Carbon Monoxide!?

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Weird. The smoke alarm went off, not incredibly odd when I am using the fireplace, but it wasn't the smoke detector. It was the CO alarm. I was totally surprised. It had never gone off as long as I have had one, over many many years. Yep, after resetting it a few times. It was getting a reading over 200 ppm CO. When I took it downstairs I got a reading near 300 ppm. I started getting light headed at this point. After thinking maybe the furnace heat exchanger failed and puzzling around a bit I figured out what happened. As part of the huge winter storm that recently covered almost half of the US, we lost our electricity. So, being well prepared, I rolled out the generator and started doing what I normally do. The generator (although it was completely outside) was creating CO to get in the house. Using the fireplace draft (and possibly other leaks) the whole house created a vacuum around the seal of the basement garage door. After the CO got into the house the forced air heat...
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We are back from Central America, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. It was a very good trip, most excellent. Overall, we had only pleasant surprises, an excellent hotel in Guatemala City, fantastic experience with Mayans, active volcanoes, boats, islands, and we learned much about the area. We started in San Jose, Costa Rica and took a bus to Managua, Nicaragua. It was 10 hours of riding and a 5 hour delay at the border for immigration and customs. One of the pics shows the "Passport control" process for our bus. In Nicaragua, we spent time on Lake Nicaragua and Ometepe island. We got to peer deep into the earth at bubbling lava in Masaya volcano. We flew from Managua to San Salvador, El Salvador. We visited the Mayan pyramid at Tazumal and the archeological site found at Joya de Ceren. We also went to the city of Granada. Then we flew to Guatemala City. We took a long day trip crossing the Honduran border to visit the Mayan pyramid at Copan. lastly,we went to Atitlan Lake and visted the "modern" Mayan town of Santiago Atitlan.


It was fitting that I watched the movie "American Made" on the flight back to Atlanta (2nd time). The film was largely filmed in Atlanta and Georgia. Pilots I know were extras in the movie.

Here are a few pics as I start to sort.




Comments

omegax said…
Lovely pictures Sir. Any idea what caused the delay at the border and did you use any specific travel agency? I might want to follow your path in future and it would help to know :)
6:45 PM
Charles said…
Omegax, The delay at the border was a combination of things 1.) Not being super freindly neighbors 2.) Holiday season and lots of guest workers returning up north after working in Costa Rica. 3.) crossing not well equipped/organized for efficient processing.

We did not use a specific travel agent. We did hire drivers and guides in different countries, but it was ad hoc.

It is a really interesting trip.
5:29 AM
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