Kit Cross

This is not an uncommon site in the spring and the fall of the year if you’re driving down Canada’s byways.  But the question of what it is does require some thought.  What you’re looking at is the result of a bumper crop at one of our marshmallow farms.  Anyone who has  stopped on the side of the road for a stretch,  or to see if you have phone signal or to change a flat tire might also comment that they’re huge.  Well spotted!

There’s a reason for that.  In the summer lots of Canadian kids end up in summer camp.  They learn the arts of short–sheeting a counselor’s bed, sneaking out to the bar in town and attempting to lower your voice an octave to get in or simply skinny dipping off the dock into a freezing cold lake.  All great fun.  One of the actual scheduled activities for the ones left behind is roasting marshmallows on a campfire. It’s not practical for camps to buy the commercially available small ones so we’ve created a hybrid. Roasted on a spit like a pig, it can take care of the whole camp at once (with the exception of those short sheeting a bed, sneaking into the bar or dossing clothes down by the lake)

Further to the field notes above, this is a prime example of a young Marshmallow Tree.  Note this is the smaller variety commercially available in most Canadian supermarkets.  This also appears to be one of the new hybrids and has been crossed with a gooseberry bush ( have a close look at the leaves)  Photo courtesy of Elias and Shirley Katsourakis and Betty Wakka–all Australian.

One of the things I remember clearly about Antigua Guatemala are the ancient gnarled cobblestone streets.  They make for great photos–at night just after it rains and you can see the window lights dancing across them like diamonds.

In the glaring light of day, they’re a bit precarious for walking and like any artistic impression, they are what they are in reality.  You watch where you walk, avoid the rough bits and steer clear of the dog poop.

So there I am walking up from the Parque Central and loping towards me are the cast of what looks to be Miss Universe–or maybe Miss America,

Most are 5’7″ or 5’8″ tall to begin with, coiffed to the nines obviously dressed for a date with a television camera with sashes across them per country (yes Miss Canada is there) And they’re wearing these!  Or some version of these–stilletto, at least an extra 4 ” taller and tottering precariously across those unforgiving cobblestones while dodging doog poop.  Who comes up with these ideas???

Miss Mexico–pictured above–seems a bit put out–she’d been left behind at the Cathedral to do a photo shoot.  She has no idea how big a bullet she dodged by not having to join the rest on the walk through town!

It’s been a crazy couple of days.  I’ve taken care of business in Antigua.  The hotel (La Posada Merced) is much brighter than I remembered and I know everyone is going to love it.  More on that later.  Now with the business out of the way and the group not coming for a couple of weeks, I thought I’d hop a bus to Rio Dulce and spend a few days chillin’ on the river.  I’ve never been there so the idea is quite exciting.

I picked Hacienda Tijax–the ‘x’ is soft in the gentle Mayan way based on a recommendation from Gerlinde who runs Posada la Merced.Great recommendation!  $21 USD a night for a beautiful little cabin-shared bath on a small creek  and a swimming pool!.  No bugs to speak of–there were mosquito nets over the beds if that became an issue.

So–what to do in Rio Dulce?  Well you can take the boat downriver $200Q if you go from the hotel–I suspect less if you go from the public dock across the river–will get you down to Livingston and back.  Plan for an all day trip.  It’s kind of a tour–the Captain will point out a few things as you go but really it’s the public bus.  I think the 20 minutes we stopped at some hot springs on the way was not how the locals on board were planning to spend their day.

What a great day!  Drifting through mangrove swamps and patches of lilly pads in the backwaters of Rio Dulce on the way to Livingston.  One hour further on in a launcha, you’d come to Punta Gorda in Belize–which is exactly what Brian and Elly from Conneticut were doing.  Their boat was moored up in Placencia for repairs and they’d driven down to Punta Gorda , and hopped a launcha to spend a few days playing around in Giatemala.