Since our last update, we have stayed in:

Guatemala City, Guatemala
San Salvador, El Salvador
Costa Del Sol, El Salvador
Guatemala City, Guatemala
Panajachel, Guatemala
Guatemala City, Guatemala
Tikal, Guatemala
Antiqua, Guatemala
Guatemala City, Guatemala
Orinda, California
Rohnert Park, California

This has been a tough update to post because it signals the last phase of this trip - 18 months have passed in a flash, just as they have probably raced by for you.

Guatemala City

Our last update left us departing Costa Rica on August 23rd for a flight to Guatemala City. We popped into a taxi just barely big enough to hold our bike boxes and headed downtown to an old colonial hotel in the heart of the city. Guatemala City is the largest city in Central America, a sprawling poverty stricken metropolis without much of interest to be a major tourist destination. For most travelers, it is the gateway to somewhere else, as it was for us. However, the Posada Belen turned out to be a great refuge where we left much of our luggage as we traveled throughout Guatemala and El Salvador.

At the Posada Belan we met Catherine and Frederic from Toulouse, France who had come to adopt a baby girl after 18 months of wading through endless paperwork. We hung around at the hotel that morning to be with them when the baby arrived. The excitement and joy was just like witnessing a real birth, but without all the screaming.

What we really wanted to do was hop on our bikes and begin a 4 day ride to San Salvador, but we couldn't find one person who thought it was anything but suicidal, so we reluctantly left our bikes at the hotel in Guatemala City and took a bus instead. As we stared out the windows at the passing beautiful countryside of lush green volcanic mountains, we missed our bikes even more.

El Salvador

As Americans, when we crossed the border into El Salvador, we were the chosen few to have to cough up $10 each (local currency not accepted) to enter the country. Europeans, and from what we could tell, people from everywhere else in the world enter the country for free.

After the 6-hour bus ride, two of which was spent in commute traffic entering the city, we arrived in San Salvador and found a hotel in one of the more upscale parts of town. After all we had heard about the civil war from Maria's relatives, we expected San Salvador to be a very third worldish impoverished city. The mall down the street quelled that thought immediately. If it weren't for the signs in Spanish, it would be hard to know that you weren't in any of the generic American malls. Again and again, from the fast food restaurants to the chain department stores to the car dealerships, for better or worse, much of San Salvador has the look of a modern American city.

While traveling in El Salvador and Guatemala, we were disappointed to discover that we could not take advantage of the countries natural resources. We could not wander freely through the beautiful parks, lakes and volcanoes because the risk of being robbed while exploring the remote areas is just too great and in some areas even driving is risky. So we decided to stick to the main tourist trail.

Maria's parents were both from El Salvador, so in San Salvador, we connected with several of her cousins. Marina and her husband Carlos own a beautiful business hotel that they run with their daughter Pia, who several years ago, graduated from St. Mary's college in Moraga. We spent a very pleasant afternoon at their gorgeous house catching up and hearing about their experiences during the civil war. Carlos, an avid 49er fan, had us in stiches as he recalled watching a football game under a blanket as the guerillas marched down their street during a black-out. On another night, Nora, her husband Freddy, and their son Alfredo, and his wife Layla, took us out to a fantastic seafood dinner in the upscale Zona Rosa district. The taxi driver gave us a very odd look when Jim mistakenly asked to be driven to the Zona Roja. Oops.

We hired drivers for several days who took us around this compact country, including a trip to Santa Ana to visit the town where Maria's father was born. We also spent a glorious night on the Pacific Coast courtesy of Carlos and Marina. We had a 6 bedroom, 6 bath, 2 live-in house-keepers, wrap around balconey facing the water, beach house all to ourselves! At sunset, we wandered the mostly empty beach and later skinny dipped in the pool during a thunderstorm. Oops.

Panajachel, Guatemala

After 10 days in El Salvador, we climbed on a bus back to Guatemala City, and immediately hopped on a "chicken" bus to Panajachel. This major tourist hang-out sits on the beautiful lake Atitlan surrounded by small villages at the foot of four picturesque volcanoes.

Panajachel is very commercial with lots of ethnic restaurants, good bakeries and stall after makeshift stall selling everything available in the country. It is also a very comfortable place to wake up in the morning, get your cappuccino for breakfast, Thai food for lunch, and Italian for dinner. We hung out for a week, but could have easily settled in for the fall, winter and spring. Boat trips allow for easy access to the villages around the lake. We took a day trip to the famous market at Chichicastenango, where the winding drive through the green mountains was as memorable as the market itself.

The great thing about Guatemala is the exquisitely colorful dress of the indigenous populations. Every village has its own distinct dress that made walking the streets like going through a textile museum.

Tikal, Guatemala

Finally, we returned to Guatemala City, and caught a plane north to Flores to visit the awesome Mayan ruins, Tikal. We decided to spend the "big bucks" ($30/night) and stayed right in the national park rather than commute from the budget inns 30 miles away. This afforded us the luxury of spending 2 full days walking through the humid, jungley paths exploring the vast ruins. On our second day, a huge thunderstorm blew through mid-afternoon and cleared out the park. As soon as it stopped we tromped up to the park, and found ourselves in the center of Tikal's main plaza, with no one else around. The complete silence was broken occasionally by pairs of parrots squawking across the sky and monkeys howling in the trees. It was truly magical and we stayed as long as we could, but as the light faded, we followed the trails back to the hotel, grateful for such an incredible experience.

Antigua, Guatemala

A quick flight back to Guatemala City plus an hour long bus ride brought us to Antigua for our final city of the trip, and what a great place it was. A very cosmopolitan, yet well preserved Central American colonial city. There are decaying ruins around every corner. We sat out each morning in the beautiful town square drinking espressos and watched the town come to life; tourists consulting maps and guidebooks, young men earning spare change by shining shoes or washing parked cars, vendors plying their wares on good natured tourists, nuns lost in prayer, business people walking to their offices, school kids sneaking kisses on the park benches. Good, cheap food from around the globe was readily available. It was yet another Guatemalan City where we could have easily slipped into a routine and hung out indefinitely, as quite a few ex-pats have done. On our last day, we rented mountain bikes and a guide, and rode through the coffee plantations at the foot of the Volcano while looking down on town.

Antigua became the last in what were many of "all good things must come to an end". After five days,we grudingly loaded up our bikes and headed back to California for the last time.

We are staying in Rohnert Park while house-sitting for friends who are taking a mini-vacation for 3 months to the South Pacific. It has been a good way to look back and unwind from the trip, and make the transition into the "real world".

Final Numbers for the Trip:

A Fond Look Back

The morning after we arrived in Paris, way back in April of 1999, we were having breakfast and talking to two Englishmen who were hiking across France. They asked us how long we were traveling for and it felt so great to say "day one of an 18 month adventure". Traveling through France, it was so amazing to wander through tiny towns with bakeries, and food stores that would embarrass the best gourmet markets of the Bay Area. We can now smile as we recall packing up our tent in a heavy downpour in the Loire valley in France. Wading into the constant flow of humanity on the Rambles in the city that never sleeps, Barcelona. Waking up in the middle of the night in our flat in London to the blasting of Spanish Flamenco music by a truly disturbed man next door as he grinned and drooled at the front window. Sneaking onto the grounds of a private yacht club in the Lake District with Pam and Hillary for a sunny picnic. Pedaling around the fantastic bike paths in Copenhagen and the Danish countryside, and being awaken at 4:00 in the morning by the rising sun, 4 hours after sunset. The fantastic tour of Hamburg by our friends Sigrid and Bernd. Drinking a Duval with Jim's brother Tom in an outdoor café in Jesus-Eik, outside Brussels, the town where Jim went to high school. Running into the man who 25 years earlier had sold Kentucky Fried Chicken on "America Day" at the school Jim and his brothers attended in Brussels. In Germany, our private tour of an army surplus mail order warehouse whose owner made his fortune selling U.S. Army gear left after the war. Meeting the 91 year old mother of a man who still lived with her, never married or traveled outside of Germany, yet knew all about the Altamont Pass windmills.

Laura and Skip showing us the incredible job Dresden has done rebuilding the city that was completely reduced to rubble in the closiing days of WWII. The beautiful cities of the Czech Republic with their baroque architecture slowly being restored and transformed from Soviet Bloc gray to their original charming pastels. Seeing the filming of "Dungeons and Dragons" in a church decorated with the bones of over 10,000 plague victims. Watching a fantastic thunderstorm from our huge room overlooking Lake Bled in Slovenia, maybe the most picturesque lake in all of Europe. Sharing stories and a bottle of wine with newly weds Michele and Andrew of England while we sat in a campground cafe for 11 hours while it rained at Lake Bohinj, Slovenia. Sunset swims during our week at the beach in Croatia. Sampling fresh raviolis filled with truffles with our friends Christine and Chari, and Jim's brother, Tom in our Tuscany rental "villas".

Hiking the Samara gorge with Jim, Laurie, Jill, and Allen on the Island of Crete, ending with a swim in the Med. Eating deliciouus yogurt and honey for breakfast under the watchful eyes of a huge rotweiller in Paros, Greece. Crossing the Nile with our bicycles on a passenger ferry on our way to see the tombs of the Valley of the Kings. Escaping the freezing rain by slipping into a barn under cover of darkness and shivering in our sleeping bag in the mountains above Genoa. The stalemate in France where the train conductor refused to continue the trip until we got off the train.

Munching on fried cashews and saté at the Why Not cafe on the beach in Bang Sapan, Thailand. Cycling through the streets of Hanoi with firecrackers exploding all around us during the Tet celebration. The intense heat, suffocating humidity, and bright green rice paddies as we pedaled down Highway 1 on our way to Saigon. Chatting with a 10 year old girl in Nha Trang, Vietnam who could ask "Want to buy a pineapple?" in 5 languages. Getting a full hour massage on the beach for $5.00. Wandering among the farmers picking garlic with Anne and Meagan in Pai, Thailand. The stench of the slash and burn fires in the remote Thai countryside. Crammed like sardines for 2 full days as we motored down the Mekong River through Laos. Kids drenching us with water as we rode through the Laotian countryside outside of Luang Prabang. The fire red sunsets. Water fights with our waitress during New Years day craziness in Nong Kai, Thailand. The best green curry of the trip at the hospital in Koh Samui while Maria feasted on an IV. Snorkeling on the tiny Island of Ko Tao.

Watching thousands of Americans drink Budweiser and eat hot dogs and cotton candy at 8:00 in the morning on July 4th in San Jose, Costa Rica. The sun rising over thousands of turtles scattered across the beach. Realizing that the only road on the Nicoya peninsula where we wanted to cycle was now a river. The gorgeous, colorful dress in Guatemala, and the generous hospitality of Maria's relatives in El Salvador.

Next week, we return to our house in Dublin after almost 2 years away. The trip hasn't abated the travel bug for either of us. We could easily fly off to Paris tomorrow and start all over again, and with any luck, some money, and the indulgence of our friends and family, sooner rather than later, we will.