Almost Off The Grid

More of the same, and it’s all good.  Today we’re processing 250,000 lbs of fish… looks like it’s going to be a busy summer.  Here’s the sunrise from yesterday morning around 5:30 a.m and then the sun finally setting this morning at 1:30 a.m.

Sunrise from May 30, 2010 - Cordova, Alaska

Sunset from May 31, 2010 - Cordova, Alaska

The past week has been f-ing awesome. Halibut fishing with Bill behind Spike Island (caught some starfish), hiking to the summit of snowy Mt. Eyak, gill netting on the copper river delta flats (caught a chinook and two sockeye… world class fishing… top 10 travel experience of my life thus far), bluegrass jam sessions, great meals, great friends, and 12 hours of work every day, from midnight to noon.

The two panos below offer a neat perspective.  Click on either for a higher resolution version.

The first, from the Mt. Eyak hike:

And this one was taken from the bay you can see on the left in the picture above  (on the way in from gill netting on the Copper River Delta):

The tallest mountain on the left is Mt. Eyak.  Pretty cool place, huh?

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Oh, and check this out… here’s the moonset on May 26, 2010:

And sunrise from the Copper River Delta the following morning, looking back to the mountains surrounding Cordova:

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In one way or another, each of these photos relate back to Michael James Heney (1864-1910).  I bet he had some pretty good stories… He has a page on wiki– just a couple of paragraphs… go read it… it blows my mind.

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My entrepreneur brother, Luke, and Africa travel buddy, Sam, both hit me up with messages after I posted some guitar tunes (one). So here’s another finger picking improv jam or whatever you want to call it… no direction, a little reverb and all the mistakes included: download/listen here.

Cheers

Amarlie - Perth, Australia

Around 6 am we said our goodbyes to Amarlie, our latest travel buddy.  It had been tens days since we met her on a 26hr bus trip from Oaxaca City to San Cristobol de las Casas, but 10 days with someone on the road feels a lot longer than in the ‘real’ world.  She would be heading north to Playa del Carmen, hitting up the hot spots of the Yucatan and we would miss her.

Ending one mini-adventure and on to the next, we loaded up in a shifty 15 passenger van and headed for Guatemala.

Four hours driving southeast in a combi brought us to Frontera Corozal, a small village on the Mex/Guatemala border.  Our van unloaded near a small concrete block customs building– everyone (mostly gringo tourists) pilled out and swarmed a line in front of the barred customs window.  I realized at this point that I had left all of my entry/exit papers with my motorcycle up north in San Miguel de Allende– so I sat back and waited for the line to dwindle so I could have some one-on-one time with the customs officer.

For me, customs is a game… and I know it shouldn’t be, but… anyway, not having my papers, and not wanting to spend cash on a bribe, I walked straight up to the officer and with a slightly distressed look and in poor, yet confident spanish I said “excuse me, my friend and I have been traveling in Mexico for the last two months and I ate my papers when I was in San Miguel de Allende.” … yeah, I told him I ate my papers. When you’re obviously a student of another language you’re allowed to make mistakes like that.  The officer laughed when I said ‘comi mis papeles en San Miguel de Allende’ but I kept a straight face.  He asked me again what happened and I quickly explained that I had driven a motorcycle from Austin, Texas to San Miguel de Allende, and then I ate my papers and motorcycle in San Miguel and started traveling by bus with Caleb.  – the officer thoroughly got a kick out of this and without any sort of bribe issued me a new entry visa to mexico as well as letting me pass on to Guatemala. Gracias.

Down the hill from customs is the Usumacinta River– backpacks on our backs and guitars in hand we wandered down the sloping river bank and  were met by lots of small boat drivers (small boats, and small drivers) ready to load our gear– after the usual haggling, we picked a vessel and driver and cruised down the river towards the border town in Guatemala.

The scenic boat ride was a welcomed change from the typical bus/combi travel we had been getting used to. We passed lots of small villages built along the banks of the river– naked kids swimming — women washing clothes — men fishing … it was a sunny day and we were heading to Guatemala– hell yeah.

45 minutes later, around noon, we were on the banks of Bethel, Guatemala.  We didn’t see much of the town… a ratty 20 passenger bus picked us, and a few other travelers up from the concrete block customs office and off we went for another four hour ride down bumpy, dusty dirt roads.

Finally, around 5:00 in the evening we rolled into Flores.  – In Palaneque a chill Israeli guy named Aviv gave us some heads up on where to stay etc– so following his advice we found the hostel Los Amigos and got settled in.  By the time our sleeping bags were rolled out on our comfy hostel bunks it was happy hour– so we strolled the only street that circumferences the island, found a bar and that’s when the picture below was taken.

View from the small island township of Flores, Guatemala

Later that night adventures would include various travelers – Astrid, Diana, a drunk Englishman named Eric who loved fast food and a cute ginger solo traveling girl who smoked cuban cigars…  and the next morning, a private sunrise tour of the epic Mayan ruins of Tikal.