Yay for Travel

So I've been back in Texas for approximately 4 months and I thought I would update my blog because I felt like writing something!! Things are going great... I don't think I could be any happier right now. I still have the travel bug and I'm sure I'll have it for the rest of my life... sweet! I can't think of a better way to spend my time/money than traveling.

I have been coaching basketball at my old high school and it is so much fun. The girls make me feel young and old at the same time. It is nice to be able to play a role in the lives of young girls because I know I would have liked having a 24 year old coach to go to if I needed anything.

I was just hired to start work as a pharmaceutical sales specialist for AstraZeneca and begin work on February 5th with training in Pennsylvania. Before that date, I have tried my best to cram as many trips in with 4-5 trips to San Antonio with my basketball girls and another couple to Austin. Then a 4 day trip to Las Vegas with Niko's family ... followed by a 5 day trip with Niko to WinterPark Colorado for some snowboarding!! My first vacation days have already been earmarked for San Francisco to see Justin and there's got to be a trip to Seattle to see Meagan and Stuart in the works as well. Good times on the horizon... especially as a professional!

Beautiful Sunsets...

SCUBA Blue Hole

I highly recommend this dive to anyone going to Belize. The history of the Blue Hole is that is was a cave at one point and when the Earth's plates shifted, the ceiling collapsed. Over millions of years (ice ages, etc) the cave has been covered by the ocean and is now under water. We went down to 42 meters (despite that I am only an open water diver and my limit is 18 meters) and swam between the stalactites. The coolest part? There were 4 black-tip reef sharks and a bull shark swimming in the hole with us and they were about 10 feet long! I couldn't stop staring!

The dives after the Blue Hole were incredible as well but in a more "normal" sort of way. We dove at Lighthouse Reef and Half Moon Caye and had lunch on Booby Island (Red Footed Boobies that is!).

I got "lost" on one of my dives which was not so cool.
I went up a swim thru and when I got around the last bit of coral, the group was gone! I was way deeper than I should have been and was completely disoriented. I considered surfacing (because that's what you're supposed to do if you find yourself alone on a dive) but I really didn't want to because I knew they wouldn't let me go back down once I came up! The worst part was the coral wall was on my right and there was the deep blue on my left and I SWEAR I kept hearing the Jaws soundtrack coming from the deep blue "dun nun... dun nun... dun...". I would spin around super fast to see if there was a shark there... nothing. If you know my serious fear of sharks, you would understand that I was pretty scared! haha Basically, the dive instructor found me after about 2 minutes and I swam as fast as I could back to the group (only sucking in about one mouthful of water in the process!)

Caye Caulker, Belize

Caye Caulker was not nearly as pretty as Tobacco Caye but the night life was great. There were tons to travelers milling about as well as plenty of locals. Sarah and I both got our hair braided by Anita (we were told she was the best in Belize and we could "find her under the tree!").












I saw some incredible sunsets at Caye Caulker as well...

This was possibly one of the most incredible sunsets I've ever seen... good thing CJ came running over to check out the digital camera!

I got pickpocketed on the dance floor and chased the dude to the bathroom to confront him! I got my wallet back (the money was gone) with my credit cards and my ID. I was proud of my bravery because this guy was big!

I ate a HUGE lobster because they are really inexpensive in Belize. I looked really classy trying to crack the shell with the blunt end of a butter knife (apparently they don't use claw crackers in Belize) and the lobster actually drew blood from my finger even after it was dead!
Our friends from South Africa Mike and Grant at Sandbox on our last night in Caye Caulker.

Snorkeling Glover's Reef

We took a day trip to Glover's Reef from Tobacco Caye and saw some of the best coral I have seen both snorkeling and SCUBA diving!! The colors were so intense and it's one of the only places in Belize where the coral looks this fabulous.

Katrien and Toon from Belgium... this guy is hilarious!

The rest of the time on Tobacco Caye was spent laying in hammocks, reading, and of course sleeping in hammocks.

At night we layed on the deck with Mike and Grant (South Africa) and admired the incredible amounts of stars that were visible in the sky. I don't think I have EVER seen that many before!!
There is nothing like waking up to an early morning sunrise in a hammock with waves crashing about 100 feet from you.

Sometimes we weren't so lucky in the hammocks though as both Sarah and I fell out a few times :) Definitely came back with a couple of rope burns and bruises!!

Tobacco Caye, Belize

After a couple of days at Placencia, we hopped back on the old-American-School-bus turned Belizean-city-bus and headed north. We didn't have a destination in mind so when we met some cool guys from South Africa that were going to Tobacco Caye, we tagged along.

This was the boat I wrote about and this is what Tobacco Caye looked like.

There really wasn't much written about Tobacco Caye in the Lonely Planet and I am guessing it's because whoever wrote about it didn't ACTUALLY go there! It was incredible! We caught a water taxi ... an itty-bitty boat and we crammed about 14 people + luggage on it like sardines. The boat was so full that it was literally about 6 inches above the water on both sides and we were headed 45 minutes into the middle of the ocean. Sweet. Once again, Sarah and I were wondering exactly what we were doing! By the time we arrived at Tobacco Caye, we were all completely drenched and ready to step on dry land.

Tobacco Caye has 18 official residents and is about 5 acres of land. There are no stores, restaurants, roads, cars, bikes, etc. The only thing you can find here are hammocks, cabanas, bars, and snorkel equipment. Exactly what we wanted.... there weren't even hardly any tourists! Talk about a deserted island.

I loved this sign... it was so true!

This is where all 4 of us slept a few nights!

The price of our private cabin ($25) included 3 meals a day which we shared with 6 other travelers. We snorkeled right off the sand in the turquoise waters and saw incredible fish (Eagle Rays, Baracuda, parrot fish, sea cucumbers, butterfly fish, and even the rare Gurnet and lizardfish!)

Placencia

Transportation to Placencia ... $20
Beachside Cabana.. $10
2 Drinks at the bar... on the house

1 laundry service that washed all of our clothes in one load until the colors bled... $15
(... and took my cool pink shorts and my shirt... $70)

The cost of tie-dying the tank tops that were ruined... PRICELESS.

That's right, when given ruined clothing, just wrap the piece of material that bled around the ruined shirts and make a beautiful tie-dye ... now you can still wear it!

The Road Less Traveled, Belize

So after an incredible 6 day experience in Guatemala, we were off to a new country via an old crappy "Greyhound-type" bus. The trip from Flores (Tikal), Guatemala to Belize City, Belize was about 5 hours. The road to the border of Guatemala was hilarious... pretty much just one long dirt road with pot holes, random horses, and roosters walking down the road. Exactly what you might picture Guatemala to look like!

Just past the border checkpoint, we could already tell we were in Belize. Amid the surrounding jungle, were palm trees, houses on stilts, and cemetaries much like those of New Orleans... above ground and colorful. The vibe was already becoming more Caribbean.

Sarah and I were the only tourists on the bus that hopped in a Taxi to head to the bus station. Most, if not all, the travelers were content to head straight to the tourist trap of Caye Caulker just off the north east coast of Belize. We were looking for a more "Belizean holiday" and headed to Placencia (southeast coast). Gotta love the random man who says he's a taxi driver and takes us to his unmarked car... I think we saw a small picture with a license number on the corner of the dashboard before heading out!

Once at the bus station, in typical Belizean style, there were no posted bus times and absolutely no prices listed! haha This is when you have to rely on the locals to shuffle you onto the correct bus. The best part is that none of the "helpers" are wearing any sort of uniform so you just have to trust them when they tell you which bus to get on!

We hop on the once-American-School-bus, now-Belizean-city-bus and attempt to throw our bags under our seats. We take a look around and realize that we are the only travelers and the only white/blonde people ! Sweet, clearly not from Belize!! Then the Caribbean music starts blaring, heads begin bobbing, babies stop crying, and we put the windows down for some AC.

The 4 hour ride to Independence (the launch point for Placencia) was virtually un-eventful and gave us a great opportunity to check out the countryside. I would highly recommend traveling via the "old school buses" around any country because they are economical and give you the most real experience.

The bus driver dropped us off and said that the water taxi was "just that way..." sweet... there we go, gigantic backpacks on, walking through the middle of this random town ... hoping we were going the right way. This was one of those times that we were laughing about the situation we were putting ourselves in!! Turns out the locals were really nice and when we got to our destination the guys that run the water taxi invited us to play Dominos with them!

Sarah and I gave it our best shot and I think they quite enjoyed teaching us how to play and talking to us. We really enjoyed getting the chance to spend some time with true locals, and listen to their Caribbean accents. When they spoke to us, we could understand them but when they spoke to eachother, they spoke a Spanish-English-Creole blend and it was completely foreign to us! All was good until Sarah accidently threw a Domino into the lake...time to go!

We stayed at Deb and Dave's Last Resort which was an adorable beach side condo and it only took 2 minutes for us to put on our suits and head to the beach. Unfortunately, recent weather had churned up the water and instead of white capped waves, it was black muddy water rolling in! So listened to music and had a drink at the bar with the locals instead!

Early morning coffee on our patio at Deb and Dave's...

That night a local rasafarian-artist (picture barefoot with long dreadlocks) invited us to his house for home-made crab and pasta salad... sweet... free delicious meal and some great laughs! :)

Tikal ... Mayan Ruins

Friday morning we caught an early morning bus to Guatemala City and then a flight from Guat City to Flores which is in the northern part of Guatemala. Flores is just a jumping off point for the incredible Tikal, one of the most important Mayan settlements with a population estimated at 100,000 that lasted over 1500 years (700BC until ~900AD).

What sets Tikal apart from other sites is that it surrounded by a steamy jungle with howler monkeys, spider monkeys, toucans, coatimundi, and the huge tarantula-like ceiba tree.
http://www.belizezoo.org/zoo/zoo/mammals/coa/coa1.html Ceiba tree and some coatimundis looking for food.



There are 5 major temples that have been uncovered and their tops extend well above the canopy. What I found to be the most exciting part (besides the animals) was that only 20% of the structures have been unearthed and as we walked through the jungle, there were enormous tree covered mounds that were clearly more structures. I wanted to badly to just take a shovel and start digging!

One of the mounds ... or another unearthed temple.

We were allowed to climb two of the temples (Temple II and Temple IV) and we were able to see the tops of the other temples above the canopy.

On the ride home, there were 30 people in our van! Honestly... these people sure know how to pack a vehicle full. There were about 7 jump seats that fold down and two people standing in the "doorway!"

Chichicastenango, Guatemala

Day 3 we got up early again to head to the markets in Chichicastenango. This is Guatemala's most famous market and it was incredible. The indigenous people travel overnight with their crafts and food on an A frame on their backs only to have their "booths" set up by the morning.

The cultural experience could not be beat as the Guatemalans were wearing the traditional Mayan clothing and spoke a combination of Spanish and Mayan dialects. The center of the market is reserved for the everyday needs of the Guatemalans (food, toiletries) and the outer edges of the market offer more of the touristy things. I bought a fabulous patchwork blanket (and had to haul around all 10 lbs of it for the rest of the trip!) and a few other really special items. The bartering was fun and I think I finally got the hang of it by the end of the day!
Santo Tomas Church still combines many of the Mayan traditions (i.e. sacrificing chickens) those of the Catholic faith.

Apparently Sarah was a tiger in another life because this mask fits her too well... even her eyes line up!
Back to Antigua we go... we couldn't get enough of Hotel Don Ismael :)

Panajachel, Guatemala

Lake Atitlan and surrounding volcanos.
The morning departure was 7AM as we were headed to Panajachel (about 2 hours west of Antigua). Panajachel is nestled in the Guatemalan highlands and is surrounded by three volcanoes (Toliman, Atitlan, and San Pedro) and Lake Atitlan. From Pana, we hopped on a boat and visited the indigenous villages on Lake Atitlan.

This was the first time we got ripped off because when we bought our tickets for the boats, we purchased them from some guys that greeted us just before we got to the docks. They wanted $50 US each to take us to 3 islands and Sarah and I definitely didn't have that much money. We changed the route to a less traveled one and got the price down to $25 per person (which was still WAY more than we wanted to spend). We ended up with a private boat and our own personal driver... but we later found out that price should be $8.00 US per person... nice... stupid tourists! ;) We were practically the ONLY tourists in the villages we visited which was awesome because we were able to see the indigenous people performing their daily activities. The women on these islands are famous for their typical Mayan dress and beautiful hand-woven materials. I had to buy a couple of them because they were so pretty!

For just a minute I thought we were gonna be in trouble because the boat guy pulled up to this random spot on the lake and told us that it was a "hot spot" in the water and we should get out and feel it. We didn't have on our swimsuits but we figured we might as well and jumped in with all of our clothes on! Just then, the driver turned the engine of the boat back on and started driving away from us... then he picked up my purse ... we were just like "crap we're about to get our stuff stolen and get left here in the middle of this huge lake..." but it turns out he was just moving it so that it would get wet when got back in the boat. Phew!

Volcan Pacaya and Flowing Lava

We didn't take long to get started on the adventures as we headed up Volcan Pacaya on Day 2 of our trip in Guatemala. Antigua is surrounded by volcanos which can be climbed at your leisure. Volcan Pacaya is however, the most active, and has been known to errupt when climbers are near the crater!

The shuttle left at 5:30 AM and took about 1.5 hours to get to the volcano. We drove past a few itty-bitty "towns" on our way up the volcano (I'd be scared to live there!) and then walked about 3km before we saw any lava. Apparently we had the perfect weather because the lingering clouds enhanced the red color of the lava! The first bit of black volcanic rock that we saw was 4 days old and had moved quite a distance from it's origin. The rock was warm but not on fire anymore.
Once we got to the top, you could hear nothing but the loud crack and pop of the burning lava. We were could get as close as we wanted (much to the guide's dislike) and some people were even stupid enough to climb on the "cooled" parts of the lava!
Our dinner that night was interesting because we tried Jamaica juice (made from the Jamaica flower and tasted like cranberry juice) and a few local dishes.

"Jenna, cats don't eat bread!" -Sarah about the starving cat that pounced my PBJ.

Glad it Worked out... Arriving in Guatemala

Jenna and Sarah being silly on the deck at Hotel Ismael after our arrival in Antigua.

As I'm sure you'll figure out as you read the following logs, Sarah and I did not "Plan" this trip... in fact, we basically bought tickets and didn't talk much more about it. It was so "un-planned" that I had no idea what time Sarah's flight from NY arrived in the Guatemala airport... nor did I know what we would do if we didn't meet up at the airport (neither of us had cell phones with us!).

The trip started off on a good note as I only waited about 45 minutes before she arrived and we immediately hopped on a shuttle to Antigua, Guatemala.

We chose Hotel de La Casa de Don Ismael from the guide book and were pleasantly suprised to see how clean and adorable it was. There was a center courtyard with tropical plants and an upstairs deck with a view of the city. We shared a simple room with a bathroom for about $8.00 US each per night! Sweet. The owner of the hostel was meticulous... there were candles placed along the stairwell so we could get to our room and as soon as we turned our light off they blew the candles out... and literally every time he heard the toilet flush, he came up the stairs and turned the last bit of toilet paper on the roll into an origami creation! haha (It was kinda weird though when it happened at like midnight!)

Some of the plants in our courtyard anyone know what the one on the left is called?

Antigua is incredible as it is considered one of the world's best preserved colonial cities. The architecture, bright colored buildings, and cobblestone streets were picture perfect. The Guatemalans are so friendly and eager to be helpful. The men were extremely respectful towards women as I can't recall even one instance where a man did more than just glance at the two white girls walking by.

My only complaint? The roads are repetive and not well marked ... so when you consider who was traveling, you understand that is was easy for us to get disoriented!

I Promise!

Man we have been sooo busy and there's virtually no places to access internet for long periods of time. I might just wait until I get back to the states to update because I want to put up pictures with the stories!

This trip is awesome.

Guatemala
Antigua
Volcan Pacaya
Panajachel
Chichicastenango
Lago de Atitlan
Tikal/Flores

Belize
Placencia
Tobacco Caye
Caye Caulker

Mexico
Merida
Mexico City

South Padre Island

I love South Padre... I never realized what a nice beach it really is! I have spent more time out there this summer than I think I've spent in the past 4 years of combined! Diving last weekend was alright despite the fact that we dove at an oil rig... so much for the serenity of the quiet water! There was a constant hum under the water which I found to be quite annoying. There were some fish that I hadn't seen, but nothing spectacular. The coolest thing I did see was a couple of pretty big barracudas swimming up above me.

Last night we all went to Tequila Sunset to catch up and it was a blast. Ran into some people we knew ... went for a late night black water swim in the ocean... and finally hit the sack.

I have to say that I've concluded that I have two severe fears 1.) Darkness (i.e. sharks underwater, caves, etc) and 2.) heights. I am so embarrassed that I get so scared of sharks despite that I'm not nervous at all when I'm SCUBA diving. Hmm... I guess my suggestion of swimming in the ocean late at night backfired when both George and Justin wanted to swim out to the 3rd sandbar! I went along only because i was too afraid to go back alone but when George started saying that we might have missed the 3rd sandbar and that the water was about 9 feet deep... I flipped out! I swam back to shore as fast as I could and dragged myself up onto the beach to wait for them to return.

Maybe I need to get this fear fixeD? Any suggestions?

Today was a BBQ at the beach and I was pretty pumped because Heidi joined us finally! We layed out and played in the ocean for hours and I have a sunburn that hurts to prove it!




Justin and George playing soccer.










Tomorrow I leave for Guatemala, I better get to laundry and packing!