LivingTheDream's Guestbook

thanks for another enjoyable and enlightening read.

Shakshuka?
the name of the israeli egg dish

Gosh, I'm surprised that the locals saw a nose in that mountain. I wonder how long they had been staring at the mountain (and taking in some 'medicine' to accelerate the creativity) before they came up with that one. I mean, I do see the nose but only because its called that way... Your trip sounds ever more amazing. The environment reminds me of a beautiful spot in the middle of Bali. There was also a big lake, a bit misty, traditional houses, little tourist, and much colder so that I needed to take a hot shower! About the Israeli... I met an israeli who explained it as follows. As they are from Israel most countries reject them to enter the country for travelling. South America doesn't have this policy (not islamic) and so most Israeli come to South America. Imagine how many people come out of military service each year and that's about the amount of israeli in south america :-) Keep on writing those beautiful blogs!

great jouney - great homepage
I wish you all the best on your jouney!

fear your constant travelling companion
Fear will be your constant travelling companion in Latin America no matter how you try to encourage yourself by asking "Why not ?" Where ever you go and what ever you want to do, you will always ask yourself: Is this safe ? And it doesn't help if you know local people, very often they are more scared than we are. I have family in Lima but they have not been to the City Center for years just because of this fear. Whenever we visit them, it takes only a few hours after we have arrived to their house that they start to tell us the last horror stories. Yes Latin America is a dangerous place. But ! I once was in Chile and asked local people if their City is dangerous. Without hesitation they started to tell me how all they where once robbed. But this did not happen in Chile but it was on a Night train from Italy to France. This train is very famous among tourist and the risk to get robbed is very high. So you also can find similar stories in Europe. The group of the people in Latin America who are scared and are afraid of becoming a victim of criminals grow much faster than the real crime rate. We have to accept our fear but the fear should not be our travel guide. Enjoy your travelling! walter

Hi there! Good for you to go to the city as well. Stories are stories... I remember in my preparations for Asia what kind of stories I got to hear and how it frightened me to be there all by myself, don't trust the locals, don't walk alone as a girl, don't go outside after 9PM, don't do this with money, don't talk to locals after 9PM, stay away from streetcats/dogs, don't eat the food or touch the water, and so on. I thought I would be under a constant threat with those scary Asians. As soon as i got there I found out they are the most friendly people ever (accept the ones working in the tourism industry of course) and the same thing I experienced over again when I decided to go to the phillies and got to hear the same stories from other travellers, chinese/hongkonese people. I'm glad that I did :-) Keep following your own instincts! btw, about the name thing, two of our provinces' capitals have the same name as the province (utrecht, groningen) so it's not totally uncommon I guess.... u don't have that in Germany?

This reminds me of Dublin city centre. There are security guards at every shop, because the shop lifting problem is so bad. They are not armed though.

It's really a nice story Ben. Btw, u're so good in calculating. I will ask u when I want to buy a new laptop :-) Waiting 4 ur other adventure.

Copan truly is an intriguing place not to mention exotic. you certainly have the Best Travel Deals and information for us readers. Definitely a destination we're all curious about.

Wow!
Been following you Ben, and you never fail to amaze me. Great trip. And $3 from $30? You're good at this. I should bring you with me next time I go shopping! Cheers!

:o)
Oh Ben that story of the man in the ocean was so funny it had me laughing out loud! The poor man I can just picture it now! Such a shame about the rubbish. Like you we always struggled when we'd see people throw their bags of rubbish out the bus window but the problem here is just shocking and takes it to a new level. It's sad to say but it's one of the things we really appreciated when we came back home, I can't stand it when people litter here but at least there's a punishment for it when they do. I saw a funny incident the other day when a little boy threw a can in a bush and his mum stopped, shouted at him in front of everyone (it was in town on a Saturday) and made him go back and pick it up! He was totally embarassed and won't do that again so good on her!

Angeles is the prostitution's world capital??? omg man u should go out a litlle more. The city has many more to offer.....

Crime in Belize
When I was there the major topic in the newspaper in Belize City were crime and big part was covert by articles about Belize Citizens who were murdered or arrested in the USA. Other "serious" topic: Yesterday I was in Frankfurt and in really every restaurante, cafe or even ordinary shops there were crowds of people watching on TV the Football match Greece with Nigeria. Today we stop working a midday just to watch together the match German with Serbia. So football is something that brings people together. Happy traveling Walter