How much money combined have you all set aside for this trip?

Are you attempting to not work at all during the journey?

Nick
Twitter: @nicholaskatz

@Michael in Medellin there are plenty of Spanish schools and professional teachers that you could try to learn Spanish. I believe you can come from Guatemala by bus since I have meet people coming from Mexico same route. You should do a scale in Panama City which is simply nice, It is better if you take a boat from Panamá city to Cartagena. Then take a bus from there to Medellin (U$60) and that’s it.

Brought back so many quality memories – what a great way to lift me up on a sunday morning

Hope you guys are keeping well!! Keep up with the good work!!

Rob
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I had to laugh at the closing shot as it reminds me of something from my own site –> http://yourstorypodcast.com/ which is all about peoples stories and how we live life and that’s exactly what you’re doing.

I love the personal aspects of the shows like your opinions about things. Tell it like it is!

Thank you very much for the congratulations!
feels like a while ago that we were there! watching that clip brings back the memories – we are in Turkey atm in a beautiful beachside town called Kas – amazing aqua blue waters, very nice!

hope you guys are still having a ball and catch you when you are back in Sydney town!!

Max and Bec x x x

After visiting most of the country I would still pick good ol Bluefields. Why? Great nightlife, great food, biggest mix of cultures in Central America that I have found and the best jumpoff point to adventures in all four cardinal directions.

Check out my blog; it’s the survival guide to the Caribbean coast and updated pretty frequently. http://rightsideguide.com

Too bad I didn’t get the opportunity to take yall down to Monkey Point or the Pearl Keys or have my local friends show you around little corn island or Rama Cay. Big Corn Island is nuthin compared to those places!

I hope yall enjoy the rest of yalls trip!
Casey

When I just mentioned your odyssey to my sister she shrugged and said: Most people fly there, and then I noted you guys were traveling on a shoestring.

Please keep your the great reports/adventures.

I’ve been out of the loop visiting Sydney for a month and just watched the last 3 video in a row. I just want to say you’re doing a great job. The stories are developing, the personalities are coming out and I’m LOVING what you’re doing.

I know how hard it is to produce content when on the road but what you’re doing is brilliant. This is “A” Grade content now and I think it’s only going to get better as you do more episodes. I love the personal, real stories, including the problems.

Keep up the great work and I look forward to the next episode.

GO TEAM Planet Kapow!

Dania Dumas

I am so proud of my country, I love it and promote it as well, specially Roatan, Bay islands. If you haven’t had a chance to go, please try to make the trip. There are so many beautiful sights and spots and things to do, you won’t wanna leave after that.

Thank you for the amazing video you took from Copan and Rio Cangrejal. For river rafting is best that you go in october, rainy season, also currents are estimated to be Level 4 and 5. Do you guys visit cities too? Because the capital Tegucigalpa has a lot to offer too. Santa Lucia, Valle de Angeles, San Juancito, La Tigra. Anyways keep doing your travels…

Just want to say how much I’m enjoying the series.

To be regularly putting out so much content is awesome. I know how difficult it is when you have all the distractions of so many things to see and do. I’ve done the same when I travel but mainly with blog posts and audio podcasts but I blown away with what you’re doing with video. It always takes a lot more to pull off than the other stuff.

Love the little bits of personality that creeps into the episodes to show off your individual personalities. The Good Snack Bad Snack piece always shows a bit of that. I’d love to see more personal opinions about what your seeing even though the arm chair visual tours are great.

I can only wonder what is going on between the episodes, maybe I should read more of the blog and see.

Thanks guys and keep having fun.

I loved “The Part About Amalfitano” – my favourite section of the book. I heard that one of the parts remained unfinished and though I’ve never found out which one it was, I assume it’s that one since it’s significantly shorter. I sincerely can’t wait for his journals to be published.

We have just, as of yesterday, made it to Colombia and we’d love to hear from you if you’ve got any ideas or suggestions for places to go. We’ve got at least a month or two here so there’s plenty of time to get to some exotic back corners!

Venezuela is the last country on the itinerary and we probably won’t be there for several more months but we’ll definitely be getting in touch for some tips when we head up that way. Nothing beats local knowledge!

The one thing I can say with confidence about Cubans is that when surrounded by family and friends they’re some of the happiest people in the world. Beyond that, they remain a bit of a mystery to us.

Yes, fair point. But, while I may be doing nothing but further revealing my lack of knowledge on the subject, let me defend my point this way (I’m going to use the terms ‘peso’ for CUP and ‘dollar’ for CUC to avoid confusion): while both Cubans and foreigners have ready access to both pesos and dollars, welfare and most wages (excluding those related to tourism) are paid in pesos.

Now, for those items that they’re able to purchase, pesos have incredible purchasing power. Using pesos, a cup of coffee costs 1 peso ($0.04). Using dollars, that same cup of coffee is $1 (25 pesos). A meal can be had for one peso; it would be difficult to find the same for less than $3 (75 peso) when using dollars.

So, given that purchasing power, I’m going to go out on a limb here and make the guess that people don’t need to be paid a huge amount in pesos in order to get by. I’m coming up with figures off the top of my head here, but let’s say that for 250 pesos a week you could eat and drink pretty well and purchase all the necessities you require. Even if you scrimped and managed to save an entire week’s wages, when it’s converted all you have is $10. Save a whole month’s wages, and you have a whole $40. Save an entire year’s wages – you’ve got $120, and might be able to buy a pair of Nike sneakers. Yet in terms of buying food and necessities, you’re fine. You can get everything you need.

Now let’s turn it around. If you choose not to make pesos – if you decide, instead, to “unofficially” earn some dollars by working tourists, you might, on a bad week, end up with $50. That’s not much, but convert $10 of that into pesos and you’ve got enough to get by for a week, and $40 – a month’s wages – in your pocket. Do it for a couple of weeks and in terms of being able to buy consumer goods you’re doing better than most people do in a year. And any time you need to buy groceries or necessities, you just need to convert a tiny fraction of it into pesos.

So, while everybody has access to both currencies, most Cubans don’t have access to enough pesos to make the dollars worthwhile. And that is my point – that the current system in Cuba punishes those who play by the rules and rewards those who don’t.

yeah, fair point – it’s fairly hypocritical of anyone who grew up under a capitalist democratic system to suggest that people in Cuba shouldn’t be allowed to accumulate wealth or goods. i think the painting of our team as hyperconsumers is a little unfair – while it’s true that we carry one laptop and a fairly nice camera (currently held together with duct tape), i should point out that this is the absolute minimum we need to pursue this project and i personally own nothing in the world beyone some old clothes and a few books – but still, i take your point. we have been allowed to accumulate money to go on this trip and don’t have the right to criticize others for making money and owning consumer goods.

my point was more, though, that at the moment there is only one real way for Cubans to do that, which is to get their hands on those CUCs that i mentioned. now while the system in Cuba is opening up, very slowly, it is still the case that these are very hard for Cubans to get their hands on. so many Cubans are resorting to simple hustling to separate foreigners from their money – or so it seemed during our stay.

my own feelings on consumerism/capitalism aside, what i was trying to say in the piece was that a system like Cuba’s, torn between a socialism that it can’t afford and an encroaching capitalism that will mean defeat for its government, is currently going both ways half-assed – rewarding those who don’t play by the rules, and punishing those who do – and it’s a system not only bound to failure, but one that will probably give rise to a fairly corrupt capitalist system in its place.

in saying that Cuba is heading to its grave i mean the current system in Cuba. i don’t know whether capitalism will be more successful for the wellbeing of the people, who are currently well-educated and well looked after in terms of health and housing. perhaps it will – it will certainly be better for some, anyway. but the shame of it is that at the moment there are only a few small pockets in the entire world where people are trying something other than the mass-consumer culture that has swept everywhere from africa to australia to south america to western asia. some of these pockets are doing it wisely, like bhutan; some are doing it perhaps not-so-wisely, like north korea.

cuba, whatever its faults, never massacred its own people, never committed gross violations of human rights (a few political prisoners aside), never let its people fall into mass starvation, never persecuted minorities within the state, never tried to stifle art or religion, not even that which was critical of the state. whether capitalism will be better or worse for the country, it is still a shame to see one of those last pockets of difference disappearing forever.

that’s my opinion, anyway.

If they have the money – and they save up for it – why shouldn’t they have the things they desire?

Think about that when you guys all line up to get your iphones or ipads next time the next big thing comes out.

Or I don’t know… am I just missing the point? Discuss…

xxxxx

1- What a cool trip!
2- Awesome website. Great posts and excelent videos.
3- 2666 is a fantastic book. My favorite characters were Lalo Cura and Amalfitano. I wanted to know more about Amalfitano’s daughter and the journalist. Archimboldi was also great.
4- I’m Venezuelan and I’ve traveled around my country quite a few times. I know many of its corners. If you’re going there I’d be glad to help you with whatever I can, although I’m in Boston
5- I’ve also been many times around Colombia.

Let me know if you need tips, an insiders view or whatever. I’ll be following your website and hoping that your trip rocks.

Best of luck guys!

Love watching these, you look like you’re all having an amazing time, take care.

Tracey xo

Sincerely,

Gil

And now for something even cooler…

PLANET KAPOW HD !!! – feed://planetkapow.com/feed/planetkapowhd

Glad you liked the clip amigo!

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Love you guys
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