Broccoli

My comida china (not the cat Comida China) apparently had a little more in it than rice, shrimp, chicken, and pork. I must have gotten a bit of broccoli in it. That's actually pretty common for me at Chinese restaurants. When I got back to the room, my lips were burning, but I thought they were just chapped. From there it went to full on blisters on my lips and hives on my body.

 

Benadryl didn't do the trick, but it did knock me out for the better part of 2 days. The good news is that when I got to Costa Rica I was able to get the same meds that I take for this in the US. We'll see in a day or 2. So far it hasn't gotten worse.

 

Our last day in Managua we met a fantastic couple. They're building a school and I love the way they're doing things. The construction itself is great, but I love their philosophy even more. 

 

They decided to start at the K-3 level and decided that if a child doesn't start with them at K-3, they can't ever get in the school. I know that sounds harsh, but kids are different down here. They're raised differently. They're not disciplined. They run wild. They don't respect anything. This is a place where when people are done with their food they just throw their trash on the ground and don't think a thing about it.

 

So, this school is trying to change the culture of the kids from 3 years old up and so far it's working.  They fully believe that one day a future president of Nicaragua will come from their school and I fully believe them. We actually liked them so much a few hours after our meeting we went out to Pizza Hut with them and hung out a few more hours.

 

We got to San Jose after a 9 hour bus trip and arrived in pretty soggy conditions. It's pretty difficult to get oriented when you get to a new country. Our guidebook even said that the people in CR don't generally know where they're at, much less have the ability to tell you how to get someplace. After our 5th set of bad directions it was raining pretty good. I was uncomfortable with my hives and blisters, Cory had a stomach ache, and Jordan had a sore throat so we paid $15 each for a hostel. That's too much money but we are dry and it's clean and I think it comes with some sort of breakfast.

 

This morning (wed) we are probably going to take 5-6 more hours of bus rides to get to the Caribbean. That area seems to be where the doors are open and while San Jose is the nicest city we've been in since Guatemala City, I've still had enough of city life for now.

Soggy in Granada

Last night after dropping off our laundry, we went and got some Chinese food. Most of the mall Chinese places looked kinda sketch, but this one was amazing. I got fried rice with chicken, pork, and shrimp...a massive plate for $3. I had so much left over that I brought it back and fed some to a little kitty. We named him Comida China (Ko-Mee-Dah Chee-nah). He had a friend nearby that I named General Tso, but he was more skiddish. In the middle of the night I could see Comida sticking his arms under the door.

 

It's basically rained since we got here, so we haven't been able to do much. We made a trip to the market to look for a hammock, but it was a sloppy mess.

 

Jordan finished cutting Cory's hair this morning. They were using the clippers and the battery died, so Cory slept with a pretty punk haircut.

 

We had a break in the rain long enough to eat some delicious pizza at an outdoor cafe in this beautiful city. It was one of those great moments where you feel truly alive.

 

Tomorrow we leave Granada and head back to Managua. We'll buy our Tika Boooos tickets and head to Costa Rica on Tuesday. That should be a 9 hour trip. On Oct 3 we will make the 17+ hour drive to Panama and that should put us in South America on Oct 8.

 

Weirdest line of the night...Jordan to Cory, "Dude, the back of your head looks amazing."  I don't think I've ever heard those words before.

 

Oh and for all my Philly fan friends, I'm pumped about the Eagles and Phillies :)

They're shaving Cory's head

Actually, you'll hear more about the shaving part tomorrow...that was
just a preview.

We woke up yesterday and went in search of an orphanage. It's kind of
awkward for 4 guys to walk up to an orphanage, but the ladies that
work there let us right in. We were able to share what we are doing on
this trip, and we asked them about their needs. They shared with us
the need for food. They were basically down to their rice and beans.
Of course we couldn't walk away without getting them some food, but
you can read about that in the Good Deeds Blog.

One of the downsides of not driving ourselves on this trip is that
they shared a few needs on their building that I'm sure we would have
been able to fix if we had the van and a few tools, but we had to
settle for the food.

After that, we met with a guy from Young Life and talked about their
ministry and their camps. I think there's a lot of potential there.

We couldn't work out our last appointment so we decided to go catch a
movie. It's pretty crazy, but when you go to the movies in Nicaragua,
they assign you an actual seat...and they have bathrooms for women
only.

There was a fashion show going on at the mall with some dancing. I
thought all Latinas could dance, but I was very, very wrong. I did
what any self-respecting person from the Philly area would do...I
boo'd them. You'll have to ask Jordan what happened when I was
talking when the music stopped.

I finally got a salad in the food court and it was great. The food
courts down here aren't huge but each one has at least 4 fried chicken
places and usually 3 Chinese places. Very weird. For those of you who
are wondering, you can't open the ketchup packets here either.

Today we took a bus ride up to Grenada. We managed to cram into the
tiny seats. The bus was packed. Cory had a beautiful girl crammed next
to him. I had a 400+ pound man.

We took a boat ride out to the islands. We got to see some monkeys in
the wild. We were promised that we could feed them bananas, but the
tour guide said he "forgot" them. We got to play with the one monkey,
but I still felt ripped off. It was fun though.

We're off to do some laundry because that's what 4 guys do on a Saturday night.

Very cool day

*** This blog was actually written on Friday morning, but we haven't had internet, so there was a delay in posting it. I'll send tons of pics and another update tonight.

Yesterday was a good day. It was actually the kind of day that I expected most days to be like on this trip. We got up early (we haven't needed an alarm on this trip) and met with a great guy who started a Christian school for 300 kids and who is building a place to house work groups at his amazing house. He is doing everything by hand including welding intricate curved ceiling rafters and cutting down mango trees to make planks for the flooring.

 

The school is in what feels like a remote corner of Managua. We needed every bit of the 4 wheel drive to get to the place.  When we got there the kids were amazing. They were really outgoing and fun. They weren't as shy as some of the other kids we ran into. I could see us doing a trip here.

 

Jordan was leading the way as we walked through a field and he stepped on what we both thought was a rock but turned out to be a cow patty. It got on his new fake Adidas shoes that he bought after his "Joysport" backpack and fake Nike shades.

 

Secondly we went to a youth and kids church.  They have 300 kids and between 60-90 youth. It is run by some American missionaries who are doing some really cool things. This place is cool because I could see us doing an entire trip here or just doing part a trip (like a youth rally or something) here. Plus we saw the biggest roach on planet earth. Do you know the 4 or 5 inch drain in your kitchen sink?  He filled it. Length and width. 

 

Finally, we met with a missionary couple that is doing some cool things trying to bring clean water to the coast of Nicaragua. We went and ate pupusas with them. The restaurant was really cool, but my cheese pupusa tasted like it had an entire stick of butter in it.

 

Speaking of restaurants, Central American ketchup packets are nearly impossible to open. Trying to tear, bite, or cut with your plastic knife is pretty much futile. In fact, I'm pretty sure most catsup (for those who prefer that spelling) packets already have teeth marks in them from people who tried before and gave up.

 

I miss the Mudlets and my friends and loved ones.  I miss showers that you can choose the temperature. I miss peanut butter. I miss healthy food options. I miss sugar free drinks. I'm sick of having to choose from which of the 4 plantain items with my meal.  I miss bbq sauce and taco bell and BASEBALL. I miss getting in the car and driving somewhere. I miss my dvr. I want McDonald's here to carry salads and in Florida to carry queso pies (do you hear that Jessica and Reshma  of the Rock Springs Road McDonalds...I know you can make this happen). 

 

For all the things and people I miss, I'm having a wonderful time traveling with incredible guys.

 

Hot and Sticky

Thanks to our delays, we got into Managua after dark, so we went with our usual plan of getting into a safe place as quick as possible. We met a fellow backpacker in Honduras. He's a guy traveling solo from South Korea. He stayed in our hostel with us. It was $5 per person per night. 

 

   He neglected to inform us that he was catching a bus at 6am, so his alarm went off before 5am, which we appreciated. He was a cool guy though, so it was ok.

 

   We got up early and ditched the hostel in favor of a hotel. Our room has 4 beds, somewhat functioning AC, and a private bathroom for 11.50 per person.

 

   To be honest, I was hating Managua this morning. It's so hot and the air doesn't move. Even the mall isn't air conditioned. It's pretty miserable.

 

   The good news is that we have some great ministry opportunities coming up. We are meeting with a Christian school, a camp, an orphanage, a youth ministry, and a hotel ministry--whatever that is :)

 

   In my never-ending quest to keep you informed in the bathroom situation throughout our trip, we come to Nicaragua. In the mall in Managua there are seven toilet stalls and ONE tp dispenser outside the stalls that they all share. So it's pretty much a game of prediction. Too much and you look like a tree-hater. Too little and you're doing an awkward shuffle to the far wall of the bathroom to resupply. Do you feel lucky?

 

Funny Stuff I Forgot to Tell You

With today being a travel day from Honduras to Nicaragua, there's not a whole lot of new stuff to report. I've pretty much figured out that.  traveling by bus in Central America means that nothing leaves on time and every trip takes way longer than they say it will. So, since there's not a ton of new stuff, I figured I'll fill you in on some other things I forgot to tell you.

 

I'm really wondering why Honduras is spelled with an H considering they don't pronounce the H in Spanish.  I think there's a reason China didn't name itself some name that's full of L's and R's (think about it...you'll get it). 

 

So, I needed a phone that would work anywhere in the world and I wanted one that could hold 2 sim cards so I could use different ones for different countries. I ordered this fake blackberry from China.  I love the phone, but I can't quite figure out all the features. One interesting feature is that it came with a bunch of built in wallpapers that I can't seem to delete. It's a nice mix of nature and cars and girls in bikinis. To change the wallpaper, just shake the phone. So, Sunday morning we were sitting in the pastor's office and I was trying to show the pastor something and when I took the phone out of my pocket, the wallpaper changed to some bikini girl as I was handing it to him. Before he saw it I had to shake the phone which switched it to Jessica Alba, one more shake and I think it was the cast of Harry Potter or something...thankfully not in bikinis.

 

I also forgot to tell you that after I was making fun of France and they were making fun of the US, we had a time of awkward silence. So Jordan decided to ask a serious question to the French girls. He just blurts out, "So what's the deal with Canada speaking French?  Are you guys like okay with that?". The looks on their faces were absolutely priceless. Cory and I about fell out of our chairs.

 

Right now I'm riding the bus in Nicaragua. We're all kinda ticked that they didn't stamp our passports in El Salvador, Honduras, or Nicaragua. There's been a screaming baby from time to time on the bus. Elias was saying that in Mexico they make all the women with babies go to the back of the plane. I actually think that's brilliant, especially because I don't think the cargo area is pressurized.

We have been watching the most hideous movies on the bus. Horrible. First was Dennis the Menace. It was dubbed in Spanish with a girl's voice for Dennis. Quality. Next was Baby's Day Out with some baby that was crawling all over a city.  That was followed up with Brendan Frazier's Furry Vengeance. He wasn't very good in his prime, but this was terrible.  Mind you that the only person under 25 on the bus is the screaming baby.  Ooh, as I write this they're putting on Home Alone 2.

 

In terms of the trip, I really feel like we're hitting our stride. We have kind of figured out what types of places that we want to go and how to get there. We're getting used to the 50lb backpacks and the crazy hours and Tica Bus (pronounced Teeka Boooos) has become a second home to us. I think we all have really high hopes for Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama. We know some people in those places and we are ready to get going again with our mission.

 

Oh and if you hear something about surrender monkeys in Jordan's blog--that wasn't me, I was quoting a British TV show.

Parlez-vous francais?

   One of the weirdest things about coming into Guatemala was that one of the first people we met was an Australian woman. When we arrived at CasaBonita in Honduras, we were greeted by 2 French women and a Guatemalan man.

   I don't think that the French appreciated my sarcasm, of course they're not known for their sense of humor. Actually we really had a great time chatting about different countries and speaking a mix of French, English, and Spanish. I guess my 3 years of high school French wasn't totally useless. When they started to make fun of America I did have to remind them that we do seem to wind up saving them from the Germans a few times a century. Discussion over.

 To all the students from Miss Hunnicutt's Spanish 1 class, McDonald's in Central America is a lot different, but it's very good. We took a few pics for ya.

 In Central America every store is guarded by someone with either a 12 gauge shotgun or an AK-47. Even the Burger King playground had a guard. Elias decided to go up to the guy at the Chili's and ask for a picture of him and his shotgun. We hope Ashlee appreciates Elias' bold move.

 Today was a good day. We basically did all of the leg work to get ready to go to Nicaragua tomorrow. You have to go to the bus station the day before to buy your ticket and we got some food for the ride and TP for the bus--just in case.

 Jordan asked the girl working in the food court for a picture and she obliged for an awkward photo. Good times. I've decided that we need to keep transcripts of Jordan and Cory's conversations. I'm pretty sure that by the end of the trip, we will have the next Napoleon Dynamite on our hands. Long nights. More thoughts. 

Welcome to the Freak Show

   It's been a good two days. When we first got to La Esperanza we were pretty exhausted from 2 long days on the road. We had to walk to our hotel with our massive backpack on our backs and our smaller travel backpacks on our chests. We looked absolutely massive compared to the people here.  Even without our packs on people make comments about us and tell other people that we make them nervous. I try to disarm them by smiling, but it's definitely a weird feeling.

   When I was reading about Honduras I was really feeling that we were supposed to be here, but when we got here it wasn't the quiet, sleepy mountain town that we were expecting. After walking like 4 Godzillas through the market and grabbing a bite to eat, we went back to our room and began to wonder what in the world we were doing here. We had tried to make contact with different ministries, but nothing was working out. Then Pastor Armando called and everything changed.

   I absolutely loved this town, this church and these children.   I would love to do something here in the future. They told usÿ if we come back that they will cut their doorways bigger for us.

   Something kind of crazy happened at lunch today. This drunk Honduran guy came up to us while we were eating and said he was from Moorestown, NJ (which is about 20 minutes from where I grew up). He just kind of kept stammerring and talking to us, until someone forced him to leave. They got in a skirmish in the middle of the street. Eventually the drunk guy came back to apologize.

 

  What's even more crazy is that we are going to be on Honduran TV this week!  We knew they were filming us with an HD camera, but we had no idea until right before we left that it was for TV. We hope that the story of what the Gracepointe did for the Honduran kids will make a bigger impression than the 4 giants.

   

Honduran Adventure

It's 7:14am and I have been out of contact for over 24 hours. I so wish that I could send out a text message or email telling everyone that we are okay, but I guess that's the reality of where we're at.

   We finally got off the bus in the capital of Honduras at 12:30am after a 20+ hour day and we just wanted to be off the streets, so we ducked off into the closest hotel (on the same block), paid too much, and got hosed on the exchange rate...because that's what our mothers would have wanted us to do.

   After getting to bed at about 2, we woke up at 6 and decided to get out of here. There is a town called La Esperanza that sounds wonderful-- so we decided to head for it. That meant us each loading up 2 backpacks and walking to an ATM then a city bus then a coach bus. Then we found out it's a 4 hour ride. Oh well. I think we have some lime flavored corn nuts and water. I'm not even sure I like corn nuts.

   Now that I'm on the bus, I have a grandmother screaming the plan of salvation to us in spanish as she walks up and down the aisles. I appreciate what she's doing, but to be honest, Disco Man was less annoying. At least he didn't have a sizable rear end that brushed me every time he walked down the aisle.

   The biggest thing on my mind though, is that I hope that the people who love me aren't too worried. We're safe and we're good.

3 Countries, 1 Long Day

   When I last left you, we were sitting in the Tica Bus Terminal in Guatemala. It turns out that we waited for 5 hours for the AC to be fixed for it to only work for 2 hours. Figures. A rain storm cooled things off in the early afternoon, so the bus was only really hot for a few hours.

   It took about 7 hours to make it from Guatemala City to San Salvador, El Salvador. It's now almost 6pm and we still have about 6 hours to go.

   El Salvador was a lot like what I expected Guatemala to be. It was actually pretty stark. As soon as we crossed the border, we went to a much darker place. It wasn't that we felt or saw any danger, but the colors weren't as bring, the landscape wasn't as pretty, and there was a lot more razor wire.

   The Tica bus is nice. So far we've seen movies in Spanish and English.  The bus has a bathroom on board but they don't provide toilet paper...which would have been nice to know before we got on it for 14 hours. We have a backup plan, but trust me...you don't wanna know. Also, for a region that serves so many beans, you would think having quality tp would be more of a priority, but that's just my two quetzales.

Guat-the-heck?

   Today was all about hurrying up and waiting. I woke up at 4am to wake up Manuel our hostel host who was supposed to wake up Otto our taxi driver who was way late. We crammed 5 people and all our luggage into a tiny micro taxi and headed off to the Tica Bus Terminal. I thought that we were going to miss the cut off for our bus, but we found out that the AC is broken and the bus will not go into the shop until 8:30am.  They said it´s a simple fix. We´ll see.

  

   So, we´ve been spending our time in the Tica Bus Terminal in Guatemala City. It must be a cultural thing, but I don´t understand people who play their music through their cell phones without headphones in public. We have a lot of talking, a loud tv, and some guy blairing distorted American music from the 70´s through his phone. 

 

   The good news is that we´re all in a good mood, we have 156 quetzales (about $20) for food, and I think that guy´s cell phone battery just died.  ¡Disco esta muerta!

Recovery

   Today was a quiet day. We had a pretty hectic few weeks leading up to the trip. The guys slept in a bit today and we spent some time updating the web site and making future plans.

    We decided to go to the Oakland Mall for lunch. It's an absolutely amazing place right in the middle of Guatemala City. I've been to all of the big famous malls in the US from Lenox Square to Millenia to Mall of America and they don't hold a candle to this place in terms of beauty. Every single store is absolutely top notch. We rested a bit in the afternoon and then went to an amazing restaurant for dinner.

   I've absolutely loved my time here in Guatemala and I definitely would love to come back.

   We get up around 4:15am tomorrow for our trip to Honduras. We don't feel that we beed to spend any real time in El Salvador, so we're pretty much going to breeze through.

   Sorry that there isn't a whole lot of funny stuff to report today...I'll try to do better next time. We will make sure a post is made both on Facebook and MudTrip.com as soon as we can get either phone or internet access to let everyone know that we arrived safely, but please don't get scared if it takes us a while to check back in.

Chicken Bus

  Today we had our first ride on the chicken bus. It's a colorful repurposed school bus that is extremely bumpy and loud. They stop every few miles to let people on to try to sell you stuff. On the ride home, we had 7 people in our row that should accomidate 4. We got a good laugh because at first 4 teenage girls decided to cram in one seat rather than sitting next to Elias. The Guatemalan family of 5 that we shared a seat with got a lot of laughs at Jordan's ability to sleep in such a chaotic environment.

   To put it simply, I love Guatemala. The people have been so nice and so fun. I feel really welcomed.

   We made the 90 minute trip out to Antigua today. It's a beautiful city that was built in the 1500s and hasn't been updated since. Even McDonald's and Burger king were breathtaking.

   We met a guy from England named Stuart in the customs line and we happened to be staying in the same place, so he made the trip to Antigua with us. We had quite possibly the worst carne asada on the face of the earth but made up for it with some pupusa from a street vendor.

   Everyone is in good spirits and ready to start making some more contacts and doing some good deeds. We are loving Quetzalroo. The Aussie owner made me some Vegiemite (sp?) toast this morning. That's some interesting stuff. I also had my morning tea in a very special bone china cup from Australia that normal guests aren't allowed to use. The cup made all the difference.

The Gang's All Here

Today I felt a feeling that I haven't felt since the first day of my bike trip across America. There was a moment when John and Vince drove away and I realized that I was really on my own.

 We pretty much breezed through immigration and customs, got our backpacks all setup and walked out on the street and then it hit us...we were really in Guatemala. It only took about 30 seconds for our Spanglish to click in,  we got our bearings, and got a cab to Quetzalroo.  We took a little time to explore the city, grabbed a bite to eat and then waited for Elias, who got here safe and sound.

 We almost didn't get to leave the US this morning. Even though we were allowed to purchase 1-way tickets, they would not let us board the plane without a return ticket. So, we had to purchase $1024 worth of refundable plane tickets that we will have to cancel after we leave Guatemala.

 The we are really making some progress on contacts for future trips. I talked to a guy this evening who works for an organization called A Roof for My Country. We would be able to bring groups of people here to build houses for people. It costs $1300 here to build a house and it can be done in less than a week. Elias has also made some contacts that we will be following up on Thursday.

 Thank you so much for your thoughts and prayers and well wishes. They mean the world to us.

Twas the Night Before MudTrip

I'm really not sure how I'm supposed to sleep. I have exactly 321 bazillion thoughts running through my mind.

Have I packed everything? Have I done enough planning? Will anyone even read this journal?

I hope you find my random thoughts to be thoroughly entertaining, but tonight I feel pensive. I just said goodbye to Camp Joy for the last time. I watched the bear eat some Dinty Moore Beef Stew and some butter flavored pancake syrup. I never got to say farewell to the last Camp Joy duck, Turducken. Everything I own now sits in a trailer in Sorrento, FL.

I guess it's kind of fitting that as the 2006-2010 chapter of my life has so clearly closed that I embark on a new journey with 3 of the greatest guys I've ever met.

On a side note, a lot of people have been interested in our malaria meds. The 3 of us took them at once in Cory's kitchen. They're said to cause nightmares and paranoia...we would love to keep you posted on this, but we aren't sure who we can trust.
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