el fin

Well, it has finally come to the very last day of our 6 week adventure in Central America. Back in San Salvador for the next 24hours and then San Fran.
Our last leg of the trip took us through Granada, a very beautiful conservative city whose Spanish style colonial buildings are being restored by the foriegn dollar. Hard to resist though, very little trash, gorgeous homes with large botanical courtyards, and horse drawn carriages everywhere for a smallish price (we spoke with one guy who was looking to buy 5 acres+creek for $18,000. He said ¨Now thats an amount of money a man can stand to loose.¨ Don´t know if we agree as that loss would be devistating to us but...). Might be the first time I´ve ever seen someone parallel park a horse and cart before- looks more difficult than a car! There was alot in this area we didn´t get to see, funny how the time starts to sprint when the end is in sight, so we´ll have to come back some time.
Took a bus to Leon to meet up with my half-sister´s half-brother (does this make Olin my half-brother once removed?) who has been living in Nicaragua for 6 years. Olin, his wife Ofelia, and their 9 month old cutie Kenna are running a hostal called La Tortuga Booluda (the Lazy Turtle) which serves as a hub for folks creating social, environmental, and eco-tourism programs in Northwestern Nicaragua. Want to come down and do social work in Nicaragua, Olin and Ofelia are the ones to hook you up. Olin took us to the beach where we pretended to be surfers but the ocean saw right through us, so after getting our asses served, we relocated and pretended to be sunbathers. I got tumbled pretty roughly and later had my first back spasms in which I was literally unable to get up off the bed. Hata had to help me negotiate this painful transition so, in many ways it will be good to come home and seek out a chiropractor. Aren´t we too young for this kind of stuff?
Since my back was hurt, we decided to head back to Managua instead of going to the Gulfo de Fonseca on the way to El Salvador. In Managua we caught an 11 hour luxury bus to San Salvador loaded to the gills with Advil and Vicodin. And my back is feeling much better thank you!
Today-the last day- we will walk around the city trying to eat as many pupusas as possible and then fly home in the morning. This trip has been great, giving life to all sorts of other travel plans, and expanding our acceptance of trying moments or perceived imperfections.
Although I would have to say, we have a major problem with plastic. It is everywhere and after all the plastic trash we have seen on the roads, clogging rivers, covering beaches, fueling people´s cooking fires, I would like to urge everyone to reduce their own consumption of plastic. When biologist cut open the stomach of the first dead dolphin whale that washed up on Utila, they found she had eaten large amounts of plastic which could have been what killed her.
Lets all do our best and then some more...
Love you guys, thanks for traveling with us, and we´ll see you guys soon!
xoxoxo maggie and hata

Nicaragua

We are currently on the Isla de Ometepe in the heart of the Lago de Nicaragua. The island is formed by two giant volcanos and inhabited by a collection of geckos, parrots, howler monkies, every tropical fruit you can think of, chickens, pigs, dogs, horses (one of the main forms of transport), and the nicest, happiest, friendlyist people you can imagine. Most of the farms here are organic as the soil is so fertile and life is relaxingly slow. How unfortunate it is the time in our travels where we are suddenly rushing about trying to cram as much as we can into our dwindling days of vacation.
The transition between Honduras to Nicaragua was incredible. Lush, mountainious, tropical jungles gave way to dry, flat, savanahs before descending to Managua. We spent two nights in the city to give Hata a chance to kick a cold, and left for San Juan del Sur on the day the Presidente was giving a speech. Toyed with the idea of sticking around to see him, but our Spanish wouldn't have been enough. Instead we headed for the Pacific to check out the surf scene. Hata and I had so much fun surfing we decided to stay a little longer and surf some more. Now we are torn between identies, are we river rats, scuba scum, or surf bums? This is a dilemma....
Somehow we managed to tear ourselves away from the ease of waking, eating, and surfing till the sun went down to head to the Isla. In the next week and a half we are going to try to see Granada, Masaya (rumors of excellent cheap market shopping- take a guess for who's pushing for this town), Leon, Esteli, and the Costa del Sol in El Salvador for more surf and possibly to finish our scuba cert. We'll see what happens.
Till we see you all- love, health, warmth,and happiness!
Maggie & Hata

Vamos a Nicaragua

Hola Friends and Fam,
Heard about the EPIC storms to hit the west coast. Hope y'all are safe and warm. Also very happy to learn of Obama's early victories!
We have made it off the very small island of Utila after beginning to feel the island-fever effects of not haveing any transportation options. They handed out barf bags and motion sickness pills on the ferry. It was rough but not too bad; definitely some greeen faces though. Once back on the mainland we headed up into the jungle along the Cangrejal River, with Terra and Randy.
We had hoped to run the river, but the recent heavy rains made it too high to run the upper section and we couldn't bring ourselves to pay 50 bucks apiece to run the class 3 section like a bunch of punters. So instead we took a zip line canopy tour though the Pico Bonito National Park. The jungle was amazing. we saw ocelot tracks, ate termites, Maggie got bit by ants, and we learned a bit about the flora and fauna, including some interesting traditional Mayan uses. Maggie got to do the "flying squirrel" across the river, about which more later.
Later that day, we said our goodbyes to Terra and Randy and headed back down into La Ceiba for more heavy rain. Apparently the "dry season" in most of Central America coincides with the wet season in the Caribbean.
Today we came by bus to Tegucigalpa, and tomorrow we will cross into Nicaragua. We are looking forward to some waves on the Pacific Coast, Lago de Nicaragua, maybe finishing our scuba cert., howler monkeys, and meeting up with the Cohans.
I would say we are happy and healthy, except we{re sad about Popop passing and Hata has the sniffles. But at least we have each other and all of you...
More later,
Luv H&M

PS Ed, there are some very creative bikes in this part of the world, wait til you see the pix.

stuck in the caribbean

Well, we are currently stuck on the island of Utila due to a massive storm that has been blowing through for the past 4 days. We're gonna try to leave today but there is major flooding on the mainland side as well and the harbor keeps closing. Keeping our fingers crossed for safe, non-puking passage.
We've had a great time on the island (minus the rain, hurricane force winds, 2 dead washed-up rare dolphin whales, and inablitiy to finish our scuba certification due to rough seas and zero visability) but are aching to move on. Maggie recieved sad news about her grandfathers passing on New Years Day and is really missing her family and sending her love (happy birthday Sonja!). It seems as though we're going to have to skip rafting the Cangreal in La Ceiba due to floods, so we're currently trying to get a plane to Nicaragua and hope for better weather.
On the plus side, we both love scuba diving and look forward to more. It's incredible breathing underwater and seeing that world close up. Best part about diving in Utila is no sharks!
Just got word the ferries running so a quick goodbye to you all!
Love,
M n H

utila

Merry Christmas everyone! Hope it was wonderful. Hata got a machete and I got some beautiful locally made earrings. We had the day off from school so we walked to a macaw rehabilitation center. Christmas eve is really the day of celebration here in Honduras. Everyone LOVES fireworks so every few minutes BOOM, and gangs of kids sitting on the street corner with a little campfire going and a pile of firecrackers to throw in the street! Hata picked up a few aptly named "bombas," because when it exploded the street shook and a few car alarms went off! We also tried to go to the beautiful Catholic church on the square for evening mass but it wasn't really our thing..... great kid watching though.
Spanish school was great, we both feel it really improved our ability to communicate and to understand. On our first day while describing myself in spanish, I found out that in Copan I am not short with brown hair but alta and rubia! Tall blonde in Copan-watch out! Hata broke his teachers record of speeding learning- what a guy!
We eventually had to leave Copan to head for the Bay Islands to meet up with Terra and Randy. Spent the night in the grubbiest, grimmest hotel in San Pedro Sula, but it was worth it for the amazing cabin we are in now on the island of Utila. Marina, the owner, is really amazing. She has spent most of her life working for the UN on various eco-tourism projects around the world and now lives on the island with a beautiful lodge. She and Hata have been really amazing taking care of me as I am sick with some sort of bug so unfortunately no diving yet. But were not giving up hope.
Love to you all!
m n h

Bienvenidos a Honduras

There is clearly no fear of the threat of terrorism here in Central America. Crossing the border between El Salvador and Honduras was so much easier than flying from San Francisco to LA. The bus dropped us a few hundred meters from the border [that being a few rocks blocking one lane and a couple of guys checking to see you paid your $3 entrance fee] and a taxi picked us up on the other side. We got to keep our shoes on the whole time, no body scanners or bag checks. In fact it took awhile to even find anyone who was interested in seeing our passports! Brought back memories of the old days....
Honduras is remarkably different than El Salvador. A lot less people means a lot more trees. Our bus ride to La Entrada went through some amazing landscapes [shade grown coffee plantations, steep mountain roads, cloud forests, charming mountain towns, wide valleys] and then plunked us off in a dusty, semi-grim bus station where we were hurried onto a bus for Copan Ruinas that wasn't leaving for 30 mins. Men, women, and children came onto the bus selling all sorts of tasty vittles or knock off watches which filled the time quickly. We got to share some Reeds Ginger candy with a little boy selling fried something, who wasn't too sure if he liked them [porque son picante], but liked that they came from so far away.
We met our first travelers! They were Kiwi's coming from Costa Rica who were also heading to Copan to see the ruins. Once we got off the bus and walked through the town, we began to really miss El Salvador. All the colorfully painted buses, the pupusas, the chocolate [an amazing drink made out of ground cacao beans and water], the lack of tourists, Francis and Rene, and the friendly people. Where did all these English speaking, sun-burned people come from? The town itself is immaculate. No basura, cobbled streets, kitchy stores, international cuisine, and internet everywhere. Similar to Lahina, Maui or Disneyland. Total culture shock! Within a few hours our legs were throughly attacked by blood sucking beasts while the bars cranked out techno music and touristas mightily quenched their thirst. Maggie came to the realization that she's growing old as this would have been heaven when she was 22 [minus the mosqitoes], but just really wanted a good nights sleep at 30.
Next morning we awoke chipper and eager to go to the Copan Ruins just down the road and found our first cup of amazing coffee. Hata was stoked and had a few more to make up for lost time. We got a guided tour of the ruins, which was beautiful and full of rich history, and afterwards made a change of plans. We've decided to stay in Copan and go to a Spanish school [4 hrs/day for 4 days excluding X-mas]and THEN grab a bus and head for La Ceiba. This town isn't really so bad, DEET is okay in small doses, and the beer tastes great. There is still the problem of too many tourists, but maybe they'll push on to Guatemala or Costa Rica for the holidays.....Even if they don't we think it will be worth it to improve our spanish.
Hope you are well in your respective places, sending you some warm weather in our thoughts!
xoxoxo M and H
PS for those who requested photos, we still haven't found a card reader, so for now no podriamos upload.

San Ignacio

¡Hola familia y amigos!
Well, we had to say goodbye to Francis and Rene in La Palma. They were kind enough to take us to Suchitoto (WilkesHodges faction-you guys would LOVE it here). Suchitoto, a sweet colonial town with cobbled streets, built by the Spainards, was once the capital of El Salvador. We thought it was pretty similar to Nevada City in the sense that it is picturesque and no one can build outside of the Spanish style for cultural preservation. We got a tour of Senor Alejandro Cotto's house who is a famous movie director-producer from the 60's n 70's. He has all sorts of art and artifacts some of which date back over 600 years and a beautiful garden that overlooks Lago Suchitlan. Super cool!
We then went to La Palma which is high in the mountains and cool enough to wear jackets. This town is so neat. There was a painter that moved here in the 70's who taught many of the town citizens how to paint in his specific style. Over 75% of the town makes their living through this craft. Think brightly colored village scenes on various cuts of wood. They are really pretty and unique to this town.
On to San Ignaico (which is 15 mins down the road) for a nice quiet last day in El Salvador before crossing over to Honduras. We just ate an incredible meal and are about to go to our beautiful room in a huge colonial style posada and swim in the pool. This is living the good life!
In case any of you are thinking about planning a trip to Central America, I would highly recommend El Salvador. The people are so friendly (everyone you see says 'Buenas'), and the small towns are so lovely. To be fair though, there is alot of air pollution from vehicles and in some places that sickly sweet rotting sewage smell. People like their music LOUD and rely on their car horns to commuincate everything. 'There's no room on the road but I'm passing you anyways-BEEP' And car alarms have a mind of their own, often erupting into existence while the car is driving down the road or when a big truck passes. But it is still a wonderful place all the same.
Well, tomorrow we head to the ruins of Copan for a few days and then on to La Cieba for X-mas. Love to you all!
M and H