Merry Christmas Toronto’s Mayor Ford, We are sending you A Chicken Bus Terminal from Guatemala

While enjoying our winter home far afar away from the Cold of Toronto one cannot refuse the need to once every month or so to check in on the latest events of Toronto Mayor Ford and the TTC wars. The point of this rambling message is to offer the City of Toronto and Mayor Ford a solution to the problems facing tax payers and passengers in Toronto mired in this conflict. A Chicken Bus Transit System or the CBTS.

First what is a Chicken bus?
Often two young men will partner in the operation of a bus, one of whom will have his license, while the other dubs himself the ayudante or “helper”. The ayudante is responsible for heckling passengers aboard, collecting money, and organizing the luggage, livestock, produce, etc. onto the roof of the bus — often while in motion. In Guatemala this helper is also known as the “brocha” (brush), referring to the fact that this person prompts people to get inside the bus (brushes them in) by shouting the destinations the bus is reaching. Each bus is painted vibrantly with its name and permanent route. Buses are stuffed with passengers (whenever possible) and then hard-driven to their destinations at top speed.

What is the TTC?
The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) is a public transport agency that operates transit bus, streetcar, and rapid transit services in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Established in 1954, the TTC has grown to comprise four rapid transit lines with a total of 69 stations, as well as over 149 bus routes and 11 streetcar lines, of which 148 routes make 243 connections with a rapid transit station during weekday rush hours.
The TTC is currently suffering a $100 million deficit, reports the Toronto Star, yet instead of cutting their own costs, the commissioners are inflating TTC ticket prices.

• The TTC is currently suffering a $100 million deficit, reports the Toronto Star, yet instead of cutting their own costs, the commissioners are inflating TTC ticket prices.
  The Chicken Bus Transit System of Guatemala or CBTS operates at a profit.
  Fare costs compared between The Toronto Transit Commission or TTC and the Chicken Bus Transit System of Guatemala.
  The TTC of Toronto charges a rider $3 dollars per ride. Tokens will cost $2.50, cash fares, $3, and Metropasses will increase from $109 to $121. According to the Toronto Star, the extra revenue will bring in $45.5 million. The change will affect 4.5 million riders in the Greater Toronto Area.
  The Chicken Bus Transit System of Guatemala has an average cost of a one way ride for distances of about 20 kilometers of $.15 thats right 15 cents.

If Toronto’s Mayor Ford were to consider abandoning the current TTC expansion plans and employed the Chicken Bus economics the financial problems of the City of Toronto would be almost certainly erased. A Chicken Bus is for the most part an old Yellow School Bus, god know the city of Toronto School boards and the surrounding municipalities have thousands sitting in the bone yards.

1. In Guatemala Transit system model, we have no Unions like the TTC
2. In Guatemala we have no computerized Transit systems.
3. Money is collected by what is called a ayudante. As part of the two man team that operates a Chicken Bus.
4. TTC Operators and Station Collectors ranges from $100,065 to $128,500, and that a station collector earns roughly the same amount.
5. No supervisors waiting for retirement
6. The added Color of a Chicken Bus roaming the streets of Toronto would add to the failing Tourism Industry of Toronto and the Province.
7. Guatemala I am sure would be willing to export a few thousand Chicken Buses in exchange for those aging Buses operated by the TTC
8. Okay Mayor Ford we decided to make a Video to show you how much fun and excitement a ride on a Chicken Bus is compared to the TTC.

Hope you enjoy Mayor Ford. Oh I have read so much on-line I was supposed to say Mayor Elected Rob Ford. What ever.

Please take the time to see the fun passenger have on a Chicken Bus.

Yolkobsens travel to Guatemala with a few hundred US dollars

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Yolkobsens always travel to Guatemala with a few hundred US dollars in cash. Not too much and never flashed around. But it’s worth going to the currency exchange before you leave home and getting some Yankee greenbacks to take along to Antigua Guatemala and anywhere else you might want to travel in the country.   It’s a good idea since most places accept both Quetzalesand dollars and there will be those inevitable days when the entire country’s ATM machines go on the fritz.Yolkobsens have found this usually happens during peak holiday times such as La Semana Santa (Easter Holy Week) and around Christmas and national holidays. Don’t bother looking for an official currency exchange office during these episodes; they are all at home feasting and/or nursing hangovers. During these festive times, the ATMs simply run out of cash and the people who stock the dough in the machines are, well, on holiday.  Also, if disasters such as earthquake or roads washed out by tropical storms or hurricanes happen, the armed cash trucks can’t get through, leaving the ATMs empty.

A word to the wise when it comes to currency exchange in Antigua Guatemala or elsewhere in the country, the US dollar still packs a mighty punch.  Also, almost none of the truly interesting places take credit cardsand a lot of the banks, which often run out of cash since they get it from the same source as the ATMS, won’t give you cash from your credit card.  That’s kind of hit or miss. Some banks say, “si” others don’t.  Be warned.The official currency is the Quetzal (GTQ) divided into 100 centavos. In 2001 the US Dollar became the second official currency alongside the Quetzal and both are accepted.

The Quetzal (local pronunciation: [ke'tsal]; code: GTQ) is the currency of Guatemala.It is named after the national bird of Guatemala, the resplendent Quetzal. In ancient Mayan culture, the quetzal bird’s tail feathers were used as currency, one of the early currency exchanges.  It is divided into 100 cents, called centavos in standard Spanish or lenes in Guatemalan slang. The plural can be either Quetzales (as it is in Spanish) or quetzals (in a slightly anglicized form).

Travelers cheques and major credit cards are accepted, though some more than others. It is recommended to take travelers cheques in US dollars. Cash exchange is easier, but more risky. Visitors are not advised to trade money at the informal currency exchange booths on the street.

There are ATMs in the towns and cities, which accept American Express and Visa. MasterCard and Diners Club have a more limited acceptance. In simple currency exchange conversion terms, you can use 8 Quetzales to one US dollar. This is a good rule of thumb.

Note: Arriving in Guatemala if you have come with money from other countries other than the US you will have a hard time with currency exchange.

Money changers do exist in areas such as Livingston, Belize and Honduras borders. However, this is risky and the exchange rates while good caution is highly suggested.

Mayan market days in Guatemala

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Yolkobsens love a good market even when we don’t want or need another thing.  It’s the experience of going to the rich and varied market days in Guatemala that never disappoint us.  Mayan market days in Guatemala are rich in history and full of flavour, textures, colors and scents, many of which you will find nowhere else in the world.  If only I could get Mr. Y to stop buying pork rinds and every fresh fish he sees.

For my part, I must own at least 25 handcrafted scarves in traditional Mayan weave, my weakness.  They are like vases, no matter how many you have, you never quite have the right one.  I am convinced that the market days in Guatemala will finally produce the magic scarf that goes with everything.  But we must all deal with our obsessions.

To be honest each and every day across the towns and villages provide market days in Guatemala. Sadly, for the traveler, the markets promoted to tourists are not always the best or most authentic ones. Here we’ve provided a sampling of our favorites.

Chichicastenango, located about 140 km and 2-3 hours drive northwest of Guatemala City, is home to what is surely the most colorful native market in North and Central America, perhaps in all the Americas. Market days are Sundays and Thursdays, and draw not only the K’iche’ Maya of the surrounding region, but vendors from all over Guatemala, representing many of Guatemala’s linguistic groups such as Mam, Ixil, Kaqchikel and others, each hawking his or her products in a riotous cacophony of color, dialects and costumes, smoke, and smells. Though it’s hugely promoted as a tourist destination, it’s still worth taking in the market days in Guatemala via “Chichi.”

Vendors begin setting up portable booths in the main plaza and adjacent streets of Chichi the night before and set-up continues in the early daylight hours. Cohetes (homemade rockets) carrying aloft loud bombas (firecrackers) commence early in the morning and continue sporadically through the day, adding the smell of fireworks to the incense burned in copious quantities on the steps and in the nave of the 400-year old church of Santo Tomás.

Solola, holds market days on Friday. It’s market draws a crowd since Solola is the capital of the department of Solola, an area that includes 19 municipalities around Lake Atitlan, Guatemala.  The majority (approximately 90%) of the city’s inhabitants are Cakchiquel Indians who proudly retain their heritage.  It is one of the few municipalities where both men and women routinely wear their traditional Mayan dress.

Women often carry their wares in the traditional Mayan market basket, balancing a few vegetables from their garden, tortillas, textiles or even a couple of chickens that they hope to sell at market. The common blue plastic pans are scales used to compare the weight of different products.

Panajachel (Pana) is a town in the southwestern Guatemalan Highlands, in the department of Sololá. It serves as the administrative centre for the surrounding municipality of the same name. The altitude is 1,597 metres (5,240 ft). The population is 11,142.

The town of Panajachel is located on the shore of Lake Atitlán, and has become a centre for the tourist trade in the area as it provides a base for visitors crossing the lake to visit other towns and villages. In Pana, every day is market day in Guatemala as the main road into Pana and lake is lined with hundreds of vendors selling mostly clothing. This is more of a tourist market which requires bartering for goods. Pana also has a fresh produce and meat market that offers the best in produce grown locally in the region.

Antigua Guatemala is no exception to the joy that Central American markets provide the visitor. The fraternity of market days in Guatemala have a fine member in good standing in the Antigua Guatemala market.  Its filled with fresh produce and an assortment of delicious foods being prepared.  Right on the edge of the ‘tourist’ part of town, the market attracts Antiguenyos as wells as people that live in nearby towns and tourists alike. It’s an unmissable experience to get in there immersed in the thick of it in order to load up on fruits, vegetables, spices and whatever else you require to make your favourite dish. Markets are also a great way to support the locals, instead of spending your dollars at the corporately-owned supermarket. You’ll often find eager shop owners down for a friendly chat to go along with your sack of exotic fruits.

Antigua Guatemala is connected | Rental Villa Reviews

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Like you, Yolkobsens like to stay connected to friends and family back home. We’ve found that the Internet cafes in Antigua Guatemala provide a good service to people on the road who find themselves needing a communications fix to get themselves up to speed on the gossip at the home front or to plan and book via Internet the next phase of their trip.

Antigua Guatemala is connected. You can find a lot of cyber cafes and Internet computer cafes where you can type and click away much the same way you do anywhere else.

A lot of hotels and restaurants also offer Wi-Fi in their public spaces for guests. The Internet speed in Antigua is getting better and a lot of telecom services are available and are provided by a growing number of  local companies.

Walking through the streets of Antigua Guatemala you will find some calling shops where you can use VOIP and normal landlines to call other countries. Come to Antigua and don´t worry about staying connected. You will find a lot of places to chat and email.

Costs are about $1.00 US per hour. Most Internet cafes in Antigua Guatemala have high speed and Wi-Fi connections.

Café Barista is my default location. It’s the character of the place that really makes me attached to it.  For one thing,  the bandwidth sucks. The router is located underneath the cash register which isn’t really ideal placement since everyone sits on the other side of the cafe, behind a thick block construction wall.

Anyway, I like Barista because it feels like an airport: shiny, clean and bright. There’s also a guard who watches me write HTML over my shoulder and I swear he must be able to go home and bang out markup by now.

Bagel Barn has two wireless routers, which is such a good idea you’d think other places would do it. The vibe here is free-spirit backpacker, which I can do every now and then. What I can’t do is hot. The Barn heats up like a mini-Petén. Beware of skype’ing gringos siphoning off the bandwidth to a measly dribble!

At Café Bourbon is an Internet cafe in Antigua Guatemala that is totally all-business and completely desolate during the day, just the way you’d like it for sheer efficiency’s sake. The bandwidth is good, however, we heard that they sometimes tell people they can only sit for an hour so better get your business done fast.

Rainbow Café is another Internet cafe in Antigua Guatemala, but the Wi-FI is not really great. However, the food is totally awesome and there’s a lot of socializing that goes on among trekkers, hippy chicks and so forth to make this a place to do old fashioned communications.  I’m like, “let’s talk and get to know each other face to face.”  Forget the online here, though.

Niagara Wine News | Megalomaniac Homegrown Vineyard

Step right up and leave your vanity, sense of self and any self-absorbed interests you might have and abandon them at the doorstep of Megalomaniac Homegrown Vineyard in the Niagara Region.

Coldhearted Riesling Icewine will be sure to put you in your place, you nothing, you.  Grandiose, both in attitude and delivery, it’s among Ontario wines with a robust superiority complex that is well-deserved.

Omnipotence of thought is not the first thing that comes to mind at most Ontario wineries.  It’s much in evidence at Megalomaniac where this swelled-head icewine presents a conceited and frosty personality to those who are willing to humble themselves before it.

Drive through the winding and dusty path on the road that offers a long view of the Megalomaniac vineyard and get to the shameless self-flattery that the Coldhearted Riesling Icewine offers and join in it’s self-loving pleasures.   Only then will you will realize how small you really are.

Ontario Wine News | Stoney Ridge Estate Winery

If the wine is the story, then the winemaker is the author. Stoney Ridge Estate Winery is among the Ontario wineries that have at the helm, a winemaker with a passion for the wine narrative. Here it is Gord Robert that takes a masterly approach to the Ontario wineries story.

His wines have won many awards including the 2004 Gold Medal for Syrah at none other than the Paris (that’s France) Wine Show. Add to that, his award for the Best Chardonnay in the World, a prize he claimed while perfecting his art at Le Clos Jordanne. Latest accolade comes from the 2011 All Canadian Wine Championship where Stoney Ridge wines garnered the most awards in the history of the honored event.

Awards are one thing, but rewards go to those who stop for a visit at Stoney Ridge. There, while overlooking the lovingly-tended and lush flower and herb garden, the visitor can taste the award winning 2009 Forte. It packs a surprising wallop with its blend of Baco Noir and Cabernet, fortified with 20 percent alcohol, giving it a bit of port vibe without actually going that far. Better than interesting, this is a large red you’ll want to revisit along with Stoney Ridge Estates.

About the LCBO Beer Smashbomb Atomic IPA | Beer and Wine Campaign

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What people think should be an important fact in how a crown corporation like the LCBO operates. Ontario Political machine appears to care only about the money. They as the leaders of Ontario have allowed Ontario to assume a tax debt of over 200 billion dollars. The following comments are what the LCBO and the Political machine should be listening for.

by Sameer Vasta
The LCBO is responsible for the products it choses to stock on its shelves, but is the banning of Smashbomb Atomic IPA a case of over-sensitivity?

http://news.sympatico.ca/oped/coffee-talk/lcbo_refuses_to_sell_a_beer_with_a_cheeky_name/7c86e34b#.TfjWAeBysjw

Comment:

No not at all. However not surprised, this is Canada. The LCBO is just one of many monopolies the Canadian government controls.

Comment:

Doesn’t anybody else see the irony in a gov’t agency deciding the propriety of a name while at the same time another branch of the gov’t getting huge tax revenue off the sale of that product?  It’s O.K. to buy an alcoholic beveradge that is addictive and will impair your judgement as long as the gov’t gets it’s share of the profits, but it’s name must be appropriate? WTF!

Comment:

the LCBO has to uphold social responsibility getting smashed is not part of the LCBO’s values. The name smashbox is funny and clever but they kinda sound like they are saying that getting smashbombed is a good thing. Just another name to get kids interested in their product. Then why are they selling booze? oh right – cuz its a a mega-tax-generating machine! .. values? lol

Comment:

You obviously know nothing about this style of beer. As a double IPA it will be a very bitter beer with loads of hop flavour. Not a beer you target at new beer drinkers. I suspect this brewery does not make any beer that would be targeted at new drinkers both due to higher cost and stronger flavours. It is the Molsons, Labatts, Bud, Coors, etc., with the generic beer and multi-million dollar advertising budgets that you should aim your prohibitionist pen at.

Comment:

You can bet that Molsons or Labatts has their hands in this decision !

LCBO Wine and Beer Convenience Campaign News | By Michael McKinley Hockey, Beer, and Whine

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Michael McKinley is the author of the murder mystery The Penalty Killing, nominated for an Arthur Ellis Award as Best First Crime Novel.

Michael is a great friend and supporter of LCBO Wine and Beer Convenience Campaign.

His Thoughts;

So, amidst the weeping and gnashing that comes with being a Vancouver Canucks fan as the team reveals the latest expression of its failure gene, good news comes from Toronto, another similarly snake-bitten hockey city (though at least they’ve won a few Stanley Cups).

Friends in the north tell me that if the voters have their say, then by this time next June, hockey fans across the province will be able to pop down to their local grocery to pick up a six-pack of beer or a chilled bottle of rosé should the Leafs or the Senators find themselves playing for the grandest booze vessel yet devised.

In October, Ontario voters go to the polls, and a gallopingly popular online campaign is demanding that one of the ballot questions be about reforming Ontario’s archaic wine and beer distribution system, so that tax paying citizens, should they be inclined, can buy beer and wine in their grocery stores.

I do it myself, here in Brooklyn, New York, and have grown very fond of the reality since I moved here two years ago. It’s convenient, the government gets its tax revenue, society doesn’t fall, and I don’t feel as if I’m being ground down by the Nanny State.

As I did the last time I had the pleasure of being in Toronto. Not only did I have to go to visit Mr. Google to see where I could actually meet up with an LCBO within a five mile radius of my downtown hotel, once at the LCBO I discovered that if I wanted a certain type of beer, then I had to catch a plane to some distant part of the city to visit a Beer Store. What possible logic could compel a government to keep its citizens and visitors so frustrated when all they want to do is spend money on legal goods?

Well, money is the answer, as the Ontario government—like other Canadian provincial governments — has had a booze monopoly for a long time. Other provinces have loosened up a bit, so that a hockey fan could pick up a case of beer at a private beer and wine store in, say, Vancouver, while on the way to watch the massacre. Sorry, the Stanley Cup Playoff game between Boston and a team claiming to be the Vancouver Canucks.

Ontario’s beer-wine realities struck me as being a sure-fire way to rouse the citizens into revolt, and sure enough, it apparently has. Online, and democratic—like so much of then world these days. And we might pause to thank our good fortune that we live on a continent where we’re getting the collective dander up over the failure of our Favorite hockey teams and the convenience of booze. Luxuries to be sure, but evidence of a society free of the tyrannies bedevilling so many other places. We’re just fighting the tyranny of a monopoly—and like Stanley Cup dynasties, those, too, always come to and end. Though it would certainly be nice to use the word dynasty in connection with the Vancouver Canucks, or the Toronto Maple Leafs. Next year, in Toronto, toasted with a cold one from Rabba.

http://www.randomhouse.com/author/68735/michael-mckinley