Remember the theme song to Gilligan's Island: something about thinking they were going out for a three hour cruise? Well, that's about how our adventure as three middle aged couples lost in the marshes of Lago Izabal began... We had great trip out to Finca Parasio in the morning. We took a boat with the same captain as we used yesterday for the Livingston trip, and brought along our Canadian friends and another couple from their marina. The trip to the finca (ranch) takes about an hour from our hotel, along a lakeshore populated with wealthy residents at first, and then abruptly changing to mangrove swamps interspersed with cattle pastures and an occasional fisherman's home. The Mayans living in this area were attacked by the military during the uprising in the 80's and some villages were ... read more

We arrived in Rio Dulce on Friday afternoon, after a nice trip by mini bus from Copan Ruinas to Rio Dulce. It was a six hour trip with a stop at the ruins in Quirigua, and cost us each $20 US. On board were an American couple from San Francisco and a Honduran family with two very cute girls who proceeded (after I gave them pairs of glasses with fake eyes..thank you Haddy!) to help me work on my Spanish pronunciation... When we arrived here, a helpful man at the dock convinced us to stay at Tortugal, instead of Denny's Beach as we had planned. While we were trying to work out a place to stay, Bill checked email, and found that the house deal is done!!!! So we had a beer on the dock to ... read more

This has been a busy week! Over the last weekend, we went to a great perfomance of Talking With..., a contemporary play performed in English by local expat women. We had little time to get to the play from dinner, so decided to take a TukTuk, small vehicles imported from India that function as taxis in small cities here. Our driver promptly got a flat tire... and the next one we flagged down got caught in traffic, but we still made it on time.. On Sunday, we walked several minutes down a road out of town, to see the carpets being made for the procession. These were made of colored sawdust, and most were being created by teens listening to rap or loud pop music! Later we visted a few more ruins, and ate out since ... read more

We are now living with a local family, and going to Spanish language school every morning for 4 hours! Our new home is in a residential area of Antigua and we walk about 20 minutes to school each morning. Our host family provides three meals each day but Sunday, and conversation in Spanish at each meal. We don't eat with the family (there are three children aged 10, 12, and 15 and the two parents) for the most part, but someone usually sits with us to speak Spanish (and make us speak to them!). We are living on the top floor, with a view of the three volcanoes thast circle the city. One is active, and last night while I was on the phone acroos the street wishing Luke a "Happy Birthday", we saw it begin ... read more

After an 8 hour bus ride (first class), then a taxi ride and then another one and a half hour bus ride (this time on a local bus), we are in Antigua, the former colonial capital of Guatemala. On the way here from Flores, we went through rainforest, jungle, into farmland and then into almost desert before climbing into the mountains to Guatelmala City. The city is huge and sprawling and poor for the most part. There are armed guards in many places, since crime is high. A guard hailed a taxi for us at the bus station and made sure we were on our way with a reputable driver. Some background on the buses here: all the basic public transport is on old school buses (I saw one today from Greenwich CT!) and these stop ... read more