I haven’t really been intending to go to El Salvador but a dear friend of mine who usually lives in Prague is currently travelling in Central America and she manages to convince me to pedal in that direction to see her. We agree to meet in Santa Ana and spend a few days by the [...]
Also tagged el salvadorDirt roads over the mountains don’t get a lot of gringo traffic and so we seem to attract quite a lot of attention wherever we go.
As dusk approaches the daily task of searching out a place to sleep presents itself. Although, in general, I prefer to find a secret place to set up my tent [...]
After three weeks of living in San Jose and speaking only Spanish, Flores seems like a bustling cosmopolitan place.
As I cross the bridge on my way onto the island, I am hailed by Vinko and Collette, a young couple I met a few weeks ago leaving Flores on their cheap Mexican bikes. Their plans for [...]
With two weeks to fill in before my last rabies shot and already heartily sick of Flores, I decide to make the most of my enforced stay in Peten and enroll in a Spanish school in a small Mayan community on the other side of the lake. I’ve already been travelling in Spanish speaking countries [...]
Also tagged bio itza, food, guatemalaI don’t tend to photograph people very often, unless I know them very well, but occasionally I do.
Also tagged cubaA typical conversation with a Cuban man, translated from the Spanish, goes something like this:
“Hello.”
“Hello.”
“You like bicycles.”
“Yes.”
“You are alone.”
“Yes.”
Silence.
“Are you married?”
“No.”
“So…. you don’t have a husband?”
“No.”
“Have you ever been married?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because I want to live in peace…”
Silence.
“Do you have a boyfriend?”
“No.”
“Don’t you like Cubans?
“I’m not really interested in discussing this with you. I think this [...]
Poet. Dreamer. Visionary. Prophet. Lunatic. Fool. Perhaps these are all words for the same thing.
I am sitting on a floating island made of garbage – plastic bottles, mesh bags, wood pallets, plywood, fabric, mirrors, shells – all tacked and glued together with a greater regard for the aesthetic effect than practicality – and [...]
Uaxactun is a mere 23 kilometres from Tikal on a beautifully surfaced gravel road and the only thing that momentarily impedes my progress is a thorn-induced puncture. When I arrive, on the basis of a last minute tip from an ex-pat German girl, living in El Remate, I seek out Antonio, who is one of [...]
Also tagged guatemala, ruins, wildlifeI ride until dusk on the lookout for a likely camp spot without seeing anything that really looks like it would work. I am slightly nervous because I am in a new country and everybody keeps repeating black stories about what they feel might be in store for me in Guatemala. It is almost dark [...]
Also tagged camping, guatemalaDusk. A grey sky over cleared burning fields. Howler monkeys hoot and growl from nearby stands of trees. A man walks along a foot path from the fields towards the road.
I pass a rough building constructed of wide weathered grey wooden boards. The shack is set in a muddy yard in which chickens, turkeys, and [...]