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!