Jahooly
Dana Swarth Joined: January 18th 2009
Logged in: December 13th 2009
Logged in: December 13th 2009
Travel Blog Posts
my last few days spent in san ignacio were with a guy i knew and his family. they lived on a jungle farm and i satyed in my tent. they had a beautiful little creek that ran through their property, that i bathed in and washed my clothes in. they had 2 horses, lime, mango, avocado, chaya, basil, chickens, and goats. my friends brother was practically a bush doctor, so i learned tons about all the plants and trees that grow in their jungle. we drank bitters to clear our stomach of any possible parasites or problems, i soaked fresh cedar bark in my water to cure my cold, i learned what plants to eat to slow snake venom from getting all up in your body before you can reach a hospital, any many more jungle ... read more
Ive been in San Ignacio for one week now. Ive had a great time. the last time i was here was 10years ago and from what ive heard, it has changed dramatically since then....more gangs, less live music, more fake rastas, still good travelers come through though. ive been learning tons since ive been here! cooking over a fire is normal now and i like it more, i learned how to make pizza in a dutch oven, tortillas from scratch, noodles from scratch also, which we stuffed with mushrroms and steamed! yummy! its hard sometimes making fire in the rainforest since wood and cardboard gets wet easily and dries slowly with the humidity. there is a monopoly on the beer in belize, just one company belikin, who goes to extremes to keep other beer makers from ... read more
I went to Cacao a small Mexican village on the border of Belize this past weekend. I stayed with some friends i had met at Xamach Dos Resort. I got to meet their whole family. Mom, brothers, nephews, cousins, aunts, everyone, but really only like a third of the family probably since the family is huge! everyone seems to have about 10 kids and if not thats how many kids they want. they lived in wooden houses made out of poles not boards. dirt floors, sheeted off bathrooms, they had good well water though, and tons of fruit trees. they probably had about 10 different types of fruit trees, mangos, avacados, guayas, picadilla, craboo, beans, chaya, tons that i cant even nae cuz theya re new fruits, mame, what else... they were all very poor people, ... read more
Xamach Dos. my peaceful beach resort. ive learned a bunch since ive been here. I learned how to make totopes, which are fried tortilla chips, ive finally master whacking open a coconut with a machete, and ive figured out how to funnel gas into a truck. Ahhh yes, ive also learned that an exhaust is a silly part of your car and that its perfectly fine to drive without one. the exhaust on my truck fell off last night, but we just tor the part that was dragging on the ground off so now it does clink and clatter. things are done so differnetly here in mexico, so much simpler and maybe a little bit half assed but i like it. we keep our food that the bugs might get into in the oven and rarely ... read more
I made it back home in the truck safe and sound. Managing to only stall it and get stuck or paused on top of a massive speed bump. I live with Francisca and Vinancio. They are about 40s years old. Francisca is an amazing cook who loves chiles. Shes hard headed and argues with me about recycling and veggie prices. I learned last night that she was married at the age of 13 to a guy who was 38. She was always a rebel as a child and ended up moving far away from her home state to live with Antonio. She then continued to tell me that she had her first kid at 14 and her second at 15. AYYYY!!! I cant even imagen! She was very proud of all this and she seemed to ... read more
ahhhh hello friends! so last time i wrote i think i was staying at myfriends resortjustforaweek and then wasplanning on going to belizeto travel more....i guess i have to hit the space bar harder, sorry. bbbuuuuuuttttt now i am still staying at the resort, managing it! josh has left today for 1 month to go home to washington. so i am staying to help francisca and vinancio run the resport and talk to the guests since neither of them speak english. so now im in tulum(i drove here!!!) josh taught me how to drive stick and i cruise in a rickity old mexican blue pickup truck. its soooo sweet! i stalled a bunch in the first stoplight intersection and just sreeched threw when the light turned red. so ive parked the car in an easy to ... read more
The last few weeks at Pez Maya were full of divemaster exams, lots more cool sightnigs, lots more divemaster practice and a little bit more monitoring. we still did 2 dives a day, the first usually going out monitoring, counting more fish, and the second dive was usually practice and learning skills for divemaster. which i proudly have now completed! i just need to send PADI some more money and some parpers and photos and then good to go! I probably wont begin to use my divemaster for a while, maybe next summer thgough. i made good friends with the manager of a nearby resort so spent afew of my last days hangingout down here, which ill goo into more detail soon. we did a final clean of the base, had a final party, which i ... read more
hey everyone, its been sooooooo long. ive been so busy! i dont even know wher to start! the swine flu which was treated as a zombie epidemic has now passed but has completly pained mexicos toursist industry to almost null, everyone is down about it. the media totally overdid it. we were all fine and stayed healthy. sand flies however are demons and will eat up your body and leave horrible blisters that ooze inefcted goo! thats what im going throuhgh right now. i am a certified rescue diver right now! i can give cpr and all in the water. oh yea save lives what what! we are now lerning how to become divemasters, which well leanr how to teeach pplo how to dive and take them, out on dives and all. we are rushin gto ... read more
hitched a ride witha nice couple from denver to get into town. an hour bumpy dirt ride away to reach civilization and internet. and cold drinks too! the flu is not here so no worries, but ppl are wearing face masks because they are crazy paranoid. i am a certified open water diver now! yaya and a deep water and navigation dive away from being an advanced diver! i am going to be adding on rescue diver and divemaster by the time i leave! ill be an expert, or master i guess! taught turtle ecology to kids the other day in a near by school. we played turtle nesting games and made binoculars out of toilette paper rolls. we could go today since all mexico schools are closed to avaoid flu transmission. we again have been ... read more
mexico is wonderful! the research base is great, location, staff, other volunteers, beach, coconuts, magrove lagoon(have been seasrching but havent found the crocs yet), the reef, the fishes. verything!!!! im living in the sian kan reserve 1 hour south of the town tulum. ill give you a quick briefing of what ive done so far. the first night i stayed in the town, met a german, follwed him to a resort on the beach and camped for 2 nights, in tulum i went to the mayan ruins, right on the coast overlooking a big cliff. i made some good freinds in tulum and partyed with them at an electronica party the first night. the resort sxaid i could come back anytime! on friday i waited at the grcery store and was picked up by a gvi ... read more
