Guatemala.
Accomodation: 78p
Nicest meal ever: 2 pounds
God´s creation: free
Nicest people on Earth too, because they are kind of Mexican.
The lake. We´re staying by a really big lake and going horse riding and Kayaking. Enjoying life and the people around. Last night went to a church with lots of children singing very loudly about Jesus. I´ve never been somewhere so Christian. On the walls everywhere it says Jesus is Lord. I´ve never been offered pot and horses in the same breath so much in my life either. And of course the seemingly infinite banana bread. So good it hurts.
We´re having a good time. I´m learning loads about God, which is my favourite thing. Lucia is picking up Spanish at a phenomenal rate. Seriously she´s chatting away to people. It´s so cool to see. All you have to do really is add an O or an A to the end of the English and they mostly get it.
Sunday, October 30, 2005
USA end of.
Pittsburg.
Mary´s in Philadelphia. Body worlds exhibition- weird as. funfunfun. New car Mercedez-Benz C286 or something. Golf clubs. New York. Big big. Central park. Empire state. Times square. Good Bagels. Adam´s house. Washington DC. Whitehouse. (Being offered banana bread as we speak. It´s really nice. quiere comprar pan de banana mañana. The girls are tying in Spanish for me. It´s a friendly place Guatemala!) Kentucky. Aaron Paterson´s house. Motels Dallas Huston, Ben´s family. Stuff stuff stuff. Flights mania. Hiring a car. Forty million hours driving.
And we landed just about in Belize....
....where they live with ease.
Mary´s in Philadelphia. Body worlds exhibition- weird as. funfunfun. New car Mercedez-Benz C286 or something. Golf clubs. New York. Big big. Central park. Empire state. Times square. Good Bagels. Adam´s house. Washington DC. Whitehouse. (Being offered banana bread as we speak. It´s really nice. quiere comprar pan de banana mañana. The girls are tying in Spanish for me. It´s a friendly place Guatemala!) Kentucky. Aaron Paterson´s house. Motels Dallas Huston, Ben´s family. Stuff stuff stuff. Flights mania. Hiring a car. Forty million hours driving.
And we landed just about in Belize....
....where they live with ease.
My Saint Lucia
If you know me enough to ever read this blog. You´ll know about Lucia. You´ve probably met her too, she´s nice isn´t she? I think so.
I woke up, having slept really well considering the hurricane outside, at 5.30am. It was light and the shack was still around me so far as i could see. I got up. I looked through the shutters. The ground was wet from the surge, but there wasn´t the cnn scenes of stay dogs swimming and cars semi-submerged. Or crazy hicks, still on their front porches for fear of looters. I really wanted lucia to wake up. "Really wanted," became make lots of noise. Flip sake she sleeps soundly sometimes. She was at the other side of the room in the girls´ bed. (I´ve got well used to sharing a bed with James). I kicked something and luckily she woke up and none of the others did. She saw me. It was cool. (i won´t go fully into the emotions i was feeling, for fear any of you are diabetics) Very cool. We went out for a walk.
It was windy but not too bad, the hurricane was slower than expected and would really hit later that day. Phase one of my plan had been a sucess. Phase two was get to a beautiful place, so we went for a walk.
We found a pier. Something like 30ft waves were breaking out on the reef that thankfully was protecting the island. I told Lucia to look at them, then i got down on one knee. Phase three.
She wasn´t expecting it because there was a hurricane and she was more than a little afraid for her life. The suprise, as part of it, was essential for me. I had been so excited when i found out there was a hurricane for this reason. I knew Lucia would be distracted.
We hugged for ages. I gave her a ring I´d got in New Zealand. A friend had made it. It was wooden and had a cross embezzeled on it made from Paua shell. I´d carried the ring for about four months. She loved it. We´ll probably get a proper one when i get a job. hahaha.
I talked to her Dad later that day to ask for his blessing, which he freely gave (some people like these details). Then i rang my parents.
In between oddly we bumped into some friends of Lucia´s from London. Really weird to meet them on an island in Belize, during a hurricane.
No worries though all was good, the hurricane edged away from us and we got a chance to help a bit with the clear up after.
HAPPY ENDING.
I woke up, having slept really well considering the hurricane outside, at 5.30am. It was light and the shack was still around me so far as i could see. I got up. I looked through the shutters. The ground was wet from the surge, but there wasn´t the cnn scenes of stay dogs swimming and cars semi-submerged. Or crazy hicks, still on their front porches for fear of looters. I really wanted lucia to wake up. "Really wanted," became make lots of noise. Flip sake she sleeps soundly sometimes. She was at the other side of the room in the girls´ bed. (I´ve got well used to sharing a bed with James). I kicked something and luckily she woke up and none of the others did. She saw me. It was cool. (i won´t go fully into the emotions i was feeling, for fear any of you are diabetics) Very cool. We went out for a walk.
It was windy but not too bad, the hurricane was slower than expected and would really hit later that day. Phase one of my plan had been a sucess. Phase two was get to a beautiful place, so we went for a walk.
We found a pier. Something like 30ft waves were breaking out on the reef that thankfully was protecting the island. I told Lucia to look at them, then i got down on one knee. Phase three.
She wasn´t expecting it because there was a hurricane and she was more than a little afraid for her life. The suprise, as part of it, was essential for me. I had been so excited when i found out there was a hurricane for this reason. I knew Lucia would be distracted.
We hugged for ages. I gave her a ring I´d got in New Zealand. A friend had made it. It was wooden and had a cross embezzeled on it made from Paua shell. I´d carried the ring for about four months. She loved it. We´ll probably get a proper one when i get a job. hahaha.
I talked to her Dad later that day to ask for his blessing, which he freely gave (some people like these details). Then i rang my parents.
In between oddly we bumped into some friends of Lucia´s from London. Really weird to meet them on an island in Belize, during a hurricane.
No worries though all was good, the hurricane edged away from us and we got a chance to help a bit with the clear up after.
HAPPY ENDING.
Belize
"In Belize we live with ease, we eat our rice with meat and cheese."
-a lyric from some Rasta guy we met who played us too many songs, with too few chords one evening. Then he got pissed off and stompped off. Not very at ease.
The whole Rasta thing is seems like a big excuse not to grow up and an ample platform for judging people who have ambition. By ambition i don´t mean anything grand. A job is too ambitious for some of these guys.
WILMA came. If you don´t know where Belize is, scroll back in your mind (put the cursor over the arrow shapped like "<" and hold down the left mouse button. If you can´t find your mouse, I´m not telling you where it is) to Wilma on the news. Belize was pretty much obscured by the red area just beyond the eye. Not good really.
So day two of our relaxing time (a holiday in a holiday, if you will) on our beautiful tropical island, just about everybody at once informed us there was going to be a hurricane. Cat 5, the lowest pressure tropical system ever recorded. It´s fair to say we were a little unnerved. But in Belize they live with ease.
Most of the tourists started to leave. It was nearing the time of the last taxi boat before it was to hit. We´d spent a night praying and facing our own mortality (rather gleefully, it should be said). We vaguely decided to leave. None of us wanted to go. The ease of the Belize was rubbing off on us. I really wanted to stay.
The Island we were on, Caye Caulker, is both a pimp and a prostitute to tourists. It pimps us out amongst its various landlords all for the sake of their reputation on the Island and a fast buck. It prostitutes itself to us, tourists, because you can make a bit more money fishing the rich westerners, than Baracuda and swordfish. It both sucks and is wonderful. Their is a toursit price and a local price for everything, covert though it is. If tourism colapsed here, the islands four hundred inhabitants would colapse with it. Even the EASE of the rastas is dependent on the prolific marajuanna trade among our kind. It´s wonderful because this place is paradise; it sucks because of the schism between the tourists and the locals.
This is why i wanted to stay. It would be such a completion to our parasitism to leave when the going got tough. So under the final advice of the Pastor and a police man, who we bumped into on our resigned journey to the last taxi boat, we stayed. If our shack was washed away they said we could go to shelter in the school with the rest of the locals. Sounds kind of fun doesn´t it. So we stayed, had some rice and beans and i slept right through it. So i slept through a category five hurricane.
-a lyric from some Rasta guy we met who played us too many songs, with too few chords one evening. Then he got pissed off and stompped off. Not very at ease.
The whole Rasta thing is seems like a big excuse not to grow up and an ample platform for judging people who have ambition. By ambition i don´t mean anything grand. A job is too ambitious for some of these guys.
WILMA came. If you don´t know where Belize is, scroll back in your mind (put the cursor over the arrow shapped like "<" and hold down the left mouse button. If you can´t find your mouse, I´m not telling you where it is) to Wilma on the news. Belize was pretty much obscured by the red area just beyond the eye. Not good really.
So day two of our relaxing time (a holiday in a holiday, if you will) on our beautiful tropical island, just about everybody at once informed us there was going to be a hurricane. Cat 5, the lowest pressure tropical system ever recorded. It´s fair to say we were a little unnerved. But in Belize they live with ease.
Most of the tourists started to leave. It was nearing the time of the last taxi boat before it was to hit. We´d spent a night praying and facing our own mortality (rather gleefully, it should be said). We vaguely decided to leave. None of us wanted to go. The ease of the Belize was rubbing off on us. I really wanted to stay.
The Island we were on, Caye Caulker, is both a pimp and a prostitute to tourists. It pimps us out amongst its various landlords all for the sake of their reputation on the Island and a fast buck. It prostitutes itself to us, tourists, because you can make a bit more money fishing the rich westerners, than Baracuda and swordfish. It both sucks and is wonderful. Their is a toursit price and a local price for everything, covert though it is. If tourism colapsed here, the islands four hundred inhabitants would colapse with it. Even the EASE of the rastas is dependent on the prolific marajuanna trade among our kind. It´s wonderful because this place is paradise; it sucks because of the schism between the tourists and the locals.
This is why i wanted to stay. It would be such a completion to our parasitism to leave when the going got tough. So under the final advice of the Pastor and a police man, who we bumped into on our resigned journey to the last taxi boat, we stayed. If our shack was washed away they said we could go to shelter in the school with the rest of the locals. Sounds kind of fun doesn´t it. So we stayed, had some rice and beans and i slept right through it. So i slept through a category five hurricane.
Tuesday, October 04, 2005
road trip USA
Your brother emails you a website: autodriveaway.com. You coincidently bump into one of your best friends in Dallas. He's been rerouted because of a Hurricane. His family helps you out a lot. A company gives you a free car to drive from Dallas to Conneticut. Which is flipping miles. They give you a free tank of gas in your 2004 Grand Jeep Cherokee, with blacked out windows, all the gadgets of a spaceship. Cruise control....ummmm. Flying along at a steady 70mph on Interstate 70 for a good 6 to eight hours. It's shocking how fun it all is. Can this really be working out?
Right now I'm in Pittsburg, Pennsylvenia, staying with a girl Anna was home schooled with then she was 15. She hasn't seen her since. They are all musicaians and such cool people. So much fun. And so so generous.
Slept in the car the night before, having been accused by the cops that we were breaking into a building. Ironically i had broken into it so Lucia could go to the toilet, but it wasn't that bad. Before that we spent three nights in Columbia Missouri with our good friend Stacey. Stacey you rock. Her parents were so good to us, as were her dogs. American football match.
Dodgy motel the night before.....CLASSIC. Ice machine, truckers, giant stinky bed. Ghetto.
God bless, We're good.
Conor
Right now I'm in Pittsburg, Pennsylvenia, staying with a girl Anna was home schooled with then she was 15. She hasn't seen her since. They are all musicaians and such cool people. So much fun. And so so generous.
Slept in the car the night before, having been accused by the cops that we were breaking into a building. Ironically i had broken into it so Lucia could go to the toilet, but it wasn't that bad. Before that we spent three nights in Columbia Missouri with our good friend Stacey. Stacey you rock. Her parents were so good to us, as were her dogs. American football match.
Dodgy motel the night before.....CLASSIC. Ice machine, truckers, giant stinky bed. Ghetto.
God bless, We're good.
Conor
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