Well the day has arrived. In about two hours I will be headed to the airport and starting the process of Imigrations, Customs, Lift offs, and the final touch down in Toronto tomorrow morning the 3rd at 1:25 am. Then hopefully the airport process will be quick so we can get on our way to Napanee and some needed sleep.
Signing Off for Now , Richard

This may be my last communication until I get home. This has been another great travel experience and I am a bit sad to be leaving. But I have so much to look forward to this summer in the Madoc, Ontario area and then again this fall when I head to South East Asia.
This afternoon I plan to go downtown for my last little tour there. I will do this with my friend Steve from the USA.  His out of the box thinking is what makes him a wonderful and interesting guy. When I hear his story I respect who he has become and where he is headed in his life.
This morning I was up at my usual time so I could watch the sun rise. The morning casting of light caused the leaves to have a bluey tint that was a visual backdrop for the musical performance of the birds. This was a delightful and almost sacred introduction to my day.

It is with mixed feelings that I am starting to prepare for my trip home in three days. It has been warm all winter and that has been very good but I am also starting to look forward to summer at home. It is going to be much less than fun to say goodbye to Gabrial and Magdalena here at Nomadas where I have spent more than a third of my time here in Central America. Now it is time for me to have breakfast and say good bye to some fellow travellers and then start my packing process. It may be a challenge to get everything I have accumulated in the pack but with some jig saw puzzle skills and some sitting and squishing and words like darn and gee, I think it will work.

Sometimes I like to observe what I am paying attention to. One of the things I have paid particular attention to on this trip is how families interact and specifically how the children are treated. Here at Nomadas Backpackers, Gabriel and Magdelena live here with their two sons. The boys get lots of help studying for school tests and they are taken to futbol activities etc. but the tremendous and important family interaction, is the regularity that I see and hear them laughing together. I am certain that this is a part of the the process that has led to the impressive qualities of these young boys.
In Nicaragua I noticed that the mix included the wealthy and the poor where both catagories had happy and unhappy children. But the country that stood out the most for me was Guatemala. It was extremely rare to see a child even crying. The very young all seemed to know where to find the satisfying breast. They were also wrapped in a cloth that I am sure has a name that I do not know, but this supporting cloth holds the child close to mom either at the front or back but mom was always next to the child. When they get a bit older and are walking there seems to be a special bond and connection that gives the children a security and calm. It was extremely rare to hear a child cry. This I believe is a part of the Mayan culture that much of the world that I know could duplicate to the betterment of our societies.

Back in Belleville Ontario where I lived for a number of years I had several wonderful occasions watching the fireworks that were very enjoyable. There would be splendor in the sky through out, with a great finale for a couple minutes at the end. These displays were always very expensive and presented by different organizations, the city, or some combination thereof, and I do not want to take away from this for a moment. But I have witnessed something here that I will never forget. I don’t think I talked about the opening night of the National Arts Festival here in Sabana Park. This is about five blocks from the hostel. Some of us staying here stood in the back patio and watched for about fifteen minutes while the whole spectacle was like the finale back home. I have not been able to find out how this was financed but it was amazing. Ten days later, which was last evening was the last day of the great festival, and low and behold, there was another fireworks presentation. This one even out did the opening night. The finale was so intense that my chest was vibrating with the intensity of the sound let alone the visual extravaganza. The volume of the blasts was so powerful even five blocks away, that the vibration set off car alarms all down the street. It was amazing and something that will stand out in my memory for a long time.

I have since thought back to standing on Parlaiment Hill in my nations capital for the occasion of bringing in the millenium and this made our national presentation look like childs play. That evening was a huge embarassment to us Canadians, which was an opinion shared by most of the thousands of us who witnessed it. This newest presentation was here in a small 2nd world country. Hopefully by the next millenium Canada can save some money for a celebration that will better represent us on the world stage. Seeing and comparing these two makes me feel good about little old Belleville.

This morning Magdelena from the hostel called me and told me that I had a phone call. I thought everyone that I know in the country was here at the hostel, it must be a wrong number or an emergency from home. What a surprise I got when I took the phone and found out it was my new musician friend Tal Kravitz. It was about 10 am and he was scheduled to go to the airport at two pm, to fly home. He then proceeded to invite me to join himself and Yoel for a coffee before he had to leave. Yoel had shown him my website where I had made a post or two about him and he wanted to meet me again. Off I went and we had a great time viewing YouTube movies of a variety of musicians playing interesting instruments from around the world. These were people that Tal either knows or admires. During that interesting time, Eric the sound man / guitarist also stopped by, and I felt very honoured to be a part of the interesting good bye meeting. We ended up having lunch together to end another awesome experience.

My experience and observation here in Central America, is that it is a society of extremes. From the very rich to the very poor, from the honest to the dishonest, etc. This also applies to things like the International buses. For example never forget to take warm clothes in your carry on bag. The air conditioning is always at the maximum. One bus I was on generated several complaints to the steward who finally gave in. But he turned it from full on to full off, that´s the way here. So when people complained about how hot it got, he then turned it to full on again. There seems to be no concept of in-between. So on my last 9 hour trip from Granada to San Jose, even though I did have a thermal sweater and a jacket I still managed to catch a cold. Some extra vitamin C seems to have controlled it to some degree and it is almost behind me now.

As many know I had the priviledge to live and teach in Uruguay, where I loved the country, people and the experience. We had a young man move into the dorm here at Nomadas Backpackers named Yoel Shemesh who is from Uruguay. He is a very talented jazz pianist, however the piano is not an easy instrument to carry in a backpack so he is carrying a Melodica, which allows him to perform everything from traditional Israeli music to Murga from Uruguay and much much more. He is not only talented but an extraordinary young man. It is so good to meet people who have talent that has not gone to their head, inflating their ego at the same time.

I was a very happy boy when I found out that Tal was playing several more times at the festival and I was thrilled to get to hear him perform yesterday. He has an infectious smile and an even bigger talent. He has a wonderful voice and played the guitar to back himself up when he sang some songs, but when he played the saw from Russia he showed his sense of humour when he introduced his back-up as a traditional Chinese instument an mp3 player. He also found that his sound man could play the guitar very well so Tal invited him to the stage for an impromtu duet. The Carpa del Agua, the large tent where he was performing was at capacity and more, and when he performed his last song the mostly Costa Rican audience quickly and enthusiasticaly gave him a standing ovation. His website for any who are interested is www.tal-kravitz.com

Another musical blessing of my trip. Thanks Tal.