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
Thursday, January 13, 2011
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
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"
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
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.
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!
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
Sunday, January 2, 2011
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!
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
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