Greetings from
Big Bear Lake California,
As has been my habit during
past sojourns, I will again share "postcards" with those friends who have
indicated an interest in receiving them. This time I have prepared a
framework in my extensive web site to make it easier to keep my field
notes organized.
I have my one way ticket
to San Jose Costa Rica leaving noon Tuesday, 21 June with a brief stop in
Mexico City. After a few days in San Jose to make onward travel plans I'll
be heading back north through Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala,
Belize and then back down to San Jose where I'll try to figure out a way
to get into Venezuela through Panama. These are just some initial thoughts
and are sure to change as serendipity offers more interesting variations.
I've done more planning for this trip than any of
the others and have tried to gather as much information about each of my
possible destinations as possible. Some of the postcards, no doubt will
come from places in the list to the left, but you may be sure to see
messages from many other towns and places not on the starting list. So,
stay tuned. My first "stop" will be in a hotel near the LAX airport to
simplify starting logistics;
Hotel Hacienda, 525
N. Sepulveda Blvd. El Segundo, California 90245 Phone: (310) 615-0015
Peace,
Fred Bellomy
PS:
22 June 2005
Made it to San
Jose Costa Rica and
thought a few people might like to know. This damned keyboard is as bad
as the ones I encountered in Turkey. Neither the colon or question mark
work! thank goodness I’ve still got the exclamation mark and apostrophe!
It is raining outside so I ducked into this cyber cafe close to the KFC
store where I stopped for a Pepsi. It is not really raining, more of a
steady drizzle, but enough to get soaked on the long walk back to the
hotel. Just looked out and see the drizzle has stopped, so I too can
stop filling time with this keyboard dance. I mainly wanted to tell a
few people that I made it to San Jose and have found a good value hotel
near the city center. I’ll hang out here for a few days while checking
out the buses north. The Centro Colon Hotel is quite good for fifty
bucks... plus an outrageous 16% task. With all the extras I pay about
$67 per night. The place has colorful and cheap restaurants, an
excellent view of the central park and is near several banks with ATM
machines... none of which will accept my new Citigold bank card! Getting
local Colones at a bank is an hour enterprise. The exchange rate has
been moving in our favor and now sits at about 478 per dollar.
Most of the color I remember from my previous visit to the city ten
years ago is gone, replaced by the inner city decay one sees in many
capital cities around the world. I am hoping some of the old traditional
ways will have been retained or recreated as I move away from the
capital heading north into Nicaragua.
Better take advantage of the lull in the rain and dash back to the
hotel. FB
14 June 2005
Hello from
Big Bear Lake California
The next postcard should
originate somewhere in Central America. As always, I want to be
sure all the old e-mail addresses are still valid and that only
people who want to get my irreverent missiles are on the
distribution lists. For the most part, I've annotated names of
those who have specifically asked to be included with an
asterisk. If you have never actually indicated your wish to
receive my oblique observations from the field, drop me a line
so I know your preferences.
Central and South America is where I break bones! Two arms in
Guatemala, one wrist and my trachea in Brazil. Let's hope I
manage to complete this epic journey through
Latin America without breaking anything else. Most of the
countries down there are dangerous according to the US State
Department. I've read all the
warnings, but one cannot avoid every
danger and still have an adventure. So, get ready for some
more white knuckle tales.
