A glaring omission

I was thinking recently about my occasional, music-related blog entries and why they belong on the only iPod that remains between me and the Noodle. Then I noticed that there was a musician, not just a band or anything like that, but a musician who is conspicuously absent. Those of you that know me and my obsessions in my musical taste should have noticed by now the lack of any mention of the punk rock Kerouac, Blake Schwarzenbach.

The trouble is, it´s nearly impossible to pick just ONE record that features this musical genius. Almost as hard, though not really, is deciding which of his bands from which to choose in album.

For those of you that don´t know, he was the guitarist/vocalist/songwriter for two very amazing bands, the seminal emocore/pop punk band Jawbreaker, and the more mature yet still rocking indie rockers Jets to Brazil. Which band I prefer kind of depends on the mood but I still find both bands very influential on my playing, and an album from each has made it to the Emergency iPod.

So, let´s discuss both of those records today.

First and foremost, and my preferred of the two, is Jawbreaker´s major label debut and swansong, Dear You. Yes, they were on a major label, and in fact, they have the distinction of touring with both Nirvana and the Foo Fighters, and they were close friends with the boys in Green Day in the heyday of the Bay Area scene in the late 80s and early 90s.

Each Jawbreaker album was a bit different. Unfun, their first, was full of fast, screamy, bitter pop punk with occasional experimentation within the punk confines. Bivouac, their second, was more progressive and a lot of songs slowed down the tempo. Yet somehow they don´t degenerate into hippie cheese, and also managed to write one of the best punk rock love songs of all time "The Chesterfield King". 24 Hour Revenge Therapy saw the band chase a much more conventional, yet still unique, strain of pop punk, even including a bit of humor in the song "Boxcar," where Schwarzenbach sings "You´re not punk/and I´m telling everyone/Save your breath/I never was one!" Brilliant.



MOving on to Dear You and why I think it´s their best record. To me, this combines everything that was great about all of their previous albums. It has the catchy, no-frills punk energy of 24 Hour, the borderlined experimentation of Bivouac, and the cutting lyrics of Unfun, but Dear You takes all of those elements to the next level.



It´s on this album where I think Schwarzenbach wrote lyrics that weren´t just cutting but also some of the most intelligent he wrote with Jawbreaker. Not to mention this record found him grafting the unconventional riffs of Bivouac to the pop of 24 Hour, as I said before. Take, for example, one of my favorite tracks "Accident Prone." It starts off with a moody, minor key riff that did NOT exist in most punk rock beforehand, and features Blake singing in a smoke-scarred croon, or the closes to a croon he had up to this point. But there are times when the song breaks into an almost doomy chorus, segueing at one point into a long interlude that goes into the stinging chorus one more time before the song ends. The whole album is kind of a roller coaster. There are songs liek "Bad Scene" that rock up and down with fun, catchy lyrics about a party, the bitter "Fireman" which goes from the moody, dark verses to the super catchy melodies and abrasive lyrics to the chorus, the absolutely livid, bitter "Sluttering" which features some of his best written yet most bitter lyrics throughout Jawbreaker´s catalogue, and the morose, beautiful "Basilica." it´s an amazing record, and there was no better way that hte band could have gone out. It wound up being their swansong, but as is the case with so many bands, it´s often because there´s no way to follow up something so great.

I think one day of Schwarzenbach fanboying is enough for you, loyal readers. Maybe an other day I will talk about Jets to Brazil, but for now...ta ta!

News is getting better

So, after two straight updates of angry political vitriol inspired by coffee and Hunter S. Thompson, I feel it is time for an update of much better news.

The good news is that I´m starting my work with Habitat for Humanity this week. I´m really excited, despite the fact that it will keep me away from my friends and family for just a little bit longer. Sometimes the spirit is moved to stay away and do things I can´t do anywhere else, and it seems that now is that time.

Anyway, outside of that, I recently started working as an English teacher. I started out with one student, but since things are picking up with my work I can´t continue with him. I do, however, have students on the weekends- Today I gave a lesson to a young brother-sister combo, which went better than I ever could have expected, and yesterday I gave a lesson to a man who is, for all intents and purposes, fluent and just needs vocab help- he´s reading The Lost World, by the late Michael Crichton, and just wants some help with some of the words. I like teaching English- it´s a challenge I had yet to experience.

In addition, this week I´m starting work at a local hostel. It sounds pretty easy and I get hooked up in terms of food and drink and laundry and internet, which is pretty awesome. I also get tipped, so that may take my wages a little bit higher. Plus it sounds like a fun job, so w00t to that.

Anyway, my first visits for Habitat start this Wednesday, with a bunch of houses around Xela. In addition, I´m stil volunteering at the weaving collective doing random stuff there.

Things are going well for the most part, and I´m looking forward to whatever fate holds for me next.


Though, I´ll add one more thing, and one more item to the Desert Island Discs (WHOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!)

I came to this conclusion, that it was necessary to add another disc, the other day. It was a weekday morning on a day I didn´t have to teach English, and I was scrolling through my backup iPod at what we had put on there just in case, and after selecting this particular disc, I was reminded why it was there.

While very verbose in title, Right Now, You´re in the Best of Hands, but if something is Wrong, Your Doctor Will Know in a Hurry by Bear vs. Shark is one of those records that, in my opinion, came out of nowhere and changed everything.

I have a friend, who, when we were seniors in High School discovering all subgenres of hardcore and post hardcore music, would get almost anything that came out on particular labels, such as Victory, Equal Vision, Ferrett, Trustkill, etc. He picked up a CD one day by a band with a weird ass name, and I heard a little bit of it and thought it was cool, but didn´t think much of it.

Fast-forward to freshman year of college when another friend (who unfortunately I haven´t been friends with in a few years) was raving about Bear vs. Shark. So I finally decided to check it out in earnest.

WOW. It starts out with "Ma Jolie," a loud, midtempo, triumphant introduction, that segues into a quiet, melodic verse that supports intelligent, if not off-kilter lyrics and clean guitars. IT builds and builds when the distorted guitar comes in, and explodes into what one expects to be a chorus, that sees the lead singer go from melodic singing to the best post-hardcore scream this side of Hot Water Music, a band that merely suggested at what Bear vs. Shark was capable of.

This album falls somewhere between the meaty, two-guitar punk/post-hardcore and gruff vocals of Hot Water Music and the brainy, no-boundaries but still aggressive rock of the legendary Fugazi. Songs like "Campfire," and "Buses/No Buses" push and pull in that in-between space where hardcore, indie, emo and pop-punk inexplicably intersect. Other songs come off as the unholy spawn of classic 90s emo like The Promise Ring and the harsh, gruff aggression of bands like At the Drive-In, while "Kylie" begins with a jazzy chord progression and a vocal delivery that falls between spoken and sung, yet still giving away that smoky, raspy punk rock edge. And, when you least expect it, the 2nd guitar comes in, merely hinting at its potential fury. when it can no longer be held back, the song explodes into what, thanks to the initial dynamic, seems to be the loudest ending of a song ever written.

There´s a diversity in this album that few punk bands (or hardcore bands) this side of the Clash or Candiria has ever been able to convey. Where Bear vs. Shark succeeds where others fail is that they were able to maintain their undeniably punk rock energy. In addition, there was a forward thinking, progressive mindset that kept them firmly ahead of any other mere "punk" band. This energy, volume, progressive mindset, and ability to write fantastically melodic, almost pop songs, put Bear vs. Shark ahead of the post-hardcore pack at a time where the term came to mean screamy bands who all sounded the same or overly technical bands that lost their energy in trying too hard to be Fugazi. This album is impossible to become boring, and was unfortunately followed by one other album and tour that was ended midway through. Sometimes there is a band that exists for such a short time and puts out such a small catalog, but in terms of quality, puts catalogs 4 times that particularly large to shame.

In closing...

Dear Bear vs. Shark,

Please reunite. Perhaps so called alternative, hardcore or independent rock bands will learn what it truly means to combine such disparate elements and still be undeniably punk, progressive, and independent. Please....the world needs you.

I am really, really upset that I had to write this, but unfortunately there are people in the US, in 2008, who force me to...

Whoever wrote this rant at the bottom, which I urge ALL of you to read, is a bigot. I feel sorry for the gross level of ignorance that still pervades so many people in this country, and am ashamed to call myself an American as long as people like this author call themselves Americans. Especially considering the gross jingoistic tendencies that would cause poor souls like this author to proclaim himself to be the only true American.


In response to this author, the reason that African Americans and Hispanics didn..t vote beforehand is the same reason that ignorant racists like this author don..t vote: if neither of the candidates who actually stand a chance of getting elected do not represent what you truly believe in and who you believe truly has your interests in mind, there is little to know reason to participate. I understand this, and I understand the anger and disilusionment that comes with having a 2 party system where both parties are more or less the same. Obviously this author is disillusioned; George Wallace (I hope to christ readers know who he is) is dead, and the KKK and the United States National Socialist Workers Party (once again if you have any grasp of history past an 8th grade level you should know what the National Socialist Workers Party is) do not run viable candidates, if they..ve gotten their heads out of their bigoted asses long enough to organize politically.


Mr. Author..s assertion that African Americans still feel they are owed somethign is more or less astute. They do still feel they are owed something from white Amerikkka, and in all honesty, I am with them. The fact that they were freed from slavery, given the right to vote, and released from de jure (state sponsored) segregation means little if the power structure is still firmly controlled by rich white men who put policies into place that serve only to reinforce their economic, social and political power. You can change the laws all you want, but as long as we still live in a society that favors being rich, white and male above all other possibilities, we have a long fucking way to go before you can even talk about equality in the US with a straight face. What we owe to ALL people, including ourselves, is a dismantling of such an unfair power structure, and the casting off of every ugly, hateful stereotype that exists in bigoted rants like the one below.


For those of you who care, look around your neighborhood and try to tell me that it is not segregated. There may be no laws saying that they are segregated, but this will be the reality until A) Banks stop denying loans to African Americans and Hispanics based on racial stereotypes and B) People stop moving out as soon as nonwhites move in. I am ashamed, and will be, as long as such blatant, immature, outdated bigotry exists.


If you want a society where such things are accepted, please, move to India. The bigotry based on skin color and blatant classism is codified into law. Or, invent a time machine and go back to Alabama pre-1960s or Germany in the 1930s. Since you are white and obviously superior, I..m sure you can figure out a way to invent one. Or, if not, just leave. And, since you didn..t vote, and didn..t try to stop it, your argument is about as backward as the ideals you espouse.


There is no place in this country that has the potential to be so great for a close-minded ingoramus like this author. More importantly, I hope someday this author realizes that people like him have been making the United States of America an international disgrace and embarass the good people of this country. Good bye, and I hope you enjoy wherever you wind up.




This is my opinion, and if you dont like it, fuck you, I dont care. After all, I have this right. The only reason why Obama is even close to winning, is because all the black people finally decided to use the right they were GIVEN, the right to vote. Why does it take a black man to run for president to get you black people off your asses and vote. Every fuckin channel has the news interviewing black people, who are SO EXCITED to vote finally...HELLO JACKASS, you could have been voting this whole time, but no, you decided to wait til a half breed black man runs to exercise that right you "have fought to get for years". I didnt vote, if I did vote I would vote for Mac, however, that is irrelevant. The theme of this bulletin is point out how blacks still feel society owes them something, get over this shit. Our society dont owe you anything, or your parents, you werent a slave, no one in your immediate family was a slave. So in the words of my main man Arnold, STOP WHINING! About god forsaken time you decided to vote, because the next time there are two white men running, Im sure you will stay your ass home, drink your gin n juice playing domino's.


And one last thing, what was with the Black Panther members outside a polling site, one of which was carrying a night stick? Are you for real? We all know that they didnt get arrested to save the police the shame of it being racial profiling, god forbid the KKK stood at a polling site with a night stick. Fuckin nigs.

Update from the Guatemala Gonzo...

The writing should be on the wall for the GOP at this point. As if eight years of an inbread bigoted ape wasn´t enough, we have witnessed the conviction of Ted Stevens, the defection of heavy GOP hitters like Colin Powell et. al., the beating of Democratic staffers by goons of a Virginia congressman, and the rise of a politician so psychotic and so god damn clueless that it makes me foam at the mouth just to think about her. Not to mention, we have witnessed the rise of a politician who challenges the status quo of politics as usual in most tangible ways. First of all, at this point, it has become almost novel to hear a presidential candidate who not only speaks English PROPERLY, but doesn´t sound like some limp-dick recorded version of a high school graduation speech, written and performed by someone too disgraced to show up at the ceremony. There´s that, but there´s also the idea that he wants to do something for the PEOPLE of the United States (for the most part) as opposed to the corporate snakes who´ve sucked it dry, and have engineered, intentionally or otherwise, this gross economic collapse that may keep me down here in Guatemala indefinately, or until the coup that will inevitably follow any victory of the far right bloodsuckers of our country. The (mostly) good guys also have a plan to not only end a war that has cost nearly 5000 lives more than it ever should have, but also do everything it can not to erase this from the memory of the rest of the world, but to engineer some degree of a new leaf in a story that has witnessed the United States of America fall from world power to world embarassment and disgrace, strangled by the fascist reins of the Christian Right.

John McCain, I feel, is too senile to realize that his ship should be sinking, and I fear that the shock of winning at this point in his campaign would immediately induce a fatal heart attack, and elevate this wretched brainless redneck to the highest position of power in the world.

I used to have little to any problems with John McCain, thinking he was one of the few Republicans who wasn´t a slave to the far right fascists that have come to dominate the Republican party. He appeared to have his head on straight, and despite my disagreement with his policies, I was able to respect him for his balls to call psychopaths like Pat Robertson and the late, un-lamented Jerry Falwell "agents of intolerance," as that is the best way to sum up their psychoses.

Alas, McCain has fallen victim to the caveat that sucks in and traps all politicians- Pandering to those with Influence. Unfortunately, those with influence in the Republican party are those who profess hatred and intolerance about anyoen who does not conform to what they view as the coming Christian empire, an empire which can only be achieved through governmental regulation bordering on moral fascism and a program of extermination of all those in the world through war and economic strangulation of those who will not satisfy the far right´s bloodlust.

John McCain has been forced to succumb to this, and it breaks my heart that a man who was once a uniter will continue to fuel the fissures of our ravaged political landscape if he is elected.

Even more frightening than John McCain in power is Sarah Palin, and the only thing more frightening than Sarah Palin herself is the extraordinarily real possibility that she will become President if McCain drops dead of a heart attack as I expect.

Sarah Palin is the essence of everything I hate in this world. She is the worst example of a feminist since Mattel unveiled the Barbi doll in the 1950s. Her religious brain damage is only rivaled by her sickening "nice" front, which is only rivaled by her sheer ignorance of literally everything in the world.

I have never, in my admittedly short career as a genuinely politically aware and intelligent being, witnessed someone as clueless and inexperienced and generally angering. I say this despite living through 8 years of George W. Bush. Why doesn´t he bother me as much? Mainly because we all KNOW that he always had Dick Cheney and Karl Rove´s hands up his ass, guiding his every move, calculating every serpentine syllable, crooked smile, and every psychotic, maddening thought. He was too dumb to speak for himself, yet vaguely smart enough to recognize this aphasia in his frontal lobe. Sarah Palin is not so smart. On top of that, the Republican party has been so taken over by these Reaganites on Crack that they seem to be directly in line with her outstanding level of retardation. Her level of ignorance of foreign policy and close-minded living is a gross affront to the globalised, localised world that is our reality. As far as I have seen and read in fantastically mindblowing interviews, there is no world outside of Alaska. I fear that the cold has gotten to her head, and issues as complex as alternative energy and global warming have become as simple as to sum it up as "Obama´s going to bankrupt all coal plants." It is far more complex than that; you know it, I know it and I hope to Rahoul Duke the rest of the American People know it.

She has managed to avoid and over simplify every issue that actually means something, and it outrages me that she has been able to get away with it by simply smiling and charming the somafied idiots of the world with her grating Minnesota Nice voice, to make a reference to Frances McDormand, who, in all honesty, I feel is smarter and more likely to make good decisions for the country.

I hope to whatever god is out there that the 10% of my gut instinct is wrong, in thinking that institutionalized, under the surface racism will overshadow the exhaustion, hilarity, and utter outrage that has been caused by the Bush administration. I want, more than anything in the world, that the people of These United States will say that it IS time for a black president, and will actually shed off the final shell of structural bigotry that still continues to dominate the country. I fear, unfortunately, that despite polls saying that people will vote for a black president, they only want to appear non-racist. This fear comprises only 10percent of my gut instincts, but it is such a fear that I have decided that such a turn of events will lead to one of two things.

Option 1 is that I remain here in Guatemala until the wolves have proceeded to devour the final survivors of those that fought the good fight for free speech, freedom from psychochristian oppression, overt institutionalized racism and setting the women´s movement back about 75 years. Not to mention the economic toilet that a McCain/Palin administration will ultimately flush us down.

Option 2 is I come back to the US immediately before inauguration day and take part in the final days of the human race, or the final days of a public that submits to this sort of psychostupidity.

Whoever wins decides once and for all in my mind what kind of god exists- is this god kind and loving, or at least benevolent to the human race, or is this god vengeful and wrathful as the Christian Right tells us, and that a totalitarian world theocracy is coming, and will only end with the Rapture?

I pray for the former. The religious Book of Revelations implications of this election demand nothing less than quaking, fearful prayer that the Forces of Evil mobilized by Falwell, Reagan, Gingrich and Limbaugh will be defeated by sanity and humanity. I pray that the good people of the US will rise up and beat back the bestial bloodsuckers we have seen ravage the world the past 8 years and prevent them for at the very least another 4.

For the love of all things good in this world, please let intelligence and reason beat back dimentia, hate, fundamentalism, ignorance, and superficiality, or we must all move to Canada....or actually make our Founding Fathers proud and do what they felt was right....

So, a week´s gone by

So far, things are going pretty well. I started volunteering today with a women´s weaving collective called Trama, which was started after the civil war, when countless indigenous women were left alone (thanks to the systematic violence of the government troops) and impoverished because of the violence. WHat they did in response was form a weaving collective and school as a means of economic and social support. We´ll be seeing what things they need me to do.

In addition, this Saturday I will start tutoring a local with his English. He´s fluent, he just needs help with vocabulary and whathaveyou. Sounds fun.

Currently we´re trying out a local apartment with one American roommate, and the rest are all Guatemalan. That swhould hopefully mean some degree of authenticity. So far it´s alright, everyone seems nice for the most part, and they tend to be quite social, it appears. There are a few problems, however. Everyone seems to be allergic to washing their dishes, and the sink is therfore rendered absolutely disgusting. On top of that, on occasion the water goes out, and, as has been the case in the rest of Xela, we lose power pretty much every day for some time. Apparently the government of Xela is trying to fix shit and that means some parts of the city lose power at different parts of the day. Who knows what they´re up to...

Weird things have happened, mainly related to drama at the hostel where we were staying until recently. Mostly resulting in two people who are mentally unstable to begin with going completely batshit. The first guy, César, I didn´t know very well, so I will refer you to latinamericanrompings.blogspot.com to get the lowdown about this dude.

The second incident involved a whacked out old American thinking someone stole some of his food and WIGGING THE FUCK OUT at the poor little Mayan women who work at the hostel. IN response, our good friend Pablo tried to be like, "you don´t talk to them this way." So cantankerous bastard tries to start some shit with Pablo, and Pablo´s all, you´re old man, I´m not going to start with you...

I met the old guy at Vrisa books and he seemed semireasonable, but when you´re in a bookstore talking about Hunter S. Thompson and Kerouac with a bunch of old Gonzo beatniks, we´re on the same page because we´re only talking about one thing.

Old Bastard gets back to the hostel and starts screaming for Pablo, challenging him to a fight. All the guys in the hostel did what we could to prevent it, and nothing happened. They called the owner, and the curmudgeonly gringo was kicked out...but came back later that night and moved out the next morning. Good riddance....

Also, WEIRDEST thing in the world happened to me when I was looking for this place that apparently hires gringos. I walk into a tienda and asked where it was. The lady (wrongly) said that the restaurant didn´t exist. I thanked them, we did the whole "Adios/chau" thing, and there was this large Guatemalan fellow in the tienda, looked kind of like he could have been a professional wrestler, really excitedly says "chau," proceds to do the handshake/high five combo, then the handshake/highfive combo into the one armed hug, then to the full-on bear-hug that ended in being shaken up and down, before being officially welcomed to Guatemala.

It took me a few minutes to recover from that one, and after inspection, realized that he was really just a genuinely friendly guy really excited to welcome a gringo to his country. I was kind of happy.

We also said goodbye to Pablo, mainly by making a big dinner (complete with liquor filled pineapples) and a T-shirt we all signed that said "I Love Gringos". So that was fun.

As I said further up, we recently moved into an apartment. It´s alright. THey´re fun dudes and came to the Nuevos Horizontes benefit Halloween party.

Ah, yes, the Halloween party. I was sad not to be back in the states for Halloween because apparently both the Catholics AND the Evangelicals here had officially denounced the holiday. We need a pagan revival here, this religious psychosis (majority Evangelical) has got to go.

But, Halloween was fun. Nuevos Horizontes, the first battered women´s shelter in Guatemala, held a benefit party. Me and Michelle went dressed as Peter Pan and Tinkerbell, so that was lots of fun. Lots of cool costumes, met some really cool people there. Including a fantastic Fidel Castro, and an amazing Penguin, and my friend Chris as the most amazing Michael Phelps you can imagine. Also, when you put fresh fruit in a spiked fruit punch, it soaks up all the alcohol...

Anyway, we move on to Día de los Muertos. Me and Michelle, yesterday morning, went to the graveyard in Xela to dig the festivities.

First of all, there´s one graveyard for the whole bloody city. It´s HUGE, and the way they bury their dead puts ours to shame. I saw minipyramids, people, and miniature cathedrals!!!!

So, we walked around, and getting through the street to the cemetary was made difficult by the transport of every market vendor and beggar in the city to this one artery to the cemetary. Once in, however, we were rewarded by a great big field with lots of room to roam around...

And watch people sweep old stuff off of the graves (the tombs are kind of above ground), putting new stuff on to make it pretty, and just generally hanging out and keeping the graves nice-looking. Some people were actually eating at the graves, I guess, to be with family.

Another interesting part of the festivities was the presence of lots of children running around flying kites. Apparently it´s all part of the tradition. Meanwhile, on our way back to the town center, amidst nearly getting knocked over by women shorter than Michelle with baskets on their heads, we ran into our friend Julia, from the hostel. She´s a Swiss girl, who is working at a clinic, and apparently the family of people she works with gave her a full-on Mayan woman outfit, so she was walking around dressed up as a genuine Mayan Woman!!!! This tall, blonde Anglo-European person, dressed as a MAYAN! It was almost hilarious!

Then, later yesterday, my life got even weirder, as someone I recognized from AU but hadn´t met until yesterday, walked in and sat down. I´d seen him pretty consistently since my freshman year, and the introduction was appropriately awkward. Oh well, there´s a new contact in Xela that can become advantageous.

As for the rest of yesterday and today, there´s not too much that can be said. I´ve been trying to change damaged 100 Quetzal bills after I put them in my shoe to prevent theft...I´ve already changed 2, with two to go. In addition to that, I´ve been reading from Hunter S. Thompson´s The Great Shark Hunt whenever I can, which means whenver the city doesn´t kill the power, which is a collection of lots of published and unpublished pieces from the journalistic aspect of his career. I find it fantastically entertaining and interesting. It´s also long, which is good.

Anyway, that´s it for now. My Habitat for Humanity position should be starting soon, and hopefully I´ll actually teach English next week instead of getting left out of the loop by the school´s brainless, dickless director. He´s kind of a schmuck, but if he´s going to pay me, I´m okay with it. We´ll see.

Xela and the worst day of travel of all time

Well, the good news is that I made it to Xela in one piece (barely) on the scariest bus ride of my life. The bad news is that I, in my infinate supply of wonderful luck, got robbed before the bus even left Guatemala City (which is a toilet that should be burned to the ground). These bastards pulled a fantastic scam on me, playing on my understanding that Guatemalan police are ridiculous and poke through everything because they´re corrupt bastards. Long story short, the robbers (who weren´t cops, or posing as cops, but rather as ticket takers for the bus) told me that because we had to go through a police checkpoint, all of our stuff had to be stored on the inside racks. I saw no one else holding their bags, so I fell for it. Meanwhile, they had one guy handing out shit to sell or whatever as one distraction, and a guy in front of me who spoke English pretending to be real nice to me so we were talking and evidently while this was happening they rooted through my bag and took my knife, camera, and iPod. My 2nd camera and my iPod, GONE. Son of a bitch. I realized this, however, as I was about to take my malaria pill (after we passed an actual police checkpoint but they didn´t do SHIT), then, after a brief freakout, my attention was diverted by the fact that the bus I was on (the stereotypical chicken bus with NO safety features) was speeding up a mountain and overtaking EVERY vehicle on the highway and taking curves like a Formula 1 racer...holy SHIT it was terrifying.

The day began quite interesting as well. I barely caught the 6am bus out of Esquipulas, and then we were held up for about 20 minutes while the ticket taker got into a fight with some guy outside, and since he was smaller, he was struggling. He got in a few good head kicks, but unfortunately the other guy had a death grip on this poor bastard´s nuts. But, after a while, nobody got seriously hurt, and we were on our way. We got to Guate more or less when I figured, and then I took a cab to the bus station to Xela, and it was then that I got screwed. Fortunately, I got to Xela in one piece, nothing else was lost, and I´m hoping to get some shit together here. There´s a Habitat for Humanity opportunity that looks really cool- I get to travel around Guatemala and interview locals about what they want in their new habitats. They pay for my travel and give me a stipend for food and lodging when I travel, which is cool, so we´ll see what happens there. Other options include any one of a million volunteer opportunities and teaching English. We´ll see what happens.

It is nice to be back here, and the hostel is sort of a family- last night we had a communal dinner with 10 people and that´s normal at this hostel, so I¨m looking forward to some good times.

That´s it for now.

Hi Everybody

Hey everyone!

I am now in Esquipulas, Guatemala, just inside the border. I got here today after an arduous bus trip that started at 6:30 this morning in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Try pronouncing that one!

Anyway, the past few days, nothing has really happened that´s much to speak of. for one, I left Nicaragua Monday morning after a barbecue with Kevin and Marita, my Austrian friends in Leon. I decided not to go to Estelí, because, despite the fact that it sounds somewhat cool to visit, it´s 4 hours on apparently the worst road of your life, and I already lost two days in rainy San Juan Del Sur.

The traveling has been fun, I finally made it to the FSLN (Sandinista!) museum in Leon, took in a view of the whole city from the roof, have been practicing Spanish, helped Kevin and Marita and their friends make a SHIT TON of gnocchi, made the best grilled veggies ever, spent 2 whole days busing, made a travel buddy in Honduras yesterday, checked in with Kittie Fatass in Granada, and...that´s about it. I should be arriving in Xela tomorrow at around dinner time, hopefully all will go well on the way there.

The past two bus rides have been absolutely hilarious. I haven´t even been on Chicken Buses, and they have been cramming people in as if it were one. Last night I had the misfortune of being on the last bus of the day to Tegucigalpa, and they were actually cramming people underneath in the luggage hold!! I´d never seen anything like it. Today I spent the San Pedro-Santa Rosa leg of the trip standing up. No big deal though, Ryan (travel buddy from Lake Tahoe, CA) is a cool guy and has a lot to talk about a lot of things. He got off at Santa Rosa de Copan, and maybe will show up in Xela before he heads home.

Anyway, I think that´s all there is right now. I´m looking forward to Xela, and looking forward to any work that I´ll be doing there...stay tuned!

Leon

Hey everyone!

I´m back in Leon, Nicaragua. For those that don´t remember, Leon was my favorite city in one of my favorite countries, and considering what I´ve seen so far, that´s pretty big. I met up with Kittie Fat Ass in Nicaragua and finally took a picture of her and her overgrown furry self. Also, today, I met up with Kevin and Marita, and I´m looking forward to hanging out with them in the next few days. I also hope to see some of Leon that I didn´t the last time, and I'll hopefully get some pictures in.


I feel as if I´m a little behind schedule with my original goal of making it to Quetzaltenango by the 20th, but if I can get there even by the 22nd, I´ll be happy. Who knows. The absence of interesting things in Western Honduras might bring me to Xela more or less on time.

Stay tuned!

Nicaragua!

Hey everyone,

I´m currently in San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua. I made it here the other night, when my original plan failed thanks to the bus company in Costa Rica. First of all, the bus didn´t leave until about 40 minutes after it was supposed to. Second of all, we were held up for about 45 minutes (and even went BACKWARDS!) after the driver broke the windshield after driving into a tree branch...

We got to the border crossing by 5:30, and by this time there were no more buses anywhere. Fortunately, I had met a couple from Seattle, and they were heading to San Juan del Sur. I figured it would be safer to tag along with them, and it worked out cheaper after we split a cab. We were also traveling with a pair from Norway.

We got to the hostel, went to dinner, and then hung out for a while.

My original plan was to leave straight for Granada yesterday, but I figured that, since I haven´t been to the Pacific coast of anywhere during my travels, I would stay for the day. Unfortunately, much of the day it rained like hell, so we basically just spent the day hanging out, and when it wasn´t raining, walking around. It´s a really cool looking place. Very touristy, but this is one of those places where it´s touristy for a reason. It´s been pretty fun. The SEattle couple is very nice, and I´ve had a bunch of chances to practice my Spanish helping them out, since they don´t speak any.

Today I plan on getting some souvenirs and then heading further north. I got in contact with the Austrian couple from Leon, so I´m looking forward to meeting up with them again later this week.

Costa Rica

Hey Yonki Fans out there,

I just want to let you all know that I arrived in San Jose today, safely and a little bit wet. Next stop is Nicaragua!

Pictures!

Hey everyone,

I finally got around to posting the pictures that our good buddy Dan took for us from Mindo and Colombia. Eventually I´ll post the ones from the salt cathedral.

www.photobucket.com/ayonki

ENJOY!

Bogota!

I´m in a small village right now called Zapiquirá (I think, I´ll get back to y´all on that one) where the main attraction is a salt cathedral. Yes, a salt cathedral. What they did was dig a whole cathedral into the mountain that was and still is the source of quite the salt mine. It sounds odd, but once the pictures come up (FROM MY NEW CAMERA!!!), you´ll see why it´s so friggin´cool.

So, Bogotá is a huge city, the biggest I´ve been in since we´ve been traveling. 7.5 million people, it´s basically the same size as New York City. And so much of it makes me think I´m actually in New York. First of all, there´s a pizza place that serves pizza (vegetarian friendly, for once) by the slice, and it´s cheap as hell. Second of all, something about the streets, especially the other day when we were looking around for stores. Also, there´s a wicked public transit system that works quite well (though not an underground subway). there´s also a cool bar that makes it´s own (GOOD!!) beer. Yeah, i know, I haven´t had good beer since Guatemala.

Speaking of Guatemala, it´s almost time for me to go back. And for Michelle, it is time for her to go back to Guatemala. I leave Colombia on Tuesday, and will be traveling up to Guatemala by buses and staying in hostels like I did on the way down. This will be an experiment in Yonki Travels on his Own. It may sound scary to many of you, but honestly, since I´ve done it the other way, it shouldn´t be too much of an issue. Besides, there is always the possibility of travel buddies you meet on the road.

Next trip- OSTRICH FARMMMMM!!!!

Medellin (Pronounced Med-a-yeen, not like Magellin with a D)

Heyo everybody,

I'm currently in Medellin, Colombia, formerly the drug trafficking capital of the world, but that lost its title after the impressive execution of Pablo Escobar. For those who don't know, it took an elite team of 1500 men 499 days to find the bastard and they gunned him down like whoa back in 1993....

ANYWAY, let's talk about Colombia (who lots its title of Kidnapping Capital of the World to Iraq in 2005 or something like that).

We peaced out of Ecuador the night after their new constitution passed, which happened the night me and Dan got back from Mindo.

Have I spoken about Mindo yet? It was really cool, it's a cloud forest about 2 hours from Quito, lots of cool nature stuff to do. Me and Dan got soaking wet walking to and from the many waterfalls that were there. In order to access the waterfalls, we took this hair raising journey across the 530 meter cable car, over a gulch about a few hundred feet deep. When I get time to skank my pictures from Dan, those will be posted. Anyway, fun times, and a moth the size of a bat at dinner.

So, onward to Colombia. We took the 5am bus from Quito to the border town of Tulcan, crossed the border in a surprisingly painless fashion, and hopped on the bus to Popayan , the first town of any actual substance after the Ecuadorian border. We got there late at night and stayed in a hotel, and peaced out the next morning for Cali. It was a long ride, but we got there in the afternoon. Cali was really cool, kind of reminded me, weather-wise, of somewhere in Florida. We basically took those few days to relax and just sit out on the hammocks listening to music. Also, as much as I didn't like Aguardiente in Ecuador, the Colombian aguardiente is especially nasty, thanks to its licorice-like flavour.

After Cali, we headed over here, to Medellin. Medellin is quite the city. They have this subway system that is gigantic and ultramodern and clean. Quite nice.

The people in Medellin, and I think Colombia in general, are a little odd. They're very nice...VERY nice...TOO FREAKIN' NICE. To the point that it's a combination of rude, inconsiderate, and condescending.

ITEM- Michelle and I get arepas at this panaderia, and the lady sitting in the table next to us first of all starts cracking up at watching Michelle cut the arepa, and then proceeded to spend the next 10 minutes of her and our lives trying to teach her how to cut the arepa the correct Colombian way...please, it's a freakin' arepa. There's no wrong way to cut it as long as it gets cut.

ITEM- The hostal we're staying at, we can't tell if it's a hostal (there aren't really too many travelers), a halfway house (lots of older transient Colombians) or a drug den (lots of hyperactive, older transient Colombians). The people are very nice, and were really nice about taking care of Dan (somehow he contracted a similar stomach infection as Michelle did and spent most of the other night hugging porcelain), but it got to the point at the 9th person that entered the room to pet him and make sure he was okay.

ITEM- Being woken up like, 12 times in the morning by people coming in and out of the room and having casual conversation in their normal (LOUD even by my standards) voices, leaving the door open to let the light flood in (when we haven't really slept thanks to an older transient Colombian's extreme snoring), or running the water in the adjacent bathroom at full blast with the door wide open.

ITEM- They just have too much friggin' energy and I don't drink enough coffee to deal with it.

Anyway, we're bound for Bogota once Dan gets better, which will hopefully be soon. From there, Michelle is headed straight for a volunteer position in Xela, and I will by not too far behind. I start off in Costa Rica on the 14th, and aim to be in Guatemala on or before Halloween. That will hopefully be an interesting experience. But maybe not as much as the ostrich farm outside of Bogota....


STAY TUNEDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD (Cue lame ass music...)

FINALLY I know some shit!

So, after nearly a month of trying to figure out our next move, things have finally ordered themselves out, and I know what my destination is. Michelle and I are going to Guatemala by way of Bogota, Colombia, in order to do some more volunteer work in Xela.

Getting to this point was a pain in the ass.

First of all, let´s talk about Yanapuma, as it was them who put us in this mess in the first place.

First of all, the visa issue, which is the reason we have to leave. Apparently, Ecuador, in a fantastic showing of governmental bureaucracy, made an unannounced yet still official policy change where one could only come in on a tourist visa, stay for 90 days, and not return to the country for another 6 months. We found this out through someone at Yanapuma who found out through a friend. Gotta love unannounced policy changes.

Then comes their promise that they would be able to get us visa extensions, as we were volunteers doing good things within their country. Yay for decisions and positivity!

NOPE. We found out that Steve, while he did have a meeting, was told A) That he could only get visas for current Yanapuma volunteers. Since we have terminated our Yanapuma volunteering, we couldn´t get them through that. Not to mention, a visa application is $30, plus $180 more if the visa is granted. And we wouldn´t find out for two weeks. I love Quito, but I can´t cock around Ecuador for 2 weeks just to wait on a visa. There´s so many other things I could be doing. But, now that we have that information, we have decided to peace out of Ecuador, not like we had the choice...

NEXT on the chopping block are the assholes at TACA airlines. We got dicked over by them when we were flying from Costa Rica to South America. Somehow these people managed to overbook the flight by about 20odd people. How do you do that? So we get bumped and rerouted to Quito via Bogota, where it was 1.50 for 15 minutes of internet that we HAD to use to call Yanapuma and tell them what happened. We thought it was all worth it, however, because we thought we had a voucher worth enough for a free flight.

SUCK IT, they told us, when we went in to talk about it. Despite assurances from not only the ticket agent at the SJO airport (who spoke ENGLISH as a native language, mind you) but other folks associated with the airline that it was enough for a free flight, it alas is worth a mere $150. TACA, unfortunately, like everything else associated with Costa Rica, is quite expensive. However, with that voucher, we can legitimately get back to Central America from South America. The positive side of this (negative if you believe everything the State Department tells you) is that we get to go to Colombia! We´ve both kind of felt like schmucks for not going to Colombia, especially after hearing everyone we´ve met rave about how awesome it is. So, we are waiting to leave Ecuador after their vote for the new constitution. After that, we´re heading to Colombia, to Costa Rica by plane, and from there to Guatemala by bus, and we´ll be volunteering there and living with a family until probably mid December.

Which brings us to now. We spent yesterday and today in Latacunga, about two hours south of Quito, at the Mama Negra festival. Basically it consisted of men dressed up as black women, bands, people handing out shots of liquor, and dancing in the streets. Our buddy Dan met us there and a good time was had by all. TOmorrow hopefully we´re going to Mindo. HOpefully it´´ll be fun.

Some things

So, a few things have happened in the past few days. The first thing that comes to mind is the fact that I was mugged on Friday afternoon walking through Old Town Quito. I only had $20 on me, but I also had the camera, and he took that. Prick. I am okay though, and that is the most important part. It sucks also because I took some bad ass pictures, namely from the hair raising tower of the Basilica del Voto Nacional. What a cool building that is, it´s fairly new as well. Climbing the tower though....WHOA. SCARY, but the view was SO worth it. Unfortunately, no pictures to prove it.

On Saturday morning, I woke up really early to take a bus to meet up with Michelle and Dan...they had traveled to the Quiloto loop, and I stayed behind so none of us get sick of each other. Anyway, that ride was awesome, and I met up with them at Lago de Quilotoa. 3850 meters above sea level...it was cold but the setting was amazing!!! We were in the Andes, in the truest sense of the phrase, surrounded by the mountains, Quichoa speaking indigenous people, Alpacas, sheep and Llamas. AMAZING.

Now I would like to talk about the lake. We walked down into the crater and it took about half an hour. The lake is a shiny green body of caustic (Dan checked) water that neither comes nor goes. It was a VERY long hike up, especially when you take into effect the elevation and the temperature. I picked up a few woollen things to keep warm up there.

When we got back, we struck off for Santo Domingo and Bua because we wanted to say a final goodbye and so Dan could see what we did. We arrived little before 8pm, had some dinner, and woke up early the next morning. We went to the school, and, during a meeting with the teachers, I was presented with a tsa´chila kilt as a token of appreciation for the work we did. I also helped a group of engineers move rocks. That was fun, though my arms hurt like hell afterwards.

After a quick lunch of fruit salad and a bolon de queso, we struck off for Quito...and were held up for almost an hour due to a really bad car accident. We also watched two of the worst movies I´ve ever seen...

We are currently back in Quito, anticipating our next move. The next big update will come after we know said next step. Stay tuned!!!!

WORLD CUP!!!

Also! We went to the Ecuador v. Bolivia World Cup Qualifier match! There´s pictures in its own section in the Ecuadormant album if you want ot see them!

Mitad del Mundo

Hey everyone! Me and Michelle went to the Mitad Del Mundo the other day and the pictures are posted at www.photobucket.com/ayonki. To find them, go to the Ecuadormant album, and it´s in there! Enjoy them and let me know what you think!

Some Videos

Here are some videos from my class´s performance on Tuesday. I think they did a kickass job, and looked great doing it...don´t you?







Anyway, I hope all of you enjoy these videos, and that you let me know what you think!

Quito it is, apparently

So, today I finished my project with a solid performance from my group of kids. The music class is set to evolve into a regular club, to continue what I started, which is AWESOME.

Onto the update. We´ve decided to move to Quito and do tings here. We found an affordable homestay that would start in the 2nd week of September, and there´s a cool organization that does lots of great work with street children, which sounds really cool. We´re back at Casa Bambu right now, and 2 of our friends from the last time are still here, which is nice, and we met another person today who reminds both of us INCREDIBLY of our good friend Mikey McSnortSnort. It´s actually scary.

I plan on taking it easy for the next few days at least until I KNOW I´m fully adjusted to altitude. The things I said recently about being 100% healthy jinxed me...I have a little bit of some chest congestion going on right now, so I definately want to take care of that.

I´m really glad to be FAR from Santo Domingo right now. It was one of the most depressing of all cities, and there was nothing worth going there for, except we had to for our food. We did see Batman there though...

We got back to Bua VERY early on Friday morning, and on Saturday there was a whole lot of hooplah going on...until the wee hours of the morning,and we actually decided to go to Santo Domingo just to get away from the drunks who were still awake and drunk at 7 am blasting music...ugh...

That´s over now. The last week in Bua wound up being a lot of fun...Michelle bought a rainbow Tsa´chila skirt, which makes her pretty happy, and I had my performance.

I´m happy to be back in Quito now.

Cuenca

So, we are in Cuenca, in the southern highlands, right now. We´re still in the process of looking for volunteer positions, and at the same time, looking for work. Cuenca is Ecuador´s 3rd largest city, with a large student population (when University is in session). However, university is not in session yet, and for the most part, despite the attractive streets and buildings in Cuenca, it is not as wonderful as everyone made it sound. Don´t get me wrong, it´s a nice city with lots of places that can help us out, but it lacks the vitality that Quito does. However, Cuenca has a really cool organization that would be wonderful to volunteer for. Everything else, however, such as the hominess of Casa Bambu, the backpacker scene, and the presence of MANY gringo oriented places to find work are absent. I do, however, have one possibility here at a bar/restaurant in a few minutes, so we shall see.

Also, I am now looking forward to leaving the Santo Domingo area once and for all, and finally settle down in a place that doesn´t depress us. Also, if wherever it is we settle down involves a job for money or a place to live, all the better.

I was a little sore today. 8 hour bus rides at night will do that to a person, as will walking around practically without stopping.

Another positive Cuenca thing- it´s pretty easy to find vegetarian food.

Anyway, we shall see what happens in the next few days...

We made friends! Holy crap!

After nearly a month of trying in vain to make friends in Bua, last night Michelle and me decided to go out, and at one bar we met a fun Ecuadorian couple. They were really nice, we had some good Spanish practice...and the two of us realized that we can not keep up with them!

There is a type of liquor here called Aguardiente. It´s basically fermented cane juice into a really nasty tasting swill that resembles under-kitchen-sink products...alas, I did not want to be rude and refuse, as the tab was on them (!)- we were their guests, he said.

But, we danced, we talked, we all generally had a good time. And afterwards, we had a little slice of home- there´s a pizza place in the Mariscal that sells pizza by the slice...and I don´t have to tell them that we don´t want pizza with ham on it. That´s the default topping here, and it´s nearly impossible to get a just-cheese pizza, which is the most frustrating thing ever. Anyway, we got pizza after we left the disco, and went back to the hostel. Alas, my internal clock is still on Bua time, so that means I was up by 8am today. Not fun.

Anyway, I have an interview tomorrow with an English school. It would be clutch to get a paying job, though I´d still be doing some volunteering. Sidenote, we had meeting with Andy (director) and Azalia (worthless project coordinator) to discuss some problems with the project. Azalia completely ignored our issues and basically insulted us for being Westerners, saying that we need to do things that we were already doing, ie, talking to people. She offered us no help whatsover, while Andy is probably going to help find some other cool opportunities. I´d like to stay in Quito, and the fact that we have friends makes it even more attractive an option.

Anyway, I think we´re going to do some sightseeing today, so some pictures will be up in the near future. Until then, stay tunedddddddd

Quito

So, not too long ago today, we arrived in Quito for the weekend. We decided that we should come back to Quito, talk to Yanapuma about other volunteering options, and see about volunteer or work options, and options as far as living cheaply.

The hostal we´re staying at right now is proboably the best hostel I´ve ever seen. The rooms are fantastic, hot water, kitchen use, book exchange, rooftop terrace, movie lounge, etc...and it´s really cheap. I plan on looking to see if they accept volunteers, or offer discounted rates if I stay there for the long term. I´m also looking into a cheap homestay so I can practice my Spanish, but that has yet to be decided.

However, things are going okay in Bua. I´m starting to figure out what they react to as far as what they like doing, etc. It´s still weird because I´m not so sure what they need me for outside of supervision. I´m thinking if I can get them to perform by either the end of next week or the week after that, I feel like that would be a good time to call it a project. I did have fun beating on a drum while Richard (the only student who responds to questions) played marimbas and the other students danced.

My project is going okay, and the community is really pretty and I like walking, but as I said the last time, I´m not speaking much Spanish, and there´s really nothing to do in Bua, and I hate Santo Domingo. It´s an affair that´s expensive and not worth it.

Also, I have concluded that I am, have been, and always will be a city person. If I can find something worthwhile in Quito, I´m going to do it, and might actually wind up saving money. We´ll see how it goes. Until next time, ta ta!

Guaya-killin´ Time

Well, in a drastic improvement over Santo Domingo, we arrived in Guayaquil last night at around 10pm.

Things are getting a little awkward in Bua. First of all, because we are cooking for ourselves (at the request of the family), we don´t eat our meals with them, and our contact with the family (in other words, Spanish) is a little limited. Plus, all of the other volunteers (except for a new, very unhappy seeming girl) have left, so no one is at the cultural center; even if we spent more time there, apparently it is very much a split group, with volunteers on one side of the table and locals on the other. The cultural exchange that we think we would get apparently does not exist.

We go to the school two days a week, for about an hour each day. I´m getting a little worried about my class; the group seems not to have any interest whatsoever in the class. I have one kid who answers every question I ask, and it is only through him that anyone else in the class does anything. I´m wondering if they actually want to be there. Though, to be honest, their music is less than stellar...

I really like Guayaquil. Despite not being the capital, it is the largest city in Ecuador. It is also their center of commerce, and their ¨central park¨ is the massive, beautiful Malecon 2000, an urban waterfront renewal project. It has so much cool stuff to see. In addition, there is a cool little historic district/neighborhood called Las Peñas, where there are also lots of little cool shops and bars and restaurants.

We are thinking that we will try to travel on the weekends; after all, we have school only Tuesday and Thursday, with lots of time off to do other things. There´s just really nothing to do in Bua- everyone our age is married with children, and all the men do is get uselessly drunk and play pool. Not very good to practice Spanish. Fortunately, our favorite toilet town (santo domingo) has a bus terminal, and we can get to all of the best places in Ecuador: Guayaquil (here now), Quito, I think we can go back to Otavalo if we wanted, Ibarra, Baños, and Cuenca. I´m really excited about the last two, they seem like a lot of fun.

Anyway, I will post more as more things happen. Ta ta!

In Bua

Well, Friday, after many days of waiting and setbacks, we finally left the civilization that is Quito to take our posts in Bua.

We left from the Yanapuma office as part of a cavalcade of Gringos once again and were finally on the Santo Domingo bound bus, that had people sitting on stools in the aisles and standing in the aisles. When we finally got to Santo Domingo de los Colorados, I was kind of taken aback by the fact that it is the shithole that Andy said it was. To my eyes, it very much resembles the final outpost of humanity in a post apocolyptic world. All I saw was half abandoned, half constructed urban desolation and a road that was supposed to be worked on but was just in the stage between destruction and reconstruction.

A cab ride down a single road littered with potholes the size of bomb craters later, we reached the home of la familia Wilson, where we will be staying during our time in Bua.

They let us stay in their little Casita, and, with our own stove, they are letting us cook for ourselves at a discounted rate, because the last volunteers they had were vegans who refused to eat anything that was prepared. Score one for Monkey and Noodle.

Our stay in Bua so far has been pretty good for the most part, except for the torrents of mosquitos. On Saturday, we went to Santo Domingo to buy some supplies like pots, a pan, a mosquito net and pillows. Alas, the only mosquito net available is hot pink with flowers and smiling bees on it. I have concluded that this is from the Third World Barbie collection. Not too sure how well it works...

Saturday night was fun, we played some pool and talked with some of the locals. Things certainly are different here. People get married REALLY young, and it´s totally normal to have at least one kid by the age of 20. Craziness....

Anyway, Sunday, Michelle and I spent most of the day looking for and hanging out at the cultural center at Shinopi. We must have asked 7 different people where Shinopi was, and the second to last time that we did so, we found out that we had overshot our destination by a 20-30 minute walk, and our destination is an hour´s walk from our house. We gave up on trying to find it after being led to the 2nd river where everyone said it was- there was nothing that let us know WHERE the center was. So, we decided to find a place in the river to bathe.

As we were walking through the river, someone saw us and our pale skin and concluded correctly that we were looking for the cultural center. We followed him up the river bank to the cultural center and sat down to hang out.

After a while a truck load full of new volunteers, all English except for one from California, unloaded at the center, and we had a nice introduction and whathave you. In addition, we ate the best bananas and oranges I´ve ever had, mainly because they were picked fresh from the trees. After a while we walked back to the house.

Monday, we woke up and Michelle concluded that she was either getting a cold or allergies, and we decided that this would be a great day to visit the Shaman, after meeting with Guillermo, the director of the school.

After our meeting, we found a Tsa´chila man and he said that we could get a ride to the Shaman with someone. After 20 minutes of the men trying to decide how to write something on a poster or what pen to use, we were shown into a truck, and the truck dropped us off at a house. We asked what we were supposed to do at this point, and he just left. Great. Fortunately we caught the bus and took it to the cultural center where we found out that we WERE at the Shaman´s house (and turns out the Shaman is more of a Sham), but then someone said he would take us to a lady in the next town over who knows about medicine and herbs and could help her. We went there on the back of a truck, and she gave us some pills and a recipe to make a type of lemonade that would help.

We went back to the center and finally washed up in the river. It is very nice to be clean. also hung out a little bit with the other volunteers, and took the bus back to our house. We made the tea, and in addition to being really tasty, actually helped Michelle´s breathing a little bit.

Tuesday we went to the school for a round meeting with the director, and I learned the true depth of my project. I, along with a British flautist whose only here for 2 weeks and speaks like no Spanish, are building the music program from basically nothing, with the help of the few people who know how to play the instruments. It´s a little daunting.

Also, I really have no experience in teaching outside of my few months with HAP. So, I´m going to be talking with Hugh, a British teacher, about classroom organization, and researching stuff on line. It´s a little scary, but it´s basically what I signed up for. Don´t know how I feel about that yet, hahahaha.

We´re in Santo Domingo right now, researching, and we´re also going to be getting some more fruit and veggies, which aren´t really available (bananas excluded) in Bua. Looks like to buy food we´ll be coming out here 1-2 times per week, so it might be more frequent you read these.

¡TTFN!

Times in Quito

Hey everyone,

I know it´s been a while, I´m sorry, it´s been very busy.

Spanish lessons are going very well, my teacher is really good, and even took me and Michelle and her teacher into the city to walk around and see the historic sites. It´s such an amazingly awesome historical city that you can spend a long time there.

Then, Friday night, we hopped the trolley and then the bus and went out to Otavalo.

Otavalo is a mostly indigenous city in Ecuador that is best known for its world-famous artesania market. Sure enough, it deserves its world famous status. The market happens every day in the central town square, but on Saturdays, the market spills out for blocks in every direction, with people selling everything from handmade alpaca hats to jewelry to musical instruments.

Lots of fun practical things were bought (Including a llama sweater with hood), and I redeemed my Graduation present- Michelle bought me a guitar and a case for when we´re traveling. This guitar is very nice and was probably the least expensive guitar we found- yet it still sounded better than most other ones I´ve tried. It sounds fantastic!

We then went to a bar to check out some live musica foklo´rica. The band was really awesome, and the energy of such music reminds me a little bit of punk rock, if you can believe that.

We came back to Quito on Sunday, and resumed normal activities on Monday. Unfortunately, Michelle got sick that day. She´s better now, but we suspect it may have been food poisoning from the gringo restaurant downstairs. It figures...after all, they put the toppings UNDER the cheese...AMERICAN cheese...on the pizza...the one bloody gringo place we go to....

We went to the doctor on Tuesday, she got some medication, and she´ll be fine...she´s already better and even smiley :)

Anywho, we learned today that we might be going out to Bua by next Wednesday. It would be wonderful if this is the case.

The homestay is going pretty well, good for practicing Spanish, and for the occasional foray into trashy American TV. Rarely, but it´s there. Also, it´s good for the food. She´s a really good cook, and even lets us cook our own breakfast, but we´ve concluded that she doesn´t fully comprehend "vegetarian"- She´s offered us sausage at least once, and I found a piece of what appeared to be chicken gristle or something meat-like in my soup last night. That being said, we´ve actually eaten quite well, and I have few culinary complaints. I have concluded that a fantastic addition to a breakfast is a croissant with either this milk/vanilla/caramel type spread or jelly, with a banana. This is especially fantastic, because the only thing I need for lunch is a bag of peanuts...I feel as if I am turning into an elephant considering the amount of mani´ or cacahuates that I eat these days.

Anyway, I think that´s about all I have for this addition of...

JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF EVERYWHEREEEEEEEEE (cue really bad dramatic music)

Ecuador time!

So, after getting bumped off our Ecuador flight, getting waylayed in Bogota and receiving a free flight voucher, we made it safely to Quito last night.

We took a cab to our homestay house, and today we are going to begin our Spanish lessons at the Yanapuma Spanish school.

Our homestay seems very nice, they let us cook for ourselves this morning, which is most excellent.

Anyway, we´ll be here for roughly a week, and there´s internet access at the Spanish school, so updates may be small but frequent.

Cheers!

Ecuador Eve...

Well, here it is, the ass end of our Central American travels! Tomorrow, at 1025 in the morning, we take off from San Jose, Costa Rica, and should be landing in Quito, Ecuador by around 130...Pretty exciting, huh...

Let´s recap.

The show on Sunday was actualy pretty cool, it made me really happy to see that this music connects with people across linguistic barriers, like I know almost all music does.

It also made me feel like an old friggin´geezer!

Yesterday we walked around San Jose. It´s a pretty cool city, and MUCH more developed than ANYWHERE we´ve been so far.

Today we hit up a few museums, though the highlight of our excursion was by far the Children´s Museum. There were so many amazing, Hands-on exhibits, that, were I a mere 8 years old, I could have spent the whole day there and not have a care in the world. Exhibits included an AIRPLANE and a HELICOPTER. Jealousy from my internal 8year old rings loud...

Anyway, the Central American experience has been very positive. I definately feel more confident in my Spanish skills (but could always use more), and feel like I will do alright in Ecuador which has me really excited.

Anyway, there are lots of highlights and I will discuss them now...

Suchitoto, El Salvador- While looking for a hostel that may or may not still exist, we were approached by the matriarch of a new one. She gave us a good rate and cooked us some really excellent food. We also found bagels here, and hung out in a bar owned by a former FMLN guerila.

On a similar note is Perquin, the former FMLN headquarters, where we received a tour from a former guerilla, of the revolutionary museum.

Xela, Guatemala- The home stay made this a highlight, not to mention that the city as a whole radiates a really cool, authentic vibe.

Snorkeling in Bocas Del Toro, Panama- I snorkeled on a coral reef. That´s all I need to say. Add to that, running into two people that I had some degree of connection to- had a class with one of them, and shared a hometown with the other. Craziness.

Volcano boarding in Leon- I slid down a volcano. I SLID DOWN A VOLCANO. And hurt myself in the process...

Now lets talk about the food....

El Salvador had by far the best food all around. First of all, PUPUSA is the word. Greasy, yes, but cheesey and oh so delicious...get one with beans, add some hot sauce, and you just spent less than $.35 on food that will fill you for at least a few hours.

Also, the owner of our hostel in Suchitoto made quite possibly the most fantastic pasta sauce in the world. Simple, consisting solely of tomato and garlic, yet AMAZING.

Also springs to mind is the Torta de Chaco, which Rodrigo treated us to when we first arrived in San Jose...simply put, one of the best sandwiches I´ve eaten.

Gallo Pinto- let´s talk about this staple food throughout Central America...basically, it´s just rice and beans in some sort of mix, arrangement, or weird ass mold. Simple, but when you get it fresh and well seasoned, and maybe with a bit of salsa picante, delicious is the only word that comes to mind.

And, while I don´t really consider Bocas Del Toro part of the real Central American experience, we had some really tasty Carribbean style food, from Lili´s veggie special and veggie plate (with garlic bread) doused in their Killin´me Man! pepper sauce, to the vegetarian carribbean cuisine whipped up by some crazy rasta, Oh man, was it delicious.

And we never got sick, knock on wood. Also, America needs to do something about its juice problem. They make it much better here. They put fresh fruit, some water and maybe some sugar into a blender and make it into one fresh fruit licuado. And it´s cheaper than soda almost 100% of the time. And it´s better for you, none of those preservatives. Tamarindo and Pineapple, I think make the best licuados....

Anyway, that´s the roundup of Central America. WHen I can, I´ll begin to keep tabs on South America. Until then, I have to slog my way through airport hell tomorrow...

Costa Rica

Hello,

I´m currently at an internet cafe in Guadalupe, Costa Rica, waiting for a hardcore show to get started, which is pretty exciting.

We´re staying at the home of Michelle´s friend´s father, and it´s quite a nice situation for us. It´s surprisingly cold here!!!

Anyway, Boquete and David, Panama both decided to be rather uneventful, but our hostel in David made it much more fun. We leave for Ecuador in just a few days, which is equally scary and exciting.

Isadora (Our friend/coworker)´s family is really nice, and have been taking care of us quite nicely. I´m really enjoying this time, it´s pretty relaxing in between two doses of potential insanity (the traveling down through CA and the volunteering). Other than that, it´s not too eventful, and everything is going pretty well. Ta ta for now!!!

Sunburnt in Panama

So, Bocas continues to be a wonderful place, but tomorrow we are probably leaving for David, on the main land. Anyway, pictures from Leon until today are in the process of being posted. To all who see them my head is fine, it healed over, and you can't even tell I hurt myself...

Anyway, let's do a rundown of Bocas.

We got here the other night, had some tasty dinner, and went out to several of the local bars and met lots of really fun, nice people. Yesterday, we didn't do too much, we kind of took it easy, mainly because today was the big day.

At 9:30 this morning we got on a boat that left the harbor for an all day boat tour, complete with two stops to snorkel two coral reefs HOLY CRAP it was awesome. In addition, we also made an extended stop at Red Frog Beach. I'd never seen the Caribbean before, and the water really is as blue as everyone says, and the water was very nice temperature. The waves were insane for body boarding so I had quite the great time.

We got back to the town, and had dinner, which brings us up to speed. We need to figure out exactly how we're getting to David or Boquete, and from there it's on to Costa Rica for a few days.

that's all for today! Tune in next time, Same Bat-Channel, but there's no consistent Bat-time.

PANAMA!!!

So, I´m in Panama!

I didn´t expect to make it here, but we´d been running ahead of schedule most of the trip, which is pretty cool, so we decided to make it down to Panama. Our arrival here was much quicker also because Costa Rica, specifically Cahuita, was way too expensive. It was a great decision- Bocas del Toro is gorgeous.

Nicaragua continued to be a l0t of fun. We met some really cool people in the form of an Austrian couple named Kevin (mohawked former tank commander) and Marita- we swapped tips of where we´ve been so far and where each of us should go- we stayed up late talking two nights, and even went to see ¨Super Agente 86 (get smart)¨ together- hilarious even in Spanish.

We also went volcano boarding- pictures will be posted, that´s all I will say.

Afterwards, we went to Masaya, which was a pretty, small place, that had a great market. It was fun- I bought a Sandino shirt.

Then, we went to supposedly touristy Granada. It was really pretty and not as touristy as we´d expected. We were glad we went. The colonial streets and buildings are so pretty.

After Granada, we went to the Isla de Ometepe for a few days. We toured a nature reserve on one day, and the next we went volcano climbing. We went up about 1,000 meteres to the lookout point- WOW.

For another day in a row we woke up unreasonably early in order to catch the boat to the mainland, and from the mainland to the Costa Rica border. Everything went pretty smoothly, and we got to San Jose in time to catch the bus to Cahuita. We spent one night in Cahuita, and decided to high-tail it to Bocas, which we did today.

2 bus rides and a boat later, we are here. It´s so beautiful, we might go snorkeling tomorrow. It´s really quite amazing and I´m glad we made it.

That´s all for today, alas, there is no Desert Island Discs installment today. Tune in next time!

Pictures!

So I managed to get a bunch of pictures uploaded onto a photobucket account which you can view at www.photobucket.com/ayonki . Enjoy!

Nicaragua Day 2

I have come to the conclusion that the great Herculean task for all those traveling with an interest in taking pictures and posting them on various networking sites for their friends to see, is the task of actually being able to post these pictures on line. I have found, for the past near two hours, that it is impossible to get 250-plus photos onto any website in a reasonable amount of time. It is even more impossible to actually get ONE of those posted AT ALL on some sites. I am running out of space on my camera, and I really do want all of you to see the cool stuff I´ve seen, but I ask that you please be patient to see new pictures. That is all for today.

Nicaragua

Hello friends,

I am writing this blog from an internet cafe in Leon, Nicaragua. We got here early this morning after spending a night in San Miguel, a night in Perquin, and a night in Guasaule.

San Miguel was rather uneventful. There´s not a whole lot to do in the town, and we got there as the market was winding down. We left the next morning for Perquin.

Perquin was really cool. It was the headquarters of the leftist guerilla organization FMLN, and they still have a major presence there, which is cool. Former guerillas give tours of El Museo de la Revolucion Salvadoreno. That has some really cool stuff, and a lot of sad stuff about all of the human rights violations at the hands of the (US and Reagan supported) Salvadoran army and government. We bought a few Spanish books, and the Abuela who ran the store gave us a few bracelets as a gift.

The next morning we made the trek to El Mozote, site of the 1981 massacre of (depending on who you talk to) where all 757 to 1000 of its residents were executed by the Atlacatl battallion. It was very moving, and angering.

We started the walk back (no bus for another 4 hours or so), and found ourselves in the middle of an amazing view- a dirt road in the mountains of El Salvador. Then we hitched a ride on a flatbed truck- I rode on the bed...full of rocks.

Back at the hostel we decided to try our luck with getting to Nicaragua that night. We took 3 buses to get to the Honduras/Salvador border, then another shuttle for the Honduras/Nicaragua border. We got there late, and stayed in a hotel.

This morning we took the shuttle to Chinandega, Nicaragua, and from there to Leon, and we´ve been chilling out here. We might actually head out to a beach nearby at some point, but we´ll see what happens. I´ve been looking forward to Nicaragua since the beginning of the journey, so I have high hopes. It should be good.

Anyway, moving on to today´s edition of Desert Island Discs...

I haven´t thought about this in a while, namely because I haven´t really been listening to a hell of a lot of music, but here goes.

It may be only a short EP and not necessarily reflective of all this band can do, but I will have to give mention to Jar of Fies by Alice in Chains. Cantrell and Staley realized, I´m guessing, that their haunting harmonies would be even better served by the introduction of acoustic based songs with electric guitar flourishes. There´s none of the bludgeoning riffage of Man in the Box or Them Bones, but the strings in I Stay Away and the moody acoustic riff of Rotten Apples weigh nearly equally with those two AIC classics. It also features one of my favorite Jerry guitar solos, which is in one of my favorite vocal performances and favorite songs of all time, Nutshell. They managed to capture what it would feel like to be in a nutshell- claustrophobic, depressed, and looking for some way out.

Alice in Chains is an interesting heavy rock-metal band, in that there´s something competing with electric guitars for center stage. Cantrell and Staley´s voices mesh so well that they almost seem to be connected mentally, and that the voice of one was made to be heard with the other. Give a listen to No Excuses and I Stay Away to find out for yourself. You owe it to you to hear this record.

Once again, comment on what you feel is necessary. Thanks for reading!

El Salvador

Michelle and I got very lucky the other day. We high-tailed it out of Xela on a bus that took us all the way to Guatemala City. Crazy as things are, our cab got to the bus terminal in Guate roughly five minutes before the bus to San Salvador left. A few hours later we were in San Salvador, surrounded by American fast-food chains and bad air.

After a night sleeping on the most heinous mattress I´ve ever experienced, we checked out the city of San Salvador. Choked with traffic, it did have some very cool buildings, specifically the two churches we went into. One of them held the tomb of Monsignor Oscar Romero, the famous liberation theologist archbishop. Unfortunately, it was closed at the time. Stuff closes here from 12-2, I´m pretty sure for the lunch hour.

We did, however, manage to make it out to the Universidad Centroamerica to visit el Centro Monseñor Romero, which was really cool and really kind of messed up, just finding out the history of what happened. The building was in the former quarters of six Jesuit priests, their cook and her daughter, who were all slaughtered by Salvadoran forces during the civil war.

The next day we walked to the Museo de la Palabra y Imagen, or museum of the word and image. It had lots of realy cool exhibits, most of which referred to Latin American civil wars. They even had a whole exhibit dedicated to the FMLN´s radio station that broadcast during the war, which was really cool.

Yesterday we took a bus from San Salvador to Suchitoto, which is a really pretty city. It´s nice and small, and our hostel has a view of the lake. ¡Que´ bonito! The hostel also has food, so we´ve eaten pretty well here, including some of the best pasta I´ve ever had. Not to mention the jugo de tamarindo. Doesn´t look to appetizing, but sooo delicious.

Anyway, we have concluded that tomorrow we´re going to head to San Miguel, then from San Miguel to Perquin and El Mozote, to visit some important sites from the civil war. Including, a little less happy and more sobering, the village of El Mozote. El Mozote is a village where, in 1981 (very early in the war), the US-trained Atlacatl Battallion executed all but one of its nearly 800 residents. They found 143 bodies, and 131 of those were children. I found out about this event and this village while at the School of the Americas protest back in November.

I think that El Salvador, as a place, may be my favorite place so far, just for all of the history involved with it. It doesn´t hurt that it has some of the most beautiful country I´ve seen so far.

It´s also hotter than a bloody oven here.

I think it´s time for another installment of Desert Island Discs with Yonki!

Today, we shall discuss a recent acquisition that has immediately skyrocketed to my top 5 of all time slot. I am talking about the Copper Blue album by Sugar.

Although I am a huge fan of Bob Mould´s work in Husker Du, I think this album represents his best work. While it doesn´t have the raw hardcore urgency of albums like Zen Arcade or New Day Rising, it has some of the best pop melodies I have ever heard. On top of all of this, and some very good lyric-writing, is some of the catchiest guitar work, and some of Bob´s finest electric-guitar ripping. It has another one of my favorite songs of all time, and that being ¨Helpless,¨an extraordinarily catchy one. I recommend this album without giving any warnings of need-to-get used to vocals, or market it as an acquired taste. It´s amazing, and I demand all fans of melodic rock music to buy it right now.

Out of our Xela...

Well, today is our last full day in Xela. We´re finishing up our Spanish lessons, and will be saying goodbye to our homestay mother early tomorrow morning. She was very nice, and cooked us really good vegetarian meals.

Spanish lessons went very well- the subjunctive still sucks though.

Our probable next step is Guatemala City, which should only be a jumpoff for El Salvador.

Now, to continue with what I started before I left and the desert island discs...

First of all, I must mention that I was talked into buying the London Calling album on Christmas Day 1999, by my Uncle Pat, when I was a mere 14 years old. I had just gotten my first pair of Doc Martens, as then I was only a budding young punk, whose sole knowledge of the style was that it was fast and loud. London Calling changed that, all for the better. Thanks Uncle Pat. I eventually repaid him by getting him a London Calling t-shirt...from London.

Anyway, onto today´s entry.

I know a lot of Fear Factory fans, and a vast majority of them tell me that their favorite FF album is Demanufacture. With all due respect, that´s a great album, but I would have to go with Obsolete.

My reason is this. Concept albums are typically hard to follow and often border on cheesiness more intense than a birthday party in middle school. The boys in FF managed to avoid this by creating a science fiction futuristic hell where it kind of resembles Terminator. Musically, they managed to forge the perfect alloy of cold industrial machinery with organic melodicism, ambience and emotion.
Burton C. Bell´s vocals are at their best in both respects- brutal shouts that give way to a world weary howl, Dino´s guitar work is atmospheric yet punishing, the synth effects are always well placed, and the rhythm section of Christian and Ray will kick the ass of any drum machine. I dare any programmer or hotshot drummer to come up with anything that sounds as cool as the drum salvos in ¨Shock.¨

This album also contains one of my favorite songs of all time. The second-to-last track of the storyline, Resurrection features the most dramatic shift from such a minimalist arrangement during the verses (lone synth pad, Burton´s lonely, isolated, almost imprisoned vocals) to absolute brutality- Burton goes from a sing to a scream in the same word. Yes.

Anyway, this album still stands the test of time for me- it sounds nothing like the nu metal that it was lumped in with. It also represents, to me, the perfect fusion of mechanical and human in music and lyrics.

Xela-Shocked

So, Antigua kind of sucked. Our hostel was nice, but it was expensive, and the presence of so many English-speaking tourists pissed us off, so we decided to head to the highlands, specifically El Lago de Atitlan.

Despite the torrential rain and hellish bus ride (ok, so it wasn´t that bad), it was obviously a beautiful place. We arrived at Panajachel, and decided that it would be a good idea to head to San Pedro La Laguna, with the promise of cheap rooms.

It was true, rooms were pretty cheap. We discovered this after a 25 minute boat ride across the lake in torrential downpour, but it was a lot of fun. We hung out for the day, walking around, taking things in. We decided to catch the happy hour at the local bar, which was also showing The Bucket List. It was funny. We then had another drink, and went back to our small room for the night.

We woke up the next morning, freezing, and went to another hotel with even cheaper rates. It was a really cool looking place. I felt kind of nasty so I slept for a few more hours. I woke up to meet an Italian backpacker and a local Guatemalan man. We hung out with them for a while, then planned our next move (to Xela- pronounced SHE-la). We were then joined by a second Guatemalan man, and I wound up talking almost solely in Spanish for the rest of the day. It was actually realy good practice. I had a conversation with the one guy about Megadeth (IN SPANISH!) and tried to explain the use of the word ¨groove¨. It was really funny.

Today we took an early shuttle from San Pedro to Xela. When we got here, we decided it would be a good idea to stick around for a little while and take a few Spanish lessons. We got a really good rate on 20 hours of lessons and a home-stay, and even have opportunities to do some volunteer work. Plus, Xela seems to have a really good live music scene, so I´m really looking forward to spending some time here. The weather is a lot nicer- there´s not nearly as much rain, and I even saw blue skies today.

We even ran into our Irish friends from the Copan Ruinas- I think Xela may turn out to be a lot of fun.

Until Next Time,

¡Adios!