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Guatemala isn’t the only country where highway travel sucks!

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from Tom, Broomfield, Colorado I spent eight years teaching in China and got to see much of the country, traveling to lesser-known spots, such as you favor doing. One thing I enjoyed tremendously about your ride to El Salvador, was your inclusion of highway numbers on your route. While reading, I followed along on Google Maps and had a sense of being on the trip with you. I easily found Highway 12 and could visualize your description of the major bottleneck. Many of my trips in China used multi-modal transportation methods and frequently incorporated hitchhiking. As I read about each of your delays, I tried to think of what I might have done differently, had I anticipated the delay (which I admit, you couldn’t). A few years after the 2008 Sichuan, China earthquake, I was in Sichuan Province, traveling one way from Jiuzhaigou (valley of nine villages), one of China’s most beautiful national parks to Chengdu, the provincial capital. At that time, there were only two buses per week, a...
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2024 Antigua Photo Gallery

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I didn’t take very many photos in Antigua as I already have dozens in my files from the two weeks I spent there in 2014.   This time, during my last few days in Antigua, I shot some pix which focused less on the standard tourist attractions and more on my impressions of life in the city.   Some of the better ones (with annotations) are below. I’ll have one more post in a couple days – it’s a “guest post” from a reader discussing his experiences on a trip to China which I hope you will find interesting. After that, I’ve been encouraged by all the positive feedback I’ve received from readers.   Therefore, The Wandering Geographer would like to do some more international travel to provide fodder for my “pen” and camera.   I don’t have any specific plans yet but I might like to focus on environmental themes.   This blog (and other three that you can access by clicking on VISIT PROFILE on the left side of the page under my photo and name) is not a profit-making...
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18-19 November 2024: A nasty encounter & a happy ending

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My final days at the School of Hope meant my final days lodging with Violeta and Fernando.   They were great people and made me feel very comfortable and welcome.   However, on Monday the situation with Michael (the weird guy staying at their place across from my room) finally got nasty. Michael and I had seemed to have reached a sort of truce.   We said “hello” when we saw each other but mostly stayed out of each other’s space.   When I arrived back from the school on Monday afternoon, the 18 th , Michael was sitting in the common area outside our rooms engaged in another of his long phone conversations.   I had wanted to write in the common area because of the comfortable chair but figured I could try to write in my room.   There was only a stool without a back and a small desk in my room, so I had to sit on the bed which had a very uncomfortable headboard.   I persevered for close to an hour listening to a waterfall on my white noise program.  ...
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18-19 November 2024: Vacation School Ends with a Fiesta

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After I returned from the weekend at the Paredón beach, there was only one day left of classes (Monday) followed by an end of vacation school pageant and special lunch on Tuesday.   On Monday, the students made Christmas trees with paper, green water-soluble paint, glue, and salt.   The mixture took forever to dry so I don’t think the kids got to take them home.   The pageant/fiesta had a Christmas theme as Thanksgiving is unknown in Guatemala.  Groups of students gave short performances or presentations of various things they had learned and practiced at the vacation school.  A good time was had by all including quiet and curmudgeonly old Will.     After lunch, I bid warm goodbyes to Eunice and Carmen who had supervised the exercises in the science lab where I spent most of my time as a volunteer.   I also thanked and was thanked by Susan García, the volunteer coordinator for the school, who had invited me to come help out several mon...
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16-17 November 2024: El Paredón – Paradise Trashed

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I had one weekend left before returning home to Denver.   Should I stay in Antigua to see more of the city?   Well, I’d seen quite a bit of the city ten years ago when I was in Antigua for a conference and one-week Spanish immersion course.   I really wanted to get out of Antigua for the weekend, especially because of the two-day Festival de las Flores (Flower Festival).   I don’t have anything against flowers but Violeta and Fernando told me thousands of people would descending on the city meaning crowded streets, crowded restaurants, and many decibels of noise.   I also learned from Fernando that five young women who were attending a wedding would be staying in the room next to mine which was usually vacant or had one quiet guest at a time.   I could easily envision the five of them returning from the wedding at midnight – ¾ sloshed on free booze and ready to continue the party into the wee hours.   And I was also eager to get away from Michael, the ...
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11-15 November 2024: Making dinosaur bones at the School of Hope

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My time as a volunteer at the School of Hope was during their four week “vacation school”.   One of the objectives was for the students to have fun while learning in a less formal setting than they had during the January-October school year.   During the first week I was helping out in the science lab, I suggested to Eunice (the Guatemalan science teacher) that we have a class and lab exercise on Dinosaurs.   After all, kids love dinosaurs, right?   During an internet search, I found a five-minute video in Spanish about dinosaurs (“dee-no-SAUR-ios” in Spanish) as well as    instructions for making dinosaur bones using a mixture of flour, water, and salt. So, on the Monday following my return from Honduras, we showed the video to two groups of students, then had them mix up the ingredients to get the correct consistency for making the bones.  The result was a variety of sizes and shapes of bones based on drawings I showed them.  I had hoped that on...
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