more photos

Just a couple of fun photos from the last week:

Paul and Zach from San Diego and I, drinking agua de coco and chatting with the fellow who planted those palm trees 40 years ago:

Hanging out with the Canadians before our trip into town.

Some of the local kids got really excited when I pulled out my camera
The Canadian's dog Lug. He was a monster, but a gentle giant!
Reloading the boards on the van after getting one fixed at the Hospital de los Tablas (surfboard hospital) in la libertad. They didn't charge me anything to clean up my head at the clinic, and they only charged me 5 bucks for a great repair job on the tail of my board.

some vids

Justin, the Canadian kid, asked if we wanted to go into town for supplies. He was driving, so we couldn't say no. Paul and Zach, the San Diego guys went too, as did Moises, a Mizata local.

Highway driving


market driving

Mizata

Looking at one of the world's best waves (small right here) Punta Roca in La Libertad.



Sad to leave, Mizata was a ton of fun. Great wave, and we hung out with some great people.


Leo, one of the local kids, modeling my bodysurfing fins




Ok, here's the shot of my head after getting the tail of my surfboard wacked into it. It really hurt, I was seeing stars out there for a minute and trying to keep from sucking down saltwater, but I didn't know I was bleeding for another 20 minutes.

long time, no updates!

howdy!

been a couple weeks without steady internet access, so here is a quickie update!

spent a couple days in Antigua, guatemala, a very european style town, clean, cobbled streets and some old ruined churches, destroyed by earthquakes.

The last several days have been spent at Mizata, a small beach town 40 miles from the guatemalan border. Been getting great surf every day, camped under palms, and hanging out with two gringos from san diego. All that came to a stop this morning though, my surfboard hit me on top of the head in a wipeout, and left me with a pretty big gash, ouch!

Walked over to the free clinic in town, where they shaved a patch of hair off and scrubbed out the cut. Doing much better now, but it looks a little silly.

I´ll try to get some photos posted soon!

Something you didn't know about me.

Just goofing around. I like coffee.



Ok, we shot some footage of driving through narrow streets in Santiago. Be warned, it may cause motion sickness, super shaky camera work due to the rough cobbled street.

Lake Atitlan para el fin de semana

For the weekend, Cara and I took a short trip to Lake Atitlan. At least, we thought it would be a short trip, some 60 miles distant, but the drive took about 3 and a half hours. road works, windy roads, narrow streets and slow trucks. That's the way it is!

Lake Atitlan is very beautiful, a high, deep lake surrounded by volcanoes.


It's right in the middle of coffee country. Mmmm, coffee!


Couple shots from the Sunday market in Santiago de Atitlan, the town where we stayed. I had to be a bit stealthy with the photos, if you ask the locals for permission, they either run away or ask you for money! But their clothing was beautiful, it's neat how each area and village has it's own style. Santiago was big on purple and stripes, and the men wore white midlength shorts, often embroidered with extremely detailed birds.



Neat door.


Ok, so on the drive in, I saw this painted on the side of a building and just had to stop. Esmeralda is famous!! Really made my day.


Cara and I above the lake:


Chicken bus. I love these things. Except when they're driving on the same road as me, then they're nothing short of terrifying.


Maximon, a minor saint of the region. He moves houses every year in a big festival, and the locals often make offerings to him. I'm told he favors cigars, rum and nice shoes.


Salvador, a local we hired for a couple bucks to tell us about Maximon and the history of Santiago de Atitlan. Those kids snuck into the side of the photo, and then the cheeky buggers asked me for money! No dinero para sus!


My Spanish teacher Mariela scolds Esmeralda and I for not studying over the weekend:


It was a great weekend trip, we stayed in a really nice place right on the lake. Did some swimming, hit the sauna and hot tub, and canoed a bit out on the lake. Got some photos of that on Cara's camera, I'll load up some of them later.

a visit downtown

Friday morning, and we were headed downtown to head to the market and visit a Mnenonite bakery, which I had been told was very good.

While waiting for the bus, I saw this. Two guys walking with three goats. Woman says somthing to him. Guy milks the goat on the spot, hands the bag of goat milk to the lady. Fresh!



Cara told me the donuts at the bakery were awesome, and it was indeed the case.


The market was predictable pandemonium. I needed to get some veggies for the guacamole I was making for the international student lunch at my spanish school


These definitely made the guacamole a bit more interesting

Mas Xela

Tengo mas fotographias de Xela para tu









































Fresh sqeezed oj! In a bag! With a straw! What's not to love?
























Took a day trip to the Gheorgina hotsprings in nearby Zunil.

I thought it was neat how they just farm around the rocks. Very zen garden.


















The chicken busses in Guate are colorful. and aggressive!


















Our host family. Watching american wrestling on TV! They were fired up!


















More fields in Zunil

Xela Who?

At last! I'm in Xelaju (shayla-hoo, called xela by everyone even though its Quetzaltenango on the map) where I plan to stay for a couple weeks to study spanish.




























































And I'm reunited with Cara, who has been in Guatemala for 3 weeks, and Xela for two. Hooray! We are staying with a host family while we study.

Chipehua

Best beach stop of the trip, Chipehua. Tiny, tiny fishing village, purported to have a wave. The fabled ola was flat, but the beach was empty.





































Stayed with a local family, they let me park at their place and fed me fresh fish grilled on a wood fire. Plus some sardines. "David, tu comes la espina!" Fish spines are delicious. They also had lots of pets. 3 dogs, dozens of chickens, a kitten, a parrot, and pictured here, a pig.



















Not too shabby! When the sun went down, they didn't have a light. I brought my coleman lantern out of the van and they loved it, no need to eat dinner in the dark! I think they were tickled that it was hecho en Mexico.


















Next stop:

Farther South Still...

Stayed a night at this beach, La Saladita. Nice beach, but the surf was flat so I just went for a swim. The whole drive has been pretty sweaty. I'm in the tropics, it's 85 degrees with high humidity.



















Acapulco. Stopped long enough to snap one photo!



















More roadside virgin drippy limestone!



















A post for every bird. Huzzah!


















I spent lots of time behind trucks like this. Fortunately, when they're only going 10mph, they are easy to pass.

More kilometers to go...

As it turns out, driving in mexico is slow. I think between the unbanked curves, the multitude of speed bumps and the slow trucks, I averaged about 35 mph on most stretches of highway. 2.5 to 3 hours for 100 miles? Mexico just got a lot bigger!

Thank goodness Esmeralda is on the dash, helping me stay sane.















The views are worth it though!














This is just for my climber friends. Saw this limestone cave 50 feet from the road. Nearly crashed when my jaw dropped and hit the steering wheel. This thing is begging to be bolted and climbed!