Make a wish...

 

 

 

 

It already came true.

Now, it's your turn.

GO.

Dream. Risk. Explore.

We all go

 "Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive and then go do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive."

~Howard Thurman

And so it ends...kind of.  It can go back to being what it was before the circus came to town. The expedition has rolled up the tents (well, at least packed up our stuff from the condo) and are taking advantage of modern methods of travel to return to the country of our births. As such, we are in a reflective mood and having this platform and not knowing whether anyone is reading or has been reading, we will take this opportunity to try and explain how/why we feel comfortable eating street food, visiting/living in other countries, and driving the most awesome car in the world (325K and counting). If you are so inclined and have some time, please continue reading. (Personal Expedition Recommendation: get a bottle of red wine, a glass, a notebook, a place you won't be disturbed and several free hours in which to read and think - candlelight helps too).

REDACTED grew up dreaming. Jungles. Adventure. Treasure. Excitement. Early on (perhaps too early), fortunately (depending on how you look at it), REDACTED discovered the music of Jimmy Buffett thanks to an unrealized paramour. While Middle School assignations never materialized - and our hero was overwhelmingly under-equipped to deal with any type of success had said assignations advanced past thumbtacks on a bedroom wall = the yearning introduced our hero to a soundtrack that extolled the excitement and adventure available in life (okay, sometimes it went too far including a failed excursion to Cayo Hueso in search of said troubadour THANKS DAD!). But who doesn't dream when listening to something like this? Yes, I know Steve Goodman wrote that particular song. But there are others like this (side note - REDACTED was at that show and is in the crowd shot if you look close enough). Let's move on. But before we do, here are some of the words that REDACTED listened to that resonated.

Yesterdays are over my shoulder
So I don't look back for too long
There's just too much to see
Waiting in front of me
And I know that I just can't go wrong

and from another song:

I'm living on things that excite me
Be they pastry or lobster or love
I'm just trying to get by
being quiet and shy
in a world full of pushing and shove

(Another Expedition recommendation: Get another bottle of red wine, your journal and this book - the Expedition STRONGLY recommends the Stephen Mitchell translation - and go for a walk.) (Heck, save yourself some trouble and buy a case of wine because Hemingway's A Moveable Feast is an excellent walking book.)

REDACTED went to college and graduated and got a job but it didn't feel right but what the heck was the alternative? "This" is what life was, right? That didn't work out so well. REDACTED was good at the job but completely unfulfilled. Looking back, it is that general malaise/ennui that is so prevalent and so un-discussed in contemporary American Society. So REDACTED got married. To a kindred spirit. And with the strength and encouragement of said paramour, founded this Expeditionary Company and approximately one year later packed up all their worldly possessions and got on a plane with a backpack. Yes, looking back, it was scary but at the time it seemed like the only option so while some others looked at it as daring or brave, the Expedition looked at it more like the last chance. And there were some incredible resources that helped them prepare.

Simultaneously was the discovery of the writing of Tim Cahill and specifically this book. He writes beautifully and humorously about travel but also lets you know that it is not the exclusive realm of the uber-adventurer. The other incredible source was Vagabond Globetrotting by M. L. Endicott in which he lays out the nuts and bolts about long term travel (side note - little did we know that we would end up living near Cullowhee, NC which is where Mr. Endicott went to school and a town we couldn't even pretend to pronounce when we bought the book and later on Junior Senior Member spent more than ten years working on the other side of Highway 107 from WCU).

For all of you who are itching to go now, there are even more resources and REDACTED can not recommend these higher. For the nuts and bolts (along with some philosophy on travel), Rolf Pott's Vagabonding is excellent and his blog has great information too. Another recommended source that does an excellent job of describing what independent travel is like is the documentary A Map for Saturday. Watch it. Read any of Ed Buryn's guidebooks.

Back to our story...at the end of that year of traveling, the Expedition took up residence in Western North Carolina working at a company called Nantahala Outdoor Center. The Expedition applied to NOC based mainly on the excellent experience Junior Senior member had as a teenager (again, thanks Dad..and thanks to Mom for doing the sensible thing and walking around the last horrendous obstacle) and Senior Member's Summer Camp experience with the company along with the fact that NOC had put a tiny ad in the back of Outside and that no other outfitter was open in February when the Expedition passed through. (Anecdote: the Expedition felt immediately simpatico with NOC when upon interviewing in the old River's End Restaurant and politely explaining that they would like to know when they could expect to hear about summer employment because they were going to be out of the country until then and the person talking to them asked where the Expedition was going, the Expedition was hesitant to say Guatemala and Belize given the reactions of friends back home, yet the interviewer's reaction was, "Oh, if you go the Sayaxche, ask for Juan. He is an excellent guide for jungle treks" which was quite different from some other people's reactions which were kind of like "You are going to die." And Juan was incredibly knowledgeable and nice. End of anecdote).

After an incredible year, the Expedition, feeling it had conquered all the adventure one world had to offer (yeah, let's forget about Africa, Asia, the rest of the world) resumed it's proper place in society and worked ... jobs. The euphoria lasted a couple months - friends, 'stuff' out of storage, etc. and then the Expedition realized that the year that had just passed was as valid a life as 'real life." This song and these words touched our souls and provided so much...


I had a lot of good intentions
Sit around for fifty years and then collect a pension
Started seeing the road to hell and just where it starts.

(But) My life is more than a vision
The sweetest part is acting after making a decision
I started seeing the whole as a sum of it's parts.

(side note: it is this Member's opinion - which should be taken as fact - that the Indigo Girls have written some of the most thoughtful and intelligent lyrics in modern times. Listen to them.)

So the Expedition packed it up and moved back to the mountains of North Carolina where they worked jobs that were difficult to distinguish from fun and worked with some of the most interesting and amazing people in the world. And they continued to travel and explore and learn.

After some time (and that lifetime in Paraguay alluded to in an earlier post), they left NOC and took jobs in the field of education but still were able to maintain their traveling. And after serving that field for ten or so years, those jobs became victims of the economy which led to the first post of this blog. Thinking of that first post, I wish I had known how to include a link to this song which was played in a gazebo at the second memorial for D and at which point I lost it and sobbed for a friend who was no longer there and I thank those of you who played that night).

So there we are. We leave you with this, unsure of where we belong but comfortable knowing that we all go back there.

"My Heart Is Afraid that it will have to suffer, " the boy told the alchemist one night as they looked up at the moonless sky.

"Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams.”
― Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

Thanks for reading.

...some of it's magic, some of it's tragic
But I had a good life all the way. 

~Jimmy Buffett

Someday

What do you want to do today?

So many choices...it's like this place has got everything.

 Including a farewell concert in the Park.

And then we met up with the south African family and ended up at their house so I can't really tell you what happened after that except that there is never a darn tuk tuk around when you need one.

Markets

Antigua has a long history of markets and though I was looking for a different picture, this drawing by Frederick Catherwood from 1841 shows the Central Park (it is a view looking South and you can see the Palacio del Capitanes General and the Cathedral on the left) where Mayans from surrounding areas have come to trade for centuries.

As you undoubtedly know, Catherwood was down here accompanying John Lloyd Stephens in order to document the extraordinary culture of Central America. Now there is some amazing shopping to be done today, but who could pass up trying to buy the ruins of Copan for $50? You can read all about their fun times in the book Stephens wrote, Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas and Yucutan. We have a copy so feel free to ask to borrow it. (side note: even though the current expedition has not involved visits to any Mayan ruins, Most Senior and Junior Senior member have visited dozens of them in the past and strongly recommend including them on any Guatemalan itinerary - even if you have to come back again).

As you have seen, the Central Park is quite different today. There are some vendors walking around selling jewelry and weavings and candy but it is not a true market location anymore. Over the years, vendors have set up in various locations around the city and the city has had varying levels of tolerance for these markets. Today, the primary artisan markets are in two locations - one in a modern open building by the bus station and one next to the ruins of La Iglesia Carmen. 

 

 However, on weekends the vendors spill onto the street in front of Carmen and it feels like a more traditional market.

Finally, when looking for pizza with a little more local flair than Dominos, might we suggest you try La Bicicleta de Juancho Pizza y Bar...they deliver too.

Sometimes you gotta say...

We walked out of the house last night and saw the following towering above the roofline to the east:

 So we investigated and it is a huge decorated tree inside a religion school. We couldn't go inside so get ready for more mediocre pics from outside:

There was a procession that left the school and we caught up with it in the Central Park:

Under the Arch, a stage was built during the day and last night there was a concert that was broadcast live on the radio so if you were listening and thought you heard us clapping, you did.

First up was a marimba band:

And then a chorus:

If you can't say it, you can't do it.

Bonus pic for two certain people: