Guatemala and Lake Atitlan

We drove to Guatemala City on Wednesday afternoon - the second time we've made the four hour overland trek and the first time we've seen death on the road

Dead pedestrian (or "peotone" in Spanish) on the trunk of the car that killed him.



...and another knucklehead who only woke up when we stopped to snap his photo - he had been sleeping in one lane of the Pan American highway!

Guatemala City is quite large, urban, busy several million residents with great restaurants near our hotel in Zona 10. Mark had meetings while Kathleen explored parts of the city; the embassy closed at 1:00 PM on Friday and we headed out of town...


We drove to Panajachel, the launch point for visiting gorgeous Lake Atitlan, one of the most beautiful lakes in the world. It's surrounded by volcanoes, inhabited by many indigenous people and, quite a few ex-pats who seem to have entered a time warp circa 1972...

Sunrise at Lake Atitlan

Lake Atitlan

We stayed at an Eco-hotel called Isla Verde, a lovely, out of the way spot with a private dock near the hamlet of Santa Cruz. A friend told us it has a "scorpion problem" (after we got back) but we never noticed the scorpions and figured...

the huge spiders we saw ate them all!

Isla Verde from Lake Atitlan

We attended a Woodstock-esque music festival on Saturday and immediately figured out where all the American hippie refugees now hang their dashikis and bell bottoms. The people watching was without peer but we didn't take photos so as not to harsh anyone's mellow, so you'll have to take our word for just how groooovy it was!

As a consolation, this is a photo of our bathroom at Isla Verde - yes folks, it's outdoors.

We said goodbye to Isla Verde and Lake Atitlan - the water taxi back to Panajachel was full and one of our fellow concert goers was also a passenger:Two of the volcanoes that surround Atitlan

Kathleen waiting for the water taxi

We had great fun in Guatemala and will certainly be back before long - next stop Costa Rica! Bye now

Tegucigalpa - March 2010

Hi All

We spent the last few days in Tegucigalpa, capital of Honduras. As usual Mark had to work for a couple days and we tacked on some tourist activities. This morning we hired a driver (Jose - a really good guy) to take us to La Tigra national park, about 30 minutes from downtown Teguc.

Our driver Jose - hire him if you visit Tegucigalpa (504) 9940-7739, lousy picture but he's great!

                                                                   

We hiked for a couple hours on one of the moderate trails up the mountain; the cloud forest was exquisite and we barely saw anyone else the whole time. Alone with just birds and primeval vegetation for company it was perhaps the most peaceful time we've had since arriving in Central America.

A really huge tree on the trail - check out the amazing vineage

It's hard to describe just how much we miss the ability to go for a walk or ride our bikes - just not in the cards while living in San Salvador. We both so appreciate it more now when we can.

Mark under a mega-arbol











Ever seen a baby blue Mushroom before?



After La Tigra Jose recommended we visit Pichaco - a park high above the city, and it was well worth our time. Lovely and bucolic with lots of little kids and a stunning view of Tegucigalpa plus the largest Jesus statue anywhere in the region outside Brazil

Tegucigalpa                

Jesus Cristo Estatua

We really liked Tegucigalpa, cleaner and slower paced than San Salvador; we'll be back again soon

Costa Del Sol

Que Ondas Todos? (What's up everybody?)

We spent Sunday at the beach - Costa Los Blancos, a stone's throw from the better known Costa Del Sol. Our friend Sonia invited to pass the day at family's beach house so we made the easy one hour drive to paradise.

It's the first place we've been in El Salvador that we could actually walk on the beach for any distance...                                                                                  Sonia & Kathleen

After we all went for a dip we went shopping for fish! Sonia, Mario and Natalia took us to Paty the fish monger, only 100 meters from their house...

 it was incredible and we bought a couple pounds of freshly caught huge shrimp..

Paty's Shrimp

...and some great Red Snapper that Paty's folks filleted for us

Natalia with a TINY fish

All in all it was a beautiful day and we had a great time swimming in the ocean, away from the very smoggy city. Bye now

Belize

Mark had a work trip to Belize, so we went together to check out the smallest capital city in the world, Belmopan. It is so small - 7,000 inhabitants - that we didn't take a picture. There is not much to see, but now we can say we visited the smallest capital in the world!

We left Belmopan after Mark met with all the necessry people there, including the ambassador, a school friend of Obama's. Caulker Caye (pronounced key) is where we headed, to relax, take it easy, walk around, see the lovely Caribe, maybe snorkel or dive -- just generally vacate.

local sculpture

Caulker Caye is famous for , hmmmm, let's see - I think it's famous for a lot of rasta-looking folks who are very very very relaxed. I mean, very relaxed. The motto of the place is 'go slow' and so we did.


Our first night we stayed at Mara's Place. Most hostels are better. After being eaten alive, we switched hotels to a place with a lovely view. And screens. And room to turn around.

Kathleen outside Mara's - the best place to be in that hotel (sorry Mara)

The view from our second room - at The Barefoot Caribe

Snorkeling - look at all the pretty fish!

So our analysis of Belize is - a lovely, relaxed, and laid back atmosphere, great for diving or hanging around in the sun. We'll be back (for business) and may visit a different caye or explore some Mayan ruins... we'll definitely bring a good book.

Current Events

Happy St. Valentines and Presidents Day Everyone:

Kathleen just returned to El Salvador from 10 days in Chicago; anyone familiar with the Windy City knows it's not first on the list of winter vacation destinations - no, Kathleen was in town to assist her parents whose home was badly damaged in a pre-Christmas fire last December (that's their place on the top floor in the photo below).

Firemen enjoying the view one floor down - from the condo that burned

Needless to say Kathleen and her mom had a very busy week in Chicago punctuated by a winter storrm (par for the course) and not much down time.

In January we helped out with a Habitat for Humanity build in a rural area near the city of Sonsonate, about an hour from San Salvador. It was hard work but lots of fun with a big group of embassy folks. A couple of pix from the build:

Kathleen builds a septic tank!

Mark puts his training to work sifting













We're now solidly in the dry season in Central America - often threatens rain but definitely won't until May. Our Spanish continues to improve (Kathleen's is definitely better) so we're seeing one of our goals come to fruition. Our travel schedule looks quite active in the coming months - Belize shortly with Honduras and Guatemala hot on the heels. Stay tuned...

Leave us a comment, we want to hear from you!

Mayan Kingdom - Copan

Hola Everyone

We traveled to Copan this past weekend, one of the most famous and well developed archeological sites in the Mayan world (5th through 9th centuries AD (check out the link - Copan History) with our friends the Wetmores. It was a spectacular experience for all of us, everything from the 4.5 hour drive (don't totally trust your GPS folks there's a place for a map in everyone's kit) to the macaw sanctuary just outside the cool little town of Copan Ruinas where we stayed. Take a look at the pix and let us know what you think.

Road Hazards not typically found on the Kennedy or Stevenson!

Part of a flock of macaws on the path into the ruins - their cries kept us company all afternoon

The "residential" section of the ruins           

Our fellow travelers

Stela - tells the Mayan story

Mayan Face

Copan - Que Chivo!

Macaw Rescue

Nobody will ever see us - silly tourists

Hope you enjoyed this post - Copan is totally worth the trouble if you're into the history and want to explore the ancient world. More Later, bye!

El Boqueron

Hi Everybody

Today we "climbed" El Boqueron one of the closest volcanos that last erupted in 1917, then stopped by the beautiful Cafe Miranda on the way back for a coffee and to look at their zip lines.

         Kathleen on El Boqueron

             
Volcan Izalco from El Boqueron - Kathleen climbed through the lava field  up Izalco a few weeks ago. (click on the photo for a better view)

It was very windy on the volcano today, look at these pine trees!

Mark at Cafe Miranda

It was a great day - clear, crisp and even chilly up high. Hope you all like the pix!