Okeechobee Visit

by FERENC IVANICS
We walked all the way along the eastern shore of the Okeechobee lake. Haven’t seen much of the lake itself, though, since there’s a levee around the lake. There’s a walkway on the top of the levee but it’s not recommended to sleep on the dike due to the alligator threat.


After Belle Glade the swampland began to disappear and trees started to show themselves. Somewhere at this border we stumbled upon a fruit garden. But instead of seeing the common—of course, to us common—apples, pears, apricots, peaches or cherries, we saw mango, papaya, tamarind, avocado, coconut, carambola, custard apple. But mostly mango.



We followed our walk with a papaya, two pieces of mango and a dozen tamarinds in our hands. Along the road there’s wild forest here, they look surprisingly abandoned and tangled with vegetation. Well, this still is Florida. We visioned thousands of unknown species in the wild around us. We heard some strange noises, probably the sound of wild birds and insects. A few minutes ago the librarian lady scared us with rattlesnake stories. We haven’t seen wild rattlesnakes but yes, wild papaya. Of course it’s a plant, it does no harm, and even though it’s a lot smaller than its cultivated cousin, it’s really tasty.


Rainstorms are still common, we try to keep ourselves dry dressing up in garbage bags and putting one on our backpacks as well. Today a lightning hit pretty close to us and it scared us shitless... We have a new fierce enemy: fire ants. They are extremely aggressive, I think they eat anything that’s not metallic. We have to look around where to put our bottoms when having a break. That’s all for now, we’re on to Orlando.

Strange Fruits, Part 1: Custard-apple, Argan and Cactus Fig
Strange Fruits, Part 2: Palmyra Palm Seeds, Bissap, Persimmon

Next Stop: Lake Okeechobee

by FERENC IVANICS
It took us one day to walk to the edge of Miami. One time, we stopped near a watercourse on the border of Miami and the industrial zone surrounding the city to catch our breath. We looked around: “Look, there’s a big fish.”, “Look, there goes a turtle.”... “Look, there’s a small alligator.” Holy crap! Later we realized that alligators are quite common in Florida.



Though the views of the flora and fauna of the region are compelling, we have to stand the weather. With temperatures above a 100 degrees, with humidity above 90% it’s not that we sweat, we’re streaming with sweat.



And it’s rainy season, so it’s not surprising to see and feel heavy thunderstorms almost every afternoon. But we’re zippy guys (and have a schedule to meet) so we walk in rainy weather as well. Humidity and high temperatures have an effect on our feet: our old enemies, blisters are back. I have so many new ones that I need a calculator to count them all.


Never ending swamps, crocodiles, oversized snakes, Florida panthers, this is the Everglades. Unfortunately we saw a few panthers and large alligators run over on the roadways. Or maybe fortunately for us... Some of the alligators can measure 12 feet. The locals use strange swamp boats to move around in the Everglades.



Finding a campsite is not an easy task. Currently we walk on a road that looks almost like a motorway. To our left and right: swamps and lakes. We pray every day to find a small spot to put our tents up. So far we’ve had luck. And people are really friendly around here, once we were invited to sleep on a farm, near the stables, with a roof over our head. It was priceless. Once Mr. Raimon Pruitt, the Palm Beach County Deputy Sheriff helped us find a safe spot. Right now we are at Thomas Krewson’s place, he and his wife are too kind. But yes, sometimes we need to use our new tents, too.


The (Not So) Surprising Enemy: Blisters
New photos on Flickr

WorldWalk in Orlando

WorldWalk-Peacetour, i.e. István and Ferenc Ivanics will be expecting activists, journalists and anyone interested to join them for a multimedia presentation about their experiences. The event will take place at the Dandelion Communitea Cafe in Orlando on the 2nd of June, from 5PM to 7PM.

Many thanks to Julie Norris (Front Porch Radio, Orlando, locally made) and CODEPINK Orlando.


Dandelion Communitea Cafe

First Days in the U.S.A.

by FERENC IVANICS
It was a six-hour ride from Seville to Madrid, during the trip we saw immense olive groves and we realized again that Spain is a world power in olive oil production. We arrived safely in Madrid and spent a night there in a cheap hostel, in company of many immigrants. Our flight was to depart from Terminal 4 of the Barajas Airport. We were expecting to meet some trouble, it’s a huge airport and it takes quite some time to get to the terminal, so it’s better to get organized... We were quite afraid of missing the flight (fortunately we had found some pretty cheap flights to Miami) or just screwing something up—we were first-time flyers—at the last checkpoint the qualified officers were looking for the biometric chip in our passports for more than ten minutes.


Well, I think the take-off and landing are still queer, but it’s even queerer that you can fly in a metal tube in 70 degrees below zero, with 600 miles an hour, at thirty-thousand feet high. I rather trust bicycles.


At the U.S.A. border they asked us some questions (some German tourists passed by without being questioned), but I believe we gave the right answers so we were allowed to enter. Miami is huge, very huge.

We took-off at noon and landed at half past two, so we spent more than nine hours above the ocean, the time-zone difference is six hours. In Miami the first thing we did was look for a cheap accommodation, that’s how we ended up in Miami Beach, but due to various calamities finally we settled down on the beach itself, trying to get some sleep in our sleeping bags. At midnight a tropical shower forced us to leave, and we got a room for the following night.


We spent the whole next day looking for new tents, new mats and clothes, and getting the hang of the U.S.A. We had our first bites of the American food as well. Everything’s different, yet everything is almost the same as in Europe. There are people of every variety, and they are informal and direct, both young and old. It’s really common to find yourself having a conversation with someone on the bus or on the streets. We haven’t seen much of nature yet, but the flora and fauna is fully tropical. There are coconut palms and other—unknown but clearly—tropical plants in gardens and parks. We saw iguanas and some interesting birds as well. There are sea turtle nests on the beach, and they are seriously protected. It’s hot, really hot during the day and 80 degrees by night, or when the cool-lukewarm rain begins to fall. The air is always humid.


In the afternoon we headed to the Pace Park to meet those who were interested in our mission. Even though we hadn’t have too much time to organize the meeting and we totally lacked information about Miami and organizations in Miami, there were curious and helpful folks there. They came from the First Hungarian United Church of Christ of Miami, the Miami Kossuth Club. We had a really nice and pleasant afternoon chatting with them. They shared some Hungarian bread, milk-bread and sausage with us, too. Yummy... Thank you very much for everything.



In the evening of the second afternoon we had a walk on the beach. It started to rain again, it was a three-hour long heavy electric storm, with pouring rain. We took shelter from the water at a small lodge, with three other guys. They were looking forward to begin a thousand mile long bike trip in the U.S. The rain didn’t want to stop and we didn’t feel like coming out of our shelter. Finally, one of the biker guys gathered his courage to go to a small store and bought some black garbage sacks to cover their stuff. We made some rain-ponchos from the sacks to protect ourselves. Good company, good times again. But tomorrow we’ll explore the first stage in America.

Here We Come: The 3rd Continent

The boys have arrived. They are now in North America, in the U.S.A.; the countdown has begun. They have to get to Mexico in 90 days. On their todo list: phone card, new tents, maps, but first: a short report.

by FERENC IVANICS
The nine hour transatlantic flight was exhausting, but we enjoyed it, and not only because of the refreshing drinks served free of charge on the plane. But we consumed with moderation, though, as Hungarian citizens we can enter the States without a visa, we wouldn’t want to make a bad impression on the immigration officer. The—somewhat scary—interview went well, we can stay until the 15th of August.

We left the airport looking around with amazement, Florida is something extremely different. We expected a different climate, but to experience it was quite a strange feeling. It’s not the temperature but the high humidity... We were feeling quite worn-out, due to the last 30 hours spent without sleep. The landscape, the city, the nature is beautiful; right now we’re laying in a coconut parkland and watching squirrels play.

We spent the first night in Miami Beach, it was Sunday night and the whole beach was partying and seemed genuinely happy. Everyone was kind and open so it was easy to engage in conversations. We explained the nature of our stay to many ears, but we don’t think that many of those conversations made it into memories. We spent the night on the beach, but a heavy shower dispelled our dreams of having a good night’s sleep. So we’re roaming the city, tired but filled with optimism. And we hope we can see you at 3PM in Pace Park or in Orlando in two weeks time.

Gliding

Ferenc and István leave Europe tomorrow at noon. What better way to say “See ya!” than to quote their poetic confession about Seville?

There’s some stories left in the bag, but hopefully we’ll soon have more fresh testimonies about their walk in the U.S.A.

by FERENC IVANICS
Small light spots on the skin of the tent. It’s time to wake up, sun rays are breaking through the bushes. We’re hiding, surrounded and shaded by budding oleander shrubs, decorated in smashing purples and pinks. These are the best-known adornments of the Mediterranean. They’re pretty, but surprisingly they contain numerous deadly toxins.


To our surprise the morning is dry, there’s no dew; we’re just 50 yards from the river, usually morning dew is a common spectacle here. We can pack our tents quickly, there’s no need to wait for them to dry his time. I’m—smiling—peering at the mosquito that is about to fly away from my tent, wobbling, ruby red, stuffed full of my blood. It does not carry malaria. “Back in Africa we used to get scared of your infected relatives” I tell her. My brother is complaining about a tick slumbering on the mosquito screen of his tent. He never had been bitten by a tick. Even if you wouldn’t harm a fly, killing a tick is a different matter. One flick of the lighter and the insect won’t concern us anymore.


It’s early May in Andalusia. The rays of the sun, passing through the dry air, caress our freshly shaved heads. At about 10AM we have to put our caps on. More about the summer later. Walking along the river toward the city. Spring’s flower-parade is close to its finish, yet the drought tolerant weeds are still blooming. At the riverbank delicate yellow irises try to join sun and water. I step close to the bushes for a moment. I lose some liquid weight and gain a few dozens of spiky seed pods on my stockings. I sweep them off, in a much easier fashion than the infernally insistent seeds of a grass on the African Savannah.


The ocean is not far from here. The river dances its tidal dance, with a small delay, as if it could imitate the tide of the sea. Right now it’s low-tide. You can see the slob at the banks, full of semicircular holes, as if some wild mustang colts were playing in the mud. Just before we arrive to the bridge that takes us to the city we pass the bio-gas station. Some of the buses of the community transport in Seville are fueled by bio-gas. People are carried by their own crap from point A to point B in Seville. There’s a stretch by the factory where it’s better not to inhale. This is the very same methane gas that springs up in swamps. We used to hear stories back home about unsuspecting anglers, who—during a calm night in a reed-belt of the lake—wanted to light a cigarette. Apart from the instant depilatory effect they weren’t seriously injured.


Under the bridge there are people collecting hay. Their car is oxen-drawn. Huge potatoes with bulky muscles. It’s not entirely clear if they (the people) are entertaining themselves, or it is just a habit, or it’s because oxen have limited brain functions, but the men are constantly talking to the animals. In an oxen language, things like: AaaaHooaa! Neerrrhhhooo!, and similar words. Even if they walk on a straight road.


To see the river we have to stop on the bridge. It has a yellowish-green color with a texture similar to military camouflage. We have seen cleaner rivers before. But at least there’s fish, plenty of them. Crossing the first bridge takes us to a second river, a backwater, I should say. Its water is cleaner than the river’s, it’s quite pleasing to the eye. We take our spot on a small metallic pier, just above the water. Right beside our well-known oleander shrubs there are two stretching fig trees nearby as well. They root in the impossible: one of them grew out from a concrete wall, the other one from the concrete walkway at the riverbank. But we’ve seen better things: like a huge fig tree growing out from a stone bridge, it had nice healthy fruits on it.


Small fish gather around to glut the breadcrumbs we throw into the water. Suddenly a fast dark shadow shoots through the cluster of smaller fish. The potential prey disperse in a heartbeat. Some of them even jumps up from to water to escape the attack of the predator.


When we cross the second bridge we enter the city. The Feria is over, it’s a week-long vibrant fair celebrated in Seville. Now the city is unusually calm. On the last day of the Feria people stay up really late drinking beer, wine, and anything alike, and an impressive fireworks display seals the celebration. The city is unusually calm. We’re passing by a construction site, its fence is a placeholder for posters of gigs and parties. One of them calls my attention, it displays a skinned Angel. It’s grotesque, almost horrifying. I’ve heard about the German anatomist, Günther von Hagens before, I’ve even seen some of his work. He’s considered a scandalous artist, many claim he’s a sicko for using real corpses to create his art. I watch that creation made of veins, muscles, nerves and bones on the poster. How repulsive and disgusting the human body is... And yet, it is a beautiful facility.


Summer’s not at full power yet, the heat-waves above a hundred degrees are still to come. But it’s almost like summer, and the date-palms amplify this effect with their visuals. Yet, there’s nothing more exotic than the hundreds of years old huge fig trees (not the common fig, mentioned before, but another species, with thick, dark green leaves and air-roots), they diffuse a serious equatorial feeling. A piece of rain forest in the Mediterranean Spain. But we don’t have time to look around; we’ve arrived to the corner of the Plaza Nueva and Calle Tetuán, our working spot. Without precipitation we arrange our begging and collecting equipment and squat against the wall. We have long hours ahead of us.

There’s more... Click to read the rest of this article.

WorldWalk in Miami

WorldWalk-Peacetour, i.e. István and Ferenc Ivanics will be expecting activists, journalists and anyone interested to join them for an informal talk about their experiences. The gathering will take place at the basketball court in the Margaret Pace Park in Miami on the 18th of May, from 3PM to 7PM.


http://tinyurl.com/ww-miami

Holy Week: Easter in Spain

“Semana Santa” or the Holy Week is one of the most important events of the year in Seville. It is celebrated in the week leading up to Easter and attracts many thousands of tourists from all the world.

During that week in April István and Ferenc were tourists a few times...

by FERENC IVANICS
There’s a nice and detailed article about the Holy Week on Wikipedia, it describes the basics (and more) of this famous religious celebration.

The week features the procession of pasos, floats of lifelike wooden sculptures of individual scenes of the events of the Passion, or images of the Virgin Mary showing restrained grief for the torture and killing of her son. Some of the sculptures are of great antiquity and are considered artistic masterpieces.

The processions are organised by hermandades and cofradías, religious brotherhoods. During the processions, members precede the pasos (of which there are up to three in each procession) dressed in penitential robes, and, with few exceptions, hoods. They may also be accompanied by brass bands. (Wikipedia)

This really is an important event for the catholic community, but it has a huge impact on tourism as well, the city is extremely crowded during these days, we might talk about millions of spectators. More than once we packed our “donation box” too late, and we became prisoners of the city, of the crowd for an hour or two. There are processions of brotherhoods in the city from Palm Sunday through to Easter Sunday morning. And there is a traditional suit worn by local women, which is called mantilla (the mantle), practically it’s a suit of mourn.





Nazarenes, penitents, altar boys; you can see all of them marching in strict order with crosses, candles and the paso. During the night they lit the candles and the procession leaves a slippery, greasy trail. Wheels of even the slowest cars screech on that wax while turning a corner even days after a procession, reminding us of some Hollywood sound effects. If you close your eyes you can imagine some crazy hot-rods racing on the streets of the Old Town. Children often ask nazarenes for a few drops of hot wax to build a wax ball. The other thing they ask for is candy, since they know all too well that the members of the procession usually carry some reserve energy in hand (since the march can be quite exhausting).


There are other participants of the processions, too: policemen. The pasos are richly carved and decorated with fabric, flowers and candles, but they are often gilded and silver-plated. We have heard rumors about a past incident, so they are there, just in case. Since touching the pasos is a common habit of the Spaniards. It brings luck, they say. We touched a gilded paso and it felt rich and serious gold, recalled some memories about ripe, summer sunshine, warm, glorious sunflower oil, a full flavored Tokaji aszú wine.


We had a chance to attend to a lecture about the Holy Week at the Texas Tech University. The researcher Dr. Doug Inglis went into interesting and lesser known details as well. He told the audience about a convent, which opens its gates only once a year, in the middle of the night, when a procession passes in front of the convent’s building. The sisters gather at the entrance and their families have the only chance to see them, to touch them, to hug them. Then, until next year they live in their separated world again.

So, we joined Kurt Caswell and went to check out this story. And it happened just like Dr. Inglis had it described, though a lot later then expected. We waited some two hours for the thing to happen. And for moments we seriously doubted that it would. Finally a small crowd gathered around the gates and the sisters appeared, a few of them, at least, and they blessed the paso. One of the carriers, an older man said a prayer for his mortally ill son, and asked his fellows to lift the paso for his son that time.


A team of men carry the paso, supporting beams upon their shoulders and necks. They are inside the structure and normally are invisible to the viewers. During the week we have seen them taking a break in bars various times. It’s a heavy work, heavy indeed, some of the structures weigh over a metric ton. You can see the proof on the rear side of their neck... And it was a hard week for us as well, people are less interested in helping out the homeless and the beggar, they run around the city instead. But anyways, it was a nice and sometimes moving experience for sure.

There’s more... Click to read the rest of this article.

Through the USA in Ninety Days

Currently the WorldWalk team prepare themselves for the USA stage of the tour. It seems that before the boys move on to conquer a new continent they need a few months to get ready. They need to put up the budget of the next stage, to upgrade and renew their equipment—to be able to cope with the new climatic and geographical challenges—, they (we) need to get organized and planned. We have already mentioned the financial problems and the partial solution the Ivanics brothers had come up with; now we’d like to give you an overview of these planning details.

There were two main starting points of the plan. First, the USA is across the Atlantic, getting there walking is simply impossible, at least without the help of a severe ice-age. Nowadays the chances to see a frozen Atlantic Ocean are quite slim, so we started to look for ships and flights across the great water on the Internet. According to the original plans the boys wanted to find a way to embark a freighter in Dakar and to pay with odd jobs on board. But the officers of the Dakar Port explained to our duo that in the 21st century their plan is nothing but a romantic dream. As the financial problems grew to be existential problems, they headed back to Europe, to Málaga, to find some temporary jobs there.


During those weeks everyone in the WorldWalk team searched timetables and specialized forums for ships to America, with no luck. It’s slow and expensive to travel by cruisers and freighters, and their schedule is seasonally unbalanced, after December it’s just impossible to find a westbound ship during months. The other chance was to get a flight. In February the prices were more then convincing, so there was not much discussion about it, we needed a “D-day” to make the plan. Unfortunately, due to some hesitation the prices have almost doubled, but István and Ferenc now have their flight tickets (for some 500 euros a piece), they will fly from Madrid to Miami on the 17th of May, on an Iberia plane.

There was another issue that we couldn’t overlook: the visa. Since November 2008 it’s possible for Hungarian citizens to enter the United States without visa. But if you enter under the Visa Waiver Program, you’re allowed to stay for 90 days only. If you want to stay for a longer period, you still need to apply for a visa. The right visa for the WorldWalk plans would have been a six-month non resident one, but in the given circumstances the application seemed expensive and quite hopeless. To travel back to Hungary for the documents, or to try to convince a Spanish officer during an interview in Madrid about the American roots and the sufficient cash background of the boys, well, they thought it was not worth it. So, after all, they will enter the USA in the Visa Waiver Program.

Since they walk, they won’t be able to travel around the world in eighty days as Phileas Fogg did in a Verne novel, but they surely will get to the Mexican border from Miami, in ninety days.


Ninety days are scarce, of course. If you check their original itinerary, you’ll see that they planned to cross the southern states all the way to the pacific coast before turning south. That was too much for 90 days. From Miami, FL to Laredo, TX the distance is about 1625 miles. That means 18 miles a day on average. It’s not an impossible mission. Though we have to see that if they make stops in the bigger cities—like Orlando, New Orleans, Houston and San Antonio—to find some local support, to have a chat about peace, brotherhood and friendship, they will have to focus on the walking stages. In theory they will walk some 22-24 miles a day. Not an easy task but they can do it.

So, think of them on the 17th of May. And please, share your thoughts.