Doug's blog

A poultry and pork rustler is loose in our neighborhood. Several of the local farms have lost animals in the night, the latest, a farmer across the river from us responded with a load of buckshot, no casualties were reported. I do wonder if it is indeed just a hungry soul trying to feed his family or a thief who later sells his ill gotten gain.

on the finca, things were rather quiet after the text message scam. The caretakers daughter got a text saying she could win a car and $15,000. So she sent a message back with her name and other information. The next day...she 'won' but they needed $375 to 'process' her winnings. Of course they tried to get me to give them the money and were quite angry when I said no.

seem to be what I am dealing with mostly as of late. We had a one day side trip to Granada to visit the gringos there, it went too fast and I am back in the mud now. The daily downpours and axle deep goo in what was my driveway remind me of my "Jeeper" days when I did this kind of stuff for fun.

We made it ! what a wonderful feeling, we crossed the boarder and it felt so good. Customs was rather painless , an action certificate for aduana and our trailer full of things were taxed at $109. They did want to look, and we hired some helpers to unload part of the stuff (the rain magically waited) and we paid the helpers a fair rate, no fleecing here.

one word...sux.

Scammed from one end to the other, a couple hundred dollars worth.

Tip one; don't pay an exit fee until you get to the Nicaragua boarder, they have a terminal 'computer problem' that only works to the licensed agents advantage, licensed to rip you off that is. Sure you can 'wait at the boarder' until the 'computer problem' is fixed. Depends what your time is worth.

The road is a little better in El Salvador, and the signs are more abundant, we actually found the hotel we were looking for, Holiday Inn. Nice place, but again Sue got the room, me, I sleep with the dogs. It is fairly cool here, I slept with a sheet on quite comfortably, the rain lulled me to sleep quickly (after a few beers ;) )

yikes... not as bad a Mexico City, where I had the privilege of donating way more money than I am happy discus to a thieving piece of perambulating porcine.

We wised up and paid a cabbie to lead us out of the maze that is Guatemala City.

We decided to come into Guatemala on the CA-1

I hate cities and this one reminds me why. By nature I am not a violent person, but if I could, for just a few moments, get my hands on the person who is responsible for street signage here. I would perform a felony.

We were beat, very tired having driven over 400 miles, the Travelodge takes dogs, so we took a room. Within an hour I had my pocket knife out to do a chop-chop on some scorpion looking critter that had made a beeline from a hidden location toward one of the sleeping dogs.

What a change from So Cal and Arizona. Green, cool at night and what a nice hotel, the Mission Inn, they gladly accept pets and the room is by far the nicest one we have been in so far. The Oceanside CA Best Western was OK, until the jackass night manager, without knocking tried to open our door at 01:45.