lutes...who needs em?

May 6, 2006

ok, so i,m really really behind...i,m recovering from a tequila binge last night...the lute fell off the chikin bus...the banana revolutionaries are starting to desert...not a good day...

(at right, the Santa Cruz docks)

so, after the last email, i think i was in guatemala and jake had just left (it feels like i,m writing for daytime television). anyway, after jake took off i spent the next 2 weeks hanging out by lake atitlan, enjoying having a homebase for a little while and getting to know some locals. san pedro is full of expats who work in or own many of the bars, restaurants and hostels in town. it,s a bit of a modern-day hippieville, lots of dreads and patchouli (hacky sack anyone?), complete with some old hold-overs who look and act as though they,ve been there burning themselves out for decades...

while in san pedro i took another week of spanish classes, this time to learn past and imperfect tenses. despite my confidence from my first round of classes and drunken efforts at chatting up various folks, i found these classes to be more difficult and they only served to allow me to make an even bigger ass of myself.





(above the gardens of the spanish school)

my days in san pedro were pretty routine. wake up at around 10 a.m. or so, head over to my favorite place to get coffee each day before class, where i,d sit out on a dock overlooking the lake going over my notes for class (or doing my homework at the last minute). run one, and only one, errand (say laundry, or food, or a TP run or whatever), go to class from 1 - 5 p.m. head home, chat with my neighbor for an hour on the patio sipping rum and cokes, then go down to my favorite place for dinner where i,d see all the degenrates i,d met. catch a movie, play poker or drink beers till around midnight, bedtime and start it all over again the next day. tough life.

(at right, view down the main drag in San Pedro)






(below left, the view from breakfast; right, arnie (and friend) at jaarachik)





(mi casa in san pedro; shooting pool)

the best part of my time in san pedro was catching the beginning of semana santa during my last 2 days in town. for those who don,t know, semana santa is a huge deal in central america and mexico (and, to varying degrees, all of latin america). officially it is the week prior to easter, and it consists of a series of processions and other community activities to celebrate good friday and easter. each community puts its own spin on the festivities, but some common themes include the parades, several different high masses and traditional dress.


(above, an alformba)

another common practice is to create what are called alformbas across the streets where the parades will pass, which are huge carpet-like mats of flowers, pine needles and other natural decorations (including fruits, vegetables, wood, etc.) taken from the surrounding area and used to make elaborate designs and religious symbols. i know its difficult to envision without a picture [edit - there are now several below], but they are amazingly colorful and elaborate. i spent the wednesday afternoon before easter walking around and watching the alformbas being made, as well as other decorations being set up around the village. the monday prior to easter you could already feel the effect of the coming holiday. sorta like the run up to thanksgiving or christmas, each day that went by more businesses were closed, more people were out on the street in the afternoon and at night, families spending time together. by wednesday morning the entire town had a very festive feel to it.



that night i went up to watch the first procession, which is for the children to participate in and it was really special to see. the parade was led by men carrying huge wooden noisemakers that they would set up every few hundred yards or so and then crank into a huge racket. they were followed by groups of children, boys and girls separate, organized by perhaps their barrio or their school year. each group signified by the same colored shirts, the girls in traditional skirts and blouses and the boys in pants and polos. later came a group of older women wrapped up in handwoven blankets and singing various hymns, complete with a 10-piece band. as the procession moved on, an older man in traditional mayan highland dress banged a gigantic drum. he was closely followed by what appeared to be the 3 major religious items, which consisted of large wooden boxes draped over with tons of decorations, one topped by jesus on the cross, another by mary, and another by some other figure i can,t recall. there were a dozen or so people carrying each one and they walked right over the alformbas, completely trashing them. we were told later that they do this so that each person involved in making the alformbas would receive a blessing, and the next day a new group of people would rebuild them for the next procession and receive their blessing, etc.


after the lake i headed north to mexico to spend a couple of weeks with peggy in oaxaca and chaipas. the night peggy landed at the airport there, she was befriended by a local family who helped her get to her hotel. i was supposed to meet her at the airport but i had missed a connecting bus the night before due to a change in the clocks in mexico for daylight savings a few days before. disclaimer - i was NOT on harman-time! guatemala, where i came from, does not observe daylight savings so the clocks there had stayed the same when i was leaving the country.

anyway, a couple of days later we met up with the family for dinner and to watch a showcase of traditional dancers from the various regions in oaxaca. the costumes were very colorful and the show was terrific, and at one point peggy and i were dragged on stage, where i did my best gringo-dancer impression in front of 100 people. afterwards, we all went down to the town square and sang traditional mexican songs with a mariachi band while throwing back beers well into the night.

we spent about 3-4 days sight-seeing and soaking up the culture in oaxaca city and then headed to the beaches near puerto angel on the pacific. the drive down through the sierra madre mountains was quite interesting - 14 people crammed into a large chevy suburban flying down hairpin turn after hairpin turn for 4 hours while the driver had one hand and both eyes on the lovely lady passenger sitting next to him in the front seat that he,d picked up at the start of the journey. needless to say we were all pretty green by the time we got to our destination (the views were nice though). thankfully though, once at the beach we had 3 perfect days of sun, surf and lounging, topped off each night by delicious dinners of fresh fish for only $6 a plate.

incidentally, on the way to the airport to head back to oaxaca (we were not taking that minivan again) the taxi we were in got t-boned by a huge bus - the cab was totaled - but somehow we got out with only minor bumps and bruises. another check on the list of typical 3d world travel stories.

after peggy left on april 23rd, i stopped in san cristobal chiapas for a couple of days and had some fun checking out the local music scene, as well as taking a journey to a large national park in a deep river-filled canyon near the guatemalan border. spent one night hanging out with the mexican dood who managed the hostel. after the bars closed he insisted i hop in a taxi with him for "uno mas", and then he took me to a place where all the girls had names like "star" or "angel" and wanted their drinks bought for them. i politely declined but then had to wait around by myself for an hour getting stared at by every chachi and joni in the joint while he made friends since we were miles outside town and i had no idea how to get home.

spent the last week hanging out back at lake atitlan in guate at a small village called santa cruz. stayed at a hostel with an awesome group of people, where i managed to spend my days playing ultimate frisbee, hiking in the surrounding mountains, swimming in the lake, taking in some sauna time (also got in a freshwater high-altitude dive - sweet!) or just lounging around reading a book. the highlights were the completely mad costume parties the place hosts on the weekends - these would have rivaled the E.13th days, no joke - lots of fun and some fantastic photo ops. good times all the way around...

and now i,m off to go haggle in the market and get completely ripped off buying stuff i don,t need...

harmano

minstrel life, part dos

April 2, 2006


hello again, this time from san pedro guatemala, on the shores of the stunning lake atitlan (at right, think tahoe south). although it,s extremely tough to type an email when you are sitting right next to a pristine crater lake nestled deep in the western highlands of guatemala, i was able to make it through. please dont feel badly for me (ha).

so, to recap the last few weeks, i,ll try to be as brief as possible, but my apologies up front if this drags on way too long...

after spending a full two weeks in granada nicaragua studying spanish, i left with a big group of people to visit the island of ometepe in the middle of lago cocibolca (incidentally the largest freshwater lake in central america and home to the only freshwater sharks in the world). there were at least 20 of us and as i think i mentioned to some already, we would have made the UN proud: irish, israelis, canadians (including frenchies), english, norwegians, germans, italians, 1 other american and a completely mad scotsman.

the last night in granada was fun as we all ended up at a bar arm-wrestling each other a la over the top -- "when i turn this hat backwards it,s like flipping a switch" -- yeah baby! goat of the night went to this guy seamus, who got beat by every man woman, child and dog in the place. we watched the sun come up over the lake and then collapsed for a few hours before gearing up for the next leg.

the next day all made the long trek and boat ride over to the island on a little tiny tug jammed (and i mean to the rim) full of people. the waves on the lake are quite large due to incessant winds, and we pitched and rolled the entire way. i,m not usually someone who gets nervous or sick on boats but this was the sketchiest ride i,ve ever been on. needless to say many of us were green by the time we got to the other side. (at right, el capitan)


ometepe is an island composed of two extinct volcanos (sorta like maui, but much smaller) that can be hiked, along with some nice beaches on the shore of the lake. it,s a very quiet and isolated place, which is part of the attraction. but it also made it difficult for all of us to find accomodation in the same place as most of the guesthouses are very small. to top it off the roads are quite bad and so it takes hours to get anywhere. (below, at left, a view of the northern peak of ometepe; at right, looking for accomodation)


after searching around in the heat the entire afternoon, getting rejected from 3 or 4 places, we stumbled onto a small family-run hacienda that just happened to have 20 mattresses we could lay out on their patio. we were all so relieved to have finally found a place to stay that we all dropped our bags and ran into the lake, swimming and watching the sunset from the waves. after dinner a couple of the irish guys found a place that sold local moonshine and well, you can imagine where that went. it was a hell of a sight to see everyone on the patio in neat little rows of mattresses passed out in various positions and contortions.

(right, a view out to the lake just after sunset)


the next day our group got smart and split up so we could all get decent accomodation. i went with a small crew over to a place called balgue near the smaller of the volcanos, named maderas. (as an aside, nicaragua has a TON of tarantulas. the first time i saw one was in the bathroom of a bar in granada. since then i,ve seen them in the showers, in the rooms and just about everywhere else. they are as big as they look on tv)


at balgue we hiked the volcano, which was very cool. it,s not a very long hike, maybe 3000 feet of vertical, but it,s steep and it rains all the time at the top, so by the half way point we were basically climbing up a narrow muddy stream, which made for very slow going. on the ascent we kept hearing these loud moans and grunts and couldn,t figure out where the noise was coming from. a few kilometers later we discovered the source -- a family of howler monkeys. very cool, and i had no idea they could be so loud. it,d be interesting to put them up against me marno and stacey in a crowded bar.

anyway, at the top of madera there is a lagoon in the base of the old crater. when we arrived we could barely see the water as clouds and mist swirled around, but then suddenly the winds blew back the fog like a curtain to reveal a stunning mountain lake framed by lush crater walls and the blue sky above...very beautiful and it made the hike worthwhile.



(the view from the guesthouse at majagual)

after ometepe we headed to a beach in southern nicaragua called bahia majagual. when we arrived it was everything i hoped it,d be....three beautiful huge beaches strung along rocky shores...amazing water and surf...and nobody there! the area is quite isolated and there are only two guesthouses on the entire stretch. combined with the locals who show up to surf and you might have 100 people on the whole scene. the main surf beach is comprised of a left right break with 6-8 foot waves coming in, the big sets at 10 feet. the other two beaches are mainly for swimming, one with the big waves crashing close to shore and the other with more manageable surf. the crew was at bahia majagual for 4 days and it was absolutely perfect. each day i,d get up around 10, eat breakfast and head down to the beach. body surf in the waves for a few hours, alternating with walks down to watch the surfers, some of whom are world class, pulling 360s and absolutely shredding. return to the beach near the hostel around 4, play volleyball until the sun is almost down, then go for a last swim to watch the sun melt into the water while floating on top of the waves. close out the night by having a delicious dinner of fresh fish and drinking cuba libres around a fire on the beach. of course someone had a guitar. wash rinse repeat.

(view of majagual)

st. pat,s at majagual was just fantastic with the irish, who had everyone decked out in tri-color ribbons. hung out a bit with a short salty-dog retired guy named sandino who was originally from san diego. he had a sandpaper voice and just got completely wasted and yelled insults at everyone but for some reason he became my best friend -- for those who know, he reminded me a lot of south padre maca....i cant say how many gallons of rum were thrown back that day but it was a crazy scene.


in the days at majagual i also caught my first few waves surfing -- yes! -- i sense a week at a surf camp sometime in my future. the kicker: all that with food, board rentals and booze for 4 days and 3 nights and it only cost me $75!

after majagual our big crew split up for the final time, some going south to costa rica and beyond and some north to el slavador honduras and guatemala. i headed up to leon nicaragua with the irish (rose, barry and ian -- just amazingly fun people). spent a couple of days in the sweltering heat recuperating from st. pat,s and then headed on to the beaches of el salvador.

el salvador is a wonderful place -- not as scenic as guatemala or costa rica perhaps, but because they don,t get nearly the flow of tourism that the other places do, everyone is very nice and interested in talking to you.

it,s been great stopping to talk with people here and there, whether on the buses, or at a little tienda or just asking for directions. even though some of the people are very poor they are super generous. one guy i sat next to on the way to el salvador saw us get on the bus and must have noticed how hot and tired we were because as i sat down he offered some of his food to me. i was grateful and was able to repay the favor with the big bottle of water i had. we sat there talking in spanish about our families and friends for a few hours till we got to the border. he told me he was on his way to work on a farm for a month in el salvador (over 200 kilometers from his home) so he could support his wife and two young children. he was excited that he stood to make $6 for a 12 hour day...sometimes you are just left speechless.

the chikin buses really are something to see -- bright multi-colored old blue bird buses like the ones we all rode to school growing up. they are usually packed to the gills, sweltering and they stop what seems to be every 100 yards to pick up or drop off. they are actually quite fun and add to the experience of the trip and provide a great opportunity to chat with locals. the only drawback is that every bus seems to be legally required to play regaeton music -- gas-o-line-aaa! -- at maxmimum volume, and of course each one has a sound system that is worth more than the entire bus and the driver wants you to know it. speaking of regaeton, if you dont know what i,m talking about consider yourself lucky. it feels like my brain leaks out of my head everytime i hear it. and of course there are only 5 regaeton songs that have ever been made....i now know the soundtrack in my own private hell.


on the way through el salvador, i passed through san salvador for one afternoon which is completely built up and almost like home -- mcdonalds, hilton hotel, modern conveniences etc. familiar but weird all at the same time. i also spent a night in san vincente, a small town outside of san sal. i hung out at a little bar stuffing my face with pupusas (delicious little soft tortillas filled with meat cheese and beans) and drinking beers with the owner, a guy named nico, who was in the army during the civil war. we chatted a bit about some of his experiences, which was very sobering.



(mmm.....pupusas)

i spent 2 days at playa sunzal, one of a string of sleepy little beach villages on the coast west of san salvador. the only people there are locals and surfers. the water is very warm in el salvador and again there was some really good surf, though not for beginners. (below, at a surf competition)


each night everyone at my guesthouse (8 of us) ate dinner at a little place across the street run by a grandmotherly woman named lenora and her friendly pitbull mona. she would homecook for us each night and sit round chatting with us in spanish and it gave us a little sense of home.



(me and mona, me and rose)


after el salvador i hitched a ride with an english couple up to antigua guatemala. antigua is a beautiful colonial town (the best i,ve seen yet) nestled in between 3 volcanos. it,s a bit cooler in the highlands of guatemala than in nicaragua which has been freshing. the only knock on antigua is that it,s totally gringoed out - basically it feels like times square or disney-guatemala. still, it is nice to see if even for a day or two. when i got to antigua i had my first truly hot shower in over a month and can,t tell you how much i enjoyed that.
(at right, a view of the city)

the day i arrived i found out that buena vista social club (or at least the three remaining guys and a huge supporting band) was playing in the city that night. also coincidentally ran into a couple of cool people i,ve been bumping into regularly on the road the last few weeks. it took no time at all to decide to see if we could get tickets. we headed over at 7:30 and (surprise surprise) the concert hadn,t even started yet, despite a listed 6:30 opener. let me tell you, after spending a month down here, "central american time" puts me and teter to shame.

anyway, the two opening bands were very cool and provided a great warmup for the crowd. the highlight though was buena vista of course, who came on at about 9:30 and played for a full three hours. the scene was fantastic: a cool night in the hills of guatemala underneath the stars, everyone dancing and singing and just having a blast. probably one of the best surprises of the trip so far and definitely a big checkplus on the to-do list.

more to tell and another email will be forthcoming as i,m about a week behind...and, since the revolution has fallen behind schedule, i have pushed the timetable to over throw my little banana patch back until may 20th. this does however give me more time to hone my lute skills...

hasta luego,
harman

below, maps of nicaragua, honduras and el salvador

the minstrel life

March 4, 2006

hola, de nicaragua.....i,m writing from granada today, where it,s very hot and humid. the only thing to do this afternoon is to sit in the common area of the pensione and wait out the sun (and sweat out my hangover). siesta was invented for a reason.




i know i,ve emailed some of you already with a few notes on my trip so far, but i wanted to send out something to everyone recapping the last couple of weeks, which have been awesome. it,s a bit long so if any of you choose not to read it and instead print it out for god knows what other uses, well then, go screw. seriously though, i,m no poet so my apologies in advance if it gets boring or seems repetitious. minstrels travel, not write. and play lutes too.

so here goes....




i started my trip in Costa Rica on 2-17, with Hal and Heller. To begin with, Costa Rica is a really scenic country, from tropical beaches to highland pastures to mountain rain forests, it,s got it all in a relatively small package, which makes it very accessible. we started out the first 3 days in playa del coco (the pacific coast of CR) to do some diving. on the dives we saw some very large sting rays and schools of hundreds of cow nosed rays (3 ft across) -- they blocked out the sun under the water! -- it was amazing. also a couple of white tip reef sharks, a seahorse, and large schools of jacks. (here we are in front of the dive shop)

Tres mas?
on monday we went from the pacific coast up into the mountains to see arenal volcano. we had quite an adventure on the drive up -- the roads, if you can call them that, are just dirt tracks with huge rocks and potholes. no joke but i dont think it,s actually possible to build a "road" and have it turn out as bad as these do.



(below, raccoons)



anyway, we had a couple of solid days as we stayed right literally next to the volcano and the day we checked in (mon) was clear so we got some amazing shots of the steam and smoke coming out of the top; we also heard it belching a little. or maybe that was just me.















next we went white water rafting. we learned a few things that day.....never go rafting when the river is too low. first off, you get stuck quite a bit which means you are not rafting so much as playing human pinball. secondly, don,t go with a guide who, before you start the trip, argues with the other 2 guides vehemently about who draws the short straw to take 6 people. bad idea. needless to say, we were 6 in our boat. finally, when your guide tells you to get down in the center of the boat going over a rapid, instead of paddling, don,t listen to him/her. completely ignore all commands, use your instincts and you,ll be fine.










(on the right, our fearless leader)

basically, we got stuck swamped and flipped in about the first 5 minutes of a 2 hour trip and that was a bit intense. we all swallowed a lot of water (which of course meets all environmental standards) and took the best water slide ride of our lives. luckily we came out with only some minor cuts bumps and bruises, hal especially. contrary to popular belief and standard physics principles, hal,s breasts did nothing to keep him above the water.

(the rafting crew)

wed we drove up further into the mountains and the scenery here was hillside cow pastures, very breezy and cool and steep rolling farm land. the locals wear cowboy hats. bueno.

we did some zip lines up in the forest, some over half a mile long and over 400 feet high. very big rush, especially for me and hal who are a little nervous about heights. i was surprised because hal didn,t try to remind me that he,s "taller" than me.


















Tres mas!


after the highlands we drove down the pacific coast to a national park called manuel antonio, which is a big nature preserve. the park is set on a peninsula and has lots of protected beaches and hiking trails that can be explored. we spent most of our days on one particular beach that was right out of a postcard.


it is difficult to capture in words, but try to imagine lounging on a pristine white sand beach under the shade of an overhanging branch of the jungle canopy just behind your shoulder, the gentle waves of clear bathwarm water lapping your feet, so salty you float in the cove for hours. picture also monkeys springing through the trees overhead, coming down to pose for a picture or, if you are not careful, to rummage through your bags, as a 2 foot iguana walks past your towel.







needless to say it was a really cool way to spend a few days, not to mention the bars there had nice happy hour specials.



one of the coolest parts of the trip occurred on the drive down to manuel antonio. about half way through a 5 hour drive we stopped on a bridge overlooking a shallow river. a quick jaunt from where our car was parked brought us on to the overpass and looking over the edge in amazement. below us were dozens of crocodiles of all sizes sunning themselves all around the bridge and on the shores of the river, ranging from one meter to over 15 feet long and over 1000 lbs.! we watched as the crocs wrestled with each other, hunted birds on the shore and swam in the river. it was something right out of the discovery channel; our jaws never got off the floor until we left an hour later.


on sunday i drove hal and brian to the airport in san jose and then headed in to the city for a day or so to catch up on sleep, get my bearings and set up my bus ride to nicaragua. san jose is a big city and while some parts are unsafe, it is not as notorious as some of the other central american capitals. the only drawback is that there is not much in the way of true tourist attractions in the city, so there was not much to occupy my time, other than getting my piss on early and often. i used my 2 days to catch up on few hours of sleep and emails, and to start the second phase of my trip.

anyway, after my uneventful start to the week, on tuesday i got up at 4:30 a.m. to catch my bus to granada nicaragua. till the day was all said and done, between travel time and the interminable border crossing, i finally got to my new hostel at 4 p.m. a LONG day.

granada itself is a really beautiful old colonial city next to lake nicaragua, which is a huge freshwater lake created by volcanos over many thousands of years. the old part of the city was founded in 1524 and retains a great deal of old architecture and character.








there are, as you might imagine, many many historic churches, one of which was converted into a museum on nicaraguan history and culture. i saw many petroglyphs dating to the ancient indigenous people who settled in the area starting around 1000 bc. not a shabby place to spend my beday, i have to say.



(above and left, the museum and petroglyphs)







the hostel i am staying in is fantastic. very cheap ($7-nt for a single room), really good food and music, and lots of interesting travelers. also an amazing kitchen. i thought id lose weight on this trip but i won,t so long as i am here. in the few days i,ve been here i,ve also met some locals as well -- i actually went to the opening night of a new bar right around the corner of the place i,m staying and was DJing for a little while.




(above, playing pool and bartime at the bearded monkey. at right, my spanish teacher anjelica)

the main reason i am here is to study spanish, and it was one of the things i have been looking forward to a great deal on my trip. my first classes were thursday and friday and my teacher is really great fun. bascially we just sit there shooting the shit in a combo of spanish and english. i am not sure if it,s the atmosphere of the city, or the friendliness of the people, but i feel very comfortable here and i think it is making it a little easier to learn than i thought it might be.



during my time here i plan on making a few day trips to some surrounding sights. tomorrow i am planning on hiking mombacho, a dormant volcano that sits a mere 10 kms from the city. there are supposed to be some very good views of the city and the countryside, as well as trails through the jungle and all the way up to the crater. should be fun and it will also be good to get some real physical activity in.

anyway, lots and lots of partying going on, and lord only knows what kind of condition i,ll be in if i stay a full 2 weeks. at least i,ll know how to say fat drunk and happy in spanish (that,s soy gordo, borracho y feliz for those of you counting at home).



well, that,s it for now. thanks to everyone who sent along birthday wishes; it was really nice to get your notes being so far from home. till the next round...

manana,
el hahmano


below are some maps of costa rica