Whitt's End Rancho, Cabo Del Este, Mexico

For one month we will stay at Whitt's End Rancho with Travis and Lisa Whitt. The Rancho is towards the bottom of the Baja Peninsula in Mexico (the strip of land that comes down from California). 

We are out in the middle of nowhere, 2 hours from the closest city, in a desert, on the coast of the Sea of Cortez. This rancho has goats. I'm in heaven. 

We've been here for one week and have already know how to milk and care for the goats, make lots of flavors of soft cheese, greek yogurt, and mozzarella. 

Genie and Blondie 

Gigi - one month old

Dima, our room mate, feeding Louise, Blondie, and Genie

Kyle milking Ethel (Lucy's in the pen)

Goats love to play and climb. 

View from the roof. The blue on the left is the Sea of Cortez, and the mountains on the right Sierra de Laguna. 

We start milking at 7pm so we get to see this sunrise every morning. 

After milking, the milk is stored in large bins for 2 days before making it into yogurt or cheese.

The cheese fridge. The red rounds are delicious aged cheddar.

The Soft Cheese process is actually very simple. 

Weighing the cheese

Whey dripping out of the yogurt

Many, many miles.

We've been on a lot of buses. Especially the last month and a half. Just in case you were wondering, Central America is way bigger than it looks on a map. Ya, not joking. It's hard to remember how many buses we've been on over the past month and a half, but we've traveled around 2,500 miles by my estimate (with 7 border crossings, which are always an adventure). The bus journey that began in Panama City back in January is ending today in Cancun, Mexico.  Today we're flying from Cancun to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Originally, we were going to bus it all the way. But you have to know when to stop. And so we're flying, which will actually be cheaper and much less tiring.

Click on the map to make it bigger.

We'll be working on a goat farm for 4 weeks at the place where the arrow below is pointing.

Click map to make it bigger.

We had a couple days to relax by the beach at Playa del Carmen. My eyes were pink for 4 days due to someone spraying chemicals in our bedroom. Pink eye, so they call it. I don't why it's called that, but they're almost better.

 Best part about our first 4 days in Mexico: Tacos!! Cheap and delicious from any street vendor. Beach isn't bad either.

Neea at our favorite taco stand.

Stayed tuned to learn learn more about raising goats!!

Journey to Tikal

The Maya are one of those ancient civilizations that I learned about in school that I should’ve paid a lot more attention to. It’s hard to grasp and appreciate ancient civilizations as a kid, so I won’t be too hard on myself. Now having visited one of the most impressive Maya sites in Central America, I definitely have that appreciation I lacked as a young lad. I’ll try to keep it short and yet, informational.

As I learned in school, it’s believed that humans arrived in the Americas by crossing land that’s now submerged beneath the Behring Straight. Once folks were more secure, having learned how to cultivate the land (growing stuff like peppers, squash, beans, and corn), they began to focus on other things like crazy building projects. Reminds me of Psychology 101 and “Maslow’s hierarchy of needs”. Once they had the basic need of food under control, they could focus their attention on astronomy, calendars, architecture, art, or as we do today, the Super Bowl. Most experts divide Pre-Hispanic America into 3 categories: Pre-Classic (before 250AD), Classic (250-900AD), Post-Classic (900-1521AD). Fairly easy. Spanish came in 1521, did their colonial thing, and stuff would never be the same.

What Lynea and I were able to experience was the Classic Mayan civilization (250-900AD) which many believe to be the most brilliant civilization in pre-Hispanic America. We went to the place known as Tikal, here in Guatemala. “Towering above the rainforest, Tikal is possibly the most magnificent of all Maya sites” (according to the book I’m looking at).

According to me, it was pretty sweet. 

We made the journey with some new friends, Andres and Mehedy. The day began at a local market with fresh corn tortillas, tomatoes, and fruit. Good start.

Local market, always serving up fresh corn tortillas!

Then, a 1 hour bus ride into the jungle and the trek began. Soon upon entering, we realized that turning down a guide was a bad mistake. I’ve made this error in the past and learned my lesson well. When you come to something like this in life, 10 dollars a person is nothing for what you will experience and learn with a good guide. When we realized the rich experience we were about to miss, we immediately returned and hooked up with our guide, Luis. His 5 hours worth of knowledge about the ruins, flora and fauna, history, and not to mention short-cuts through the rainforest, were well worth it!

Edible mushrooms. Guide ate them. I opted out just in case.

Temple V (58m) - built between 768-794AD

Sacrifices were offered here.

One of the 3 main city gate entrances

Plaza of the 7 temples (yes, there' s 7)

Model of what the 7 temples would've looked like

Lounging at the great pyramid (observatory).  This was built to observe the heavenly bodies in relation to other buildings.

Tree where gum comes from. They slice it in X's to extract it.

View above the rainforest from the tallest temple - Temple IV (212 feet)

Lynea with our guide Luis

On top of Temple IV with a whole bunch of Mayan kids excited to shout the name of their school.

With a couple Mayan ladies. We traded photos. I think I'm correct in saying that 40% of the population in Guatemala is Mayan.

Most famous Temple in Tikal - Temple I (jaguar temple, 44m), tomb of one of the great rulers of Tikal (721ad), originally painted cream, red and possibly green

Ancient fertility ritual

Widescreen of the Great Plaza

Looking out over the Great Plaza

To be able to stand on the grounds of a great, ancient civilization was indeed a moving experience! To learn about the things they had mastered (agriculture, conserving water, waste management, lunar and solar cycles) was quite impressive. These people were very sophisticated. Their obsession with time has become famous especially this year, 2012. The Mayans had figured out a 365 day calendar year, the same as we have today, but they also had 2 other ways of counting time, the “short count” and the “long count”. The short count was based on a 260 day calendar that marked different holy days. The long count was based on 13 time periods called baktuns. The long count is supposed to last 5,128 years. It began on August 11, 3114BC and ends this year on December 21, 2012AD. Some folks have taken this to mean that the world will end or something crazy will happen on this date. Though it makes for a good (or bad) movie and interesting conversations, the Maya probably didn’t think this was the end of the world. But I suppose we’ll see soon enough.

Princess and the Pea?

Do you know this story? The princess who had many mattresses and still couldn't sleep because of the pea under them all? Go here for the full story.

What’s your bed like? Is your mattress hard or soft? Is it a hammock, twin, double, queen, or king mattress? Do you sleep on one specific side of the bed or do you take up the whole thing? What’s your pillow like? Hard, soft, thick, thin, down, cotton? Do you have a sheet, down comforter, or a quilt? Does it require a mosquito net? What’s the color scheme? Warm or cool colors? Who provided that bed? Did you and your spouse purchase it together? Is it in a room at your mom’s house? Is it borrowed? When you lay in it…are you tossing and turning praying for daybreak? Or are you sound asleep dreaming? There’s a lot of variables to consider with a bed. Sometimes I feel like that princess, except I was sleeping in a hammock or on the ground and could actually feel the rocks! 

Grades Pasos Finca in Panama...I can sleep in 30 minute intervals in a hammock, Kyle on the other hand is 6'4" and can barely fit. 

From Jan 22- July 30, we slept in 17 different beds. Some were hard like the plywood loft at Grandes Pasos Finca and some were soft like at Lisa’s house. Some consisted of hammock like at Finca Santa Marta with the frogs jumping around us. Some were a twin bed (yes shared with the 6’ 4” Kyle like the air mattress in the tent). And still some were heavenly like the guest bedroom at Kelly’s house or her mom’s dorm.

Hero's house in Hondruas. Our bed often looks like this from packing and unpacking at every stop.  Tomorrow morning when you get dressed for the day, say a little thanks for your dresser and/or closet. I can't wait to hang my clothes on hangers!!!! 

San Pedro, Guatemala...hard hard hard.

Our pillows have ranged from soft, sweet smelling new cotton to our old nasty sweatshirt (which we are using right now for the week).

Oh, so that only took us to July 30. It’s now the beginning of September. In the month of August we slept in another 13 beds. Some back in the tent using every piece of clothing we own in an attempt to pad our hip bones, knees, shoulders, and don’t forget the ribs. One in a hostel room with a giant mural of Bob Marley where the cleanliness was very questionable. Sometimes you just have to not look or ask questions. One in the home of a kind Honduran grandma and her cute grandsons who would slide hand drawn pictures under our door daily. Some of which we would not be able to sleep if it weren’t for the mosquito net protecting our skin from those devil born bugs.

Bigfoot Hostel in Leon, Nicaragua

The Lazy Man's Farm...it is for that time in life I am so thankful for a pillow when I have one.

Grandes Pasos Finca in Panama...after we couldn't sleep in the hammocks and were freezing, we moved inside to the laminate wood on top of a plastic bag on top of real plywood....very hard. 

Your quality of sleep depends on a lot too. Your physical comfort : plywood, hammocks, mattresses like the one we are on now = sleeping in 20 minutes intervals having to switch positions when body parts fall a sleep. Or overnight buses = half asleep. You want to be sleeping, but it’s so cold your shivers keep you slightly awake.) Your physical health : Dengue fever for 1 week = spiking fevers leave you delusional. I rolled over asking Kyle what time it was hoping the sun would appear soon. His response…10pm. It was a long long night. Or say if you have a poison ivy breakout all over your body from roasting cashews = an itchy, burning, long long night).

Heaven...I mean a beach house at Cabo Matapalo, Costa Rica with the DuGreniers

Cabaña at Las Lajas, Panama with James and Yari. Look at those buff guys! 

The other side of both of these variables leave you sleeping like a baby fully rested in the morning. Those are the best nights and unfortunately few and far between right now. What's the craziest bed you've slept in? What's your favorite kind of bed? Or what makes your bed unique or just plain comfortable?

In 8 months, that’s 30 very different beds. No matter the home that provided the bed or sleeping area, we are very grateful for them all.