My travels on the isthmus.

Northern Belize

April 14, 2008
Day 929

It took all day and a series of buses to reach northern Belize near the border with Mexico, an amazing accomplishment considering how tiny Belize is. Chinese, Hindi, and Spanish were being spoken far more than English, and I knew I had arrived at one of those border towns… Read More »

Wisconsin Versus Belize

April 12-13, 2008
Day 927-928

Now that I know I will be heading home soon, several people have begun to warn me of the impending culture shock that will result from having been away for so long. But frankly, I'm a bit skeptical. For example:

Yesterday I crossed from Guatemala into Belize in the… Read More »

Tikal Ruins

April 11, 2008
Day 926

I'm getting sick of paying for a bus ticket at 5 AM only to have the bus show up at 6. But instead of leaving right away, of course we go and talk to the driver's friend for ten minutes. Then when I yell at the driver, he acts… Read More »

The Diagnosis

April 10, 2008
Day 925

I went to the clinic this morning and did blood tests for both malaria and dengue. It turns out that I have dengue and not malaria. That was a good thing because dengue passes through your system and doesn't stay long-term whereas malaria might. Unfortunately, that means that I… Read More »

Resting

April 8-9, 2008
Days 923-924

Last night was rough again. This time, nausea was the side effect that got me. I had to fight off the urge to throw up constantly. It was like I was drunk and had to stumble around to get anywhere. I don't know if another side effect of… Read More »

Is This For Real?

April 7, 2008
Day 922

I went home because of my illness. Everyone in my family got together for a big party, and they were all sleeping in the house together. In the middle of the night, a huge storm came. I went outside to see a huge flash of lightning, fading away into… Read More »

Figuring Out the Cause

April 6, 2008
Day 921

I had a horrible night last night. It was more rolling and shaking and waiting for death to approach. Tina brought me a banana and some yogurt, but I couldn't eat. I had the yogurt in the morning, but it took half an hour to get it all down.… Read More »

The Fever Continues

April 5, 2008
Day 920

I could barely walk the half block to the pharmacy this morning. I told the pharmacist about my symptoms and she gave me some sort of fever medication. It somewhat helped but made me extremely drowsy. Somehow I managed to carry my backpack to the bus, but I felt… Read More »

The Sudden Illness

April 4, 2008
Day 919

I got a boat across Lago Atitlan today, and two guys immediately tried talking me into taking a shuttle once I got to the other side. In Guatemala, your only options are to take the chicken buses, which are old American school buses that the locals ride, or shuttles,… Read More »

A Mixture Of Hippies and Indigenous People

April 1-3, 2008
Days 916-918

My next stop was Lago Atitlan, a large lake in southern Guatemala surrounded by volcanoes. I stopped in a little town called San Pedro la Laguna, which was a mixture of local indigenous people and hippies trying to sell me drugs wherever I walked. The volcanoes were nice and… Read More »