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The Dance of the Deer is a traditional Maya parable about the human role in nature, and what happens when we overstep our bounds.
Series on the fishing life, equipment, and strategies of the indigenous people in the eastern jungles of Guatemala.
Guatemala is a model country for tourism
FLORES, Guatemala- “If you only went to the tourists sites of Guatemala, you would think that it was a really nice country,” my wife Chaya observed.
Guatemala is a nice country, but more than giving an very general status report on the place, what my wife was really getting at [...]
Ice cream bean, guama, guaba strange food in Central and South America
Ice cream bean, otherwise known as guama or guaba, is a very strange looking and tasting legume that grows wild throughout Central and South America. As it is a legume, a row of large seeds are enclosed inside of a long pod that is [...]
Crowded Bus from Rio Dulce to Flores Guatemala
At one PM I boarded a bus from Rio Dulce bound for Flores — one tick away from Mexico. One minute later I realized that I would be riding this bus for three hours without a seat, crammed in between other unfortunate passengers without seats, resting my rump [...]
Hotel Staff Must Treat Guests Like Stupid Chickens
The Vagabond Journey family have now completed their tenure at the Finca Tatin, a hotel in the jungle of Guatemala. Three months of working with tourists have left me a little wobbly on the breed as a whole: who are these people and where do they come from? [...]
Has Sailing Around the World Become Gentrified?
I can remember reading books on how to sail around the world and live cheaply in Maine, the place where I learned the basics of sailing. These books said that you could sail around the world on only a few thousand dollars a year, that you could eat for [...]
Maya Dance of the Deer
The Baile de Venados — the dance of the reindeer — is still performed by the Q’eqchi’ Maya in the eastern jungles of Guatemala for numerous celebrations. I observed this dance in conjunction with festivities connected with the International Day for Indigenous People and the graduation ceremonies of students from the [...]
Travel Frees the Self from Persona
In travel, people are striped down to their root form. Nobody knows anything about you, you are preceived exactly how you act in the moment of the acting — there are no previous bearing on your action, you are not hemmed in by your past, nobody knows how you should [...]
Tarantula Venom Not Deadly to Humans
“Look up there,” my friend pointed up to a hole in the side of a tree. I looked through the dark of night, I saw the hole which sort of looked like a brown anus bored into the bark.
“It is the nest of a tarantula.”
“Are they dangerous?”
“Yes, very.”
“Do you die [...]
Siete Altares Livingston Tourist Attraction Photos
LIVINGSTON, Guatemala- There are perhaps only two places that could be called proper tourist sites near Livingston, Guatemala: Siete Altares and Playa Blanca. Reports from tourists returning from trips to Playa Blanca indicate that the beach — among the nicest one on the eastern coast of the country — is [...]
Scorpions Eat Spiders in the Jungles of Guatemala
FINCA TATIN, Guatemala- There are a lot of very large spiders that abound just about everywhere in the jungles of Guatemala — in the trees, on the ground, on the walls and ceilings of just about every human made structure. These large spiders tend to come out at [...]
Hermits on the islands of Belize
BELIZE ISLAND, Belize- “We are on a deserted island!” a young American tourist whooped upon landing on the white sands of a Belizean cayo.
“That is a real stupid thing to say!” boomed an unexpected voice from the interior, “this island is not deserted, I’m here!”
——————
It is true, there are hermit [...]
Travel to Belize Cayos Cays Keys Islands
BELIZE CAYOS, Belize — On my third incident of travel through the tapering isthmus of Central America, I have finally set foot on Belizean soil. I helped lead a tour out from the Finca Tatin in Guatemala to the southern cayos of Belize. A two hour speed boat ride [...]
Guatemalan President faces extradition on charges of embezzling aid money from the USA
Former Guatemalan president, Alfonso Portillo, is being brought up on charges in Guatemala for embezzling 15 million dollars from his country’s defense fund as well as facing extradition to the USA to go to trial for reputedly taking one million dollars of foreign [...]
Tourists go with touts, Wade sticks his neck out to keep them from being ripped off
LIVINGSTON, Guatemala- I was standing in the restaurant Buga Mama which sits above the dock where we pick up passengers for the Finca Tatin in Livingston. I was looking out over the junction of the Rio Dulce meeting the Caribbean [...]
Coral snakes in Guatemala jungle
FINCA TATIN, Guatemala- One bite from a coral snake and you are more or less dead meat. Huge doses of antivenin and artificial or mechanical respiration are needed to preserve life, and a single bite has been proven fatal within hours. The neurotoxin from a coral snake paralyzes the breathing muscles, [...]
Village Life is Humanity Through a Magnifying Glass
There is a row in the hotel kitchen. Again. The Maya women who work there screwed something up and they are blaming it on anybody and everybody that is not them. They blame each other, they blame my wife, they try to place the blame onto anyone. They [...]
Value of Currency is a Cultural Symbol
SUCHITOTO, El Salvador- Money has no inherent value. Money is only worth something because we say that it is. That is all there is to it.
It was good to be reminded again that money is just a symbol — it is just the proverbial finger pointing at the [...]
Israelis Travel Through a Hostile World
Israeli culture is one part Arab (basically) one part European Jew (basically). Within the past century Jews from North Africa, the Middle East, Europe, and the USA convened together in the biblical lands and Israel was created. A new culture was formed in the process. Hebrew was resurrected from the [...]
Ecuador Sells No Oil for 3.6 Billion Dollars
The government of Ecuador has been threatening to damage their Yasuni National Park — which, reputedly, houses the region of highest biodiversity in the entire Western Hemisphere — with oil drilling for many years. Former heads of states, famous biologists, environmentalists, and the usual legion of poster face [...]
Anteater – Wildlife in Central America
FINCA TATIN, Guatemala- Anteaters like to inhabit the banks of rivers, swampy savannas, and the dark depths of humid forests. One such anteater pushed the bounds of his habitat in the eastern jungles of Guatemala. He fell into the Rio Dulce.
Apparently, anteaters float.
Or at least they float long [...]
