JulieandAlex

Julie says... Our adventure to the jungle temple was delayed by illness. First of all, the ride out to the small village we were to depart from, Carmelita, was supposed to be only 2.5 hours. We left at 5:45 AM. BUT the bus that brought us there... put it this way: at one point, while the guys were banging around on the engine, I asked Alex, "what are they doing?" to which he replied, "It probably has something to do with this bus being a rotten piece of shit." It could only go about 25 mph, and after about half an hour, it blew a tire. Moments after the tire was changed, the engine blew up. Not sure what happened exactly but it took them about an hour to fix it. Not to mention, the exhaust ... read more

And for our next adventure, we are taking a 5 day trek into the jungle to see the Mayan ruins of El Mirador! I hadn´t heard of this trip until we actually arrived here in Flores. A sign at our hostel announced a 5 day jungle trek to visited a recently discovered Mayan city. Of course, my curiosity was aroused! Turns out to be a place under excavation and hard to get because there is no drivable road, only a mule trail. Or you could be like that loser Mel Gibson and helicopter there. But where´s the fun in that? As we starting talking about it around the hostel we realized that quite a few people wanted to do this trip. It´s going to quite the international crew: 3 Americans, 2 Irish, 2 Dutch, 1 Brit ... read more

Yup, still here! Promised to report on the cave diving so here goes... Background: When we went scuba diving in Cozumel, about 2 weeks ago, it was the first time I´d been under waves since we were in the Phillipines a year and a half ago. On the boat the divemaster just asked where we wanted to go, and since we were with a group that had done lots of diving in the area before, they encouraged us to go to a site called ¨The Bricks¨. Turned out to be a gorgeous coral reef, uneven, with lots of swim-throughs (like coral tunnels) and fairly deep. Just below 30 meters or so, though I´m not sure how low the bottom actually goes. So, we were diving, admiring the huge angelfish, and I felt myself just....I don´t know. ... read more

Holy moly,it´s been a long time since I´ve updated this thang! OK, well here´s goes the mini update: left Japan in April, went to West Africa to visit Ana and check out villages for 5 weeks, arrived in New York in June, flew to Little Rock, picked up the car and drove to Alaska, got married on July 9th! Then, headed to Portland OR for 6 weeks, then left for our "real " honeymoon in Oct. Spent a week at a fancy resort in Cozumel Mexico, stuffing our faces and getting waited on hand and foot, then moved across the bay to Tulum, where we have been planted ever since. Whew! We have been having a wonderful honeymoon. At first, the resort took some getting used to. I was a bit aprehensive before we got there ... read more

Hey! We love you guys! Have a great Thanksgiving without us! - J and A... read more

As the weather starts to cool , I'm realizing that our crazy summer in Japan is nearly over. The sweltering heat and humidity has given way to warm days, and warm nights. Although I'm grateful for the cooler days, I'm sad the summer is drawing to a close. It's been incredible, just really incredible. After my brothers came in June, Robert and Janet made it over here for two weeks. Then, Alex and I got to spend some serious quality time with our friends here, going to festivals, having barbecues, dancing and feasting! A few highlights: Going to Tokushima for Awa Odori, with Toshi, and her family, Nick and his mother and her boyfriend. We arrived early enough in the day to watch the crowd swell from huge to unbelievably huge! Alex and I stayed late ... read more

Just because we haven't updated in a loooong looong time, I thought I'd throw out some pictures of what we've been doing. My brothers came to visit about a month ago, and we' took a trip to the Philippines and S. Korea before that, so we have tons of photos that need sharing. Here we go!... read more

Taking a few cues from our boy Chuck Klosterman, here's the most over-rated, under-rated, and most accurately-rated bullshit from the trip. Plus all the random American-type shit that helped us along. Most Over-Rated 1) Chinese tourist sights in general - they hype them up so much, but they're usually boring and crowded 1a) Forbidden City in one particular 2) The helpfulness of the China Lonely Planet - stunning lack of decent information, ridiculously skewed price estimates, and absolutely useless maps 3) Boat Tours everywhere - always choose the option that skips the boat tour 4) Tsingtao Beer 5) Rai Leh (Railay) East Most Under-Rated 1) Travel Times, particularly in China - never believe what they tell you 2) Chopsticks - come on, it's not THAT difficult 3) Squat Toilets - comfortable result with fewer points of ... read more