Hey Yall! Haven´t been able to blog in a bit...computers have been tough to come by. So, couple pieces of great news, we have officially celebrated our 1 month anniversary of traveling abroad! woo hoo! I feel like it has taken this long to really figure a lot of things out, such as, things I wish we would have brought, public transportation and some reading that could have been more helpful before we left...lol. Other excitement is that we have arrived in our 4th country, El Salvador! Writing to you today from their second largest city, Santa Ana...tons of cool stuff to tell you about since my last post, but that´s not why i´m writing today, and besides, Sophia is writing about some of that stuff now...i´m writing today about living the dream and all people we have met along the way that are doing it! I thought you all would appreciate it and i was getting tired of writing about us!
Before this trip, i don´t know if i had personally known anyone that truly decided to just go off the grid and totally change their lifestyle and home country in search of their own piece of eden...i´m here to tell you now that living the dream is alive and well all over central america and without seeing it with my own eyes i don´t think i could believe how real it is. So, i wanted to just tell you about a few people that we have met along the way and i´ll even try to include some weblinks if time permits.
First is Shawn, living in Placenia belize, shawn is actually a belizean guy, but grew up in san diego, ca...after college he wanted to start his own business and give back to his home country, so he moved to placenia and opened his own dive shop.
then utila, has a whole world of people living the dream, 2 to mention are, Al and Tim. Dive instructors at cross creek dive shop and hotel...Al is an english guy who spends 6 months a year teaching diving (which basically means, partying 5 nights a week and scuba diving), then the other 6months a year teaching skiing/snowboarding in spain, through this he has learned 4 languages, english, spanish, italian, french. Tim is an Australian guy that visited utila during a central/south american tour...upon returning home, decided to move to utila and become a dive instructor...tim was our instructor, if you read this, thanks for everything! we had a great time!
then there is the german couple that own and operate omega tours & jungle lodge in la ceiba, honduras...the man, Udo has been kayaking his whole life and now lives and runs his business on one of the most famous rivers in central america, the rio cangohol (i think thats how its spelled). they started the place in 1992, from what i can see, they spend theirs days enjoying the outdoors and their nights with friends in their own bar/restaurant. Also in omega tours is Ryan, our rafting guide. ryan is from the states and has spent the last 12 years traveling all over the world as a rafting guide, including oregon, new zealand and japan!
we can´t leave out Bob Dale of D & D brewery (stands for, Robert Dale & his Dog) , the only microbrewery in honduras...bob was a civil engineer by trade and originally from oregon. his brewery and restaurant has great american style burgers and 6 different kinds of brew. plus his own line of sodas. he has a hobby of building swimming pools and has done so for 6 affluent folks in and around pena blanca, honduras. in his free time he has helped out with archaelogical digs on Lencha ruins in the area and has recoverd lots of great treasure!
so, i could go on forever but i think that gives a pretty view of the spectrum of folks we have been running into...i just love seeing all these people willing the take the leap of faith and go after what they want! cheers to you!