Quick Glance Back @ 2008

I would just like to glance back at 2008 really quickly before we move on to 2009. Last year has been very good to us. All of our loved ones stayed healthy! and no major disaster struck us! That's good right! But it was even better than that.

We took on a wonderful and lengthy project that was our kitchen. Our house was a mess for over 3 months but it was sooooo worth it and we absolutely love our new space! We were also lucky enough to be able to travel some. We spent 10 days in Arizona/Utah in April followed by kitchen & house mess escape to Alaska in August and finished off by almost three weeks in Central America in November. In September we also celebrated our first wedding anniversary.

For the new year we can only hope for the same! We are very lucky to have each other and to have such a wonderful family and group of friends that surrounds us. Thank you all for being part of our lives.

End of Our Trip

Ok it is time to finally finish my recount of our vacation and move on to the present time.
We finished our last day in Belize with a wonderful dive. I was lil nervous once we got out there past the reef into the open sea and I was told that we were going to go to 80+ feet. The deepest I have ever gone was 35ft.... oops... at that moment I knew I had only two options - 1) stay in the boat and for sure puke myself as the waves were huge or 2) go down and take my chances and pray that I will do fine. Chris didn't seem all too sure which one I was going to choose but was relieved that I went in. I immediately started going under as it is much calmer down there and once I looked around I was instantly at ease. It was so surreal. The depth made everything seem ... I don't know... I guess like we were in space... everywhere you look you have people floating midair or so it seams and the depth of it all.... it was just amazing! I loved it.... but I still couldn't believe that I am ok! Especially once I saw that we were at 86ft....
I was one of the first to go up as I used up my air rather quickly but I was also the last to go back in the boat as I didn't want to empty my stomach. I was very happy that we didn't partake in the puke fest that was going on on board.
Once refreshed and rested we went for a fantastic bike ride around the island and were rewarded by beautiful sunset.
Our stay was fantastic... but we were ready to go see our family - especially our pup.

4 Days in Ambergris Caye - Belize - Part 2

We started the day with a wonderful breakfast made for us by Renita. It was delicious and very nicely setup. After breakfast we took the bikes provided by our B&B and embarked on the island exploration. We stopped by the recommended dive shop - Amigos del Mar to book our afternoon dive and headed up north along the beach. I think this was my favorite part of our stay. Just cruising the island on a bike. So nice and relaxing and the beach was beautiful. Not to mention to get to peak into all the resorts along the way!
After lunch we got picked up by our dive boat and headed to Hol Chan Marine Reserve and Shark Ray Alley and we were not disappointed. We did see ton of fish, turtles, 7ft nurse sharks and about 5ft sting rays. The only disappointing part was the amount of people everywhere.
The rest of the day we spend with drinks and cards on our patio and a wonderful dinner with our newly acquired friends from Canada.
The following day we took our bikes and headed south instead. This part of the island was not as enjoyable at the north part but we still got the best out of it. Once we got back Patty headed for the rest of her dive cert and since the sea was not too calm we decided to opt out of dive that day and instead we explored the town and had a couple of drinks with Amanda and Justin. in the evening we took a part in the popular game of Chicken Drop if you don't know what it is ... look it up. Too funny.

4 Days in Ambergris Caye - Belize - Part 1

We arrived in Belize City around 4pm the following day with a stop on the way in The Guanacaste National Park -it sounds better than it actually was, but at least we stretched our legs a bit.
Belize City itself was really not impressive at all. Very dirty, nasty and chaotic. Oh, did I mention that it has population of 70K (lil bit bigger thanSan Rafael) with almost 8 murders per month! Safe city right?! Yuck... Needless to say we couldn't wait to get on our flight and get the heck out of there. Luckily, they were able to accommodate us rather quickly and in no time we found ourselves on board this tiny plane where Patty was the co-pilot (God help us!) Luckily, Patty didn't touch anything and let the pilot do all the work and we safely landed in San Pedro within the next 20 minutes.
We got a cab and arrived in Changes of Latitude - our B&B home for the next four nights. Renita the co-owner was a very very nice lady who made us feel very welcomed and gave us some pointers about the layout of things on the island and places to see and do. After settling in and couple of drinks we headed out in search of our dinner. Once in San Pedro we could finally understand what Belize was all about - this was it. Forget the mainland.... the islands are where its at! The vibe was very very different... more like a Caribiean island and the people were actually nice. They all had the easy going no rush attitude. We loved it! Chris and I were finally able to stop bitching about Belize and enjoy it for what it was... the islands. The part we didn't like though were the prices. Even in the cheapest and not so clean place you can expect to pay $20+ for a plate. That said ... we also had the best shrimp burrito we have ever had!!! We finished the day in the bar on a beach listening to some Regee. Not a bad day at all.

Tikal - Guatemala

We checked into our hotel - Jungle Lodge right in the park - and immediately rushed into the park to catch the sunset. Oh wait... first we made ourselves some stiff drinks and then with those we rushed into the park. ;o)
The park was amazing.... we went to Chichen Itza last year... but it was nothing compared to this place. These beautiful and some extremely tall buildings in the middle of the jungle! It was amazing! And the best part.... they still let you climb all over the place. There were some people singing beautiful ballads and we watched the sun set with a few other fellow travelers while finishign our drinks.
In the morning we got up before sunrise in order to make it to the temple IV on time to watch it from there. I wish I could say we actually saw the sun rise... but.. it was cloudy so we didn't see it until some time later... but it was still great. What we did see were some spider monkeys that threw stuff at us as we were entering the park and we also spotted a very loud howler monkey... now I understand where they got their name!
We left the park for breakfast and returned back later on in the morning. Once we got our fill of the park we drove to Flores - lil island town about 45 minutes away from the park. It was a very nice town that reminded me of Mideateranian cities more than anything else. It seemed lil out of place. We spend a few hours here and finished the day by a nice dinner at Jungle Lodge.
In the morning we departed for Belize City and from their on a plane to Ambergris Caye - our final destination!