Machu Picchu!

Yesterday we spent our day touring the site of Machu Picchu. Machu Picchu was a city built by the Incas in 1490 high up in the Andes of Peru, but they lived in the city for only about 100 years before the civilization fell to the Spaniards. Archeologists only have a few theories of what Machu Picchu actually was, but that does not take away from how impressive it is. It's a sight that many people make as their life-long goal to see, and it certainly was up there on my list. Machu Picchu was a major destination that we put on our list to see during this trip, and it's cool that we finally made it here. We have seen so many amazing things along the way, but there have only been a few of those that we knew about before hand that would be a must-see, of course this being one of them.

We got up super early to get on the first 5:30 a.m. bus up the road to the site from the town below. I awoke with disbelief when the alarm went off to hear rain hitting the hotel roof.. There is a pretty loud river right outside the hotel, so I hoped that's what I was hearing...Nope, it was raining.. The one day when I am finally here, and about to spend the whole day exploring this amazing site-it's raining! It was a bummer of a start but I was hopeful that the rain wouldn't last very long. When we got to the site, the fog was just about the only thing you could see...We started walking through the ruins but not really seeing anything. A few of us slowly walked together, following a path through the ruins but not really being able to take anything in, as the fog made us really disoriented. As it started raining harder, we stumbled upon a few covered huts towards one end of the ruins. We bunked down here for one hour, trying to wait out the rain and fog. It really didn't look good for a while, but since we had gotten to the site so early in the morning, we had time to wait. Finally the rain slowed to a light sprinkle and we had had enough of not exploring. We decided to hike up to the nearby peak of Wayna Picchu in hopes that the weather would start cooperating and we could get great views of Machu Picchu. After a quick but steep hike we got to the top and the clouds parted. The people already up there had been waiting 3 hrs. for the clouds to move, and we timed it perfectly to get sweeping views of the whole city of Machu Picchu. There were even ruins built up on this peak, so we spent about three hours up at the top fooling around and checking out the ruins and views. After that we hiked down and started to explore the rest of the ruins. It was impressive to almost see the whole site appear out of the mysterious fog. Even having been to many ancient ruins now, these sites never get old. I was in continuous awe of the place as we walked through it.

To make the day even more enjoyable, we met a few other people that we toured the site with and had a good time chatting along the way. Our crew consisted of Juri from Amsterdam, Jocelyn and her mom Penny from Alaska, and Alex from Colorado. Adrian and I always enjoy ruins and taking in this old history, and this time it was nice to be around others that shared our awe and amazement of Machu Picchu.

Later that night we met our new friends out to celebrate Christmas Eve. Jocelyn and Penny had gone out of their way and made us sandwiches and bought us wine and beer- so nice of them! We went back to their hotel bar and chatted and had some drinks. In Peru, it seems that Christmas Eve is the big night of celebration. They celebrate by going out into the main square and lighting off firecrackers and fireworks at midnight. We went down amongst the firecracker throwers to join in the festivities, and although there weren't very many of us-we had a great time celebrating Christmas Eve with our new friends.

It is a little tough being away from home on the holidays. I miss seeing family and friends, and just the whole feeling of Christmas at home. For part of our Christmas celebration, we ate at McDonalds! I know, it sounds weird...But it's American, and it is food that tastes familiar and therefore reminds us of home...

Peru-sing through Peru...

I know- so cheesy, but I couldn´t resist :) But, it is actually almost true. Since leaving Mancora earlier in the month I feel like it has been a whirlwind tour of Peru. Maybe that´s just because the bus journeys have gotten longer, and more frequent, as my time winds down. Having a deadline of a flight home is great stimulant to get your ass moving, but at the same time is a frustrating contradiction of the way we have been travelling.

Since leaving the dusty town of Mancora, we stopped at another beach town called Huanchaco. We ended up going there on a whim, because when we arrived in Trujillo in the morning the city didn´t look that cool, and we thought we´d give it a try. We made the right choice! Huanchaco was cute and very well-groomed, very different from many beach towns we have seen. I immediately loved that there was a boardwalk that went all the way down the stretch of the beach. We spent a few lovely days there and even took some time to see some ruins nearby. Who knew that right there was the largest adobe city in the world? Yes, that´s right...A little place called Chan-Chan. I wanted to go check the place out but we really had no idea what was in store for us. We were blown away by how huge the sight was, and that only a very small fraction is even restored. Walking through the restored section was pretty impressive. Giant adobe walls arranged in a maze-like pattern surrounding big open squares and even a pond! Carved into many of the adobe walls were intricate patterns and drawings of animals. It was pretty damn cool...

After enjoying the beach for a while it was then time to get back into the mountains, so from Huanchaco we went to a mountain town called Huaraz. The surrounding towering snow-capped peaks of the Andes really make this town. The main thing to do there is hiking and trekking, so we did a few day hikes on our own. The hike up Lago Churup was difficult and crazy, but beautiful. The final altitude of the lake was about 4400 meters (14, 435ft.), and because we got off trail towards the end of our hike we actually ended up on a peak looking down at the lake. So, technically we were higher then that...The altitude usually makes one pretty breathless, but this time my reaction was a bit different. My legs felt like lead that just couldn´t be persuaded to move, and my chest just felt all heavy. At one point I really thought I was going to pass out. I for sure thought this was a sign that I should turn around, but Adrian´s drive to reach the top and his motivation pushed me on. I fell for the ¨Let´s just hike to that tree and rest...Let´s just hike to that rock and rest¨. In the end I was very glad that he pushed me on, because I did get past it and eventually felt better and reached the top. The whole hike was pretty stunning- I have never done a hike where huge snow-capped rocky peaks are just off in the near distance.

After Huaraz we pushed on to Lima for one day, and then on to Cusco- just a short 22 hour bus ride! The bus ride was not as bad I was expecting, and we arrived in the very high city of Cusco a few days ago (3300 meters). Deciding to get to Machu Picchu and be back in Cusco for Christmas, we decided to move on the next day. Tomorrow we go to the site of Machu Picchu nice and early...I am very excited to see it, so I hope it will be impressive!

Peru!!

So we have made it to country number 11...Oh ya!! It was a strange border crossing for us. The Ecuadorian immigration building was just located on the side of a busy, dusty highway and the bus just dropped us of (we were the only 2 that got off the bus to go through immigration) and pointed us at the building. We quickly got our Ecuadorian exit stamp and then were wondering how we get into Peru, and where do we get our entry stamps? It turns out the Peru immigration building is about 6km away, so we had to take a taxi there! A bit strange-most countries we have been in you just walk from one building to the other and you´re done. So we hopped in a taxi, were taken to the border of Ecuador and dropped off in a market. They just pointed and said over there...It looks as if we are just in the middle of a busy city on market day and there is no immigration office in sight. As we started walking another taxi driver comes to us and says he will take us the 3km to the immigration office and then onto the bus terminal. Alright, I prefer than then walking in the hot sun with all my stuff. At the same time I am thinking how strange this border is...

As we start the ride with taxi number 2 we are talking with the taxi driver about this strange border crossing and how much the taxi ride will cost. Adrian says, don´t worry, we just changed a bit of money at the Ecuadorian border, it will cover what this ride costs. The taxi driver tells us that we the money changers there frequently give fake Peruvian money! We exchanged about $26USD and they gave us a 50 soles bill that looked very real, complete with holograms and watermarks (Adrian even checked when he got the bill!). So Adrian takes it out to show the cabby, and low and behold- it´s fake! Doh! It looked very real, the only way you could tell was that the number 50 on the bill was not an irridescent color. Now we know...Luckily we didn´t change much money and the fake 50 is only worth about $16USD.

We get to the Peruvian immigration and get our entry stamp and are back in the taxi to go to the bus station. Subtracting our counterfeit money from our stash, we realize we have just enough money to get us to Mancora, our destination beach town. Luckily, I had a few soles coins that I had traded with a guy in Montañita for some Colombian pesos that I had leftover...Those coins got us there on the bus! Whew...

We were pretty annoyed about getting some fake money and thought it was a lost cause. But later that night, I was able to buy some drinks at the bar with my fake note. We just picked the most wasted bartender and waited for him to help me. There was no chance this wasted dude was going to examine the bill to see if it was fake :) Good times...

Thanksgiving at the beach

I guess it´s been a while since I´ve posted an update-sorry! We´ve been bopping around Ecuador and have spent time in Baños, a cool mountain town with tons of adventure things to do and tons of beautiful waterfalls to see; stopped to see the beautiful Quilotoa crater lake in the mountains; and finally made it to the beach here in Ecuador. It took us a couple of days to make it here from the mountains in the center of the country, and in our journey we spent one night in the worst place yet. We got into this town called Portoviejo late at night, and didn´t seem to have many options in a safe neighborhood-so we ended up at Hostel Pacheco, for $3.50/night. It was horrible...Yucky bathroom with no toilet seat lid, no shower curtain (and you had to ask for tp), cot beds, dirty walls and a broken window...Good times! We stayed out a bit late trying to avoid spending an unneccesary amount of time in the room, but this town didn´t have much happening. We got up the next morning and we on our way, thankfully! We will just mark that place as our ¨worst place we stayed´, and move on...

Now we are in Puerto Lopez, a dusty little beach town on the coast of Ecuador. It´s a cute little town with not much going on. It´s been very nice to chill and relax here after the journey here and after being in mountains for a bit. The beach is nice and long and is great for a long walk or a jog. We spent our Thanksgiving here walking on the beach and eating seafood (a little different from all my previous Thanksgivings!).

Today we went to an island close by called Isla de La Plata (or otherwise known as ¨The Poor Man´s Galapagos). Since we can´t afford the Galapagos this time around, we figured this was a must do. It took about 1 hour and 20 minutes to get there on the boat, and the island looked quite nice from afar-tall cliffs dropping down to the ocean. When we started walking around we noticed how arid and desert-like it was. After a bit of a walk we started to see some of the cool birds-mostly the Blue-Footed Booby and the Frigate Bird. The cool thing was that these birds were all just sitting along the side of the trail, or sometimes on the trail-so we got a super closeup look at all of them. Many of the birds were sitting on just laid eggs, or warming about newly hatched baby birds. As we walked we started to see baby birds at all stages of growing, so that was pretty cool. The birds didn´t seem to mind our presence too much, but we would get a good sqwack if they thought we were too close. We walked for a couple of hours and saw more birds, but no other animals. After the walk and lunch we went snorkling but the visibility wasn´t very good. I enjoyed myself on the tour, but it was a bit overpriced for what we did. It was worth maybe $25, not $40...Oh well! I´m glad I saw the Blue-Footed Booby, check him out!

Time in Tunibamba

The other night A and I went to stay with a local family in the community of Tunibamba, about 30 minutes from Otavalo. We were told there would be ¨activities¨ and we would get to know how the locals lived here in Ecuador. When we arrived we met Carmen, the woman of the house, and after a few minutes of chatter, she said she needed to go get some beans- so of course we followed. She took us to one of their fields, where they were growing frijoles and corn. Such a good use of space, they planted the frijoles in between the corn so they would have both. She showed us which ones were ripe and we helped her pick some and just asked all these questions about the farm. It was great to finally get some answers about why and how they do things on the farm. After picking the beans we helped shell them all for dinner later while Carmen told us about the traditions for Day of the Dead, which happens immediately after Halloween. Families bake bread in the shape of animals for the people in there life who passed away in a way of honoring them, and keeping away the evil spirits. They spend all Saturday baking the bread, and then visit the cemeteries on Sunday. It is a pretty big event here, so it seems.

After shelling beans we relaxed a bit. I saw Marco, the 8 yr. old son playing soccer in the yard. I couldn´t resist going over to play with him-and he loved it! I love that just playing with a kid can cross all sorts of language and cultural boundaries. Before we played soccer he was a little shy, but that definetly broke the ice. Even later that night he asked me to play again, after we took the cow to drink water and put her away for the night...I had to let him win- so he gloated over dinner, saying that Ecuador beat the United States!

In the afternoon the husband, Alfonso, came home and took us for a walk. We went to see the community potato field. Such a good concept, they have a few fields that they grow crops for the people in the village. If you participate in harvesting the crops, you get to take some home for your family. ¨Working for Food¨ is really the motto here. Alfonso explained that they have 3 or 4 days to collect all the potatoes, and they have to do it when it´s not raining. There were about 40 people there when we arrived, all taking a break. Before we knew it, we walked into the field and were handed a bag to start collecting potatoes! Of course, this brought a few rounds of giggles from all the locals, but we tried our best. Adrian and I filled about 3 huge bags of potatoes, and then everyone was done for the afternoon-except for the loading of the potatoes into the tractor. I left that to Adrian, as the bags easily weighed 70 to 90lbs!!! Good times.

We had a lovely dinner that night and we chatted with Carmen and Alfonso. It was really interesting and we had a great time. The two were really involved in their community and thinking of ways to improve it. They were trying to establish an animal market in the town in addition to their weekend vegetable market, and she also volunteered to help people with medical problems in the community. Who knew that goat milk cured so many things?!

I really enjoyed our day there, it was nice to catch a glimpse of how the Indigenous people of Ecuador live. It was great of them to open their homes to us and share their lives with us, if even for a short time.

Exploring Ecuador with my Mom

It´s exciting to be in a new country!! And even better to pick up your Mom at the airport and explore a little of it with her...We met up in Quito and were off to a town a few hours south called Baños. Baños is located at the base of an active volcano, and it is a beautiful setting for riding bikes around and checking out the beautiful scenery. I lost count of how many gorgeous waterfalls we saw on our bike ride ...We cafe hopped and shopped, and chatted about everything. From Baños we hopped back up to Quito and met up with A. We explored the Old City of Quito and then went the the Equator!! There is a museum and monument there with an actual painted line on the ground to tell you your latitude and longitude. We couldn´t resist taking some corny pictures straddling the line between the hemispheres...

Since we were cramming a lot in in one week, we then went north a few hours to a town called Otavalo, which is where I am now. There is a really great market there on Saturdays, and we had just enough time to check it out. What a great market!! So many beautiful crafts- sweaters, blankets, purses, hats, jewelry...Oh, my! The products were hand-made in this region, and often you could see people at their stand knitting more wool hats or scarves. We could not get over how beautiful the fabrics were, and how cheap everything was...It was a bit painful to not be able to purchase gorgeous blankets, tableclothes, and other things for decorating my home-since I don´t even have one! I did manage to find myself some a few little things, most of which I sent home with my mom. It would almost be worth it for someone to buy a plane ticket and come to the Saturday market at Otavalo just to outfit your home and fly back with a new bag of goodies.

It was so fun to have my mom here, to catch up and to just spend time with her. I like that she gets to see that I´m doing well and am happy being on the road, but having someone from home with you is just so nice and comforting at the same time. It was so fun to have my mom fall in love with the non-U.S. things that I have become so accustomed to, like the people that get on the bus at random places and sell food and drinks. This has been happening in most of Central America and here in South America too, and I think it´s a great idea. Just picture, you left early in the morning and are on a long bus ride. Three hours into the trip you start to get hungry but are not even close to your destination...No need to worry, someone will get on selling chips, ice cream, peanuts, banana bread- you can always find something to get you through the trip! Why can´t we do this in the U.S.?! Well, I know why-but I think we should rethink that policy.

My mom is always up for anything, and we had a blast! I was so happy she came for a visit. So, if anyone else is interested, come on down- I´ll find some great things for us to see!

Last days in Colombia

Right now I am in a town called Ipiales, close to the Ecuadorian border. I plan on moving into Ecuador tomorrow, but had to stop here to see the beautiful Las Lajas Sanctuary. It was built in a gorge, spanning a river, which makes the whole setting quite beautiful. I spent a nice couple of hours wandering around it and admiring the scenery. Apparently many people come here to make religious pilgrimmages and there are many testaments to the miracles that have occurred here. Placques line the walls surrounding the cathedral with people giving thanks for their miracles. Even not considering myself not very religious, I still found this very moving...

Oddly, there were a ton of military at the cathedral, but not in an official way. They all raced down the stairs and lined up in front of the church. I could not figure out what they were doing until I saw them all file into the church-I guess when you are in the Colombian military they make you attend church too! I spent a little time talking with a very nice Colombian family and another Colombian girl that was learning English. Colombian people are so friendly and curious, so it is always fun to talk to them. Even with my not-that-great Spanish we still managed to have a nice conversation. I have spent the last week travelling on my own here in Colombia, and it has been very fun and interesting. Tomorrow I will head to Ecuador, where my mom is coming for a visit and I cannot wait! I have had the best time in Colombia and am looking forward to Ecuador!

I Love Colombia!

Especially when we get to do crazy things like bungee jumping, paragliding, and rafting...For unbelievably cheap prices! We went to San Gil, an up-and-coming mini adventure town that offers all this great stuff...We went bungee jumping for $12.50! I was scared out of my mind to bungee jump, but I watched Adrian go first, so that made it easier. I saw that the equipment worked fine and he was still in one piece, and then I was ready to go. I just forced myself to jump off that bridge-and screamed the whole way down! My heart didn't stop beating like crazy until about 15 minutes after I was back safely on the bridge. Bungee jumping was so scary to me that any other "extreme sport" seemed tame-like the paragliding. Paragliding was so fun, and not scary at all. You are standing on the ground with the guy, strapped in, and then all of a sudden you are flying like a bird. It was pretty tranquil up there taking in the beautiful scenery. It got exciting when the guy would drop the paraglider into a spin-it was just like a roller coaster! I got to check two things off my life's to-do list. Not bad.

Right now we are in Bogota-and damn-it's cold!!! It's 8661 ft. above sea level, so it is not hot up here. Quite a shock to our systems that have been lounging in hot temps for the past 8 months. We actually have to go out and buy a few articles of warm clothes. So far I only bought a hat, but I need to get a warm sweatshirt and some more pants...We will be going to a lot of high elevation places from now on South through Ecuador and Peru. Bogota seems like a pretty cool city, there is a ton of museums and parks and cool things cities have to offer. Today we went to the Botero Museum, named after probably the most famous Colombian painter (Fernando Botero Angulo). He's got a bit of a strange style, but I think the paintings are kind of amusing. They call them "Fat People". What do you think?

Bus Rides

Traveling on the cheap, as we are, means a ton of bus rides to get where we are going...Going all the way from Mexico to Panama you see a ton of different buses, and you start getting used to the shitty chicken buses, or being packed in like a sardine. But it is never easy to get on city buses that are jam packed with your giant pack and not make a scene...I would rather take a taxi!

The longest bus ride we took in Central America was about 10 hours, but here in South America, that is a small-distance ride. The countries are bigger and the buses have longer to travel, so getting used to 15-16 hour-plus bus rides (and usually overnight!) is not going to be easy.
Especially when taking a ride on a bus here is the exact equivalent of trying to sleep in a meat locker. I am not joking! They blast the air conditioning so much that it is just so uncomfortable. And we even come prepared-we change into long pants and bring a sweatshirt and socks. Last night, it wasn't enough...Instead of sleeping comfortably and waking up at your next destination- you go into hypothermia and just lay there shivering.

Not to mention that other interesting things happen on the bus rides. Take last nights' 9 hour ride, for example. First, the bus leaves late-and there were only 9 passengers...Then, about 30 minutes into the ride, the lady and young guy in the front of the bus turn around and ask Adrian if we saw a furry creature running around our feet?! What the Heck?! The bus lights are all off at this point, and all I can hear is Adrian say "A raton?" and I immediately start to get a bit grossed out. I have just been riding on a bus with a rat or a mouse crawling around my feet?! Yuck!! So Adrian gets out a flashlight and we start looking around our feet, and about the same time- I hear the translation- "You think it's a hamster?" A hamster?! This must be what they call mice in Colombia...So after some scuffle and looking around-the thing crawls by my feet and the young guy dives under the seat in the dark and catches it. It really was a hamster! A cute little orange and white guy!! What the hell was it doing on the bus?! This guy picked it up and asked all the passengers if they lost a hamster...No one had...So the two proceeded to put him in a purse for safe keeping, and feed him a cooked potato...He seemed pretty content in there. I had no idea what they were going to do with it but I just figured they would keep it as a pet. So after we watched the little guy eat the potato and wonder why he was on the bus, they decided to tie the purse closed and put it in the overhead compartment until we arrived. Needless to say the hamster chewed through the purse and is back loose in the bus somewhere, now in the overhead compartments! Good stuff...

We fall back asleep after we caught the hamster and wake up for the 2am rest stop. I go to the bathroom and come out, waiting for the bus to get going. I am standing outside the bus talking to this Australian guy we are traveling with, and we notice that Adrian is talking to some locals and has a little crowd gathered around him...We were so amused watching this scene-at 2 am, this little restaraunt in the middle of nowhere was packed and jumping and Adrian managed to enrapture a group of locals with who knows what...And we were sort of sleepy and wondering what he was doing. It was a really cool scene from afar- you could see them all asking questions, and every minute a new person would come over to hear what was going on-and there is Adrian in the middle, waving his arms around telling some story...So it turns out he was just buying a snack, and starting talking to the restaraunt owner, who asked about his trip, and they all got so curious about him, and us and they were asking him all sorts of questions. They were just so excited to talk to him, you could see it-it was cool. I think the Colombians are so far the friendliest people in all the countries I've been to. And I also think that they are really excited to see tourists in their country, after years of travelers avoiding the country because of the previous dangers.

To top it all off, on our second leg of the bus trip today-the bus broke down! Let's hope my first bus break-down is also my last...I slept for most of the time and only noticed when they turned off the bus and therefore the AC slowly died out and I had to strip off all the layers I had put on. One interesting point, I didn't hear anyone complain about the holdup (or maybe it's just because I was sleeping), but everyone just patiently sat and waited, knowing that they were trying to fix the bus. I'm not sure if that happened at home people would idly sit and wait like that...

So those are just some random thoughts about bus travel...It's weird, even though you may sleep alot, and are just sitting there-taking a bus ride really wipes you out! Time for bed...

Hiking to La Ciudad Perdida

So I just did my first trek!!! Yeah!!

When we were in Cartagena, we ran into a few other travellers we met in Panama and they told us about this 6 day trek to a place in the Colombian jungle called ¨La Ciudad Perdida¨. We hadn´t even heard about it before, but were immediately interested. We decided to tag along with a new group of people and go to the next city and check out this trek. We didn´t know much about it, but got into the city the tour was arranged from and realized that our friends booked the trek to start the next day! Mind you, we got into this city at about 9pm, and the tour was supposed to leave the next morning at 8:30...We talked to the tour operators and decided to go for it, even on the short notice. Who needs sleep before a 6 day trek anyways? We paid 30,000 pesos (=$150 US) and then immediately had to get supplies and pack our bags...and we still hadn´t even eaten dinner :)

The guide company supplied all our meals and water for the trip, so we just need to bring dry clothes, long pants, bug spray, toilet paper, extra shoes, plastic bags to protect our gear from rain, etc. We crammed all that we thought we might need for the 6 days into our small daypacks-the lighter the better.

On the first day we drove about 2 hours to the turnoff to the park, and from there we drove another hour up and down a horrible dirt, mountain road to a small town in the mountains that we would start from. After a lunch of stale sandwiches, we were off. There were 8 people in our group- a nice mix of a few Americans, a French guy, Spanish guy, Swiss guy and and Aussie dude. We were to hike a total of 22km to the Lost City, mostly about 3-5 hours a day, with one long day of an 8 hour hike on the way back down.

The first day was a bit rough, getting back into hiking after a while is always hard. Add in torrential rain and the fact that we were hiking uphill through mud canyons and basically a mud river at our feet. Oddly enough- it was really cool to hike in the torrential rain. Knowing that I had no choice but to keep going and plug on, I think made it fun to be out in the rain (and I was so excited that I had decided to put my dry clothes into a waterproof travel bag inside my backpack!). A strange thought, because it also meant that we would probably see a lot of rain on the rest of the 5 days! After the first days´ hike we made it up to a little house in the mountains where we were to camp, and we got into dry clothes and had some dinner. Our guides really knew how to cook-we had great food the whole time! We slept the night in hammocks and were off early the next morning...

The next couple of days were great hikes. I was a bit sore, but tried to do a lot of stretching to keep the soreness at a minimum. Oddly enough, I think the best remedy for the sore muscles was to just keep hiking! The scenery and the terrain was gorgeous throughout the whole hike. I especially enjoyed that the terrain changed frequently- we´d hike through the jungle, along mountain ridges, up mud canyons, alongside a river, through a river, by little shacks in the forests...We saw a lot of Indigenous families living way out in the middle of no-where. They were mostly very wary of the hikers, and not smile or say anything to us. The adults would mostly stare, while the kids were sometimes a bit more curious. The children were amazing...Wearing little potato sac dresses (boys and girls alike) with long brown hair...Some smart Indios even sold Gatorade at their little houses! If it was cold, I probably would have bought some :) The hike was such a great hike that I was excited to be doing it, even before I made it to the Lost City!

On day three, we finally made it to La Ciudad Perdida. After a pretty tough hike of about 4 hours, we got to the base of a stairway. The stairway looked like it just started right out of the river, so we waded across and started climbing the stairs...I have never climbed so many stairs in my life!!! There were at least 2,000 stairs to get to the city!!! And after already hiking the whole day-our legs were pretty shot. It was tiring, but a cool, mysterious walk up mossy covered stairs into the jungle...

We got to the top and were greeted by a small troop of the Colombian military...They all seemed friendly and amused at our exhausted looks of climbing all those stairs. The military was stationed there to protect tourists from any residual FARC guerilla activity in the jungle-which was fine by me. I was glad to see them instead of rebels...

We spent the next day exploring the city, founded by Tayrona Indians (discovered only in 1975). Our guide didn´t have the complete history of the place as we would´ve liked-but it was still really cool...They had basically built all these round circular stone terraces linked by tons of steps. Set high up in the mountains, it was such a spectacular sight.

The toughest part of the hike was the 8 hour hike down, which started with a descent of all those 2,000 stairs!!! My legs were wiped out immediately...But I made it to the lunch stop and the lunch gave me a second wind for the last 3 hours-whew!

So if you can´t tell, I really enjoyed this hike and was proud of myself for having done it...It wasn´t as difficult as I expected! Maybe that means there will be more treks in my future-who knows!

South America...via San Blas

Now doesn´t that look nice?! Yup, it was pretty amazing...That´s me relaxing in the beautiful water in the "Swimming Pool" in the San Blas Islands. Behind me in the photo you can see a handful of boats docked, and this is where we spent three days of our sailing trip from Panama to Colombia. It was a beautiful spot to swim, snorkle, and hang out on deserted islands.

We had heard many horror stories of these boat rides from Panama to Colombia: people getting lost for 10 days, people running out of food and water, or having a horrible captain...I am glad to report almost exactly the opposite of what we feared. We set sail on the Melody with Captain Marc and his wife Paola. We had a crew of 8 backpackers, 6 Americans and 2 Austrian guys. It was such a fantastic trip!! Everyone was cool and chill (a necessary characteristic for sharing the confined space of the boat!), and the captain really knew what he was doing. Not to mention we were well fed!! Marc´s wife, Paola, was a great cook- we were treated to meals us backpackers don´t normally get: lasagna, fish tacos, and even a turkey dinner! On the first day of the sail we made it to the San Blas Islands in about nine hours, and the seas were really calm. We even had a small crew of dolpins swimming alongside us for awhile. When we got to the paradise of San Blas- we knew we made the right choice instead of flying to Colombia! We were enjoying it so much we actually asked to stay another day at San Blas, which we did! It was hard to get sick of the beautiful surroundings we had...

The rest of the sail from San Blas to Cartagena was supposed to take 36 hours...That sounded pretty daunting to me...And the first day in the open waters was pretty rough, I must admit. The waves were pretty big and I did feel a bit seasick. So much for dramamine! I spent most of the first day trying to sleep and lay down in one spot. As soon as you got up to use the bathroom or move around you would feel sick almost immediately. The second day of sailing was much calmer and therefore a much better sail...We even caught some wind and a current and made it to Cartagena a few hours ahead of schedule. Even with a little seasickness-this was definitely the way to go!

We are now in Cartagena and enjoying the city. The city is surrounded by a huge wall built 500 yeas ago to defend against pirates. The walled part of the old city has these great old buildings and so much character...It is an interesting mix of old and new-you have one area of the city surrounded by an old wall, and then a few miles away you can see the skyscrapers that have been built to modernize the city. At night, the old city is so romantic, and just such a great spot to sit outside and soak up the atmosphere. What a great city!!!

Here´s one last shot of us amid the palm trees in San Blas...

Shoes...and other random thoughts...

I miss my selection of shoes (I guess this can also be applied to clothes)! But it's especially hard when we are in a cool, happening city like Panama City and we go to the clubs...I want to wear a sign around my neck that says, "I have cuter clothes and shoes at home-but I couldn't fit them in my backpack!" Not that I look shabby, I did manage to bring a cute top and jeans that is my standard going-out outfit. But you know what I mean...

I do have to note, I think Latin American women are born wearing high heels! I am a little envious at their ability to wear the tallest of high-heel shoes and walk around like their wearing running shoes. And they still manage to dance in these crazy shoes. I, as well as many people I know-would be limping around after an hour of wearing some of these shoes...And last night as I sat in the club observing this-not one woman was wearing flat shoes (and the club was packed)!

More about shoes...My favorite little black crocs are useless here in Central America during the rainy season. It's very strange, but many parts of the sidewalks that are directly in front of a store are tiled. Wet tiles are the enemy of any croc-wearer. You take one step and immediately start to slide, and if you aren't quick about it, you will end up on your butt. It's like trying to walk on a sheet of ice...You start taking baby steps and look absolutely ridiculous! So it seems that my crocs aren't coming back out until the rain stops, or people stop tiling the sidewalks...

Here in the city I started seeing a few sushi restaraunts and just knew that I had to have it...We love sushi, and haven't eaten it since before we left (over 6 months ago!). We were taken to this great lounge that served delicious sushi, and we were in heaven! It was SOOOOO good :)
To top it off, we found another bar that had import beer...SAM ADAMS - double :)

There are a few more random thoughts I have, but that will do for now.

It has been SIX months on the road!!

We have finally made it to Panama City!! It took us six months to get here from Cancun, but we did hit every country on the way down! Looking back on the past six months, it's been such great fun and we have seen and done so much! I honestly wasn't sure how I would feel after traveling for, let's say, even three months. But, I am really loving it. I think even more so then when I started. I have learned to chill a bit and not need be on the go as much as I usually am. Traveling on a budget certainly means that we are not taking expensive tours every day, but there is something else to be gained by slowing down and doing this a little differently. Being away from home and the people I love there is the hardest, but while I am still enjoying myself the road is still calling me :)

Here are some highlights that pop to mind over the last half year...

The whole country of Guatemala was amazing. It's such a beautiful country, and very cheap! I recommend anyone interested to visit there. Tikal, Semuc Champey, Lago Atitlan...ahh...

I loved seeing all the different Mayan ruins as we came south, and I have learned a lot about the Mayan culture...(even enough to question some elements of the movie Apocalpto)

Scuba diving has been completely amazing...and addicting!! It is so fun to be underwater and observe the world down there. My favorite place to dive has been in Belize, near Caye Caulker, where the water is crystal clear, making the visibility perfect. There were so many fish, and the coral reef itself was fascinating.

Having visitors!!! My mom and her friend Lyne visited us in Honduras, and our friends Gavin and Lilly visited us in Nicaragua. Huge props to them for coming to see us in these areas of the country where not many people have an interest in seeing. I know that we were the main draw, but I think they all enjoyed there visits, and in a place where they might not have normally gone to. I would not be surprised if my mom went back to the Bay Islands of Honduras, because they were just beautiful...If anyone else is interested-we would love to have you!

Boquete, Panama, was a great spot for us to hang for awhile...Since I just talked about it I won't blab any more about it.

Meeting great, fun, interesting people along the way.

Trying to learn Spanish...I am getting a little better, but is still intimidating to speak in front of Adrian, who speaks Spanish perfectly. Damn him! :) At least I get a laugh out of the silly things I end up saying by mistake, and I know am able to accept help from Adrian now instead of being annoyed...Watching the Olympics in Spanish gives me alot of new words!

There may be more, but that is what I have at the moment. Time has gone by so quickly! Time to go explore the city...

Back on the road...

So we finally managed to leave our cozy little town of Boquete. We left a little over a week ago. We first went to David, the closest city to Boquete and then onto Santa Catalina, a surfing village on the western coast. We went there on our first trip to Panama, and wanted to go back and stay a little longer this time.

Santa Catalina is a very, very small town, with not much to it except a few places to stay and some surf camps. There are two tiny little markets that run out of food towards the end of the week, one pay phone in the center, and no internet places!!! It´s definitely nice for a change to be away from everything, but I completely forgot how basic this town was. On the first day we got there, it was the end of the week, so the market shelves were wiped out. We couldn´t even by bread to make sandwiches...And because the place is so quiet, some of the few restaurants don´t open every night, or close as soon as they run out of food, which can be often. It certainly is a funny dynamic to adjust yourself to that pace and non-technology of a place. But, it´s a very quaint town that is very relaxing. We spent a day or two relaxing, reading, laying in hammocks, and going for walks. Adrian had another go at surfing as well, but this time I just cheered him on from the beach.

Last Friday we took a snorkling trip from Santa Catalina to Isla Coiba. Isla Coiba is a national park, about a 1.5 hour boat ride off the coast. It´s really interesting- they call it the poor man´s Galapagos, as the island never had any serious development on it, and it has a few species of animals that are only found on this island. Back from 1919 to 2004 the island actually served as a prison colony that was pretty brutal for its´ prisoners. Other than the few prison facilities, nothing else was ever built on the island so it remained a hotspot for birds and wildlife....

So, doesn´t it sound like an interesting place to visit? The boat ride out to the island was pretty spectacular. The coast line was mainly just rocky cliffs with a few isolated beaches sprinkled around. There were a ton of little rock islands that formed off the coast. We stopped at a spot and snorkled around, and then went on to the island. What a cool spot. I wish we had thought ahead to stay overnight there. We did a brief little hike to see some of the island. We didn´t see such spectacular wildlife on our brief walk, just tons of iguanas and some cool birds. If we had more time it would´ve been amazing to check out more of the island...If anyone is in the vicinity, you should make a point to get out there-it´s a great spot!

From Santa Catalina we came to Las Tablas, a small city on the way to our next destination. Our main idea was to come back to civilization, use computers- and I wanted to go shopping (which is a completely different/strange experience then shopping at home!). We are going to try to get to another remote island when we leave here (possibly this afternoon) called Isla Cañas. It seems like it will be an adventure to get there, so we´ll see!

Still in Boquete!

Here's my favorite little guy at the Paradise Gardens...Billy the Capuchin Monkey!!! He is only a few months old, and when we first arrived he had only been there a few days. He was so scared of people he did a lot of squeaking and running away from us. We really couldn't get near him...But, after almost one month, he is getting so brave! He now comes and sits on us and hangs out, pulls our hair and plays with us. He has learned a lot from his older monkey friend, Monty. It has been really cool to see him become healthier and less scared as we spend more time with him...

It's been very nice settling for a bit here in Boquete. It's been a month, and we will leave at the end of the week :( Volunteering at the gardens was the best move we could do while we here-we got to spend time with fun animals, and got to meet really great people! One of my favorite things about the gardens is that the people there are so nice. The owners, Jenny and Paul Saban, have created a truly homey community among the people that spend time there. When it's raining we all just sit around on the porch, drink tea, and chat (the owners are English, so our tea drinking has definetly gone up over the last month!). Since we have been on the move for the most part of the last 4-5 months, it is a different, enjoyable feeling to stop in somewhere and start to get to know people there. It will be sad to leave here, but there is more to explore of Panama...and then on to South America!

Time to stay put, for a little while.

We have decided to hang out here in Boquete, for about a month...We have been thinking that somewhere in Panama we would try to stop for a bit, and either work or volunteer somewhere. By staying in one place we will save a little money by not paying for traveling expenses every couple of days, and getting a deal on a place to stay. Plus, it's nice to unpack for a bit! We rented a little cabina right across the driveway from the cool hostel we were staying at. It is a pretty good setup for us!!

On our second or third day here we visited Paradise Gardens, and garden and wildlife refuge started by an English couple that retired here in Panama...After some time, they started taking on all sorts of rescue animals and trying to rehabilitate them. Three years later, they have a beautiful garden, bird aviaries that contain beautiful tropical birds, different monkeys and other animals. I am not doing the place justice in my inadequate description, but when we went for a visit we absolutely loved the place. We stopped back to ask if they could use our help, and we are now volunteers there!!! It is so fun!! We go there in the afternoons and give people tours and tell them about the animals, or do various other things to help out around the place...The other day I sawed down an orange tree (a first for me!) and put the branches in the animal cages for them to play with. We get to play with all the animals, and start to try to hand feed some of the rescued babies. What is so cool about this place is that it is just run on donations, and the retirement pension of the couple that started it! I think it will be a fun way to spend some time here, hanging out with animals and trying to learn all the plants that they have. Here is a picture of me with Precious, a Hyacinth Macaw. I have never seen a bird like this before, she is absolutely beautiful!

Country number 8!

We are back in Panama! Last week we visited Bocas del Toro, a town on an island called Isle de Colon, on the North Eastern coast, just below Costa Rica. It is the same spot where we spent New Years' 06-07. It was nice to revisit a place that was slightly familiar. Being on the road and seeing so many new things is really great, but it is a nice to change to have a little sense of knowledge of the place. I think I have forgotten that reassuring little aspect of familiarity! It was cool to go back there and remember that the white truck at the end of the road has a guy who makes the most delicious sandwiches in the town...We went several nights for dinner there, and told as many people we could about his yummy sandwiches- They all agreed. I think the sandwiches were still even the same price:)

I thought it would be boring to go back there, but we ended up staying for a week!! We had a blast and weren't bored at all. We went to the beach, we did a cool dive, and we even attempted more surfing (it didn't go so well this time, as we forgot the board wax and couldn't stay on the board because it was too slippery!). We stayed in a relatively new hostel, and we met some great people that we hung out with for the week. Bocas is a big party town, and it is extremely hot AND buggy. Not a fun combination. It was the strangest thing, we decided that around 7pm was the hottest time of the day...It was very weird, you felt ok, finally cooling off from the scorching daytime heat and then in the evening you started sweating all over again! So, the combination of staying up late, not sleeping due to the heat, and being eaten alive- Bocas kinda wiped us out...

Which leads us to where we are now. We are in the highlands, in a town called Boquete. There is supposed to be some good hikes and some hot springs here. For today, we are doing nothing...Relaxing and catching up on sleep, as well as enjoying the cooler mountain temperature! We are finally not sweating!!! And my bug bites are subsiding...

There is a serious need for editing down here...

Do you see anything wrong with this sign?
It doesn't make any sense!!! It was a sign that was in our hotel, encouraging visitors to book any excursions with them because they would allow a full refund if you would like to cancel due to rain, unlike other tour operators in town. A very good thing to have, as it really pours here during the rainy season!

Adrian and I have a great idea for a new business...Contracting Sign Editors for businesses all over Central America. We've been seeing signs, all over the place, written in English for benefit of the non*Spanish speaking visitors. This is a very good idea, obviously, but noone seems to execute it very well. The translations turn out very bad, and often don't make much sense. If you were a business owner and had the good idea to make your signs in English, shouldn't you go to a little bit of trouble to find a native English speaker to give it a once over?! I'm not trying to make fun, as I myself am trying to get by in a country who's language I don't speak very well...But we do find it funny that noone takes that extra little step to make sure the signs make sense...Or that there are no spelling errors. Just a thought!

Costa Rica!

So we have made it to Costa Rica...Like I mentioned before, the rainy season is upon us, but it´s really not too bad. It rains for a bit in the afternoon, or just at night. For us it just means that we now bring our rain jackets with us all the time, and try to plan it so we are not stuck in a downpour with all our belongings on our backs.

After the tropical storm passed in Nicaragua, the next day was absolutely beautiful. So, of course we headed to the beach and took surfing lessons! It was great! I was able to stand up after a few tries, and by the end of the afternoon I could stand on almost every try. Granted, I still had help from the instructor turning the board around and getting into the wave at the right time. Next time I try I´m sure it will be so much harder, as you have to do so much crazy paddling! But it was fun, and we will definetly do some more. I wish Christen were there to learn with me!

Anyways, back to Costa Rica...We just spent the last three days driving up and down the Western coast of the Nicoya peninsula. We beach hopped and drove between all these hard-to-get-towns. We rented a car because it was easier than using the bus for where we wanted to go. I know, renting a car-so luxurious!!! It worked out well, though. We went to Tamarindo and Samara as our two major stops, and checked out most of the beaches in between. The beaches near Samara were pretty nice, and you could find yourself all alone on a beach. Very nice...We just headed back inland and into the mountains, we are on our way to Volcan Arenal and then Monteverde Cloud forest.

Rainy season?

So we are now in Southern Nicaragua on the coast, in a town called San Juan del Sur. We were aware that the rainy season was approaching, so I was wary about how much rain we would get and how crappy things would be. About 1 week ago we were in Granada, and it did rain a few days at night. I mean, torrential rain. But when it rains at night it´s not so bad, plus it cooled things off. But this past week since Sunday it has rained a lot. Everyday, and for the past couple of days, most of the day...And now we are in the middle of Tropical Storm Alma!!

What makes it worse is that our friends Gavin and Lilly are visiting...And it´s just raining and raining! Normally we would just chill and wait out the storm. We want to do things and show them around, but there´s not much to do besides surf here. And we can´t do that in a tropical storm! Our initial plan was to leave here this morning, but all the buses stopped running because the roads flooded. It might not even look good tomorrow for us to leave here, or take a surfing lesson...We shall see...

Country number 6!

So we have made it to Nicaragua, quite easily. When we got to southern Honduras to get a bus onwards, we found out that the bus strike is over. That made things ok for us to get around. Right now we are in Granada, an old colonial city. It's very cute, all these old buildings and churches painted in lively colors. We have heard great things about Nicaragua, so we are reviewing our plan of attack so we don't miss anything here. There are a bunch of volcanoes, crater lakes, and beautiful beaches to see. Our friend Gavin is flying into Costa Rica on Saturday, so I think we will have them come up to Nicaragua for a few days and then work our way back south with them. There are places we don't want to miss by going to Costa Rica to quickly, and things we think that they would also enjoy...

I think tomorrow we will head off to a place called the Monkey Hut, a cabin on a crater lake called Laguna de Apoyo, do some swimming and relax. It is hot here, so I need to get to some water to cool off!

More diving and good times in Utila

We have been here in Utila for the past 5 days...Besides the insane bugs and how hot it is here, we are enjoying ourselves. I have never had so many bug bites all at once that are so itchy!

We did some cool dives here, including a night dive! I have to admit, I was pretty nervous the whole time. It was hard, because it was dark, everyone kinda clustered together underwater, not wanting to get to far away from the dive leader. The clustering led to a lot of bumping into each other and kicking each other, which was kinda annoying...Because of that I couldn't exactly calm down and relax the whole time. We did see a crazy Bat Fish, which basically looks like an ugly underwater frog with a tail. It even hopped along the ocean floor...I will give night diving another shot sometime, and maybe I will be more relaxed if I try it again.

Yesterday we did another set of cool dives during the day and we were able to borrow a good underwater digital camera. We got some really good pictures, better than with the disposable underwater camera! We should have done our advanced open water certification while we here (currently with our open water certification you can only dive to 60ft, so with the next level I think you can dive to 130ft.) but it was an extra $100 that we didn't really want to spend. Adrian has a friend here who is a dive instructor and has been great showing us around and helping us with the dives....

Today is our last day here and we will probably ride around on some bikes to see more of this tiny island. We are going next to Nicaragua, or Costa Rica. Apparently there is a transportation strike in Nicaragua which will make traveling within the country much more of a hassle and expense. International buses are running, so our other option is to skip the country and just go to Costa Rica, which would be a shame because we here great things about Nicaragua...I will keep you posted on what we end up doing. We have another visitor next week! Adrian's buddy Gavin and his girlfriend Lilly are coming to Costa Rica....Should be fun!

I miss my friends!

Yes, it's true. I wish I could see them and talk to them more then I can while traveling. I was thinking of this especially yesterday...We took a 4 hour catamaran sail boat ride to get from one island of Honduras to the other (Roatan to Utila), and with us on the boat were 10 girls that were living in Roatan, working there as dive masters. They arranged this boat ride as a "girls trip", and they were having fun just hanging out and lounging on the boat. I was very jealous, wishing I could transport all my girlfriends to that sailboat ride in that very instant. It would have been great to have them there, so I dozed into a nice little daydream about them all being here and sharing in the fun times...

So....Just to catch you up on what we've been doing-like I said, we are in Honduras. It's been a busy couple of weeks, and simultaneously without very good internet connections. Right now we are in Utila, and last week we were in Roatan. My mom and her friend Lynne were here visiting us for the week, so we had a great time with them! We picked them up in San Pedro Sula after blazing through El Salvador in three days. From there we took them to see the Mayan ruins of Copan, and then back across the country to the coast, and off to Roatan. They were up for backpacking around Honduras, which kicks butt, cause not many people might want to travel the way we are. But they were up for it! We stayed for the last 4 days in Roatan and enjoyed the beautiful island. The weather was amazing, and the beaches were gorgeous. You could even just swim right off the beach and snorkel on the reefs there. After they left on Wednesday we did a couple of dives, which were also amazing!

So we are now in Utila and we will be here for 3 or 4 more days. We will do some more dives, definetly a night dive!! From here we will get ourselves to Nicaragua...

Market time in Chichicastenango

Today I went to a market in a town about 2 hours from here in San Pedro on Lake Atitlan, called Chichicastenango. It's apparently a very world renowned market place so I thought it would be a good thing to check out. It certainly was huge! There were a ton of people there, shopping, as well as hocking all their goods. It was crowded, so I had to be extra vigilant about my purse and a couple of times I evenn got pushed over by little Mayan women! It is funny when you see stall after stall of the same items....So much of the stuff is so beautiful, with all these vibrant colors. I would just love to buy blankets, table coverings, and other cool Guatemalan knick-knacks that I know would look great in my future residence- but since I don't have one, and can't fit all that stuff in my backpack- I settled for some nice jewelry....

I don't like bargaining much, but I turned out to be a pretty good haggler, of course accidently. I wanted a jade necklace, but didn't want to pay 200 quetzales. When they didn't like my offering price, I just said no thanks and started to walk away, really just preparing not to buy anything. That really was my plan, but that always worked for them to agree to my price :) So I ended up with a great necklace, a pair of wooden earrings, 2 headbands, a belt...and my meal... for about $30 USD. After thinking about bargaining later on, I started to wonder if I should feel guilty about the final price I paid. Does the bargaining really cheat these people of money they need to live on? You always expect that they mark up the price expecting to be bargained with, but is what they end up with just not enough?

There were so many kids trying to sell things, and more just begging for money. That is always difficult to see. I did buy one headband from a little girl just really to see a huge smile on her face after we made a deal. If you buy something, or give money to one little kid it's like an alarm goes off on every kid in a 40 foot radius (which is alot in this crowded market). Suddenly they all swarm around you...It's hard to even help one little kid because then all the others expect money from you as well. I know this is a problem everywhere that I know many of you have experienced during your travels as well, but it is always hard.

Tomorrow we are heading out of our blissful chill time at the Zoola hostel. It has been one of our favorite places so far. It is so easy to just pass your whole day lounging around reading and relaxing (and not at all feeling guilty about it!). And the food is absolutely delicious here, too! The place was started by an Israeli couple, and they made a menu that caters more than to just the Guatemalan native tastes. I stocked up on eating yummy salads and veggies, because I feel like that has been a little lacking in my diet.

So we are headed to El Salvador tomorrow...We only have 4 days to get over to Honduras to pick up my mom and her friend Lynne who are visiting us!!! Very exciting!!!

Lago de Atitlan

We are in a beautiful lake region of Guatemala, called Lago de Atitlan...It really is beautiful here. There are a ton of mountains and another volcano that surround the lake, dropping down right to the edge of the lake, making for a very picturesque setting! We first went to a town called Panajachel, a cute little lakeside town, and today we moved to San Pedro, another cute lakeside town. We did some kayaking on the lake yesterday...whew that is hard!! I'm sure tomorrow my arms will be feeling the pain.

I missed a great fun weekend in Boston this past weekend...an alumni game, Red Sox, and the Boston Marathon, one of my favorite all time events to attend...mmmm....:( But, it's all good, I will just have to catch them next year!

Enjoying Antigua

Ok, so after getting over the few days of ickiness, we are now enjoying ourselves in Antigua. It´s a very cute, old Colonial town in the mountains. It´s a small little city, with cobblestone streets and multicolored old stucco buildings. It just oozes charm...The weather is a little chillier here then we have encountered yet on our trip, but that´s ok.

It´s been an interesting week...I decided to take a Spanish class for the week, hoping it will help me more. Today was my last day...I would go in the afternoons from 2 to 6 and speak with my instructor, Tatiana. At first I thought she was a little strange (she told me that eating strawberries makes your hair fall out!), but she turned out to be very nice and patient with my messy Spanish. She told me a lot about her life in Guatemala, her family, and all the reasons that make life in Guatemala very difficult for many people. It was very interesting to talk with her and be able to ask questions about her life...I just wish I had a better answer then ¨ah, es muy dificil¨. Not that she was complaining, or at all whining about her life, it´s just what she knows as her life. This week she bought a used washing machine, and it was a huge deal for her. The first time in her life she ever had credit, and of course now she has to have monthly payments. For the past 2 days we would just read the Guatemalan newspaper and discuss what we read, which was interesting for both of us...My problem is that Spanish words are so damn long!! I mean, we don´t have many common words that are 5 and 6 syllables long...Anyways, I enjoyed my class and I think it helped.

Onto other things from this week...You know, just your everyday earthquakes and volcano hikes. Yes, you read that right, there was an earthquake here on Monday night! We were sitting in our room eating some cheese and crackers and drinking wine and then I felt the bed shake...First I thought, ¨Antigua has an underground train?¨...Then we realized the whole building was shaking!!! I ran to the doorway with my proper earthquake response (but I think I didn´t make it there until it was over!) and everyone in the hotel starting chatting with amazement. It was a big quake, 6.1, but there was no damage and to my knowledge noone was hurt. It was felt in El Salvador and up in parts of Mexico! My first earthquake...I hope I don´t feel any more!

Two days after the quake we went to hike Vulcan Pacaya. There are 4 active volcanoes just in this little area!! It was a pretty steep, but short hike up. We couldn´t go all the way to the top, but we walked around the field of lava rocks. There was even lava flowing down this field that we walked right over! That was pretty crazy to me. I couldn´t believe how hot lava is!! (I know, it´s brilliant) It was pretty cool...

We will probably head to a new place on Sunday...We have only until May 2nd to get to Honduras to pick up my Mom!! She´s coming for a visit, so I am very excited!!!

yuck....

That goes for my first, and hopefully only, bout of intestinal yuck-i-ness on the trip...I starting feeling dizzy and nauseous in the afternoon and from there it went down hill. We're not even sure the cause, as I ate the same things everyone else ate, and they are ok?! After finally falling asleep last night, I feel ok today. So it was only a 6 hr. bug...Let's hope it stays away...

Semuc Champey and Lanquin!

So we are continuing on to see the beautiful country of Guatemala. We have just arrived in the city of Coban for some catch up on laundry, internet, various supplies (shampoo, etc) for a few days before we move on. We just came from a place about 2.5 hours north of Coban, a town called Lanquin -we had to get up at 5am to catch the only bus out of this town in the middle of nowhere!

The attractions of this area was a place called Semuc Champey, a park nearby Lanquin. This park has a beautiful river that flows through a valley, but also kind of on top of the river the natural limestone there formed beautiful natural pools all connected by little (and big!) waterfalls. It´s a little strange, but yes, there is a river flowing under a limestone bed, with the natural pools on top of it...I´m no geologist, so I cannot explain it further, but trust me-it was a beautiful place and we had a great day there! First we took a hike up the side of the valley, to the lookout called El Mirador to see the view of the natural pools. It was only about 35 minute hike up, but it was hard!! Very steep, and the heat and humidity add an extra level of difficulty. The view was well worth it, as we looked down on the series of pools that were this beautiful vibrant green color. After enjoying the view we hiked back down to go swimming in the pools. The water was so clear, and the setting was so pretty, so we all went for a dip. The pools were mostly connected by little waterfalls, or ledges, so you could just slide from one to the other or dive from the upper pool. It was even deep enough in some areas for Adrian to do a crazy 35 ft high jump off a tree hanging out over the river! Our guide told us he had a secret trip for us, so we scooted down a bunch of the pools and got to a bigger waterfall where the surprise was...He brought a rope ladder with him and threw it over the 15 ft. waterfall and had us all climb down into a cave where the underlying river meets the water flowing from the final pool, if that makes sense. Some surprise!! It turned out to be a little scary, dangling on this rope ladder in the middle of a waterfall, especially when we got to the bottom and the guide tells us to ¨step on him¨ to get down!! He was literally standing in the cascading water holding the end of the rope, and he was a human rung on the ladder! That dude must be insanely strong to have 15 people climbing down a rope and standing on him, in the middle of a waterfall!!! Craziness!!! From there it only got crazier as we walked into the cave that was under the pools and we then shimmied through a hole about the size of a smallish TV with stalactites and stalagmites protruding out...We sat in the cave, getting drenched and chilly totally unsure of what the hell we were doing there or how we were going to get out! He then told us a story about the Mayan caves we´d heard before (and at this point I am thinking he just made up) and turned us around to get back out the same way...Needless to say, it sure was a surprise part of the tour...Scary at many points but kinda cool to have done it...

From the park we went to see some caves in town of Lanquin. They were OK, but since we already saw an amazing cave on the ATM tour, so this one wasn´t as nice (but I should say, I think caves are always pretty cool)...I guess it was just different. But there was one strange twist here...At dusk, thousands of bats fly out of this cave into the night sky, and you can sit outside the cave and watch. Or so we thought...There was only 5 of us now, and our guide decided to take us back into the cave in the dark to get a closer up look at the bats!!! Since both of us forgot our prized headlamps we were making due sharing the light of one flashlight, the guides´ headlamp, and my not-so-bright-maglite, in the pitch black trying to hike through a cave. We manage to get a bit inside and scramble to find somewhere to sit. At this time, a few bats are flying around here and there making their way toward the exit...We sit and wait some more and suddenly there are bats everywhere!! I really do mean thousands!! We managed to sit still and quiet for a few minutes (me with my hands covering as much of my face and ears as possible), and you could feel the wind of their wings flap as they flew by your head...Bat squeaks everywhere, and then we would just cower on the side and someone would shine the light and watch tons fly by and all around us. Adrian and Nick were brave enough to stand up and move even closer into their flight paths, but not me!! I think you will all be proud, I didn´t even shreek...that much...Just a few squeals here and there :) I startle easily :)

There´s even more to mention about my first sighting of a tarantula....The beautiful ride up the mountains of Guatemala, incredibly winding and inducing car-sickness bus rides (KC, SS, JH-you would definetly have vomited!). And the back of the pickup rides up and over dirt mountain roads to even get to Semuc Champey...But I know I am babbling on to much for a quick blog update!

Country Number Three

So we have made it to Guatemala. We arrived Friday in the late afternoon and are sweltering in the Guatemalan heat. The weather was hot in the Western side of Belize, but the temperature has definitely just kept going up as we moved into Guatemala. I am in a state of constant sweating!

We are in a little island called Flores, which is located in Lago de Peten Itza. We came here to serve as a base for going to Tikal, but this is a nice little island. It´s basically just a hill, with crazy cobblestone streets throughout the town (which seem to be the most difficult cobblestone I´ve ever tried to walk on!), and maybe there is about 2 trees. At the top of the hill there is a nice open stone plaza where there is a basketball/soccer court, and it seems to be the only open area on the island...And that´s where the 2 trees are. But it is so hot here that we have just been spending a lot of time in the water. There is not much of a beach, but there is just one section with steps down from the road onto a little pebble beach and everyone swims there. It´s a very chill place here with not much to do but swim...It´s cool.

We got here Friday evening and arranged a sunrise tour of Tikal for yesterday morning (Saturday). The idea of a sunrise tour seemed like a good plan, but we had to leave at 3:15 in the morning!!! So painful....The ride is a little over an hour to Tikal, but with the tour they let you in before the park even opens. You hike in the dark to one of the temples, climb up there, and wait for the sun to come up. It turned out to be a great way to see Tikal...First of all, getting there so early allows you to miss alot of the crowd factor, and you miss the midday heat. When we left at 11 it was really sizzling out there so we were so glad we were done!

Tikal was amazing!! Such a huge Mayan city...When we climbed the first temple, many days there is a fog that prevents you from seeing the view of the other temples peaking above the forest, but we had a clear view. We sat in silence watching the forest and hearing the birds and monkeys waking up, all while taking in the amazing view of the jungle and the temples in the distance. It was pretty nice...The rest of the time we spent walking around to the other temples and hearing about the history of each. We got to climb almost all the temples, so that was also an added bonus. Some were very steep and it was a little scary to climb them, and by the end of the morning our legs were shot from hitting all those stairs!! We also saw a bunch of toucans, toucanettes, howler monkeys, and a few other exotic birds during our walk around Tikal.

We got back to Flores and immediately went to the lake to cool off...As we were walking there, Adrian and I were talking about emailing Tracy and Nick, a cool couple from England we had met in San Ignacio a few days ago. They just started traveling for 6 months, and are going the same way we are so we exchanged emails and decided we would try to catch up with them. I was saying to Adrian,¨ok, I will email them after we swim and see where they are.¨ Low and behold, as we walk up to the beach, there they are swimming around...Cool. So we met up later for happy hour, and hung out all night having some beers and chatting...At about 11:30 we left the hostel and tried to find another bar. We ended up at an outside bar just grabbing a beer when one of the local guys from the table next to us busted out his guitar and started singing. That began a round of the four of us trying to join in on his songs, making requests, and enjoying the music. He was even playing some Spanish song that I actually knew! It was a great little music session with us singing Spanish songs and the guy trying to play any English songs he knew...Good times! We sauntered home around 1am, realizing we had been awake for almost 24 hrs...I was exhausted...

More ruins

Yesterday we went to a smaller ruins, at a place called Cal Pech. I know we both keep mentioning ruins, but we are not sick of them yet! They are always interesting...This was a smaller site, but was cool because the excavated buildings had more little rooms and passageways to walk in than other sites we have been in. The site had all these arched doorways leading into various rooms, and even a hole that just went into darkness under a temple (none of us were brave enough to go in). It was a nice afternoon just walking around with a couple fellow travelers from Vancouver. After the ruins we walked back to town and got some food. AJ & Jaimie were obsessed with the jalapeno poppers, but they were so hot they were both almost crying!!! Food that spicy does not seem tasty to me at all?! Why torture your poor little mouth...

Today we are leaving Belize to go to Guatemala. I better get my "Spanish-speaking boots" back on...

A Living Museum

Yesterday we went to one of the best museums I have seen in a long time....We went to a Mayan cave called Actun Tunichil Muknal. This cave was used as an ancient burial ground over 2000 years ago! The Mayans viewed caves as "portals to the underworld", where they would go to worship their ancestors, make offerings to their gods-in the form of human sacrifices and food and pottery items brought into the caves. In this cave there were 15 human remains, all sacrifices...A few were adults, but most were children. This was such a fascinating tour, in many ways.

First of all- we had to hike, swim, climb, and crawl 1/3 of a mile into this cave to get to the areas where the artifacts were. I mean, it was a challenging thing to do-trying to keep yourself not from falling over in the dark, and trying not to fall into any huge rocks. We wore helmets with headlamps on them, and you had to be sure not to get your head wet as to not kill your light (which would completely suck!). Upon entering the cave, the first thing we did was to swim neck deep across a 15 ft pool (wearing all our clothes and sneakers) to get to the first rock! At least right from there we knew what we were getting into, seeing as there was no time wasted in getting wet and already trying to find footing on hidden underground rocks. It was a bummer we didn't have our cameras with us at some point during the hike, but I definitely would have dropped mine in the water and/or smashed it into a boulder (the guide carried them in a wet bag for us until we got to the artifacts). It would've been a good picture to see us all trouping through this cave. The guide led us through some crazy tight squeezes, up and over little waterfalls in the cave-all while pointing out the beautiful geological formations along the way. There were crazy crystal limestone rocks on the walls, and beautiful stalactites and stalagmites. The cave was huge!!! It is 5km long, and we only went a quarter of the way in!

Second of all, all the Mayan artifacts are undisturbed and were left in this cave just as they were found. It took them 4 years to map the cave, and the archaeologists just took inventory of everything but left all the pottery and human remains in the cave. After climbing up this 6 foot skinny rock, clamboring over a rocky ledge-we were about to see some Mayan artifacts. But first, we had to take our shoes off! We all had to hike through the remaining areas of the caves in just our socks...which was a little rough on the feet! They wanted to keep skin oils off the areas where the artifacts were. Which made some sense, as we were about to see. When we finally got to the chamber where the artifacts were-some were just inches from your feet!! Broken Mayan pots were everywhere...I think the Mayans brought the pots into the caves and then broke them to release its' spirits. We walked along, in and around pottery shard lying all over the cave floors, hearing about why they were brought in, and what it meant to the Mayans. Then we saw the first human skeleton-and its' skull was just lying on the ground a few feet away from us, just as it had been for years and years....After going through so many museums in my life and seeing pottery and plates in a glass case next to little descriptive typed paragraphs, seeing them in so-called "real-life" was so cool! We had to be very careful where we walked, as the artifacts were everywhere. One small misstep to the side and you could crush an ancient Mayan pot (and wouldn't you feel like such as ass?!), but luckily noone in our group did. It was such a cool thing to be somewhere where archaelogists didn't just sweep the place clean of everything and throw it into a museum, but let people see the items in their original actual place and how they were used.

The last thing we did was to climb a ladder up to a 15 ft. ledge and through a couple more narrow caves to see the only complete skeletal remains to be found in a Mayan cave. The remains are of a woman, estimated to be about 18 years old. They call her the "Crystal Maiden"....Check the bottom of the blog for her picture!

Catch up on the past few days.

Right now I am writing from my hammock and I will update you on the last few days. After leaving Cockscomb Park we went north to visit the ruins at Laminai. The best way to see it, as we read in the guidebooks, was to take and hour and half boat ride to get there, so we went to the town of Orange Walk to do this. The town of Orange Walk seemed a bit sketchy, and nothing after 9:00 is open except fast food Chinese walk-up windows....So we made reservations through our hotel and the tour started at 9:30. We got in the boat, and were to cruise down the New River to get there. Along the way the guide pointed out various birds. There was also a lady in the boat who really knew her birds, so between her and the guide it was a birding paradise. The boat ride was very nice, and we took our time getting there. We got a good look at the Jabiru bird-the largest bird in the Western Hemishere! It nested along the river, so that was cool. We also passed by a large Mennonite settlement from the river banks (they have a big population here in Belize, and supply Belize with 60% of the country's rice and meat!). After cruising we neared the dock, and from the water you could see a big temple peeking over the tops of the jungle trees. It looked pretty cool! So we had lunch and then entered the area with the temples, our first time with a guide-so I was intrigued to find out what more info we would pick up from him. Good news- you can climb the temples here! So far every ruin we have seen has been roped off. This site was pretty cool. Amazingly, the site of Lamanai has about 700 structures there, but only 5 are excavated! You could see mounds off to the side with jungle growing on them that would be small temples but were not excavated...That is petty crazy. The Mayan city of Lamanai was also the longest functioning city, lasting substantially longer then any of the other bigger Mayan cities. The best part was that we got to climb the biggest temple on the grounds. 112 feet to the top, on some steep stairs! We were so excited to climb it we practically ran up the steps. What an insane view from the top-you were above the jungle, looking out over the river we just came down and the rest of the jungle. It was beautiful...There was one husband and wife that climbed the temple, and they stuck in my mind for two reasons...First, the husband looked so much like Horns (Jess's dad!) that it cracked me up, and second, the wife was very scared of heights but still climbed all the way to the top, slow and steady. We took pics for them at the top to prove she did it... overall it was a great tour, so worth it to see Lamanai.

From there we headed back to Belize City to do a couple other things. We went to the Belize Zoo which was little but pretty good. They had a few jaguars, which was nice to see, since we didn't run into any in the wild. They even had a baby jaguar! He really looked just like a kitten, he was so little. We walked by a pen with a few deer in it, and it was dinner time so they were all eating. Suddenly, one of the deer started choking! You could see piece of fruit lodged in its' mouth-it started gagging and it even fell over! I really thought it was going to choke to death-I was going to run to get zoo help! After a couple of minutes he was able to get it out, but it was a close call. Very glad I didn't witness an animal choking death! Saw some cool monkeys, and of course some strange other animals...Like the tapir.

That night we stayed in Belize City. After dinner, we were sitting on the porch talking to a few people staying there, and the guy that works at the hotel. Then the power went out. We weren't too alarmed, but then a minute later someone told us there was a fire in the city. We ran up to the second floor, and could see a huge blaze, about 3 blocks away! It was crazy, the flames were shooting up higher then the buildings! We watched it for awhile, and I was nervous t would spread-but it didn't! And luckily, no one was hurt.

The next day we left to go to the Community Baboon Sanctuary, a very cool tiny little village about one hour from Belize City. First of all, let me point out that there weren't really baboons there, but rather the Creole word for monkey is baboon. This was a great place, about 10 years ago, a scientist studying the population of Black Howler Monkeys noticed their numbers were declining. The land that the monkeys lived in was all private property, belonging to local farmers and village people. They would cut down forests in order to farm and destroy the howler monkey habitats. This scientist, Robert Horwich, approached the villagers with the idea of teaching them more sustainable farming techniques that would allow them to keep the monkey habitat intact, and that by doing so, they could also use their land to show visitors the howler monkeys, creating a little tourist spot for this tiny village. It was so successful, most of the villagers participated, and the program spread to other villages nearby. The Black Howler population thrived, and is now at 4,000, and the villagers get to take people on tours of their land. So we got there and took a tour in the afternoon. During the evening the monkeys cross from their daytime hangout back to where they sleep, swinging and jumping from tree to tree to get there. The guy whose land it was had one particular monkey family of 7, including a little baby, that would cross the tree tops right in his yard, and we got there at the exact time they started this little journey. We watched them from just about 10-15 feet at times! I forgot to mention what makes these monkeys special is that they really HOWL, I mean, very loudly! You can hear there noises from a mile away, and that is no exaggeration! As they crossed, the male did his crazy howl-and it is so funny! I have never heard such an animal noise....And then you could hear monkeys in the distance responding with their calls! They were really close to us, and we were the only people around, so we go to hang out, and follow them for awhile. We took some videos of the monkeys, and you should be able to hear the crazy howls, so be on the lookout (if I can figure it out maybe I will post it here). It was so enjoyable to see them in the wild, but pretty close.

Sidebar: did you know that there is such a thing as a cashew fruit? We didn't! The nut grows off the fruit, but you can eat the fruit as well-and the season for cashew ripening is just starting. We tasted one, well, a couple-they are delicious! This village had cashew trees everywhere, so I'm sure they enjoy that....After the tour we just chilled in our cabana with no running water (it happened to break that day), and later, the electricity went out! A quick bucket shower rinse and reading by candlelight. From that village of Bermudian Landing where the Howler monkeys were we came to our last wildlife park of Belize, a place called Monkey Bay Sanctuary.....But-they have no monkeys here!