| These dispatches were previously published in a different format as a semi-regular newsletter to the author's friends and family to keep them updated as to his whereabouts and adventures during a three month odyssey from Chicago to Guatemala, Mexico and Belize and back again. The author conceived of this trip after being invited to visit his friend who was stationed in Guatemala as part of the Peace Corps. The mode of travel, using no airplanes, only buses, trains, boats, automobiles, bicycles and his own to feet was something he came up with after seeing "The Old Patagonian Express" by Paul Theroux in a bookstore. These dispatches appear in essentially the same form as originally published with only minor editing for clairty and also some episodes which the time constraints of writing in internet cafe's cut short have been expanded upon. |