Belize or Bust...trip 1

In January I headed to Belize with my brothers Russell and Tyler, my cousins Nathan, Heather, and Alison as well as Alison's roommate, Anja, and her sister, Cara, for Belize trip number one. How, you ask did I convince so many people to go to Belize? Well, the tickets were only $224 so it wasn't too hard to convince people to come. How, you especially ask did I get my doesn't like to leave the state of Idaho brother Russell to come??? Well, Belize has some amazing fly fishing...so I guess I don't need to say anymore about that. The first night there we went out to eat at a place near our hotel. On the way there it was raining a little bit, but when we were at the restaurant it really started to pour. As we left someone at the restaurant asked us if we wanted them to call a cab. I don't know what we were thinking but we all just decided to walk back to the hotel. I don't think we had any idea how bad it was pouring. The streets were completely flooded and the rain was coming down like it only does in tropical places. We started out running but our clothes got so wet and heavy it kind of slowed us down, not to mention the chaffing. It didn't take two seconds out in the rain for all of us to realize we were complete idiots. I'm sure the people at the restaurant were like, "dumb Americans" when we left without a cab. BUT, it was fun and was quite the adventure. I was just sure there was a crocodile waiting to eat me in the flooded streets, but I made it back okay. I don't know why but I'm always afraid I'm going to get eaten by a shark or crocodile or some other evil animal. I guess I just worry that I'll look like good eatin, and let's be honest, I probably would be good eatin. Here we are...a bunch of dummies soaked from head to toe. The only reason part of my jacket is still dry is that I did have an umbrella with me which kept me a little bit dry. The rain was coming down so hard though that it didn't take long for the water to start soaking through the umbrella.

Ty decided that if it was still raining the next day he'd wear a shower cap. What a goof ball!

But it didn't rain the next day (not very hard anyway), so instead of wearing my soaked through Diesel shoes I wore flip flops. Ty and Nathan however decided to wear their still wet shoes. Bad mistake though, bad mistake. We all payed dearly the rest of the trip.

That first full day in Belize, Russell went bone fishing and the rest of us went to the Mayan ruin called Xunantunich that is down on the Belize/Guatemala border. It was a pretty area and we had fun climbing all over the ruins. Here we are on top of one of the temples with the guards who were packing heat to keep us tourists safe from the Guatemalans. Belize and Guatemala don't get along too well...part of the problem being that Guatemala keeps claiming Belize as part of Guatemala. In fact many Guatemalan maps just show Belize as an extension of Guatemala. So I guess sometimes there can be tension at the border...hence the big guns.

View from Xunantunich

Me, just acting like a weirdo in my big, yellow, paper thin, poncho.

More of us. And no, my cousin Alison isn't 8 months pregnant here. I think she was wearing her backpack backwards and then had her raincoat on over it...it made for some nice pseudo maternity pictures though.

A view from inside one of the ruins.

Xunantunich still...

After we got back from Xunantunich, we met up with Russell in Belize City and Nathan, Tyler, Russell, and I took a ferry out to Ambergris Caye, an island about an hour from Belize City. The rest of the girls all stayed in Belize City the rest of the time and just did little day trips from there.

While we were waiting for our ferry we got offered drugs by one of the guys that worked for the ferry company. I guess Belize is a pretty lax place because he wasn't even trying to be sneaky about it. Our tour guy the day before told us that everybody in Belize smokes pot, including the Prime Minister...no wonder Belizians are so cool and easy going...and no wonder there are a lot of Rastafarians there.

So right off this guy at the ferry dock asked us if we wanted any "buds." And of course I don't have a clue what he's talking about so I'm like, "what are buds?"

He answers, "you know...Marijuana." To which I said, "no thanks." So then he's like, "well do you want some crack?"

SERIOUSLY, if we didn't want Marijuana, do you think we're going to want the hard stuff???

Anyway, we thanked him kindly for the drug offer and he left.

A little while later, as we were leaving the ferry docks, we saw the same guy and he said something to the effect of "good luck on your trip," to which I answered, (not even thinking of course), "good luck with your drug sales!" Luckily for my sake he didn't even seem phased at all by me yelling out "good luck with your drug sales!" in the middle of a crowded ferry dock and he yelled back, "THANKS!"

I'm lucky I guess that all the drug dealers were all chill from smoking pot so I didn't get beat up. And...in my defense for saying stupid stuff...it was daylight, there were a lot of normal people around, and they seemed like nice drug dealers, not the bad kind.

Here's a picture near our hotel on the island.

And here's a scary restaurant on the island. I just wasn't too comfortable with a CALL HOME sign right by a restaurant called "Cannibals Edible Solutions."

However...I wasn't too concerned about the cannibals when I saw this sign above. I knew they had to be civilized people if they wanted dog poop picked up. That to me is the line between a civilized people and an uncivilized people...what they do with their dog poo.

Waraguma's is the place where my brother Russell fell in love with the El Salvadorian food called pupusas. He even learned how to make them since coming home from Belize. It was the tiniest little restaurant...literally a hole in the wall, but the food was good.

We had a little bungalow right on the beach. This is the view from our deck. Good thing a tsunami didn't hit...we would have been dead for sure.

Our little hotel on the beach...it was a simple little place but was nice and clean. And, they had a dive shop there so we were able to go SCUBA diving (Nathan) and snorkeling (me and Ty) with the people that owned the hotel. It was super duper fun.

On Sunday after church we rented bikes and rode ALL over the island. The only cars that are allowed on the island are taxis and service vehicles so you see a lot of people on bikes or driving golf carts.

We had a lot of fun but the trip was definitely too short. I had a pit in my stomach as we headed to the ferry dock to go back to Belize City and then back to the U.S. I could have stayed there forever...or at least another week or so.

And look what was greeting me when we got back into the SLC airport...a whole bunch of big yellow boxes full of sample to be tested at ARUP Laboratories (my now ex-workplace). Seriously, could I not even enjoy my last few hours of freedom from thinking about work before having to be at work the next morning? Oh well, that's all in the past now.

Brazil 2008

I have already posted some pictures from our Christmas trip to Brazil, but I had a bunch more I thought I'd share. Basically, celebrating Christmas in Brazil was pretty much like celebrating Christmas in Idaho except that... Instead of hanging our stockings by the fireplace we hung them by the air conditioner...

Instead of going sledding, we went sand boarding...

Instead of having a poinsettia centerpiece, we had a fresh pineapple surrounded by acerola berries...

Instead of having to watch out for snow drifts in the road, we had to watch out for sand drifts...

And they even had donkeys...just like Mary and Joseph did. I would have ridden one on the beach but that would have just been asking for fleas!

Here's the city beach at night. My parents live four blocks away so it's nice to go walking there at night.

This is the Catholic church near a little beach town called Cumbuco. I guess they're trying to appeal to the local fishermen by making the front of the church look like a sailboat with Mary at the helm.

My mom at a local rest stop.

We went to a beach called Morro Branco and rode dune buggies. It was fun even though we all got sunburned.

One of the beaches at Morro Branco.

Mil just chilling after lunch.

We had lunch at Morro Branco. They served the fish like they do in most foreign countries...with the head and tail still attached and all the scales and bones still there. Most of us were eating from the center of the fish to stay away from the scary head and tail. As we finished up eating all the parts of the fish that any normal American would usually eat, Tyler looked over to where the fish plate was and said, "give me that head," in sort of a "you guys are pathetic Americans but I've lived in Africa so I'll eat the head" voice.

Thanks to Lee and Kim endlessly making fun of Tyler for saying "give me that head," the phrase has caught on with our family as what we say to anyone who doesn't finish eating something. For example, Kim might leave a couple of bites of cake or something after Sunday dinner on her plate...Lee will look over, point at the plate and say, "give me that head," and then he'll clean up her plate. So, if you hear members of my family say that phrase, now you'll know why.

Another view of Morro Branco

Ditto

Eating at Habib's, which is a Middle East meets Brazil fast food restaurant. It is very well known among missionaries who serve in Brazil and is a fun place to visit. And their kiddie play land puts McDonald's to shame...let's just say they have a Ferris Wheel.

A bright little cemetery out in the middle of nowhere on the way to Baturite. My camera didn't get a very good picture of it but it was so cool looking...like a miniature little Latino pueblo.

A Catholic stairway to heaven we passed on the way to Baturite.

Check out the size of these peppers! It is weird...all of their vegetables are HUGE except for the potatoes, which are super small.

Flip flops...the national shoe of Brazil. It is a good thing we've been training my dad over the past few years that these are flip flops and not thongs. Little did we know we were preparing him for life in Brazil.

They seriously have more colors, styles and types of flip flops in Brazil than in any other country in the world. My favorite brand are the Havaianas...they are so comfortable and are the cool flip flops to wear. And, thanks to the dollar being super strong right now, they are so cheap (ESPECIALLY compared to how much they cost at Nordstrom's). I only own four pairs so far but I'm sure I'll pick up a couple more each time I go to Brazil.

Until next time...

Spinsters in Costa Rica 2008

I'm just now getting caught up on posting trip pictures all the way back from October 2008. My Spinster friends Kate, Christa and I headed to Costa Rica for a week of what we thought would be fun in the sun but instead turned out to be a week of fun in the rain, with a little sunshine at the end. We were told not to worry about what time of year you visit Costa Rica because they don't get hurricanes down that far down supposedly. Well, we didn't get a hurricane but we did get three tropical storms which converged over Costa Rica just in time for our visit. Really it wasn't that bad though and we had plenty of fun.

The first place we went was to the Volcano called Arenal. It is still an active volcano and at night you can see the hot ash spouting out the top...pretty dang cool. It is the same type of volcano as Mt. Vesuvius which is sort of scary. And although it could blow up completely at any moment the odds of it not blowing its top while we were there were with us so we went ahead and slept a couple of nights in the little town at its base.

Here's me in front of Arenal, although it looks different when the top is covered in clouds and or smoke.

And in my defense, the hood of my jacket isn't on my head because I went all gangsta and joined some Central American gang or anything...it was just raining lightly at this point, but you can't tell it's raining in the picture so I just look like a weirdo with my hood on. But I wasn't just some weirdo with a hood on.

Around Arenal and in all of Costa Rica there are TONS of waterfalls. Everywhere you look there's another one. We went rappelling in the jungle and either climbed down or rappelled through several waterfalls. It was way fun even though due to lost luggage I was wearing levi shorts that were pretty heavy when wet and borrowed shoes.

After Arenal we took a jeep-boat-jeep ride to the Monteverde Cloud Forrest. On the way there we drove through some gorgeous places like in the picture above. Everywhere in Costa Rica just seemed green and beautiful. While we were driving though those three tropical storms descended upon us and soon enough we found ourselves in the following predicament...

totally stuck in the mud.

They made us get out of the van so they could try and get it up the hill. Of course we were all wearing flip flops and they made us get out in the middle of it all so our feet and legs got completely covered in mud but it was fun. And the good news is I, as of yet, haven't found any weird parasites in my feet due to basically walking bare foot through the Costa Rican mud.

After our driver got our van up the hill he had to go and be a hero and drive the other 8 vans stuck behind us up the hill as well. He was the craziest and most brave driver so I guess that made him the best one for the job. I named him Evel Knievel and that's what we called him for the rest of the journey.

So while we're waiting for our driver to get EVERYONE unstuck, we could have been waiting in the dry, warm van with all the other sensible people, but of course we weren't. There were pictures to take and adventures to be had. Besides, we were already soaking wet and muddy anyway, so we figured we may as well enjoy this crazy storm we all of a sudden found ourselves in.

Here I am trying to keep at least some of the torrential rains off me. I don't know why I was even trying though...I was already completely soaked through. And yes, that is my completely wet, heavy jacket blowing in the wind and almost getting torn from my grip...that just shows how windy it really was.

And here's Kate...getting it all on film. She's so hardcore when it comes to pictures.

We luckily made it to Monteverde before the ground got saturated enough from all the rains to lead to mudslides. Once we got to Monteverde it really started coming down and then tree branches started falling and the mudslides began. This is a picture of one of the really small mudslides we saw after it was cleaned up. We didn't get any good pictures of the big ones but we saw multiple lane highways completely covered with mud with cars trapped in the mess. It was pretty crazy.

We basically got trapped in Monteverde for a few days as mudslides closed off all the roads leading into the town and there was no movement in or out. We weren't too disappointed though as we were planning on staying there for a few days already, and we couldn't have gotten out if we'd wanted to anyway.

And... you could get around within Monteverde...just not in or out. So we were still able to do most of what we'd planned. One rain forest tour we were supposed to go on got cancelled because the trees were so saturated with water and tree branches were crashing to the ground and stuff and I guess they didn't want us to get killed or something. But other than that we did everything we'd planned to do. And more...

because we met this awesome couple from Israel who just happened to have a rental car and who for some reason decided it would be fun to invite us to travel around Monteverde with them. They must have really either liked us right off or must have been completely bored with each other because they invited us to hang out with them after only talking to us for about 10 minutes. Score! They were super nice and we basically had free transportation the rest of the time we were in Monteverde. So I guess sometimes it pays to talk to strangers.

And because everyone was basically trapped in town, we got to know some of the other tourists too. It was pretty fun because they had a TV in the lobby (actually the only TV in the hotel) and so we were all glued to it finding out about the storm and where the most recent mudslides and devastation were and when we were ever going to be able to leave. I was secretly hoping to get stuck there for a month or something, to avoid going back to work, but that didn't happen. But it was fun to all be huddled around the TV and talking about the storm. It felt like when a huge snowstorm hits Idaho and everybody is almost excited about it because the weather is so crazy and there's always the potential of getting to miss work, school, and/or church.

While we were at Monteverde, the pouring rain (like I had never experienced before) let up slightly so we were able to go Zip-lining. Flying through and above those HUGE, TALL, trees was exhilarating. A couple of the zip-lines were so high up I really couldn't even see the ground at all.

And other then the fact that those orange suits we were wearing had that "wet kids in the winter right after recess" smell and the fact that it was raining a little it was SO MUCH FUN. I'd highly recommend it.

Finally the rains let up and we were able to get on our way to Manuel Antonio. Since we'd had to walk up a muddy hill in the rain on the way into Monteverde, we decided to wear our awesome rain boots we bought at the local grocery store on the way out of Monteverde just in case it was a treacherous journey. But, it wasn't...the sun shone the whole day and the only water we saw was in the puddles drying up.

So, we got some weird looks wearing our rain boots that day. Probably especially because we first of all were all wearing shorts with our boots, second of all we were all wearing big tall soccer socks under our boots, and to top it all off, Christa had accidentally purchased 2 RIGHT boots!

Here we are looking stylish in our boots. If you look closely you'll notice that Christa (on the far right) is looking all right.

We'd vowed to wear our boots all the way to Manuel Antonio even though the sun was shining, but then we got stuck in a four hour traffic jam due to the mudslide clean up, and I had to ditch the boots for the rest of the trip. But I do have to say that was probably our best purchase on the trip...we had a lot of fun with those boots, they were great conversation pieces, and they kept our feet dry.

Here I am at Manuel Antonio wearing jeans because my shorts by that time smelled like mildew from getting wet and sort of dry so many times. We had such a hard time getting anything dry while we were in Monteverde. In fact, Kate melted her hairdryer into her gym shoe trying to dry them. It was pretty dang funny.

Manuel Antonio was gorgeous and we actually got a couple of days of sunshine just in time for the beach. We saw lots of animals in the jungle there too...from sloths to snakes to bats.

The trip was so much fun. Christa and Kate are great Spinsters to travel with and Costa Rica is a beautiful country and all the people we met were great.

The end.