Sunday Around the World

After the x-mas celebration and food coma we fell into, it was decided that we need just one more day in El Retiro Lodge in Lanquin.  We hadn't fully relaxed.  All our backpacker buddies took off and the Lodge was ours to kick back in some hammocks and tube down the river.  Not as much excitement as the caves, but the water moves quick on the river with all the new rain water so there were a few moments of paddling as hard as possible to avoid being tossed into a low hanging tree or rock.  There was also the excitement of our lodging inside our room.  We had a cute little open air loft which means no doors and no windows, just a free invitation to any bug or cat that would like to join us for the night.  Once I started hearing people's stories of finding hairy spiders or a cockroach running around their bed I knew there had to be some drastic moves.  Michael, again being the most positive and flexible traveler out there, agreed to make me the happiest ...

Yesterday was one of the most challenging days of the trip and I think my life too.  We went to the Samuc Champey caves for the day, which is one of the most beautiful places in the world.  We took an all day tour and the first stop on the tour is to go into the caves, which I don't think I really comprehended when we signed up.  So, you show up and strip down to your bathing suit and your Spanish guide hands you a long candle.  Hmm, candle?  Wonder why.  Oh, that must mean its dark.  Wait, its dark, so we are like, going INTO a cave??  Our group of 15 hiked up to the entrance of the cave and started descending into the dark.  Wait, we are going INTO this cave???  So then panic set in.  My mind started racing, what if I can't get out, what if I cant breathe, what if I get into the middle and panic and need to get out but I cant?  I grabbed Mike and said "I cant do it..im so sorry, I really can't though".  He said all the r...

One of my least favorite parts of backpacking is the roll-of-the-dice that comes with taking a bus from one town to another.  They tell you its a 4 hour ride and 10 hours later you finally arrive to your destination.  They tell you, "sure, we have AC", and later you find yourself hanging your head out the window to try and catch a hot breeze because, oh sorry, the AC is broken.  You never really know how the trip will go, but it's the only choice if you don't want to spend 3 months sitting in the same city.   Mike and I joined 15 other people in our bus to travel the 8 hours from Flores to Lanquin.  Surprisingly, there were no surprises.  The ride was beautiful and the only challenge was to pick a new position every 30 minutes so your butt doesn't fall asleep. We arrived at my favorite hostel so far, El Retiro (thanks Kim!).  They know exactly how to host and how to make you feel at home when you are far from it.  They even went so far to host a m...

No problem waking up early in our hostel because it's either a 2am rooster choir or a 3am dog fight that is a jarring replacement for a cell phone alarm.   We woke up at 3:30am to leave at 4am for Tikal.  They are the largest Mayan ruins in Belize and you get to see where they sacrificed their people to the Gods.  This was the norm, until the Spanish got there with the church in tow and said: um, you don't have to sacrifice your people for the Gods, so here's a chicken instead.    The towering ruins                                  The view from the top of the 4th Temple was unreal.  They call it the Big Mama; she lives up to her name.    Jungle for daayyys!         No big spider attacks to report.  Just a bunch of screaming parrots, howler monkeys and oslots.  Tomorrow is our last day in Flores, then we will head south to Lanquin for...

Flores has been a nice ease into Guatemala.  The actual town of Flores is a tiny little island where a few locals live while the exterior, facing the lake, belongs to hotels.   We rolled the dice and booked our hostel before we got here so ended up across the water in a spot called Chaltunha.  This was a great move because we felt far enough from civilization but could easily hop over to Flores for the "city life".  City life for us just means access to street food.  Mike and I have really been digging into anything that comes from a cart or a stand.  The local street food in Flores consists of a tostada chip and some random meat paste or beet mixture spread on the top.  You can get 3 for about .75, so we made it our first meal.  We are pretty sure we just ate chicken and some sort of brown meat.                                            ...

I have no idea what this bright, shining, warm thing is in the sky...and im sweating??  Ohhh THIS is what its supposed to be like!  Warm weather has arrived!   Mike and I crossed the border from Belize to Guatemala with no problem.  Just as quickly as we could walk across the bridge into our new country the english language disappeared and im really regretting not paying attention in 7th grade spanish.  It's a shift both of us have been waiting for and makes it feel like we're traveling outside our comfort zone, which is actually welcomed.   What IS comfy is our new spot in Flores on the top of a mountain.  This is our second sunset in 10 days, so I went a little nuts on the pics.  We can't wait to jump into our second country on the trek!  Lots more to come... Perfect spot to FaceTime

The last few days of Belize have been full of sharks, rain, chicken bus rides, rain, .25 tostadas and um...oh ya, rain. Mike and I have become weather gurus and can now tell you when its going to rain, how hard the rain will be, what the clouds are saying. We are one with nature. We are ready for nature in Guatemala to be a little friendlier and not constantly dumping water on us. We made the best out of it, for sure. Our last day in Caye Caulker we jumped on a little boat, went out into the middle of the sea, strapped a tank to our back's and jumped in the water. It was Mike's first dive, so it took a second for him to become comfy in a world where you are dependent on a little mouth piece for your air supply. He did great and we both spent most of the time clearing our masks of water because we were laughing about how slow our world was down there. We also met this little gem of a babe, Vicky from Boston. She is a badass solo traveler and we had some good ...

Thank gawwwwd for a little sun in our lives.  I know it's obnoxious to complain about anything while sitting on a tropical island but yikes 3 days of rain will do it!  Finally the Seattle weather took a break and we got our Vitamin D back. Some island pics by the Split  We crawled out of our room and finally took advantage of what the locals call the Split.  It's a channel of water that runs in between the main part of the island and another smaller island where it looks to be kosher to dump your bikes, bottles, ex-girlfriends, toilets and whatever else you come across in your yard.  The main part of the Split is a bar and some funky leftover cement walls that will probably fall apart tomorrow, but for now they make for great lounge chairs. We hopped in a kayak and saw this dude trying to lure tourists into learning how to become Iron Man. Its a jet pack on the water, so he could project himself to 30 feet above the water. SO cool at f...

We made it to our first island!  After two easy flights from SF we landed in Belize and instantly made friends with a guy named Lou and who could play Jerry Garcia in a movie.  We hopped on a boat and took the hour long trip in total darkness out to Caye Caulker.  The whole island is sparkling with christmas lights and their own tree made out of lobster cages. The first few days is testing our ability to stay positive because it has done nothing but rain since we have been here.  Thankfully, Michael was made of positive happiness and I am just feeling lucky that we have so much time ahead of us.  This girl would be singing a verrrry different tune if this was the only 5 day trip in a year.  There would be words had with Mother Nature.  But I'm gonna let her do her thing and get this rain out of her system now.  Seriously though, are you done yet?  I need to get some color on this see thru skin.