I took off from the lake leaving a friend in charge of the house and dog. Theres only one dog now. Sanson has not returned though hes rumoured to be with some isolated neighbors nearby. I felt bad because he was cared for by the couple at the Moon Lodge before I took him. Chris had some Muscle Milk or a similar product but decided to stop ingesting it himself so he fed it to the mother of the pups as they nursed. Life goes on and theres plenty of other chuchos and animals to fill the void.
First stop was Tilapita, a coastal sandbar island village very near the mexican border. I took the scenic route bringing me to the island just after nightfall. I arrived with two lanchas, which cruise thru the canals behind the island. Lancha men here are friendlier than at the lake and the boats are more chill too because I think those backwaters remain pretty calm. The island is like a manhattan shape turned sideways, about 2 ave blocks top to bottom and about 12 streets wide. The streets and aves or whatever you would call them here are all sand. I spent the evening with the hotel{s only other guests, three Norwegian girls and didnt realize until the morning that we could see the crashing waves in the ocean from the hotel.
I spent plenty of time in the ocean and in the sun the next day. Waves were sizable but breaking all over the place. The big ones were tough to reach but I caught a couple good ones with my bopdy as a board.
After two nights, I set off early yesterday morning for Mexico. I finished my pot and hopped on the lancha alone. The pilot offered me a tour of of the mangle (mangrove) and I accepted. I was up early, and the half hour tour seemed a good idea, and it was. Most of what we launched thru was mangle colorado if youd like to look it up, and it was cool. Perusing Tilapita, a sandbar lush with vegetation and mango harvest among others was a major teachable moment for me about how certain plants can thrive in sand. The mangroves are another example of plants being interesting, adaptable and really strange. These mangle colorados produce a dart shaped seed 10 inches long which fall from the tree and stick in the mud. A new tree grows.
At one point, the tourguide Adolfo, pulled up to a small platform on which you could enter a bit into the forest. He told me here, I could listen to the natural sound. Once on the platform, he repeated, bellowing, that here I could hear the sound of the naturaleza. Sure, Adolfo, Ill be able to hear it if you could just SHUT THE FUCK UP FOR A SECOND: It was a fairly deafening cacophony of some kind of beetle or cricket or something. A few birds were around. So were some plastic bottle floating in the water.
My Spanish was partially useless near the coast and even worse in Mexico. I made it Tapachula and tried to draw some money from a couple ATMs. They all told me I couldnt connect with my bank. I didnt have much. I went on to Escuintla. At this point, and I hope this will change, but Im plenty happier in Guatemala than Mexico. There is some good gringo loathing going on lately.
ATMs told me the same in Escuintla. I was not going to increase my cash flow this day. I had like 60 pesos, $8US, 250 Quetzales I wished I had changed. I remembered theres been a US twenty in my backpack for the last 8 months or more. A tuk tuk driver approached me with some English. He brought me around to the ATMs and when I asked him what else there was to do in Escuintla he told me Well, that depends on what the fuck you want to do. You can go to the fuckin river or walk to the fuckin waterfall or find a fuckin prostitute. He brought me to guy who give me ten pesos to my dollar. The rate is just under thirteen. Not too bad a hit and now I can pay for the room for the night. I needed to save my money to get to Tonala the next day, so I decided to skip dinner. It was so hot that I had to get a beer, and some water.
100 pesos for the room. Shitty room, shitty night. The fan works, but it has no front. No problem, my fan didnt have a front cover in Northampton either. I forgot to mention its very very hot here. The shared bathroom is a toilet behind a curtain. Theres no toilet paper, theres no lid on the toilet, no seat. Theres no shower but you can bucket pila water over yourself and this I did to battle the extreme heat.
The bed was ridden with all kinds of bugs that wanted to bite me throughout the night. There was a long, loud and close thunderstorm in the night and at one point I thought the the thunder would break the tejas that made up the roof above and my head would be covered in rubble. That didnt happen but eventually I felt the vibration through the rock pillow of water droplets hitting the pillow. I was very calm throughout all this and at one point expressed my thanks that at least there wasnt any loud music. At 3am I exited the room dissapointed to find darkness persisting. I maximized my situation but putting on my yoga pants and a long sleeve tee and with the fan on high, this was comfortable and the bugs were mostly fought off. My feet remained exposed and I solved this by placing around them the pillowcase from the extra pillow. I slept some hours and left quickly in the morning.
Transport in Mexico is a bit more expensive than it should be and my peso count was low. I decided to give hitchhiking a try to save a bit. Good old fashioned hitchhiking in Mexico. I picked up my first ride pretty quickly. I sat in the middle seat up front in a box truck between a teen and the guy driving who had had a couple beers quickly in the morning. When they asked me where I was from I told them Canada. When we were stopped at a checkpoint, the military guy asked me where I was from. Hmmmm, I thought. Quick calculation and I told him I was from Canada. If he asks for my passport, which he did, Im using the German one, so the double lie can go over undetected.
I was walking along the side of the highway waiting for another ride when I started to get hungry, I still hadnt eaten. Luckily, God had left a couple ripe mangoes by the side of the road. Thats a Louis CK reference but really they had a just fallen off a big mango tree. I made it to Tonala with two free rides and two paid stretches and a few pesos left over. When I found an ATM, it meted me a bunch of pesos with no trouble and I was back. I took a nice hotel room for 2.8 times the previous nights price. King size bed, private bathroom with shower, toilet, toilet seat, paper, soap and a telvision with about 87 channels and lights to read by. Also air conditioning so tonight I should be happy.
Without bothering to shower, I hit the streets for food. Opened with a mango smoothie, big size. 20 pesos. Then three tacos, one beef, one chicken, one tripe. The tripe wasnt too gross, Just less flavor than the others I thought. Then the real meal upstairs of chicken in mole with rice and a Sol. Back to the hotel and now this...
Im in Davis, CA May 20 to 28th. Im in WMass May 29 to June 11.
First stop was Tilapita, a coastal sandbar island village very near the mexican border. I took the scenic route bringing me to the island just after nightfall. I arrived with two lanchas, which cruise thru the canals behind the island. Lancha men here are friendlier than at the lake and the boats are more chill too because I think those backwaters remain pretty calm. The island is like a manhattan shape turned sideways, about 2 ave blocks top to bottom and about 12 streets wide. The streets and aves or whatever you would call them here are all sand. I spent the evening with the hotel{s only other guests, three Norwegian girls and didnt realize until the morning that we could see the crashing waves in the ocean from the hotel.
I spent plenty of time in the ocean and in the sun the next day. Waves were sizable but breaking all over the place. The big ones were tough to reach but I caught a couple good ones with my bopdy as a board.
After two nights, I set off early yesterday morning for Mexico. I finished my pot and hopped on the lancha alone. The pilot offered me a tour of of the mangle (mangrove) and I accepted. I was up early, and the half hour tour seemed a good idea, and it was. Most of what we launched thru was mangle colorado if youd like to look it up, and it was cool. Perusing Tilapita, a sandbar lush with vegetation and mango harvest among others was a major teachable moment for me about how certain plants can thrive in sand. The mangroves are another example of plants being interesting, adaptable and really strange. These mangle colorados produce a dart shaped seed 10 inches long which fall from the tree and stick in the mud. A new tree grows.
At one point, the tourguide Adolfo, pulled up to a small platform on which you could enter a bit into the forest. He told me here, I could listen to the natural sound. Once on the platform, he repeated, bellowing, that here I could hear the sound of the naturaleza. Sure, Adolfo, Ill be able to hear it if you could just SHUT THE FUCK UP FOR A SECOND: It was a fairly deafening cacophony of some kind of beetle or cricket or something. A few birds were around. So were some plastic bottle floating in the water.
My Spanish was partially useless near the coast and even worse in Mexico. I made it Tapachula and tried to draw some money from a couple ATMs. They all told me I couldnt connect with my bank. I didnt have much. I went on to Escuintla. At this point, and I hope this will change, but Im plenty happier in Guatemala than Mexico. There is some good gringo loathing going on lately.
ATMs told me the same in Escuintla. I was not going to increase my cash flow this day. I had like 60 pesos, $8US, 250 Quetzales I wished I had changed. I remembered theres been a US twenty in my backpack for the last 8 months or more. A tuk tuk driver approached me with some English. He brought me around to the ATMs and when I asked him what else there was to do in Escuintla he told me Well, that depends on what the fuck you want to do. You can go to the fuckin river or walk to the fuckin waterfall or find a fuckin prostitute. He brought me to guy who give me ten pesos to my dollar. The rate is just under thirteen. Not too bad a hit and now I can pay for the room for the night. I needed to save my money to get to Tonala the next day, so I decided to skip dinner. It was so hot that I had to get a beer, and some water.
100 pesos for the room. Shitty room, shitty night. The fan works, but it has no front. No problem, my fan didnt have a front cover in Northampton either. I forgot to mention its very very hot here. The shared bathroom is a toilet behind a curtain. Theres no toilet paper, theres no lid on the toilet, no seat. Theres no shower but you can bucket pila water over yourself and this I did to battle the extreme heat.
The bed was ridden with all kinds of bugs that wanted to bite me throughout the night. There was a long, loud and close thunderstorm in the night and at one point I thought the the thunder would break the tejas that made up the roof above and my head would be covered in rubble. That didnt happen but eventually I felt the vibration through the rock pillow of water droplets hitting the pillow. I was very calm throughout all this and at one point expressed my thanks that at least there wasnt any loud music. At 3am I exited the room dissapointed to find darkness persisting. I maximized my situation but putting on my yoga pants and a long sleeve tee and with the fan on high, this was comfortable and the bugs were mostly fought off. My feet remained exposed and I solved this by placing around them the pillowcase from the extra pillow. I slept some hours and left quickly in the morning.
Transport in Mexico is a bit more expensive than it should be and my peso count was low. I decided to give hitchhiking a try to save a bit. Good old fashioned hitchhiking in Mexico. I picked up my first ride pretty quickly. I sat in the middle seat up front in a box truck between a teen and the guy driving who had had a couple beers quickly in the morning. When they asked me where I was from I told them Canada. When we were stopped at a checkpoint, the military guy asked me where I was from. Hmmmm, I thought. Quick calculation and I told him I was from Canada. If he asks for my passport, which he did, Im using the German one, so the double lie can go over undetected.
I was walking along the side of the highway waiting for another ride when I started to get hungry, I still hadnt eaten. Luckily, God had left a couple ripe mangoes by the side of the road. Thats a Louis CK reference but really they had a just fallen off a big mango tree. I made it to Tonala with two free rides and two paid stretches and a few pesos left over. When I found an ATM, it meted me a bunch of pesos with no trouble and I was back. I took a nice hotel room for 2.8 times the previous nights price. King size bed, private bathroom with shower, toilet, toilet seat, paper, soap and a telvision with about 87 channels and lights to read by. Also air conditioning so tonight I should be happy.
Without bothering to shower, I hit the streets for food. Opened with a mango smoothie, big size. 20 pesos. Then three tacos, one beef, one chicken, one tripe. The tripe wasnt too gross, Just less flavor than the others I thought. Then the real meal upstairs of chicken in mole with rice and a Sol. Back to the hotel and now this...
Im in Davis, CA May 20 to 28th. Im in WMass May 29 to June 11.
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