On NOVEMBER 2, 2006 we left the United States for Mexico. The plan was to bicycle from there to Land's End, the tip of South America. We were fully loaded, fully prepared, and fully insane. Sounds like a normal day in Christina and Alexander Land.

Well we made it Western Guatemala in about 3 months. And then got stuck there for almost another 4. The magical place we got stuck in (in a good way) was the town of San Pedro de la Laguna at Lake Atitlan. You can read about all our past adventures under the "Updates" link above.

We also gave up the bike touring. We didn't give up the idea of it - in fact we both fell in love with traveling by bike. We'd love to do it in the USA or Europe. But we called it quits in Latin America. There were too many close calls with death on the roads. The traffic was insane. Christina would smell the burning rubber of a taxi cab and be scared to turn around to see if Alexander was still alive. We know people do it. Many of them. We've read their websites, even emailed with a few. But it's not for us.

So sometime in the future we shall remount our oh so beautiful bikes (they were so tough, so perfect - thanks Jason!!) and have adventures in other places. But for now we want to finish this paused love affair with Latin America. WHAT! You're going back our families shout. And so I repeat, with slight changes:

Despite rumors spread by family and friends, Christina and Alexander have not lost their minds AGAIN. Just because we have very little money, and are told we should be doing something "responsible" like finding careers, or biologically timely like having babies, doesn't mean we've lost our minds. Just, perhaps, that our minds are a wee bit different.

We will return to Mexico and Guatemala this winter (Jan 2008). Christina will be teaching English and Alexander will be studying spanish and writing. We will hopefully also get some time to explore further south in the Americas. This time however it's without bikes. There is much to be experienced, much to be seen, much to be learned, much to be loved.

And AGAIN, a HUGE thank you to our family and friends who have supported us in all their various and individual ways - even when wishing we wouldn't go.

For updates of our journey, please follow links above to Yahoo Group and Flickr photo site.

We've been uploading our photos to Flickr, a website for storing, organizing, and sharing images. If you are familiar with Flickr and just want to wander around our site (seeing photos unrelated to this adventure as well), go here to our Flickr site.

Otherwise we've mostly organized our sets of photos by Country or Theme. You can browse below. At the site you will see thumbnail (little) photos. You can click on these to see larger versions, and even follow directions to make those larger still. Also you can view them as a slide show:

Mexico

Guatemala

Dogs of San Pedro, Guatemala

Semana Santa, San Pedro, Guatemala

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Route:

While plans, especially our plans, change every day, the rough outline looks like this:

In the Fall of 2006 we started a bike trip (oh yeah, very fully loaded) in Mexico. The intention was to make it to the tip of South America. Well, a half a year went by and we only made it to Guatemala.

You can read about our trip in the archived "updates" under the link above.

We are returning to Latin America Jan. 2008 and will continue on our adventure. This time however, without bikes!

We'll fly into Mexico City (where we may spend some time) and then make our way back to Guatemala to see friends we made there. If we get a chance to travel further south, the plan would be to continue on through Central America, staying mostly in the highlands when we can. Some beach time would be nice though!

As for the Darien Gap, we plan to boat around it.

As for South America, we plan to come down the West Coast, roughly following the Andes (we don't like the big bugs in the Jungle!).

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If you have contacts, or you yourself live along our route and want to give us a place to sleep for the night, show us around your area, or meet us for drinks, please email scrappymoduinne(at) yahoo.com (or join and post here) - We have no problem going out of our way to meet new and interesting people!

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Links:

We'll try and add more as we think of them or find them:

Join the Couch Surfing Revolution! Our profile page is here

Yeah, yeah, they help pave the Gringo Trails....but Lonely Planet's Thorn Tree Forum is worth checking out for good online info!

If you're in Maine, stop by the best restaurant/music club evah!The Empire Dine and Dance

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Contact:

We'll be checking email on the road. You can email us here: scrappymoduinne @ yahoo.com - Alexander and Christina will also be checking their personal emails, so family/friends with those emails can use them too.

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