My new cycling outfit

Brittaness-6, a photo by thebaconfairy on Flickr.

Went to the secondhand store yesterday and came back with a killer bike outfit!

Guatemala

Guatemala started off at Tikal park, which was both amazing an annoying. The Mayan sites in Mexico are way cheaper (I believe 1/3 if I recall correctly) and way better marked. The map cost extra and did the museum, so I did without. I was low on money and the principal of the thing just bothered me. I loved Guatemala, but disliked the real touristy places. I found there people were just trying to rip me off, mislead me and in general treat me like a dollar figure, everywhere else, however, was great. After Tikal I hit Guatemala city, where I had an awesome host. It was really crazy cycling around the city as it is altogether huge, the main roads are more like highways and there is lots of traffic. One of the interesting features was that although it sat on a pleasures, there was rivers in the middle that formed deep gorges where houses went down, like ours would up a mountain.  One day I did take a bus & my bike and cycled around Antigua, which used to be Guatemala city. I was informed that Guatemala city has moved three times.  This is the first place I have ever been to where the sidewalks were in better cycling conditions then the roads. Not only were the roads old cobble stone, but some of them have huge folds and divers running the entire length of the road. From  Guatemala city I headed back north to Coban, where I had hoped to visit a community tea farm and processing area in order to get information for project in Kenya-JustTea- that myself and some others are trying to start.  The visit turned out to be a bust as I had hoped they processed by hand only to learn they didn't. It did however,  allow me to Visit Semic Chempey, which is a beautiful river. Of course I hit the not liking tourists destinations again here. I should mention that Antigua is a very touristy spot, but I didm't have any problems there. I did cycle around off the main track and had lots of smiles, but I think because tourists don't leave the hub. As I was misinformed that the last bus out of the closeted town left at 4:00, I asked for a ride from  a truck parked there who was headed back to Coban and agreed to take me. I got to han  out in the back of a pickup truck and use my smattering of Spanish.  I had tried to bus from Coban to the boarder, but spent over two hours searching for bus stations there and in Guatemala city. Thank goodness I had a friend in Guatemala city who would let me stay the night. 

Belize

I loved Belize. I found the people really friendly. And it was such a relief that people spoke English. Signs dubbed it the melting pot of races, which it is. Belize was a state in Guatemala, but it was given to the British in exchange for a highway, that was never built.  Britain's main interest in Belize was sugar cane (this I made up, but believe to be true). In order to run the sugar plantations, many black slaves were brought in. In addition to the Mayan indigenous people and the former black slaves (likely a lot from Jamaica) there is a lot of white people, some recent, some not. There are Normans and even an Amish village, these are all white people, I believe they have been there quite a long time, why though, I do not know.  There is also a lot of Americans, Canadians and Europenas who like to live there as Believe does not tax foreign income. There is also a number of Chinese people, who I am told own almost every single grocery store. At one point it was possible to simply buy a Belize citizenship, I believe when Hong Kong went back to Chinese ownership, the not-quite-so-wealthy Chinese moved there. I met a Black girl there named Judith who gave me a short lift in her truck. Her husband was Canadian from the island.. They were both     real estate an gents, both in Vancouver and Belize. And was there ever a lot of for sale signs. Not sure how the locals afford it. I also went to what they call the smallest best zoo in the world, which if it hadn't been so dear I would call awesome.

Politics in Honduras

Honduras is a mess. I met two French Canadians there, one of them told me that the store on the corner of his block had been robbed at gun point at 1:30 that day. Why is Honduras a mess? Well the last government had the audacity to ask the American companies to pay minimum wage, to follow the local laws concerning working conditions and to pay for things like electricity. So that government got kicked out by a coup d'êtat.  Of course now, due to instability, the American companies are pulling out of the country.  Not only is there lots of violence, but there are very few jobs and everything is very expensive. Nicaragua and El Salvador are 30-40% cheaper. The unemployment rate for university graduates is 30%, for us that would be like having thirty percent of all PHD graduates unemployed.  I have been told the country was way better prior to the American complies moving in. So when you see made in Honduras, know that the article in question is a small piece of a bigger picture that is ripping a country apart.  And if you are Canadian and smug, I am afraid that win't cut it. The fucking conservatives have been cutting funding to projects, though the NGO's belonging to Canadian mines have no trouble getting funding. Because after pillaging, kicking people off the land and hiring people to intimadate ( maimings and deaths do happen) it is always kind to toss a few peas their way in recompense.  I do not fly the Canadian flag. I am not proud of my country. The Canadian mines are a huge factor in this, but by no means the whole story. 

Chicken Bus

I took my first real chicken bus (el chickon) leaving Guatemala city for the boarder. I had taken a chicken bus before, but chicken bus can really be a chicken bus unless it follows theses rules: A chicken bus must once have been a school bus A chicken bus must be re-painted and silver hood ornaments are what the cool kids do A chicken bus must stop for people in the most absurd places A chicken bus's passengers for the most part must only be going a quarter or less, in fact a real chicken bus has less then three passengers going the whole route.   A chicken bus must have a constant stream of food sellers every 15 minutes or so A chicken bus must have someone come on begging for money A chicken bus must have a chicken bus preacher enter for part of the time A chicken bus must have some form of entertainers enter, be it singers or clowns A chicken bus must exude excessive amounts of pollution A chicken bus must have at least one driver and money collector A chicken bus must have music, either provided by the driver or someone's cell phone A chicken bus must always have someone who is asleep I caught an unofficial chicken bus when I headed to Coban. I went up there (back towards Tikal park) to visit a tea plantation. What most of you will not know is that while travelling, my father hooked me into an Afrian tea project that a family friend is trying to start up. The project is called Just-tea and it is a brain child that came about after a trip to Kenya. It seems that the tea farmers there do not make enough growing to to earn a living. The thing is that they do not process the tea, only sell the Un-roasted leaves to a large plant. I believe some of it is then processed in Kenya and is then sent to England to finish the processing (I am not sure if this is only scenting and packaging). The biggest industry in Kenya is tea, it is also the most corrupt with the most bribes. The idea is to set up small hand processing tea roasting so that the farmers will then have a more valuable product to sell. We are looking at finding markets in the west to sell the tea, and personally I am interested in trying to get an African market because I know in Ghana, aside from gunpowder green tea the Muslims (mostly old men) drink, the only tea is Lipton. Which of course is bought from England. I am told it is the same in Kenya. I of course also want to see empowerment and de-westernized practices set up. Anyhow back to the bus. I managed to sit next to a 24 year old girl who spoke perfect English. She had grown up next to an American missionary family. I had a great time chatting with her. I also went to the most beautiful river, Semic Chempey and did some cliff jumping. The tea place was a bust though, not only was the tour not in English (I had phoned to ask), but they processed the tea by machines and I could not even take pictures of them. My first real chicken bus was from Guatemala to the boarder. The advertised route ended up with me needing to take two buses. I pestered the driver several times as to why I had paid twice what the ticket said. He never did explain, but I did figure it out. Between those who buses we had three traveling preachers board us.  I took a short bus to old Guatemala city, Antigua, and it had two clowns. One with the most awful voice who would yell. I also had a clown board a city bus in Guatemala city. Guatemala city does have official city buses, but the only time I tried to take one was to get to the chicken bus station and I had my bike, so they would not let me on.  Today I took my first bus with actual chickens (chicks in boxes), but by virtue of it being a real bus and it having air conditioning, it was not a real chicken bus.

Tikal

Tikal is a magical place on the north east edge of Guatemala, right near the boarder of Belize. It was the most important Mayan city, though not the largest, which is hard to believe. The last photo taken from the highest pyramid shows the other three largest peaks, which is all that pops out of the jungle. I believe the three that are shown are relatively close together. I did not manage to see all the sites, but came pretty close, I showed up late in the day, in fact the guy at the door tried to get to come back the next day. Of course he little knew that I was really quick and would see more of the ruins that I suspect most visitors do. One of the great things about being late is that there were hoards of people leaving when I arrived and I mostly only saw people from one French group. But by the looks of the paths, a lot of the ruins are not visited. Gouging tourists is one thing they do, maps cost extra and the places were hardto figure out.

Belize