2 Years and Running -Pt. 6 Cinco Meses (5 months)

Less than 5 months to go before our big trip to Central America. It's been close to 6 months since we decided to go, and it's going by fast.

Why did we decide to go to Central America? A whole slew of reasons. It's relatively close, relatively cheap, and relatively safe. We want to learn Spanish, and what better way to do it? Willie is at the age right now where he needs to see more of the world than this little 2 mile square area of the city and whatever attractions there are on the freeway between Oregon and Arizona. We know that there are other, healthier ways of living (for ourselves and the planet) than we know right now, and we want to learn more about them. It turns out that there are many farms and eco-villages in Central America, that will let us stay with them for free in exchange for working on various projects.

Some people think we should be afraid of spending several months in Central America, that it's somehow risky. What a joke...I almost get hit on my bike by some dumb$%#@ on a daily basis, and I've talked to more people than I can count on my fingers and toes who've been down there, and not one of them has told me a horror story. The worst that people can come up with -'you have to be as careful in the cities as you would be in any major U.S. city.' The State Department says we should avoid college campuses...that's where the politically active people are...wouldn't want to go anywhere near that!

We'll be learning and helping out in green-building in Panama and Costa Rica, farming and teaching children in Nicaragua, checking out weaving communities in Guatemala (one of which makes guitar straps for Artichoke Music), visiting coffee plantations and artisan communities in El Salvador. We'll also be meeting Samantha's mother in Beliz and checking out Mayan ruins and getting involved with a former college geography instructor's non-profit. That's only a partial list. And I am making a project of audio recording musicians all along our journey. We're already wondering if the 3 months we had planned on will be enough time. Especially because most places want us to stay at least 2 weeks. And we're reserving the option of staying as long as we want. You never know, our skill set may be of much more value down there than where we are now -many places are specifically looking for musicians, artist and people who can build websites. And brewers!

The picture at the top is of a place we'll be staying in Costa Rica -'Verdenergia' (www.verdenergia.org). It turns out that some of the people who live there have a connection with Portland and are visiting right now! We're having dinner with them tonight, and are going to stay with them for probably close to a month, helping in the garden, building, brewing, teaching, learning...we might help them build their website as well.