Rob and Anna's travel adventure

My View – Antigua (Guatemala) to Roatan (Honduras) [Rob´s entry (#3)]

Regardless of the date listed above, this was entered January 4, 2006

Standard disclaimer: Anna does an excellent job covering the positive aspects of our trip, and I try to fill the ‘other side’.

Some of you will recognize “My View”. Borrowing from Mr. Condit seemed appropriate, very blunt and direct.
Antigua was a different experience than the others. One reason is that we stayed put for a couple of weeks in one location, and with a host family. Historic Antigua (where we stayed) had a distinctive architecture that deviated considerably from the cinder block boxes prevalent throughout Mexico and most of Central America we’ve traveled through. The colonial architecture and cobblestone streets, though nice, seemed a bit pale, and after so much time spent in Europe left us both unimpressed. Antigua was also a bit dodgy, as we heard several stories of violence-robberies in recent times. The armed “tourist police” escorted us to the cross hill, and they escort groups hiking up the volcanoes. The school where we studied was adequate, though it supplied us with many stories. First off, boy, do they pump out kids. Actually, the whole domestic scene was was a little shocking. Here is the typical story we heard over and over. A couple gets married and begins with…you guessed it, kids. Lots of kids! My first teacher had 7, the lady we stayed with had 5, one of her sons was about 32 and had 5, and so on. The women stay home cooking, washing, and raising kids. The men however, have a different agenda. In comes the novea(s) [girlfriend(s)].These are the women that get taken out to restaurants, talked to, etc.- and commonly the guy begins a brood of kids with her/them. The school owner had a wife (we lived with her and her 5 adult offspring as mentioned) and a girlfriend. Same with my first teacher, etc. The other scenario is that the father takes off to El Salvador. We certainly met a few women with better stories, but the above-described scenarios we heard many times. As for our particular living arrangement, there was a constant parade of kids coming/going, and we gave up very early trying to figure out who was related to who, whose kids were whose, etc. Now here is an interesting twist in these arrangements. For us living in the industrialized world, such a situation would be a total train wreck, the stuff of “Classic Springer”. Here however, it SEEMS to work out fairly smoothly! The kids seem well adjusted, all seem to bee taken care of by everyone, etc. Understand that this is only my conclusion based upon the briefest of observations. One family member we could easily identify living with us was the woman's (of the house) granddaughter of about 14 years old. She was easy to identify because there was only one of her age (as opposed to the abundance of 2-8 year olds) We struggled o confirm who her parents were, but were told that it is typical for kids to live with their grand,mothers. Oh well….
We found the central park to be a mild place of interest. Particularly sad were the shoe-shine boys. They were typically 7-8 years old with a shine kit and a baseball cap that didn´t fit. On the surface, one might find them cute as we idealize the capitalist notions of hard work and the entrepreneurial spirit. Some might conjure Norman Rockwell-like images of a newspaper route or lemonade stand. Several tourists even took photos of/with the children- for payment. The problem is the payment. While I´m sure there are some exceptions to the lifestyle, locals confirmed my suspicion that the kids are being pimped out, typically be alcoholic parents or some other exploiting adult.. School is not obligatory in Guat. and many kids begin shining shoes and spend the rest of their lives doing nothing more. Another park story involved a charming well-mannered girl (she said she was 15) who started a conversation with us. It gave us a chance to practice our Spanish as she asked us about our lives, etc. Both Anna and I were slightly suspicious, but going along with the conversation as she explained what she wanted to do with her live, the importance of education, etc. Then came the story of the bus injury as she lifted her pant leg to reveal a hideous growth/lesion/injury/?. I examined it, but without training, it just looked awful to me. Then the request for funds for the needed operation to save the leg began. Giving the benefit of the doubt, we gave the equivalent of about 25 cents (explaining that was all we had on us). We later found out that our suspicions were likely confirmed, medical care is free for children. Oh well, what can one do but learn.
That incident represented something really lacking for me in this trip. Unlike other travels, we´ve failed to make a genuine connection with the people here (except for the homestays). In the touristy areas, we re typically viewed as someone to sell something to. In other areas (such as where we were on Roatan), there seems to be an impenetrable invisible barrier between the locals and westerners. It is a little sad for me, but we keep trying.
Another feature of Antigua (and other cities as well, but we really noticed it there) was the air pollution. I so much remember people back home complaining of tighter emission standards for vehicles years ago, and recent efforts to loosen clean air standards. I so much want to take those folks along side the street where we stayed. The typical mode of transport is the famed “chicken bus” (we rode a few of them, and though our experiences were more similar to sardines than poultry, we failed to see a single feather, though we know that all sorts of things [including chickens] are routinely transported), which are old US school buses in desperate need of mechanical repair. They are often decorated and elaborated painted as they pour out voluminous plumes of black smoke as they thunder down the street. As many of the streets were cobblestones, this limited their speed, thus allowing more time to fill the air with foul smelling smoke. At times, it was one after another. Particularly eerie (and disturbing) was at night when vehicles had their lights on. With the lights illuminating (and attenuated by) the smoke could one fully appreciate the situation. It was a thick fog on the street. On the one hand, I applaud the continued use of equipment, but on the other, shutter at the em missions. I don´t know much about engines, but suspect that some repair (with their cheaper labor) could only help matters.
The Spanish instruction was adequate, and after changing to a better teacher, I´m satisfied with the experience. Knowing what we know now, we could do it all much cheaper. Anna had a great teacher, and with her aptitude for languages, vastly exceeded my skill level, even though I had a year of Spanish in high school in addition. The owner of the school fulfilled most of his promises to us, but was still a dirt-bag. Aside from his personal antics, we heard repeatily that he was always reluctant to pay the teachers, claiming that he was out of money- though we paid up front.
Our next stop was Copan, just over the boarder with Honduras. The crossing went smoother than the one with Mex-Guat. When the van unloaded us in Copan, everyone was immediately assaulted by the touts with rooms. We hooked up with an English man who was interested n our Belizian currency from last year (it is all but worthless outside Belize). While we tied to work out the details and find a room, one somewhat pathetic and annoying person latched on to the three of us. He insisted that he knew the best room, etc. Did I mention that he was somewhat grotesquely disfigured with one eye “poked out”? After much “assistance”, he hit us up for a tip, which we refused- not to be jerks as we did occasionally reward someone who truly did help us, but because he really didn´t do anything special, we never asked for help, and tried to convince him that we didn´t want his ”help”. While at the central park, a girl sat down near us and tried to start a conversation. Still remembering our Antigua experience (they started identical), we abruptly left. Of course, I´ll offer a thousand apologies if we misinterpreted her actions, but our ordeal with the annoying tout combined with the heat, humidity (much more than Antigua), and fatigue left us unreceptive to another apparent scam. The Mayan ruins at Copan were pretty awesome, as I´m sure Anna will comment on. We got our money´s worth (as much as possible at $10 each) by spending most of the day there. Planning out exit out of Copan was a little interesting however. There were three bus companies all offering service to our next stop. The company that worked out best with our plans was represented by a office worker that was very rude and couldn´t care less about anything. We stopped back the next day to confirm the schedule, and she was either having a medical condition or strung out on drugs. I´ve never seen someone with such a glazed expression, and she mumbled out a “yes” to all questions asked. Fortunately, the next day she was on her game, and even a bit friendlier, and we were off.The next stop was Roatan (island), and we are posting this from Tegucigalpa (capitol of Honduras). Hopefully off to Nicaragua tomorrow.


OLD MESSAGE
Going to Roatan (Honduras)- will be out of touch.
Just an FYI that we´ll be out of touch for a couple of weeks beginning tomorrow (Dec 18). We are heading to an island (Roatan) in Honduras for diving certification and likely tons of snorkeling. Unfortunately however, while the island has internet services, it is via satellite and quite expensive (thus being out of touch). All is good, and happy winter solstice celebration!
Rob

Other info is likely available, but this is a start if interested.
http://travel.yahoo.com/p-hotel-339843-action-imgsearch-bay_islands_beach_resort-i

posted by Rob and Anna @ 6:52 PM