Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Best Conditioner For Car Dashboard

282-284 J / Link Tikal-Chimaltenango

After the ruins, we continue our exploration to one side over nature and ourselves into the caves of Raxruha which form one of the largest mazes in the world. Dozens of miles of maze of underground rivers that form during the rainy season.
Midi we expect the bus to Flores from collective, but we were either misinformed, or we're late. Bus there is none. Next two hours. We are laying the bags in the shade and we place ourselves under the tree. A man comes to meet us and we offer a tourist minibus at a price. We thank him and we return to the shade tree for our new s a smoke. Time to finish the guy comes back and offers us a price p beaucou more reasonable. The time to mount the bags on the porch of the van and we leave for Flores, friendly little town situated on a small almost island. One hour drive in pouring rain, arriving with no address we follow a reel to a hotel protecting us from the rain as we can. The c hambre is not great, but for one night it will be fine, man the opportunity to sell us two tickets to Raxruha for the next day, we discuss the price and conclude the case. We're going to explore this tiny village, we need a good half hour to walk around, e t taking breaks to protect from showers. And this time gives us the opportunity to find Kalen and Jason, met our British friends on the boat to Panama, who also decided to ask for the night in Flores. C. Acun is housed appointment early evening to eat together. At night we find them and put a long time to find a restaurant , despite the smallness of the town, which is both pleasant and our prices because they are like us and are beginning to realize that the stock market travel is far from inexhaustible. Result a great night to tell our days.
The next day on the floor of the hotel we are waiting for the minibus that we should seek to take us to Raxruha. A good half-hour waiting and now the mini-bus arrives, already full of tourists. Aboard a small hello general remains unanswered. Welcome to the Western world. There is little doubt that we have not already paid the local price for this race.
All the way from behind our neighbor and his neighbor talk ... to the tune of "Oh my god" Jesus "" You know "he was missing was the slamming of chewing gum that I look back and sends the only word I know in English "Shut up". Crossing the river on a ferry , an hour later we landed at a gas station where we catch a pick-up that asks us to Raxruha. Rutted and muddy road, low houses, roofs of jail, aggressive dog. We put our business in a seedy hotel, we will eat in a diner just as bad "pollo, frijoles" accompanied by tortillas little better. Then we go in search of our caves that we struggle to be between the directions of our guide, map and directions premises. We put a little time to catch a car that wants to take us to the supposed place where we should s find the site. In the corner nobody knows. We finally turn around and walk hoping that a car passes by then, it will take a good hour before a pick-up tears us away from this track. It's 6 o'clock at night and falls as rain, luckily we are now safe. A good shower to get rid of this horrible smell of sweat with me for some months. We are clean, ready to go "dinner city." We make a round trip on the main road, we will find a restaurant diner large-format, garish light, for once no TV, just the sound of a barely audible radio. We used an old meat served with beans Ladle, sitting on our bench, elbows on the tablecloth No us ship the meal.
The next e n curly ons our bags, talking with Taulier sitting at his TV in the corridor, we will tell our search yesterday and he told us that there are other caves, and we just have to take a small bus and we do drop height of 30 kilometers. We'll take our little cafe in the tavern of hi first day which is more attractive at night. The van drops us off at km 30, a small bungalow two young Mayan awaiting the tourist. The ticket includes the guide under 16 years who accompanies us to the cave by a trail ball ized while asking us questions about life at home and on our wages, and especially on our wages ... it makes it understand that the message has been registered and is entitled to his pourliche. We walk along a road on foot cliff in the shade of trees and after half an hour we stop sweating Ivonne. The trail descends into a huge tro u and a few meters, we find ourselves in the cool of a huge cave that envelops us with 20 meters in height. The young guide explains the role of this cave in Maya rites. We can not push us much more in the grot you in this rainy season, pity because the labyrinth stretches for several kilometers.
We return to the village, we get our business to the hotel and take a bus to Coban, where we have to make a change o p Rabinal where we should stay overnight before heading back to Chimaltenango and return Tim and Ita young couple that we had crossed a few months ago in Zanzibar.
Just before dark we arrive in the small town of Rabinal. We have to wait an hour in the bus station the rain stops. Not a little rain, but something lic bib, which transforms streets into rivers in seconds and carries into the river everything that people swinging in the streets. People with whom we met during the trip we suggest a hotel. P luie not decreasing we start looking for him. Time to find we are fully soaked. We dry it and start looking for a place to eat. A Rabinal not a tourist, not a restaurant for foreigners, and anyway we do not find a single place to eat. If there had been no good fries we found on one of the market stalls in the vain hope of finding a restaurant would have been quite embarrassed as the food that we end up finding is bad. The next day we walk quickly to the market is indeed a special day dedicated to a saint of some kind. Result procession outside the church, singing, music and dance. The four co ins instead there are musicians who play the xylophone with shelter from rain possible. Before them people come to lay flowers.
We do not hang out too much because we have a bus to take and even if there are only 100 km up Chimaltenango in this mountainous region and the path we're going to take, we're playing the card of caution. Despite this, we lack a few minutes the bus, coming tomorrow. We ask to leave the village and stop the clap. A car every ten minutes. A e maid half hour and a pick-up tears us Rabinal. But it does not settle far, barely a dozen miles . Here we are a good hour sitting on our rock and hope that at least one car will pass before the rain starts to fall. The second will be good. Another short hop. After three hour stop, we have hardly advanced 30 terminals. We remain stuck in another village two hours to play marbles with kids history of bringing the cars. We rejoi fungi asphalt and finally a city of respectable size, with a grandpa and his old 4x4. Hence we find buses, pickup and another bus to 20 hours we finally arrived in Chimaltenango . It's raining, it got dark, the town has nothing romantic. We find a phone and call Tim and Ita asking for clarification. They give us the latest information we assemble in a Tuc Tuc which puts the final kilometers on the Panamericana through the town towards the United States to the north.
The Tuc tuc stops and we see the head of Tim who walks through the door. We arrived after traveling for 12 hours only 100 km via 11 vehicles: Pick-up bus, 4x4, sedan and a Tuc Tuc to finish.

Sunday, October 5, 2008

Nimrod Popup Canvas Replacement

275-281 J / Tourists in the Maya

The night the lights of civilization marching, we arrived at Tegucigalpa. The bus stops. Erik Will there? We take our pouches and descend. "Hey guys, what's up?" It is always nice to be greeted at the exit of a bus, it was long it does not happen. We jump in a cab to his hotel. This is not the smartest nor the most ugly. We only stay one night then it will be fine. Not a shop to open, we headed to a gas station to eat. On the menu, burgers of the most basic, soda will. No doubt it approaches the United States. While we eat out of the guys are revved their customs, their polishent body and tell the box with their elbows on the door-open throttle. Not to say a nice kebab kékés. Everyone joined up shop.
a coffee in the lobby of the hotel. We recover our bags and head for the bus terminal where we need to find a bus to a town north of Copan, d e there we will be able to find a bus to this small town where the ruins of the Mayan city. Erik decided to accompany us. Arriving da ns neighborhood, we immediately understand that we do not travel first class. Check in half an hour, just enough time to put on a good breakfast for us to wait before departure. The road will be long, a good 6 hours. Nothing to report to a stop in a big stat ion where Laetitia was almost missed the bus, with Erik at his Research and me trying to explain to the driver she was going back ... All this does not prevent us from arriving on time in the small town of Copan. A place quite charming, cobbled streets, small houses in your very colonial. Men in Cowboy hat and Texas, and those who park in front of banks give a western modern with their shotguns. We find a charming hotel, we set all three in the same room restriction bud ary forces. At night we start dragging our soles in the city, buy some cigars and bottles. We sat on the square to watch a music concert by religious circles of smoke.
The next day we resumed our cloak of supercoils and we take a leadership tuctuc the es es ruin of Copan, one of the most cited of late Mayan era. U n pleasant site, wooded, beautiful stelae, temples and few people. In short everything you would expect from such a place. N ll learn out there in other ruins to visit a little further that they are composed of many homes. The day after we recidivism Tuc tuc. Passing the main site we see a crowd of people with the b Anderol, no doubt it is an event that has nothing cultural. The driver confirms this, it is the local peasants who show no doubt demand for money, apparently the interests of our drivers are not the same as those of peasants. We leave this ugly character! And we go visit. Soon we're approached by a guide, this time we accept. Beautiful golf in the woods deserted of tourists, probably frightened by the protesters upstream. Back to hitchhike on the back of a pickup, that the joy of being upright hair in the wind ...
Back to the village to talk the sequence of events. Erik still does not know if it goes directly to Belize to join her aunt before leaving for Seattle. Much indecision before I go out a cigar and a beer and agreed to continue the road to Tikal, another major city of the Mayan empire with us at least to the point closest to Belize. And here we are equipped and sweating the next day to speak with a reel of minibuses, which in passing we announced a price more than twice that we know. We use the usual technique of one who is not willing to take that bus and wait for the next, the price immediately joined the local course. An hour later we're at the border with Guatemala. The sun gives way to a downpour, but we have time we embark on another minibus for another hour away. We arrive in a medium sized city, dirty, polluted, with touts who jump on us just out of the bus ... And it connects with another bus to a town farther north. The meter is running and the night arrives. We descend on the outskirts of town, cross the road to get to the pharmacy to inform us on the buses that go to Tikal. There a. But the guy wants us to cough up the entire route from the starting point of the bus. And this bus goes here about 23 hours. Scenery: some barracks, station service and the gentleman who announces that pa g fro 21 hours the area is infamous. Two choices, sleep in this rotten hole and wait for the next day to travel or take the bus. We are tired, hungry, unable to make a decision, let go of the nerves, we yell at each other. The person from the Office has a solution. We take a bus to a little further, included in the package, and we can in this place better reputation, which must wait for the bus to take us to our final destination. Everything goes as planned, after two hours the bus we loose all three in a huge gas station. It is 20 hours. Erik hopes to here take a bus to a town farther north where it should pick up a boat to Belize. Looking at the map and the bus route that we take we understand that his interest is to take the same as us. Especially since he had taken the bus did not stop. It would therefore be condemned to sleep under the stars in the station. The bus arrives, we sit in our reserved seats, Erik was not so lucky he's on a stool in the aisle. The night passes as she can. No air conditioning, frequent stops ... At dawn we say goodbye to Erik and descend to cross a road. It's 6 o'clock in the morning, we're almost there. The line is straight, great fatigue, heavy bags, but there is still a little cool at night and birds sing. We finally arrive at the village and seek a place to grab a coffee and end up in a cabin that is a museum, bar, shop all covered in a thick layer of dust. The guy served us coffee with a strong odor but, om Elette with two eggs he has left. And here he pushes the song while showing us his small museum ... he even managed to show earrings to Laetitia for her to buy him. They are not bad, the problem is that he has one. Nevermind, it brings pearls, apart from other jewelry while we launch from time to time a hard look that turns immediately into a loud laugh that ends in fraternal poetic frenzy ... In short we do not know if we're very tired or if we are still in the bus dreaming this scene worthy of a half-sleep between dreams and reality. We leave this difficult strange character to his madness and take a bus to the park entrance which houses the ruins of Tikal. As a salute our RRIV rain comes to cleanse us from our fatigue with plenty of water. We go to the three hotels to evaluate their bids ... not so easy with torrents that form in the paths. But we eventually find one quite to our taste. Here we are far from good hotels usually markets we frequent: lamp, thicker mattresses, nice view over the tropical gardens where hummingbirds foraging on flowers. How good a little luxury, too, because we all need to even leave the room to wash us in the shared bathroom ... in luxury we took the cheapest. By the evening we extend our stay by a luxurious dinner at the hotel for the price very European ... it even adds to all this wine, we gain strength for tomorrow morning we plan to go soon dawn on the site for the pleasant light of dawn, the chirping of birds, maybe see a toucan that Laetitia looks in each forest that we are experiencing now that we have addressed the equatorial zone and a comfortable temperature.
The whoop, we lot of sleep. A good shower and we're in the booth where we take our tickets. Everything would be perfect if the mosquitoes had not decided to come join us also. But after the Amazon, we close that learned to control our annoyance against this horrible insect. Fortunately the view from the first temple which discovered through the thick vegetation makes us forget the little things and we're under the spell of ancient Mayan cities. The site being dispersed we walk into the jungle to reach the different groups, always on the lookout for the toucan and his cry of a frog. But it does not show up. After three hours and have discovered the main group consists of two pyramids that face each other, and some residential buildings, we return to a hearty breakfast at the hotel before leaving to explore the rest of the site. And eventually we will see our toucan in flight, just a few seconds to admire her figure and her big black yellow bill and see it disappear into the tree groves. It is eleven o'clock, we are happy and we walk joyfully, glad to have seen our toucan. We climb to the top of the pyramids, our picnic under the trees while the monkeys move from branch to branch. A nice day in the heart of Mayan history. Tikal was the Mayan city most influential of the classical period, it owes to the fall of the city El Mirador, which dominated the first period and the ouster of his rival to the north. Its successor the international star of Mexican cultural tourism, the widely recognized Chichen Itza. It is 18 o'clock, the sun sets and gives way to rain torrential. It is time to desert the site as most tourists and we return to our little room at the shelter from the weather and mosquitoes.
Farewell Tikal, we continue our journey west to the charming town of Flores.

Friday, October 3, 2008

Women See Thru Underwear

271-274 J / Granada Little Italy

Taxis are there at the arrival of the boat to wait for the customer. We negotiate the price and go up to make us drop to where we can take the bus to Granada. On site we are told that the bus had left and we are advised to take one who is preparing to leave and then another for Granada. The driver apparently did not intend to wait for us and time to unload our bags from the trunk of the taxi, he begins to start, we are forced to run and climb in through the back road. As often in Central America is a large bus yellow Blue Bird. To believe that all the old U.S. and Canadian bus stranded there. We install, the guy in charge of trying to charge as often happens, to extort us much more than the normal price the sellers a lot of things to eat before the ride and back down from behind at each stop A regular bus route what! It drops us at a crossroads where we expect the next bus to Granada, which was not long in coming.
Granada, a colonial city, probably the most beautiful of Nicaragua welcomes us at the end of journ ed with a beautiful light tan on its buildings. We're immediately looking for the hotel Roxane, the famous hotel run by an Italian and his wife we talked the Germans on Isla Ometepe. Rox ane and Giovanni are there and they have rooms for free, without the mouse! Roxane announces an amount higher than that which had been the Germans and had our heads down she herself the price. Finally we take a room for us three, it overlooks a small courtyard where children play. Good atmosphere, free internet and apparently Giovanni is an outstanding cook for pasta anyway. The perfect place for three or four days in this quiet town that is not too large and in which there are many things to visit. For starters we order from Giovanni good beer and fresh pasta with gorgonzola. I try to speak a little Italian with Giovanni, but it is English that comes and as he speaks a mix of both languages is quite incomprehensible to others. I learn that it is installed in Nicaragua for eight years, he came to vacation and it is never repaired ti. The pasta arrived accompanied by a sweet smell of gorgonzola. They are delicious! It's been so long since we had not eaten anything so good as we savor one by one, ensuring they are well coated with sauce perfect and we redemandons! The fact remains that for a flat but we order it anyway and we share it. We finished the stock of gorgonzola but I am sure Giovanni has a personal stashed somewhere. We talk course of European Cup football match and Fance-Italy to be held the next day. We We hope to see you two hours to watch the game together.
After a hot night we'll see what looks like the city. The heat is overwhelming and we had trouble finding a place to have breakfast but the city look nice. We begin with a museum of anthropology, not outstanding but which gives us a glimpse of what we can see from the Mayan sites we'll see soon and at least it's cool. The time of the football match approach and we eat a piece quickly before reaching the hotel and Giovanni. When we arrived everything was quiet, the TV is off and not in Giovanni area. Bizarre. We turn on the TV and no match. What this story. Thereupon Giovanni arrives and asks us why we did not come watch the game with him! How? He began the match in 10 minutes! "Well no, it is finite and increasingly France lost." we answered it. And now I understand everything. When he was asked what time he started he told us "a las doce" and new s was included "a las dos." On my tch was at noon and not two hours and the worst is that this is not the first time it happens to us verbally the difference is subtle and it has been had. At the same time if it was to see the French take a winnowing rouste and be not serious. So we decided to go take a nap, as the locals, the streets are empty at this hour, too hot. In addition Erik does not feel very good side stomach. Probably something he ate, the problem is we all three ate the same thing when Stan and I are crosses fingers. In the evening we test another dish Giovanni is definitely a good cook and it is our pleasure to eat a different dish the perennial chicken rice without sauce and fried bananas and especially a dish that has taste. We spend the evening talking with Giovanni half English, half in Italian while drinking beer, well, mostly Giovanni. The next morning it's my turn to have stomach problems and Erik does not get better at all, cons, Stan is in top form. We make an inventory of what we ate yesterday and the only thing that Erik and I have not eaten and Stan is a mirror, probably full of nasty bacteria. And that's how you greed punished. Stan finds himself with two balls that do not want to eat and who can not leave the toilet more than 100 meters! The day will be held under the banner of "lazy" and the fabulous project to make the boat visit a string of islands near dark waters of Lake Nicaragua. We do have the strength to drag her to the bus office to inform us on the bus to take us up to Copan in Honduras where he yad are Mayan ruins. No direct bus, we will spend the night in Tegucigalpa al the capital of Honduras. Erik decides to leave the next day. Stan we prefer to stay one more day and if my health would improve we could reach the islands. Before we return to the downtown, we visit a ruin of modern times and future archaeological and tourist site for generations Future: u abandoned hospital for ten years.
For our last evening together, Erik gives us a good meal in the pizzeria in the city. Granada is like a little Italy and it is therefore no lack of places to eat. We are now on deck to have a good time, inevitably vendors ragtag spend to sell souvenirs and things to nibble on an appetizer. And we choose what to eat. The little boy who sells them has such a talent to showcase the cupcakes that without a doubt his mom prepares, we buy him that our pizza is about to be served. The pizzas arrive, we continue discuss while drinking ... Obviously we remake the world talking about the problems of ecology of world order, energy waste which leads Erik to talk about his proje t home énergétiqueme nt self. Very interesting but it would be a bit long and tedious to describe it. At this time two ottomans that U.S. we had crossed on Isla Ometepe and necessary link to our table, the conversation turns from edge to deadly dull, luckily dint of silence they finally realize that their place is elsewhere. In addition, unlike Erik, who made an effort not to talking too fast in his native language for us to understand, they make no effort and only Erik happened to decipher what they say. The conversation resumed its course as if they never existed and it is much better.
The next morning we bade farewell Erik telling us that if he changed his mind we expect to exit the bus in Tegucigalpa when we arrive tomorrow. Is still not restored, we make a quiet day. Giovanni seeing my weakness, I prepare a Risotto of the most famous to get over the stomach in place. In the afternoon we go through the box hairdresser where Stan tries to explain to the hairdresser that he would Psyko with a cup drawing support. The result is not so bad. There will even be entitled to a triple-pass shave with irrigation water of Cologne and a head massage to soothe all. Giovanni evening offered us to come and eat with him as his wife organized an evening of belly dancing. We have nothing else planned, so we go there and fortunately, since we are only spectators. It's our last night in Granada and Nicaragua, Honduras direction tomorrow.