Everything that you ever thought could possibly have something to do with me.
These are the latest emails. Im going to cut the entries up to keep blogspot from crashing.
-----Original Message-----From: Tyler Walker [mailto:sondaybludysonday@hotmail.com] Sent: Monday, April 03, 2006 1:14 PMSubject: Update time
Not too many epic adventures lately, mostly just volunteering. FYI because
a couple of people have asked, Ive been volunteering 1 1/2 months out of the
2 1/2 months Ive been in central america, and Ill continue to be with Maya
Pedal until the beginning of May.
Since my last update, Ive confirmed my stay here until the end (or so) of
Augest. Who knows, I might stay here past that aswell.
My brother and sister have further confirmed that theyre going to come down
to Central America in the beginning of July. My brother is buying a one-way
ticket, so he says... maybe they like my trend, ´go away and plan to return
in a perpetually exsisting ´couple of months´´.
Âfter I finish volunteering in May, Im going to travel down to Leon,
Nicaragua to start volunteering with QuetzalTrekkers. I miiight travel down
there, via, BICYCLE.. 4 countries, 500km or so, frickin booya.
Rainy season is coming up soon aswell. Which means that the environment
down here I know to date is likely to change, and get much wetter and
greener. Im really looking forward to it, becaue you can basically clasify
where Im living right now by the colours Blue and Brown, blue sky brown
everything else. Except of course for man made things, but the above
statement is really just a generalization anyways.
Ive realized that in the lizard picture I sent a while ago it wasnt that
difficult to spot the lizard. Seemed to just be one friend ;)
PICTURES AND VIDEO include a video of a market where I got to act as a
vendor with my boss carlos and sell bikes,
a cool picture of some trees in the hills near itzapa,
and a couple of photos of a sweet rasta hat. I want dreads.
Hasta la vista baby,
Tyler
PS I may soon move my mass email sort of set up to a more advanced web-blog
sort of set up..maybe just send emails when theres updates or something.
Keep the flow.
Bergn
-----Original Message-----From: Tyler Walker [mailto:sondaybludysonday@hotmail.com] Sent: Saturday, March 25, 2006 4:33 PMSubject: Carri bean!
Once upon a time there was this beautiful Island, about 11km off of the
coast of a town called La Ceiba, Honduras. The Island was called Utila.
The water we passed over on our way to Utila was the oddest colour; blue.
But, a blue Id never seen an ocean be before, not this light tropical ocean
blue-turquoise crap, but a deeper, creamier blue. If purified water were
ever to be given a colour, it would be given this colour.
Utila was about as warm as could be, very humid, and very salty. The
approach to it was over open Atlantic ocean. I didnt wear a shirt for the
entire four days I was there. I only wore shoes after my feet were
repeatedly burned on the soles from hot pavement. The ocean near the
island was almost hot, literally, definately a very nice warm bath. This
was in the sheltered areas, in about 4 feet of water. The water off of the
island was that of a very warm lake, easily warm enough to swim in without
any kind of wetsuit (or bathingsuit, depending on the company). It was
unbelieveable.
Although, evidentally, the saltiness of the water was a shock to my system.
I was in the water a lot the first day I was there, and that night I became
quite sick. Im quite sure it was from digesting all that salt.
Things I did in the Carribean:
Went on a "dolphin" search with a local diveshop, we didnt see any. But
something cool did happen. We were crusing along through open ocean, when
the captain suddenly asked if anyone wanted to see a shark. We immidiately
drastically changed course, and became aware of a large black dorsal fin
about 200m ahead of us. We tore towards it, and soon we were floating along
side this huge black shape in the water, the same length as the dive boat
(close to 10m). We were all unprepared, and it turned out by the time that
the message got across that we were going to snorkle with it and people
started getting ready, the creature had dove and was no longer visable.
About 2 minutes later it was spotted again, and again we tore towards it,
this time the guide from the dive shop yelling at us to put our snorkle gear
on. By the time I was geared up, pandemonium was breaking out as both the
captain and the guide were frantically yelling "GET IN THE WATER!! GET IN
THE WATER!" I rolled backwards off of the side of the boat, and as I blew
the water out of my snorkle and untangled myself from the 2 other people who
jumped in next to/on top of me, I noticed the shark about 2 meters below
me..
The thing about Whale Sharks is that they dont really look like anything
else on the planet. The rows and rows of small white dots that cover their
deep blue skin look very magical when super-imposed on the cool creamy blue
of the carribean ocean. The size was intense, and the smoothness of how it
moved made me feel I was watching some kind of movie. I managed to follow
it as it dove aswell, because it was still visable due to the dots. For a
while, it was just me and the Whale Shark..
It turns out, that the captain of the boat is obligated to recieve a $10 tip
from every person on board, if they get to see a whale shark. With a boat
of 20 or more people, it became obvious to me why they bypassed pretty much
every rule they have about greeting whale sharks, such as not jumping on top
of it, and not getting within 3 meters, and always staying behind it.. it
really bothered me.
There was another boat in the area too, they were following the same
rushandattack style of whale shark watching that we were.
Okay, so the next thing I did in the caribbean (I really dont know how to
spell it):
Snorkling (in a coral reef). It was really, really amazing. Natalie, you
would poo yourself. And a lot of other people would too, Im sure. The
colours of the fish were almost blinding. The coral was absolutely
spectacular.. so huge and plentiful. Brain coral is the shit. The water
was crazy warm. I dove down and tried to swim through a coral tunnel and
realized why ships get screwed up in reefs like this, its crazy sharp. It
was really awesome, because the reef was off the island. You poked your
head out of the water, and it looked like you were 100m off shore in open
ocean, in a fair sized surf. Under water, it turns into this colourful
tranquil world of ... stuff. I dont know. Looks at some pictures of coral
reef, I dont have any.. so much life, so beautiful. Also, we saw a moray
eel about 5 feet long.. huge gaping mouth, just chilling next to a rock..
pretty awesome. I need an underwater camera.
Thing number 3:
Walking in a jungle. I dont have any good pictures of the jungle on the
island, I didnt have enough time to see it close up. Got a nice look of it
from the dolphin boat. The spiders we came across were very very plentiful.
Apparently there are all kinds, the ones we saw are in the photos I sent.
The number of them that are visable in one are goes from about 6 or 7 to
around 50 in the summer. They werent very dangerous either, a bite being
about the equivalent to a bad bee sting apparently. If I had seen one of
these things on a wall in the room I was staying in, I think I would have
either had a seisure or screamed like a girl. The way they moved and looked
was just.. poison. That discriptive term seems to fit them really really
well.
There were also those huge lizards every 15-20 feet, flopping through the
bushes and stuff. Pretty sweet.
So, Im running out of time. There were a lot of amazing things that
happened. Just for the record, The Bay Islands of Honduras (Utila is one of
them) I believe are the cheapest place in the world to learn how to dive.
The diving there (I did two dives) was as beautiful as the snorkling, lots
and lots of life.
Im beginning to line things up for staying in Central America until the end
of Augest. If it all works out, then Im staying. Im positive I want to.
The longer I stay here, the more I love it. Even occasionally asking around
if I can work somewhere as a paid bike mechanic down here..
Anyways, spread the love.
Peace out
Tyler
-----Original Message-----From: Tyler Walker [mailto:sondaybludysonday@hotmail.com] Sent: Wednesday, March 15, 2006 6:32 PMSubject: About a boy
If you dont want to read all this, read the first part, and the few
paragraphs at the end. Only real important parts.
Okay.
So, once upon a time there was this guy named Tyler and a super cool friend
named Ky. Together they biked up into the majestic mountains behind San
Andreas Itzapa. It took about an hour to ride the 10km uphill to a
viewpoint.
There, they sat and ate strange Guatemalan food that didnt really taste all
that great, and picked forien objects out of their trailmix. After an hour
of chewing the fat, as one might say, they were happened upon by some merry
policemen, in a jolly black pickup truck. One of the policemen leaned out,
using his rifle as a conch, and a conversation ensued:
Where are you from, Antigua?
No, we live and work in San Andreas Itzapa.
You should leave. Its very dangerous here.
They sped off, out to oust banditos out of their evil plots (moderately
known fact, the policemen in Guatemala can be nearly as bad as the
banditos). Ty and Ky considered the advice, and deciding there was time
already well spent, they mounted their respective bicycles and headed for
home.
Then there was a jump.
More like an over-sized rut in the road, which Tyler got sufficient enough
speed to pull an impressive full-ridged-bike-with-seat-high kind of jump.
The rest happened in a matter of seconds.
Tyler, aided with his apparently bald tyres and the dusty loose nature of
the road, began to initiate a non-intentional two-wheel slide (note that
bikes indeed ONLY have two wheels.) The slide was a long one, and was in
the form of a sweeping turn, but resulted in both bike and rider eventually
on their side, skidding and bouncing.
Ky was surprised at the sudden reduced visability. She was choked
momentarily by dust, while baralling full-tilt down the rutted road.
Tyler thinks: I wonder how far back Ky is?
Ky thinks: There is a bike in front of me.
KyandbikehitTylersendsKysailing10feetdownroadtolandonhersidewhileTylerwrastleswiththetwobikeshesinfusedto.
Ky and Ty note later that the Police were right.
But all is well, we both had road rash, and mine is almost healed. That
was... um, a week and a half ago. Before I left for Xela and
QuetzalTrekkers.
As some people have heard, my experience with QuetzalTrekkers was
absolutlely amazing. Heres the itinerary:
Wensday March 8th
We left Xela at about 8am. 7 hour bus ride through Quiche, Chichicastenango
and other places, to a town called Nebaj. There we ate a tastey dinner, and
watched part of Blazing Saddles. We conversed with the large american that
owned the place, and thanked him for the banana cream pie.
Thursday
We woke for a frickin huge pancake breakfast, and were outside hiking
towards the mountains by 7am. The first ascent was about 400m vert, very
painful (for muscles) when you havent done too much walking due to a knee
scraping. We got a beautiful view of Nebaj, the random rediculusly steep
`feilds`on the side of the mountain, and met a few locals on our way up who
gave us strange looks. On top, we laid in the sun for an hour. We filmed
some really strange looking catapillars that looked kind of like goats, and
ate food (one of the two pics I send earlier today). After, we walked down
into the next valley, a green lush paradise compared to the crazy dry desert
kind of place we just left. People insisted it looked much more like
Austria.. We ate lunch at a cheese farm which produced fresh cheese by hand
from the dairy cows there. They got mad at us for not buying beer but using
their patio. We left, walked by a large bull (who seemed very interested
with us) which was tied to.. some, grass. Very safe.
Anyways, we started our slow ascent to Xexocom (pronounced Shieshowcom), and
happened upon some random guatemalans who asked us to take pictures but
couldnt stay long because they had to go back to work (another picture..).
We arrived later that night, and slept well. We got to use something called
a ... I dont remember. But it was a Guatemalan steam bath, which looked
like an over-sized concrete dog house, which they built a large fire in and
let simmer down to hot coals.
Slept well under the stars, awoken only occasionally by big turkeys. Those
suckers are ugly.
Friday
Wow.. this is long. So, first thing friday, after a hearty breakfast of
porridge, we started climbing some more. We rose about 900m in 2.5 hours,
wow, that hurt. Passed more random near-vertical feilds, and rose to meet
the top of the mountain.. a huge limestone rock garden. I couldnt believe
how different everything suddenly looked. It was as if a huge frickin
meteor shower had hit.. And after climbing a little more (without my pack)
I stumbled across, way away from any sort of road, at around 2800m, a
thriving village. The guides of course knew about it, but wow... what a
sight. After being way out in the middle of nowhere, and thinking we were
pretty solitary up there.. bam, in the face. Beautiful village, amongst the
limestone. We ate some food and hiked through it, saying hi to the locals
as we passed, and recieving more smiles and weird looks.
The next four or so hours passed very, very slowly. Our `mountain`was way
much more of a plateau. The heat was .. very irritable, and our plush green
forest had quickly yeilded to limestone-strewn deserty hills. After nearly
collapsing from the altitude, we sat down for a very tastey lunch we had
brought. An interesting thing happened about a half hour into it..
We were sitting, conversing, muching, when we all noticed a single horse
approaching from the west, along the trail we were due to head out on. It
walked slowly and lazily towards us, gave us a bit of a berth off of the
trail as it went around us, and continued on the trail away from us. It
looked, tired. Noone followed, just the horse by itself, heading home from
an early morning at the horse bar... but, wow. What a spiritual place.
Anyways, after lunch, we walked through more beautiful desert and trees
until we came to the end of the plateau. We were confronted with this
immense valley, which one of the guides proceeded to tells us we would
cross, strait down, and strait up. About a third of the way down, we
stopped at a school (still no roads here), whipped out our sleeping bags and
had a very cold nights sleep.
Saturday
We continued down the valley to have breakfast at the bottem, where we all
jumped in the ice cold stream, some were nude. We watched a Guatemalan
family come down to wash their clothes in the stream, they looked at us just
as often as we pondered after them, both parties in wonder. We hiked out of
the valley, and noticed that the climate was getting indeed drier. By 12pm,
we were hiking through full out, cactus strewn desert. It was hot, but not
too hot. I got sunburnt. We passed very brightly coloured homes, and
brightly coloured cemetaries (most guatemalan cemetaries look like some kind
of childrens playground, crazy colourful with all the graves above ground in
concrete condiminiums). We hiked up one last large hill, which I proudly
made it up much faster than everyone else, and decended down to lunch, a bus
ride with some drunk Guaetmalans, and a place to sleep with another Teneskul
(the Guatemalan steam bath/sauna).
Sunday
We had a nice hike up to the highest non volcanic point in Central America
(3832m), a 400m ascent from where we slept. We ate lunch, talked some
smack, and looked out towards our final destination, Todos Santos. We
watched a volcano eurupt.. twice.. spewing huge mushroom clouds into the
air. Unfortunately, it was about 100km away (there is a hike one can do
with QuetzalTrekkers, where they hike up the inactive volcano next door to
it, at watch it.) Todos Santos was a vertical 1.5km decent through thick
forests, cliffs, rivers, and feilds. My knees hurt bad, once again. Got
vertigo a couple of times, from walking down thin paths with a heavy pack on
loose dirt, with a cliff right next door. We got into our hostel,
collapsed, exmained blisters, and slept hard, needing to wake early for the
bus home the next day.
So here´s where you can start reading again, if you skipped all that, Im
playing with the idea of staying here till Augest so I can volunteer with
QuetzalTrekkers. The volunteers there not only guide the hikes, they run
the entire business.. there is no overseeing coordinator or anything like
that. PRetty amazing opportunity, I think. Well see how money goes though.
Right now Im in La Ceiba, Honduras. I met 7 other random travellers today,
on the bus to here. We all got a big room together at a cheap hotel, and
got it cheap because were a big group! go team! Tomorrow morning were
heading out to Utila, one of the Bay Islands. I, atleast, am going there to
do some cheap diving in the Atlantic/carribean ocean... hell yeah!
Anyways, I wrote too much. Miss you guys. Night.
Tyler
March 8….
Hey. Havent had a chance to do a mass email lately (because of computers which cant support my camera), but things are awesome right now.. I took a bus with a group of people to a crazy town way in the middle of nowhere. It is absolutely beautiful... huge endless pine forests and big cliffs and rolling hills.. it sounds like Canada, but it is so, so different. Everything is so jagged here, theres s And Im going hikeing till next monday starting tomorrow. Were going to rise above 4000m above sealevel, and we will cover 50km (strait distance, point to point...) Frickin I cant wait schewannabamb! Oh. And something else. The group Im hiking through (call QuetzalTrekkers.. they have a website) accepts volunteers, I read this on their website. From talking to volunteers, I found out that the entire organization is run by volunteers, who come and go. Im going to put some very serious inquiries to STA Travel to see if I can postpone my flight home till the end of Augest, with minimal cost. This would mean that I would be forgoing any university next fall (which I kind of want to anyways, I wanna travel!!), I would have to extend my travellers insurance, and I would have to renew my MSP from guatemala. I would also have to look and see if I could fund it, I might put a request forward to all relatives on van island for a possible loan of $500. The volunteering costs are a quarter of what they are at Maya Pedal. Instead of paying around $80 a month (for living costs, not sweet adventuring costs) I would be paying $20 a month, for food, housing, and my entertainment.. most of the costs are covered by the tips of the people they take. My entertainment, would be leading groups of people on hikes, such as the one Im going on tomorrow, 4 times a month. Ive been interrogating the volunteers since we left, and it turns out that the volunteers are responsible for the operation of the business, the advertising, organizing hikes and benifit dinners for the school that they support and EVERYTHING else. There is NO overseeing god who owns the business.. it is completely the volunteers that come there. The minimum time a volunteer can spend with them is 3 months, the tenative plan being from may till augest. Its three months, because the training needed for new volunteers takes a lot of time. There is also a similar group in Nicaragua, thats also needing volunteers. So I might go down there, I dont know. I just know that this is something I really, really want to become involved with. Anyways, my times almost up. Just thought Id through that idea out there.
Love you guys.
Tyler
-----Original Message-----From: Tyler Walker [mailto:sondaybludysonday@hotmail.com] Sent: Thursday, February 23, 2006 6:21 PMSubject: MASS EMAIL INC
Maybe some people will get that. Maybe some people wont. If you dont,
you´re not missing out.. ;)
Id like to say before you read the following story, that Im not even really
roadburnt, I gotta little patch on my elbow, nothin else. No problema.
This´ll make sense in a sec.
So. Once upon a time (yesterday) I decided to try and ride a particular
small silver bike fairly fast down a really steep hill, in order to film the
bike that some people associate with me. It was a good run, I got up to
sufficient speed but was faulted by a fact that became more obvious to me as
a decended: there is a very large truck in front of me (it was sitting in
the instersection ahead of me, about 40 feet or so away by the time I went
into emergency braking procedures). I origionally was planning to use a
couple blocks to slow down.. because the back wheel of this particular bike
likes to lock when someone over its designed weight rides it, and brakes.
Id also like to express that this is no busy street. Its waay more rural
than even metchosin.. as far as the roads go. There´s cows walking down it
several times a day.
So, there I was, still tearing down the hill, with my back wheel locked.
Then something kind of interesting happened. I happened upon a large patch
of water on the road (which I was planning to avoid prior to the braking),
and the bike suddenly moved out from underneith me, and began to act as more
of a sail, I suppose, on top of me. Surprisingly, there was no loss of
speed at all, likely due to the mixture of mud, in this 30 foot long patch
of water. I more or less stayed in the same orientation too, although some
spinning was evident towards the end.
When I hit the dry road again, I slowed down very quickly (and did not hit
the truck.)
It was sooo rad.
Anyways, the video if you can or cannot see it, contains said silver demon
bike, about 7 minutes after the event. The video of me crashing didnt
happen. People weren´t concentrating on the camera.
The other picture is of a cool bike (Pedal Power being the group who started
Maya Pedal), and a picture of three children whom Ive come to love sitting
atop my steed.
I hope everybody is having as much fun I am.
Love you all.
Adios,
Tyler
Original Message -----
From: "Tyler Walker"
Sent: Friday, February 17, 2006 10:45 AM
Subject: schtuff
> Some random photos, some photos of the beautiful lake I went to last
> weekend. I rented a 150cc dirtbike for $10/hour, cruized around a portion
> of the lake on the roads... soo, so pretty. I dont need a liscence to
drive
> a motorbike herr, either :D But, unfortunately, bikes higher than 200ccs
> are really uncommmon here in Guatemala. Ive seen a 600cc street bike, a
> 350cc dirtbike and a couple of 200s.. and I think the police bikes have a
> bit more goose to em too, but most of the bikes here are around 150. Gas
is
> expensive, and I suppose a big bike is expensive to run.
>
> I think I mentioned part of the above before. I cant remember.
>
> Other random photos include one more from the drinking night in Antigua, a
> couple from the plane when I was flying in to Guatemala, and a sweet
> branchy-leafy thing I found in Miami.
>
> This weekend Im working with a couple of new volunteers from Alaska.
We're
> going to weld up a cargo bike for MP, is going to be fun. We had a
birthday
> party last night for two volunteers, and had a piñata, it was really
funny.
>
> Im slowly becomming famous in San Andreas Itzapa for riding a very, very
> small bike very quickly down the hills in town. Its now my commuter bike,
> and I can tuck it underneith my arm when I go into stores. I need
pictures
> of that thing.. jeepers.
>
> Anyways, peace out for now.
> Tyler
-----Original Message-----From: Tyler Walker [mailto:sondaybludysonday@hotmail.com] Sent: Monday, April 03, 2006 1:14 PMSubject: Update time
Not too many epic adventures lately, mostly just volunteering. FYI because
a couple of people have asked, Ive been volunteering 1 1/2 months out of the
2 1/2 months Ive been in central america, and Ill continue to be with Maya
Pedal until the beginning of May.
Since my last update, Ive confirmed my stay here until the end (or so) of
Augest. Who knows, I might stay here past that aswell.
My brother and sister have further confirmed that theyre going to come down
to Central America in the beginning of July. My brother is buying a one-way
ticket, so he says... maybe they like my trend, ´go away and plan to return
in a perpetually exsisting ´couple of months´´.
Âfter I finish volunteering in May, Im going to travel down to Leon,
Nicaragua to start volunteering with QuetzalTrekkers. I miiight travel down
there, via, BICYCLE.. 4 countries, 500km or so, frickin booya.
Rainy season is coming up soon aswell. Which means that the environment
down here I know to date is likely to change, and get much wetter and
greener. Im really looking forward to it, becaue you can basically clasify
where Im living right now by the colours Blue and Brown, blue sky brown
everything else. Except of course for man made things, but the above
statement is really just a generalization anyways.
Ive realized that in the lizard picture I sent a while ago it wasnt that
difficult to spot the lizard. Seemed to just be one friend ;)
PICTURES AND VIDEO include a video of a market where I got to act as a
vendor with my boss carlos and sell bikes,
a cool picture of some trees in the hills near itzapa,
and a couple of photos of a sweet rasta hat. I want dreads.
Hasta la vista baby,
Tyler
PS I may soon move my mass email sort of set up to a more advanced web-blog
sort of set up..maybe just send emails when theres updates or something.
Keep the flow.
Bergn
-----Original Message-----From: Tyler Walker [mailto:sondaybludysonday@hotmail.com] Sent: Saturday, March 25, 2006 4:33 PMSubject: Carri bean!
Once upon a time there was this beautiful Island, about 11km off of the
coast of a town called La Ceiba, Honduras. The Island was called Utila.
The water we passed over on our way to Utila was the oddest colour; blue.
But, a blue Id never seen an ocean be before, not this light tropical ocean
blue-turquoise crap, but a deeper, creamier blue. If purified water were
ever to be given a colour, it would be given this colour.
Utila was about as warm as could be, very humid, and very salty. The
approach to it was over open Atlantic ocean. I didnt wear a shirt for the
entire four days I was there. I only wore shoes after my feet were
repeatedly burned on the soles from hot pavement. The ocean near the
island was almost hot, literally, definately a very nice warm bath. This
was in the sheltered areas, in about 4 feet of water. The water off of the
island was that of a very warm lake, easily warm enough to swim in without
any kind of wetsuit (or bathingsuit, depending on the company). It was
unbelieveable.
Although, evidentally, the saltiness of the water was a shock to my system.
I was in the water a lot the first day I was there, and that night I became
quite sick. Im quite sure it was from digesting all that salt.
Things I did in the Carribean:
Went on a "dolphin" search with a local diveshop, we didnt see any. But
something cool did happen. We were crusing along through open ocean, when
the captain suddenly asked if anyone wanted to see a shark. We immidiately
drastically changed course, and became aware of a large black dorsal fin
about 200m ahead of us. We tore towards it, and soon we were floating along
side this huge black shape in the water, the same length as the dive boat
(close to 10m). We were all unprepared, and it turned out by the time that
the message got across that we were going to snorkle with it and people
started getting ready, the creature had dove and was no longer visable.
About 2 minutes later it was spotted again, and again we tore towards it,
this time the guide from the dive shop yelling at us to put our snorkle gear
on. By the time I was geared up, pandemonium was breaking out as both the
captain and the guide were frantically yelling "GET IN THE WATER!! GET IN
THE WATER!" I rolled backwards off of the side of the boat, and as I blew
the water out of my snorkle and untangled myself from the 2 other people who
jumped in next to/on top of me, I noticed the shark about 2 meters below
me..
The thing about Whale Sharks is that they dont really look like anything
else on the planet. The rows and rows of small white dots that cover their
deep blue skin look very magical when super-imposed on the cool creamy blue
of the carribean ocean. The size was intense, and the smoothness of how it
moved made me feel I was watching some kind of movie. I managed to follow
it as it dove aswell, because it was still visable due to the dots. For a
while, it was just me and the Whale Shark..
It turns out, that the captain of the boat is obligated to recieve a $10 tip
from every person on board, if they get to see a whale shark. With a boat
of 20 or more people, it became obvious to me why they bypassed pretty much
every rule they have about greeting whale sharks, such as not jumping on top
of it, and not getting within 3 meters, and always staying behind it.. it
really bothered me.
There was another boat in the area too, they were following the same
rushandattack style of whale shark watching that we were.
Okay, so the next thing I did in the caribbean (I really dont know how to
spell it):
Snorkling (in a coral reef). It was really, really amazing. Natalie, you
would poo yourself. And a lot of other people would too, Im sure. The
colours of the fish were almost blinding. The coral was absolutely
spectacular.. so huge and plentiful. Brain coral is the shit. The water
was crazy warm. I dove down and tried to swim through a coral tunnel and
realized why ships get screwed up in reefs like this, its crazy sharp. It
was really awesome, because the reef was off the island. You poked your
head out of the water, and it looked like you were 100m off shore in open
ocean, in a fair sized surf. Under water, it turns into this colourful
tranquil world of ... stuff. I dont know. Looks at some pictures of coral
reef, I dont have any.. so much life, so beautiful. Also, we saw a moray
eel about 5 feet long.. huge gaping mouth, just chilling next to a rock..
pretty awesome. I need an underwater camera.
Thing number 3:
Walking in a jungle. I dont have any good pictures of the jungle on the
island, I didnt have enough time to see it close up. Got a nice look of it
from the dolphin boat. The spiders we came across were very very plentiful.
Apparently there are all kinds, the ones we saw are in the photos I sent.
The number of them that are visable in one are goes from about 6 or 7 to
around 50 in the summer. They werent very dangerous either, a bite being
about the equivalent to a bad bee sting apparently. If I had seen one of
these things on a wall in the room I was staying in, I think I would have
either had a seisure or screamed like a girl. The way they moved and looked
was just.. poison. That discriptive term seems to fit them really really
well.
There were also those huge lizards every 15-20 feet, flopping through the
bushes and stuff. Pretty sweet.
So, Im running out of time. There were a lot of amazing things that
happened. Just for the record, The Bay Islands of Honduras (Utila is one of
them) I believe are the cheapest place in the world to learn how to dive.
The diving there (I did two dives) was as beautiful as the snorkling, lots
and lots of life.
Im beginning to line things up for staying in Central America until the end
of Augest. If it all works out, then Im staying. Im positive I want to.
The longer I stay here, the more I love it. Even occasionally asking around
if I can work somewhere as a paid bike mechanic down here..
Anyways, spread the love.
Peace out
Tyler
-----Original Message-----From: Tyler Walker [mailto:sondaybludysonday@hotmail.com] Sent: Wednesday, March 15, 2006 6:32 PMSubject: About a boy
If you dont want to read all this, read the first part, and the few
paragraphs at the end. Only real important parts.
Okay.
So, once upon a time there was this guy named Tyler and a super cool friend
named Ky. Together they biked up into the majestic mountains behind San
Andreas Itzapa. It took about an hour to ride the 10km uphill to a
viewpoint.
There, they sat and ate strange Guatemalan food that didnt really taste all
that great, and picked forien objects out of their trailmix. After an hour
of chewing the fat, as one might say, they were happened upon by some merry
policemen, in a jolly black pickup truck. One of the policemen leaned out,
using his rifle as a conch, and a conversation ensued:
Where are you from, Antigua?
No, we live and work in San Andreas Itzapa.
You should leave. Its very dangerous here.
They sped off, out to oust banditos out of their evil plots (moderately
known fact, the policemen in Guatemala can be nearly as bad as the
banditos). Ty and Ky considered the advice, and deciding there was time
already well spent, they mounted their respective bicycles and headed for
home.
Then there was a jump.
More like an over-sized rut in the road, which Tyler got sufficient enough
speed to pull an impressive full-ridged-bike-with-seat-high kind of jump.
The rest happened in a matter of seconds.
Tyler, aided with his apparently bald tyres and the dusty loose nature of
the road, began to initiate a non-intentional two-wheel slide (note that
bikes indeed ONLY have two wheels.) The slide was a long one, and was in
the form of a sweeping turn, but resulted in both bike and rider eventually
on their side, skidding and bouncing.
Ky was surprised at the sudden reduced visability. She was choked
momentarily by dust, while baralling full-tilt down the rutted road.
Tyler thinks: I wonder how far back Ky is?
Ky thinks: There is a bike in front of me.
KyandbikehitTylersendsKysailing10feetdownroadtolandonhersidewhileTylerwrastleswiththetwobikeshesinfusedto.
Ky and Ty note later that the Police were right.
But all is well, we both had road rash, and mine is almost healed. That
was... um, a week and a half ago. Before I left for Xela and
QuetzalTrekkers.
As some people have heard, my experience with QuetzalTrekkers was
absolutlely amazing. Heres the itinerary:
Wensday March 8th
We left Xela at about 8am. 7 hour bus ride through Quiche, Chichicastenango
and other places, to a town called Nebaj. There we ate a tastey dinner, and
watched part of Blazing Saddles. We conversed with the large american that
owned the place, and thanked him for the banana cream pie.
Thursday
We woke for a frickin huge pancake breakfast, and were outside hiking
towards the mountains by 7am. The first ascent was about 400m vert, very
painful (for muscles) when you havent done too much walking due to a knee
scraping. We got a beautiful view of Nebaj, the random rediculusly steep
`feilds`on the side of the mountain, and met a few locals on our way up who
gave us strange looks. On top, we laid in the sun for an hour. We filmed
some really strange looking catapillars that looked kind of like goats, and
ate food (one of the two pics I send earlier today). After, we walked down
into the next valley, a green lush paradise compared to the crazy dry desert
kind of place we just left. People insisted it looked much more like
Austria.. We ate lunch at a cheese farm which produced fresh cheese by hand
from the dairy cows there. They got mad at us for not buying beer but using
their patio. We left, walked by a large bull (who seemed very interested
with us) which was tied to.. some, grass. Very safe.
Anyways, we started our slow ascent to Xexocom (pronounced Shieshowcom), and
happened upon some random guatemalans who asked us to take pictures but
couldnt stay long because they had to go back to work (another picture..).
We arrived later that night, and slept well. We got to use something called
a ... I dont remember. But it was a Guatemalan steam bath, which looked
like an over-sized concrete dog house, which they built a large fire in and
let simmer down to hot coals.
Slept well under the stars, awoken only occasionally by big turkeys. Those
suckers are ugly.
Friday
Wow.. this is long. So, first thing friday, after a hearty breakfast of
porridge, we started climbing some more. We rose about 900m in 2.5 hours,
wow, that hurt. Passed more random near-vertical feilds, and rose to meet
the top of the mountain.. a huge limestone rock garden. I couldnt believe
how different everything suddenly looked. It was as if a huge frickin
meteor shower had hit.. And after climbing a little more (without my pack)
I stumbled across, way away from any sort of road, at around 2800m, a
thriving village. The guides of course knew about it, but wow... what a
sight. After being way out in the middle of nowhere, and thinking we were
pretty solitary up there.. bam, in the face. Beautiful village, amongst the
limestone. We ate some food and hiked through it, saying hi to the locals
as we passed, and recieving more smiles and weird looks.
The next four or so hours passed very, very slowly. Our `mountain`was way
much more of a plateau. The heat was .. very irritable, and our plush green
forest had quickly yeilded to limestone-strewn deserty hills. After nearly
collapsing from the altitude, we sat down for a very tastey lunch we had
brought. An interesting thing happened about a half hour into it..
We were sitting, conversing, muching, when we all noticed a single horse
approaching from the west, along the trail we were due to head out on. It
walked slowly and lazily towards us, gave us a bit of a berth off of the
trail as it went around us, and continued on the trail away from us. It
looked, tired. Noone followed, just the horse by itself, heading home from
an early morning at the horse bar... but, wow. What a spiritual place.
Anyways, after lunch, we walked through more beautiful desert and trees
until we came to the end of the plateau. We were confronted with this
immense valley, which one of the guides proceeded to tells us we would
cross, strait down, and strait up. About a third of the way down, we
stopped at a school (still no roads here), whipped out our sleeping bags and
had a very cold nights sleep.
Saturday
We continued down the valley to have breakfast at the bottem, where we all
jumped in the ice cold stream, some were nude. We watched a Guatemalan
family come down to wash their clothes in the stream, they looked at us just
as often as we pondered after them, both parties in wonder. We hiked out of
the valley, and noticed that the climate was getting indeed drier. By 12pm,
we were hiking through full out, cactus strewn desert. It was hot, but not
too hot. I got sunburnt. We passed very brightly coloured homes, and
brightly coloured cemetaries (most guatemalan cemetaries look like some kind
of childrens playground, crazy colourful with all the graves above ground in
concrete condiminiums). We hiked up one last large hill, which I proudly
made it up much faster than everyone else, and decended down to lunch, a bus
ride with some drunk Guaetmalans, and a place to sleep with another Teneskul
(the Guatemalan steam bath/sauna).
Sunday
We had a nice hike up to the highest non volcanic point in Central America
(3832m), a 400m ascent from where we slept. We ate lunch, talked some
smack, and looked out towards our final destination, Todos Santos. We
watched a volcano eurupt.. twice.. spewing huge mushroom clouds into the
air. Unfortunately, it was about 100km away (there is a hike one can do
with QuetzalTrekkers, where they hike up the inactive volcano next door to
it, at watch it.) Todos Santos was a vertical 1.5km decent through thick
forests, cliffs, rivers, and feilds. My knees hurt bad, once again. Got
vertigo a couple of times, from walking down thin paths with a heavy pack on
loose dirt, with a cliff right next door. We got into our hostel,
collapsed, exmained blisters, and slept hard, needing to wake early for the
bus home the next day.
So here´s where you can start reading again, if you skipped all that, Im
playing with the idea of staying here till Augest so I can volunteer with
QuetzalTrekkers. The volunteers there not only guide the hikes, they run
the entire business.. there is no overseeing coordinator or anything like
that. PRetty amazing opportunity, I think. Well see how money goes though.
Right now Im in La Ceiba, Honduras. I met 7 other random travellers today,
on the bus to here. We all got a big room together at a cheap hotel, and
got it cheap because were a big group! go team! Tomorrow morning were
heading out to Utila, one of the Bay Islands. I, atleast, am going there to
do some cheap diving in the Atlantic/carribean ocean... hell yeah!
Anyways, I wrote too much. Miss you guys. Night.
Tyler
March 8….
Hey. Havent had a chance to do a mass email lately (because of computers which cant support my camera), but things are awesome right now.. I took a bus with a group of people to a crazy town way in the middle of nowhere. It is absolutely beautiful... huge endless pine forests and big cliffs and rolling hills.. it sounds like Canada, but it is so, so different. Everything is so jagged here, theres s And Im going hikeing till next monday starting tomorrow. Were going to rise above 4000m above sealevel, and we will cover 50km (strait distance, point to point...) Frickin I cant wait schewannabamb! Oh. And something else. The group Im hiking through (call QuetzalTrekkers.. they have a website) accepts volunteers, I read this on their website. From talking to volunteers, I found out that the entire organization is run by volunteers, who come and go. Im going to put some very serious inquiries to STA Travel to see if I can postpone my flight home till the end of Augest, with minimal cost. This would mean that I would be forgoing any university next fall (which I kind of want to anyways, I wanna travel!!), I would have to extend my travellers insurance, and I would have to renew my MSP from guatemala. I would also have to look and see if I could fund it, I might put a request forward to all relatives on van island for a possible loan of $500. The volunteering costs are a quarter of what they are at Maya Pedal. Instead of paying around $80 a month (for living costs, not sweet adventuring costs) I would be paying $20 a month, for food, housing, and my entertainment.. most of the costs are covered by the tips of the people they take. My entertainment, would be leading groups of people on hikes, such as the one Im going on tomorrow, 4 times a month. Ive been interrogating the volunteers since we left, and it turns out that the volunteers are responsible for the operation of the business, the advertising, organizing hikes and benifit dinners for the school that they support and EVERYTHING else. There is NO overseeing god who owns the business.. it is completely the volunteers that come there. The minimum time a volunteer can spend with them is 3 months, the tenative plan being from may till augest. Its three months, because the training needed for new volunteers takes a lot of time. There is also a similar group in Nicaragua, thats also needing volunteers. So I might go down there, I dont know. I just know that this is something I really, really want to become involved with. Anyways, my times almost up. Just thought Id through that idea out there.
Love you guys.
Tyler
-----Original Message-----From: Tyler Walker [mailto:sondaybludysonday@hotmail.com] Sent: Thursday, February 23, 2006 6:21 PMSubject: MASS EMAIL INC
Maybe some people will get that. Maybe some people wont. If you dont,
you´re not missing out.. ;)
Id like to say before you read the following story, that Im not even really
roadburnt, I gotta little patch on my elbow, nothin else. No problema.
This´ll make sense in a sec.
So. Once upon a time (yesterday) I decided to try and ride a particular
small silver bike fairly fast down a really steep hill, in order to film the
bike that some people associate with me. It was a good run, I got up to
sufficient speed but was faulted by a fact that became more obvious to me as
a decended: there is a very large truck in front of me (it was sitting in
the instersection ahead of me, about 40 feet or so away by the time I went
into emergency braking procedures). I origionally was planning to use a
couple blocks to slow down.. because the back wheel of this particular bike
likes to lock when someone over its designed weight rides it, and brakes.
Id also like to express that this is no busy street. Its waay more rural
than even metchosin.. as far as the roads go. There´s cows walking down it
several times a day.
So, there I was, still tearing down the hill, with my back wheel locked.
Then something kind of interesting happened. I happened upon a large patch
of water on the road (which I was planning to avoid prior to the braking),
and the bike suddenly moved out from underneith me, and began to act as more
of a sail, I suppose, on top of me. Surprisingly, there was no loss of
speed at all, likely due to the mixture of mud, in this 30 foot long patch
of water. I more or less stayed in the same orientation too, although some
spinning was evident towards the end.
When I hit the dry road again, I slowed down very quickly (and did not hit
the truck.)
It was sooo rad.
Anyways, the video if you can or cannot see it, contains said silver demon
bike, about 7 minutes after the event. The video of me crashing didnt
happen. People weren´t concentrating on the camera.
The other picture is of a cool bike (Pedal Power being the group who started
Maya Pedal), and a picture of three children whom Ive come to love sitting
atop my steed.
I hope everybody is having as much fun I am.
Love you all.
Adios,
Tyler
Original Message -----
From: "Tyler Walker"
Sent: Friday, February 17, 2006 10:45 AM
Subject: schtuff
> Some random photos, some photos of the beautiful lake I went to last
> weekend. I rented a 150cc dirtbike for $10/hour, cruized around a portion
> of the lake on the roads... soo, so pretty. I dont need a liscence to
drive
> a motorbike herr, either :D But, unfortunately, bikes higher than 200ccs
> are really uncommmon here in Guatemala. Ive seen a 600cc street bike, a
> 350cc dirtbike and a couple of 200s.. and I think the police bikes have a
> bit more goose to em too, but most of the bikes here are around 150. Gas
is
> expensive, and I suppose a big bike is expensive to run.
>
> I think I mentioned part of the above before. I cant remember.
>
> Other random photos include one more from the drinking night in Antigua, a
> couple from the plane when I was flying in to Guatemala, and a sweet
> branchy-leafy thing I found in Miami.
>
> This weekend Im working with a couple of new volunteers from Alaska.
We're
> going to weld up a cargo bike for MP, is going to be fun. We had a
birthday
> party last night for two volunteers, and had a piñata, it was really
funny.
>
> Im slowly becomming famous in San Andreas Itzapa for riding a very, very
> small bike very quickly down the hills in town. Its now my commuter bike,
> and I can tuck it underneith my arm when I go into stores. I need
pictures
> of that thing.. jeepers.
>
> Anyways, peace out for now.
> Tyler
posted by Squid at 12:53 PM
1 Comments:
The information here is great. I will invite my friends here.
Thanks
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