National Geographic?

This was exciting! The flower girl was featured by National Geographic in the Daily Dozen section during the month of June, but in the end some fly-eating birds were selected as being cuter.

The picture was taken at the artisan market in Chichicastenango, Guatemala. The market is spectacular. Most women and some men wear traditional, colorful clothing, and on Sundays the whole spectacle is enhanced by the religious ceremonies held next ot the market. Great to watch, but difficult to shoot, as the locals are not really into cameras.

Nevertheless, Marie was determined to use her charms and wits to get one these camera shy-girls in front of her lens. She invested into a flower arrangement and offered it to several "models". Most of them declined, none of them wanted to keep the flowers!

At least one girl, the one in the picture, agreed and we got a couple of nice shots of her, even smiling, which was not a given.

Finale - a great journey comes to an end.

In the last 6 months we have observed a world bobbing and bending in many directions around us, few things appear stable, just like us, just like this meadow near Paris, Texas.

It was the journey that was important, not the destination.

Car wash anybody?

After racing through the states of Durango and Chihuahua we have collected some dust! Body color of that car is arctic WHITE! What was most memorable? Western movie sets, that have been converted to permanent residences, amazing hot springs, the Tarahumira Indians who are in love with neon colors, the endless dirt roads...
Slowly our trip is coming to an end. It feels like we did not spend much time in any particular place, time did fly...

Barra De La Cruz - First Surfing Shots are up!

Hello Surfers!
On May 4, 2008, Marie and I took some pictures of surfers at Barra de la Cruz. The first 31 pictures are up! Please check at http://flickr.com/photos/1moment/sets/72157605151730505/

Private use is ok, please contact us for any commercial or non-private use.

Good bye Guatemala!

With some sadness we will leave Guatemala tomorrow, which was one of the most colorful, diverse and unpredictable countries we have encountered on our trip through Central America. We have met highland Indians that were very happy to chat with us, in the next village we would only get an icy stare. We witnessed Mayan ceremonies up close and were encouraged to do so, we had pigs roam around our car (in cities!) and we drove anywhere from 0 to 3012 meters above sea level in this country. The rainy season has started and we experienced some powerful afternoon down pours. We will miss this place, and may return sooner than we think.

For The Smiling People of El Salvador

In El Salvador, we discovered another paradise, Alegria. We stayed a couple of nights inside the crater of a volcano along the sulfuric-green water lake and the fumaroles. The place deserves to be the stage for a movie. The campground has a soccer field. Camping is $2.35/night. We were the only campers. We swam and relaxed. But the wonders do not stop there; the village of Alegria and its people deserve a mention. One can get carried away by the residents’ hospitality and the tranquility of this pueblo. It’s clean and safe, a rarity in Central America.



Marie is making friends wherever she goes!


We visited a few beaches popular for surfers; to us, the Pacific is too hot here. We are now driving the “Routa de Flores”, happy to have decided to drive through El Salvador.



In front of the town prison of Berlin, El Salvador that is.

The Forgotten Banana Republics

Back in Nicaragua and Honduras, we faced the poverty again, flagrant inequality between classes. We went to a few beaches, met local kids and tried to teach them a few English words. We visited Leon, Nicaragua because it’s supposed to be comparable to Granada, another colonial city in Nicaragua. To us, there is no comparison, Granada is s a jewel, Leon is not shining so much.

We did not spend much time in Honduras. We abandoned our plan to visit El Tigre island, which is described in the Lonely Planet guide book as being ferociously hot. BTW, when searching for campgrounds, we no longer ask for “agua caliente” hot water, room temperature is hot enough these days, thank you.