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Published: March 27th 2009
a three-toed sloth.
For a famously slow moving creature, surprisingly hard to photograph! Reminded me of a few ex-colleagues.....Only an abreviated blog this time. Silence (in blog terms at least) due to lack of access to useful internet facilities, so even the photos are only from two of the four countries we saw - Mexico and Belize will have to wait til we arrive in Aus, only a few days from now.
Central America was (except for non-Cancun Mexico) surprisingly expensive and quite over-populated with vendors who wanted to (a) be your next best friend and (b) sell something to you that really you did not need. We resisted their overtures poltely but firmly, becoming quite adept at not even pausing when approached, an act that feels impolite but was necessary if any progress was to be made on our walkabouts.........
The trip here has been markedly different to the truck-based travel in South America - every night was some kind of hotel (a few quite different to what we expected.....) and there was no self-catering to speak of, which eased the need to plan food buying and preparation activities!
Diving in Belize was as good as anywhere in the world we have done, with the Blue Hole (42m deep accompanied by grey nurse sharks) a
Bocas del Toro beach hut
Stayed here for 5 nights in Panama. No doors (indeed walls!) took a bit to get used to. highlight. The coral and fish life, including huge Moray eels and Barracuda were in terriffic condition and made a very bumpy 2 hour boat ride worth doing.
The Mayan ruins at Chitchen Itza, Pelanque and Tikal were similarly astounding, though Chitchen is now substantially a theme park for day-visiting tourists from the big cruise ships and over run accordingly. Pelanqu and Tikal, harder to get to, retain their majesty rather better, emphasised on our visits by off-piste excursions into the surrounding jungle where we saw yet to be excavated ruins as the original (european) discoverers would have found them.
A visit to a coffee plantation was fascinating, seeing the whole production process from start to export of the beans. The extent to which the industry underpins large parts of Guatamalan society was intriguing, though it was a little disconcerting to see the plantation owner had two helicopters and 5 houses around the globe, while plantation-resident Indian workers subsited in adobe huts built only where the soli was too poor to sustain coffee plants. It was a Fair-Trade certified plantation though, and we were told that meant genuine benefits for the workers, including twice annual access to medical care,
Arrival and Departure lounge, Bocas
Our everyday view. No lights at night, no noise durng the day. Sensory deprivation courtesy of nature! above minimum wages and ownership of the land their houses stood on. Their biggest customer was Starbucks, which all present agreed was a shame given what that company does to its coffee.....
So we find ourselves at the end of an amazing adventure that, in all honesty, was better than we could have hoped for reasons we did not even consider. One more night in Mexico, two in L.A. and we´ll board the flying kangaroo: destination Melbourne. Another new city, strangers in a metropolis once more, no more sandals and shorts for awhile. One thing that is abundantly clear to me: it´s not the destination but the journey that stimulates.......................
Ciao for a couple of weeks all.
DnR
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