For those interested in how I made it to Costa Rica with nothing but hope and a pocket dictionary, here is a short version of my adventure. I am still working on it but I hope that for now, this will help.

To start off here is my correspondence through e-mail with Tanika. That should give you a small taste until I can get this site finished.

P.S. Thanks for keeping me company during my trip Tanika!!!

Frederick

From: "frederick" To: tanika
Subject: Guatemala City!!!
Date: Mon, 04 Mar 2002 22:39:53 -0500

Buenos Tardes mi amiga,

Well, I am here at the Marriott hotel in Guatemala City. Can you believe it. We did not expect to stay here but we arrived around 8:30pm here and we did not want to drive at night. Not a good idea. We thought the ride there from San Cristobal, Mexico would have been shorter but we had problems with the Mexican military, nothing big they stopped us and searched our vehicles for a while saying that we were part of the US army!!! Dont ask. Anyway, we got through them anbd then we get stopped at the Guatemala border were we have to get the vehicle inspected again and get a visa, they even sprayed the truck with pesticide to keep illegal bugs from entering. Wow, the usual bribe to them and we were off again. We thought we would be in Guatemala city in 3 hours. Wrong, the mountains slowed us downed and it took us about 6 hours to get there. Crazy eh. Well, still alive and I will keep in touch next chancce I get. I hope all is well and that all of you still have a job.

Frederick

P.S. Say hi to the promotion team for me

From: "Tanika To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Guatemala City!!!
Date: Wed, 06 Mar 2002 09:40:12 -0500

Jose,

I'm so glad to hear that you're still safe! I let a few people know that you had reached Mexico, and they were relieved. So, are you filming the trip, and keeping a journal? I bet the scenery is beautiful! How far away are you from the Rich Coast of Costa Rica? Keep me posted.

Tanika

From: "Frederick" To: tanika
Subject: Re: Guatemala City!!!
Date: Thu, 07 Mar 2002 22:33:54 -0500

Hi Tanika, well, I am finally in CosTA RICA. jUST GOT IN TONIGHT. I wanted to to write to you sooner but oh my god we had so many problems. I am surprised that we are still alive to be honest. After GuATEMALA City, we had to go through El Salavadore. Wow, it took us 3 hours to get through the border and of course we had to go through more mountains. Ugh, we only made it to San Salvadore that day. We stayed the night there and the next day, well, we again had more problems at the border and we stayed 4 hours at the border trying to get by. It cost about 120 bucks to get through. In bribes for the military, the government people, and the muchachos that ran the errands for us. I tell you, the banditos in Central AMERICa are the officials that work for the government. Anyway, we made it to honduras the next day but we had a lot of problems going in. Another 3 hours and going out was about 4 hours at the border because we had a lot of problems getting the paperwork done and everyone wanted a bribe. When we got throughm it was 10 pm and we had nowhere to go so we had to drive through northern Nicaragua, exactly what the ambassy told us not to do. Oh my gosh it was so scary, no lights, the roads were so bad that we could only drive around 20/25 miles per hours. We did not know what to expect since there is still a civil war in that country. So we drove through nicaragua and around 4 in the morning we hit Managua, the capitol s\city. we were so happy until a truck full of people with machine guns drove us off the road and acted like we were terrorists. Found out that it was some off duty police offivcers wanting a bribe. So to get our passports back from them we had to give them 40 bucks. So enraguing. We finally hit a hotel, a holiday inn actually because, well, we needed a place were we could safely leave the truck since it contains all of our belongings. And today, we passed the border around 1 in the afternnon and it took only 1 hour to get through. yeah. You should see the country sides and the people. Throughout the whole trip it has been just like national geographic. I cant believe it. I got to see, people living in th emountains that look like they are incas, I drove through places that no one in the united states have ever heard of. The scenery is so beautiful. Going from one ecosystem to another is just amazing. As we drove through the many countries, everyone woud always stare and say hello and were amazed that we drove so far. They probably thought we were crazy but hey, all party of the adventure. Tomorrow, I will try to get set up and then, I think I will work on a website, the video, and a book. No rush, I have all of the time in the world since I am now living on tico time*costa rica time to you . I'll write to you later. Take care and I am thinking of you and the rest of the team. Good luck and I hope that all goes well.

Always your friend,

Frederick

I will let you know when I am set up for clients at my place!!!!!