Dispatch Number 38 -Errant Thoughts IV

America's Gift
American cultural influence is expressed throughout these parts of Latin America with the word, Hollister painted boldly on t-shirts.


Pleasure
It is hard to put into context, but the Guatemalan is seldom alone, in public they are in groups or shop in pairs. In their homes whole families will cram into one or two beds depending on the size of the family. In my days in Guatemala I could not find what I would call private time. The closest was when someone was watching tv ignoring all else around them -an invisible room. They do not have their own beds let alone individual bedrooms.

So all this brought on a thought: If you are Guatemalan where do you masturbate?

Sitting in Church
The walls of this church are plain and drab, candles burn and bring solemn light to darkened corners. I think of the Spanish Conquistadors with their troops of Catholic priests. The Conquistadors saw the land for material riches, principally gold; the padres saw the lands of Latin America as a place ripe for the harvest of souls.

Time
Where were you ten years ago?
Today: September 2009 in Monteverde, Costa Rica
Back 10: September 1999 -San Francisco, California

Dogs, Cats, Chickens, Ducks and Rabbits
The more a man comes unraveled he brings animals closer to himself. The last refuge of relationship provided to a man with few to no recognizable friends.
-Observation of Don an American hostel owner high in the mountains of Guatemala.

Western Hemisphere
It is easy to say Latin Americans feel inferior materially and technologically to North America, however, it is important to recognize that they may be culturally and spiritually superior to life in North America.


Search
The painful search for self. It is a place you never really arrive at, you only become more familiar with yourself. The great release is to let go of this ridiculous concept of being perfect and solving the riddles of life or searching for meaning around every corner.


People & Books
The travel family disbands. I retreat to my happy world of books and writing. A return to my cat-like solitary ways. A world filled with books, maps, journals, Dispatches and laying on my back to stare at the ceiling. Travel Families are small groups of new friends met while traveling that bond and choose to travel together with me and Azulita for days, weeks or months.

How I Get Around
Gas and go varies from country to country. To fill Azulita's tank, 23 gallons costs:
$52 in Mexico
$80 in Guatemala and Honduras
$102 in Nicaragua
$90 in Costa Rica


Modernization
In the ever-going era of development and modernization in Latin America those of us who appreciate the old ways understand the importance of dirt roads. For we realize those colorful overland routes of dirt roads are fading fast. The dirt roads traveled today will be paved tomorrow.


Fly Food
Rice is not food to a fly.

tv
Stop watching tv and begin to see and feel again. Participate in life, not merely watch it. When was the last conversation you had where a tv program was not used as a way to start a conversation?

David
Monteverde, Costa Rica

Dispatch Number 37 -Mozzies

Upon encountering the superior mosquito I had not fully taken into account what I was up against. In Western Honduras in the port town of Trujillo a special breed roams, very special. As a seasoned backpacker who spent a lot of time in the wilderness suffering with pesky insects I thought I knew the ways to deal with them.

To my shock the mosquitoes of Trujillo can fly in wind and make a landing to drain your blood. Remarkably they can do it in a rain storm too and they can penetrate a t-shirt. They fly at dusk, in total darkness and, perhaps the most unsettling, fly and attack in direct sunlight. I thought you could always escape a mozzie (Australian for mosquito) in direct sun light, but not these.

I am forced to seek refuge in the sticky hot dorm room where they still harass. They have defied all I have come to learn about biting insects and I find it a shocking misuse of nature. When the Spanish conquistador, Hernan Cortez set out to conquer Mexico almost 500 years ago they complained of mosquitoes so bad that they abandoned a camp because of them and I thought while reading that passage, how bad could it be? Now I have an idea.

David
San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua

Dispatch Number 36 -Alejandro

Alejandro was an interesting dichotomy of bravado and insecurities. Those insecurities and fears were projected onto Jeff and myself. I wrote it off as nervous energy which Alex had a lot of. He was a bounty of dichotomies telling Jeff and I to be more aware and less touristic looking then himself running in the streets in his pajamas to see what the Honduran government meant by curfew while leaving the hotel room door wide open with no one to tend to our things.

In the morning I gathered my things and announced that I was keeping my belongings in my truck since I did not trust the hotel clientele or Alex based on his behavior the night before. The journalism student from Mexico City silently nodded in reply.

In country for less than a day, he was showing signs that concerned me. Concern I did not want in a country that had a curfew with early indications of Marshall law. The police had the right to enforce the curfew and detain people (opposition) for 24 hours. Detentions are nasty affairs in Latin America and many mysteriously die while being held. The tools of suppression. We had to be cool and stay together, yet Alex who demanded this togetherness would routinely break it by walking the streets alone in the night. It was clear Alex wanted to be part of a riot and one to report. He suffered from the need to prove himself.

Alex at a tender 21 years possessed no ears and was full of self-righteousness. I could identify with him for I had similar traits when I was in my early 20s. Alex was prone to harsh criticism of both Jeff and myself for all sorts of stuff.

Alex left us after a couple days in a rush to get to the capital Tegucigalpa to meet with the international reporter from the newspaper he apprenticed at. It was a very nice opportunity for him to be assigned to shadow this reporter and be at the heart of the protests and unrest. This news came as a relief to Jeff and myself since our experience with Alex was tiresome.

At 21 years I could understand his arrogance, condescension and contradictions. However, after several days of Alex ping ponging every which way with spastic energy it drained me. Alex was high maintenance and took substantial energy to be with. It was a constant struggle when I was not in search of one. It would be hard to imagine Alex not "wearing" on anyone he spent time with.

I am glad I met Alex months earlier when I was in Mexico because he is the reason I chose to enter Honduras at this politically delicate and historical time. It was his bravado that helped me find mine. After nearly a month in Honduras observing the coup, talking with people and gathering their opinions and seeing for myself how effective the national media was at managing propaganda, that I was very pleased with my choice to visit Honduras. We still talk and I believe he has a brilliant, but deeply biased mind. It is possible time will temper him the way I believe it tempered me.

David
Altagracia, Isla de Ometepe, Nicaragua

Dispatch Number 35 -The Cost of Rum

I was finishing up my conversation with the liquor store owner about the high cost of rum in Nicaragua and how it was less expensive in neighboring Honduras. He insisted it was impossible and that his prices were right. The rum in question was Flor de Caña, Nicaragua's national pride and perhaps the best rum in Latin America. As the conversation drew down and I set off without my rum two men walked in who were immediately engaged by the prickly liquor store owner in the cost of rum discussion. Upon hearing this I turned around and walked back into the store to join the conversation and made friends with them.

After the subject of rum was exhausted I moved to my current favored topic, the Honduran coup d'état that happened in late June 2009. Merdardo, one of the guys who walked in, a Nicaraguan, had lived in the Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa for 25 years and strongly supported the new government. A government, by the way, that no country in the entire world has yet to recognize. Neither do I.

Merardo had a natural expression of fury in his face that came out in his eyes and cheeks even though he was pleasant to be with. I asked him several questions that I have discovered all Hondurans who support the new government had trouble defending let alone answering. Merdardo was no exception and it only hardened my opinion of the illegitimate government. My prickly questions helped his frustration set in and drank the rest of his beer with a fury that matched his face. His friend Pablo watched him with curiosity. People dislike being caught between their self-delusion and hard practicality.

Pablo and Merdardo were expressive and passionate. I noticed that my reaction to this kind of culture makes me feel good for they are not fearful like Americans of sharing their opinions with each other. The average person in Honduras and Nicaragua jumps in with heat and passion on all sorts of subjects that you rarely find in American culture where the people tend to be passive, ill-informed (everybody is a victim of this criticism), and a fearful society where the people have a stronger need to to be liked and feel part of the crowd than to risk it by expressing an opinion.

When I asked for their names at the end of our conversation Merdardo promptly handed me his business card. I stuttered, this had not happened to me in all my travels in Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras -the business card. Merdardo was a Herbalife man and his card proved what he sold: nutrition and weight loss. On the card were two mug shots, a before and after of Merdardo himself. In one shot his face was fattened like a sumo wrestler's and the other more representative of him today, that is, 42 pounds lighter. Naturally, this was the result of a Herbalife regimen which he now sells and builds his coveted multi-level marketing team with.

In the morning Pablo and Merdardo were making donuts by hand for their small business Super Donuts, which made a go of it by distributing them to shops and theaters around town. They made them completely by hand without tools of any kind to shape or cut the donuts, then placed them in a large pot of oil that held less than 12 at a time. I ate them right after the cooker still hot, smothered in sugar and cinnamon. I was in donut delight.

It was a colorful evening that had me take to Nicaragua and the people, immediately finding their culture open and expressive as well as inviting to the stranger. My first night in Nicaragua was showing promising signs of the visit ahead.

David
Altagracia, Isla de Oemetepe, Nicaragua

Dispatch Number 34 -Smoke and Drink

Drinking and smoking are what the owners of this hostel on the ocean do around here. The hangout is the bar and is where they spend most their time and burn an endless chain of cigarettes. The hiss of beers being opened starts just before noon. I concluded that a bar in bug infested tropics that confine you to a large screened room is a bad thing. The insects bar you from outside activity so you spend it indoors with drink, smoke and boring traveler tales.


All I saw them do was drink, we'll make an alcoholic out of you, David came the shot across the bow one evening when I surprised them by ordering one. Drinkers hate it when you don't drink with them. Misery loves company is what these experiences have shown me and I have trouble joining them.

When you do not drink, or do not drink very much it reminds them of their consumption. It unnerves them to see a person content without drink, one who is comfortable without needing to be plastered. You are an outsider and the relationship does not last long. They grow uncomfortable of you.

Like most bars this one too smelled of urine and disappointment not to mention mosquitoes that could fly 24/7 in any weather including direct sunlight. I obviously had something to prove, I stayed there nearly a week.

David
Isla de Ometepe, Nicaragua