South & Central America 1989, Final Days (w/Brazil Part III, Venezuela, Honduras, Guatemala & Mexico)

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This is a continuation of my putting our old travel journals onto this blog site. See previous ones: Guatemala 1988, which is the first in this series; Costa Rica 1989 (w/Christmas in Cozumel, Mexico and last days in Guatemala), which is the second; Cuba & Mexico 1989, the third; Argentina (w/Uruguay, a bit of Brazil & Paraguay) 1989, the fourth; Chile & Bolivia (including Mendoza, Argentina & Tacna, Peru), the fifth; Peru, Ecuador & Galapagos Islands 1989, the sixth; Ecuador Part II & Bogotá, Colombia 1989, the seventh; Brazil Part I 1989, the eighth; Brazil Part II 1989, the ninth; South Africa 1989; the tenth, and this is the 11th and final one.

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(Originally written in Boston, Mass, USA, November, 1989; retyped in Berlin, Germany, 2010)

Brazil Part III, Venezuela, Honduras, Guatemala & Mexico, 1989

Brazil

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, September 19 - 24, 1989; 82 - 90˚ F/28-32˚ C. & Sunny. After four weeks in South Africa, we flew from Cape Town back to Rio. Being in Rio after South Africa was a bit like returning home. We even got the same great room at our hotel - complete with an ocean view and sea breezes.








We were glad to see the friendly smiles of the Brazilians. The South Africans were generally not overly friendly. We did meet several nice families, but didn’t spend enough time with them to learn much. The over-all impression was of a defiant people who were not going to be pushed into changing things too quickly. So our return to Brazil was welcome, even if the language continued to be a problem. Somehow we managed with our Spanish and it helped that the Brazilians are so good-natured.








Rio Routine. Up at 6:30 - amazes me that I get up so early voluntarily. Seems when my time is strictly my own, I find it easier to rise at dawn. Also, getting out of bed in a tropical climate beats the hell out of freezing one's dupa off in a cold house up north. I know we are going to have climate/culture shock when we get back to Alaska. Breakfast at 7:00. Toiletries, etc., until 9:00 when we hit the beach because the sun wasn’t too intense yet, and there was usually a nice breeze. We were definitely not the first ones on the beach. As we ate breakfast we watched an exercise class in progress, plus multitudes of walkers and runners along the esplanade/malecón. By 9:00 many sun bathers and families had set up camp.








The Brazilians are serious beach people. We watched some families with elaborate beach apparatus set-ups. In one case it took three people five trips to the car to retrieve all the gear, even with the kids all hauling their own toys. It was impressive.








We never stayed more than two hours on the beach. Mostly we got bored, but also we didn’t want to fry. We were considered such wimps because Brazilians go to the beach for the entire day. It is their social center. Their bronze bodies handle the sun beautifully, but I think they use sun screen wisely also.








Since we were already hot and sweaty from the beach, we did our exercises around 11:00 or noon. Bernie ran along the malecón and I did my aerobics at the hotel.








Shower and then lunch around 14:00. There were many nice restaurants near our hotel; since breakfast had been seven hours earlier, we would usually make lunch our main meal of the day.








After lunch we’d do errands, shop or sightsee. About 19:00 we’d go for coffee or a salad and a walk. Back to the hotel to read and/or write. In bed by 21:00 and asleep by 22:00. Some life, huh?








Angra Dos Reis & Paraty, Brazil, September 25 - 27, Rainy. When our weather luck ran out, it poured - rained for the entire time we were in these two beautiful little coastal towns. I did a no-no by eating a salad in a questionable restaurant and ended up with some digestive problems, so with rain and stomach woes, I was not a happy traveler.








São Paulo, Brazil, September 28 - October 2, 60 - 70˚ F./15 - 21˚ C. This is Brazil’s largest city, and the industrial and business center.








Not much to see here for tourists, but on the cruise in the Galapagos Islands we had met a woman, ❈Susan, an American teaching at the American school in São Paulo. Susan invited us to visit and stay with her and her boyfriend, Desmond. Desmond is hard to pigeon-hole as he was born in Africa of Asian Indian parents, and has lived all over the world. He and his family have lived in Brazil a long time; he attended high school (an American high school I think) there. His first language was English, so while his Portuguese is perfect, when speaking English he sounds American. He went to university in Switzerland, so also speaks German and French. So, a beautiful strawberry blond American teacher and her tall, handsome, worldly hunk. Nice, nice people. They welcomed us warmly and we were soon on our way to becoming long-time friends.








❈Susan visited us in Alaska; we visited her and Desmond in Indonesian, her next teaching post; she and her Canadian husband, Ben, live in Turkey now and we still correspond.

We owe a special thanks for Susan and Desmond - São Paulo was super because of them.








We went to some great restaurants during our four-day stay: Italian, Korean, ★Japanese, Arab. Susan and Desmond (mostly Desmond) drove us all around the city. Desmond was a great tour guide as he knew the city and obviously enjoyed showing it off.

★São Paulo has the largest number of Japanese outside Japan.

Shades of L.A. We stopped at a local hyper-market (not just a ‘super’ one) for a few items. Well, I’ve never seen anything like it. There were 80 checkout counters (didn’t need to count as they were numbered). You could buy anything from apples to stereo equipment. We were there on a Friday night, so it was packed ten deep at all 80 counters. The funniest aspect was that the cashiers’ assistants got around on roller skates. If a price check was needed - off an assistant rolled. Shopping carts were collected and returned to the store by rolling rounder-uppers.





São Paulo Subway. We went to a street fair one morning and then to the Asian section of town via subway. The subway was excellent, clean, efficient, no graffiti - so un-Brazilian. Seemed strange in a big, generally dirty city to enter a different world below ground. (New York, pay attention - it CAN be done.)

The Asian section of the city was also very clean. We had lunch at a great Korean restaurant.











Lambada Dancing. One evening after dinner at friends, we went to a lambada nightclub. Lambada was the Brazilian dance that was the craze all over the world that summer. It is very much like the dancing done in the movie Dirty Dancing. I read that when the French (and likely most non-Latins) try to lambada, they look like bad tango dancers. When the Brazilians do it, it looks sexy and fun.








The nightclub was crowded. There were tables, but most people didn’t sit at them; they were used for setting drinks and ashtrays on. People stood and danced around the tables. There was a dance floor, naturally, but the entire club was a moving and swaying mass. A person would be dancing at his/her table, and someone (opposite or same sex, didn’t matter) would come up and start dancing next to them. Sometimes they’d join and go out onto the dance floor, but often not. As many men as women danced alone. Susan said she has seen entire dance floors with only men dancing - they simply love to dance.









Brazil is a late-night country. The clubs start hopping at midnight and go until 3:00-5:00. Even teenagers keep these hours on the weekends. Surprisingly, businesses open fairly early - most shops are opened by 9:00, and offices by 8:00. Hard for me to figure out why we think of Latin American countries as laid-back. Must be because of their good sense to close down for a siesta during the hottest part of the day (usually 12:30 - 14:30). Actually Brazil doesn’t do this as much as other Latin countries; shops and businesses are mostly open all day. In the Latin countries that have siestas, the shops reopen in the late afternoon and stay open until 19:00 or so.

Venezuela

Caracas, Venezuela, October 2 - 5. We got a great flight - non-stop from São Paulo to Caracas.

A friend of ours in Anchorage, Holly, had given us a contact in Caracas, Eric and Dawn Ekvall. The Ekvalls used to live in Anchorage. They invited us to their home. Eric used to be a partner in a travel agency, so was able to give us good advice about Venezuela. He put us in touch with a travel agent friend of his. We were able to jam-pack our three-week stay with excursions all over the country.

We stayed in Caracas a few days getting our plans made and seeing the city. Our hotel was on the main colonial plaza surrounded by walking streets and oodles of shops.

Choroní, Venezuela, October 5 - 7, 90˚ F./32˚ C., & Sunny. We rented a car and drove northeast to the coast and to some of the most beautiful beaches in Venezuela.

The drive was wonderful. Two of the four hours was through a mountain national park covered by rain forest. Bigger more beautiful stands of bamboo we’d never seen. Lush, lush green with rays of sunlight dancing through the foliage. The road was a real trip - continuous ‘S’ and ‘C’ turns linked end to end. The roadway was narrow, so drivers blew their horns on the numerous blind corners.

The sleepy fishing town of Choroní has a long, deep, white sand beach. The Caribbean Ocean there was crystal clear, warm and clean.

Not much going to do in Choroní so we only stayed two days. The first day we took a boat around the area to another incredibly beautiful beach. The second day we hung around town and went to the local beach.

Back to Caracas. We left Choroní around noon. As we were driving through the mountains, our car simply quit running. We thought it had over-heated because of the climb, so we waited. Tried again. Nothing. Thought it was flooded now. Waited. Tried again. Nothing. As we waited a car of German tourists whom we had met at our hotel in Choroní drove by. We waved them down hoping at least one of them was mechanically inclined. None of the Germans knew a thing about cars. Thankfully their Venezuelan guide was also an auto mechanic. Can you believe he had all of his tools with him?! He quickly located a burned-out distributor wire and just as quickly rewired it. He then cleaned the distributor cap. Vavoom, we were up and running. Amazing luck! No way we would have figured out what was wrong let alone been able to fix it. We’d been delayed maybe 15 minutes.

Colonial Tovar. We took a different route back to Caracas so we could visit the German town of Colonial Tovar. On the map it looked like a short detour. We didn’t realize that we had to drive over another mountain range to get there. Yes, a topographical map would have been helpful. The scenery was spectacular, and so was the coffee and strudel when we finally reached the town.

The story of Colonial Tovar is interesting. Seems a boat-load of German immigrants landed in Caracas in the early 1800s. Among them were several lepers. Because of the lepers, all the Germans were banished into the mountains. They became farmers and soon built a Bavarian-style town. Because of their ostracism and isolation, much inter-breeding occurred and resulted in frequent retardation. They have since started marrying Venezuelans, but dumb blonds are still plentiful - THEIR words, NOT mine.

Our detour made us later in reaching Caracas than we’d intended. It was dark; I hate driving in an unfamiliar big city at night. Sure enough, we got totally lost. We ended up on a street that dead-ended into a cement factory. There was a guard booth at the factory with three guards. They didn’t much like our map, but gave us verbal instruction that were incredibly confusing. As we started to drive away, no doubt looking totally forlorn, one of the guards offered to go with us to show us the way. Yes indeed, there was no way we could have found the way on our own. The street lighting was bad and signs non-existent. From the entrance to the freeway our helpful guard took a bus back to the factory.

Once on the freeway we knew our way. It should have been easy, but again the lighting was poor and the off-ramp directional signs were not lighted at all. We missed our turn and went around in circles for awhile before finding our way back to the freeway. When we finally reached our hotel, we were exhausted - Bernard from driving and me from TRYING to navigate.

The next morning we had to drive to the airport to return the car and catch our flight to Canaima. I was horrified at having to navigate through Caracas again.

As we were checkout out of the hotel we saw some Venezuelan guides, one of whom had repaired our car the day before. They were going to drive some tourist to the airport. Bernard quickly asked if they would mind us following them. They were more than happy to wait and guide us to the airport. The route was so confusing it would have been very difficult and frustrating without our friendly guides’ assistance.

Canaima, Venezuela (Angel Falls), October 8 - 12, 90˚ F/32˚ C., Partly Cloudy. Our next excursion was to the the highest waterfall in the world. Angel Falls has a 3,212-foot/979-meter drop. It is in the middle of nowhere. There are no roads to Canaima, which is the town that came into existence as the Angel Falls tourist center. There is an airport, a tourist camp, housing for staff and a park ranger station. The entire area is a national park.

Flying into Canaima was a thrill; a thrill I’d rather not experience again. Have you ever been in a Boeing 727 with a pilot who thinks he is flying a Cessna? The pilot flew over Angel Falls, circled around and swooped down and tilted the plane to give us a good view. He circled tight again and swooped once more. By now I was watching the wing tips and praying for enough clearance above the cliffs. I had to pray silently as my heart was in my throat.

Canaima camp sits on a lake. On one side six waterfalls cascade loudly and spectacularly into the lake. On the opposite side the camp sits on a nice sand beach with views of the waterfalls.

Right after lunch our first day we went to some small falls about 20 minutes by boat from the camp. We hiked down to where we could walk under the falls, at times getting direct hits of water. Fun!

Angel Falls is upriver from Canaima. It takes about four hours by boat when the river is high, and anywhere from 8 - 12 hours if the water is low to reach the falls.

We stayed in Canaima camp the first night and headed upriver to Angel Falls at 8:00 the second day. There was seven in our party: two ✪Brits, two Germans, us, and our guide, Frank.

The water was high, so we reached our camp by noon. We could see Angel Falls from camp. After a light lunch we climbed for an hour to where we had a fantastic close-up of the falls. It was raining off and on during the climb, but the clouds lifted to give us an unobstructed view of the full 3,000-foot drop.

On our way to the falls at one point we had to cross a stream on a moss-covered log. Most of us choose to scoot over on our butts or some other low-profile way, but one of the Brits, Rob, decided to walk over upright - he made a spectacular splash into the stream below and fortunately only his pride was injured.

Our camp was simply open framing with a tin roof. There was a kitchen area and a toilet house (commode flushed by pouring water into it ). For sleeping, hammocks were hung from the rafters.

In the late afternoon it started pouring rain, and it poured pretty continuously all night. The sound of hard tropical rain on a tin roof is deafening. Even so, we managed to have great conversations after a dinner of grilled chicken. We went through two bottles of rum mixed with orange juice and got to know our *companions. Very nice and interesting people.

✪Joanne and Rob were the Brits and as many of you know, became good friends. They both came to Alaska for Christmas one year; Rob and Joanne have both (they are no longer together) visited us in Arizona, and we’ve visited Joanne and her family in England countless times. Rob lives in Australia now and is remarried also.

Rob has a strong accent (Cockney?) and as he consumed more and more rum, he talked faster and faster. Toward the end of the evening one of the two Germans turned to Bernard and me and asked, “Can you understand his English?” We had to laugh because in truth, we did NOT understand everything Rob said. Joanne, who speaks what we think of as BBC English, was laughing so hard she fell off her seat (and her hammock later that night, but that is a different story).

The constant rain made everything damp and we all had trouble keeping warm in our hammocks that night, even with all the rum we’d consumed. We had on every stitch of dry clothing we had with us, but still could not stay warm. I wanted to get into Bernie’s hammock with him, but he was convinced it wouldn’t hold two. So we slept separately, very little and shivered a lot. At least we stayed in our hammocks, which is more than Joanne accomplished - she took a bad header onto the dirt floor but fortunately was not injured badly.

The next day we went downriver to a different camp (same set-up, but no toilet) with a different view of Angel Falls. Near this camp was another, smaller waterfall with a pool where we could play in the falls and swim. The sun was intense and the water refreshing.

It started raining just as we got back to camp around 15:00. Then the wind came up and there was nowhere to escape the mist. We tried, only semi-successfully, to keep our hammocks dry. It alternated between raining and pouring the rest of the afternoon and into the night. Surprisingly, we were warmer that night than the night before. I had on one more shirt (it had been wet the night before) and two pairs of socks. That must have done the trick because I was able to sleep better. Bernie was also warmer the second night, but the Brits and Germans had been colder. Go figure.

We were up the next morning early and downriver to Canaima by 9:00. We were staying one more day, but the Brits and Germans caught the noon flight to Caracas. We got a nice room with real beds, private bathroom and a nice shower with plenty of hot water. Ahhhh, life’s simple pleasures.

The next day we flew back to Caracas. But in the morning before we left we took a boat trip around the lake and over to the six waterfalls. The lake is interesting because it is covered with what looks like white soap suds. The closer to the falls, the frothier the suds. Our guide said that the foam was because of the vegetation at the bottom of the river and lake. This foam is on the calmer parts of the river as well. Weird. I scooped some up - it was soft and left no residue on my hands; it had no smell or taste.

I almost forgot to mention the mosquitoes - they were awful. Unlike Alaskan mosquitoes that are huge, slow and can be heard half a mile away, these buggers were small, silent, fast and vicious. We were covered with bites before we knew what was happening.

Caracas Again. We had some errands to run. It took us seven hours to accomplish what would have likely taken two in the states. One of our chores was to reroute our flight to Honduras to (1) avoid ✡Colombia and ✡Panama and (2) stop over in San Jose, Costa Rica so I could confer with President Bush when he visited there for the Latin American Hemispherical Conference, October 27 & 28. We were successful - more news on the conference later.

✡Colombia was having some political upheavals and many people, Colombians included, had advised us not to visit. The US was in the middle of trying to oust Manuel Noriega, so we didn't want to stop in Panama either.

El Cedral Ranch, Venezuela, October 16 - 18, 85-90˚ F./30 - 32˚ C. & Sunny. Flew 45 minutes by plane from Caracas, then drove three hours to El Cedral, a private ranch/wildlife preserve on 110,000 acres/44,515 hectares. El Cedral is a functioning ranch with 30,000 cattle in a unique setting.

It is hard to describe this wetlands area of vast swamps interspersed with dry land. The wetlands have deep, navigable channels.★ In every direction are huge flocks of ibis, egrets, heron and many, many more bird species.

★The area around Charleston, South Caroline comes to mind, particularly where friends Ernie & Kaye live on Clark Sound.

Grazing among the birds were hundreds of capybara, which are large amphibious rodents that resemble tailless beavers. The adult capybara can weigh 200-250 lbs./90-113 kilos. Numerous crocodile-like caimans lurked in the swamps and fed on, among other things, baby capybara. Huge Brahma cattle (all with horns) grazed everywhere and simply swam through the water from island to island. We had to slow down a few times or we would have hit swimming cows with our boat.

The accommodations on the ranch were deluxe. It is hyped as a first-class ranch, and it is. The grounds were beautifully manicured and there was a swimming pool. The bungalows were spacious - our bathroom was to-die-for and six people could have fit into the shower.

The guest capacity on the ranch was 15. Our companions were a group of 10 Germans, all nature lovers, amateur and professional; one was a botanist. They all had camera equipment that would have made a Japanese envious.

Right after lunch we went into the wetlands by boat. We saw 25 bird species that first afternoon; another 24 in the next two days. We stayed out until dusk so we could see the sky almost solid with birds coming in to roost; among them were roseate spoonbills and scarlet ibis.

The next morning we walked about a mile to an owl nesting area. It took over an hour to get there because there were so many birds and plants to investigate along the way. We only saw one owl, but several species of hawks were circling overhead.

In the afternoon we boarded the safari jeep and drove around the wetlands on roads that form a dike system throughout the ranch.

We ran into, almost literally, an eight-foot anaconda snake, which the guide immobilized and picked up. Poor snake was so scared it urinated (green!) all over the place. Also found a raccoon den in a hollow tree and the raccoons were at home.

For dinner that night we had capybara meat; interesting; not as fishy/swampy as you might think; tasted a lot like chicken.

On day three we went fishing for piranha. As it turned out, only the guide and our driver fished. Everybody else bird watched. Ten piranha were caught - bigs ones. Their teeth really are scary. We didn’t eat these particular fish, but piranha are good to eat and I’m sure the guide or driver took them home.

In the afternoon we sat by the pool and watched birds at the many feeders. They had a pet scarlet macaw who was very friendly. Bernard could scratch the bird’s neck and pet him - he likes men more than women.

In the afternoon we went looking for ant eaters. Didn’t find any, but did find a family of howler monkeys.

Bugs. At dusk we went out into the wetlands to watch the sun set. It was dark as we drove back in the open jeep. We felt like human bug screens so many were hitting us. I was glad it was dark so I couldn’t see what kind of bugs they were. Several big ones hit me - one in the corner of my mouth. That, of course, got me thinking about the consequences had I been talking. After that I kept my mouth closed and tried to hide behind Bernard. When I showered that evening it was gross because there were so many dead bugs in my hair.

Venezuela is truly beautiful, but this area was by far the buggiest we’d ever experienced. On the up-side, at least they were not bitting insects.

We had a problem in our bungalow the first night before we learned to close the window shutters. We mistakenly thought the screens would keep out most insects. The little gnat-types got through as did the narrow moth-types. We couldn’t even read because bugs kept dive bombing us. We were also invaded by beetles and small black grasshoppers that came under the door. They were attracted by the porch light first, and then by our inside light visible under the door. The grasshoppers were constantly jumping into bed with us. Most of these unwanted visitors didn’t last long, however, as the room had been ‘treated’ (no idea with what) and they soon died. Either that or I got them with a well-aimed shoe. In the morning we had quite a floor full of dead insects.

The next night we closed the shutters, turned off the porch light and remained bug free all night.

Las Nieves Ranch, October 19 - 23, 85 - 90˚ F./30 - 32˚ C. & Sunny. We drove three hours from El Cedral Ranch to the airport in San Fernando to catch a small (12 passenger) plane (Cessna 208 Caravan) and fly 50 minutes to Las Nieves Ranch.

Las Nieves was also a working cattle ranch with 155,000 acres/62,726 hectares situated in a savanna area on the the edge of a rain forest - very different scenery from the previous ranch. The accommodations were similar to those at the first ranch - nice.

Right after lunch we kayaked up a river through dense rain forest. It was so quiet and peaceful. Since it was mid-day, few birds were active, but to our delight a family (10) of howler monkeys crossed the river directly over our heads via overhanging trees and vines. These monkeys are curious, so they stopped to observe us, and came closer in some instances. It was usually a female who approached the closest, and often a male would vocalize his displeasure. The female would then, reluctantly it seemed, return to the troop. And because the females often were carrying babies on their chests, these close encounters were special.

The river was crystal clear. No piranha or caiman lived in this river, so swimming was safe and delightful.

The next morning we went in search of the elusive, rare cock-of-the-rock bird. We were lucky and saw two of these bright orange birds that have a spectacular head comb. We saw jaguar tracks and according to our guide, the cat had been tracking a deer. Evidently there are many jaguar in this area and some famous scientist will be in residence by 1990 studying them. Thor, our guide, was a biologist and was studying the jaguars on a limited basis.

In the afternoon Bernard and Thor went on another jungle walk, but didn’t see any animals or interesting birds. Looks like I was wise to sit that one out.

The next morning the ranch filled up when the owner, his wife and two boys; the sales manager for the charter airlines, his wife and baby; another guide/biologist; the owner’s secretary; and two adventurers flew in.

The 'adventurers' were a doctor and a physics professor who in August had set the world record for rappelling 1,023 meters/3,356 feet down the cliffs beside Angel Falls. They were helicoptered to the top of the cliff where they set up their apparatus. It took about an hour to rappel down. After rappelling, they climbed back up the ropes (three hours; special mechanical apparatus on the ropes) and parachuted down. We saw their slides of all this taken by a professional photographer - excellent.

For lunch we all (minus kids) walked through the jungle for about an hour to a beautiful spot on the river for a picnic and swim. Shortly after we arrived at the river, the help came with coolers full of beer and soda, a hot lunch and big fluffy towels for use after our swim. Not a bad life.

There was one bad thing, however. We didn’t realize that near-invisible ❁bottle-ass flies were feasting on us while we were feasting on our picnic. We all had on swim suits, so large areas of our skin were exposed. These nasty bugs actually take a bite out of your skin. We couldn’t feel (or see) them, and would only know we’d been bitten when we’d see drops of blood or blood blisters. And since the bites don’t itch at first, nobody paid much attention. We had put on insect repellant (10% deet), which did no good at all. (What a terrible time to run out of the 99% deet, Muskol, we’d brought from Alaska for just such emergencies - too strong for everyday use, but the ONLY thing that works on Alaskan mosquitoes.)

❁Bottle-ass flies got their name because when the slender fly fills up on your blood, its body looks like a heavy-bottomed bottle.

The lack of itch lasted until evening and then became maddening - feet and hands swelled up. Even the bottoms of my feet were covered with bites. Thank goodness I had calamine lotion and benadryl tablets. And horror of horrors, my tan became marred with little pink spots when the bite scabs came off.

The outing for day three was to a waterfall. We hiked through the savanna about an hour. It was so hot - much hotter than in the jungle under the tree shade. The waterfall was beautiful and had many pools to swim in. I jumped in up to my neck to cool off and stayed submerged the whole time we were there. When it was time to leave I dried off an dressed as quickly as I could - no bottle-ass flies were going to picnic on me that day. The people who stayed in their swimming suits to sun and didn’t heed our warnings were a mass of bites in no time. The scenery was wonderful; we were surrounded by lush rain forest-covered mountains. Unfortunately the bottle-ass files had ruined a lot of it for us.

Mérida, Venezuela, October 23 - 27. Flew from the ranch back to Caracas and overnighted there. The morning of the 24th we flew to Mérida, which is in the Andes and a very nice university town.

First thing in the morning, before the clouds could settle in, we took a cable car (highest in the world) 15,633 feet/4,765 meters into the mountains. This is the highest we have ever been. The views were spectacular. We felt some lightheadedness, but had no other side effects.

We met a nice Swiss couple on the cable car and had dinner with them that evening. He was a banker, naturally, and ✵she a flight attendant for Swiss Air. They had done a lot of traveling separately and together. At one time, for four years, he job-shared with another banker (one year on; one year off) and on his time off he traveled. Nice work if you can get it, huh?

✵She came to visit us in Alaska years later; they were no longer a couple by then.

They were a warm, affectionate couple. As a matter of fact, we were sure they were really NOT Swiss because they were demonstrative with one another.

The next day we took a bus to the nearby small, quite, colonial town of Jají. The key word here is ‘small.’ It took about a half an hour to see everything. We were told that the bus went back to Mérida every half hour. Well, at 1:30 when we were ready to leave we, naturally, went to the bus stop to wait for a bus. And wait we did - three and a half hours. Seems that during the week the bus ran ‘when they had passengers,’ not every half hour. If no passengers were available for the out-going trip, too bad for the would-be passengers waiting at the other end.

Luckily for us a Dutch couple was in the same fix, so we kept each other company. We also met a local man who wanted to practice his English. He invited us to try the local drink made of sugar cane and rice. It was lovely, thick and sweet. We then invited him for coffee and had fun conversations.

Caracas for the Last Time. From Mérida we flew back to Caracas to reclaim our left luggage and start our journey home. We both felt leaving Venezuela was significant because we would be leaving South America.

Costa Rica

San José, Costa Rica, October 29. Getting around Central American can be frustrating because of the short hops required. We had to land in Colombia and Panama, two places we would have liked to avoid because of political unrest. It took us two days to get from Venezuela to the Bay Islands of Honduras. A direct flight would have taken only a few hours.

We overnighted in San José, so went back to the hotel we’d used last January when we toured there. It was a great feeling when the hotel staff remembered and were happy to see us. The bellboy practically hugged Bernard and everyone wanted to hear about our travels.

We didn’t have much time for socializing, however, because ★I had to swing into action to aid President Bush in his dealings with the Central American leaders. The Hemispherical Conference was already in session when we arrived; Daniel Ortega was already causing friction and constantly looking for photo opportunities with President Bush or me. As evidenced by the accompanying photo, he succeeded in cornering us.

Since President Bush doesn’t speak Spanish, I acted as interpreter. All my diplomatic skills were put to the test. Ah, the dilemma of an interpreter: to translate literally or to protect the boss from embarrassment. I chose to modify President Bush’s description of Ortega as a “silly little man in a boy scout uniform,” to a “compact man with a military bearing.” I think the world will forgive me, and besides President Bush had already repeated this comment to the general press. I’m just glad I didn’t have to try to modify his statement that Ortega was “like an unwanted animal at a garden party.”

And now, stunning things happening in ☆Eastern Europe. I may have to shift my ambassadorial focus from South and Central America to the East Block and lend a hand there.

★Most of you knew this was a joke, particularly those of you who have ever heard me try to speak Spanish, but a few folks asked me did I really meet so many heads of state and translate for President Bush. Too funny. And the photo I had with the original mailed journal was so obviously a fake - I’d taken my passport photos, made a copy, cut out my face and pasted it over the real interpreter’s face in the photo. Look at it and you can even see the tape I used.

☆Remember this was 1989 and there really were HUGE things brewing in Eastern Europe and Russia.

Honduras

Anthony’s Key Resort, Roatán, Bay Islands, Honduras, October 31 - November 7. Anthony’s setting is superb. The resort is sprawled out - half is on the island of Roatán, the other half across a small lagoon on Anthony’s Key. The reception, bar, dining room game room and some bungalows are on the island. Most of the bungalows and all the water sports equipment (wind surfers, canoes, kayaks, paddle boats) are on the key. A water taxi ran constantly ferrying people to and fro. It took about one minute to cross.

The bungalows were roomy and well-constructed. Ours was out over the water. The shore behind us was bordered with mangrove trees, so we had ducks and geese swimming around and under our bungalow, and kingfishers fishing off our double-decker deck.

Both the island and the key have lush green vegetation. Pet parrots and macaws flew everywhere, sometimes startling people when they landed unexpectedly on a shoulder or head. Ducks, geese and peacocks roamed the key. Hummingbirds fed from feeders by the open-air dining room, and also from syrup bottles on the breakfast tables. They seemed totally unafraid of people; they were feeding from our syrup bottle less than six inches from our noses. Incredible! They seemed more leery of the parrots and wouldn’t come to the table if a parrot were around trying to mooch pancakes or eggs.

Anthony’s specializes in scuba diving, but we weren’t too pleased with the dive operation. Between my apprehension and lack of confidence in the dive masters, I didn’t dive. Bernard and the other divers had their reservations also, but dived anyway. Unfortunately the weather was mostly rainy, so the visibility wasn’t the best. We had a few sunny days, but the water visibility didn’t improve significantly. Nonetheless Bernard averaged two dives a day and was generally pleased with all everything he saw.

Guatemala

Guatemala City and Antigua, Guatemala, November 7 - 11. As mentioned earlier, flying in Central America entails short hops. From Roatán we flew (on a DC-3 older than Bernard) to La Ceiba, then San Pedro Sula, then Tegucigalpa (all in Honduras), then to El Salvador and finally to Guatemala City.

We stopped in Guatemala to visit friends, do some shopping and talk to a friend, ★Jaqueline, whom we had met earlier in our travels. We had written to her from Brazil and invited her to come to Alaska and attend a year of university. We had dinner with Jaqueline and her family the night before we left for Mexico. She accepted our invitation and was excited about coming to Alaska. The plan was for her to come in July so as to have a few months to practice her English (which was great even then) before starting at the University of Alaska in September.

★See Exchange Daughter Reunion, April 14 - 21, 2007, an earlier blog, for the whole story about Jaqueline and the other exchange students (4) who lived with us from 1990 - 1992.

With Jackie coming we’re committed to staying in Anchorage for a year. This means only short trips. I’m already planning a trip to Hawaii this spring because I know the cold weather will get to us. I made this decision after reading about the recent -20˚ F./-29˚ C. weather in Anchorage.

On the day of our departure from Guatemala, Jaqueline and her extended family (entire immediate family plus various uncles, aunts, cousins, nieces and nephews) took us to the airport. What a group we were! The whole family is so warm. They were excited for the opportunity Jaqueline was getting and supportive of her coming to the USA.

Mexico

Mexico City, November 11 - 13. Back to the Polanco Hotel, our favorite little hotel in Mexico City. On Sunday we had brunch with our friends from Brazil who live in Mexico City. They took us to a Brazilian-style churasqueria. That is the type restaurant where grilled meats are constantly brought around and carved at the table and where they give you a button with one side red and the other green. Remember the 'red stop meat' and 'green start meat' technique I first wrote about after encountering it in Rio? Well, we were so cool this time - could flip that button like pros.

Palenque, Mexico, November, 14 - 16, 85-90˚ F./30 - 32˚ C. & Sunny. The Maya ruins in Palenque were the last major ruins on our ‘must see’ list. They really were worth a visit. The main pyramid (600-900 AD) is nicely restored, although not as impressive as the pyramids in Tikal, Guatemala for example. The pyramid in Palenque is the only Mayan pyramid in which a tomb was found. Grave robbers hadn’t discovered the tomb, so the archaeologists found a scientific treasure - objects and bones. The bones were of the high priest whose tomb it was, plus the bones of five young men who were likely sacrificed.

The palace at Palenque was most impressive. It was huge with many inner courtyards. Some of the friezes were remarkably well preserved. Naturally all of the really wonderful statues, jewelry and carvings were taken to the museum in Mexico City.

Back in Mexico City, November 16 - 18. We visited the anthropological museum in Mexico City for the umpteenth time. We concentrated on the Mayan room this time and since we’d seen all the major ruins, could appreciate the extensive and lovely collection. We’d gotten so we could identify, unaided, the styles from particular sites.

Our last night in Mexico some friends took us to dinner at a wonderful Polish restaurant. What a treat. It was an excellent, elegant establishment. A quartet played chamber music. The service was amazing; upon arrival four well-dressed greeters showed us in. I was so perplexed at the royal treatment that I kept looking around to see if the Pope had surreptitiously joined us. (Get it, the Pope, who was Polish.)

USA

New York, New York, The Good Ole US of A, November 14, 1989; temperature: freezing! We flew Mexico City to NY directly, which was only a three and a half hour flight. But for us it was a tremendous cultural distance.

We had to control our glee at being back in the USA. For one thing, Bernard wouldn’t let me kiss the ground because that action might alert the Customs agents to the fact that we’d been out of the country for an extended period of time. Ya think? We figured we were in for a hard time with Customs anyway, having entries for Colombia and Peru, for example, in our passports.

We hoped Customs would ask, “Where are you coming from?” To which we could honestly say, “Mexico” and not have to mention the other 18 countries we’d visited. NY Customs agents are no dummies. The agent asked, “How long have you been out of the country and what countries have you visited?” With our answer (14 months and 19 countries) we thought for sure he’d rip our bags apart. To our surprise and pleasure he simply asked us a few questions and went over our declaration form carefully. There were many items on the form, so the agent had to consult lists to see if certain items were exempt from duty. By the time he finished, the line behind us was very long and I think he felt he’d been thorough enough with us. So off we went with not one bag having been opened!

We now had a three-hour wait for our plane to Boston. First thing we did was to head for the telephone to call family and let them know we were safely on US soil again. What a pleasure to pick up a phone that works and be able to direct dial.

After the telephone conversations we went into a coffee shop where we had two cups of coffee and two glasses of water for $6. Talk about culture shock. I know airports are expensive everywhere and in NY in particular, but that was ridiculous.

As we savored our expensive yet bad coffee, we watched the people around us. The different colors and languages was fascinating.

Many people were eating slices of pizza or hamburgers. Just watching them made us hungry. It was an eye-opener to the power of fast food in the USA. Most of the major cities in South and Central America have McDonalds and Kentucky Fried Chicken, but they are not on every corner nor in the smaller towns.

Another thing hit us - people were drinking from water fountains; there was toilet paper in the restrooms; we could actually flush the toilet paper down the commode. Simple pleasures.

Well folks, this is the last newsletter/journal. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading them half as much as I’ve enjoyed writing them. Bernard and I felt as though you all accompanied us on our journey. Your spiritual presence made the journey that much more enjoyable to us.

We are in Boston now. After Thanksgiving here with Bernard’s brother Tom and his family we’ll head across country visiting friends along the way and be with my family in Washington state for Christmas. Near the end of January we’ll take the ferry from Seattle to Haines and then drive to Anchorage to reclaim our house February first.

STATISTICS

Time Outside Alaska: 20 Months

Time Outside USA: 14 Months

Countries Visited: 19

Hotels: 98

Airplane Take-offs: 111
Airplane Landings: 111 (and we are grateful the numbers agree)
From 73 Different Airports (includes Panama & El Salvador, which we didn’t tour)
Cars Rented: 8
Buses, Long-Distance: 48
Trains: 6
Boats: 13

AWARDS

Best Family Correspondent: Helen Merryman, Kathy’s Mom

Best Overall Correspondent: Gail Sieberts

This award was hard to select because so many of you were incredible letter writers. We were so grateful to all of you for staying in touch and keeping us informed. In many ways corresponding adds a rewarding dimension to friendship and travel.

Worst Family Correspondent: A three-way tie between undisclosed members of Kathy’s family living in Fairbanks and Bernard’s deceased brother

Worst Overall Correspondent: Peter Deren

Longest Letter: Jim Crary with a 25-page massive

Worst Hotel: Livingston, Guatemala where the spiders were the size of dinner plates and the beds collapsed when we pulled them away from the wall (to get away from the spiders, naturally)

Most Expensive Hotel: In Guadalajara, Mexico $105
Cheapest Hotel: In La Paz, Bolivia $8

Favorite Hotels x 2: Best ambiance was at the Maya Inn in Santo Tomás de Chichicastenango, Guatemala and at the Luxor Convento de Carmo in Salvador de Bahai, Brazil

Friendliest Service: Pan American Hotel, Guatemala City

Best Value Hotel: In Trajillo, Peru, at 5-star hotel for $13

Highest Point: Mérida, Venezuela, 15,633 feet/4,765 meters

Lowest Point: Roatán, Honduras -90 feet/-27 meters

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Photos

Japanese Poster
A poster used in Japan to attract immigrants to Brazil. It reads: "Let's go to South America (Brazil) with the family."

Map of Brazil

Corcovado, Rio
No caption necessary - must be one of the most famous statues/landmarks in the world

Rio Malecón
We walked along the malecón mornings and evenings. This photo was taken from our hotel's website

Paraty
Fitting that this photo has low clouds as it was either extremely cloudy or raining our entire stay

Săo Paulo, Oscar Freire St.
Rua Oscar Freire region of Jardins, named the eighth most luxurious street in the world

Săo Paulo Metro
Amazingly clean and efficient

Desmond & Susan
We owe a huge thanks to these lovely people for showing us Săo Paulo

Susan & Exchange Students
In 1991 Susan came to visit us in Alaska. We had some exchange students at the time, so she is flanked by: Marcela (Argentina), Camila (Brazil) and Marysia (Poland). I think Susan had left Brazil and was in between jobs as we next saw her in Indonesia in 1993

Caracas, Venezuela
This is an amazingly huge city and NOT easy to get around

Colonia Tovar, Venezuela
Town settled by German immigrants. Photo by Guillermo Ramos Flamerich (Wikipedia)

Angel Falls, Venezuela
The falls are 3212 feet/979 meters in height with an uninterrupted drop of 2647 feet/807 meters. The one with the most water volume is Inga Falls in Congo with 1,500,000 cfs; compare with Niagara Falls with 85,000 cfs - #10 in the world. Photo by Rich Childs (wikipedia)

Joanne & Rob
The Christmas after we met them in Angel Falls, Venezuela, Rob & Joanne, who were still traveling, wanted a white Christmas, called us and we said "Come on Up" to Alaska where they skied, sledded and had a ball in the snow

Capybara
El Cedral Ranch, Venezuela; Capybara are large amphibious rodents that resemble tailless beavers. The adult capybara can weigh 200-250 lbs./90-113 kilos. Photo by Magnus Manske (Wikipedia)

El Cedral Ranch
Caiman and turtles - we were glad to be in boats. Photo taken from El Cedral website

Cock-of-the-rock
We were lucky and saw several of these amazingly strange looking birds

Scarlet Ibis
El Cedral Ranch, Venezuela

Las Llanos
The climate change of the Llanos is extreme. During the rainy season from May to October, parts of the Llanos can flood up to a meter. This turns the woodlands and grassland into a temporary wetland, comparable to the Pantanal of central South America. This flooding also makes the area unique for its wildlife. The area supports around 70 species of water birds, including the Scarlet Ibis.

Sloth
Brown throated, 3-toes sloth - definitely one of nature's most interesting creatures. Photo by Stefan Laube (Tauchgurke) wikipedia

Howler Monkey
You can hear the male howler as far away as 7 miles! Photo by Lea Maimone (Wikipedia)

Tepui, Las Llanos, Venezuela
A tepui (or tepuy) is a table-top mountain or mesa found in South America, especially in Venezuela. Tepuis tend to be found as isolated entities rather than in connected ranges*, which makes them the host of a unique array of endemic plant and animal species. They are typically composed of sheer blocks of Precambrian quartz arenite sandstone that rise abruptly from the jungle, giving rise to spectacular natural scenery. Auyantepui is the source of Angel Falls, the world's tallest waterfall. *Similar to our "sky islands" in the Sonora Desert

Cock-of-the-rock
Mother Nature was definitely feeling whimsical the day she created this bird. Photo by chdwckvnstrsslhm (wikipedia)

Mérida, Venezuela cablecar
The world's highest cable car. Its base is located at an altitude of 1,640 metres (5,380 ft), and its terminus is on Pico Espejo, at 4,765 metres (15,633 ft). The whole system was opened to the public in 1960; it was closed indefinitely in 2008, with a declaration that it had reached the end of its service life. A new system may be constructed to replace it.

Interpreter Kathy at Work
The caption reads: FACING OFF - U.S. President George Bush and Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega meet (sic) Friday night at the hemispheric conference. Later, Bush said, "He's always kind of sidling up to me looking for some photo op."

Irazú Volcano
Costa Rica Volcano - one of many not too far from San Jose

Bottlenose Dolphin
Anthony's Key Resort, Roatán, Honduras. Photo taken from resort website

Bungalows
Anthony's Key Resort, Roatán, Honduras. Photo taken from resort website

Bungalow deck
Anthony's Key Resort, Roatán, Honduras. Photo taken from resort website

Palenque, Mexico
Maya ruins

Chapultepec Park
This park in Mexico City, is the largest city park in Latin America measuring in total just over 686 hectares/1695 acres. Yolanda, a Mexican friend, turned us on to a wonderful little hotel in this neighborhood, which is known as "the lung of Mexico City" because the air is much better here

Joanne & girls
This was taken many years later after Jo & Rob, whom we had met at Angel Falls, split up and she married Robert; they now have three gorgeous girls

Susan & Ben
This is a fairly recent photo of Susan and her husband Ben; they live in Turkey now

Jackie & Family
Well, some of her family - it is huge. This was taken in 2008 when we were in Guatemala for a wedding in Jackie's family: Dian (cousin/sister), Ludmila (sister), Elda (mother), Jackie, Letty (sister-in-law), Mercedes (sister), in front Aixa & Melissa (nieces). Jackie came to Alaska and lived with us for a year (1990 -91)