Sea Kayaking trip - Isla Espiritu Santo

Our sea kayaking & camping trip on Isla Espiritu Santo just off the shore from La Paz, Mexico on the Sea of Cortez got off to a slow start due to high winds. On our drive back south from our trip to Loreto I felt the high winds pushing on our rental car.  When we arrived to the hotel run by Mar y Aventuras the night before our trip was to leave they informed us that we might not be able to get to the island due to the high winds. La Paz closes the port when it's too windy.  The winds made it very cold as well in La Paz. Carol and I both were in similar outdoor gear to what we wear in Seattle most of the year- our heavyweight fleece jackets.

So it was no surprise but a bit disappointing that when we met the guide on the morning of December 24th that we were informed that we could not go out that day. Instead we would do a "land tour" :( We did get to visit the local cactus sanctuary and learned a great deal about cacti. While interesting, it was not what we signed up for. We were anxious to get out to the Island and spend our Christmas on the beach! 

...and we did depart on Christmas day. The winds were still pretty intense though. So we had a very bumpy wet ride to Isla de Espiritu in the tour company's panga (a motorboat) and it took about 3 hours to get out to our base camp. We were all delighted with our base camp on a fantastic sandy beach that was outfitted with nice spacious tents, a sheltered dining area, and an outdoor kitchen set up with our very own cook for our group of six of us.  We got settled into our tents, got a full tour of base camp and then were served a very nice lunch. We anxiously awaited our first sea kayak experience....waiting for the wind to die down continued to be a theme for our trip. We did get out on our kayaks but after fighting the winds we turned around and came back in pretty quickly. 

I was surprised to learn that we got a happy hour each night on the trip. The first night out they served us freshly made margaritas, and the second night we got pina coladas and popcorn!  We did have a well stocked kitchen and a good cook on our trip...which was essential if we were to wait around on the beach for the wind to die down.

Our second day on the island, we took a short hike in the morning and finally got to do some snorkeling in a nearby bay. The waters were still a bit rough. We were all cold and wet by the time we got to the bay that was a bit protected from the wind...due to splashing cold water from the boat ride. Despite the cold bumpy ride we were ready to do something other than wait for the wind to die down! We got our wetsuits on and all made our way into the water and found this to be a good snorkeling spot. Some of the highlights of fish we saw were: guinea fowl pufferfish, juvenile damsel fish, trumpetfish, adult damselfish, king angelfish, and butterfly fish.

We did get out on a longer kayak to another bay on that second day in addition to the snorkeling. Carol and I finally got the hang of synchronizing our paddling on that second kayaking day and found the first half of our trip with the wind quite nice and easy....and then we turned around to return to base camp and that was very tough to kayak into the wind. As we turned back into our bay, it felt like we were on a kayak treadmill rather than making any progress towards our return to base camp.  We persisted though and made it back just before sunset....which was a spectacular sunset! ...as posted in our previous blog post! 

So one lesson we learned is don't schedule a kayaking trip if you can help it when the north winds are blowing! 

On the final day....we got to swim with the sea lions again as Carol wrote about. While there were some challenges to this trip, we were still glad we did it. Next time though I think I will be booking this trip in February:) 

Swimming with Sea Lions!

Written by Carol:

As some of you know, I love sea lions.  In fact, I am convinced that if I were not a human, I would be a sea lion (Mike thinks I would be a cat).  Anyway, ever since our travels in the Galapagos, I have a great affinity for them and a huge selling point for joining the kayaking trip was for the opportunity to swim with them.  

Most of us think of sea lions as these barking, loud, or lounging rather awkward creatures trying to lug themselves on shore or a buoy or rock.  However, under water they are magnificent torpedo ballerinas.

It was a true highlight of our trip, and one of the highlights of our whole trip thus far.  When our boat arrived to the rocks where they like to sun themselves, many of them dove into the waters to swim over to us and were splashing and wiggling their flippers at us.  Our guide gave us some rules about behaving well and respecting the sea lions and their space.  My favorite rule was:  If a sea lion feels mellow and wants to float near you, do not hug it.  Do not hug the sea lions.

When we jumped into the water, they swirled and swam all around us- very excited to play with us and with each other.  They were also very mouthy like dogs- one grabbed on to a fellow swimmer's arm and played tug of war with it.  It kind of freaked me out to watch it, because I could hear him saying, "Hey.  Let go!  She won't let go!"  I found out later it did not hurt and she was gentle, but I could see her teeth gripping him.  They also liked to nibble each others tail flippers and the ends of our fins.  They also liked to play a one way game of "chicken" where they would race at us as fast as they could and then veer off at the last second.

The two biggest highlights were when a sea lion used Mike as a hurdle- she leapt out of the water and flew over him, landing on the other side.  Also, when I thought Mike was bumping into me and grabbing my neck, I popped up and said, "Mike, knock it off."  Only he was nowhere near me.  Mike started laughing and said, "That was not me- that sea lion just rolled into you and it looked like she gave you a kiss on your head.  I saw her flying over to you and was going to say something, but was speechless!"

I am grateful they were so willing to spend some time playing with us.  It is something I will never forget.

Sunset from Isla de Espiritu

Snorkeling and boat trip to Coronado Island take 1

Our trip to Coronado Island began with us all bundled in all our layers questioning our choice to snorkel in this chilly weather.  We were joined by an Argentinian family that was on their summer vacation.  Our guide, Necky, skillfully provided info in Spanish and English. Since the water is quite cold this time of year we were provided wetsuits to snorkel in. Carol and I were both a bit nervous about snorkeling in chilly water but were excited about the opportunity to swim with sea lions and see colorful fish.  We arrived at the island after a thirty minute boat ride and indeed there were a bunch of sea lions awaiting our arrival. 

Our Argentinian friends were the first in the water and seemed to be doing ok. We wiggled our way into our wetsuits. This was a first time for me to wear a full wetsuit and I found it quite awkward.  Carol finally psyched herself up enough to jump in and I was the last to leave the boat. I have always found breathing through a snorkel quite awkward and this time was no different. 

My main problem is that I don't trust that the snorkel will actually work. I finally got the nerve to jump out of the  boat into the water and was pleased that while the water was cold, the wetsuit seemed to be doing its job keeping me warm.  Now the hard part, putting the snorkel in my mouth and my head in the water. My heart started racing from the thought of it. I knew I needed to stop thinking about it and just do it. I practiced with my head outs of the water and soon put my head in. After a couple minutes of breathing rapidly and nervously I finally settled down and enjoyed seeing fish and swimming with the sea lions.  They weren't quite as playful with us as we had hoped but it probably reflected our lack of playfulness on our first day out snorkeling in wetsuits. After about 15 minutes of snorkeling we got back in the boat to get a ride to our next snorkeling spot. 

Our day was about to take a different direction. As we were prepping to get back in the water, our Argentinian friend - the mom (whose name is escaping me right now) was having trouble getting swinging her legs with flippers over the side of the boat. Her daughter, Pia, in an effort to help her mom get in the water lifted one of her mom's legs which caused her to fall backwards and hit her head on an edge of the boat. ....hard enough to cause quite a bit of bleeding. After a moment of shock, we got a towel for to hold to her head and got Pia's dad back in the boat and headed immediately back to the mainland. Thankfully the bleeding subsided and we were all pleased that she was still lucid. 

We were met by a team paramedics at the dock. She got carried off on a stretcher and her family followed. We were glad to see her get safely ashore and also happy to go back to our room to get hot showers. On a  walk later that afternoon, we ran into the dad and daughter on the main plaza. They were happy to let us know she was fine. She had to have four stitches to close the wound and all she needed was a little rest. We were surprised that they were also ready to go back out on the water the next day to finish out our aborted tour and hoped we would join them!....so we did, see Carol's entry to hear how that went.

Snorkeling Isla Coronodo Take 2

Written by Carol:

Pia and Pablo really wanted us to join them the next day for a Trial 2. We hesitated, unsure that we wanted to hurl ourselves into cold and rough waters again (and watching Pia's mom hit her head was very unnerving), but they were very excited about the possibility of trying again and really wanted us to join them. We agreed and then later I turned to Mike and said, "What are we doing?" Mike said, "I know. We were captured by their cuteness." Ultimately, this turned out to be a good thing, as we had a great second day.

The biggest highlight was seeing hundreds of dolphins. I have never seen anything like it. The sea was absolutely filled with them. They were swimming at quite a clip and leaping (really awesome- they are such beautiful animals) and occasionally swimming over to race the boat. It was so inspiring to look out and think we were seeing waves, but in fact it was dolphin after dolphin.

The sun was out the entire day, which made a significant difference in terms of staying warm enough that leaping into cold waters seemed more tolerable. And no one got hurt. A big plus. We saw lots of cool fish, my favorite being the Moorish Idols, King Angel Fish, and Parrot Fish. The North Winds were starting to come in, though, so the waters were pretty rough. After I got stung by a jelly fish (small, so no safety concerns, but hurt like a devil and I had some nice welts as souvenirs), I decided I was done snorkeling for the day. We docked at a gorgeous white sand beach and Mike continued to snorkel from there. He saw a Scorpion Fish, which was pretty cool (and in his words, "One ugly fish.") I enjoyed the view of mountains and turquoise waters from the beach.

Necky took us on a nice hike and explained about the local cactus and other plants before heading back to the mainland. On the ride back, Pia and Pablo practiced their English with us and we practiced our Spanish with them. A couple of pelicans hitched a ride on the back of the boat for a ways, which was pretty cute and a fun cap on the trip.

Snorkeling at Isla Coronado

We took a nice snorkeling trip to Isla Coronado a 30 minute boat ride out of Loreto. Our underwater photos didnt turn out all that great. Here are some of the better ones.

Location:Francisco Madero,Loreto,Mexico

Loreto Photos

Location:J.M. Pino Suarez,Loreto,Mexico

Hiking outside of Loreto

Written by Carol:

Today we woke up to sunlight softly streaming through the mango tree outside our window. After Mike went on a run around the Malecon, we decided to explore the town of Loreto. It is a sweet, mellow town nestled in some jaw dropping scenery... the Sea of Cortez and the Sierra Gigante mountains. There are also a few vulnerable estuaries, a few of which have been heavily developed. That part gives me a stomach ache.

We saw the very first mission, the inspiration for Father Serra's trek up the California coast, building beautiful missions, enslaving local indigenous peoples. It was interesting for me to see, having studied the missions in school growing up, although also disturbing in terms of its purpose as well.

This afternoon we went on a hike up an arroyo of the Sierra Gigante. It reminded me quite a lot of Canyonlands, though with a different pallate. Highlights included the turquoise, purple, and red rocks hosting a stark backdrop for the chartruse cacti and bright white mesquite, turkey vultures drying their wings after a bath, and stumbling upon the skeleton of a baby calf or deer that was some predators meal.

We also walked along an estuary for awhile admiring the variety of sea birds. We were ignorant as to the name of our favorite, but it had a black body, and bright red beak and eyes... very dramatic.

We cooked our own dinner tonight- beans and tortillas and avocado... not quite as good as some we have bought at taquerias (I think the best burrito I have ever eaten cost me 80 cents and was made of fresh beans and a hand made tortilla in Todos Santos), but very satisfying, nonetheless. Fresh avocadoes cannot be beat!

Whales!

Written by Carol:

We have been seeing Humpback Whales on their migration south, which has been extremely exciting. We have seen pods spouting in the distance on the way to Todos Santos and on the beaches near Todos Santos. Particular highlights were seeing two whales very close to shore playing. One kept spinning around and around, fins in the air, which was awesome. And while enjoying the spectacular sunset (photos below), we saw several groups of whales migrating south. When a couple of them got in front of the sunset, they started leaping out of the water! Mike and I wondered if they, too, were inspired by the spectacular beauty and shocking colors.

Some photos

Location:Morelos,Todos los Santos,Mexico

Living it up at the Hotel California

Yep it's true- we are living it up at the Hotel California in Baja California del Sur, Mexico. We scored a Living Social deal and landed in a suite with a rooftop deck here. Some might tell you that the famous Eagles song Hotel California was a metaphor for the spiritual emptiness of the excesses of California and specifically LA but others might tell you that they were inspired by this very hotel that we are lounging in right now! We certainly had to drive down a dark desert highway to get here. (Ok it wasn't dark since we drove in the daytime but it was a bumpy ride on a highway under construction). We were also lulled to sleep by mission bells! (No kidding here, the hotel is right next to the church and bells were ringing last night as well as a choir singing). No pink champagne on ice though:) I did have a lovely margarita with their own house made Hotel California tequila!

This hotel certainly doesn't shy away from making people think it's the inspiration for the Eagle's song. Whether it was or not- it is an inspiring historic hotel that has been remodeled and decorated with gorgeous art, has lovely courtyards with plants everywhere. We have this amazing rooftop deck that looks over the ocean. Still figuring out how to upload photos but will do so soon!

We kicked off our winter vacation on Wednesday the 14th with a flight into San Jose del Cabo airport on the south end of the Baja peninsula and enjoyed our first couple of nights at a beachside hotel. Beautiful beaches and a way too overdeveloped area of the peninsula. It's nice to get out of the touristy Cabo San Lucas region and into some other parts of the peninsula. Todas Santos is known for its arts scene and nearby access to beautiful beaches. So we will be checking out both over the next couple of days. Stay tuned for further posts from Baja!

Placencia photos

View from our lovely beachfront cabana in Placencia Belize.




and much to our surprise we found vegan ice cream here. This US expat makes soy softserve....and in many different flavors. Carols flavor here is rum raisin.

Location:Placencia Sidewalk,Placencia,Belize

Placencia

Hi friends and family,
We have spent our last week in Placencia, Belize. Placencia is a small village on the southern tip of a long narrow peninsula. To the west there is a lagoon full of many types of mangroves and to the west is the Caribbean and nice sandy beaches on the west side too! We found a great beachside cabana to spend the week in. The village has an interesting mix of cultures- Garifuna, Creole, and Mayan as well as its fair share of ex-pats from all over the world. Its "main street" is a sidewalk that runs a couple miles through the village. Apparently its listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the narrowest main street in the world. It's a small enough place that in just a few days we have come to recognize and know by name some of the local business owners and they also recognize us. Everyone is very friendly here- always a warm greeting. We have been spending the bulk of our time laying on the beach and swimming in the ocean and making daily trips to get good veggie food at a local restaurant called The Shak (and it is spelled without the c for the spelling police among us:) and also very pleased to discover the local ice cream shop that makes all its ice cream with soy milk! Rum raisin has been our favorite flavor so far.
We did a day trip boat ride up "Monkey River"- aptly named for its large population of howler monkeys. ...and we did get to see many that day. We also got to see quite a few crocodiles as well as lots of different birds. We will post some photos later.
Sadly, one of the activities we were looking forward to doing- snorkeling- has not worked out due to very windy weather that made it too dangerous to go out in a boat. Its been canceled on us two days in a row. In fact today its pretty overcast and windy and a chilly 75 degrees. I know 75 ain't that chilly but it is to us after 4 straight weeks of 80 plus weather! Tomorrow we will be in for a harsh re-entry to Seattle's rain. We hope the snow that Seattle got earlier this week will have melted by then!
We are sad for vacation to be over but looking forward to seeing you!

Mike

Getting from Guatemala to Belize

Mike and I had been amazed at the overall ease with with our international adventure was going, which of course then invited the subsequent adventure getting from Guatemala to Belize.
Once we had traveled from Lago de Atitlan, through Antigua, up to Rio Dulce, we ventured on to Livingston via a public boat. It was a gorgeous adventure through Lake Izabel and a narrow canyon north... my favorite part of the two hour journey was seeing the mangroves filled with hundreds and hundreds of cormorants and egrets.
Livingston was a bit of a culture shock. More heavily influenced by Garifuna culture than the rest of Latin America, and therefore more Creole spoken than Spanish, it was a lively, friendly, boisterous greeting off of the boat. Our plan was to take a public boat from Livingston over to Punta Gorda, Belize. However, no boats to Punta Gorda until Monday (and this was Saturday). After asking around, we found out we could take a public boat to Puerto Barrios, Guatemala, and then take a boat over to Punta Gorda. But, the last boat departing Puerto Barrios for the day would be leaving at 2pm and we were starting to push it timing wise. And the public boat in Livingston was not going to leave until it had a minimum of 5 people, no matter how long it took. Mike and I were starting to weigh various options, when a group of three other people came over and was ready to go. I felt incredible gratitude for them.
We then zoomed (with various stops on the ride in the middle of the bay for the captain to answer his cell phone) over to Puerto Barrios. This was a lot of hurry up and wait. Rushing to the boat, needing to run to the Immigration Office to get our exit stamp, and then standing on the side walk for an hour while they loaded the boat. Because it was not a normal travel day, the boat was really a small motor boat filled with various cargo, including some very purfumey soap we sat behind for the two hour ride over the Caribbean.
About two miles out from shore one of the propellers broke and we put, puttered to shore while waves sloshed over the side occasionally. We were very excited when we made it, as the sun was starting to get a bit low on the horizon and we began to question the possibility of getting to Placencia in the same day.
Sleepy does not even begin to describe Punta Gorda. Fortunately, it did not have the smarm of most border towns, but it looked like it could hardly keep one eye open. Which meant that we missed the last bus to Placencia for the day. We kept asking around and finally, a man named Pablo, who was lugging an extremely large piece of foam for his bed, came up to us and said that if we stood on this particular street corner, a bus would come by and it could take us to Mango Creek, and then we could take another boat to Placencia. Then about four more people came up and there was a big debate about whether the bus was coming to the corner or to the park. Suddenly, without warning, Pablo started walking to the park. So, we followed him, hoping that he still wanted to go on the same bus as us (otherwise we were following a man with a large piece of foam to a park. Great). There, a group of four men approached us and explained that we had all missed the bus because it decided to come about a half hour early that day, but if we all joined together, we could hire a taxi to take us to the dump, where we would surely beat the bus and catch it at the dump. Mike and I agreed. A side note here: it is fascinating and sometimes difficult to listen to people speak b/c of the heavy Creole accent. It's kind of like a round sounding/ bizarre English where you miss every other word, if you don't speak it.
So, eight of us, and a large piece of foam and our two backpacks piled into a mini van and drove to the dump with Bob Marley blasting from the windows. The humor was not lost on us. We were grateful to the group for adopting us, they were grateful for joining the coop ride.
The bus was a trip- a looong ride very fast in an old school bus filled with a friendly group and some very intoxicated people, fortunately, not the driver. Eventually, in the dark, we made it to Mango Creek. Because we missed the last public boat of the day to Placencia (of course), I proposed to Mike that we hire someone to take us across the way to Placencia. I was determined to be there. Poor Mike, his eyes swirling with exhaustion, agreed. So, we hired a guy to take us across the way... it was beautiful- a fingernail moon, stars glittering overhead, and the mangroves in the lagoon around us. Our boatman was kind enough to walk us into town and stay with us until we found a room. Which we finally did, and then collapsed. We decided to park it for the rest of the week and chill on the beach here. So, we rented our very own beautiful palm roofed cabana about 10 feet from the Caribbean shore and have turned into little slugs on the shore.

Lago de Atitlan

I love Guatemala. LOVE. It's been awhile since we have contributed to our blog because we have had a difficult time removing our eyes from the spectacular view at Lago de Atitlan. (See photos in previous post). We arrived, intending to stay for two nights, then added a third, then a fourth. We were seriously talking about a fifth (if not moving there), but my hope to see a manatee in Belize has ultimately kept us moving and we depart from Antigua to Rio Dulce and then onto Placencia, Belize tomorrow... we very nearly cried upon leaving our sanctuary.

Lago de Atitlan is an enormous aqua colored lake ringed by a series of volcanoes at about 7000 feet in south western Guatemala. It's stunning. Several different Mayan communities have made it their home and the women wear the traditional dress of intricately woven blouses and skirts. We visited a few of these villages and a highlight was visiting a womens' cooperative where the woman host told us all about the natural plants they use to dye their wool and cotton and the very elaborate process they use to get the colors just so. The weaving is done by back strap loom (loom hung from a ceiling rafter and then wrapped around her lower back) with a lot of very tedious, detailed manual weaving. I was quite impressed. The cooperative was established by some local women to help protect the price of their work.

We stayed at La Casa del Mundo during our visit and it definitely was a huge part of why we got so attached to the place... beautifully done rooms over looking the lake. We had two rooms (had to move b/c we extended our stay)- our first one was our own little tiny house covered in bougainvillea and our second was a room overlooking the lake- so much so you could not see any land below and we fell asleep listening to the ripple of the waves on the water. Each day we awoke to gorgeous sunrises. The staff was so friendly and the vegetarian entrees were out of this world. Every night we had a communal dinner with the other guests, served family style by candle light. It was magical and we befriended three Canadians that we hope will be life long friends. We laughed a ton together over dinner and throughout our days and they were definitely a part of why we wanted to stay on.... it was sad to say goodbye, but as our new friend, Anik, had tattooed on her forearms- "don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened"

Casa Verde

The following post is part of our catching up on blogging about our time in Nicaragua. We were here Dec. 24-26.......

After a long day of travel from Playa Tamarindo, Costa Rica across the border into Nicaragua, we were warmly greeted at the Guzman's where our friend Amie had arranged for us to rent a casita.



Recently I was invited to join the advisory board for an international education center for youth and young adults being developed just outside of the Limon dos community. We feel lucky to have been able to visit the property on this trip.
My friend and colleague, Amie Riley, and her husband bought property here that has sweeping views of the Pacific Ocean and began developing a plan to host young people there to foster a sense of global citizenship and promote sustainable building practices. This fall a
Amie and Joe introduced me to Casa Verde and I was struck by the beauty of the photos and also found their plans to be aligned well with my passion for youth development work and learning across cultures. Having just finished three years on the board of Seattle Young People's Project, I found this to be an exciting opportunity to support youth education and leadership on a global scale. Also as someone who has traveled a great deal, I want to support sustainable tourism - meaning tourism that treats the local environment responsibly both the land and the people. As many of you know, I also love being involved in the start up phase of programs.
So it was lovely to arrive and be welcomed by Carmen Guzman who a runs a panaderia (bakery). Her daughter, Lidieth, showed us around. Shortly after arriving we went on a bike ride through Limon uno and Limon dos. These are two small communities about an hours drive outside the city of Rivas in southwestern Nicaragua. You won't find them in any travel guides but you will find some nearby beaches listed such as Playa Gigante or Playa Popoya. Apparently these are some of the best places to surf in the world. We bicycled about 15 minutes from Limon dos to the nearest beach- Playa Jiliquiste (sp). This beach is where we spent most of the next three days and both Carol and I agreed that it was one of the most beautiful pristine beaches we had ever been to. We also were delighted to have it almost entirely to ourself.

We didn't surf but we did a lot of great body surfing. The waves lived up to their reputation- muy grande!
After a very lovely Christmas day at the beach, we returned to our casita at the Guzmans and a big Christmas day party. We cooked a very simple meal of spaghetti and had some tortillas, beans, and a delicious avocado we got at the market in Rivas. Meanwhile there was a lively secret Santa gift exchange going on outside our casita.
The day after Christmas Lidieth graciously arranged for her nephew to guide us to the Casa Verde property or what they referred to as "la Loma" which means the hill. It was about a 45 minute walk from the Guzman's through many fields and finally a rather steep ascent to the top of the hill. As promised, there were great views!

My photos here don't capture the views of the ocean as well as my other camera and the naked eye but still gives you a sense of the beauty.
Spending time both in the community and on the property highlighted the great possibilities for education while in a beautiful setting. You can check out more info on Casa Verde at www.casaverdeconnects.com
Another highlight of our time there was practicing our Spanish since not a lot of English was spoken here. I was grateful for Carol's spanish speaking skills here especially. Lidieth also was
great about speaking slowly and helping us conjugate our verbs correctly. I was pleased to hear that she will be one of the Spanish teachers for Casa Verde.
Our visit here has definitely been a highlight of our trip! I look forward to future visits as Casa Verde grows.

Location:Limon Dos, Nicaragua

Photos of Lago de Atitlan

Photo from our first room at Casa del Mundo





Some video of our accommodations

Photo from the dining room where we enjoy four course meals each night family style






We also tried guatemala's internationally renowned rum......each night:)





And our two night stay extended to three than four nights culminating with this room hovering over the lake!

Location:Guatemala

Sunrise in Antigua

After a 1 hour shuttle from Granada, Nicaragua, an 18 hour bus ride from Managua across the Nicaragua/Honduras border and then the El Salvador/Guatemala border we arrived in Guatemala City at 10 p.m on December 30th and got a great nights rest and a delicious breakfast at the Hotel Biltmore. We headed mid morning the next day for Antigua to enjoy New Years Eve. After locating a hostel with a nice rooftop deck we started exploring. We found the cobblestone streets, and mix of very old and just old buildings of various bright colors quite beautiful and there is lots of great food everywhere in this city. Of course, the first food item we found was an iced soy latte at the Cafe Barista on the Central Plaza. No Starbuck's here yet but I do think this was a Guatemalan chain. You could feel the excitement building in the city as more and more local and international traveler's arrived in the city. We had happy hour on our hostel deck and a beautiful sunset as we watched the sun set behind Volcan Pacaya and watch the colors change on Volcan Agua. You can see in the video I posted how gorgeous the volcanoes and mountains surrounding the city are. Once the sun set fireworks started going off all over the city. It seems as if every other person here had there own personal fireworks to set off. Lots of noise and lots of color everywhere. After a late dinner, we made our way to the Central Plaza to see the new year in. The streets were full of people and no one was really waiting to light fireworks off until midnight cause on every corner you nearly tripped over someone setting something off- kids, adults, people of all ages. It was quite a contrast to our highly legislated, highly controlled but quite spectacular fireworks off the Space Needle in Seattle. I always enjoy that show but I feel quite disconnected from the experience. Here we felt truly right in middle of the fireworks. In fact, if you weren't careful they would hit you. There was lots of drinking on the streets as well. ...and as we approached midnight the amount of colorful fireworks and loudness of fireworks being set off heightened. It began to feel like street corners were in competition with each other and folks in the square whistled and screamed in applause of the fireworks they liked. Even amidst all the excitement, Carol and I had to keep walking around the square to stay awake since we have been on a fairly early to rise, early to bed schedule here in Central America to maximize our time in the sun. Shortly after midnight we went back to our hostel to try to get some sleep. That proved to be a tall order since the parties in the city and the fireworks continued through the early morning.
On New Years day we really enjoyed just exploring the city on foot and checking out all the old churches and exploring some fascinating art galleries. Being a colonial style city, there are lots of building with wonderful courtyards and beautiful gardens in the courtyards. We enjoyed sunset on the deck and went for a late dinner at La Merced where all the street food vendors line up to sell tortillas with salsa, guacomole, cheese....and there's meat too if you like that sort of thing:) ...we found the freshly made tortillas with guacamole and salsa quite delicious.
We left bright and early on January 2nd for Lago de Atitlan and this is some video I caught of sunrise over Antigua...quite stunning!

Location:Antigua Guatemala,Guatemala