Dreaming Arizona

I'm not sure if anyone but Jessica is still reading this blog...well too bad for you if you aren't cuz we're doing some cool stuff. We spent the past two weeks tooling around Arizona, visiting relatives and enjoying the sunshine. You might be asking, "didn't they leave Central America because it was too hot?" And you're right, we did, but as any good Arizonan will tell you "it's a dry heat" and that does make a difference. We love 85 degrees when there is only 10% humidity!

We spent four days with Kevin's grandmother, dad, and aunt in Tucson. After that we got to take Kristi's (Kevin's sister) SWEET '72 camper bus on a little trip. We traveled for four days up to Kristi's house in Flagstaff, stopping to hike through the cactus up to cliff dwellings and soak in hotsprings along the way.

The bus is truly awesome. I loved having all the conviences of home (like tea and books and music) and being able to park it out among the dunes under the stars. Plus you get the peace sign when you drive down the road.
A view from Tonto National Monument. These cliff dwellings have been well preserved and you can still see the fingerprints of the builders in the plaster.
We arrived in Flagstaff on Tuesday to find another of Kristi and Wade's camping machines loaded and ready for the next adventure. Kristi had been busy preparing for a four day river adventure in the Black Canyon (on the Colorado River below Roosevelt dam). As soon as Wade got off work (and he and Kevin spent two hours rewiring trailer lights) we were off. We drove 3 1/2 hours and camped in the desert, ready to get an early start up the river in the morning.
Paddling was a bit challenging the first day. We had to go 8 miles up stream against a fairly strong current. The river flow changes depending on how much electricity the dam needs to generate and with Las Vegas looming over the canyon walls, we watched the water levels change by as much as six feet in a few hours. It was incredibly beautiful and baffling to see such dry desert rising up from clear blue water.
Kristi and Wade mastering the eddy line in a canoe built by Wade's grandfather. You may notice that Kristi has seen the light and will soon be switching to a kayak!

Canyons as far as the eye can see. The best part was that almost every side canyon (including the one we camped in) had a hot spring at in it. We felt decadent as we scrambled up rocks and then lounged in 106 degree water or bathed in hot water water falls.
Our next adventure? We take off tomorrow in the Volkswagon to go see the Grand Canyon and points beyond. It is a blessing to have the time to visit family and explore this amazing landscape.

Love Chrissy

The Land of Plenty (ie too much)

We're back safe and sound as we enter the next phase of our trip, family and friends road trip. The southwest feels refreshing with the lack of humidity, even though weather has been in the 90's. Our last few days in Central America were filled with long bus rides (about 3 days from San Jose, Costa Rica to Guatemala City), souvenir shopping and a visit to a sculpture exhibition and the Natural History Museum in Guatemala city.

The parque central of Masaya, Nicaragua ,where the carnival meets the cathedral. We spent a day here on our way north to Guatemala, buying last minute souveniers and absorbing the bits of culture we were already missing. Masaya is one of our favorite towns--this square was lively every night with local people, playing on swings, riding bikes(3 or 4 at a time), eating fried plantains or pizza, loving, laughing and people watching.

The Happy Train! This was a big deal on the weekend in Masaya. The tractor pulled you around the neighborhoods and down to the malecon (by the lakeshore), blaring Nica pop music the whole time. Our favorite part of the ride was rolling by the local families (4 to 5 generations all together) enjoying the (relative) cool of the evening as they sat in rocking chairs on the sidewalks in front of their houses talking and laughing.

The Happy Train really does make you happy! Note the styling snack vendor. As usual, anywhere in Central America you can get a snack or toy or pop when in need.

Sunset over Lago Masaya. The smoking cone of Volcan Masaya loomed over the ridge above this beautiful lake. The malecon was where all the young lovers from Masaya spent the evening, so as not to break with tradition...

Our flight home from Guatemala City to Los Angeles. Thanks to Chrissy's dad's many years of hard work as an airline pilot, we got to travel first class. Drinking orange juice from real glasses and eating spanish fritata off of china plates was a far cry from riding the chicken bus!

We visited Aunt Eileen and Uncle Kenny at their beautiful, tranquil home in Temecula, California. It was a great place to land, sit on a comfy couch and catch up on sleep. We didn't realize how tired we were until we got here. We also got to see all of the cousins and Chrissy's 96 year old grandmother.

Then there was Lexy, Ken and Eileen's 23 pound pug. We fell in love with her and had a great time taking her on walks through the neighboring avocado groves. She enjoyed the workouts we gave her, or so we thought. On walk number 5 she stopped dead in her tracks 100ft from the house...but Kevin won the tug of war and the excercising of the "chubby pups" continued.

America really is the land of opportunity. We ordered an economy car to drive from California to visit Kevin's family in Arizona. However, when we got to the rental agency they realized our Toyota Corolla had expired tabs. So they gave us this--a brand spankin' new mustang to drive across the desert. As Kevin says, "When God gives you a Mustang, you gotta lay a patch coming out of the rental parking lot!" And so he smoked 'em, Amen!

Our Time Has Come...

After countless bus rides, hundreds of gallons of bottled water, 5 countries and 4 volcanoes we are finally ready to head back north. It continues to get hotter down here and that makes bus travel rather unpleasant--especially, if you are two softies from Washington. So with dreams of air conditioning in mind, we are making the trek back to Guatemala city where we will catch our airplane. If all goes well we should be in Los Angeles by next Thursday, with plans to visit relatives in California and Arizona before returning to the Northwest.

It is strange and sad and a relief to end this journey. As we buy our last souvenirs, we smile in remembrance of all the memories we have mixed together in the menudo of our adventure. Central America has started to feel a tiny bit familiar from people we´ve met, to strange animals, to songs we know when they come on the radio. Some of it seems so far away already, but I am sure that the jewels will remain in my memory. Then there are the pleasures of home to look forward to--soft places to sit, knowing where we will sleep at night, understanding what people are saying to us and most of all being around friends and family.

We spent the last week in Costa Rica, which was a big shock after Nicaragua.We began calling it "Central America Lite" with cleaner streets, people using garbage cans, nice buses, American style dress, and English often replied to our Spanish. Scenic destinations felt like Disneyland with tours everywhere and high prices for everything. That being said, the wild life in Costa Rica is outstanding. I was amazed at how much there is to see.

Our first stop was Monteverde, with its famous cloud forest preserves. Here we are with a few people looking at the Three Wattled Bell Bird, a very rare species in Costa Rica with only 52 birds counted this year (60 is the limit before a species is considered in crisis).

A dink frog that Kevin discovered inside a bromeliad (they´re call goes "dink dink dink", Kevin thought they were talking to him). I was really enthusiastic about poking around in bromeliads and looking for frogs until our guide informed us that there is a small pit viper that lives inside the plants. That stifled my curiosity rather quickly.

The could forest on a rare sunny day. Pictures will never do this place justice.

One of our favorite trips at Monteverde was SkyWalk. A 3 km trail through the cloud forest using suspension bridges to walk through and above the canopy. It was a treat to look down on the trees and all the birds and monkeys that live in them. Our trip there also included the obligatory zip line tour, which we had to admit was really fun. It was much higher and faster than our zipline in Nicaragua, 300 meters up, 900 meters long at 40mph!

You may need to clean the inside of your computer screen from the belly of a this tree frog. Visiting about 30 species of Costa Rican frogs in a frog museum proved to be the best way to spot these critters who spend the days hiding and nights in the canopy. We got to see the red eyed tree frog and poison arrow frogs, species Kevin has always wanted to see in person. They´re rad!

Apparently, Kevin was aware that there is a dress code for Americans hiking in the Monteverde Cloud Forest. And the frogs say "dink dink dink".

Clouds rolling over the continental divide at Monteverde.

Our next stop was the Pacific coast beaches of Manuel Antonio National Park. What you can´t see is that I am sweating like a pig and it was only 8:30 am. This is one of the most popular parks in Costa Rica and this beach was packed with tourists by 11:00 am. We were surprised how much it reminded us of beaches in Washington and Oregon with sea stacks and offshore islands, except for the water being warm like fresh urine. Ahhh, refreshing.

Kevin and me laying on the beach. This is what happens when you don´t wear sunscreen.

There were huge troupes of white faced monkeys in the park. We had looked for them really hard at Monteverde, but they were everywhere at Manuel Antonio. We also realized that you don´t have to look for them because you can hear them coming from a mile away. They scour every crevice in the forest for food. We saw one monkey find and devour a HUGE scorpion...tail first. Yummy!

I know this picture is sideways, but you´ll have to bear with it. This is the altar next to our room at the Hotel Elvis in San Jose, Costa Rica. Betcha didn´t know there we dinosaurs and alligators present at the birth of baby Jesus. At night it was lit up with blacklights. Viva Central America!

Our next blog will likely be coming to you stateside unless we get roped into some unkown adventure here.

Cheers, Chrissy and Kevin