Goodbye Central America, hello North America!

Hello everyone!

As most of you already know (via Facebook and email), Andrew and I have left Central America. We enjoyed the 9 weeks we were there, but it was time to go. Not speaking the language and missing modern conveniences that we are used to are just a couple of reasons we left. With each passing day the list kept getting longer, so we booked a flight to Orlando, Florida, and have been here for nearly a week. We are having an excellent time!

Fast times at Lake Atitlan

Hello friends!

Sorry for the delay in posting, but we have been busy!

As I stated in the last post, Andrew and I definitely had some fun times at Lake Atitlan.

When we arrived it was pretty windy. Like, hold down your skirt windy. It took about 4 days to calm down (4 days where we walked, and walked, and walked, and restauranted and restauranted and restauranted. There was also some American satellite thrown in too). Once the wind eased a bit we decided to hire a boat to take us on a tour of the lake and surrounding communities. As for the size of the lake, think Lesser Slave. It's big.

The waters were nice and calm along the shoreline, so it was smooth sailing...at first.

 
It was a relaxi-taxi!

A week at Lake Atitlan

Hello everyone!

Andrew and I had a great time at Lake Atitlan, but in 6 days at a lake, our bathing suits didn't even get wet! Apparently it's just a lake to look at, but not do anything in. That was a bit of a disappointment, but the area just isn't as developed as we are used to. Have no fear, we did manage to have some fun.

Lake Atitlan is a real beauty, set in the highlands surrounded by volcanoes.

Lots of beauties in this photo! (No...Andrew doesn't shave here either...)

Volcan Velocity

So, after a week or so of just hanging around Antigua shopping, golfing, eating and playing cards, we decided to try something a little different (read: Andrew wants action)!

Mountain biking sounds fun, doesn't it? The good people at OX Adventure Volcano Tours (website here) not only offer some pretty cool volcano hikes, but they do some mountain biking trips too. (which they should have on their site, but don't...but that's neither here nor there!)

There were many to choose from: Quiet ride to and through a coffee plantation (difficulty level:easy, rider skill level: none existent), A combination hike, bike and zipline trip (dl: moderate, rsl: moderate), a  high speed downhill volcano trek on a single wide path (dl: medium, rsl: technical) and a few more that became pretty advanced...

Hey, let's drive halfway up that and bike down. Sound good?

So, of course, we decided on the Volcan Velocity highspeed downhill vocano trek on a single wide path...

This is going to end well...

FUEGO MAYA!

So...enough of this living on a budget stuff. It's time for a REAL vacation!!





GOLF BABY!!




We decided to take a 2 day 1 night trip to the #1 golf destination in Guatemala, Fugo Maya at La Reunion. Holy cow. What a place!

La Antigua, Guatemala

Hello dear friends,

Andrew and I have been in Antigua for 6 days now. The city is quite nice...once you can get behind the walls. The city itself is surrounded by volcanoes, making the town picturesque from every direction. This first week hasn't been the greatest (gastro-intestinally speaking) so we are hoping for a GREAT second week!

Here is a little glimpse of the town we are currently calling home!

Volcan Agua (me thinksa)

Casa de Bullock, La Antigua Guatemala

WE have been in La Antigua Guatemala for 5 days now. On Day 2 Penny decided to cook some rice without boiling the tap water first. As a result, we haven't been out to enjoy the region much. :(

Damn Montezuma and his revenge!!!

We have got to enjoy our little palace, so I thought I would give you all the virtual tour.

Moving Around

What have you guys been up to?

We've been on the move a fair bit...took the overnight bus from Flores to Guatemala City, spent a day in "Guate" then hired a car to take us to Antigua Guatemala, where we will be based for the next 4 weeks.

What exactly did I get myself into???

Lago de Peten Itza

Hola everyone!

We are in lovely Flores, Guatemala, a city that rests within Lago de Peten Itza. It is beautiful here! (also very very hot...!)

The promenade goes all around the island

The trip from San Ignacio, Belize to Flores went off without a hitch. We hired a tour company to get us to the border and then with a driver to take us to Flores, Guatemala.

Tuesdays Thoughts, Vol. 4

Hey everyone.

Well, the time has gone to bid adios to Belize. Tomorrow morning we leave bright and early for the border at Benque del Veijo and onwards to the island town of Flores, Guatemala. We shall look back fondly on our time in San Ignacio, and Belize in general...but I believe our adventure REALLY starts now.

There was a comfort level here in Belize. A base to call home for the entire month, English as the national language and hosts here to help us if we ever needed it. Good-bye comfort zone!

I only have a couple of thoughts to share this week:

Belize Botanical Gardens

Hello everyone! It's Penny here.

It's a beautiful sunny morning in Belize...just in time for us to get ready to leave!

A few days ago I accepted an invitation from Peter and Cindy to join them for a trip to the Belize Botanical Gardens. I couldn't resist that! Naturally I left Andrew at home, making us both very happy. This is indeed the key (or one of...) to a happy marriage. If your partner wouldn't enjoy it, leave him/her out of it. Why both be miserable? But I digress...

What do you do if you can't reach the ripe stuff?

Get it yo' self

Catching up!

Well, hey there. How you all doin?

I know it has been awhile, and we are not doing a great job of keeping you all entertained, but we promise to try and be better...

P1020839

P1020839, a photo by 181daysaway on Flickr.

test share from the new flickr account!

Tuesday Thoughts, Vol 3

Bug bites SUCK.

Not sure if this translates well to photograph, but there is SO MANY bites on her legs!

That is all

It's been a busy few days!

Boy have we been busy!

I needed a break from the tarantulas at the Iguana Roost, which luckily coincided with a visit from my cousins Craig & Julie, so off to Belize City we went. 

Tuesday's Thoughts, Vol. 2

Feb 1

So, I know it is Wednesday, but Tuesday was too filled of action to post “Tuesday’s thoughts”. We rented a car, bought a cellphone, drove in to Belize City to pick up some family members, went to the Belize Zoo (awe-some) and drove the hummingbird highway to Dangriga – a small sleepy Garifuna town on the Eastern Coast. All in all, a busy, busy day!

Here are my thoughts for the week:

Never assume, always ask.

Being licked by a Jaguar IS as awesome as it sounds

The Belize Zoo is very very awesome. (more on this is a future post!)

2 weeks of just “hanging out” is about all I can handle.

There may be no more beautiful stretch of scenery than the Hummingbird Highway

There is a Blue Hole, and a Blue Hole National Park, and they are 2 completely different things.

I am way more a “water destination” guy then an “inland vegetation destination” guy.

Here’s Penny!

I may never get enough rum punch

I’d much rather sleep with Andrew than with a tarantula

The smog from vehicles ruins the walking experience

Slooooooow down to Belizean time, otherwise you’ll go crazy

It may rain while on holidays, but dammit, I’m still on holidays

I love the peace and calm of the underwater world when snorkeling

Seeing such paradise gives me hope that there are places of pure peace

I do a great “freedom!” impression of Mel Gibson in Braveheart (yelled out very loud while driving down the highway in our rental vehicle. Note to self: warn the driver beforehand).

Rainy day Sunday!

 Hello everyone! Greetings from wet wet Belize. When it rains, it rains!

We Andrew found an image re-sizing program so we can add photos much easier now. Not all of our followers are on Facebook, so there is some catching up to be done!

Us whiter than white folk left Edmonton at an ungodly hour carrying nothing but our backpacks full of clothing hope.

We arrived in San Ignacio, Belize to the very warm welcome of Peter and Cindy, and dog Chloe. Their other dog Tootsie was waiting at home working in her capacity as guard dog. Peter and Cindy live in the bush somewhere in Nova Scotia and winter in beautiful Belize. We are renting the suite above their home.

The place is certainly rustic, and while small, certainly is all the room we need (right, Honey?). You get what you pay for, people! We're getting used to boiling water to wash dishes, but it took a few days, for sure.

Peter and Cindy have been great to us. If they are going places they offer us a ride, or ask us to join them. We have been able to go tubing on the Mopan River, and also to swim where the Macal River and Mopan River meet. We forgot to grab the camera for Macal, but here are photos from a walk, and from tubing in the river.

There's a video of me tubing but I lost my bikini top so you no see no video.



San Ignacio is nestled near the border of Guatemala, which will be our next stop in our travels. The population here is a wonderful mix of Guatemalans, Belizeans, Chinese, and Indian, with the dominant language being English. This is certainly not the place to learn Spanish. That will have to be done in Guatemala.

The Saturday market is wicked good! Most everything is $1/lb, and bananas are 10 for $1. Good thing we only have a wee little fridge or I'd buy out the place. There is food, clothing, and housewares as far as the eye can see.

Can you spot the redhead?


 And Dad, look what you can rent here!

I have no doubt you'll be on the next flight! It's quick and cheap from Texas! 

Here is today's botany lesson: Note the difference between the two plants.

Can you tell which plant is aloe? It's #1. I thought it was #2. Rubbing the juice from plant #2 on my fresh sunburn caused me to take my first trip to the doctor. His name is Julio. I'll be seeing him again tomorrow because I have some weird bug bite on my finger that is taking over my hand. 



We haven't seen too many places in our 2.5 weeks here as we've been on foot. After seeing the 'chicken buses' and realizing that we wouldn't be able to see the places we want to see we have decided to buy a vehicle. That will allow us the freedom we want and need. Hopefully we can get that done next week.




So friends, I have run out of things to show you. I could go on about the price of drinks and food, and how beautiful the weather is, but that would be rude. I'll just part with a lovely photo of my beloved and I, out on a date last night. I'm sure you'll notice we're wearing our Saturday night best (shirts with collars!).

Goodbye friends!

Cahal Pech

A couple of days ago we went up the hill to the Cahal Pech Archeological site, a small Mayan ruins right in the town of San Ignacio. It's 1 of 3 Maya sites (along with Xunatunich and Tikal) that we plan on visiting while we are here.

 Here is a photo of an ancient Mayan. They must have been quite small, as he looks to be about 4 feet tall!

As you can see, I would have been a giant back in that time! Still would have been a Princess though!

It's kinda impressive architecture and a little awe inspiring.

For 4' tall people the stairs are totally not to code!

This is part of what the map said was a "ballcourt". Maybe where football started?

1 of many narrow passages throughout the site. This was done for protection moreso then anything...if attacked the attackers would have to come single file through the many passages and you could repel them with a smaller force.

Here is an idea of the height of some of the plaza's. Must have been considered REALLY high for 4' people!!

The Mayan people were an industrious, technologically advanced people that dominated this part of the world for the better part of 1000 years...it was quite cool to see what they built! Cahal Pech is the smallest of the ruins we expect to see, so it was a good primer for the big sites.

Tuesday's thoughts, Vol. 1

So, we thought we would have a weekly installment where we discuss and determine what we learned in the previous week. Sounds fun, doesn’t it?

Thus we bring you: Tuesday’s Thoughts (or Martes Memories if you prefer!)

Here is what I (Andrew) learned this week:

·        Service is not a Belizean restaurants best quality

·        Cooking chicken is. (mmm, pollo!)

·        I miss the Microwave immensely

·        I miss hot water so much more.

·        There are a billion dogs here, but surprisingly few cats. I wonder if there is a correlation there…

·        Emission controls on vehicles have not made it this far south.

·        The Jungle is NOT peaceful!

·        Iguanas fall out of trees occasionally. (and make very loud bangs on the roof!)

·        There are lots of food shows on the travel network

·        My wife has a disturbing attraction to prison shows

·        My wife is VERY good at Scrabble.

·        I am AWFUL at Scrabble

·        For a small people, the Mayans had really tall stairs

·        All the supermarkets in Belize are run by Chinese. I am NOT kidding about this.

·        $2Bz Rum and Cokes don’t get old very quickly

·        Maraschino Cherries soaked in 151 Rum taste very, very bad.

Hello blogger land! Week 1 was quite entertaining and educational. Here are Penny’s thoughts this week:

·        Your feet can take you places, but only so far

·        Cold showers are surprisingly refreshing

·        I will (hopefully) never get used to the sight of neglected dogs roaming around in various states of starvation, injury, and pregnancy.

·        The jungle is deafeningly loud at night

·        Humidity makes you sweat without even working out, so I’m thinking I don’t need to work out.

·        I am struggling without unlimited internet and television at my fingertips. After a lot of internal debate, I’m ok with that. Minimum standards are called minimum standards for a reason.

·        The ‘hot’ faucet is a mean, mean teaser. Nothing even comes out of it.

·        Living with bugs is a way of life in the jungle. Killing them seems like cutting grass with scissors.

I’m sure we both have many more thoughts and comments but that’s all we can come up with at the moment. Plus, we want you all to come back next week!

Stay tuned…for Foto Friday!

Take care, loved ones.

P&A

Friday night and Saturday in San Ignacio

So, apparently last night was the start of the weekend! When you don't have a watch or a calender, or any commitments of any kind it's amazing how quick you lose track of the day!

Last night we decided to go into town and see what the San Ignacio nightlife was like. I'm not going to lie, I was a little disappointed! We did find a great meal at one of the local tour vendors/grigo bar. Great meal, Penny had a Fish Curry dish and I had some Creole Chicken. Add in 8 Rum Punchs and it was $30 well spent! We had some good conversation with some younger girls from Ontario who had just come in from Cay Caulker and an older gentleman from the US. Lots of gringos downtown which was nice. There is apparently a fun karaoke bar somewhere down there that we tried to locate, but no such luck...navigating an unfamiliar town when you are inebriated is not always the easiest...

We also got introduced to what I have now deemed "The Belizian Death Cherry!" In the Rum Punches ($3 Belizian, $1.50 Ca) they have the standard maraschino cherry. Or. So. You. Think.

Bite into it and you quickly learn otherwise! Apparently they are soaked in 151 Rum...


Good.

God.

I think there was more alcohol in the damn cherry!

The night slowed down pretty early, before midnight, which was the disappointing part. I did learn that there is a Casino in town however...look for a review on that in the next post!

We did go to the market today, it was reasonably impressive. It's said to be the biggest market in Belize. We got 10 Banana's for $1BZ ($.50CA) so the prices were pretty good. Selection of fruit is okay, but vegetables are a little hard to come by. That's about the only bad thing. There is some pretty good corn I hope to sample next week...

We've got some stuff on the go this afternoon. I will keep up the same mantra for the rest of the day.

I will not complain about the heat...
I will not complain about the heat.

I will not complain about the HEAT!

Belize!

Well, folks. We made it. 1 day in and everything is still good. :) We arrived at our scheduled time after a slightly harrowing time on our first flight. Apparently -31 isn't so good for airplanes...neither is "sorry folks, apparently they forgot to put something on the airplane..." A close to 1 hour wait on the tarmac in Edmonton (#YEG) made for a slightly dicey connection in Houston (food, who needs food..) but it all worked out (as it always seems to) and we arrived to +30 weather. Nothing like a 60 degree change in temperature to brighten your day.

We were met at the airport by our hosts, Cindy & Peter, and taken out to our mode of transport from Belize City to San Ignacio. A 10 to 15 year old Isuzu Trooper. To call this thing a Jalopy might be an offense to jalopies around the world! It was AWESOME! 2 door (who knew they made the Trooper in 2 door??) 5 speed, absolutely nothing for shock absorbers, mangy mutt in the back (I kid, Chloe is a great dog) windows for Air Conditioning, and what felt like a board for a seat.

I want one!!! I am currently trying to convince Penny we should just buy a truck here and drive around! If not that, maybe an old motorcycle or scooter. Apparently we can buy a new scooter for $1500BZ!

The house we are staying at is about what you expect. Sparse, functional, and totally old school. It even has an old tube TV...without a remote! We are really roughing it here! It looks like it came from a hotel somewhere, in that it has channels set up improperly and stuff...I may needto get a remote so I can set it up properly...I saw on the channel guide they have Sportsnet...I may even be able to get an Oilers game or 2...

Might be easier to watch them lose in +30

Yes, +30..you are going to hear that a lot from me...just because I can. :)

We are currently exploring the town center in San Ignacio...more to come later.

Adios all, keep in touch!

It's that time!

Well...the craziness that is our adventure is about to start! It is 0-5-godawful in the morning and we are waiting in the airport to board our Continental flight to Houston. It is -31 outside!!! I would like to thank Mother Nature for reminding me exactly why we are embarking on this most epic odyssey. :) I'm pretty pumped, I won't lie to you...and I am really hoping our hosts will be at the Belize airport to pick us up! i While I am ready for the adventure of navigating Central America, I am thinking day 2 is a good time to start... I am most interested to see how this blog(and us in general...) change over the weeks to come. Hopefully these 2 most unlikely travellers (and that is a story to be told shortly!) will come through this relatively unscathed and better for it. I''m pretty sure our friends are giving good odds on that. :p For those who had 4.5 minutes for the first disagreement, consider yourselves winners! (Apparently getting food when you are hungry is just CRAY-ZEE... (sigh) I want to thank the Delano's for putting up with us for the last week, and the rest of our friends for, well...just putting up with us! Off we go...I have no idea how this is going to go...but I'm sure it will be interesting!!! (and significantly warmer than -31!!) Adios Canada!