Sunday, December 23, 2007

banditry

I have plenty to type about to cover the last week but for now you get to read what ben has to say (but in my defense, he is the reason I have the damn life jacket, which I wore today as matter of fact. Pick up the book Deep Survival. It is a wonderful read about the science/physiology of survival and one ben recommended to me a few months prior to my trip.  Essentially I don’t want to get caught in an undertow/riptide in the middle of nowhere with no one around to help me. Didn’t happen today but I was prepared.  I haven’t seen a soul since about 8:30 am, and that freakshow had on a speedo) enjoy ben’s post and I’ve attached a pic of him on said desolate Nicaraguan beach.

 

 

So I find myself 13 days post trip, 6 am in the morning and I am still trying to grasp all that happened between November 29th and December 8th.  I have had two weeks to organize my thoughts and experiences into some semblance of coherency but they are still as muddled as ever.   With that said I apologize for the hodgepodge of thoughts and observations that will make up this blog entry.

To begin, I accompanied Dave from Cancun, Mexico to San Jose, Costa Rica.  If I were to do it over again, and someday I will, it was a trip that should have been a week longer or a couple hundred miles shorter.   Right around Tikal in northern Guatemala we started to realize the amount of ground we had to cover, prior to my flight out of Costa Rica.   This realization led to many late night drives and a couple of long days.  Which brings me to my first observation, everything you read and hear about Central America includes some advice about not driving at night.  Well I can definitively say you have to be crazy to drive in Central America no matter what time of the day.  In fact, night was as safe as daylight since you had less tractor trailers to pass and you could at least look for headlight around blind curves.

Another thought, that has nothing to do with the previous one, for the most part the food south of Mexico wasn’t that great.  Fortunately the Coke and the produce were excellent and sustained us most of the way.  Also, kudos to Dave who had the foresight to bring a baby loaf of Tillamook Cheese, some club crackers a cutting board and a cheese slicer.   Thats right a cutting board and cheese slicer.   

In fact, Dave had a few things packed that I found comical at first but each time I stood corrected when I saw their usefulness. For example, bath mats from Bed Bath and Beyond.  They make a wonderful driver side car mat.  Just the thought of Dave going into Bed Bath and Beyond is laughable, but in actuality it was nice to shed your shoes and feel plush carpet while driving.   Or how about a life jacket?  I almost fell over laughing when he showed me the spot he had set aside for a life jacket, of course I had envisioned a bright orange U shaped life jacket like you had to wear in Scouts.  However, after a dip in the Pacific on some remote beach in Nicaragua I become a believer.           

So prior to leaving on my leg of Dave’s adventure, this was the usual conversation with friends and family.    

Me- “Yeah a buddy of mine is driving to the tip of Argentina.  I'm going to meet up with him in Cancun and explore Central America before flying out of Costa Rica.   

Person I am talking to- “Why?” followed by “Oh I have a buddy that was in _______(insert Central American country here) and he was robbed blind and left for dead.”  

These are a few exerts I read while I studied up on Central America.  “Incidents of banditry occur in the remote North” or “A relatively high level of violent crime is committed against foreigners.  Vehicle-jackings are almost an everyday occurrence, especially in Guatemala City.”

 

So with these encouraging words, I left my wife, my three year old boy and my two month old baby (yeah I still can’t believe Camille let me go either). I was filled with trepidation and anxious about the unknown.  This is one of things that makes travel so interesting for me, prior to traveling I love to read up and study about a particular destination or culture and then learn that its completely different than my perception once I arrive.  This was the case in Central America.  I am not naive enough to think that bad stuff doesn’t happen, but my experience in Central America was the complete opposite of all the warnings.  

Most people are genuinely good and are willing to help others.  One of the more fascinating aspects of this trip were the serendipitous relationships we experienced on the way.   I got to the point were I couldn't wait for the next encounter to happen.  Dave has already written about many of these experiences, but check out this list of people; Staff at the Courtyard Marriott (you might think they don’t count cause they get paid, but anyone willing to press and hang Dave’s underwear on a hanger is a good person), the waitress at Amigos, Canadian couple on KLRs, Guatemalan guy at the border, the cousins on KTMs, fat guy at the Soccer stadium, caribbean guy at the soccer stadium, Jenny and the other border agent girl, the two shoe shine kids at a border,  Alan, Bayron the kid that gave me a bible, the sandwich shop guy from Morgan Utah, the Marriott guy who Dave fell in love with over a truck.

Maybe we were just lucky, but all these people contributed to the same epiphany Ewan Mcgregor had during the “Long Way Around,” the majority of people are still good.  

To conclude, I probably could summarize this entire blog entry into one sentence-People who drive in Central America are crazy, the majority of the human race is still good (at least in Central America) and Dave shops at Bed Bath and Beyond.   Thanks Dave for having the courage to dream up and execute Expedition Americas and thank you for allowing me to enjoy some of the ride.  

No comments: