To America

We woke up before the sun was rising and relieved Dad from his slumber in the truck. He took a shower in the hotel room, while we got the dogs ready for the trip ahead. No matter what lay ahead, I was resolved to reaching America this very day.

The drive was actually very pleasant. The road was virtual deserted by the time we had left Ciudad Valles, and the road curved through the gentle rolling hills. Somewhere along the way, we came across a donkey grazing in the middle of the road. I hope he was returned to his field without incident, he was so nice looking. Along the way ran into a checkpoint, but this one was different as these guys were equipped with an X-Ray scanner.

Later on we arrived at the modern city of Ciudad Victoria, and we were only a couple hours from the border. The highway after Victoria is actually pretty good, you can tell that this is a major artery for shipping in Mexico, as the road was packed with trucks heading to and coming from Texas. We had one last military checkpoint, and this was a big one. However when the soldiers saw the hounds they let us go on our way and we were at Reynosa, the border town.

Vega de Altorre and Ciudad Valles

We left Villahermosa the next morning and headed out for Tuxpan, a coastal city further north. The drive was fairly good the most part, but as is common in Mexico, a good highway can quickly turn into a narrow and crowded mess. How painful it is to go from 100 Km/h down to 70 or even lower for extended periods of time. Of course, the roads themselves are narrow and full of large transport trucks making passing range from hazardous, to impossible.

After 6 hours of merciless driving, we decided to end our journey at the tiny village of Vege de Altorre, 2 hours south of Tuxpan. These villages live off of American tourist dollars, so with the poor economy and fears of the narcos, the villages weren't at their best. No matter, we found the fairly nice Hotel Dorado on the main street and spent the night there. The place was kind of funny, on the surface it had this wonderful veneer, but when you looked closely you noticed that everything was actually cheaply made. Well, it doesn't matter as I had a nice rest.

Their food however, was irredeemable. Believe it or not, but the best thing we got from their restaurant was hamburgers for the dogs. I can't believe they have the gall to call that slop food, and charge money for it on top. I don't want to say anymore.

Tenosique & Villahermosa

We left Rio Dulce at around 9am, and it took us six hours to navigate the ridiculously subpar road to the Mexican border at El Ceibo. Leaving Guatemala was no problem, their technology is slow and inefficient, but capable enough. Mexico on the other hand was a little problematic.

Getting our passports stamped was no problem. However the truck was an issue. One of Mexico's little quirks is that anyone who brings a car into the country has to have it registered in the country. Presumably this is to make sure that the vehicles are legitimate, but I don't know for sure. Anyway, the guy in charge of registries decided to leave early, and so we were told to go to the nearest town, and come back tomorrow. With no choice in the matter, we left the border and headed to the Mexican town of Tenosique.

At Tenosique, we navigated the poorly laid out streets. There are no streets and avenues here, there are only numbered streets. After some difficulty, we found hotel La Roca, an old hotel which spends their entire budget on advertising and little else. When we approached the owner, we explained to him that we wanted two rooms, but we needed to have the dogs with us. He didn't seem to keen on that, but the notion of having $100 American was too good to pass up and he allowed us in.

I won't look a gift horse in the mouth, but I will say that they should change their name to La Roacha. The place was underwhelming, but they let us stay there, so I can give them a break.

To the End

Tonight is my last night in Guatemala. Tomorrow morning I'm loading my things into the truck and setting off on a hellish journey back to Canada. You may remember that I wrote about Mexico (and C.A. in general) not being to friendly to dog owners. Well, that of course is still the case, so you can imagine that I am not looking forward to that.

Anyway, I want to thank all of you have and continue to read this blog. I admit, that eventually content dried up when the renovations kicked into high gear. For that I apologize. On the positive side, I intend to do some exploring in America when we get there, so look forward to that!

A Nasty One

A few nights ago, a sudden storm swept through eastern Guatemala. We had been having incredibly hot weather for the past month, with the temperature hitting 40+ on a daily basis. Believe me when I say that the storm was a blessing in disguise.

Now, back to the storm. At around 10:30 pm, the power had gone out as it often does. Ok, no big deal I just turned on the battery powered lights and went about my business. Soon after the down pour began, and it was chaos.

The wind was moving at such ferocious speed, I found it difficult to walk inside! I heard a loud bang from the living room and went up to investigate the disturbance. The living room was like a wind tunnel and the rear doors had been blown open. I made my way to the doors, and closed them, but the wind blew them open again in a matter of seconds. I tried to shut them again, but the wind would not have it and I finally gave up. I closed a heavy metal door in a different area, and while I was successful the wind and rain made it feel like I was being pelted with hail.

Fortunately the rain was gone after a few hours. However it would take over fifteen for power to be restored.

Garbage

Where I live there is no road access. Everything must be brought in and taken away by boat. That of course includes garbage. 

Every week, a large (large for Rio Dulce) boat comes and hauls away the marinas garbage. Normally this boat comes very early in the morning while I'm still sleeping, however today they came at around 2:30 in the afternoon. Here they are at work. 

What a haul!

After loading their boat, these guys sail off to a cement dock way too small for them, and haul the refuse away to be burned. 

The circle of life...

A Big One

Earlier today, I spied a large lizard resting on the rocks. Unlike last time where I let them get away without taking their picture, I grabbed the camera and got a couple of shots.

Religion, Serious Business

Last weekend was Easter, and as traditional for most of us in Canada we have a wonderful chocolate binge and forget about all sensibilities. Down here, chocolate bunnies and marshmallow chicks aren't really a thing here. No, here Easter is all about the prayer.

On Friday morning, a small flotilla of boats came sailing by, all three were covered with fancy purple drapes, and the center boat was carrying a large cross. I had never seen anything like this before, but they stopped at every property, and I can only guess that they offered prayers for everyone. Even people who always come here to party on the weekends had banners of saints displayed on their properties.

In less savory news, the navy was out in full force patrolling the water ways. You know someone important was in town because as soon as the weekend was over, they packed their things and moved on to some other place.

Run, Run, Run

Earlier today I was sitting in front of my computer, when I heard a light splashing sound coming from outside.  I looked out over the back of the yacht, and I saw two amazing little lizards playing the water.

These amazing little lizards!

Ah yes, the Basiliscus! Commonly known as the Jesus Lizard due to it's remarkable ability to run on water. I didn't realize that these guys were native to Central America (I never really thought about it period), so you can imagine my surprise seeing them in the flesh. I went out to get a closer look at them, but as soon as they saw me they dashed across the water and into the jungle. Next time my little reptilian friends, next time.

Rise

Over the past few days we have noticed a bunch of dead fish rising to the surface of the water. Seeing one fish is normal, seeing two or three is odd, but this was a lot of them. According to our friend Roberto, at this time of year lots of salt flows inland from the Atlantic Ocean. Most of the species of fish are able to adapt to the change, however one type gets decimated each year. What a strange world.

Hmm...

Earlier today I was on my computer, when all of a sudden I heard the roar of large engines. Now, I hear boats coming all the time, but this was different. These were really loud and powerful engines. I looked up to see what was happening and I saw a flotilla of military boats racing down the river. Now we have had military guys here before, but this time they were being escorted by Americans! I wonder what they were doing? They just went to the lake and back to where ever they came from, so it wasn't anything serious, but still...

Done Right

When out at the store, we came across something we have never found here before. Yeast! You know what that means? Happy, fun, bake time! Yay!

Wait is that the had of the creator?!

With yeast acquired, there was only one thing which would be worth making . Pizza made with my shamelessly stolen Mitchell's Sunshine Bread recipe. Yum, I haven't had that stuff since like April!

A Difference of Colour

When we were in Canada, one of the things we brought back with us was Cayenne Pepper. We love our spices, we use so much, some days you forget that it's even there, however when there's no spice, you'll hear all about it!

So here in Guatemala, all of the cayenne is a mild orange colour. The stuff we bought in Canada (imported from an unknown nation) is a beautiful dark red. The red stuff not too surprisingly is significantly hotter than it's orange counterpart. Even I had to tone down how much I was using. I can't wait to make a butter chicken!

Late to the Party

Tonight I watched the 2012 production of the Victor Huge classic Les Miserables. In this version stars, Hugh Jackman as the convict with a heart of gold Jean Valjean, and Russel Crowe as the legalist police inspector Javert.

Ferry... Again

Remember a month or so ago when I wrote about that mysterious large boat which appeared out of nowhere? No? Well, it came back I got pics!

The Falls Again

So what was Iroquois Falls like in February? Two things, cold and snowy. Lots and lots of snow. In fact, I think Iroquois Falls gets more snow in one week, than Fort McMurray gets all year.

...

I miss snow...

Well here are some pics of wintery IF.

Timmins

The largest city near Iroquois Falls, is Timmins, perhaps best known for being the hometown of music has been Shania Twain.

No matter.

Timmins is like looking at Fort McMurray in a mirror. Like my home, Timmins whole economy is based around mining, except in their case they mine gold rather than oil. In fact, it seemed like everyone at the airport was involved in the mining industry at some level, everyone was either an engineer, a heavy equipment operator, tradesmen, or a project manager. How nostalgic.

Back Again

Once again I find myself back on the Anarchy after spending a good week in Ontario. So far so good, it doesn't seem like any creatures have made their homes in here while we were away. That's always a good thing. After being in -20 degree weather for a week, it makes the heat here so much worse. Well, I'll endure it once again, what choice do I have?

Toronto

I have always been harsh with my view of Toronto. I've always believed it to be arrogant, and a blemish on the land. That said, I'm very happy to be here tonight. After spending the last 24 hours moving, I'm happy to be in a nice hotel room with  a good bed.

Wow

One last story before we head out.

We are having some welding done on the boat, and today the lead welder did the most badass thing I've ever seen. When he went on his break, he went down to his boat and grabbed a spear from it. I'm not kidding, he actually had a real spear with him for stabbing. With this spear in hand, he stripped down to his boxers and dived into the river hunt fish.

What a badass.

Journey to the North

In two days I'll be leaving for Canada. My first time their since July of last year. Don't get too excited however. I'm not traveling to Alberta (I wish I was), but will instead be go to Iroquois Falls, Ontario (see June of last year for a refresher).

Sadly, my grandma on my mom's side is at her final days, and it is important for us to be there.

Singing Dog

As the workers continued working on the fly bridge renovations, and interesting phenomenon occurred. As the workers were drilling, Sonic started howling in unison with them. It was the oddest thing because he was howling with the same tone as the power drill for no reason whatsoever. Dogs, crazy little aren't they?

Turtle

I recently discovered that there is a turtle living around the yacht. It's not one of those giant sized turtles, but more like the size of a dinner plate. There it was swimming gracefully on the surface of the water, and then it dived down to the riverbed and went to sleep. I haven't seen it since then, but I'm sure I will someday.

Ferry?

This morning a large American ferry sailed down the river and went to the lake. I'm talking like the boats they use in B.C. to get people from Vancouver Island to the mainland.

How odd is that?

And this was an actual American boat flying a huge American flag. I wonder what they could possibly be doing here?

Fire Emblem!

Finally, after over a year of waiting, Fire Emblem: Awakening is finally here. I love Fire Emblem more than most things, and having my own copy feels so good. I have played all the games in the series from the 1990 original up to now, and I honestly think that this is the best one they've made yet.

If you have a 3DS, I highly suggest looking into getting the game. I know I'm biased because I'm a super fan, however it really is awesome. A great feature I'm sure a few of you will love is being able to turn off perma death, so you can save your army in battle. Another cool feature is being able to create a soldier based off yourself, and recruit your friends.

Now if you excuse, I have a world to save.

You get that bastard Anna! <3

Difference in Menu

When I was in the city, I stopped at a Burger King to have my first fast food since July. The store itself was no different from any other BK back home, but one thing I did find amusing was that almost everyone there was wearing a suit of some kind. I never realized that the King demanded such finesse.

Anyway, the big difference that I noticed was that the menu was way more basic compared to back home. Most of the newer stuff like the Angry Whopper wasn't there. Speaking of whoppers, they only sold the basic one patty version. I guess that is good since it's better for you, but it is still weird to see fast food restaurant showing such restraint.

Urgh

Being here since July, you kind of forget about many of the dangers here. That's not to say that this is a dangerous place, I feel perfectly safe here. However there are dangers all the same. Take my little friend here.

Shameless Promotion Time

There are few things here that I have to keep me entertained. Television which I took for granted back home is non existent. With bandwidth as limited as it is, I can only really invest in one TV show, and I've picked a great one.

The show I picked is the CW's Arrow, which airs on CTV in Canada (which is the version my torrents are from). Arrow is an adaptation of DC's Green Arrow comic series, and I never really followed Green Arrow before but I was curious. I always believed that the Green Arrow was just a clone of Batman with a Robin Hood motif, and it turns out he is! But you know what, I'm OK with that because the way he relates to other people is different from the ice king Bruce Wayne.

Time

I can't believe that it's 2013. Yes January is almost over, however it seems like time has moved so quickly. For the first time ever, it's hit me like a truck that it is now 2013. Where have all the years gone? When I look at something created in say, 2005, I think that was fairly recent. However when I think about it, that was eight years ago! Eight years, that is 36% of my life. What a sad realization.

Panama Overall

So with all of the highlights about Panama done, what do I think about the country itself?

1. The country is a source of contradictions. When we we left the airport and headed for the hotel, our taxi driver drove like a race car driver, and the police did nothing about it. The speed limit was clearly marked, but people seemed to treat it more like a suggestion than a rule. The layout of the city itself is a contradiction. As you drive through the downtown, you will see amazing sky scrappers worthy of New York or London, however if you look closer you'll notice that all of these buildings are surrounded by slums. A real tale of two cities.

There and Back Again

On Saturday morning, we woke up early once again to go on our voyage through the 99 year old Panama Canal.

Our voyage was on the 43 year old Pacific Queen, an old passenger ship which was previously used in Scandinavia (Some the compartments has Swedish writing), before being bought by the tour company a few years ago. For a 43 year old, the PQ was not a bad ship at all, the furniture is a little dated, but it was comfortable to ride on.

The cruise itself is eight hours long, going from Panama City on the Pacific Coast, to Colon on the Atlantic Coast. After arriving in Colon, the tour company sent us back to Panama City on a fleet of fancy buses similar to the Diversified buses (without seat belts) back home.

Sorry

I need to go to bed early tonight, but I will soon have a piece on the highlight of my trip, a voyage though the Panama Canal to the Atlantic Ocean and back.

The Pearls

So I hear that one of the most popular attractions in Panama are the Pearl Islands. So against my better judgement, we bought passage to the Island on Contadora and set out.

We woke up at 5:30 in the morning, and made our way to the pier for 7:00. At exactly 7:00 (I checked), a guy brought out a table and slowly began the check in process for the journey. (I think the staff came at the same time as us...) After an hour of this, we boarded the catamaran and sailed for Contadora.

Along the way we were joined by an old woman from Oregon at our table who now lives on the island. To be honest, I felt like she talked too much for me, but overall she was very pleasant. She told us quite a bit about the place, and her life on the island.

When we arrived, it turned out that the island has no dock, and we had to transfer to smaller boats similar to the launchas we use in the Rio. It was no big deal for me since I'm now used to boats, however I can imagine it would be very difficult for the elderly or physically handicapped.

Condo

I'll just leave these here.

Executive Class

For the first time in my life, I flew on first class when going to Panama. After flying like that, it saddens me to think that after the return trip, I probably won't fly like that again for a very long time.

On the plane I wasn't called sir or you, I was always referred to as Mr. Ingram. How often does your flight attendant refer to you by name? Never happened before for me.

You know how on the plane they give you that stupid bag of nuts that nobody can open? Well, you don't get a bag nuts, no. You get mixed nuts in a real porcelain plate. I also don't really like assorted nuts that much, however these had the perfect amount of salt. Not too salty, but salty enough for flavor.

There's also no plastic plates, cups, or cutlery. My coke came in a real glass, my lunch (which was awesome for airplane food) came on a real plate and tray, and my cutlery was good stainless steel. Who would even think that such a thing would be allowed on a post 9/11 plane?

Finally the seats speak for themselves. They're a nice size, and there's plenty of leg room. The guy across the aisle from me was even putting his feet up. If even just once, you must fly first class on airplane.

West Side is Best Side

The eastern side of Guatemala is all jungle and plantations. I was expecting the western half to be pretty much the same, however I was presently surprised to find out that this was not the case.

Western Guatemala is a fairly arid and forested region. In fact you cut the area right out of Guatemala and place it into Canada without anyone noticing. The climate is also about ten degrees cooler, imagine Edmonton during May, however May never ends. I can't deny that I really liked being in the west, it was the first time since leaving Canada that I felt at home.

Journey to the South

Tomorrow I will be embarking on another journey to the south. I will have been in this country for 180 days and by law I am required to leave for 72 hours. So with that in mind I am going to make good of my original promise and go to Panama.

What will I see there? Who knows? But it's bound to be interesting.

Planned Obsolesence

There's an old saying in Chicago. Once is coincidence, twice is happenstance, and third time is enemy action. Well, it's now enemy action.

A few months ago, my dad's laptop had his battery quit on him. His battery icon has a red X over it, and whenever you hover over it, there's a message telling him to replace his battery. Damn, that's a shame, but he must have just gotten a bad battery.

A short while later, my mom had the same issue. Uh oh, that's not good, but it can't happen to me. Right?

Well fast forward to today and now my battery has given out. What's wrong with these computers? It can't just be bad luck at this point. Three laptop batteries (all the same model) going out at the same time. It can only mean that these batteries were designed to give out shortly after the warranty period had expired. If that is indeed the case, that's just plain evil. What happened to making a good product which lasts the test of time? Wait, don't answer I already know what happened.

$

Rain Hard With a Vengeance

Simon says, rain harder than ever before.

We are in the dry season, and it's raining like crazy here. Last night we had to get up in the middle of the night because Nemo was taking in too much water. That's not to mention all of the drains getting blocked from all the wood shavings on Anarchy. What I would do for the rain to end and for work to resume.

Post Box

Those maniacs have finally done it. They went into town and purchased their own private post box. You guys know what that means! Time to send me some physical mail! You do remember what that is, yes? I don't care what you write, just write something and ship it off to me. Do not include anything other than paper, because customs guys down here can be a real pain.

Baking Soda

Ever since coming here, my mom has been going around looking for some baking soda, to no avail. Well, we have found it now, and in the most unusual place. Rather than being found inside a regular grocery store, baking soda can only be found in pharmacies. Strange isn't it? Why would something like this be found in a pharmacy of all places? Talk about a mystery wrapped in an enigma and encased in a riddle. What other hidden oddities are there here?

School System

In Canada we are very lucky to have a school system which takes care of most of our needs. Outside of buying our own supplies, the cost of going to school is relatively low. Down here, things aren't quite as simple.

Once reaching grade 6, students are required to pay $1 a day to go to class. That doesn't sound like a lot of time, however when a semester is roughly 150 days, it becomes an incredible expense here. For many families, once grade 6 comes, their children are taken out of school and enter the working world. Imagine going to work as an eleven year old.

Sad stuff indeed.

100x

When New Years finally arrived, the townsfolk put on a show like no other before it. Like everywhere else in the world, the river was full of fireworks, however even more people were into it compared to Christmas.

From about seven at night, people began to fire off fireworks with small time intervals in between launches. This wan't the real show, but people just wanted to fire them off anyway. There was some pretty good ones, they had a nice gold one which really sparkled brilliantly. Alongside that was the standard fireworks we all know.

When midnight finally approached, the river lit up like never before. There was a light rain shower, so the cloud cover made the fireworks seem even brighter, as the light reflected off of the clouds. Every single marina (except ours) was firing their own fireworks alongside the two towns. One marina near the castle had the best fireworks by far. They had all sorts of amazing shapes and colours, some types I had never even seen before. Another marina has rather basic fireworks, but because they were next door to us they seemed really amazing up close. This amazing show went on for about 20 minutes before they ran out. My one complaint is that there was no real "show stopper". The display kind of just ended.

The President also stepped up his game a tiny bit. They were better than Christmas, but still under par compared to the others...