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The Road To California

Well, the weather started out blue skies until we got to Idaho Springs (about 40 miles outside of Denver). It appeared to have snowed the night before. Once we got through Idaho Springs the weather began to get a little nastier. I had planned on washing the car before we left and I am glad that I didn’t as the muck began to cake on the further we went.

Road Trip!

Time to escape the cold weather of Colorado and head out to where it is warmer! Yes, that’s right, California. It has been a couple of years since our move to Colorado and it is time we go home for a visit. I can’t think of a better way to get to California other than driving. It’s only 1,200 miles and we could do that in one day (we’ve done it before on a trip to Indiana) but you know us, we are making a three day trip out of this. First stop, Moab (Arches National Park). We always wanted to go to Moab (to break in the Jeep Wrangler) but we just couldn’t find the time. One thing is for certain, there won’t be any crowds.

Medertariain Food!

We have had a hankering for some Mediterranean food for the past week or so. I talked to a co-worker of mine, Laufnick and he recommended a place in Boulder called, The Med. Since our nephew, Travis just signed up for a four year stint in the Air Force, we decided this would be a good way to celebrate. Okay, a little more about the Air Force….Travis has been interested in enlisting for quite some time but he had to do some prep work before he could be considered an applicant. Travis had to drop about 30 pounds before he could enlist. When Travis made his goal weight, he contacted a recruiter (which was a nightmare by the way) and started the enlistment process. This past Tuesday, Travis took his entrance exam (and scored a whopping 92%) and took a physical. After successfully passing his physical and spilling his urine on his roommate (another story to share at a later time) he officially became enlisted. I looked up The Med on the internet and from what I saw, the place looks

Outstanding Food & Beverage

Due to complications (on Travis’ part) we got a late start on our departure to the restaurant but we still made our reservation. When we arrived, we were greeted by an absolutely beautiful hostess (that was your first hint Travis, stay in school and attend CU) who gave us the option to enjoy our meal on the outside patio. After a few twists and turns through the restaurant, we walked out onto the patio. The seating was a little cramped but the ambiance was nice. Our waiter, Doug (not his real name) promptly greeted us and provided us with the dinner, tapas and beverage menus. After perusing the many selections of wine, I ordered a lager from a local a local brewery. The selection was made from the “Bottled Beer” section but the beer was delivered in a can. Hmmm, I most likely wouldn’t have ordered it knowing it was in a can as the aluminum typically changes the physical characteristics of the hops and alcohol bringing on a metallic taste which forces the tastebuds to go into panic

We Made It Home

We were so relaxed in Belize, we didn’t feel like updating our blogs. We will probably update them soon so you all will be up to date with our journey. Until then…..

A Walk Downtown

Michelle felt better around 2pm so we decided to take a walk to the city central plaza. The sky looked threatening but we grabbed our rain jackets (and cameras) and headed out the door. We found a Cost Plus type of store called Nim Bott. I am glad we stopped. The store had all kinds of souvenirs without the hassle of bargaining with the vendors. Set price, no pushy salesmen. We only grabbed a couple of t-shirts which may or may not be souvenirs. If they don’t fit, they will become souvenirs. It was hard to tell if they would fit as they were wrapped in plastic. We found a nice church (well, there are about twenty of them) and proceeded to take few pictures. All of a sudden the church bell started ringing and the doors opened up and out walked some pallbearers carrying a casket. We figured it would not be good to snap a few pictures. Hunger started to hit us so we decided to head back to the hotel. Our tour group had just arrived when when we returned. Everybody made sure tha

Stomach Trouble

Uh Oh, looks like we got a little stomach trouble this morning. After breakfast Michelle and I started to get the dreaded stomach gurgling Never a good sign. We can only attribute this to last nights dinner or the water that they served with dinner. The water was in pitchers so we don’t know if it was bottled or not. Since we will be in Antigua for two more nights, we opted to stay back. I broke the news to Carlos and he provided us with some local “imodium” medication. Carlos said that if it is a local bacteria infection, the Imodium won’t do s**t (yes, pun intended). We will miss the home hosted lunch, macadamia/coffee plantation tour, chicken bus ride and the visit to the elementary school. Oh well, at least we will make the Jade factory tour. We just be kicking it at the hotel today. This will give us time to update our blogs and turn our laundry in for cleaning. The rest of the group will be returning around 4 o’clock. Hopefully we will be better by then. One of the

Zip Line Tour and Overland to Antigua

Today is the day we zip line! We all prayed that the rain would let up long enough for us to take this optional tour. I guess our praying paid off. We boarded our bus for a five minute ride to the nature preserve. The name of the company is Cables X-Tremos. Our guides met loaded us up with our gear and we then proceeded to hike up to the first of eight zip lines. I believe that we hiked up about 1,000 feet. We made several stops so we could catch our breath and to get a glimpse of the wild life. Spider Monkeys galore! There were some Howler Monkeys as well as some raccoon looking vermin hanging around. I will have to post the video footage on You Tube. It took me a couple of zip lines to get the braking down. That was my biggest issue but I guess I gave it too much thought. Michelle had a little issue with the braking so after the 4th zip line, she rode tandem with one of the guides. The guides were very understanding and helpful. When we got to the last zip line, it st

Lake Atitlan, Guatemala

We woke up to find that the rain is not letting up. This bit of bad news means that we will not be going on our zip line tour today. From what we were told, the cables that will be supporting us must be relatively dry. For now, the zip line tour has been rescheduled for tomorrow at 8:30 am. We can only hope that rain plays nicely tomorrow. Since our zip line excursion didn’t go as planned, we took a ferry across the lake to Panajachel. Panajachel is an old Myan city where the old customs are still practiced today. As we pulled into the harbor, the shores were filed with the women of the city doing their laundry. Even though most of the women have washing machines at home the women prefer to meet at the lake so they can catch up on the gossip. During our ferry ride, we got a glimpse of the San Pedro, Toliman and Atitlan volcanos. Typically these volcanos are reflected in the azure waters of Lake Atitlan but due to the elevation, rain and clouds we were luck to see them at all.

Atitlan, Guatemala

Rain, rain and more rain. What can I say? It is excellent weather! The weather here in Atitlan is comparable to Hawaii. Not quite as humid as we are at 5000’ feet above sea level. A word about the rainfall… There has been a lot of deforestation going on in recent years and it is causing a lot of mudslides. There was a mudslide about three months ago in Atitlan and 25 people were killed. We also drove by a house that was hit by a boulder from a mudslide. I can only image how freaked out the family was when all 20 of them woke up when the boulder came through their bedroom. Mud and bricks houses with corrugated metal for a roof doesn’t provide much defense from a two ton boulder. By the way, the boulder is still there. I guess they are using it as a wall right now. Rock on! We arrived in Atitlan yesterday in the late afternoon. During our bus ride into town, we passed through the marketplace. Most of the stuff is for tourists but the locals buy items here as well. Michell