Is coastal Oregon the third world?

It's interesting, there were things about traveling up the lovely, rocky coast of Oregon today that reminded us a bit of travel in Central America last summer. A bit. The cultural and political differences are vast, of course, But there we were in a funky shuttle full of people who knew each other well and who talked in detail about the region. The most boisterous was a guy named Mike, who seemed like he was in his early 30s. He, his fiancee, and their two kids had come to Oregon because a friend could get them Section 8 housing. "It's the most beautiful place I've ever lived in, but the most depressed", he said. He loved the beaches and whales, but they wereleaving next week on a Greyhound for Arkansas. He expected to get a job working in a chicken packaging place (I think). He hoped to livecheaply there, and get an inexpensive house with an acre of land.

He talked about how people in one town we passed through were all crazy and/or drunk (the driver agreed), and how meth labs were common in some areas. He was a funny, gregarious guy, really, but someone who had lead a life of not so quiet desperation, and who had moved about from necessity, not choice, Ok, this isn's Central America... but there are paralells.

We're in Eugene, Oregon for the evening, trying to figure out what to do for New Years... maybe a movie on TV, the events we saw on the Internet seem to not be happening. Tomorrow we will be in Corvalis, Oregon visiting an ecovillage. More to come.

OREGON COAST!

We headed north of town today to hike along the coast in search of whales. No whales, although Kate may have seen a distant spout. California gray whales are migrating from Alaska to the coast of Baja, California (Mexico) now. They spend the autumn and winter there; they mate en route, and the babies are born near Mexico. They will return to Alaska in the spring.

We saw no whales, but the rock formations off the coast ( the IMMENSE formations!) resemple whales. One tall, narrow formation looked like a whale breaching - rising from the water with its eyes facing the sky. Another looked like a seal, with its nose in the air. A third (the largest) reminded me of a whale emerging from the water to take a breath, Real whales are covered with barnacles that hitch a ride on them. This rock was covered with shrubs and one tall tree (a Douglas fir, I think, it was pretty distant.) Other rocks like fallen black hailstones rested off shore; the wind whistled through one sea arch. Astounding.

This park is home to many intertidal zone areas, but the tide was too high for us to explore them. We had fun watching chickarees (small squirrels) scurrying up and down tree trunks. One red shouldered hawk called to us, "Pyew! Pyew! Pyew!" A very cool day.

Toomorrow we head for Eugene, where we will spend New Year's Eve. From there we will go to Corvalis, where we will spend two days visiting an ecovillage. We may be busy over the next few days, but will check in when we can, and will tell you what an ecovillage is.

Congestion and beauty

Brookings is a very car oriented town. I-101 is the main street going through town. As I mentioned yesterday... cars, cars, and more cars!  It is fairly easy to get away from all this by going to the back neighborhoods, only problem being that there are very aggresive guard dogs in front of houses, including some that will nearly leap over the fences that surround and protect their houses. Scary,

People here are quite friendly. We had a discussion in a supermarket with a woman who told us wh Brookings is great for vegetarians. We also had a discussion with our desk clerk, who told us all about how much she thinks people who get tattooes and dye their hair purple or pink won;t feel at home in rural Oregon. She laughed her way through this conversation.

Beaches here are lovely. The sand is bkacl, it originated as basalt that was thrown from volcanoes. Huge basalt bounders and other rock formations stand right off shore. The formations are twisted and torn in a thousand angles, the way volcanic rocks often are. Cormorants, large black ocean birds, sit on rock formations, and black oystercatchers
forage on the beach, grapping food in their crimson beaks. Meantime, the ocean crashes, and will not stop. The sun is blinding gold when it sets.

A preliminary description. More to come.

Some photos from Kate --

Two city parks in Aracta - Arcata Marsh and the Community Forest:

 

Elk herd along 101

Coast of Oregon

One thing.  about the rural pacific Northwest is that it seems to be a big community. Everyone appears to know everyone else; bus rides come across as community gathrings.  tToday we rode a small bus from Smith River to Brookings. Passengers were on a real friendly basis. Interesting discussions, One friendly woman, with a great smile (in spite of missing front teeth) told everyone, "I hate that Walmart! They've messed it up!" There was consensus here,

We are in Brookings, a town on the southern coast. At first glance, this town should be avoided. Main street is a long strip with McDonald's, Ace Hardware, and other chains tossed in with car dealerships and some local businesses, all stretching away ad infinatum in the rain. There is much more than meets the eye. We found a lovely coastal park, with rock formations and cliffs greeting the Pacific. It was too rainy for much exploration, but we should have better weather for the next few days.

Southern Oregon does appear to be very stratified,. We found posters on the main drag, stating "Pray for economic recovery in Curry County." Kate found an article saying that the county is close to insolvency. There is no sales tax in most of Oregon, but there is talk of putting it on the ballot here. We've read that meth labs are common on the southern coast - I don't know if that is more than a rumor. But there are gated communities right off the main drag too. We'll see what we learn in the next two days.

For the record, marijuana plots in wilderness areas are a big problem around Arcata. One local man told us they are owned by Mexican drug cartels, who care nothing about the environment and move on after they have wrecked places. We've read that ownership is
more complex than that, but it takes some investigation. Not good, at any rate.  I am for decriminilazation of marijuana, but it shouldn't be grown in wild places.

The ride from Arcata to Brookings was beautiful. Some of the coastal mountains had snow in their higher areas. There were many rivers, redwoods, and a lovely coastline. At one point we saw a herd of elk resting in a field next to the road. People had gotten out of cars to phototgraph them. One dingledorf was jumping up and down to get a reaction from them.
Fortunetly, they only stared at him.

Enough for now, but more to come.

More about Arcata

This town has a community forest where we wandered for hours today. It was established in the 1950s to promote education and recreation, I guess there is some logging to give the park financial support.We saw no sign of logging. The forest was wintry and fine today. The redwoods cast a deep shade that was full of the color of redwood's copper bark and the dark emerald of sword ferns. Big leaf maples' still held some yellow leaves that hadn't fallen since Autumn. Wild fungi were everywhere- gold and crimson waxy caps, pale gray oyster mushrooms and yellow/tan sulfur tufts growing on dead branches, and many more. The only sounds were the ravens' distant "Awks!" and glockenspiel rumbling from the many streams. A fine day.

Evening was unique. There is a theater that shows '50s science fiction along with old previews, shorts, etc. The movie is free if you have food, and they make  very fine samosas. We saw previews of "Earth Vs. the Flying  Saucers", "It Came From Beneath the Sea", "I Married a Gorilla" (no, I am not making that up) and other oddities. The feature, "War of the Worlds" from the 50s had its moments, but the sound track was hard to hear, and we tired of the battle scenes so we left early. But it had been a strange and interesting evening.

Again, this is an interesting town, a forward looking place. It's slow between the holidays, good chance we'll pass through here again. On to Oregon tomorrow.

Arcata

Well, here we are in the town time forgot. Not really, Arcata has a reputation  for being hippie heaven. This is true to a point, sometimes the scent of sweet herbs flows throughout, But it is more than that, there are really innovative, forward looking projects here. Today we visited Arcata Marsh, a restored wetland that is home to an ecologically based waste water treatment plant, the prototype for the one where I teach in the Bay Area. Very interesting talk with two volunteers.The marsh abounded in birds - black scoters, egrets, ruddy ducks, avocets flying in a huge flock, grebes, and many more. A red shouldered hawk circled and called to us, "Pew! Pew! Pew!"The avocets flowed like a great water wave, Very interesting place. We are again on the road looking for options for the future. Stay tuned, more to come.

Pt. Reyes

Thanks to Kate for posting the picture of the quails who shared our campsite last weekend. This was unusual behavior by these birds. They are usually known for running quickly away from People, vanishing into the coyote bush. They are also known for a loud call that many claim sounds like "Chicago!". but Kate decided it sounds more like "What of it?" I agree. Pt. Reyes is a beloved spot in northern California. It is a peninsula that is actually on the western side of the San Andreas Fault, sliding slowly northward, while the rest of our region moves slowly to the south. THe bedrock is granite, meaning there are Douglas firs rather than redwoods in the canyons. The geology is amazing.. rugged Sculpture Beach, where the wind and surf have cut sandstone cliffs to resemble wild artwork is one of our favorite spots. The wildlife is incredible. We saw a pod of dolphins off shore, also probably hundreds of brown pelicans, several ospreys (fish hawks), surf scoters (sea ducks), black oystercatchers (shore birds with long red beaks), seastars and green anenomes and much more. A great trip, we will be back there twice this fall. Expect more posts, the rambling continues.

 Shoreline, Uvitas, Costa Rica

Boquete, Panama, a lovely town in the northern volcanic region. Great hiking!

Old Town, our happy home on Basimentos Island, Panama. NO CARS!!!

 Sloth, Cahuitas, Costa Rica. These endearing critters move slowly, and only come out of trees once a week to use the bathroom, shall we say.

 Volcan Arenal, Costa Rica.

Children's Eternal Rain Forest, Monte Verde, Costa Rica. Children around the world raise funds to keep this lovely preserve alive. The idea came from some kids in Sweden several decades ago.

ictures from Central America

Bijuaga, Costa Rica. A town in the northern Volcanic region

Volcan Tonario. We saw this from a path near our cabin at Casitas Tonario,

Gtanada, Nicaragua

Las Islettas, a chain of islands in Lake Managua, Granada, We kayaked here, Some islands have farms.The shot below this this is Volcan Concepcion, Isla de Ometepe, Nicaragua.

I will post more later today.

We were delighted to have a covey of California quail nestled down for a while behind our tent at Point Reyes. We're back in California but hope to continue our adventures.

Back to Kerouac

Trip is winding down. We are in Pittsburgh, dealing with some tough family situations. Pittsburgh, again, is a good town. We are hanging out in my brother's back yard.Summer rain in Pittsburgh is very nostalgic, and very soothing. Cardinals are singing their little hearts out- "Birdie! Birdie! Birdie!" Kate is reading a book about peace activists during WW1. I am coming to the end of Carlos Fuentes A CHANGE OF SKIN, a strange and very powerful novel, maybe a touch too long. We have kayaked on the Allegheny River, visited the town of Emsworth where I grew up, joined my great niece and nephew and their parents at the Aviary, Children's Museum, etc. Nice trip, again, with some tough situations. Tomorrow my sister in law will drive us to her daughter's house in Mt. Lebanon, Kristen will take us to a hotel near the airport and we will fly home on Tuesday I started out writing about ON THE ROAD, which I finished some time ago. Again, quite a book. A movie version will be released in the US soon, it has already appeared in Europe. Kerouac was, I think, a misunderstood writer. His focus really isn't on carousing and wild sex so much as for a search for a deeper sense of life and meaning for it all. Travel, again, was a search for epiphanies, something to root him. He found it all to be transitory, in a Buddhist sense, but his awareness of this helped him appreciate the AHA! experiences when they occurred, and the melancholy aspects of their fleeting nature. His descriptions of people and places were fabulous when his character Sal Paradise traveled alone. When he traveled with Dean Moriarty (Neal Cassidy), their pace was frantic - Dean moved too quickly to focus on anything outside of his own desperation. These sections are also fascinating, in a very sad way. But it raises the question, what is travel for? Kicks? Rushes? Epiphanies? I'd say no. The real reason for it is to experience the unfamiliar, both with people and in natural settings. Kate and I like to place ourselves in situations where we compare ourselves and our lives to other peoples', or to compare different ecosystems with ours. Hopefully these experiences broaden us, help us take a range of perspectives on life, and see the world as much huger than our day to day realities. There are epiphanies, to be sure, but sometimes the drudgery is just as important... everything fits together. I hope I have expressed this. This is it from the road, I will probably make connecting comments from Oakland.

We're in da 'Burgh, yinz.

For those of you not fortunate enough to be familiar with Pittsburgh, its culture, and its special language, that translates roughly as "We find ourselves in the city of Pittsburgh presently, all you you." Seriously, it's good to be with family, although some of our relatives' situations are quite difficult, we are being supportive as we can. We are also spending time with my great nephew and nieces, ages 3,6, and 8, all of then delightful. We took the two older kids and their parents for a hike the other day, and the kids LOVED it, so did the parents - a triumph! I have future adventures planned in my head. Pittsburgh, contrary to rumor, is a very beautiful and fascinating city. The design is brick houses and businesses, cobblestone streets, a real central and eastern European feel to the architecture and communities. We'll have a family gathering at a German restaurant on Thursday. There is a strong arts community, and a progressive community. We hope to get some exploring in and see what is what. We visited a science museum with the kiddos yesterday. Kate and I also did a little kayaking on the Allegheny River, which merges with the Mononghela River and a third underground river here to form the Ohio River. And yes, this city is my childhood home, so I do notice lots of small details... need to do some writing. Take care, yinz!

Pennsylvania, my Pennsylvania...

We have totally enjoyed the Allegheny National Forest region in far northern Pennsylvania. This wild and very beautiful area is a place of mountains that were once higher than the Himmalayas, but have been eroded into gently sloping green mountains. Jade forests of birch, oaks, maples, firs, beeches, and more cover the Alleghenies, thick as otter fur. The Allegheny River slowly glides through the valley, catching the mountains' reflections. The forests' floors are made from waves of ferns, interspersed with wild roses, cauliflower fungi (they really do look like gray cauliflowers!), thimbleberries and much more. Glass clear streams flow through here, their soft whispers merge with the wind. Calls from robins, crows, cardinals, and the soft "THUD!" from pilleated woodpeckers hunting for bugs hide in the great silence. Firs, beeches, and ferns grow from boat shaped boulders. Cool air flows from crevices in limestone cliffs. These are the first forests I ever loved, Kate loves them too- but we both love many other places as well. There was one amazing electrical storm today... we stayed in our car and watched constant lightning while hail pounded the roof. There are down sides to this area. Kinzua Dam was built in the late '60s to control floods, and a Seneca community was evicted to make room for it. There are small oil derricks in the woods, we ran into a few yesterday (they weren't working.) Yes, there is fracking in the area, but not as much as in northeastern Pa. All this said... I would highly recommend a visit to this area. We've barely scraped the surface, and definetly want to come back. Tomorrow we will go to Pittsburgh to visit family. Expect entries from there in a few days.

Ok, we are now staying at an Air B&B in a town in the Allegheny National Forest, far northern Pennsylvania. I recommend Air B&B highly, people share their houses with you for a reasonable fee, giving you a deeper understanding of the area you are visiting. I love the Pennsylvania woods, since I grew up in Pittsburgh and fell in love with nature in these forests. They are so different from Central American forests. There are far fewer epiphytic plants growing on trees - maybe a few ferns, etc. The trees are more uniform and tend to be about the same size, rather than the wide range of tree sizes and species you find in Costa Rica. Of course, you don't get monkeys, sloths, etc. - many tropical animals need to live where they can find fruit or leaves year round, and you don't get that in autumn or winter here. The species of plants and animals here are more adapted to cooler climates, and harsh winters. Every place has its own unique character. Our host has been telling us how there can be bears in the neighborhood, red tailed hawks zip through the yard, deer are everywhere. I can love Pennsylvania and Costa Rica. No contradiction there. We have been here since mid afternoon, more to come.

We are, in truth, alive!

We flew into D.C., getting to our hotel in Arlington, Va. around 11. It was utterly bizarre waking up in a world of heavy trafic, condos, fancy shopping malls. The big employer around there is the Pentagon. Our friend Ben picked us up around noon on Thusday, we have been at his place in Virginia since then. Our friends Ellen and Don from the Pittsburgh area have been here since Friday night. Lots of feasting and hijinx. Don and Ellen will drive us to theri place in Butler, Pa today. Tomorrow w'll rent a carn and visit Presque Isle in Lake Erie, then Allegheny National Forest. If I can post from there I will, if not, will post from the 'Burgh around Thursday. Take care all!

Words of wisdom from Ted Geisel...

...aka Dr. Seuss ´´Don´t cry because it is over, smile because it happened.¨ We will try. It should be obvious that we think Central America is wonderful, with all its difficulties, bittersweet as life is. I highly recommend it as a traveling destination. I will be reflecting and maybe sending more thoughts soon. We are in the town of Herredia, a university town near the airport. It is kind of a shock. We thought it would be quiet, but it hass massive traffic, bad air, people rushing about madly. Maybe it is because we haven´t been in a city in more than a month, but it exhausted us and, to be honest, makes it easier to leave. But we will be back in Central America one day, I will share thoughts about that later. We fly to D.C. tomorrow, getting in quite late. Our friend Ben, who some of you readers know, will pick us up at a hotel Thursday morning. We will spend some time at his house, and Don and Ellen, again who some of you know, will join us. We are figuring out time after that... will check in Thursday to let you know we are in the U.S. As they say down here, Pura Vida!

Children´s Eternal Rain Forest

We visited this place, in the Monte Verde Highlands on our last trip, and still love it! It is not technically a rainforest, it is a wet-moist forest, which is dryer than a rainforest and has many fewer epithetic plants, or plants that grow on other plants. They abound in rain forests, we saw many at Arenal and other places. The story here, in a nutshell is that a group of Swedish schoolkids contacted Costa Rican naturalists in the ´80s, saying they wanted to buy land and preserve tropical forests. The project has grown from there, children from all parts of the world have contributed money for more land. Last night we went on a night hike with a guide, which was wonderful. Crickets sang to us while we saw a tarantula, a sleeping mot'mot or longed tailed bird, a sleeping toucan, a large snake far from us in a tree, two porcupines and much more. Night times are very magical in a tropical forest. Today we hiked listening to the song of the bell bird ' ¨GONG! Tweet!¨¨ over and over is as close as I can get. Once again butterflies were everywhere, along with winged walking sticks which look as ethereal as small fairies when they fly.We saw more monkeys, and a mother coati a racoon relative,with two babies, and an agouti, a large but harmless rodent. A wondrous place which I also plan to stay in touch with and revisit some day. We also visited an interesting exhibit with lots of information about bats and many bats flying back and forth. Bats are fascinating, and they share a common ancestor with primates,meaning monkeys, apes, and us. No I am not making this up. Tomorrow we go to the town of Herredia near the airport, and fly back to the U.S. Wednesday. Will check in tomorrow if I can, if not, Thursday from the U.S.

Today we got up at 430 to go birding with Gerald, a wonderful Costa Rican guy who runs our hostel and is a naturalist. He is a huge wealth of information. I wrote copious notes after the trip, way too much for details here, but we will post some photos and info later. I will mention the black faced mannakin. The male of this species builds a structure from three sticks in the forests, dances around it, and vibrates his feathers to make a clicking sound and attract a mate. Birders come from across the world to hear this, we heard two! There is another mannekin species that Gerald says does a version of Michael Jackson´s moondance, dancing backwards to attract his lady love. After this we went to Volcan Arenal National Park. Astounding!! We hiked through thick forest, where cicadas´ deafening calls are the woods´giggling breath. The wind in the trees sounds like a deluge, gurgling Montezuma orioles try to drown out both sounds.Grasshoppers are everywhere, camouflaged on large greel leaves. We also saw a small slug with the shape and color of a dead leaf ' amazing bit of mimicry! The forest is so thick you can´t see what is past the first few trees beside the trail, you are wrapped and nurtured by deep green shade. One tree was huge, with butress roots the size of wooly mammoth trunks. At a certain point, you leave the forest and scramble over basalt, volcanic boulders. Looking one direction you see Lake Arenal. The other direction is the volcano, dome shaped and inconceivably huge. Its sides are volcanic black, with patches of green indicating plant growth, and its peak is wrapped in mist. On the way back to the bus we saw many butterflies, including the red, white and black postmen who fly fast and refuse to be photographed, and green lizards with blue stripes on their backs. I will write more detailed descriptions of all this, but am done for now. Tomorrow we will go to the Monte Verde cloud forest region, Tuesday to the town of Herredia, Wednesday we fly back to the U.S. Ve are very sad, but the adventure will continue. More from Monte Verde.

Some thoughts

First, Kate´s photos are wonderful. The interesting thing about that sloth she posted is that they usually stay high in trees and don´t move much, eating leaves and having a very slow life. We were surprised to see this one so fardown the tree trunk, bt Patricia at Tree of Life Wildlife Rescue told us this happens, that they are comfortable around people. This sloth was gone a few hours later, that surprised us. One of those mysteries. Our departure day is coming, we feel sadness. We love Central America, the people, culture, nature history are wonderful, and the slow, simple pace of life is very fine. Still, there is a lot of poverty and deep sadness here. There is a long history of difficult struggles here. Today, many of the businesses are foreign owned, and money is taken from the countries. It is difficult to come with the best of intentions, as many people do, and realize that our perceptions of ourselves and the region are very difficult from Central Americans´. Much to ponder and reflect on here, which I may do in this blog when we get back to the U.S. One thought re Panama, it is a beautiful country, with friendly people. The government has a policy of attracting retirees from the U.S. and other developed countries, offering them discounts on things like restaurants, movies, and much more. I am sure the idea is to bring money into the country. I wonder how poor Panamanians, who have to struggle for simple necessity and do not have support see this policy. Anyway, much to consider here. Tomorrow we hike on Volcan Arenal ' more after that.

While in Cahuita, we visited a wildlife rescue center. Lots of monkeys, not all happy at our presence.

These are tent bats, which moved into the center on their own. They bite the palm leaves to create a cover for their colony.

This blind kinkajoo was recued from dogs.

This sloth is one of the animals we saw in Cahuita National Park. We also saw monkeys, some amazing birds, a raccoon, an agouti and other animals. We have just moved on to Fortuna, by Arenal Volcano.

It keeps getting better

Let me try to describe a hike in Cahuita National Park, a lovely Costa Rican park on the Carribean´s shores. You walk through costal tropical forest, a more accurate term than jungle. Imagine plants and tree trunks so thick and tangled they resemble a Gordonian knot. There are infinite variations on the color green, and the leaves come in countless variations on shapes like ovals, hearts, five pointed stars, semicircles, and more. This world seems to be built from birdsongs.. whistles, squawks,trills,rythmic chirps, gurgles that crowd the forest so `powerfully you need to wade through them. Fungi hide on the sides of trees, along with brown and green lizards and huge spiders. Everything has the smell and feel of mud after rain. Postman butterflies, small black, white and red ones dart about, along with many, many others. Blue morphs are the most dramatic. They are as big as your hand, and when the sun shines on them, they are iridescent blue. They eat decaying, fermenting fruit, and some say it makes their flight erratic because they are drunk. The ocean grumbles and crashes, keeping everything cool.Cicadas squeaks are constant. Soft rain falls like a massage. The loudest noise is the roaring ÄAARRRGGGHHHMMMMAAA¨from howler monkeys, which are considered the world´s loudest animal. They are really inoffensive little critters, just making a lot of noise to define their territory and avoid disputes. This hopefully gives you some idea of this experience. We also visited a wildlife rehabilitation center that cares for injured monkeys, birds, jaguarmundis, etc. and tries to release them to the wild. Some have been kept as pets and must adjust to being wild animals if possible. The approach is very sililar to the Museum where I often work... with different animals. This is an astonishing area. Tomorrow we head for the Volcan Arenal area, arriving around dinner... we will be there 3 days, I will check in sometime during that time. Howler monkeys just started yelling near our hotel, they say, HI!

indescribable!!!

But I will try to describe it. Again, we are having some trouble finding computers that will upload from our memory cards, but will keep trying. We just came from three days on Bastimentos Island, off the Panama coast in the Carribean. This is a town of brightly painted wooden houses standing on stilts to avoid flooding.There are no cars on the island. A sidewalk leads through small but beautiful Old Town, past homes, restaurants, groceries, hostels, etc. The culture and feeling are really more Rasta than Central American. Most of the people are black,they speak a combination of Spanish and Creole/Rasta English. There are some folks from mainland Panama, Germany, and the shopkeepers tend to be Asian. Kids wander on the sidewalk freely and safe. They play marbles, and push brightly colored plastic boxes around in races. (My personal editorial note:KIDS DO NOT NEED COMPUTER GAMES!In fact, they are more creative, free thinking, connected with nature and their community, and adventurous without them. Enough of that.) People stroll and chat all the time; we befriended some of the local characters - actually everybody is a character! There is always reggae, salsa, or soul music being broadcast from the bars and cafes. One of the most relaxed places we have seen. One day we hiked to an organic cafe high on a hilltop over the jungle. The next we kayaked through an estuary, past short mangroves that border the water from the tropical forest. Yesterday we took a boat deep into the jungle, where we hiked with a guide. He took us to a cave where we waded knee deepp in water, and saw thousands of fruit bats. We may be nuts, but it was fantastic!! We hope to return some day. We are now in Bocas Town, on the main island in this chain, It demands exploration if it doesnot rain. Tomorrow we swing north into Costa Rica, fly back to the US in about 9 days. Believe it or not, the adventure will continue for a while. This is an experiment to see how we handle extended trips at this point in our lives... we will evaluate when we get home. We will first visit friends in Virginia and Pennsylvania, and familt in Pittsburgh - it sounds much hotter in those places than Central America has been! Stay tuned. Photos will come.

Another place we love

Boquete is wonderful. Yesterday we hiked in a tropical forest in the highlands above here. Huge ferns, trees with flowers and other plants growing from their trunks, everything one of a hundred variations of the color green. We were looking for resplendant quetzals, a beautiful and elusive bird species Today we walked, accompanied by a dog part of the way, to a creative park. There is an eco garden where they use things like old blenders for planters. have funny sculptures everywhere, and wonderful views of the local volcano. We are hurrying, have to pack for our next destination. Boquete is a magical town by a river with a volcano towering overhead. Tomorrow we will be on Bastiemento Island in the Bocas del Toro archipelago in the Carribean. I do not know if there is an internet cafe on Bastiementos, but we will be on the main island by Sunday, and there is one there. So worry not... we will be having adventures and check in early next week. And yes, more photos will come!!

Boquete is complex and great.

Conversation overheard at the Boquete Tuesday market yesterday: "Now we should do yoga. We are old enough that it doesn{t matter if we make fools of ourselves." "Yes, and even Fidel Castro says yoga is healthy!" These were Norte Americano retirees, the region abounds in them. The market had some indigenous folks selling beautiful crafts, but mostly Norte Americanos offering wine tasting and selling pies, vegetarian chile, crafts, and more. The conversation and atmosphere felt like Marin County, which we can visit with a half hour drive from home, it was rather surreal. The serious problem is that people pay large amounts for houses, rising property values so locals are priced out and sometimes lose land. This happens in Costa Rica and Nicaragua too. But we explored, and this area has grown on us a lot. The garden Kate photographed is beautiful and bizarre, with sculptures of painted cows, a dodo bird, a golfer, a woman in a bikini and much more. The views of the mountains are wonderful. We walked through an agricultural community where people grow tomatoes, strawberries and more. Kate included a shot of that. We stopped in the cafe she photographed for a strawberry smoothy. The people promote the health benefits of strawberries, and you can get them in smoothies, milkshakes, sundays, with amaretto or kahlua. Fascinating walk. We will stay here and hike until Friday, more to come.

These are photos from our day in Boquete, Panama. A scene from the road we walked along on our hike today.

Paul stands in Mi Jardin es su Jardin, a garden full of beautiful plants and strange sculptures.

The menu from the strawberry restaurant where we stopped for strawberry shakes.

Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama

We are in Boquete, a pretty town in the mountains of northern Panama. We will stay here 2 or 3 days and explore. It is interesting, at first glance, Panama seems more integrated with the US than Costa Rica or (definetly) Nicaragua. They use the dollar, and there are lots of McDonalds, TGIFridays, etc. Part of it is possibly their connction with the US through the Canal, there are also lots of US Retirees around. But this is Central America.There is certainly poverty. There are lots of indigenous people in traditional dress in Boquete, and parts of the town have the same kinds of houses and flavor as anywhere down here. Other sections feel like a coolsville town near Yosemite. More thoughts to come. Costa Rica and Nicaragua are not friendly to each other. Nicaragua is poorer, and traditionally Central American. Granada is a mixture of Nicaraguans with cell phones in cafes and people carrying bundles on their heads, driving cattle through town (small herds), and sometimes sleeping on the streets. Politics are everywhere, any given neighborhood will have pro or anti Sandanista graffiti. Nicaraguans resent Costa Ricans, several Nicaraguans told us Costa Ricans are snobby, and said the country is full of violence. We have never felt danger in Costa Rica, and find the people to be as generous and friendly as Nicaraguans, just more reserved.Politics are less visible in Costa Rica. There was a dockworkers strike and riot in the Carribean city of Limon aten days or so ago (we are not going there). There was also a march of several thousand of the Invisible in the capital... Nicaraguan migrants, displaced rural folk, gay people, etc. That would have been interesting. One issue is that many Nicaraguans come here as seasonal farm workers, and are not well treated. Their experience is obvioulsy different from ours.Another is that there is a long lasting dispute about which country controls navigation on a river along their border. No one has said this, but I wonder if both countries feel mutual resentment that the Nicaraguan Contras (right wing anti Sandanista guerillas in the 1980s) illegally set up camps in Costa Rica. Very sad and complex. Both countries are great, can they get along? More to come, stay cool (especially folks in the East.)

Sad to leave...

This area is gorgeous, and we made some good contacts. We hope to come back one day. Tomorrow we will take a ferry across Golfo Dulce to the town of Golfito, where we will get a bus to Boquette, in the mountains of northern Panama for a few days. Will check in from there in a coupld days or so. Kendra, if you are reading this, getting to Corcovado National Park turned out to be more complex and expensive than we expected. We plan to try another time, knowing what it entails. Sounds like some things have changed since you were there. Still... we had a very nice hike today in the Montapalo Area, down the Peninsula from Puerto Jimenez. We saw many, many monkeys, gorgeous beaches covered with pelicans, more scarlet macaws. At one point, we heard something screaming... my guess is a puma (mountain lion) close to us. They really have no interest in people... kind of exciting once you know that - so we didn´t see it. Anyhow, we are back in Puerto Jimenez safe and sound. And oh yes, we are hoping our hotel in Boquete will have a computer where we can upload pictures. Onward! More in a couple days or so.

Enjoying ourselves still!

This is a very cool part of Costa Rica, although getting around it a touch tricky. Today we kayaked in an estuary and in a river that is bordered by mangroves. These trees are adapted to living in the salty water that flows up the river from the ocean at high tide. Some have leaves that actually gather and release the salt, other species have tall roots that hold them above the salt water. They provide habitat to crabs, fish, birds and many other species, and create a shadowy, mysterius, very beautiful forest. We saw several white ibis, ringed herons, green backed herons, a tiger heron, and many flycatchers. At one point a brown pelican landed near our kayaks and swam with us for a while... it seemed curious! We also saw a Pacific Ridley sea turtle swimming in the estuary... it would lift its head above the water for a few seconds, then dive. I also talked with a woman who is involved with the Community Rural Tourism movement. We stayed on a farm that is connected with this movement in Bijuaga a few weeks ago. The idea is to use tourism to bring income into local rural communities where farmers are losing their land to agribusiness interests. Visitors learn about local peoples´lives and share information with friends at home. We are both very interested in this movement, and plan to promote it when we get home. Tomorrow... the JUNGLE! Monday we will start to head south into northern Panama for a week or so. Then we will move north through Costa Rica again, to catch our plane back to the States. I will try to check in tomorrow evening if we are not too exhausted. What is going on in the US anyhow? We have heard there are huge wildfires in Colorado and other western states, and that the Supreme Curt upheld the health care plan. Other than that...¿Que pasa?

¡We love Puerto Jiminez!

Getting to this town was an adventure in itself. We took a very slow bus, feeling very nervous that we would miss our transfer. We were on time and wound up waiting for an hour at a crossroad of two highways, with nothing around but a restaurant, a gas station, and a stand where a woman was selling bean tamales (quite yummy.) We knew we were ok because other people were waiting. The bus took us on winding jungle roads, and we arrived at dinnertime. This town is amazing... very relaxed, and very pretty. It is on the shores of Golfa Dulce, one of the deepest gulfs in the world. Today while biking around town we saw scarlet macaws, caimans, a huge blue morph butterfly, a colony of nesting white ibises with cheeks, and more!! We are planning further adventures, and will update. Again, it is a comfortable and safe town with lots of infrastructure... pix will come!

We love Uvitas!

This has been a really nice kickback stop on our way south. We got drenched in a downpour on Monday, our first real soaking. Yesterday we hiked to a lovely waterfall and a bamboo forest, accompanied by a mischevious and friendly black dog who we named Noche. He seems to get a big kick out of hiking with touristas. In the afternoon, we found ourselves at Ballena Parque Nacional, an exquisite place. There is a long peninsula stretching to the ocean, it splits into two parts at the end and resembles a huge whale´s tail... hence the name! This is a place where high hills covered with tropical forests reach the ocean. The beach itself is bordered by forests and palms, and there are clear, winding rivers that wander from the trees to the sea. The beach is covered with yellow, tan and ivory clam shells. Red and while burrowing crabs scurry to the holes where they hide. Vultures, royal terns and other birds hang out in small groups like political caucuses on the beach. Quite a find! We are now heading for Puerto Jimenez on the Osa Peninsula. This region is one of the wilder parts of Costa Rica, but the town has lots of infrastructure - hotels, food, internet, busses, a small airport, health services, etc. We expect to be in the region a week or so. And yes, we will get photos up when we find a computer that is compatible with our memory cards. ¡Adios para ahora!

´We´re in the town of Uvita for a couple of nights. It´s on the coast, mostly agricultural but with an expat community. Lots of birds and butterflies. This afternoon we plan to hike to a bamboo forest and a waterfall. Tomorrow we hope to make it to the Osa Peninsula.

¡Una dia fantastico!

People will tell you not to go to Manuel Antonio National Park, claiming that it issmall, crowded, and surrounded by chintzy development. Do not listen to them! These comments are true, but irrelevant. You can hike the trails and hang out on the beaches on one long day (we just crowded),but our day was superlative! The scenery (tropical forest next to the ocean with offshore rockformations thrown in) is superlative! We saw three species of monkeys today... howler monkeys staring at us, spider monkeys swinging high in the trees, and a troupe of white faced cappuchine monkeys... including a mom with a baby on her back. Sloths (very slow moving mammals that look like big, shadowy furballs in the trees) were everywhere, as were iguanas and many other lizards. We also saw a monitor lizard - this is the species that runs across water on two legs, looks like a small dinosaur, and has a tail that actually mimics the shape of leaves so it can hide in trees. This one jumped out of a tree, hung out close to an amazed group of people before scurrying off on two legs. We saw much more - flowers, many wild fungi, a toucan, woodpeckers, and a huge pelican flock over the ocean. We will get some shots up when we have a dependable computer. We are making our way south to the Osa Peninsula, the real wilderness of Costa Rica, where we will hang out for a week or so. We will stop halfway in between, after a 3 hour busride tomorrow, and stay in a town that sounds great, but whose name I can{t remember. We will be there one night, maybe two... if I have a computer I will check in. Internet cafes may get a touch spotty... but I am hoping not, will check in when we can. Oh yes, happy belated Summer Solstice!!

Howler Monkey, Ometepe Island

Volcan Concepcion, Ometepe Island

Butterflies and wasp on mango, Ometepe Island

Ay Nicaragua, Nicaranguita...

Many of you probably know that song. Yesterday was a series of misadventures. It was HOT!!! and everything we tried to go to was closed. We did have a nice walk through a forested area.Today we visited an anthropological museum on Ometepe. Very interesting. The guide spoke Spanish and minimal English, but I followed the gist of what he said, Kate did better. People may have come here from central Mexico. At any rate they traded with the Mayans, there is a big Mayan influence on their art, and ceremonies. They did some agriculture, corn and cocoa, and traded with places as far away as Columbia, and possibly Baja California. We both love Ometepe Island, and Nicaragua, but the heat here is driving us mad. We plan to come back sometime in the winter when breezes make it a bit cooler. Today we will cross the Lake, and stay one night in the town of Rivas. Friday we will catch a bus and head for coastal Costa Rica, which looks like it is cooler (we hope. ) We will be in Manuel Antonio National Park on the weekend, another place we have lots of nostalgia for... next post will be from there. Yes we will get Ometepe pix up, we have some good ones. ¡Adios para ahora!

Ometepe

First, a note to Kendra, who asked if Kate and I were kayaking through mnangroves. Some of the trees, like mangroves, have buttress roots that lift them out of the water, probably to let parts of the roots get oxygen. Lake Managua is freshwater, mangroves live in brackish estuaries, with salt water on the bottom and freshwater on tops. We will be seeing mangroves later, hopefully kayaking through them, and will definetly post. There is supposedly a male witch on Ometepe Island who will give you a life of luxury in retun for your soul. At the end of your term, you become a cow in one of his fields. We haven´t encountered him. Today we visited Charque Verde, an ecological preserve that has been reforested after its use as a farm. There were fantastic views of Volcan Concepcion, as well as many new butterflies, red dragonflies, green lizards with blue tails (green anoles), many birds, and howler monkeys. A mother and two young ones were in a tree twenty feet above us, and they seemed to think we were pretty interesting. It is astounding to meet our tree dwelling cousins in their natural habitat... makes you feel like you are dropping all your problems and old patterns, and leaping out to meet the forest. After that we swam at Ojo de Agua, a mineral spring. The Nicaraguan man who sold us the ticket said it makes 70 year 0lds feel like they are 40. I will have to come back when I am 40 to test that hypothesis. All I can say is it was a sublimely relaxing swim. More adventures tomorrow, buenas noches!

At the base of a volcano

We are on Ometepe Island in Laga Nicaragua (Lake Nicaragua). This land form was originally two islands, each with its own volcano; my understnding is that lava flows from the volcanoes connected the islands. We are in a hotel at the base of Volcan Concepcion, the taller one. It looks something like an inverted cone with the tip torn off... craggy and rough. Lava flows cover its flanks. Forests reach half to 3/4 of its slopes: plant communities on the margins of the forests give some of the dark rocks a green tint. There must be streams in some of the lava flows, trees border them. Clouds sometines cover the peak, sometimes form a ring around it... astounding! It changes all the time. I will post photos! We walked a long way on a dirt road near the lake today. We say literally hundreds of butterflies of all sizes and color: gray, black and white, pure white, bright yellow, pale yellow, iridescent blue. There were also astounding birds: many vultures, an osprey (aka fishhawk), herons, and some astounding birds that we think are blue and white magpie jays. We will try to include a photo of them sometime, they don´t stay in one place long. They are beautiful, huge, and loud! We got here this afternoon, and will be here until Thursday. We hope to connect with the agricultural collective, but decided our Spanish is too weak for us to base ourselves there for a homestay. Expect more from here. Last comment: IT IS HOT AND HUMID!!!

Heron on lily pads, Las Islettas.

Las Isletas!

Today we kayaked through Las Isletas, small islands near Granada in Lake Managua. I have to research this, but I believe they are volcanic formations. This was fabulous! We saw small herons walking on lily pads, kingfishers chasing each other among the forested islands, cormorants and an ibis on the shores and in trees. Butterflies and dragonflies of all colors crossed the lake with us. People live on these islands - we passed several farms with chidkens, and childen who called, !Hola! Later we visited Parque Sandino. This park celebrates Nicaraguan poetry; there are sculptures of poets´faces, with a poem carved into the sculptures. Fascinating to this writer! We leave Granada tomorrow and will go to Ometepe, an lsland in Lake Managua for 3-4 nights. We may stay on an agricultural coop there, and may not have internet access. There will be internet cafes. I will post in a few days, if not before.

Here´s Paul on our kayak trip at Las Isletas.

Kate and the school she helped to build, Pio Dolce, Nicaragua

Kates Special Day

Today we took a bus to Pio Dolce, a village where Kate lived and helped build a school years ago. It was a very special visit... we found the house where she lived, and the mother of the family was there. Kate recognized her immediatly, and gave the woman photos of her family from years ago. Tme woman was very happy to see Kate! It was a really exciting encounter. After that, we walked up to the school, which is functioning very well. Kate says the village has changed. There used to be no paved roads or phone wires, and people were always walking their cows through the village. Many changes. It is wonderful that we found this place! The bus ride was an adventure in itself. Many Nicaraguan busses are aging school busses from the U.S. This one had stickers of Jesus and the Holy Family on the door; stickers of Spiderman, Snoopy, the main characters from CARS and many others were above the dashboard. People were crammed in so tightly that three shared a seat while others stood. The sound system blared loud hip hop, Cumbia, and other music the whole time. Intense though this sounds, it was fun. The ride back was less crowded and crazy. I hope everyone is well, it feels like rain in Granada.

Granada, Nicaragua

This colonial city, founded in the 1500s, was partially destroyed by the North American madman William Walker, who tried to set himself up as emperor of Central America in the 1850s. He failed in that task, but did make a mess of things. Today, Granada has a beautiful central square where kids do acrobatics and dance. Many neighborhooda have stucco row houses, brightly painted - green, orange, one pink on top and brown on the bottom. Many people ride about in two wheeled horse carts, also bikes, and motorbikes. We walked through a market where people sold fruit, sandles, pants, electric fans, and much more on the street. Parque Sandino -Sandino Park, dedicated to the national hero of Nicaragua, has sculptures where artists have inscribed poems. I couldn´t translate them, but one line stuck with me... ¨yo soy triste con un policia´- "i am sad like a policeman¨. we met a street poet today who is a local legend, and he created a poem for us on the spot. Lake Managua is beautiful: We could see the volcanoes of Ometepe Island, which we will visit in a few days. With all its beauty, this city is very stratified economically, and very divided politically. Daniel Ortega is president of Nicaragua; we have heard from a trustworthy source that he and the Sandanista Party are considered corrupt. Still there is a lot of pro-Sandanista graffiti, and what could be anti Sandinista graffiti too (hard to tell with our weak Spanish.) We will do some research when there is time. We will post pix when we have a computer that will upload them reasonably quickly. It is HOT here... hope you are all well.

We are alive and well...

I have had trouble with this site... sorry for the delay. We have been at a wouderful B&B called Caasitas Tenorios for the past few days. This is a organic farm owned by a Costa Rican named Donald and his wife, Pip, who is from Austrailia. They run it as a way to bring steady income to farmers in this region, while working to preserve the environment. The issues here are deep and complex. We had long discussions with Donald about their work (Pip is in Austrailia). Louis feels that most of the tourist industry in Cost Rica is owned by people from other countries, and that the money is taken out of the country. Casa Tenorio wants to bring stability to the coutryside in tbhe face of all tbis. See www.casasitas tenorios.com for details. The farm is beautiful. The rainforest was cleared from this region for farming decades ago, some of the old forest still runs through this property. Donald and Pip work with a local youth group that wants to reforest the area and create a wildlife corridor between two volcanoes and wild areas. We saw sloths in the trees, and howler monkeys woke us at dawn. A flock of parakeets flew loudly over the farm all the time. There wee so many bird songs that it was hard to distinguish among them, although we were doing it by the time we left. The same held true for flowers, trees and other plants. We could see the two volcanoes from the property. One is Volcan Tenorio, I am forgetting the name of the other. We miss this place, I will post pix soon. We wre now in Granada, Nicaragua, which is both a place where traditional Nicaaguan communities thrive and a center for the international party crowd. It is beautiful, and rather overwhelming. We will be here until Monday, more details to follow. For now... I gotta mellow out! More to come, stay tuned.

Estamos aqui!

First of all, thanks again to Mayf, Pam. and their son Mike for the hospitality in Ft. Worth. We really like the Nature Center, with its cottonwood and oak lined river, and air filled with butterflies and dragonflies of all colors! We are in Allejuela, a relatively small town outside of San Jose, the capital. We first came here in December 1001, shortly after 9-11, our hearts shredded by the madness of terrorism and the corresponding madness of war drums. It was great to get away. It was ChristmastimeÑ santas danced on the streets, houses were decorated, people were in fiesta mood. It{s still an interesting town. It feels more congested. We don{t remember the barbed wire on walls around houses, there are more beggars on the streets than then. It seems the world wide recession hasn{t missed Costa Rica surprise, surprise! Still, this is the same town in many ways. We found people gathering in the central park. A clown made an egg appear in a kerchief held by a delighted girl, while other children cheered. A group of people played traditional music on a glockenspiel while others danced. We had a Chinese dinner last night. The walls had pictures of traditional Chinese art, a poster of the rock band AAerosmith, and a poster for the old Oliver Stone film, [The Doors. Note... there is a problem with some of the punctuation keys on this computer. Allajuela is a town of narrow streets, many practical, day to day shops. There is a nice cathedral in the town square, I will post pictures if I get a chance. Birds call from all trees... I want to see who is talking but they stay hidden. People are as friendly as ever, and sppreciate that we try, sometimes successfully, to communicate in Spanish. Today we found a bilingual bookstore run by an expat. It had Costa Rican literature in Spanish, books like WHAT{S WRONG WITH KANSAS, and books from the U.S and Central America. The background music was a collection of Joni Mitchell{s hits. The highlands are in the distance, covered with clouds. We are getting ready for wild places, still considering where tomorrow will take us. I will let you know.

Egrets, by P.G.

Thanks, Kate, nice shot. This was a remarkable boat ride. At one point we pased an islandnwhere hundreds of great egrets were nesting. As we approached, they looked like smayy pearls flying about and resting in trees. As we got closer, we were surrounded by hundreds of them flying in all directions. Allwere great egrets, the big ones with yellow beaks. I don't know where the smaller egrets nest, if anywhere around here, There was a constant blast of bird calls and songs... the squawking of egrets, "conk-a-REE!" of redwinged blackbirds, the occasional "pretty-pretty-pretty!" of cardinals, and many I don't recognize, We did put ashore on the islkand to hike, but didn't find trails and didn't want to go off without serious shoes.. it's not wise to disturb a water moccasin! Many thanks to Mayford and Pam for this adventure.

I've brought many books along;I have been feeling like my love of science has trumped my love of literature for too long, so I will concentrate on literature to get some balance. I do have some nature essays, poetry, short stories, travel literature. Also, a novel by the late Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes which includes travel themes. And yes, ON THE ROAD by Jack Kerouac. I dicided to reread it after many years because a movie version is coming out soonm and just because I've needed to check it out again.

I could say much about Kerouac and his fellow Beats (DON'T CALL THEM BEATNIKS!!!) who I used to idolize and still respect. They were sexist, and had huge problems with substance abuse. They could be self pitying, and overly impressed with themselves. The wisest among them knew it; Allen Ginsberg's poem "Howl", along with its brutal honesty and fury, also has a tongue in cheek, "we're all kind of ridiculous!" tone.

The Beats were also one of the damaged, shadowy sides of the WWII generation. They were also deeply intellectual and curious, compassionate to the most down and out people they met, open to all experiences and very aware of the contradictions in the consumerist 1950s. And many of them could write!

Kerouac's prose is exquisite. It is melodic like the jazz he thrived on,often perfect in its descriptions of people and places, full of twists, astonishing metaphors, and uinsights. Many people in the '50s saw it as lurid; today the descriptions of drunken parties and quick changes of sexual partners seem kind of repetitive and tedious. The real theme is Kerouac's search for epiphanies and connections, moments of astounded fulfillment in the bittersweet rollercoaster of life. This was his odessey. There is a melancholy feeling to this. I am taken by this piece of dialogue between Sal Paradise (Kerouac) and Carlo Marx (Ginsberg):

"'There's one last thing I want to know.

"And I said, 'The last thing is what you can't get, Carlo. Nobody can get to that last thing.We keep living in the hope of catching it once and for all.'"

I will be thinking of that as we travel. Will we find a ast thing? Most likely not, but we will find a widening of our world - another goalof travel. Stay tuned,

Paul G.

Ok, here we go again...

One thing about travel, especially world travel is it becomes a drive, a huge need. After my first real international trip (Costa Rica in 2001), I felt like my passport was frustrated, and so was I! We went to Ireland and France a few years later: tremendous times! Since then, our experiences have been pretty huge. Here comes another big adventure... but there are never enough! So here we go to Central America. Again, we visited Costa Rica in 2001, right after the 9/11 attacks. It was the best thing we could have done for ourselves at the time. The combination of a different culture and totally different ecosystems really distracted us from the extremely despairing mood in the U.S. at the time. Costa Rica abounded in wild places, and prided itself on being a peaceful, egalitarian culture... one of the hopeful signs in the developing world. I have not had time to research it in depth, but it appears, from a superficial look, that many American and European expats have settled there, and have set up gated communities, malls, golf courses, etc. Sighhh. Some of our beloved places may have changed a lot. Still... there are others. We plan to visit some of the more remote and undeveloped parts of the country, especially the Oso Peninsula/Corcovada National Park area. People have worked hard to preserve this area, and we will send reports from there. One thing is we will be there in rainy season, which will make it difficult to do serious treks into the jungle there and elsewhere. But who knows what we will do??? We will also visit Nicaragua. I have never been to this country, but Kate spent time there during the 1980s. We plan to visit the village where she lived and helped build a school. We also plan to see some other fine places. From everything I have seem, Nicaragua will be beautiful, and welcoming. Daniel Ortega is, again, the president. Intriguing, but we have heard from others that there is corruption in his party. Sighhh. Still... it is intriguing that cooperatives abound in Nicaragua... they do in Costa Rica as well. We also hope to make it to northern Panama. We know relatively little about Panama, but judging from some research, it is unbelievably beautiful. Also, it sounds like indigenous communities are involved in preserving wild ecosystems. I do hope we can discover what is happening here. There will also be adventures in Pennsylvania afterwards... details to follow. I used to know quite a bit about Central American history... some folks reading this will know more than I do. I will share thoughts, and hope others will as well. I have been glancing at some summaries; I am sure more ideas will occur to me when I am there. Oh yes, if anyone is wondering... these are considered the reasonably safe countries in Central America. Honduras and Guatamala appear to be experiencing drug violence and other disturbances. And there is our beloved Mexico, which is experiencing a major trajedy (the drug cartel wars)... ... so we expect to be safe. We do know how to watch for danger, and will be avoiding large cities. We will visit a few medium sized ones, but know (as Oaklanders!) how to watch out. So here we goo... expect more next weekend. Our first stop will actually be to see Kate's brother and his wife in Texas for a few days; we will fly south from there. So expect more next weekend, if not before. Adios para ahora!