indian breads including Naan are a form of a roti, and roti sometimes even simply refers to food). But in the whole region (extending from Guyana halfway up the Caribbean), there is a fast food called Roti, which bears some resemblance to the India thing, but also sometimes resembles a burrito.

Tu501 Roamed Kingstown, rode public transport (a minivan blasting Shaggy) to the other side of the island and back. Flew to Barbados. The rest of my BWIA itinerary would be hubbed from Barbados (rather then POS), which was a good design for me, since I could stay with Alex Avelallemant (who works for the U.S. Dept. of State in Barbados). Sad thing was that Alex was out of town the entire five days that I was there, but he left me the keys to his place anyway (and he did call to say hi). His place is a few hundred meters (depending on tide) from white sand- turquoise water beach. He has built a rock climbing gym in one of his spare bedrooms. I got soft having A/C, hot shower, his guitar, and a kitchen during the days I was there.1

We502 Hung out on the beach, then flew to the island nation of St. Lucia. The airport there is basically right in town, and you walk off the plane and onto perfect beach. Roamed the capital city of Castries, and found the cheapest place to stay.

Th503 Flew back to Barbados, roamed the capital of Bridgetown, hung out at Alex痴 place (without Alex), and on the beach.

Fr504 flew to the island nation of Antigua, roamed St John and Nelsons dockyard. flew back to Aves place in barbados.

Sa505 flew to the island of St. Martin, which is not an independant nation. It is half dutch and half french. Roamed Phillipsburg, the Orient beach, and Marigot. The French side really seems like France while the Dutch side is just a big shopping area. The treat of the day: Met up with god friend Luke Fitzgerald,who is a sailor currently based in Dutch Sint Maarten. Flew back to Aves place in barbados.

Su506 Flew to Jamaica, where the atmosphere is 79% nitrogen and 20% marijuana smoke. Roamed Kingston, caught a bus across the island to Oricabessa (spanish for golden head), where Ian Fleming built a place he called Goldeneye, and wrote all his James Bond books. Found a cheap place in Oricabessa.

Mo507 Returned to Kingston, throught to find the (government) yard in Trench Town, but Trench Town was just too shady. Flew to Havana Cuba and slept in the airport.

Tu508 Roamed La Habana... the old part of the city. That involved walkking a few miles, then paying one cent to get on a bus that was a semi truck converted into a bus...pulled by a tractor trailer. U.S. citizens are not allowed to spend money in Cuba... too bad because Havana was a great place. Flew to Panama City, Panama, to meet my brother Pammi and friend Avery Kong.

Next update: central america, things you will find in any country (this message getting too long), and french bread comparisons continued.

Subject: Update: Central America

Hello again,

Recent travels have been in Central America. Previous travels were in the Caribbean, where people are black, creole english is spoken, Haile Selasie is messiah (former emperor of Ethopia, formerly known as Ras Tafari), and Bob Marley is just as well king. Central America has been a return to Spanish, somewhat brown people, cheaper prices, volcanoes, earthquakes, civil unrest, and overland travel. Also, instead of frequent dealings with ariport immigration and customs officials, I was back to land based procedures. However, mangos and coconuts were still cheap. I have been traveling with my brother Pammi and Avery Kong (I had been by myself for previous travels since southeast asia).

P.J!

Tu508 Caught a flight from Havana, Cuba to Panama City, Panama, where I met Pammi (who flew up from Iquitos, Peru), and Dr. Avery Kong (who flew down from our place in Denver). Found a cheap place to stay in town.

We509 Took a trip to the Miraflores Locks to witness the Panama Canal. Roamed Panama City, including witnessing riotous protests about the 25 cent city bus fare. Panama uses U.S. money as its currency, the same as Ecuador... that is U.S. bills and coins are used, and also Panamanian coins are used. Stayed at same place in Panama City.

Th510 Caught an overnight bus into Costa Rica and to the capital of San Jose.

Fr511 ...arriving early morning. Caught another bus into the mountains to Fortuna, where there is Volcan Arenal... it erupts almost constantly, making it the most active in Central America. There were clouds blocking good view. Found cheap place to stay in Fortuna.

Sa512 Roamed the area, including hiking to a waterfall and swimming. Bussed back to San Jose, roamed town and stayed at the standard backpackers hotel.

Su513 Caught a bus into Nicaragua and to the capital city of Managua. Roamed the downtown area, which was never rebuilt after a 1960s earthquake (and therefore is a hole). Found a cheap place to stay in Managua.

Mo514 Caught a bus into Honduras and to the capital Tegucigalpa. All businesses have heavily armed guards in front, who sometimes double as touts. "Pase adelante" ("Come on in" and eat at this restaurant) takes on a new meaning when the man is holding a sawed off shotgun. Found a cheap place to stay in Tey goose.

Tu515 Pammi decided to take an alternate route to Guatemala, but Avery and I caught a bus into El Salvador, and to the capital city of San Salvador. Susan Meyer (Department of State friend of Alex Ave's) showed us around town and gave us a place to stay (in a high rise full of plenty of crack from the earthquakes since January).

We516 Caught a bus into Guatemala and to the capital of Guatemala City. In 1999, James Bakner, Pammi and I drove James' VW Rabbit from the U.S. through Mexico and as far south as Guatemala City, so I was somewhat familiar with the area. Avery and I met back up with Pammi, and we all went to the home of Jose Batres, a grad school friend of mine (from U of Mich School of Natural Resources). Stayed which Jose and his family.

Th517 Jose drove us to Antigua Guatemala, backpacker center of Central America (akin to Cuzco, Kathmandu, Bangkok, Prague). Caught a night bus out to...

Fr518 ...Santa Elena/ Flores, in the Peten jungle region in northeastern Guatemala. Spent the day at Tikal, famous ancient Mayan ruins... now a National Park in the jungle. There were Mayan pyramids and howler monkeys. Stayed in Santa Elena.

Sa519 Caught a chicken bus (i.e. the local bus) out of town to the Belize border, crossed, and caught a nicer bus to Belize City. Belize is very different from the rest of Central America, and actually seemed to me as a mix of Central America and Caribbean. The country was part of Guatemala until Guate gave it up to the Brits for unfulfilled promises. So English is spoken, often Creole English. The people are every color, with many blacks and browns. There are many cayes (keys/islands) off the coast in the Caribbean. In Belize City we caught a speed boat to Cay Caulker, one of the more popular of the islands, and found a place to stay.

Su520 Caye Caulker is about 400 m. wide and 2 km. long (for all purposes). It is full of backpackers, scuba divers, etc, and has a little beach. Did a bunch of nothing.

Mo521 Did more nothing. Attempted to leave the country but failed.

Tu522 Said bye to Pammi on the island, then Avery and I caught a boat back to Belize City, and then a plane to Houston then Denver.

Fri525 Start summer contract at Philmont Scout Ranch in Cimarron, New Mexico. That is, as Camp Director at Ring Place, in an agreement between the Boy Scouts and the U.S. Forest Service... teaching kids, adults, and National Forest visitors various natural resources, environmental, field science, and historical things. After seeing 80 to 100 countries (depending how you count it) Philmont is still the greatest place I have seen in the world.

Analysis continued: The price of a similar loaf of French/Italian bread I have eaten in:

Sao Paulo, Brazil = 1.30 Reais = 65 U.S. cents

Asuncion, capital of Paraguay = 367 Guaranies = 10 cents

Montevideo, capital of Uruguay = 6.43 pesos = 50 cents

Buenos Aires, capital of Argentina = 0.60 pesos = 60 cents

Quito, capital of Ecuador = 60 U.S. cents = 60 cents

Kingstown, capital of St. Vincent = 1.5 Eastern Caribbean Dollars = 56 cents

Castries, capital of St. Lucia = 2 EC$ = 74 cents

Marigot, "capital" of French St. Martin = 4 french francs = 53 cents

Havana, capital of Cuba = 65 U.S. cents = 65 cents

Panama City, capital of Panama = 55 U.S. cents = 55 cents

San Jose, capital of Costa Rica = 160 colones = 50 cents

Tegucigalpa, capital of Honduras = 5 lempira = 30 cents

Andorra, capital of Andorra = 110 pesetas = 60 cents

Ankara, capital of Turkey = 150,000 lira = 23 cents

Vientiane, capital of Laos = 2000 kip = 24 cents

Tokyo, capital of Japan = 231 Yen = $2.12

Paris, capital of France (a real French baguette) = 5 Francs = 70 cents

Denver, capital of Colorado = $1.19

(note that all above exchange rates and prices are time dependent. For example the Turkish Lira exchange rate has more than doubles in the past 9 months).

And now for "Late night with P.J! (under mosquito netting) presents: Top things you find in any country in the world"

1. You see McDonalds, Coca Cola, Esso/Exxon, and Pringles. Note that if you arrive in a country and can not figure out the exchange rate, you can get a good idea by dividing the price of a can of Pringles by about 2.2.

2. U.S. Dollars are the most widely accepted form of currency (only second to the local currency, and sometimes even moreso than that). Note this is probably not true in eg Libya.(?)

3. People are religious (although religious fervor is inversely proportional to state of development).

4. There is some tourist roaming the country using a Lonely Planet guidebook.

5. Britain has had some influence in the country's history.

6. Babies act the same everywhere (as do dogs).

7. The people are "the greatest people in the world".

8. There is a spectrum ranging from (say on the left) a lifelong resident to (on the right) someone who has never heard of the place (tourists fitting in between)... and those further to the left always believe that someone to the right of them has not spent enough time in that country.