Antigua

First, the tooth thing.  Two teeth need to be replaced and speaking as one with an implant in the front of my face I know how unpleasant it is to have a hole there. Layne has two holes making her self conscious about smiling. Both of the holes are at stage six in the pictures below. 

The Guatemalan dentist started on picture seven cutting open one implant base to see about screwing in a false tooth, picture 8. What he found neatly embedded in Laynes’s jaw is a receptacle (pictures four and five) inserted months ago but of a type not compatible with the inserts he uses. There are it turns out hundreds of incompatible tooth implant inserts. Who knew? So…After the  dentist in Algodones did not respond to his request for information on the type of implant used in Layne’s jaw we had some thinking to do. 

If we continue south looking for a solution every visit to a dentist will require cutting open the gum to see if the insert is compatible. Or we go back to the dentist that inserted them and finish the job. Layne  had thought about flying but she does not want to be 2,000 miles away and have a problem crop up when she is all by herself. We do this thing together, the three of us. 

So there is the advantage that if we go north for a few months and then return in November the weather will be good and it will be the right season to travel. Travelers in El Salvador and Nicaragua report 100 degree temperatures and here in mountainous Antigua we get daily thunderstorms, not exactly Rusty’s delight, along with almost daily rain. 

Given that we want the tooth thing fixed we plan to take advantage of a summer in the States, visit friends and do some early maintenance on GANNET2 which will give me peace of mind. Interestingly Layne has found a pilot in Panama who will fly the three of us for a reasonable cost to Colombia so when we ship the van Rusty won’t have to be in a cage in the hold of a commercial airliner. I was looking forward to putting that to the test and we will next January I expect. Also we have paid a deposit to the Overland Embassy in Panama to get a place in line for a container when the time comes. I have set myself a deadline of November 1st to be back here so we are not planning to give up. 

“Here” puts us in the foodie capital of Guatemala, a city dedicated to foreign visitors, a city now suffering the growing pains of wealth generation that displaces locals everywhere in the world that becomes fashionable. 

We did our part having lunch at an Italian deli owned by an Italian, above, who grew up near the Swiss border and has emigrated here of all places. The prosciutto and Parmesan sandwich on crusty bread was excellent. 

Antigua is a city of ruins, knocked down by earthquakes in 1773 when the two hundred year old city was ordered abandoned by the Spanish authorities who moved the capital 20 miles away to a safer spot. 

Those that remained used the 16th century street grid as the base on which to build an 18th and 19th century colonial city around the ruins that were left in place and ignored. 

These are the ruins of the Antigua Guatemala Cathedral, open for you to wander for the low low price of three dollars a head. Quite evocative. 

Friends of ours from Bend, Oregon in a Jeep Gladiator are leaving today for El Salvador, just three hours south of here. I get a twinge hearing that but Courtney then says they are planning to take hotels as the heat will be unbearable. 

Roll on November I say.

A Day Off

Sitting around a campfire in Belize, at the lovely San Miguel Campground in the mountains, Rob with the black beard, made a point that has stuck with me. 

Overlanding is hard work. Every day you have to make decisions, there is almost no routine, from where to sleep to where to park to where to shop. Everything feels new all the time and he found it exhausting. Not tired in the hard work sense, but exhausting in the meaning of life sense. And he has a point.

The allure of travel is that very break in the routine that we crave when our daily rounds bore us. Two weeks of change and we come home ready for another 50 weeks of routine. Therefore permanent change must be fifty times better! Well, not exactly but I have to say I enjoy the uncertainties of being on the road, most of the time. I think Rob was right though inasmuch as this life is a job. Planning, decision making, correcting, deciding and making mistakes in a strange culture as an outsider and alone. Sounds fun! 

There are the bad days when errors and problems seem insurmountable. And you are still alone! Deciding about issues of which you understand very little.  These are moments I like less and they are a struggle. They are the days the job sometimes suck, just as any job can suck from time to time. However this job is one we have chosen and from which we can duck out anytime.  And some travelers do!

I’ve met overlanders who are tired of the road and crave a stationary period. Many find their hobbies require more room than is available in a vehicle. Some days I miss being among my own culture. I dislike the lack of personal space in Latin American society and the cultural need for loud music gets tiring. 

For instance in Guatemala I wouldn’t mind a smooth broad sidewalk from time to time! But I smooth through the bad bits of overlanding with Laynes’s help and we keep going. She gets her strength from a massive network of women friends she remains in close contact with through Starlink and WhatsApp. 

I’ve been struggling with our need to return to north Mexico to finish Laynes’s tooth implants in Los Algodones on the US border. It’s silly because all we do anyway is drive so taking a detour back to the US is just another drive. Furthermore we will be back when the weather is right for this part of the world  which is now hot at lower elevations on the road ahead and soon to get very wet. I am just impatient by nature when I have made a decision. I want to get on with going to  South America. That’s our goal and I want to be on the road doing it.  

We are planning to enjoy driving the States this summer as that is always fun and after we polish off South America I have a growing list of places to visit in our home country. Layne has even agreed to let Rusty and I go to Alaska alone as she doesn’t want to drive the Alcan or deal with the vagaries of the Last Frontier. I can’t wait!

But right now we needed a break in Antigua which need coincides with a three day holiday and full accommodations everywhere, naturally. So we found a rather peculiar campground for a few days on the outskirts of the city with the huge benefit of shore power to plug in and run all our appliances irresponsibly on someone else current. 

You can park an RV at $10 or 150 Quetzals per night, or plant a tent or you can rent a peculiar place to sleep provided by management. A helicopter? 

A boat next to the pool? 

A bus or a truck perhaps? 

Rustic toilets, restaurant and bar, outdoor seating, dogs welcome and the opportunity for us to just ignore the rigid for a couple of days, swing in our hammock, watch a movie, enjoy air conditioning, stop being tourists. 

We recharge more than just the van batteries.  

Verde Eventos

Guatemala is not well equipped with campgrounds and that should come as no surprise, as Central America generally is much poorer than Mexico and far removed from the caravans of RVs that trickle south. By the time you get here most travelers are not North American and thus the demand for hookups and sewer dumps is just not there. 

Which is not to say the iOverlander App is devoid of places to camp, far from it. With a population of 125 million versus Guatemala’s 17 million Mexico offers more of everything, a larger middle class, more business opportunities and a vibrant and growing consumer market. In Guatemala and Belize we find less of everything, including dedicated RV parks. 

Verde Eventos translates as Green Events and the space within its secure walls is a vast city block sized garden available for rent. If you want to plan a family gathering or business meeting, a birthday celebration or of course a wedding you come here. Or just go take an uncomfortable nap there are suitable spots: 

We the RVs are a sideline, lined up along the main alley a hundred feet from the nearest 15amp outlet and served by a cold shower and one toilet a short walk away. In Guatemala this rates as an organized campground at $13 per vehicle per night. The iOverlander description:

And indeed Verde Eventos is a lovely spot. We don’t have a long enough cord to plug into the distant outlets so after a week sitting still and hoarding our electricity in our 600amp bank we are going away for the weekend to recharge our batteries as the sun has been weak and the light hazy for our roof top solar panels.   It’s one of those shortcomings that you just have to accept especially south of Mexico. 

Outside the walls you can hear the bus station nearby with converted school buses coming and going loudly changing gears. Inside is the sound of bird song and the shuffle of RVers waking up to a new day in this cool misty mountain town.  

The afternoon sun builds up and it gets warm but you don’t have to sit here and roast. The city is filled with foreign tourists and all the attractions they want to enjoy on shady streets and in air conditioning.  

Rusty and I walk the grounds and while Layne spends the afternoon in Spanish language class we find a shady breezy spot to read after we take a walk outside on the city’s perilous narrow sidewalks. 

There are plenty of places to find solitude here. 

Heinz a solo traveler from northern Germany bought a minivan in Canada and is driving south hiking and diving along the way. He it was who turned Layne onto the language school where he too is working on improving his Spanish. 

His Instagram name is complicated and means (according to Google translate!) “No apartment in Germany.” 

We first met him in Mexico at the gathering of travelers at the campground in Oaxaca. That was also where we met a young English couple overlanding in an “ underpowered” pick up and a classic camper shell. Alex convinced Mathilda they would acclimate to not having air conditioning so I asked how that was going. “Not well !” They laughed. 

There is a two day hike up an active volcano offered in town and they took the guided tour in an effort to see magma spewing. They got up over 13,000 feet and came back with superb photos and broken bodies. But always laughing. 

They showed me their excellent volcano photos and I’m hoping eventually they will catch up on their Instagram.

These are the people we will miss as we turn back to deal with the irritating tooth implant situation. It’s inevitable when you travel that people cross your path and disappear but we had been hoping to run into each other all the way to Panama. I was actually looking forward to sharing a container from Panama to Colombia with the English youngsters. Oh well, we expect to be back here November 1st, dammit, and meeting another bunch of Overlanders.  

I enjoy seeing how other people travel and these Germans bought their trucks and campers in California. I envy their ability to park the camper and drive the narrow streets with the albeit large pick up. 

Guatemala is volcano country and I was lucky to get this relatively clear shot of the cone overlooking the campground on our first day. Ever since it’s been hazy and mostly obscured. 

What do you think about getting married here? I’d keep Rusty out of your feet. 

Americans to the left of us, Dutch to the right and our luxurious overweight on road van in the middle of the off road pop top adventure vehicles. They cook outdoors. Ha! Not Layne..!

In the States would be travelers agonize over vehicle selection and accessories but here on the road no one cares. There are advantages in certain vehicles but we are content to stick to roads or well traveled tracks so our inability to get to distant beaches doesn’t bother us. We find solitude by traveling out of season as retirees are able to do and we enjoy the comforts of a suburban home in our small space. It works for all of us in our different ways.  

The big white RV above is from France and the tiny VW classic is from Switzerland. When we meet we ask first are you going north or south then compare experiences. The types of vehicles are of little importance.  Then we warn newcomers to cover their mirrors or the birds will attack them. Weird but true: 

Isaac the manager, below, keeps us in-line and organizes the events. His wife is a teacher and she retires in five years. Then, he says, I’m getting a camper and we’ll see you on the road. Van life is his dream and he’s getting it organized. 

Travelers here don’t talk about danger, as by now wherever you are from you know the talk of death and drug dealers isn’t relevant to tourists minding their own business. I’m sorry a lot of would be US travelers deprive themselves of the experience but it leaves more room for us. 

You could easily drive past the campground main entrance if you didn’t know the bright green gate was it. Self promotion isn’t done around here. 

Pedro and Bruna are in a self converted 19 foot Sprinter from Brazil. They speak Spanish but Bruna used to work for an American bank so she speaks English. Pedro worked for a Brazilian bank so he doesn’t. 

As I write they are taking off on a volcano climb of their own following in the English couple’s footsteps. I expect it will show up on their YouTube. 

They want to install air conditioning in their van in Mexico as they are tired of the heat and they are planning to spend the summer in Florida and on the east coast.

They already have their US visas so they are looking forward to reaching Alaska their goal. For Rusty a short walk in town and a rest in a neighborhood park is far enough for now. 

The fruit market maybe…

But I keep him on leash outside the walls as the sidewalks are narrow and the traffic fierce. 

He even gets to sit with us at lunch. 

The blue dot marks our spot.