Ride up Emigration Canyon

Yesterday I rode my bike to the top of Emigration, then down into Little Dell, then up into East Canyon a bit. Overall, about 13 miles of uphill riding, but pushing to the top of Emigration wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be.

Emigration Canyon, like all developable lands around Salt Lake, is being infested with monster-homes. See case-in-point below.



Ah well. Whomever owns that place will be first up against the wall when the revolution comes. Okay, second.

Imagine my surprise and delight when, after seeing this ungodly structure (which should never have existed in the minds of men, let alone having actually been caused to manifest in the world), I noticed someone of like-mind had already expressed my sentiments.



Here’s some more pics from the trip:

Pics from the Jemez

Pretty little hike I did with my dad last weekend...just about an hour and a half north of Albuquerque. Click on the image below.

Jemez w/Dad

Pics from my trip!

Just click on the image below!

Mexico & Guatemala

The Journey Home

Okay, so I realize I pretty much quit blogging right after the bit about Lago Atitlan (yeah, I know this post says June 1st, but I'm doing it on June 11th, and I want it to show up BEFORE my picture post). So here's what happened next...

I got violently ill on the lake. Monday night (the 26th), I showed up for dinner feeling sort of queasy already, and put a mojito on top of it. Actually, now that I think of it, the mojito could have been the cause, since the bartender said, "Yeah, I think I have some of that left," when I ordered my drink, and proceeded to make me a minty rummy bit of lovileness using the dregs of something sloshing around in a plastic container at the bottom of the fridge. Anyway, I ate a bit of tomato soup and started feeling really yucky, but ate an empanada anyway (minced meat, etc). Within about 1/2 hour, I was projectile vomiting. Seriously. Worst vomiting I've had in ages. Since summer of 2003, actually. I remember. It was that bad.

So all night long I'm getting up every 45 minutes to spend 10 minutes dry heaving. Nasty. I think at the worst of it I might have chosen to lay down and die, had that seemed like a viable alternative. That morning, I decided to bug out. See, May is the beginning of the rainy season, and it washes 9 months worth of shit (literally and figuratively) down off the mountains and canyons into the water supply. And Atitlan in particular is hit hard, since it has no surface outlet. They call the month Mayo Malo. Yeah I split.

So I went back to Xela and Conce, to hang with Miriam a bit before heading home. Just kinda got sick of traveling after a week of being sick followed by that travesty.

Pooped in a cup in Xela and found out I had...giardia. Which may or may not have been the cause of the vomiting. Doubt it. Sounds more like food poisoning.

Got into Xela on Tuesday night. It was an adventure doing so. By the time I took the boat from Santa Cruz to Panajachel, the direct buses had left, and wouldn't run again for a couple hours. So I took a chicken bus to Solola, then to Los Encuentros, then to Xela. It was 3.5 hours of craziness! :)

Miriam was quite sick still, too. So we lazied around a bit for a couple days, and I split on Friday morning. Took chicken buses 4 hours to the border, then a minivan packed with indigenous folks to Comitan. Weather was crappy there, so I just kept on going to San Cristobel again...which was lovely. Spent the night there, then took a minivan to Tuxtla Guiterrez for an evening plane ride to Mexico City. Had a decent night there in a party hostel, and got up early the next morning for a plane to Ciudad Juarez (which is a dump). Took a taxi from the airport to the border, and walked across, which was pretty cool. The bridge is long, and has lots of folks crossing back and forth, and the border agents are dicks. Surprise?

Crossed into El Paso, and walked around a bit till it was time for my bus to leave, around 6pm. Took the bus 4 hours to Albuquerque where my mom picked me up. That's about it!

Now I'm hanging out here, reading and running and biking and thinking. And writing, but nothing really worth sharing, yet.

I miss all my friends in SLC...which will making coming back in the fall all good! *grin* I keep saying I'll never spend another winter in that town, but lookie lookie.

Pax

Lago Atitlan! And future plans!

Howdy all!

Reporting in from Guate Guate Guate!

I'm here at Lago Atitlan...a deep lake in the crater of a volcano! It's huge...sooooo big....
I'm staying at La Iguana Perdida in the lakeside village of Santa Cruz...the only way to get here is via scary-ass little motor boat! No roads! It's a hip little gringo hostel. It costs about $18 a day to stay here, the bed and all three meals included!

Miriam and I left Antigua yesterday afternoon, and it took about 3 hours of windy roads, deep into and out of ravines, to get here. The roads were good, but the turns were steep, and the dropoffs very scary...so I was nervous a bit...but apparently the insane Guatemalan drivers rarely drive anyone off the edge to their deaths...so.

I'm here alone, now. I was planning on returning to Xela with Miriam today, and then making my way back north this week...but Atitlan is so lovely and cheap, I decided to stay on a couple more days (Miriam needs to be in Xela tomorrow for work). I'll probably head out Tuesday or so, but there's a possibility of working reception here in exchange for room and board...so I might do that for a week or two. I dunno. Could be a neat experience. They do dive certification, kayaking, hiking, etc...and the place is probably one of the most beautiful spots on the planet.

That's all for now! Miss you all tons!

Pax

Quick update

Howdy all!

I dont have a whole lot to report! Tuesday evening I got into Antigua, which is a beautiful city! Very European, sort of...cobblestone streets, lovely, tasty restaurants, pretty things for sale everywhere. Oh yeah, and a volcano bigger than Mount Olympus rising straight up above the town! Nobody climbs it much, though...its a toughy. I might climb one of the smaller ones, to the east or west, though...if I feel better. Miriam and I have both had the belly bugs come back! Dunno why...book says it can last up to a week...so if thats true I could still have another day or true of this crap (literally!). Ah well...its not that bad really, but it makes climbing vocanoes unappealing. Walking around the town and hanging out in the evening drinking and eating is quite pleasant, though.

We took another crazy camioneta into Antigua...crowded and driving too fast. This time, a dood came on board and for 40 minutes extolled the virtues of the nasty jar of ointment he was selling, complete with visual aides. Apparently, this stuff will cure foot odor, jock itch, diaper rash, herpes and even depression! I think the appropriate word is "snake oil salesman."

Still planning on going to Atitlan tomorrow evening. I hope I hope!

Pax

Piece of advice...

Don´t eat funky meatcake things from comedores in rural highland Guatemala. Just don´t.
I spend the weekend more or less sick. Not too bad, really...but blech. Had to happen sooner or later, I suppose. So the last couple days I´ve been eating strictly canned or packaged food at Miriam´s house, as well as Subway at the mall thing in Xela. Yay.

On a better note: before I got sick, Friday afternoon Miriam and I climbed a volcano, and hung around the little lake that´s in the crater. It´s called Chicabal (or something like that), and was an absolutely hell of a hike, but amazingly beautiful. About 5 miles each way, we climbed climbed climbed...It´s at over 8000 feet in elevation, so I was out of breath a lot of the way. I´m still a little sore. The lake was a deep blue green, surrounded in dense jungley hills, full of mist and birds chirping. Way neat.

Tomorrow we are traveling to Antigua, where Miriam has a training thing. I´ll be spending Wed, Thur and Friday exploring around on my own, probably drinking with her and her Peace Corps buds at night. Then we´re spending the weekend at Lake Atitlan, which is a major tourist spot, as well as sacred to the Mayans. Then heading back to Xela, I presume. I´ll probably start making my way north again shortly after that.

Missin ya all!

Pax