Back at the beach....

After the adventure that it was to get to Antigua, it was really good to be there. In the Lonley Planet guide book, there´s tons about Antigua, but it is a really touristy place. There´s a lot of old Colonial buildings and it´s a cool city, but it was like a mini Eurpoe with all the non-native people walking around with all their quick dry clothes and cameras around their necks. Not thát I´m not a tourist, but you know, that´s not what we can down here for. We had been dropped off at a somewhat lame hotel, with very little personality and only one other group staying there. So during our first walk around the city we ran into a guy that we had met in Belize who was staying at a way better hostel called the Black Cat that we moved to the next day. It´s amazing what a difference a better atmosphere makes. We got some beds in a dorm room and the place was alomst full even though it´s not even high season. There was a restaraunt attached and the $8 per night included a great, big breakfast. It was just a way better place and we were lucky to find it, but I have been a little bummed that we haven´t found more like that. It would have been a bummer trying to travel by myself and not being able to meet people as much.The top pictrue and this one are views from our hostel. Really cool old, broked down churhes were everywhere. The next day we took a tour up to the Pacaya Volcano. It was really cool! It was pretty cloudy and a little rainy and cool the whole way up, then when we got to it, it was really warm and walking on the hardened lava I could feel the heat through my shoes. Here´s a video of some of the lava.

Garrett has been having a great time taking tons of pitcures and it´s cool to see his creative genius at work. Just so you know, in Nov he´s going to be having an art show that I´ll post about later, but he´ll show his pictures from this trip so stay tuned for some amazing photos at that show!We went on a police-escorted hike (they say it´s dangerous, but I think it probably is just at night and it´s a little bit of fear mongering going on) to an overlook of Antigua. This is looking at Pacaya Volcano that we hiked. It was mainly this kind of weather all the time if not more cloudy and rainy. It´s good with it being the rainy season because thére´s not many people here, but kind of a bummer when we are quarantined to our hostel by the occasional down pour. However, the clouds do lead to amazing sunsets. After a couple days in Antigua, we took a couple buses to get us to the coast, to the city of Puerto San Jose. The guidebook doesn´t really say much about this city, so it was a bit of a gamble, but we really lucked out. The first night we went to the first cheap place we could find. $3 a night, but it was pretty bad. Our room was really small, Garrett couldn´t stand up straight and it smelled pretty bad, so we had taken our mattresses out on the porch to sleep. That night was the biggest storm we´ve seen. It was prety amazing! More rain that I´ve ever seen, and fabulous lightning that was lighting up the whole sky, and thunder that rocked the whole place, it was really cool. Again, we were pretty much the only ones there except for the owner´s friends who we were pretty sure were in the mofia. There was a no guns sign bythe restaraunt, and a group of guys with thier prize girlfriends were there with a Marachi band serenading their lunch. So needless to say we were happy to find somewhere else to stay.

Garrett has been wanting to surf and we thought there would be a shop here to rent borads, but upon asking around, we found that there wasn´t one, but there was a guy who surfs, and these kids took us to his house. Turns out he is this great guy, Daniel, who is sponsored by Quicksilver and his brother owns a hostel. Daniel has a couple extra boards that he´s been letting us use. The problem is, he´s like most other Guatemalans in that he is probably 5` 4 or something and he´s a great surfer so they´re these little sporty boards that aren´t great for learning, especially for Garrett. But it´s been pretty fun to just go out and get worked. We went out without boards and just stood in the way of the waves to purposly get rocked to get back in the ocean mode. We´ve been here for a couple days and there´s been a lot of relaxing going on. I´ve been studying a lot of Spanish and I´m more than half way through the 1067 page feat of reading Atlas Shrugged and I can´t put it down. Here´s where I´ve been spending a lot of time.Daniel has three great kids who patiently help me with my Spanish, and come over to play every day because it´s their summer break right now from school. It´s great to play with them in the ocean too. It´s amazing how kids can play in the ocean forever and be super content, and how fun it is to be out there playing with them. We lucked out finding this place for sure. ´We´ll be here for at least a couple more days. Another friend, Mark is coming this weekend and we´ll figure out more when he gets here what we´re going to do, but we´ll probably head back up North to see the ruins of Tikal and go to this cool sounding place called Coban. Anyway, we´re enjoy the beach life, even though it was nice to be in a little bit cooler weather. I woke up early when Garrett went out to shoot to sunrise and went for a run, and I was so sweaty when I got back!! I´ll be stoked to get back to dry weather and snow!! from what I´ve heard! It´s amazing to meet people down here who are genuine and it´s sad how it´s out of the ordinary to find someone here who wants to help you to be nice, not for money or any other sort of compensation. Daniel and his family are great. We´re going to BBQ with them tonight and it should be really fun. Hope all is well with all of you! We´re down to less than two weeks left. It doesn´t sound that long, but when each day is stretched before you, and you really can enjoy and relish every minute, it´s tons of time to soak this all up.

Sketchy situation, but we made it

When we were leaving Pana we decided to splurge ($5 rather than the $2 or $3 for the chicken bus) and take a colectivo. It came and picked us up from our hotel, and luckily it wasn't quite as crunched as usual, but Garrett and I have both had a little bit of stomach problems off and on, and he was not feeling great, so being in there anyway, especially on the really bumpy roads going fast wasn't that great. We were on our way, and this country is crazy because there was construction (like dirt roads with huge pot holes all over) for like 30 miles of the main country's highway. It was such a rough ride. It was raining pretty hard off and on and it was a pretty curvy slow road anyway, going through the beautiful mountains.
All of the sudden traffic came to a stop and our driver just turned off the car and said it happens all the time, but this time was different. We soon found out that there had been a landslide, and that one of the construction vehicles had been caught in it and had been swept down to the river. They also said that 7 cars had been burried, but we later found out that no cars were in it. So, we walked up there and unlike how it would have been in America, we all could just watch a had a good view of what was going on. The other bigger Cat had driven down there and was sinking a little trying to get the other one turned over because there was still a guy in it. It took them forever to actually get it over and I kept thinking about all these 3 to 1 systems we learn about to get a stuck J-rig off some rocks that they could set up but they eventually got it over and got the guy out, but the whole cab was totally full of rocks and mud and he'd been under it all for at least 45 min so he didn't make it. It was really sad. For a while when we were just sitting in the van, this older Mexican lady was complaining about how long it was taking and I wanted to yell at her that at least it wasn't her caught in there. It was frustrating, and it really made me realize how quick something like that can happen. But don't worry, all those of you who are worried about us, we'll be fine. Molly and Jess are both on missions and I know they're praying for us, and Molly's prayers for her future husband to come home are working for sure.
They'd been working on clearing the road the whole time and decided that it wasn't going to happen that night so we had to go back to Panajachel, stay there for a couple hours and leave at 4 am and go on a different road that wasn't safe to travel at night. So, 8 hours yesterday, 3 today, and we're finally in Antigua. Luckily, blessedly we made it!

STUPID FIREWORKS!!

The forth of July is always something to look forward to because of the fireworks and they´re great because they last for like a day, maybe two, and don´t go past 10 maybe 11. Well, here in Pana, they´ve been going for the last week straight that we´ve been here. And I´m not talking about cute little fireworks that you set off in your driveway, I´m talking about that ones that don´t even look cool, they just make a REALLY loud noise that you can hear, and feel anywhere in the city, and proabably the surrounding ones. They set them off all day, at no particular interval until 2 in the morning and on a couple days started at like 4:30 am. They´ve been celebrating Saint Francisco this whole week and at first we thought it was cool, because there was a parade the first day, and we were excited for the festivities, but when they had the same parade the next day, still cool, but it lost a little luster. Then other processions of carrying the statue of San Francisco to the church, that was cool, and interesting because they dressed up like the Conquistadors who I would think that they wouldn´t like but I guess they´re giving them thanks for bringing them Christianity?? The whole week there has been a fair set up but not too much action up there because it´s been rainy, and they were waiting until Sat when the real celebertion happened, which was a 13 piece band and tons of drunk guys dressed like Conquistadors and women stumbling - dancing around for hours.
Anyway, needless to say the festivities have been interesting and enjoyable and it´s made for some fabulous people watching, but seriously people! Can you just quit it with the damn fireworks for the love of San Francisco!

This video is from the parade. San Francisco (well, the weird looking statue of him) is in that thing they're carrying and I'm pretty sure the dude in the blue is one of the guys that was lighting them off the whole time and he probably has no hearing left. He hardly even flinches when they go off, and it was like 100 times louder in real life.

Parajachel

We´ve been doing a lot of traveling since the last update and it´s been a little much, but we just paid for a week´s stay at our hostel here in Parajachel, so I´ll be looking forward to some more down time to just get to enjoy this place which seems like is going to be pretty easy.
From Belize we went to Palanque and saw some really cool ruins. They were a lot bigger than the ones in Copán, and we hired a guide so we learned a lot more about them too.

This is on the outside of one of the buildings and it´s Paákal i think is how you spell it. He was a king here and he´s talking to a servant . And I don´t know why this is underlined, but it is. We also went to a couple other places like a really big waterfall and Aguas Azules (which means blue water, but since it´s the rainy season, it was anything but blue. I kinda felt like when people are stoked to see Havasu or the Little Colorado and it´s flashing so all the blue water is dirty, but it was still really cool). Mark is a really good kayaker and Garrett´s catching up with him and they were dreaming about coming down here and getting a first ascent of some of the rivers we´ve seen. When we asked some of the locals about it a) they had no idea what kayakismo is and b) they thought we were crazy for even thinking about it. Their responses were pretty funny.

This is a pretty touristy town, surrounding a lake that was created when a volcano erupted, and where the magma was sunk out, there´s now a lake surrounded by 5 volcanos. It is so beautiful. I think there´s going to be some pretty sweet hiking and swimning and maybe some more diving to some ruins that are under water. We asked about some cliff jumping we´d heard about and got the same looks as asking about kayaking. Like....'so you want to jump of a cliff into the water???¿' I like their responses.

We only stayed there for two nights then went to the very relaxed feeling San Cristobol. It is a really clean, awesome, colonial town with several colorful plazas and an amazing market. My mom would have loved that place with all the colors of everything!

We spent a lot of time walking around the city and around the market. We made some great fajitas with all fresh stuff we bought there. It is a lot higher elevation, so it was actually pretty cold there, and it´s been really nice to have a relief from the heat. One night when walking around, we had some Mexican hot chocolate that is pretty rich and has a cinnamon flavor to it, and amazing churros (sorry, Costco, you got nothin compared to Mexico!) and had that several other times during our 2 night stay. This is one of my favorite pictures of Garrett. He´s 6´7¨and needless to say doesn´t fit in the buses and vans very well. Then after a day and a half of 2 Colectivos (15 seater mini vans), two buses, a night stay in this town that´s pretty much an intersection that the bus dropped us off in, and three more buses, we´re finally here and ready to just relax.


We took a tour of the lake today and went to some of the other cities around the lake. They are named after the 12 apostles. They were cool, but our city is definately best. The other cities were all different sizes and conditiions, but regardless of where we were, we were always bombarded by kids moms and some toddlers to sell stuff. One place we got to see how they make the fabric on thier looms and it was pretty cool. I had to buy some stuff there and I feel bad for not buying stuff from the cute little kids that look up at you with these huge brown eyes! but I´d run out of money and I just don´t need it! The boat driver told us there were some hot springs we could go to and that was one of the major selling points of the private boat, but they were just right up against a wall, no enclosure of any sort and the top two inches was a little warmer than the rest. we were pretty bummed.
So, Panajchel has been pretty great. It´s rained everyday though and we´re hoping that we´ll have some clear days ahead. I have done different designs of braids in Garrett´s hair and this one has lasted like a week I think. He gets some weird looks for sure, but it´s out of his way. He has been giving me Spanish lessons and it´s great to really have some stuff to work on, and I think most of you know that I talk in my sleep and I have a coupel times on this trip, and last night I was speaking Spanish and Garrett said it was making sense so I think that´s a good thing. Can´t wait until the end of the trip when I´m totally fluent! (let´s hope anyway!)
Mark is leaving a little earlier than planned. He is going home to do a kayaking thing so we´re bummed he´s leaving. He LOVES the panderias (the little bread shops) and the taco stands and we´re going to be hungry without him always having some new treat for us to try. It´s gone amazingly well with the three of us, and we´re sad he´s leaving.
Well, the rain stopped, so I think we´ll go try to see the sunset. Adios!

GO SLOW!!! That is the moto for Caye Caulker and it was definately enforced. Let me catch up with a little more details first.

We flew into Guatemala City, got out of there as quickly as possible, and headed to Copan, Honduras, where we stayed for two nights to go to some really cool ruins. We spent the morning at the ruins, and some of the afternoon, a little in the rain which acutally felt great because it was so hot. Here.s Garrett doing as the locals do (can you see the guy farther down he.s got his broom next to him, but it was raining too hard so he just was taking a nap)But seeing the ruins was really neat. I was blown away by the inticate work and can.t wait to see the others that we.re headed for. Then we spent a day traveling to Belize City, probably about 700 km of road travel and 50 km of boat, and just like everyone else said, it wasn.t worth staying there. We did have to stay one night in a pretty stetchy, run down hostel, but what.s one night.

The next day was Independance Day for Belize so there were fireworks that night out over the ocean and that was cool to see but we were really happy to get out to Caye Caulker. Our hostel there had a totally different feel than all the others. Way more relaxed and there was a dorm and much more of a hang out atmosphere.We did happen to get there just in time for the parade for Independance Day on the island and it was great. It took hours for it to acutally happen, and the whole island is only like 1 km long and the main strip is like 4 blocks so it was fuuny, but awesome that we got to be there for that.

One of my main reasons of wanting to go to Belize was to scuba dive. So the next couple days I dove in the mornings. It was really cool. I got certified in Panama last year, and haven.t been since. I got a little spoiled there because there is so much different wildlife and coral, but it was cool here. I did see several nurse sharks, and a couple sea turtles and tons of amazing fish and coral. When I was walking one morning to the dive shop, I was a little late, and walking at normal somewhat fast pace and got reprimanded by several people for walking too fast, it was great. Our hostel had a free canoe that we could take out and Garrett and Mark had taken it out one morning and went again when I got back out to the reef. (I guess where we weren.t supposed to go without a guide woops! ) It took about an hour to paddle out there and it was really cool. Almost as much to see there as on my diving that I was paying a lot more for. At the end of the island there is a place called the split where a hurricane cut through the island and now boats can get through there and there.s a cool dock and diving board that is slanty and slippery but really fun to play on.And watch the sunsets from, which since it.s the rainy season, the clouds are amazing and the sunsets and rises are amazing!!!Yesterday, on our last day there, Garrett and Mark had talked to some locals and were going to go out on thier fishing boat. I was thinking about doing this dive called the Blue Hole which some say is amazing some say not so much but it.s like $200 and is three dives, but the thought of being out all day snorkeling and spear fishing was more attractive, so I went with them. It was really great. We dropped some of the locals off at their parts of the reef and went to a different part. They only had one spear gun and it was weird for me to go from one day with the diver mentality: don.t touch anything, only look at the beautiful fish, to hanging on the coral to keep yourself down looking in all the holes to find fish to kill. But it was cool. We only got a couple, and two lobsters, but the fun we had made it successful. I also came away with an extremely burned whole back side. I had sunscreen on my back, but my shorts line up is fried!! And it.s my own dumb fault, and I.m reaping the benefits of the uncomfortableness of having to sit on a bus all day today. Also, the mosquitos were pretty bad and I am terrible at harnessing my zen powers to not itch them, so I.m going to have some serious scabs from them. Hopefully they won.t be so bad from here on out.


So, now we.re in a bus station, just over the boarder into Mexico. We hadn.t originally planned on going to Mexico but decided we needed to go to Palanque if we were here so that.s where we.re headed. We.re taking an over night bus there. We.ll have spent like 6 hours in this bus terminal but we tried to go out to the city and no one had any idea of something of interest and it is really so hot. I don.t think I.ve sweat so much in the last 6 months, even in the Grand as I have in the last week. But it.ll just make coming home to dry fall - winter of SLC even better! Mark and Garrett are great traveling partners! We have all been on the same page about making decisions and I was worried that they were going to want to be going all the time and always pushing to be doing something, but we have all been in the same mood for stuff and it.s been great. They are great about looking out for me and I don.t think anyone wants to mess with the three of us. Anyway, I.ll let them get on here, but we.re having a great time, and thanks all for reading and I hope you are all doing well and enjoying the nice, cool fall for me!

Caye Caulker

Don't have too much time now, we're cruising the strip (really that means meandering slowly down the dirt road talking to really funny locals) but I just wanted to say that I haven't worn shoes in three days and I've been swimming in the ocean every day and I saw two sea turtles today. It's been pretty rad here on Caye (pronounced key) Caulker. More to come soon....

We made it!

Well, everyone, I know you've been dying to hear, but we made it! After flying to Vegas, then to Huston, Garrett and I met up with Mark who had flown straight there, and we caught our flight to Guatemala City. We spent the night there and have been going ever since. We've been traveling a lot which has been getting expensive, so we're almost to a place we're going to hang at for a bit.

We went from Guatemala City to Copan which is just over the border in Honduras. It's a pretty small town with some really cool ruins just 1 km outside of the city that we went to. We stayed there for two nights, then got on the road to come here. It was a super long day of travel. We got rides with some different people we met, mostly super windy in the back of pick up trucks, then took a ferry across the Atlantic (yes, the whole thing! but not really) from Puerto Barrios, Guatemala to Puerto Gorda in Belieze. From there we got on a super crowded school bus for 5 hours!! I am sooo sweaty and more than anything just sticky. We got to Belieze City and it's their Independance Day tomorrow and they're doing a parade on Mon so I think we'll stay here before we go out to the island where we'll probably be for a few days so I can do some diving.

Anyway, this computer is about as slow as all the people here (excpet for their driving! We have all thought we were going to die on numerous occasions, in all forms of transit... the buses are the worst!) so i can't do any picutres right now but I will soon. It's amazingly beautiful! More trees that you can ever imagine!! It's been great to have Mark and Garret here, especially Garrett to speak Spanish. I think I'll understand most everything and turns out I usually get about 50% so it's great to have him working deals. Here in Belieze, they speak Creole which sounds suprisingly like the one lady with the dreads in one of the Pirates movies, second or third, I'm not sure.... you know the one I'm talking about? Anyway, I understand these people just about as much as the people speaking Spanish. It's pretty funny.

I have got to go take a shower and wash off this stickiness before we go out and watch some fire works, so good night and I hope everyone's doing well, and I'll get some pictures on soon.

Lifetime pictures

My friend, Garrett who I am going to Guatemala with is a great photographer and he's been doing it for years, and is now trying to make a go of doing just that. He's offering a really good deal of doing life time family portraits for $250 and some other great deals, including wedding photos and such for really cheap. He's just offering it for a little while and just to a few so, if you're interested, email me or leave a comment and I'll email you the brochure about it.

Last trip... phew!

The summer is officially over. Well, not really because I still have Guatemala, but the river season anyway. If all of my trips could've been this easy, I could do it forever. I swamped for this guy Tom, who I hadn't met before, but ran a super relaxed really fun trip, and the other boat was RD and Tony, who I've known for at least 5 years, and we wrestle and fight like they're my brothers. I'm not quite sure I





could handle this job if I didn't have my 4 younger brothers to prepare me for living in this world of boys. It was really fun. Sometimes we'll be cooking and I'll look around and see our peeps and I had almost forgotten that there are other people on the trip. It's pretty funny.


But don't let me fool you, it's not a fun job and it's hard work all the time.... well, sorta, while we were rigging the ranger came and picked us up and we got to go up and see the Glen Canyon dam which is 15 miles upstream and even though I have mixed feelings about the dam, it was pretty cool to see it up close at the bottom. The water is super clear and cold coming out of the bottom. That first night it poured at Lee's Ferry and most of us slept in the van and woke up to some beautiful clouds. Because of the rain, almost all of the side streams were flashing so we had clear water for like 5 miles, then it was dirty the rest of the trip. You can see two side streams bringing in tons of sediment.And it was like this the rest of the time. Even Havasu that flashed and those people had to be airlifted out a couple weeks ago was still dirty, but it was cool, because the water was almost white. The people were ridiculously solely concrete walkers and it was too hard for most of them to even get half way in to Havasu. But I always like seeing the side streams flash and seeing everything differently.



On the last night we had a little fire show.... and if you're interested, here's what you'll need:


finish the last of the watermelon from lunch. (I happily took this job)


Then a boy who likes to play with fire, paper towels, lighter fluid, a most importantly, Frito'sStuff all the lighter fluid soaked paper towels and Frito's into the watermelon, light and send down stream. This one lasted surprisingly long without tipping over. (Also, in this picture, you might notice the back of that boat looks a little weird. That reminds me that it wasn't all fun. We did have some adventure. RD got sucked into a wall below Phantom Ranch and the tube popped. We had to take another section of the boat and cut the whole bigger to put it inside that tube. I also hit the wall pretty hard, but luckily on a different part of the boat so it was OK. Tom let me drive most of the rapids and it was awesome. Oh, yeah, and this German guy on the 3 day trip fell and got a compound fracture in his finger and had to be helicoptered out at night. Luckily Tom speaks German or it would've been way more of a disaster. Hopefully some of our peeps will send some pictures of it landing right in the middle of our beach, and I can put some on here ... see, it's not just all fun :)


Since it was my last trip of the season, I tried to take some pictures of the Vishnu Schist. It's really cool, dark, super old (about 2 billion y.o.) rock with threads of Granite in it. They didn't turn out too great, but here's a couple to give you an idea. Ever corner is something else cool. I really love it down there. It pushes up from underneath the regular not so old rock (only 600 million y.o.) Here's some fluting. It happens in the sedimentary rock on occasion, but mostly in the schist, and I love it. My pictures really don't do it justice. Tom is a photographer and you should check out his site, then look through the action until you see the guy climbing in a blue life jacket. It's sweet and it's way better than my pictures.
Overall, it was a great trip to end the season on.



On the way home we stopped at a really cool hot spring I'd never even heard of that's right off the freeway by Meadow and here's a couple pictures from there.

So, I've got a week now, to try to pull my life together enough to be able to leave for 6 weeks. Until next adventure .....