the secret to Portland

...everyone is so nice here, including teenagers, I just had to ask what everyone was smoking or drinking and it turns out that its in the smoke.Oregon had the sense to decriminalize weed and its very out in the open in some places. An oz. or less and law enforcement looks the other way. At the open air saturday market I smelled and observed the rituals. Its tye dye and dredlocks everyone down there. The best open air market I have been to stateside, ever.

congrats to the new bride and groom ( the real reason I jaunted out here )!!! I enjoy being adopted by families I'm not actually related to and these folks are as good as it gets. Tomorrow I'm back to the big E...wish me luck through Ohare!

ugh ohare...ahhh oregon...

Yet another little jaunt this time to Portland Oregon. Staying state side for a change. Ohare airport is the equivalent of third world traveling without leaving the country!! The flight was delayed for hours and changed gates 3 times. We had less trouble in the Lima Peru airport for gods sake. Since I arrived so late I really had no chance to see the city, which is quite lovely. Not called "the Rose City" for nothing.

Today was a must see for the zoo and Japanese Gardens with beautiful weather. I had no idea that I was just a hop, skip and a jump from the washington state border. Mount Hood is just to the south and Mt. St. Helens just to the north. Given our tours in Nicaragua, this must be the year of the volcano!

I await the wedding and seeing my friends tomorrow. Otherwise, what to do, what to do...

mercury in retrograde redux

June 14th to July 9th...I suspected there was more to it than just another trip to another far away place and culture. Planatery events were conspiring as well such as our favorite "mercury in retrograde". This year we are blessed with only 3 in the calendar 2007. The last will be Oct14th to Nov 2nd. Those of us fortunate to be dominated by the planetary behavior of Mercury (Libra and Gemini)also get the full whomping when it decides to reverse gears and screw with communications and relationships (probably one a logical offshoot of the other). So here I find myself a stranger in a strange land plus mercury is in retrograde. Not the full reasoning of why some things happened the way they did but always a committed contributor. that's why usual sources of communication did not make any sense. There were dropped calls made when usually things flow smoother. I can plug in different scenerios all along the trip as well as after my return that make better sense as to why they happened now that I have stopped being dimwitted about these astrological events and placing the deserving weight where it belongs. I have my Mayan glyph tattooed on my back for God's sake. You would think I would pay closer attention but I usually look for self responsibility 1st rather than outside reasons.
Kind of the tone of self punitiveness that this is taking so I will go into retrograde emotional gear for now. At least I have made one more discovery to keep in my memory banks. I will be embarking for Portland very soon and Mercury will be rotating the correct way so lets keep a good thought...

favorite things...

the photos truly tell the story for me in ways that fall short with words. The opportunity to journey to 2 active volcanoes made for wonderful nature contact. But it didn't stop there. we had the evening tour of the islands of lake nicaragua, the evening bat cave venture. As always, we visit at least one cemetary and this one was in Granada. Different focus of course with these graves. We journeyed hard to get to Copan Ruinas and back but the Ruins and the details were more than could have been anticipated, especially the detail of the pieces themselves. The woman's cooperative was an unexpected find with new ways to help these small villages make a go of it. The bird sanctuary with its species of birds right round us all. Again, the pictures do the talking here too.
There are memories of people who helped like Leo, Francisco, Sherman, Anna,Andy and Tucker, Giovanni, Trullio and his wife, Fatima. Hopefully, our presence there made a difference in some small way for them as well. I guess I will just have to show the photos to anyone who is interested.
As I think of memories of watching rancid cinema in an attempt to pass the time on a long bus ride, I smile now and maybe I'll be more open to what I watch (Driven, Sly Stallone overdubbed)but that will probabaly subside soon. Thanks to mi prima whom without I could never have the opportunity to go to these places and experience life from a different perspective and pass that along to someone else for what that's worth.

photos rolling...

off my printer are just some of the most beautiful I have taken and been privelged to take. I'm trying to figure out how to post them here but I'm a bit confused about that still. They would definitely be worth the thousands of words here that can't describe this latest adventure. The destinction of the detail in Copan Ruinas, the ball court, hieroglyphic staircase and staelae are nothing I have seen before. To begin to explain a language based solely on pictures feels to me not doable just seeable. To follow that up with the visit to the womens cooperative, bird rehab center and the islettas of lake nicaragua (i think it was there)was a scenery lovers paradise. I received word that the family that accompanied us on the island tour received the pictures I sent to them via email. Now if I could figure this one out. Anyway, its an exhausting adventure and it takes alot out of me to experience and share what I do. Now back to organizing the photos.
I'm hoping to find the ones with Joey Stevens doing the "Caribbean" Weatherforcast. I thought I was seeing things while watching a CBS affiliate in Liberia Costa Rica but it really turned out to be Joey Stevens doing the weather with a parrott on his shoulder. I really wish I was making this one up but I'm not...

am I caught up with Tommy G.?

Too much of an alter ego, Tommy G and me. I'm not really all that Irish but German can be even more controlling. I am at levels envious of the Irish ability to think, drink, conflict and be done with it. The Germans are way to civilized sometimes. To possess as many open flaws as Tommy and still be "OK" with some sense of ego strength. To not possess that means the fate of his former chief. Why check out that way. Easy way out... The hard ways are the long nights doing the right thing because maybe you didn't always do the right thing cuz you are human too.

I'm never sure how long these seasons are but I enjoy them in a voyeuristically fucked up sense of reality check for me. Is my life as twisted as Tommy G.'s? No, then its a good day, theorertically. Could it be? Sure minus the children thing...

Glad to be back where I understand the general sense of things...for the time being...

justice for eric volz (voltz)

What's that got to do with 1 gringa beating out of central america early? A whole lot in my humble opinion about the "attitude" of most Nica's , Tico's and Hondurans. Overall, I found Hondurus the most beautiful, unexpected destination with Nica deserving a rapid looksee but not much else. Hate to say that it all goes back to politics but in this case it does and it causes further abuse of the system. Eric lives this abuse everday. The level of contradictory bullshit that would emenate from the mouths of most Nica's placed us in direct danger on several occasions and hopefully will become funny one day in my mind's eye. The passive-aggressive taken to the psychotic level...By the time we crossed the border into Costa Rica I was too far gone to really care if we got taken at some level, you just knew it was going to happen so just don't let it be too much today. Doublespeak as a form of constant communication wears you thin know matter where it happens. It wears faster when you are in a constant shell game of hide what goes on in the country. By the time I realized what was really happening to that poor bastard, eric voltz, all I wanted to do was get out of Nicaragua. I was by then operating on pure intuition and little language. It was tense to say the least. To be in the very town where the murder occured less than 8 months ago is to be in a town that still stings with emotion. Eric Voltz was more than 2 hours away with dozens of witnesses to vouch for his whereabouts. When he returned to San Juan Del Sur to help her family bury her, the family, the town, the entire country turned on this innocent amigo and arrested him in a lynch mob style fashion and on at least 2 occaisions, mobs have had attempts to end his life , vigalante- style. The Kangaroo court which convicted him was simply looking for an American to taunt, to destroy like they feel they were destroyed at the hands of the us govt when reagan was king. Give us a break. This isn't an american gov't issue? What more of an issue screams to be but a govt issue. Just google eric voltz and be outraged yourselves. I felt it so intensely that all I really wanted to do was head to Costa Rica, where it was said to be pricier but "friendlier" (just more passive aggressive style). At this point, I didn't want to risk the onset of some sort of crud I picked up along the way. So, my better judgement said "get the hell out of dodge" which was outside of San Jose Costa Rica.
I've been lying low not really sure how to process all the great occurences that came along as well. The photos are worth a thousand words. I will make time to email and send photos to new aquaintanences that I love adding to my list...

adios a central america

Sometimes a wise person knows when to cut their losses and being those wise women, we decided to return to the USA 4 days earlier than anticipated. Physically, emotionally pretty well tested by challenging travel environments we hopped an overnight flight stateside sometime saturday. I caught up on rest and came into Erie today. I'll be available the usual ways. Grateful to be home.