Posts Tagged With "Culture"
On Boxing Day, we had to be jump-started in the morning because we had left our fridge running too long on the batteries the last couple of days! A friendly Landrover jumped us, and we were soon on our way north through Costa Rica, up to 3,500m elevation along the continental divide, and then through [...]
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We only had one full day in Cabo San Lucas, and we spent it doing the most interesting stuff. You’re really gonna shake your head at this! During our stroll downtown, we met Alex, who roped us into going to see a timeshare the following morning. Well, I’m not sure if that’s right way to [...]
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Although we were aware that Cabo San Lucas was a major tourist destination, we were still surprised by what awaited us in this city. A well paved divided highway with bridges (it was the first road we’ve seen that was actually engineered!) took us into town where bright parasailers, jetskiers, snorkellers, scuba divers, small cruise [...]
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We spent a wonderful day walking around the ruins at Chitchen Itza. Among the many restored buildings on site was a large stadium-type structure called the ‘ballcourt’ where a complex game was played by the Mayans with a rubber ball and seven players on each team. The object was to keep the ball from hitting [...]
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This past weekend I completed a loop – a long one, a 15 year old one. And it happened by pure luck, and pure chance. This is a long post, and if you already know what I’m talking about, you really need to read on. If you don’t, then get some coffee and enjoy the [...]
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The hydroelectric project near Caraz was an interesting situation that we tried to explore in some detail, but with only mixed success.
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We made great distance on New Year’s day – since it is such a big holiday here in Central America, all the stores and restaurants were closed, and nobody was out driving on the streets and highways. We had the whole highway to ourselves most of the way, and we were able to go a [...]
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We spent the first part of the day exploring the back roads in the Baja. This it appears, is where the “real” Baja exists, as is noted on the town gate to Puerto Santo Tomas. Roads are all gravel, but in fairly good condition. There are no major potholes, but the washboards are quite bad. [...]
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Douglas and Stephanie Hackney started a really great program they’ve called Giving Pictures – you can read about it here. We think it is such a great idea that we’ve decided to do somethig similar!
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We started chatting to a young indigenous man, Clever, on a park bench in the Otavalo plaza. Before we knew it, he had invited us to his small nearby town (San Roque) to stay overnight with him.
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Today we crossed over from Guatamala to Honduras. What an ordeal! And what a ton of money! We do not plan to spend any real time in Honduras, as we would rather get to Costa Rica and spend a bunch of time hanging out there. The border crossing was a bit of a zoo. After [...]
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Today we paid our first police bribe. We were stopped at one of the usual police checkpoints along the highway and the policeman started being really picky about seeing our vehicle papers and licence and passports etc. When he found that everything was in order, he suddenly said that Robin had done an illegal pass [...]
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they love to have clean vehicles. There are car washes everywhere throughout the country!
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We spent a long day travelling most of the length of Ecuador towards the Peru border. Many little highland towns dotted the countryside along a lesser travelled highland road that we decided to take.
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We crossed into Guatemala this morning after going to see 1,000ft falls this morning in Belize (not all that exciting, as the fog set in just as we arrived and it was hard to see the water!). The border crossing was a breeze, and before we knew it, we were heading into the Guatemalan interior. [...]
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Since we were relatively close to this big tourist destination, we decided that we should probably check it out and see what all the fuss was about. Not ones to do things the typical way, we discovered a backwards way to Macchu Picchu … and a more adventurous route too!
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We hit the road early, and found ourselves in the moderately small highland town of Otavalo by about 8am. By the time we arrived, the market was already in full swing with vendors and people everywhere.
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To be totally candid … our version of Peru is not the typical glossy-paged, fun-filled story that you read in the tourist brochures. Ours is a different version … one filled with many moments of frustration, exasperation, disbelief, disappointment, sadness, and anger.
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In the morning, we went to Cisco and Jackie’s house to say goodbye and to thank them for their generosity in letting us camp so many nights at the marina. They invited us into their home and we had breakfast together. Jackie offered to do our laundry (because most of our stuff was wet and [...]
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When we left Guerroro Negro we decided to take a side trip to a peninsula that is the largest ecological reserve in Mexico and Central America. It is home to the endangered Pronghorn deer, or “Berrendo” in Spanish – an antelope type creature. Our first stop was Playa Malarrimo, a beach that is home to [...]
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Here are some random facts about me, Robin and travelling in Central & South America thus far:
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We left Granada in the late morning and went to see Valcan Masaya, a huge steaming volcano that you can drive up to (no strenuous hiking involved here). It was very interesting, although somewhat sulphury at the top. We walked around a bit, looked at another crater at the site, and then gave three Swedish [...]
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We spent 2 nights in Playa Roca Blanca, and what a treat it was! Roca Blanca is a small little village on the ocean that has large rocks off one point of the beach, and HUGE waves that crash along the entire beach that circles the bay. We camped on the beach the first night [...]
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Yesterday was our last day travelling along the Pacific coast of Mexico before heading inland for a while. Just before reaching the Chiapas border (for those of you unfamiliar with Southern Mexico, Chiapas is the southernmost state in Mexico that borders Guatamala) we were stopped for about an hour due to a ‘protest’. Actually, it [...]
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We eagerly set off for Todos Santos high high high off in the Guatemala highlands. We were eager to get away from the tourist trap places and head off to the small town that we randomly picked off the map. We drove up and up and up to about 3,700m elevation. We took a wrong [...]
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At Guerroro Negro we met a nice lady serving us Fish Tacos. She practiced her english while we learned some more spanish words. We all had a good time, and decided to meet up again on our way North through the Baja. A big part of us wants to take the ferry from La Paz [...]
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