Home

So I got home on Tuesday last week and got a little bit of a re-entry shock when I came back to the states. The air is much cleaner and it smells a little better up here and there isn't trash that cover the streets or the woods. I realized people aren't so friendly up here compared to Guatemala. Every one I would walk by would usually give be a big smile and greet me properly and usually look you in the eyes but up here I have noticed a lot of people could care less and just walk bye. Of course there will be friendly and not so friendly people that are all over the world. I had to spend 100 dollars to ship my xtracycle which put my money in my bank account down to $12.50

I have applied at a couple of bike shops that I live around. I am going to start doing little jobs like paintings and little plumbing jobs also so I can get a little bit of an income and start saving. I am working on getting rid of most of my things by either donating the majority of it and I am going to try to sell all of my dvds and games and my 12 string guitar and my other acoustic guitar. I have been playing guitar for hours on end every day also since I wasn't able to while I was traveling because I didn't bring one with me. It feels good to play again and I am starting to get new inspiration. I have been riding my 6 speed bike around everyday, it is a little heavy and pretty slow but it is still pretty cool looking. I eventually want to get another mountain bike so I can put my xtracycle back on so I can start carrying things on it again.

When I first came back the weather was pretty cold and not so fun but now it has been really warm and fantastic.

I would still like to travel sometime in the fall and head towards Atlanta and then towards Austin Texas. I would like to be in Texas at least by next March or April.

My last day in Guatemala and I am Paypal Verified

So it is my final day in Guatemala...This morning I woke up and took the bike that I brought on my amazing journey with me out for one last ride before I leave and let Hector have it forever. Me and Hector went out to the main plaza in Panajachel and saw a puppet show that was quite entertaining. It was a man from El Salvador who performed a great show with an enviromental story. Although it was all in Spanish I still understood most of it. I wrapped up my xtracycle in a box and it is all ready to take on the plane with me tomorrow. I am going to start looking for a shuttle bus to Guatemala City for 6am tomorrow morning.


So I am a little late and I totally should of done this before my trip but I just verified myself for paypal so I can get donations. I will be flying to Boston tomorrow...But I am going to start traveling again! In about 3 months or so. I think for now I am not going to update so much since I will be home unless something amazing happens, which I am sure some amazing things will happen.

So....I am taking a little rest and hopefully I will make some money while at home by working a little bit by figure modeling and I would like to get interviewed also about my trip from local media sources. I found 2 people from couchsurfing.com who are interested in traveling with me by bike along the East Coast of the U.S this fall so that is pretty exciting.


Well yall are more than welcome to send me an email and talk if you would like to comment or talk with me about my trip or about bicycles or about the future or about anything in the world.

Going Home

So I am taking an airplane from Guatemala City to Boston on Monday. I am going to go home to donate and sell most of my things so I can start traveling again for as long and as far as I want.
I have been having an amazing and pretty unforgetable time. These past weeks have been really great. I have created and played lots of new music as well as played music alongside with Dave and Paco and Hector. We have been making some money and have been getting free meals for all the times that we play music at restaurants and bars, Which is pretty awesome.
So I am looking for some traveling partners for my U.S East Coast Bike Trip this Fall. I plan on biking from the Boston area all the way down to Atlanta Georgia. Then from ATL I will visit my friend I havent seen for a long time and then ride to Enterprise Alabama to meet my father who I never met. And then from there I will ride to Texas. And then from Texas I might ride to Mexico!!! So if you or anyone you know would like to go on a bicycle trip throughout the East Coast of the U.S then send me an email at jshchadwick@yahoo.com
I am going to bring my xtracycle, my guitar, neccessities such as camping supplies and a big happy outlook on life.

Living In Hectors House in San Marcos La Laguna, Guatemala

So I have been staying at Hectors house with Paco for the past week. Hector also lives in Panajachel where he works and sells his artwork. So I have been watching his house and taking care of his garden. It has been total paradise and I have been living it up. I played a show at a restaurant with Paco and got paid 50q which is pretty good. I had a fun time expressing myself with music and I have been writing a brand new song that might be called ¨We all know¨. I am having multiple thoughts about traveling. I am still thinking about selling my bicycle and maybe buying a classical guitar and traveling with just a backpack and a guitar and taking buses and possibly hitchhiking up through mexico and playing guitar at bars and in the cities for some money and making my way up to Austin Texas. Another thought is to borrow some money from someone and take a plane to Boston and then recooperate and go to my damn jury duty in June and then start traveling again in August by bicycle in the states. Making my way along the whole east coast and going west to Alabama to meet my father whom I never met in my life and then making my way to Austin Texas where I would still love to check out the Yellow Bike Project and the Rhizome Collective house. I am not sure at all. I think I might stay here for another week or so because this week or maybe the rest of the month is Semana Santa which is a really religous holiday. And I am not sure if it is the safest time to travel but I am sure it would be fine. If I were to go the crazy adventurous route I would like to find a travel partner who would like to travel up to Mexico and through Mexico with me and possibly all the way to Texas.

San Marcos

So Me and Paco are in San Marcos and we have been staying at Hectors house for free. Hector is a great guy and he let the whole band stay at his house while we were here a couple of weeks ago. Hector gave me lucky stones from Argentina and Chiapas after I got my nose broken in Pana. Paco and I worked our asses off yesterday in Hectors garden all day and helped varnish some of his house. I am going to look for a not so expensive Spanish teacher today after we go swimming in the beautiful Atitlan lake. Hector lives on top of a hill and the view is spectacular. I am going to take a shuttle bus from Panajachel to San Cristobol De Las Casas, Chiapas in about a week. Then I will hopefully go to Cholula, Puebla, Mexico to visit Magdalena and then head towards Texas. I would also like to visit GDL but I am not sure if I will have enough money to do so. Hector is helping me out with my spanish as well because I know I am definitly going to need more than I already do while traveling alone. So I plan on being in Texas in late April or maybe earlier. We will see what happens.

Back in Panajachel

So after spending a long time in Antigua having fun filled adventures, I have come back to Panajachel. Paco and Dave have been playing in cafes,bars and parks every night and collecting some tip money, while I have just been chilling out and just going with the flow. I played my synthesizer with them the other night while Dave and Paco got to open an open mic night where we got free food. We played for a good hour or so and it was pretty fun. A half hour into it the place was pretty dead with only 2 people in the crowd. But then about 15 mins later the place filled up with about 20 people or so. There was this great band from Guatemala City and they were really good.
It has been cool hanging out with Paco and Dave but I was definitly getting an over load of Antigua. It was way to expensive and there were way too many touristas, mostly rich college kids on spring break. I did meet a lot of cool though and we went to a couple cool parties. And we went to a pretty pumpin party on the sidewalk when I was with Dave one night. Dave was playing the jembi and there were like 30 people just singing chants and dancing around and acting silly. Then the cops came with their big machine guns and every one started to split and I made Dave leave with me. Right when we started to leave about 6 or 7 cops just surrounded this one funny kid who didnt do anything and just start to hit him and put hand cuffs on him and arrest him. Then thats when I started to walk a lot faster.
I am going to San Marcos tomorrow to look for a good spanish school or teacher and stay there for about a week. If I just find a teacher I think that Dave and I will stay at this awesome guy Hectors house. He will let us stay in his house for free if we take care of it and his pets and help work in his garden while he lives in his Grandmothers house in Pana.
Then after I learn some spanish I will head on out towards Texas alone in Mexico. I am going to take a shuttle bus to San Crystalbol De la Casa, Chiapas and from there find a way towards Texas. I need to work on my bike because my gears are getting all funky and all the gears are starting to slip and change automatically while I am riding. It is a little different not being in such a bring group anymore. I felt pretty safe with the whole group but now I feel like I have a lot more time to explore by myself and check out some scenes while I am here. The market in Antigua is definitly a really cool market with loads of fruits,veggies,raw meat hanging around with tons of flys and people with fly swatters swatting the flys on the meat, lots of donated clothes from America( I think tjmax and marshals send their clothes to Guatemala after they cant sell old clothes because I saw a lot of clothes with Marshals stickers on them),cheap meals for under a under an american dollar and much much more.

Everything is Ok

Ok so the atm machines all lied to me. I called up my bank and I found out that I have 390 dollars left. So if I use it wisely and stop buying yummy helados and pan de dulce than I will be able to make it to Texas! Once I get in to Mexico everything will be a little more cheaper which is better for me. I can definitly find a bus going to the Mexican/guatemalen boarder. From there I can probably find some travelers that are headed up north and head up with them. I was thinking about riding through the boarder hoping that they wont give me any problems since I dont have a guatemalen visa or a passport stamp from when I first entered the country. Everyone is saying that I should be fine since I am american. And I already have a mexican visa so I should be fine. I am working on looking up some jobs for when I get into Texas and I plan on working with the yellow bike project in Austin. I cant wait to get involved with them and start working with them and see how their program works and runs. I am totally not worried any more.
Last night I had a dream that I started to fly....Kipchoge and the rest of the ginger ninjas were all their while we were in Guatemala. At first I had a really hard time, I started to get really high and then all of a sudden I would plummit down really really fast. Then everyone told me I was flying that well because of all these negatives thoughts that I manifest in my head sometimes. Then I kind of woke up while that was going on but I liked the dream and I didnt want it to end. So I wondered how I could continue to fly high and free with no worries. Then I started to imagine that I just unzipped a invisible/gooey suit filled with negative thoughts,images, regrets, worries and much more. After that I was like 60 lbs less and I started to soar higher and higher. Then I decided I would end it there and then I woke up and Paco,Dave and I all went to the mercado and bought breakfast for 7 q each.So I think we are going back to San Pedro or Panajachel tomorrow and from their I will look for a bus to Mexico, Possibly even mexico city.
Well those are all the updates I can think of for now, besides that Paco and Dave have been playing shows pretty much everynight together. I am not so confident with my synthesizer playing to play with them so I usually dont play with them. The sounds are too extreme and it is hard to find the right sounds for reggae. It takes time to come up with good ideas to mesh with the music and I dont have an amplifier so I cant practice with them. My mind keeps filling up with tons of new ideas but they slowly leak out if I dont get to play an instrument for an etended period of time. Music is medicine for me and relaxes and calms me down. Lately I have just been sleeping early and acting a little depressed. I was so used to just following the group that now it is hard for me to cope with being on my own. Sure I am with Paco and Dave but its just not the same. I think Paco and Dave are going to continue to head down south towards Honduras and Nicaragua while I head north Solo. I think it will be a good and challenging expeirence for me, and I know I will learn a lot from it as well as grow a lot. Once I get into Mexico I would like to start looking for a family to teach english to while they teach me spanish for a month or so or maybe just a couple of weeks so I can feel more comfertable with traveling alone in a spanish speaking country. I feel like I have been using Kipchoge and the other spanish speakers in the group as a crutch. Also I let Paco do all the talking whenever we book a hotel or buy food because I just do try hard enough to communicate. I understand a lot of spanish but i just get self concious and dont try to speak it.
Anyways.... until next time Amigos