Roadtrips – Expatriateism

7/11/2015 Portland, Oregon

July 12, 2015Martin Wigert

We made it to Portland last night. It’s feels like years since Sacramento. Jill and I spent ten days apart at the same meditation camp. There was no speaking or interaction allowed between the men and the women or with anyone for that matter. I think I am still pondering what I got out of it. Jill wrote all about her experience.… Read the rest

Flagstaff, Arizona

June 12, 2015Martin Wigert

We rolled into Flagstaff to a Taco Tuesday party at Martine’s house. We found Lucia and Penelope already there visiting for soccer camp. Exciting to see cousins and their kin after too long absent.

How do I recount so much we’ve done since Marathon, a montage, I think.

it rains in the desert when we are there. Big Bend is the only national park encompassing an entire mountain range.

… Read the rest

4/24/2015 Tacna, Peru

April 24, 2015Martin Wigert

We came to Tacna Yesterday. Today we went to Arica, Chile. They are a little over an hour apart. Between the two and pretty much everywhere around Tacna is a desert. It’s all empty adobe colored earth. No people or structures exist in the wastes. Tacna is some mish mash of border town and tourist trap for Chileans looking for a favorable exchange rate.

… Read the rest

3/1/2015 Panama City, Panama

February 28, 2015March 1, 2015Martin Wigert

We rode a bus for too long to get here. The bus goes west to go east in Costa Rica. We arrived at 3:30 AM. Then we realized it was now 4:30 AM because the time changed. Jill slept in a food court until the security guard roused her. We found our way to the other airport by city bus and then a taxi to our hostel.

… Read the rest

1/25/2015 Antigua, Guatemala

January 25, 2015January 28, 2015Martin Wigert

Hey look at us! We made it to Antigua. Yesterday was interesting, to say the least. We awoke at 6 and packed our bags. 7:30 found us outside the hostel restaurant waiting for the owner to get the front door open. He lost his keys. The unlocking somehow involved a rope and was successful. The owner appeared to be an Aussie who didn’t speak a lot of Spanish.… Read the rest

Adíos Cobán

December 31, 2014January 1, 2015Martin Wigert

I’m on a bus leaving the city. It’s smelly and bumpy. It’s familiar stores fly past for the last time, at least for a long time. On to Antigua and elsewhere. The ride is long and uncomfortable. I’m sitting with two shopping bags and a book bag. I’m unable to move more than a couple inches. The window is wide open and the driver wants it that way.… Read the rest

11/22/2014, Lanquin, Guatemala

November 25, 2014December 14, 2014Martin Wigert

Greetings from Guatemala! Time is slowing down here. We are finding a routine. Jill is messing with Excel and cooking a little for us. I am bartending and attempting Spanish with the locals. A good topic with them is asking about Q’eqchi’, their Mayan language. They say phrases and repeat a spanish translation. It is a complicated way to communicate. Mah-Sah-Lock-Ch’ol means buenas dias or como estas, I’m not sure.

… Read the rest

10/30/2014

October 30, 2014November 2, 2014Martin Wigert

This morning, Jill and i went for a walk with a little running at a sports complex a block away. We got cleaned up and waited for the the Canadian to go to Akumal. Akumal is a beach in a bay where sea turtles live. Me, Jill, the Spaniard, and the Canadian all went on this little excursion. We caught a collective to the bus stop.

… Read the rest

Denver Road Trip: The Long Way Home

December 15, 2012October 19, 2014Martin Wigert

This is part 3 of my spontaneous trip from Minneapolis to Denver and back. I headed out of Cheyenne traveling north until I left the interstate. I struck east for Northwest Nebraska. The day was enormous and blue and the road dipped and rose through it. I saw a sign coming at me, here I was on some state highway and a rest area pops up, my trip was so interstate heavy that one off the interstate was a new experience.

… Read the rest

Denver Road Trip: Denver, Fort Collins, and Cheyenne

November 17, 2012October 8, 2014Martin Wigert

Earlier this year, I got a free week in between a job switch, and I made the most of it with a road trip. Getting to Denver, chronicled here, involved a lot of driving and only a little sleeping. It was less than stellar. I arrived in Denver and slept for three hours.

After my sanity inducing slumber, I walked to the Wynkoop Brewing Company and had a nice dinner and some beers with my wife.

… Read the rest