Guatemala Blocked

Life is what happens while you are making plans. I got a message from a neighbor yesterday making it clear there is no point in us getting back on the road right now. 

Every red circle is a reported road block in Guatemala caused by nationwide riots protesting a perceived stolen presidential election. The country is in an uproar after June’s presidential vote as the president elect’s victory is not being accepted by the losers who are trying to upset the results. So the country is in ferment with ports, roads and border crossings all blocked. A quick look at the map will tell you we have to drive through Guatemala to get south. Therefore we aren’t going anywhere. 

The fact is we are in a comfortable spot for $20 a day with all facilities and friends with whom to discuss plans. We aren’t the only ones heading toward Panama so there is some shared perplexity.

At this stage the “bloqueos” (road blocks) are a nuisance and will eat into the extra time we had set aside for tourist activities in Central America but for Guatemalans it’s a much graver problem for people with few resources and no reserves. The question is how long can an economic blockade continue when people are already surviving dsyvto day.  

On top of that there is a gang war underway in Chiapas State, the mountainous zone of Mexico bordering Guatemala. The Sinaloa Drug Cartel is in a war with the Jalisco New Generation to control the refugee and drug smuggling routes into Mexico. There has been a great deal of fighting reported near the main Mesía border crossing into Guatemala with several deaths abd police unwilling or unable to control the mess. So for the moment we have to suffer in our campground which is a very safe two days journey away from the border and here we read books, swim in the pool and play bocce. It’s not that tough for us. 

Layne got her stitches out which she had as a present from a dermatologist just before we crossed into Mexico. Her skin cancer spot has healed well and she is free to get it wet in the pool now. To get the stitches out we went up a pharmacy with a doctors office on premises and with no fuss and a few dollars the job was done. You know how you have to fill out pages of paperwork at a doctors office in the US? Here they ask for your name and phone number and then they get to work. 

Rusty took over the print shop where got done copies made of GANNET2’s Paperwork which will be helpful crossing the next several

borders. Rusty took control of the situation. Then we drove to the purified water shop to fill our tank. 

The lady who owns the place was telling me about her youngest son who is a real headache. He hasn’t been able to get a girlfriend pregnant and he’s 32. He desperately wants a family so he’s got together with an older woman with three children.  She has a job the water lady said but she doesn’t do any work after hours and now she has an idiot (“tonto”) to support her she said. 

When I left my abusive husband, she went on, I got a job and then came home and ran my sewing business at night so my children would want for nothing. Not her, she said bitterly, she does her few hours and then does no other work. Her dilemma was clear: does she annoy her son by telling him to drop her or does she feel guilty for not saying anything? If we stay long enough we will need more water and I may get an update. 

We had a lunch planned in El Tule at a taco stand we have come to enjoy. I think it’s the fatty meat he uses which imparts a surprisingly rich flavor. 

Waiting for the bus home: 

Our hour tacos cost $3:50 (60 pesos) for the lot and we sat at a table which attracted a couple of local dogs. One even had a collar but I put out some kibbles for them and they ate their fill. Street dogs do actually get fed in this village so not all of them are technically strays. I just don’t like eating while being watched by a hungry dog. 

I got Rusty out of the van and took him for a short walk but there were just too many dogs around and he got fed up. 

“Talachas” is the local dialect for tire shop:

Then we went by the fruit stand and as I waited in the car I got another of those picturesque sightings typical of Mexican street life. Many Mexicans have cars or failing that motorcycles, but some are still using horses and carts. 

The black bag on our dashboard has our papers in case police pull us over. It’s almost invisible and easy to take with us when we leave GANNET2 parked for a while. 

Rusty waiting for Layne at the fruit stand in Santa Maria Del Tule. 

On the way back we stopped to buy the two campground workers a full sugar coke and I gave a junkyard dog I rather like a bag of food. I wish we were going to the States as I’d take him and find him a home. 

And so back to our privileged compound. It reminds me of the French Embassy in the movie THE KILLING FIELDS when the Europeans in Phnom Penh take refuge from the Khmer Rouge conquerors. Mexico is warm and welcoming of course but in here we live by the rules of middle class privilege with comfort and security and well fed dogs living worry free for the most part. 

I have no doubt Rusty remembers his own life on the road. I wish I could adopt more dogs. 

A Date With The Darien

It just got real.  I’m excited and nervous. 

The question everybody asks when you’re talking about South America is “How do you cross the gap?” The Darien Gap is 60 miles (100 Canadian miles) wide and has no roads. The reason is to keep South American foot-and-mouth disease far away from US cattle which haven’t seen the deadly illness since 1954. That leaves wanderers like us to figure out a way past the gap. A young Panamanian Overlander came home from his travels and saw a market for his services.  The Overland Embassy is the hub nowadays for Overlanders crossing the Gap where they provide all services to ship vehicles back and forth, most by container, motorcycles (and lately small cars) by air, and large expedition vehicles by open containers (flat rack) or Roll On, Roll Off (RORO). 

We now have our loading date and have to be in Panama City by the end of November, the 27th is our goal. The estimated cost for a shared container is about  $2300 for each vehicle which is less than we feared. 

And we also know who will share our container with us. Meet Sandro and Lisa from Austria in a 1998 T4 Volkswagen (a Eurovan in North America). Alejandro at the Overland Embassy says our vans will fit perfectly in a 40 foot high cube container though we probably will have to  remove our roof top air conditioner.

 It so happens Sandro is an engineer and says “no problem” to a job that looks like a huge problem to cluster fingers me. But we speak Spanish and they don’t so the relationship is symbiotic more or less  and they are great fun. Even for an elderly couple like us. 

The youngsters are planning to sail on a charter boat that does the trip through the famous San Blas islands but for us Rusty is not a sailor so Layne has a lead on a private pilot who may fly us three in the cabin to Colombia . We sailed that area in 1999 so we’re okay with missing the sail. Especially if we don’t have to crate Rusty for the albeit short flight to Cartagena. 

Many details to firm up but it seems to be falling into place. All we have to do is drive hard to Panama. Faster than normal for us! If anyone wants to meet us in South America we plan to take a year to reach Patagonia where summer is at its peak in December. Think Alaska no with the seasons reversed. But that is for later. Now we have to drive.

Tlacolula Market

I was the chauffeur for three campers from El Rancho who wanted to visit the well known market at Tlacolula.

9:30 in the morning was rather early I thought to be tasting mezcal especially as young Lisa from Austria professed not to enjoy the stuff. “But you should try the passion fruit flavor…” my wife the evil temptress suggested. Sure enough they got a bottle each while Sylvia the German in red stayed true to her earlier statement she doesn’t like the stuff.

This was our third visit to the Sunday market a half hour south of the campground. As usual we took GANNET2 which when parked close by the market served as a cool man cave for Rusty and myself and a clean pit stop for any keen shoppers who might need the loo. 

In winter the market is a raucous affair with the numbers of people packing the streets like sardines. This time we discovered it can actually be pleasant to stroll the covered city streets which become a pedestrian mall devoted to sales for the Sunday. 

It is the wildest street mall you’ve seen.  Lisa was skeptical when Layne encouraged her to come see but she too was captivated, while this was Sylvia’s third visit over the years. After Rusty and I gave up and retreated to some air conditioned nap time the three women kept at it till almost noon. 

It’s not, as you can see, just a food market because they sell everything a natty Maya peasant from the surrounding countryside could desire and locals pour into town for agricultural tools, clothing, dry goods and a also a treat - a meal out. 

Or to have a chat with friends and catch up.

I wished we had bought a ton of garlic from this stolid character and we made a promise to splash out next time and buy stuff we may not need.  Over buying in these communities helps people out and they can always use our unobtrusive help.

Or nuts…

…hats…
…and you can’t go wrong with grilled chicken! 

This cinnamon saleswoman was working the crowd:

And if you needed a scale replica of a crucifixion the market can accommodate you. 

If you need a break you can buy meals right plumb in the middle of the hubbub!

And the help’s lunch room isn’t hidden away either.

In the winter you’ll see a few foreigners mostly brought by tour guides as this market is famous around Oaxaca. But Layne who walked the entire thing didn’t think she saw a dozen foreign tourists this time. 

Lisa worked in a bank in Austria and quit her job to come to South America, her boyfriend Sandro is an electro-mechanical engineer (I think) and they are traveling in a very small 1998 pop top Volkswagen Eurovan which now needs some brake parts as the calipers have rusted out. 

They have no fear at all of Latin America and are planning on shipping home from Uruguay in April as Sandro is on a strict one year sabbatical and must get home. His mother is living in his rented apartment while he is gone paying his rent for him. I wonder why American youngsters in vans aren’t crowding our campsite but it’s just another of life’s puzzles. They laugh remembering concerned Americans telling them Mexico is dangerous. 

Miniature pizza rolling pin demonstrated by Sylvia…Layne asked of course and it’s sold as a toy. The salesman preferred Sylvia’s demonstration of the mini pizza maker. Much laughter:

Tlacolula de Matamoros is also known for its church: 

Had we no toilet aboard GANNET2 there were local toilets “baños” - literally bathrooms, and surprisingly “regaderas” literally sprinklers, which is Mexican Spanish for showers. Look closely and the signs are bilingual! 

Pig cheese and pig skins and Oaxacan sausage at the creamery. Virginia ham and mole sauces…as well as creamy white salted Oaxacan cheese much prized across Mexico. 

If you ever wonder why houses have rebar sticking out the top it’s to show the house isn’t finished. In Mexico property taxes are only levied on completed buildings … and sometimes they take years to complete! They all have water tanks though, even if not finished! 

I confess I was surprised to see a currency exchange in town. 

I was looking forward to broccoli but Layne said it looked iffy up close and dinner yesterday was chicken and rice with air fried green beans. 

Rusty did really well with the crowds and with the local dogs. I was proud of him and I was happy to get him back to GANNET2 when he showed signs of flagging. 

It was supposedly 86 degrees but it felt hotter. 

I think our plan to drive to the coast later this week, stopping to swim on a lovely beach we know on our way to Guatemala, may be cut short by the heat. It’s cool up here at night but it’s still very hot by day. Not unbearably warm but we are at 5,000 feet. 

I wonder if we’ll be back in a couple of years to check the market again…great fun and I got some pastries and a measuring spoon I needed as well as some water jugs. A good day.