Las adventuras de Alex y Lloyd
con Waffles
Stayed tuned as we drive our Ford Fiesta "Baby Blue"
from Austin,TX to Panama City
We have decided to spend the year of 2023 traveling and working remotely.
We started this page as a way to keep family and friends informed of our adventures and itinerary, with the hope that some of y'all might travel down to meet us along the way.
Central America Itinerary
View of Guanajuato, MX
Leaving home
12.30.22
After selling almost all of our possessions in an epic garage sale, we left the Broadmoor house for the last time. We connected with some wonderful neighbors before we left, and had some amazing friends and family members pitch in to help us spackle, make Goodwill runs and clean out our house. After a Christmas farewell tour with stops in Houston, Berkeley, Marin, Davis, Reno and Portland, we were grateful to spend our last night in Hutto, TX with Lloyd's Dad, Michael and partner, Cheryl.
Our first destination was Guanajuato Mexico, which is roughly a 15 hour drive from Austin, TX. We left early on Dec 30th with the goal of arriving by New Year's Eve to coincide the start of the New Year with the start of our new life. We've included some photo links that that will take y'all to our unlisted youtube videos.
We celebrated New Year's Eve in Guanajuato. The evening got off to a rough start. We got caught in a downpour walking up a steep hill looking for a restaurant that we could never find. We took a callejon (alley) to get back to the main road, and Alex fell going down the rain-slicked steps. However, things turned around when we decided to persevere and head into the centro hístorico to celebrate in the oldest and most beautiful part of Guanajuato.
As we approached the centro, we saw a group of runners participating in a NYE race, and a large group of musicians in Renaissance garb serenading crowds in the tunnels that run under the city. We stopped off for a beer at the Bar Fly, which was Lloyd's old haunt back when he studied abroad in Guanajuato in 2008. We then had a lovely fixed-menu Italian dinner where we learned about las doce uvas de la suerte (the twelve grapes of luck"), a tradition that consists of making a wish upon, and then eating, each of the twelve grapes at midnight, in sync with each of the twelve strikes of the clock bell.
We were thankful to have Jan 1st to recover. In the first week after our arrival, we settled into our new daily routines while maintaining our full time jobs. A typical morning involves yoga and meditation on our patio overlooking the City.
Waffles is really enjoying our new life, he loves all the street dog friends and new smells.
Unfortunately, our plans for our second weekend were foiled when Lloyd came down with COVID. He was bed-ridden for four days, but has since recovered and thankfully we are able to fully enjoy Guanajuato's offerings once again.
Stay tuned for our next update, coming sometime in February!
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Guanajuato
Over the course of our time in Guanajuato, we came to appreciate that connection between the history of the region and its present vibrancy.
In the 18th century, Guanajuato was the largest producer of silver in the world and the richest city in Mexico. There are many ex-haciendas with beautiful gardens that are open to the public or available for special events. We visited the ex-Hacienda Barrera and explored the sprawling gardens with different themes.
We also spent a day touring the old mines in La Valenciana, the hillside region just to the north of downtown Guanajuato. It was sad learning about the exploitation and the terrible working conditions of the miners.
The mining industry, with all of its misery and servitude, produced the abundant wealth which created much of Guanajuato's beautiful colonial architecture, such as this church, the Templo de San Cayetano Confesor, which is considered to be one on the best examples of Baroque architecture in all of Latin America.
Guanajuato was also the birthplace of the Mexican Revolution. We learned the story of El Pípila, the local legend and folk hero whose statue towers above the historic downtown. He was a miner who stormed a Spanish garrison with a flaming torch in hand and a stone slab he carried as a shield against the gunfire. He ultimately died in the gunfire, but not before igniting the Spanish fort walls, and the revolution.
San Miguel de Allende
One weekend while in Guanajuato, we took a day trip to the nearby city of San Miguel de Allende. Before our whole Latin American trip started, we had been debating between staying in Guanajuato or San Miguel de Allende, but after spending the day there, we were relieved to have chosen Guanajuato. San Miguel had a much heavier gringo presence, with many high-end stores exclusively catering to US expats. The City lacked the soul, vibrancy, and laid back spirit of Guanajuato. Nevertheless, our favorite part of the day was visiting La Fabrica, an old textile mill that has been converted into artist galleries and studios.
One of the highlights of our Guanajuato stay was our hike of La Bufa, a large bluff amidst the mountains surrounding the city. Check out the fun video Alex edited together.
On our last night in Guanajuato, after work, we climbed up to the monument of El Pípila to get one last panoramic view of the city. The light was beautiful as we gazed over the town, and we both agreed that we could be happy living here, and definitely wish to return. For dinner, we went to a spot in the Centro called Doña Lupe's where they only serve one dish - Enchiladas mineras, or "Miner's enchiladas" - a local specialty of Guanajuato. These enchiladas are characterized by their piles of roasted carrots and potatoes.
Mexico City
The capital city, with its metro area population of more than 20 Million people, was a stark change from the idyllic little mountain town of Guanajuato. Along with the hustle and bustle, noise, and pollution, Mexico City also offers incredible architecture, beautiful parks, countless restaurants, and world-class museums and other cultural offerings. The grandeur of the Historic Center in Mexico City is pretty incredible.
We had fun exploring the gigantic Chapultepec Park in the heart of the City. We actually specifically chose our AirBnB to be a 5 min walk from this park. Unfortunately, we found out after arriving that the section of the park closest to us prohibits dogs, requiring a 25 minute walk to reach the areas where Waffles is allowed.
One of the highlights of our time is Mexico City was seeing the Ballet Folklórico with Rick and Alice at the Palacio Nacional de Bellas Artes. This production is a national treasure with traditional dances from across the different regions of Mexico and from differnt time periods, accompanied live by Mariachi musicians.
We took a boat tour in Xochimilco, a southern neighborhood in Mexico City where the artificial islands and waterways originally created by the Aztecs have been preserved by the locals. On Sundays, hundreds of colorful boats filled with parties of Mexicans and foreign tourists traverse the canals, as musicians and food vendors float past.
The National Museum of Anthropology provides a comprehensive history of Central America, from the first settlement in Mexico 30,000 years ago, through the rise and fall of the many indigenous civilizations that predated or were conquered by the Aztecs, to the arrival of Cortez and the Spanish. In 6 hours, we explored roughly half of the exhibition rooms, and saw many sacrificial stones with orifices used to deposit human hearts.
On a tour, Alex learned about how murals became part of the Mexican identity. After the Mexican Revolution, the government commissioned artists, such as Diego Rivera and José Clemente Orozco to relate the nation's history and create a collective identity. In their murals, artists had a free license for social and political commentary.
We decided to spend one Saturday getting outside of the city to explore nature in the nearby Parque Nacional Desierto de los Leones.
This ended up being a fateful decision as on our way back we were pulled over by the police and had to pay our first bribe. We actually were violating a real Mexico City law known as the Hoy no circula program, which prohibits cars with out-of-state plates from driving on Saturdays and on weekdays from 5am-11am, in an effort to curb air pollution. However, Alex negotiated the price down from 5000 pesos to 2300 pesos, and we never received any kind of ticket or receipt.
We really cherished the time that we got to spend with Rick and Alice, as well as the grandeur of the history and world-class performances in Mexico City. However, the experience with the Police, Lloyd's allergy symptoms in response to the air pollution, difficulty with leaking/malfunctioning appliances in our airbnb, and disappointment over not being able to find areas suitable to walk with Waffles, left us feeling at a loss at some points. There was a feeling of relief and opening to new energy as we breathed the fresh air of the mountain passes on the way to Oaxaca.
Oaxaca
Celebration, culture, and food are some of the words that come to mind when we think about our time in Oaxaca. Shortly after we arrived, we ventured out to explore the historic city center. Along the way, we heard music and followed it until we ran into a massive parade. We ended up joining the tail of the procession and following it to its terminus in the Zocalo, the central plaza of the city.
At first, we thought we were lucky to arrive just in time to experience such a unique celebration. However, one week later, we discovered that wheeling out large papier-mâché figures and mariachi bands is a pretty regular occurrence in Oaxaca.
In the Zocalo that first night, we had the pleasure of meeting our Bostonian friends Barb and Clark, who have been visiting Oaxaca for almost 5 decades. It was very inspiring for Lloyd and I to connect with a couple in their 70s continuing to travel and enjoy life with such open-heartedness. One evening, they invited us out to dinner at a former monastery for nuns founded in 1576 which later became a military garrison before passing into disrepair in the 1970s when Barb and Clark first encountered it. Since then, it has been restored into a fancy hotel that hosts beautiful weddings. In the photos below the manager is showing Alex the original washing basin from the 1700s where the nuns would wash their clothes, and those of the priests.
Our routine of walking Waffles is how we really come to know the feel of a place. We were staying in the barrio Xochimilco, an older, historically working class neighborhood with many textile weavers. Each morning and evening, we would walk Waffles by many beautiful murals on our way to a park that featured an old Aqueduct installed by the Spaniards in the 1700s.
When we mentioned to people that we were going to Oaxaca, most of them exclaimed, 'Oh, the food!' So much so that Alex suspected it was probably overhyped. But actually, it's totally worth the hype! For Alex's birthday, we went to a fancy restaurant called Origen, and it was probably some of the best food we've ever had. We really took advantage of sampling the local food and beer scene.
One day we took a tour of the botanical garden, and, as interesting as the botanicals were, we were most taken with the ceiling of a beautifully designed event space where they were preparing for a wedding.
We visited the ancient city of Monte Alban, just a 20 minute taxi ride from our place, where we were impressed by the scale and history of the place. Unlike other pre-modern Mesoamerican sites (such as Teotihuacan), which typically rose to prominence for a few hundred years and then collapsed, Monte Alban was continuously inhabited by a succession of peoples including the Olmecs, Zapotecs and Mixtecs for over 13 centuries from 500BC to 800CE.
The Road to Puerto Escondido
The first adventure of Puerto Escondido started with an unexpected detour through the mountains...
Puerto Escondido
After 3 consecutive cities where our weekends were packed with visits to historical sites and tourist destinations around town, it was nice to arrive to a place where relaxation and chilling felt like the prime objective. Puerto Escondido is Oaxaca's Beach town, and we were staying in La Punta (the point), which is the much less developed, much more hippie/backpacker side of town. We were there during many students' Spring Break, and each evening we could hear the faint thump thump of EDM bass lines lulling us to sleep. It was a fun place to be with many great options for international food and wonderful sunset walks.
At the end of our 3 weeks at the beach, we were thoroughly sandy and ready for a transition back to a more normal routine. In Puerto Escondido we had let ourselves fall out of our healthy morning routines and we were eating out a lot.
Lake Atitlán
Guatemala
Waking up to our first sunrise on the lake was magical
Our first weekend at Lake Atitlan, we took a boat tour to visit 4 other towns on the lake. Our first stop was San Marcos, known for its hippies, yoga retreats, and full moon dance circles. We enjoyed the mercantile vibrancy of San Juan with its street of colorful umbrellas and endless store fronts.
Lloyd's favorite part of the whole day was the tour of the weaving cooperative, where a Guatemalan women demonstrated how they spin and dye thread using a variety of naturals materials including plants, insects, and rocks. Waffles wasn't sure about the boat at first, but by the end of the day he was jumping on and off by himself.
We happened to be in San Antonio Papoló during Semana Santa (Holy Week) completely by chance. On Good Friday before Easter, the Mayan people build alfombras (carpets) made of colorful sand that are decorated with designs, native plants, fruits, and other offerings throughout the streets of town. Around sunset, a large processional carrying a ceremonial body of Christ tramples over the offerings, destroying the patterns and designs. The lights on the caskets of this somber procession were powered via a very long extension cord to generator which followed at an unobtrusive distance.
We had a great day on a kayaking venture across the lake where we swam at a hidden private beach before continuing on to have lunch in the nearby village of San Lucas Tolimán. The winds were calm in the morning, but rose throughout the day, so much so that waves were beginning to splash into our boats as we pulled in during the afternoon.
Our favorite part of our stay was watching the light hit the volcanoes across the lake during the sunrises and sunsets. Alex enjoyed journaling with the sunrise on the hammock deck and Lloyd enjoyed his after work swims at sunset.
Crossing El Salvador and Honduras in 48 hours
Waffles (posing to the left) at the Honduran border is one of the only photos we have of this ordeal.
Day 1 was relatively straight forward: 9 hours of driving and about an hour to cross the border into El Salvador. Every person we met in El Salvador was incredibly kind, including the border agents.
By Day 2, we were already exhausted. The Honduran and Nicaragua borders are so confusing and slow that the only way to get through with a car and dog is to pay a 'helper' to grease the wheels and get things moving. This intermediary helps you to negotiate bribes at certain steps. For instance, to avoid an hours long inspection of the vehicle by police, we folded $20 of cash into our visas as they were inspected.
Popoyo
Nicaragua
After several exhausting days of travel, we arrived to Popoyo on Nicaragua's Emerald coast. From our ocean-front AirBnB, we enjoyed walks along the beach every morning and evening with Waffles, and the occasional mid-day swim in the ocean. The waves were often intense and a leisurely swim could quickly turn into quite a workout. The sunsets were particularly memorable.
Volcán Arenal
Costa Rica
In Costa Rica, we were graciously welcomed into the home of Doña Mara and her family. Doña Mara is an excellent cook who teaches traditional cooking classes out of her home. The highlight of our stay was having coffee and breakfast every morning on her porch overlooking the rainforest. It was a great opportunity for both Alex and Lloyd to practice their Spanish conversing with Doña Mara and her family. Additionally, Alex began joining the family for Bingo on Sundays. We discovered that Bingo is one of the most popular social activities in many of the neighboring communities.
Alex's parents KD and Rob came to visit us for a week. KD enjoyed the tamale cooking class we did with Dona Mara where we spent the afternoon preparing tamales from scratch, boiling corn masa, preparing the filling, and cleaning the banana leaves. Together, we all enjoyed many hikes through the beautiful nature of Costa Rica. The most infamous hike being the one where Alex led them down 500 steps to see an epic waterfall and then back up again.
We took full advantage of all the adventure tourism that Costa Rica has to offer. One day we spent the morning rappelling down a waterfall before zip-lining through the forest. Another weekend we spent kayaking on Lake Arenal before getting drenched by a down pour.
We especially loved our epic sunset walks through the neighboring farm fields with Waffles and Toya, the excitable Belgian shepherd puppy who belongs to Doña Mara's family.
Gamboa & Guna Yala
Panama
In Panama we had the fortuitous opportunity to stay with our friend Dale in Gamboa, a small town located on the Panama Canal which played a vital role in the canal's construction and its continued operation. Every day walking Waffles we would see the big freighters passing by. Gamboa is also home to the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, so the town has strong presence of American and international scientists. After months of being on our own, we enjoyed collaboratively cooking dinners with Dale and Lewis, movie nights with Andy, Kitty and other friends, hikes in the nearby jungle, and group yoga and exercise classes for the month we spent in Gamboa.
During this time, we each took solo trips back to the US for a week: Lloyd to attend a wedding in Colorado and Alex for a work trip to Chicago.
However, far and away the highlight of our time in Panama was the week-long kayaking trip that we took to the Guna Yala (aka San Blas Islands) with several of Alex's friends from college, and Andy, our newest Gamboa friend. Each day we were kayaking for 4-5 hours between small islands, which we usually had all to ourselves or otherwise shared with a local Guna family. We are deeply grateful for Nemesio, our indigenous kayaking guide who shared his knowledge of the Guna history, tradition, and legends while guiding us across the beautiful archipelago. During our trip, we weathered storms with 50+ mph winds in tents at night, sudden downpours and large sea swells. But we also experienced days kayaking with perfect weather, surrounded by the Caribbean's mesmerizing turquoise water.
South America Itinerary
For those interested in meeting up with us, the easiest cities are those with major airports, including:
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Cuenca, Ecuador - Jan, 2024
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Cusco, Peru - April, 2024
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Valparaiso, Chile - July, 2024
The crossing
Panama to Colombia
After two months in Panama, we decided to continue our journey south into Colombia. There is no road from Panama into Colombia due to the Darien Gap (an impassable region of dense jungle), which required us to ship Baby Blue from Colon, Panama to Cartagena, Colombia. We were lucky to connect with an organization called the Overland Embassy which helps PanAmerican Travelers like us to share shipping containers and split the costs, and navigate the bureaucracy of both the Panama and Colombia sides. We lost days of our lives to police inspections and general paperwork needed at various agencies.
But the car was only half the battle, the other half was getting Waffles across. Waffles is too large for the largest kennel that is permitted on the aircrafts that fly from Panama City to Cartagena. Our friends at Overland Embassy referred us to a psychiatrist who has issued emotional service animal certificates to hundreds of other travelers. So 5 minutes into a Zoom appointment and $100 dollars later, Waffles became a certified Emotional Support Animal for Alex's "travel anxiety". As an ESA, Waffles was permitted to fly in the cabin with us and we bought him an extra seat. He did very well on the flight. Most people were excited to see him; we only got a few dirty looks. Our arrival in Cartagena marked the end of the Central American phase of our journey, and a new beginning on a new continent.
Intermission - Europe
Czechia, Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Amersterdam
We took a vacation from our travels for a bike and barge trip along the Danube with Alex’s Family and family friends from Hillsboro.
Before the bike trip started, we spent some time just the two of us exploring Prague. After months of being in the hot, humid climates of Panama and Cartagena, we didn’t mind the cold rainy weather. We took in the gorgeous architecture and several performances including an opera and classical musical concert in the Spanish synagogue. Our visit to the Jewish museum in Prague was extremely powerful.
In the bike and barge trip, we passed through 3 European capitals: Vienna, Bratislava, and Budapest. We also enjoyed countryside rides, especially one in Hungary up to a very special castle with a wonderful view and realistic wax sculpture scenes of the middle ages.
The end of our Europe trip featured an unexpected flight delay in Amsterdam (due to fog). We ended up being delayed for 48 hours. We made the best of the situation and spent the extra day walking around Amsterdam, enjoying the architecture, canals, restaurants, and an art museum featuring the world's largest Rembrandt collection.
Cartegena
Colombia
Cartagena was a time of transition for us. We enjoyed the food and street art scene, but we spent the majority of the time engaged in problem solving and logistics. Getting baby blue out of the port took 4 days of office visits, inspections, and paperwork. The process was made more complicated by the fact that her alternator had died, and she needed to be jump-started to get out of the shipping container and multiple times during the inspection process. After no local options were found, we ended up ordering a replacement alternator to my parents who brought it to us in Europe, so we could bring it back to South America in our luggage. We also had to find a dog-sitter for Waffles and storage for our things prior to leaving for Europe.
After returning from Europe, we spent another week in Cartagena getting our alternator replaced and getting additional car maintanance.
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Medellín
Colombia
We loved our time in Medellín - amazing people, food, and scenery. We could imagine living in this city. Medellín stood out for its incredibly kind people that were genuinely friendly and happy with life. Alex loved the park near our place where you could find exercise groups and tai chi practice in the morning, and groups of young people socializing and dogs frolicking in the evenings. One weekend, our friend Dale came to visit us and we enjoyed exploring the city by cable car, which provides public transport up the steep hillsides that surround the city. Lloyd especially enjoyed hiking in the crisp air of Parque Arvi roughly 2,000 feet above the city center.
Jardín
Colombia
After Medellín we traveled to Jardín, a small town nestled in the coffee growing region of Antiquoia. The countryside was strikingly beautiful, full of vibrant greens and shades of gray. The place where we stayed backed on to a ravine, so we could always hear the sound of the river flowing. One highlight was a 14 mile hike that included 3,000 feet of elevation gain up to the “Cave of Splendor” before descending through the countryside. Alex and Waffles enjoyed going for on runs together after work.
