Friday, June 13, 2008
Isla de Ometepe
Playa Santo Domingo is on the strip of land between the two volcanoes and offers a long 4 kilometer stretch of gray sand. During our walks along the beach we hardly saw a soul! It was a pretty relaxing time since we stayed in a little guest house outside of the "town". Each night offered great breezes off the lake as we lounged in hammocks reading and listening to the thunderstorms and insects chirping.
One day we ventured to a little swimming hole (3.5 kilometer walk) just outside of the town. This little place is called El Ojo del Agua, where we swam in the cool water collected from a flowing stream. We had to tromp through an orchard of plantain trees to get to the swimming spot, but it was worth it. After the long walk we really appreciated the refreshing swim. This impressive island really offers a lot of opportunity for relaxation and we took advantage of it!
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Cerro Verde Park
Despite the effort needed to pull ourselves back up the hill to the top and the subsequent days of sore legs, the trip was fun, beautiful, and helped us to justify having a latte or two after the physical exertion.
Monday, May 26, 2008
Suchitoto
We got into our Hotel Balanza just before a HUGE rainstorm hit. This was the first hard rain we had seen on our travels...although there are many more to come since the rainy season is beginning. We really lucked out with a great hotel that was basically an entire house almost to ourselves, including a kitchen, but the best part was our sweeping patio with hammock, table and chairs, and a view of
Although we stayed 3 days in this little colonial town, we really didn't do too much.
On our last day we met the local gringo Robert who runs a little restaurant called El Rinconcito del Gringo with his wife. He is very involved with the local community and helping to establish better tourism initiatives as well as help run non-profit projects throughout
Honduras Recap
Here's a little recap of our time spent on the island. Our main goal was to dive and get my Open Water since Toby already has his. This island is supposed to be one of the cheapest places to dive in the world so "they say." We arrived on the island at a perfect time when there seemed to be few tourists around. We were fortunate to head to Utila Water Sports and lock in a private instructor for my course and for Toby's Advanced Open Water at the normal rate. We also ended up staying in a little apartment with kitchen right on the water for dirt cheap. Special thanks to Erik and Kris for their excellent instructing and personal attention.
Our classes went really well, and after our first free fun dives (4 included with each class) we figured Toby should just do his Rescue Diver course as well to get 4 more fun dives and have a private instructor. It was basically 3 to1 for him, since 2 Dive Master Trainees (Kiara and Jonathan) were assisting in the course. Why not take advantage of this unique opportunity and feel much more confident in our diving abilities for the future. Needless to say, Toby's class was pretty exhausting since he was on high alert from the time we left the dock until we were safely back again. At one point 4 people jumped in the water that he had to go and rescue. During one of the simulations of rescuing a victim that wasn't breathing, Toby actually kissed Jonathan because he was so in the groove of giving mouth to mouth and had his adrenaline pumping. Kiara and I had a good laugh at our husbands and we all joked about it the rest of the trip!
As we already mentioned we did see dolphins on our trip. We actually spotted them on 4 different occasions including our ferry ride back to the mainland when we left. We believe they were spinner and bottlenose dolphins. Other cool stuff we saw while diving or snorkeling included: spotted eagle rays, yellow tail rays, southern stingray, 2 hawksbill turtles, trunk fish, parrot fish, arrowhead crabs, ocean and queen triggerfish, black durgon, green moray eels, lobsters, anglel fish, and many more creatures!
After just about 2 weeks of being on the island of Utila, we decided that it was time to move on. We really didn't want to leave, but we have other things to see and do in Central America, so it was necessary.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
SCUBA Diving and more SCUBA Diving in Honduras
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Beaching...and More...Wish You Were Here
Dad & Yee Visit
Cutting it just under the wire of our departure from Guatemala, my dad and his girlfriend Yee made a little visit to us. Yee traveled all the way from London and my dad worked in his visit between business trips to Los Angeles. Although we only had four days to visit, it was very nice to share sometime with both of them. Due to the fact that we were ending our work with Ajb'atz' and sending home our kitty Nieve to be with my mom, we only spent time with Dad and Yee in Antigua. It made for a much more relaxing vacation and pleasant visit to not be traveling around to other cities.
During most of their visit we hung out around the city, enjoying the many shops and cafes that abound. Lucky for us, Dad and Yee to a liking to one of our favorite coffee places, & Cafe, which became a daily ritual. Many thanks to Dad and Yee for taking us out to quite a few delicious restaurants like Nicolas, Nokiate, and Cafe Mediteraneo for dinner. We hadn't eaten that well in a long time!
Other highlights included drinks at Sky Cafe on the rooftop and driving up to the Cerro de la Cruz lookout over the city. But, probably the best experience was visiting the Valhalla macadamia nut farm just outside the city. We were treated to a personal tour from the owner, Lorenzo, and privy to a lot of his dirty jokes as well. Dad and I received special facials with their macadamia nut oil and we all oggled over an adorable kitten. He was at first nursing from his mother but allowed us all to hold and pet him before he climbed a rock wall to get outside! This kitty encounter has helped "seal the deal" for Dad and Yee to get a few kittens of their own now that Yee has fallen in love with them again.
We had a great visit and really appreciated all the traveling, expenses, and energy Dad and Yee put into visiting us in Guatemala. Our time with them was a great goodbye to Guate, but also a send off onto our travels in Central America.