Hola amigas and mi familia! Arrived in Guatemala Saturday. Boy it has been a long strange trip already. Encountered some major-to.minor difficulties, not the least of which included some challenges getting along with the boys and getting some sort of intestinal parasite in Puerto Escondito. Just north of the Frontera (border) between Chiapas state (southernmost on the pacific side of Mexico) and Guatemala, the vegetation finally turned lush and jungley! Guatemala is beautiful and people truly ARE exceedingly nice! Antigua is a cute, colonial town that is clean and full of churches - a perfect [View Full Entry]

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Surfed this AM at Playa Bruja and finally got "bitten" by the SURF BUG... Surfing is absolutely AMAZING. Drove all morning and all afternoon to Sayulita norht of Puerta Vallarta. Somehow I screwed up the functions on this keyboard such that I cannot access the good punctuation keys so that is why my punctuation is lacking. We arrived here just before sunset and found a lovely camping place. We went straight to the beach to wathc the sun set and watch the surfers tear it up... Having arrrived to such a beautiful place and such a beautiful scene, I am SURE [View Full Entry]

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Hola Amigos... Long time, no update. I promise to back date things and catch up but so far so good. Made it to Matzatlan today via a ferry from the mainland. The ride over here was almost 20 hours and smelled of diesel exhaust the whole way. I saw the lunar eclipse from a really cool free camping beach near the ferry in LaPaz a few nights ago. A german guy got his rental car stuck and told us all about the eclipse as we bailed him out with shovels, 2x4s and by letting air out of his tires...The surfing es [View Full Entry]

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Car sold yesterday - sad but good! She's headin to AK with her new owner next month Immunizations are done Taxes - in progress (waiting for more important documentation!) Packing - started last night, completing next Monday or Tuesday PM Banks/ credit cards have been notified of travel plans Credit cards are paid off! I am officially out of debt (except my student loans, which I am working to defer payments on while I am unemployed and traveling...) I might try to get my International Driving Permit today... (Matt P thinks it is not that important to have but I am [View Full Entry]

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just another update (more for myself than the world...) Still on my lists of things to do to prepare: 1) finish getting my car ready to sell install new wiper fluid pump, new wiper blades; get oil changed; clean, clean, clean it up!) 2) finish up immunization stuff (Safeway Pharmacy screwes things up!) 3) research visas - still need to do this 4) purchase surfboard from friend as previous agreed - prending 5) research Grenada and Brazil - still need to do this... 6) Dig through gear to locate appropriate pack, tent, start sorting out the clothing and swim wear that [View Full Entry]

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So... Here is the latest... Still on my lists of things to do to prepare: 1) almost out of debt 2) will be posting the car for sale tomorrow (i paid it off and the title is in the mail!) 3) my first round of immunizations are scheduled for Wednesday!!! 4) research visas - still need to do this 5) research countries assigned to me (Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama - we split things up to make it easier) - still need to do some more of this but I have started to do some research on Nicaragua ans Guatemala 6) [View Full Entry]

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Blog 1: T minus 35 days until departure. Scored some essentials for the trip over x-mas. Time to make (gear, to do) lists and check them twice... Still on my lists of things to do to prepare: 1) finish getting out of debt 2) prep car to sell 3) get immunizations 4) research visas 5) research countries assigned to me (Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama - we split things up to make it easier) 6) Arrange dinner for parents of all of us who are going for the whole enchilada (1/4/08 @ Trinacria next to the Bro Ho and Electric Rose [View Full Entry]

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