The Rock

I left Morocco this morning, but I'm not sleeping in Spain tonight. I'm in the UK, Gibraltar, to be precise. I'm sleeping on The Rock!

Gibraltar really is a giant rock perched at the tip of Spain. I took the ferry to Algeciras, which is just an industrial center. You can see where I disembarked in the distance in this pic. From there I took a bus to La Linea, literally the line between Spain and the UK. That's in the far right of the pic. From there I walked to Gibraltar. You can see the airstrip the British military built. It goes right across the main street. I had to stop at a streetlight for several minutes to let a plane take off.



The scenery is simply awesome.



It's also the home of barbary apes, the only wild monkeys in all of Europe. They roam freely, but they're so accustomed to humans that you might have to step around them to get up the steps.



A guidebook I read said the colony is like a snapshot of 1960s England. I wish I could stay longer. I think a dose of English civility was just what I needed. Today I was standing on a street corner with my backpack when a motorist stopped to let me pass. You're more likely to get struck by lightning than have that happen, well, just about anywhere else!




I only hope I haven't extended myself too far. The main reason I'm at this computer is to figure out how to get to Madrid tomorrow to meet Lily!

Tangier

I went to sleep on a train in the baking heat of Marrakech and awoke to a stiff Mediterranean breeze in Tangier. How long was I asleep!?

Marrakech is a lovely city, in a muted way, due to the murderous heat. Tangier is mor glamorous, perched above the water on a spectacular harbor. While Marrakech is mostly pink, Tangier is mostly white, and it shines in the sun.

Perhaps I should have called this blog "Things That May Interest Only Me" because I'm ticking off a list of things to do that people generally don't get as excited about as I do. Like this picture.




I'm standing in Morocco, in Africa. In the distance, you can see Spain, in Europe. I think that's pretty cool.

I had been following the Euro Cup but I lost track in Morocco. Had I been paying attention I might have hustled over to Spain a day early to watch the final there. Spain won, of course, so I'm sure I missed a heck of a party! There were a lot of Spaniards in my hotel (and the surrounding cafes), so every time something good (or bad) would happen the whole neighborhood would erupt.

Tourist day

Ever since I left Panama I've been battling a cold and feeling really rundown. I was in full-scale travel mode for five straight days, and I have trouble sleeping in any vehicle, so I basically didn't sleep for five days.

I took an overnight train from Marrakech to Tangier and slept like a rock but I decided to take a day to recharge like a normal tourist. I checked into an actual hotel, with A/C, a bathtub and TV. I spent the day wandering around Tangier (pix and details to come in a future post) but tonight I am going to order room service, lie in bed and watch the Euro Cup final. I am going to Spain tomorrow, after all...

Marrakech

My travel book describes the central square of Marrakech "one of the world's greatest spectacles." This is not an exaggeration. Called the Djemaa el-Fna, it is a bombardment of the senses. I first saw it at 10:30 on a Thursday night, and the combination of sight, sound and smell, and the crazy energy of the place, gave it an almost hallucinatory feel. It was quite overwhelming.



The plaza is more crowded at night because of the oppressive daytime heat. People here take advantage of the cooler night hours to go out, eat, socialize, etc. The labyrinth of souks (stalls) is open all day but the food vendors who operate in the open square are only open in the evening.

There are tourists everywhere, of course, but there are also punk kids whizzing by on scooters, women in burqhas, families, snake charmers, acrobats, musicians, etc., etc.

The city itself is beautiful and quite safe. I felt safer here than in Baltimore, which is a sad, sad observation. All the buildings are a pale pink. There's very little trash in the street. People on the street pay no attention to tourists, which is a bit odd considering how aggressive the scammers in the market are.

I had been warned repeatedly that the hustlers and scammers in Marrakech are especially difficult to deal with, so I prepared myself. Or so I thought. To begin with, I hate haggling. I think the charms of haggling are overrated. Saying part of the charm of visiting a market is haggling with scammers is like saying part of of the charm of driving is crashing headfirst into a bridge abutment.

Tonight I catch an overnight train to Tangier, and from there I plan to take the ferry across the Strait of Gibraltar into Spain.

Self portrait, Morocco

It's been a hectic few days. I woke up in Panama City on June 22 and visited the Panama Canal before taking an overnight flight to Madrid. I arrived in Madrid on June 23 and had a layover of several hours before catching a flight to Marrakech, Morocco. I arrived there at sunset and finally got to bed at about 1 a.m. on June 24.

Now it gets hectic. I had planned on visiting Marrakech, then taking a train north and hitting a couple other cities along the way. Instead I woke up a few hours later, climbed in a van with seven complete strangers and drove two days to Merzouga, near Morocco's eastern border. From there we rode camels into the desert and camped overnight.

On June 25 I slept under the stars in the Sahara Desert.

This is our group. In front is Mustapha, our Berber guide, and the last shadow is your humble narrator on camelback.





These are the times I wish I was a better photographer, so I could capture the gradations of color and shadow in the sand. And of course there's no way to capture the sensation of total silence. After everyone had gone to bed I sat on the sand and listened, and there was nothing: no animals, no people, no traffic, no wind, and no artificial light in any direction. From the top of the ridge we could see out to the east into Algeria.




And as always, what made it really worthwhile was the people I met. I've been chastised for not posting pictures of me, or anyone else, for that matter. In my group there was a French-Canadian girl, a Mexican guy, three Venezuelan girls and our guide, Youssef. He took this picture, so those are his feet you see. From left to right it's me, Daniela, Ana, Alejandra, Daniel, Caroline. (And in case you're wondering, yes, every one of the girls is drop-dead gorgeous.)




I mention the nationalities of everyone involved because there's a funny little travel story involved. After struggling with Spanish for a month I was genuinely terrified about visiting Africa for the first time, in a country where I can't even read the alphabet, let alone speak the language.

When I mentioned my concern quite a few people said, "Don't worry, everyone in Morocco speaks French." Great. I don't speak French either. In fact, I know more Arabic! Even though I traveled for a full calendar day and a half to get here I didn't sleep much because I was listening to my Arabic language instruction on my iPod.

So of course I ended up in a travel group in which the primary language was ... Spanish. Thankfully, everyone spoke English and was kind enough to do so for my benefit. Our guide was awful, but it was a great group of people, which helps when in you're cooped up in a van together for three straight days in the desert with no air conditioning. I was prepared for the heat and the dirt and the sweat but one thing I could not get used to was drinking hot water. We'd buy bottles of water and if we didn't drink them immediately the water quickly warmed to the ambient temperature, which was about 100 degrees.

But it was worth it!

Final thoughts on Central America

I´m packing to head to the airport. I have a marathon flight to Madrid, then a short connection to Marrakech. I can´t believe I´ve been traveling for less than four weeks! I´ve been moving pretty quickly, doing the typically American tourist thing, moving from spot to spot, but I knew when I came here my itinerary was pretty ambitious (and unrealistic).

I´m spending a few days in Morocco -- not nearly enough, of course, just enough to see a few of the main cities -- and then a couple of weeks in Spain. After that I´ll be spending a month or so in each country. I´m looking forward to when my pace slows a bit.

I´ve traveled by plane, car and boat, but not train, which is a bit ironic in that, when I get to Asia, that will be my primary mode of transportation for several months.

I´ve already made some horrendous rookie backpacker mistakes and had my share of frustrations and sleepless night, but all in all it´s been a great few weeks. I chose Central America to start my trip for a few practical reasons.
1) It´s cheap to get to. When I booked my first flight there were tickets from BWI to Costa Rica for about $225. You can´t fly in the US that cheaply!
2) It´s inexpensive. Panama is pricey by Central American standards, although Costa Rica is by far the most expensive, and yet last night I was drinking beers at my hostel for 60 cents a piece.
3) I´ve been to Central America a couple times so I sort of know how to find my way around, so I figured it would be a good way to ease myself into my round-the-world trip and gain some confidence before I head to more challenging locales.
4) I´m meeting my friend Lily in Spain in July, so basically I had a month to kill!

I do have a rough itinerary for the year, but even though I was only in Central America a few weeks I made some radical detours, and they ended up being some of my favorite spots. I had no plans to go to Honduras at all, but I loved both Utila and Copan. I had no plans on going to Bocas del Toro, but I enjoyed a wonderful few days there.

There was only one spot on the entire trip that I planned on visiting for the second time. (I´ve been to Spain before but I´m not going anywhere I visited before.) There is a hostel in Costa Rica that I visited a few years ago and loved. And that was the biggest disappointment of the trip so far. It´s really gone downhill. Lesson learned!

Thanks to everyone who has kept in touch. It´s fun writing this, but even more satisfying knowing someone is reading it!

Final days in Central America

Today I did the typical tourist Bocas del Toro thing, which is a boat ride around to some of the best spots. We went to Dolphin Bay, which is called that because, well, you get the idea. I had never seen them in the wild before so I enjoyed it. They were a little shy, which is understandable. You can see two in the center here and about half the boats that were there.



We visited Red Frog Beach on Isla Bastimentos, which was gorgeous. I don´t know why this picture is so dark. It was actually quite sunny.



We also snorkelled at two spots. I was so excited to see my first octopus. They´re quite skittish and adept at camouflage so it takes a trained eye to find them. The best time to see them is at night, so I was proud that I was able to spot one in the daylight. I dove down to get a couple pictures with my underwater disposable, being very careful not to spook it. Then I realized it was dead...

Blogging note

I´ve received a few emails from people who are surprised at how often I´m able to email or update this blog. The places I´ve been are all major tourist draws, so there are internet cafes everywhere.

But there´s a more practical consideration. It´s June. I´m in Central America. The sun in Panama is merciless during the day. Computers need to be cool in order to run properly. Which means most internet cafes are air-conditioned, so they´re usually the coolest places in town.

Unorthodox travel methods

One of the hassles of traveling, anywhere, is getting to and from the airport. The airport in Bocas del Toro is pretty convenient, all in all. My hostel is five blocks away from the airport.

The picture below was taken from the main intersection in town on Isla Colon. Three blocks away you can see a gate. Beyond that gate is the runway. The young men walking in that direction are going to the airport so they can be there when the next flight arrives. They´re touts, people who 'help' arriving tourists finding lodging, tours, etc.




I finished my Advanced Open Water scuba certification today. I went on my first night dive last night, which I can´t say I really enjoyed. It was pretty spooky, and I burned through my air pretty quickly. Today I went on my first shipwreck dive, which was more to my liking. I saw a school of squid, maybe 200 or so, the largest group my instructor has ever seen.

I have 2 days left in Central America. Saturday I leave the island for Panama City, then fly to Marrakech, Morocco the following day. As tough as it can be communicating in a Spanish-speaking country, at least I can sound out the words. In Morocco I won't even be able to read the alphabet. I bought a book-CD combination for Arabic so that I can at least say the key phrases. Then I need to do the same in Russian. And Mongolian. And Mandarin. And Thai...

You can only get to Bocas by boat or plane. I flew in, but I´ve heard that the boat ride to-from Changuinola is beautiful, through canals used by the old banana plantations. It´s $6 for an hour boat ride. So I looked into what it would cost to fly from there as compared to here. The cost is the same. And the flight from Changuinola connects here (after a 15-minute flight). So I´m taking the boat to Changuinola, then flying back here, then flying to Panama City. Not the way I would have planned it!

Bocas del Toro

I took a puddle jumper flight from Panama City to Bocas del Toro, a group of islands on the Caribbean near the Costa Rican border. It's supposed to be a good, cheap place to take scuba classes, so tomorrow I hope to start an Advanced Open Water class, which will certify me to dive deeper, explore wrecks, and dive at night, which I have to admit kinda gives me the willies.

This is the view from the balcony of my hostel. It's a dorm room for $10 per night. I've only been here a few hours but those real estate signs are tempting...

The Panama Canal (new)

I published a post about the Panama Canal yesterday, but deleted it. I went there yesterday afternoon to watch the ships go through. About 14,000 go through every year -- and I didn't see one!

I went back this morning and got to see a half-dozen or so go through and, wow, what a spectacle. Considering it's almost 100 years old, and considering the technology they had at the time, and how many people died, etc., etc., it's pretty darn amazing. It was built by the US government over a period of about 10 years, and was finished ahead of schedule and under budget. My, how times have changed.

I visited the Miraflores locks, on the Pacific side. (The ships I saw were traveling from south to north, from the Pacific to the Atlantic.) The locks raise the ship 26 meters into what was once the world's largest man-made lake. This is necessary because otherwise the waterway isn't deep enough to accomodate the ships.

Ships of any size can go through. They are charged according to weight. The ship below paid a toll of $273,000 to go through. (Yes, over a quarter-million dollars!) The alternative is to sail all the way around South America, an additional 8,000 miles.




In the distance you can see ships queueing up to come through the other way in the afternoon.

The locks are about 1,000 feet long, and if it appears to be a tight squeeze, it's because ships are built specifically to fit through the canal. An additional set of locks is being built which will allow ships twice the size (!) to fit through. They're scheduled to open in 2014, the canal's 100th anniversary.

I must say I felt a bit proud to be an American as I watched the ships rise up and pass through. It's amazing what this country can accomplish when our priorities are in order. And sad what happens when they aren't.

Here's a before-and-after set of another ship going through, showing the lock before and after it's filled with water:





I came to Panama specifically to see the canal and it was worth the trip.

The miracles of technology

How did people travel before the internet?

I spent last night in a hostel in Costa Rica which is known for, among other things, having the best internet setup in the country. Long story short, coming here was something of a mistake, considering how little time I have left in Central America, so today I'm cutting my losses and catching a bus to Panama City. 16 hours...

I'll be arriving around 4 a.m. so I went online to find a hostel there with 24-hour reception. I was staying in San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica, and like most Central American capitals, there's not much to do and it can be more than a little scary. So I decided to take advantage of the internet setup to make some additional travel arrangements.

After about an hour I had reservations for hostels in Marrakech, Morocco; Beijing, China; and Ulaanbataar, Mongolia. The hostel in Mongolia is by all accounts the best in the country, and it's $5 US per night. I booked a budget room in the most sparsely populated country in the world in minutes on the internet. I think that's pretty cool.

A reasonable request

A sign on the Utila-La Ceiba ferry

Tourist moment

One of the charms of Copan Ruinas is walking the town in the early morning and seeing all the cowboys coming and going. Real caballeros, with hats and spurs. Horseback riding is a popular activity, so some come to town to drum up business, bring stuff to market, etc.

The owner of my hostel offers tours, so I decided to go on one this morning, before I caught the bus out of town. I was under the impression his young son would be my guide, which seemed like it might be fun. $15 for three hours of riding in those picturesque hills seemed like a decent deal.

We were supposed to meet at 8 a.m. Nothing ever happens on time in Central America, so I wasn't surprised that it took them until after 9:00 to come looking for me. In the middle of the night a storm had knocked out electricity in town, so I couldn't even have a cup of coffee while I waited.

The son was in his school uniform and I thought, there's no way I can do this if the kid is going to miss school to do it! But they had hired a caballero guide, so I felt better about the whole deal.

Until he led me to his horse. Singular. I was a little confused, but I mounted, and as we started off I asked him where his horse was, assuming that's where he was leading me. No, he was going to walk alongside while I rode his horse.

I have never felt like such a tourist. I felt like a little kid being led on a pony at a birthday party.

It was too weird. I apologized, dismounted and walked back to the hostel. The girl there asked me why I backed out. When I told her she explained to me that I had only agreed to pay for one horse, and that I'd have to pay double for the guide to have a horse.

I think this qualifies as more than "lost in translation."

Since there was no electricity there was nothing really to do, so I caught an early bus and tonight I'm crashing in San Pedro Sula. It's the industrial center of the country, and where the international airport is, but there's not much to do or see. Luckily an Aussie guy I'm sharing a room with has been kind enough to loan me his laptop so that I can send one last (free!) missive from Honduras. I'm going to use the afternoon to make some additional travel arrangements. I can't wait for the day when I no longer NEED the internet on this trip.

So here are a couple parting shots of Copan Ruinas. One is from the hillside looking down on the town. You can see the spires of the church which marks the south side of the central plaza. In the other shot you can see a brown sign on the right. That's where I stayed. And beyond is the view when I walked out the door.

Copan

Yesterday I arrived in Copan Ruinas, the town just on the outskirts of the Mayan ruins of Copan. It's a beautiful, charming little town, nestled in a picturesque valley in the western highlands of Honduras, just a few miles from the Guatemalan border. I was hugely disappointed in both Leon and Granada, so it was nice to visit a town which lives up to its reputation.

Today I walked down to the ruins. I had been to Tikal in Guatemala, which is famous for its sheer size and for its pyramids, which are tall by Mayan standards. Copan, on the other hand, is famous for its sculpture. My guide book aptly noted that Tikal was like New York and Copan was like Paris.

This shot is from the Great Plaza. In the background is the Hieroglyphic Stairway. It features the longest inscribed text in the ancient New World. A series of carvings tells the story of the ruling dynasty. It (and other sculptures) are covered with tarps to protect them from the rain. In front of that is the Great Ballcourt, where some sort of game was played with an 8 pound rubber ball. And in the foreground is one of the many stelae, free-standing statues honoring the city's rulers.



This shot is taken further back, so you can see the size of the plaza, with more stelae and altars. It was completely paved and there are drains at the far end so it was believe they could intentionally flood the entire plaza like a lagoon for festivals or rituals.




The carvings have been damaged by centuries of rain, but the detail is still impressive. This the "name glyph" for the 13th ruler, Waxaklahun Ub'ah K'awil. That's a mouthful, so rulers have popular names based on what people think their glyphs look like. In this one the three bars each represent five and the three dots each represent one, for a total of 18. So he's known as 18 Rabbit, because someone decided the head on the bottom left looks like a rabbit. Um, if you say so...



The site is beautifully maintained, with an excellent museum, and although the monuments aren't quite as impressive as Tikal, there's a lot less walking! But I should have started with the Maya and worked my way up to the Inca. After seeing Machu Picchu, Ollantayambo, etc., in Peru, the Mayan temples look like outhouses by comparison.

Goodbye, Utila

It's official: I'm a scuba diver! I finished class yesterday and I have to say I enjoy it a lot more than I expected to. I'm considering taking another course in Bocas del Toro in Panama, but we'll see.

Utila has the coolest restaurant I've ever seen, called The Jade Seahorse. There's an upstairs bar called the Tree Tanic, and it's like a treehouse. Over 17 years the owner has built further and further back so that it's now a huge complex of fairytale architecture and art. It's like a combination of Neverland, Ewok village and Rivendell. The decor reminds me very much of the Gaudi buildings in Barcelona.






This is the view from the deck of the dive shop where I took my class. You can see the mountains of the Honduras coast in the background. It's been a great week here. I expect I'll come back in the future to dive with whale sharks, since I just missed the season this time. Tomorrow I leave for Copan, a Mayan ruins site in western Honduras, and then I'll head south to Costa Rica.

Utila

This is the main street on Utila, which they've torn up to install a new "sewer system," which is a fancy name for plastic pipe under the concrete. You'll notice the internet cafe (where I am now) says Caye Caulker, which is actually in Belize. Who knows...



The first night we were here we went to perhaps the coolest restaurant I've ever been to (pix to come) where a couple guys from the dive shop were celebrating being certified as instructors. The "final exam" is the snorkel test, where they put on a snorkel and random people dump random liquids down the snorkel and they're supposed to chug as much as they can. I don't know what poor Marco here was trying to drink but it looked like mouthwash and smelled like Windex. I think I'll skip that class.

Lucky me

I'm sort of legendary for my freakish bad luck. Things happen to me that just don't happen to normal people. So my experience getting to Honduras was quite a pleasant surprise. We took a bus from Granada to Managua, booked a hostel, then took a bus to Leon for the day. The girls I was traveling with were going to Honduras, but only as far as the capital. We booked a bus out the next morning. I continued on to San Pedro Sula, a few hours further north. We said an awkward farewell on the bus, and then I felt suddenly very alone.

I wanted to get to La Ceiba, on the coast, which is where to catch the ferry to where I am now. The bus ride from San Pedro Sula to La Ceiba takes a few hours. I would be arriving in SPS around dinner time, so my window of opportunity to find a bus was small. I would have to take a cab from the bus station into town and then find the right bus line for the trip. According to the map in my travel guide bus stations are all over town. So I was resigned to staying the night in SPS, making arrangements, and leaving the next morning.

A Belgian girl on the bus was getting off in SPS but heading in the opposite direction, to the Mayan ruins in Copan. We discussed sharing a taxi into town and I started considering how to get the cute Belgian girl to invite me along to Copan.

So imagine my shock when we arrive at the bus station in SPS to discover it's the size of a small airport. Hundreds of buses on two levels. My heart sank. It was boing to be a daunting task figuring out where to go. While I was waiting outside the bus for my backpack to be unloaded I heard a guy yelling "La Ceiba!"

The bus I needed was parked next to the one I had just arrived in. And it was leaving in five minutes. What an incredible stroke of luck. I rode on a luxury bus in a fully reclining seat, with complimentary beverage and snack service, in air conditioning so cold I needed two blankets, watching Terminator 3. For $14US. Hardcore backpackers would be aghast that I spent that much for a bus in Central America, but boy oh boy was it worth it.

(By way of comparison, neither of my flights from the US to Nicaragua had a snack or movie.)

I woke up at 3 a.m. in Managua to catch the bus that morning. (For some reason all buses in Central America seem to leave at 4 or 5 a.m.) After three bus rides and a taxi it was about 9 p.m. and I was dead. I figured I'd get up the next morning and get my bearings.

I met an American girl at the hostel and asked her if she was coming or going from the islands. She said she and her friend were heading to the ferry and had a cab on the way to pick them up and, oh, would I like to tag along? 10 minutes later I was on my way to the dock.

Sorry no pix with this post. I'll do better next time.

Final Nicaragua post

After leaving Ometepe we made my way back to Granada for a night. I was traveling with two Swedish girls, one of whom really wanted to see Leon. I had no desire to see the city really, but I was enjoying hanging out with them, so what the heck. A Peace Corps volunteer I met said that Leon is the hottest inhabited place in the western hemisphere. Which of course begs the question of why you would live there at all.

It lived up to its billing. Stifling, suffocating heat. We spent half a day there, which was plenty. I didn't care for the city but it was interesting to see the difference between it and Granada. They are rival cities from way back in colonial days and each served as capital at some point. Managua is now the capital, with Leon about 1.5 hours to the north and Granada about the same distance to the south.

Leon was much more overtly political than Granada. Nicaragua's history has always been bloody, even before America got involved in the Contra war. There were a few really interesting murals and memorials, like this one, which is a surrealist mural depicting the history of the country from left to right across two walls. On the second wall Augusto Sandino shadow literally looms over recent history. It ends with two children running happily into a bright future. Fascinating.

Change of course update

One of the benefits of backpacking is the freedom to change your itinerary on the fly. I´m only in my second week but I´ve already made a major change of direction. I´m on Utila, one of the Bay Islands off the coast of northern Honduras. I had hoped to take a scuba class before I left the US but I had to cancel because I just didn´t have the time. The Bay Islands are part of the same reef as Belize, so the diving is just as good, but much, much cheaper. The weather is spectacular, the island is gorgeous, so if you´ll excuse me I´m going to enjoy the day.

I´ll update further when I have a rainy day and-or solid internet connection.

First excursion: Isla Ometepe

Lago Nicaragua is the largest lake in Central America. Bull sharks and sawfish live there, making it the only freshwater body in the world where sharks live (although they've been hunted nearly to extinction). Because the lake is accessible to the Atlantic via Rio San Juan and separated from the Pacific only by a small isthmus what is now the Panama Canal almost went through Nicaragua.

The island consists of two conjoined volcanoes, Concepcion and Maderas. We stayed at a hostel at the foot of Maderas and did a dayhike to a waterfall near the town of San Ramon. The hike was much tougher than we expected but it was worth it.

Alma aftermath

Tropical Storm Alma dumped a ton of rain on us and generally complicated travel matters, but all in all I was lucky. Central America was hit pretty hard: deaths, disappearances, destroyed homes, landslides, etc.

Storms do make for colorful sunsets, as this shot taken from Isla Ometepe shows. You can see the sun setting behind what's left of the storm.

The island is spectacular. It's two volcanoes which produced so much lava they became attached. This is going to be a major tourist destination in the near future. The picture doesn't do it justice, but you get the idea.