Hola from Guatemala! The Beckoning Road production team has been on location in Central America for one action-packed week now. The team consists of: Daniel Mode (yours truly), the director of this project; Michael Thomas, our Director of Photography and Operator; Allen Noonan our Sound man, Boom Op and Utility Infielder; and the lovely Valerie Rhodes, our Venezualen Translator, Transpo Coordinator and Spanish Language Interviewer. The team has been excellent to work with both as profesionals and great people.

Here’s a quick update on all that we’ve been up to:

Our adventure began in the sweltering heat of Granada, Nicaragua. Actually “sweltering” is a bit of an understatement. “Brutal” or “paralyzing” might be more appropriate. The city and people were spectacular, but after infiltrating the local traveler scene we soon realized that the vast majority we encountered were short-term vacationers in the area for a few weeks to see the sights, drink and surf. The hostals were dissapointingly flooded with these people which was not exactly what we were looking for. As we met more and more people though, the wheat really began to separate from the chaff and we eventually started singling folks out. Out of about two dozen people we talked to only about five were on a long haul trip of 5 months or more and only one good character was able to interview with us, an interesting young gent named Jeff from New York. He shared his unique experience with us and we decided we’d have to move on to find other travelers.

Meanwhile, the two young ladies Amy and Marisol we’ve been following were wrapping up their stay in Granada and we had the great opportunity to film and speak with the local family Amy had been living with. The whole family was warm and inviting but the kids oddly were shy of the camera, a unique situation in Central America. We spent an afternoon with them as Amy said her final goodbye’s and headed off to to catch a bus with Marisol south.

Feeling too much of a tourist vibe in Granada, I decided to take the crew out on the open road to find a place a little less traveled. Heading north in a hired van we made our bumpy way east over winding dirt roads to the small town of San Jose de los Remates. Unfortunately for the project, the two travelers who were supposed to be in town never made it (sounded like they drank the water) so we spent our time interviewing the mayor about their growing alternative tourism project (and living and eating with him and his family, great people), traveling via pickup truck deep into the jungle to a mountainside organic coffee farm for some interviews (Hooray for Steadicam!), and drinking with the local boys who were convinced I was some guy from “Anaconda 2!” San Jose has little to offer for the traditional “tourist” in the way of “sites” but what it does have is it’s amazing people and the central component of their project is the immersion of travelers through family stays. An experience we feel was well worth the trek to this remote site.

After 24 hours in the nicest damn town in Nica, we made our way to a little hostel on Laguna de Appoyo, a beautiful volcanic crater lake. Interviewing some Israelis about their experiences traveling in such a war-plagued country got a bit emotional and we began to confirm exactly what this project is about: the experience. It’s unique to everyone, and no book, magazine or film can show you what it means to actually be there, to experience different cultures and ways of life and yet see the similarities we all share.

Our “night off” in Appoyo proved to be one of the most exciting and memorable times of the trip so far. We happened to be in this little community the night of May 2nd which, mark your calendars, happens to be the night of the Laguna De Appoya May Cross party! The entire town erupted in a frenzy of Salsa, Soca, Ragaeton and more and then, without a hint to it’s coming, the strangest of things happened… Out came the transvestites! Apparently Appoyo is the only place in Nica that homosexuality is openly embraced and this party is their Carnival. Who new? Needless to say we danced our tails off and garnered alot of attention as the only Gringos in a sea of Nicas. Michael kept getting propostioned my young men who liked his clean cut look, I for some reason attracted the 16 year old girl crowd and danced with several breaking a few hearts along the way, Allen’s unique solo spasmodic dance technique gathered the biggest crowd and he at one point had more than a dozen people circling him laughing in awe and for once on this trip the beautiful Valerie drew the least attention. A full moon swim out to a floating dock completed our stay and refreshed us for the days ahead.

The next day was spent filming several traveler sequences on “chicken” busses on our way south to rendezvous with the girls Amy and Marisol in the small beach town of San Juan Del Sur. For those who don’t know, “chicken bus” refers to the old yellow Bluebird school busses which made their way south from the States years ago to be painted bright swirling colors, covered with chrome and neon and given a second life as Central American public busses. Typically packed with riders, venders and mountains of stuff inside and on the roof, they definitly make for a loud and exciting filming environment. Michael showed no fear standing, stumbling and filming among the throngs as we weaved through traffic on narrow clifside roads.

Sleeping for a night we began following the girls more closely as we bussed north towards the border. In the next forty-eight hours we would travel through four countries. First stop Managua, Nicaragua.

Arriving into one of Central Americas poorest cities, we soon found our cab driver steering us deep into the ghetto and tripling the initial quoted price. When he popped the trunk our equipment was in as we drove slowly down a dimly lit street my heart skipped a beat and Valerie began laying into him in a friendly but firm tone to get us to our hostal. Once again Valerie’s friendly persuasiveness and uncanny understanding of the local people got us to where we were going and at just a few bucks more than the original promised price. I’ll say again this team has come together excellently. After a nasty run in with killer ants that left Valerie and I running through the streets back to the hostal on burning swollen feet and ankles we got some shut eye before heading north on a bus with the girls at 4am. Passing through Honduras we crossed into El Salvador and set up for the night in the beautiful capitol city of San Salvador. Marisol’s love of Salsa led us all out for a night of dancing in a massive local dance spot. Being the only gringos in a sea of hundreds of frantic Salvadorian partiers was a scene that unfortunately couldn’t be recorded in the low light but it was definitely a fun respite for the crew. El Salvador is a beautiful country and the people couldn’t have been nicer to us.

The following morning we boarded a bus for Guatemala City and after crossing the border into Guatemala we entered our fourth country in less than forty-eight hours. It was unfortunate that the girls didn’t have time to explore Honduras and El Salvador but the next month or so will be devoted exclusively to the unique combination of indigenous people and history, stunning natural features and a warm, hard-working population that is Guatemala. And we’ll be here. Stay tuned for much more in the coming week.