I am glad you had a great time in Central America, I am from Venezuela and as you mentioned, I love USA, but it is far from perfect, I believe the country go caught up on a revolucionary fast growing pace, where everything needed to be better looking, bigger, etc, and with that went healthy eating, additives, hormones, etc. Things that in a developing country are still far from true. I miss the food from South America, and not just the flavors but the exquisite healthy way of making it, every ingredient was not probably a big perfect tomatoe, or a 10 pound chicken, nor the biggest fruit, but inside each ingredient we were confident there was just the labor of the farmers, no chemicals to make it better, there couldn’t be anything better than that. I recall the flavor of the fruit and it was so true to reality, when I eat a banana here I could close my eyes and think I am eating any other fruit and it taste the same.
I am lucky to live in the Hudson Valley, NY area, where we have a movement of farmers that are trying to get back to basics and grow organic produce and healthier meats.

Thanks

Luis

I enjoyed last weeks’ posts, especially Sierra’s. I’ve been surprised by some angry commenters recently, but that just means they take your blog very seriously…

I’m glad you got time off with Kris…I love the vacations my husband and I get to take together…so relaxing!

I visited some of the ruins and climbed to the top, and it is definitely not something the lawsuit-crazy USA would dream of doing.

I couldn’t agree more, JD. Well said.

Looking forward to some more inspirational posts.

I think, at times, when common sense is legislated, it requires us to use less of it.

We definitely missed you. I’m looking forward to more insights!

You have made a good point about this country being very insular. When somebody comes to US from outside they would clearly observe this. I think what is happening is that the cultural aspect is slowly diminishing, since you see that every part of our lives here are intertwined with multinational companies. When the readily available diet anywhere you go in US is a McDonald’s or any fast food burger, then where is the variety in that. As for my experiences while I travel within US, I really feel the same no matter where I go within US, there is not much to choose in terms of variety over here. No variety makes it dull and boring.

Welcome back! I had a blast when I was in Belize recently. Did you get a chance to do the cave tubing?

I agree that it’s good that you can get away from things for a while. I hope you’ll take more vacations–you deserve em!

-Erica

Drawing parallels between your trip and the articles posted when your were gone — although many were not agreeable with everyone (I personally only found Sierra’s article interesting) I believe that venturing into new territory is needed to keep our minds open and receptive to new ideas, ways of thinking, as well as new adventures (not to mention keeping GRS fresh and interesting).

Even if we dislike an article or experience, we can always learn something new from it.

There were several other things on our trip that made us think, “You could never do this in the U.S.” I know that our legal system protects us, but it also hampers us in some ways, too. The whole time I was in Central America, I kept thinking, “This is like rural Oregon in 1975″ — and I meant that in a good way.

A little insane with the “no-rules” there in guatemala huh? I’m certain the staircase on that one ruin would never be allowed in the US.

This one is the one I’m referring to:
http://adventuremonkeys.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/100_3730.jpg

BTW – my stomach felt exactly the same as yours when I got back home!

Glad you had a safe trip.

Looking forward to the Missing Manual: I’ve pre-ordered and am waiting for it to be shipped to the UK!

I hope you won’t let any apparent fuss during your time away keep you from taking time off in the future (and using guest bloggers ). Being able to balance personal needs with non-personal needs and being able to relinquish control in a disciplined manner (even when this requires tough choices and trade-offs) is a great mind-set to have on the road to “rich.”