Family Travels

Last Day in Paradise

rarakaki — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 16:51:00 GMT

Tomorrow we leave for Belize City, the airport, Houston, then back to Seattle. It's been a wonderful trip. I think we achieved our goals. Elena and Jarrett saw that life in most of the world isn't at all like life on Bainbridge Island. They saw some things they thought were better than at home, and some things they're now more grateful they have at home. They heard lots of Spanish and other foreign languages, and got comfortable getting by with some Spanish of their own. They had several once-in-a-lifetime adventures. They adapted to varied conditions and they toughed it out when they needed to. They learned a lot about other people, history and nature. We spent a lot of quality time together and took care of each other when we most needed to. Lori and I took care of our foreign travel itch. We couldn't ask for more. Next post from the comfort of our home on Bainbridge Island!

Mickey's a Mouse, Pluto's a Dog. What's Goofy?

rarakaki — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 16:35:00 GMT

That profound question was raised by the boys around the campfire in "Stand By Me." It's right up there with the scene in "Clerks" in which they debate the politics of using independent contractors in the building of the Death Star.

One of the great things about family travel is that we've been spending 24 hours a day together for the last 3 weeks, something we never do at home. This has led to a number of serious debates between the other three in the family about various aspects of Harry Potter. Things like which spell is more powerful. Whenever they get into it, I remind them that Harry Potter in FICTION, with my shorthand comment, "What's Goofy?"

Just today over lunch, they had decided that I would be in Hufflepuff, with Elena saying I like to help people. That sounded complimentary. Then they turned their attention to Jarrett, reviewed which house he should be in, and the suggestion of Hufflepuff came up for him too. Elena shot that down, saying that Jarrett's "too smart" to be in Hufflepuff . . .

As I collapsed in defeat with Lori splitting a gut laughing, Elena tried to dig her way out of that to no avail. After several minutes of more serious debate about Jarrett, then Elena and finally Lori, this time Lori was disqualified from being in Hufflepuff because she too was "too smart."

So, you see, it's been tough being the only non-Harry Potter reader in this family. Spending this much time together can bring out a mean streak in these areas, some of the most profound issues facing humanity today.

Elena's Snorkeling Experience

rarakaki — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 16:08:00 GMT

Yesterday, we went snorkeling with a man named Carlos. We stopped at three different spots to swim. My favorite was the first stop. We saw turtles, a moray eel, and lots of fish. The fish I liked best was a black one with blue spots that seemed to glitter and shine in the sun.

The eel was kind of scary. Carlos got him to come out by poking a stick into its hole. Its head and body came out and Carlos had to push Jarrett and me out of the way because we had drifted too close.

On the third trip, we got to see a manatee and I touched a sting ray (its stinger was missing so it was safe). The sting ray's skin felt really soft and squishy. We also saw a big school of fish that were like the kind in Finding Nemo. (See photo in gallery.) Except these ones didn't form pictures!

That day was my first real snorkeling adventure because I never liked the feel of just breathing through my mouth. But I had practiced the day before and got over my fears. The whole thing was a lot of fun and and a very good first experience!

Jarrett Reports On His Birthday So Far

rarakaki — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 16:00:00 GMT

Today's my 9th birthday. When we first got here, we saw that golf carts were the only cars on the road, and Elena and I really wanted to ride one. So, for my birthday, Mommy, Daddy and Elena surprised me by renting one for an hour. On the back roads, Daddy let Elena and me drive. We went from the bottom of the island, where the airstrip is, all the way to The Split at the top. I'm a really bad driver and I kept driving in potholes. Driving one is pretty simple. It was an awesome birthday.

A Manatee Swam Up To Us!

rarakaki — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 18:52:00 GMT

We were fortunate enough to experience a manatee close up. It swam right up to us as if to check us out and looked right at Lori. Then it turned and slowly and gracefully swam away. It was a beautiful moment and left us all a bit stunned.

What Kind of Parents Are We Part 3?

rarakaki — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 18:46:00 GMT

Today we went on a fantastic snorkeling boat trip. Carlos Ayala was our guide - very knowledgeable, sensitive to the fragility of the reef and to the wildlife we saw, and a cool guy. We rode on his fast powerboat to the Hol Chan Marine Reserve for some beautiful snorkeling over a well-preserved section of Belize's barrier reef, the second largest in the world.

We stopped at San Pedro, on Ambergris Caye, for lunch, then we snorkeled at Shark Ray Alley, swimming with several nurse sharks and sting rays. The kids got to touch a large sting ray, probably close to 4 feet across. The largest nurse shark we swam with was probably about 5 feet long.

The kids loved it, putting it in both of their "Top 3" lists for the trip. See kids, THIS is why we've been making you take swimming lessons all these years!

A few more photos in the gallery, including some showing Elena and Jarrett. Check them out.

Biking Through Caye Caulker

rarakaki — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 18:40:00 GMT

Caye Caulker is a laid-back Caribbean island. It has 1,500 residents, no cars (just golf carts), no (or low) crime, good snorkeling, diving and general tourist support, and a reggae vibe. We've met a lot of nice locals and ex-pats, and I can see why they chose to stay here. It has a real small community feel to it.

How Often Can I Eat Lobster?

rarakaki — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 18:31:00 GMT

It's lobster season on Caye Caulker, and a full dinner with a whole lobster prepared a number of ways costs about US$15. I had it with butter and garlic sauce the first night, scrambled with my eggs the next breakfast, picked at Lori's leftovers for lunch, and had it grilled for my next dinner. I've since tried other things too.

If the Kids Kept Score: Belize 2, Guatemala 0

rarakaki — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 18:26:00 GMT

As I mentioned in my previous post, Belize has been a nice change of pace for us. However, Elena and Jarrett have taken this to an extreme, and now look back on Guatemala as torture.

It didn't help that the temperature has been going down every day since we got here, giving the impression that Belize is always sunny and comfortable, but Guatemala is unbearably hot. The truth is, on the day when it neared 100 degrees in Flores, it was nearly 100 degrees on Caye Caulker too, but the facts don't seem to get in the way of their forming their convictions.

It also didn't help that we intentionally booked a nicer place here, since we intended to stay here the longest, and planned to spend a lot more time lounging around our hotel. The cost of living in Belize is among the highest in Central America, so we're paying US$70/night here.

What do we get for that? We get a nice cabana on a sandy lot, hot water, A/C, satellite TV, fridge, microwave, 1 liter/person of bottled water/day, a little sitting area, and a nice veranda with chairs and a hammock. The grounds also has bikes we can use around town, and several other nice lounging areas, including a two-story palapa-roofed gazebo, hammocks, etc. The best part is the owner, Louise, who's been super helpful, friendly and accommodating, and has the coolest Caribbean accent. When the kids set foot in this place, it was another round of high fives, and the dissing of Guatemala began.

The final unfair advantage fell to Belize again, when we told the kids that Louise wants us to flush soiled toilet paper here, instead of putting it in the little wastebasket next to the toilet, as is the norm in Guatemala, most of the rest of Belize, and most of the developing world. She's confident in her septic system and the toilet paper she provides. As far as Elena and Jarrett were concerned, that put Belize way over the top. Our first dinner in Belize included some reality checks from Mommy and Daddy and a few rounds of "What we appreciated most about Guatemala." I think flushing the TP still won.

And Now For Something Completely Different...

rarakaki — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 09:20:00 GMT

In planning this trip, we realized that the two weeks in Guatemala would be pushing hard for all of us, especially in keeping the kids enthused and healthy. We also wanted to have some time that was truly 'vacation' - you know, relaxing, not always stretching just to order your dinner. That's why we planned this last 6 days in Belize, on Caye Caulker, a small, laid-back island of about 1,500 people.

Given how happy the kids are here (and therefore, how happy we are), I think we underestimated how big the difference would feel between these two parts of the trip. It was already apparent when we got off the shuttle in Belize City and waited for the 1-hour water taxi ride out to Caye Caulker. I bought our tickets in English - what a relief. Belize was formerly a British colony called British Honduras, so English is the official language.

I bought it with currency bearing the face of Queen Elizabeth II, instead of dead Guatemalan generals. For some reason I found that comforting. Either because I'm used to it on Canadian currency, or I'm disgusted by the role the U.S. played in installing and propping up horrendous Guatemalan military governments for decades, or maybe the Queen just seems like a nice lady I wouldn't mind having tea with some day.

The waiting room for the water taxi was AIR-CONDITIONED, the water taxi left ON TIME, and the boat was FAST and SMOOTH.

After 4 nights of humidity and temperatures in the mid- and upper-90s in Flores, combined with Lori's stomach woes there, a hot, grueling day to Tikal, and a long day of riding a van, all of this added up to a very nice shock to our systems.

Be sure to use the hybrid view of the map below to see the beautiful water and barrier reef. Also zoom in - I've marked the exact spot of our cabana. At the time of the satellite photo, Louise hadn't built our cabana yet - her yard looks like an open lot. Also zoom out and see where Caye Caulker is relative to the rest of Belize and Guatemala.

On Packing Light

rarakaki — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 17:30:00 GMT

We're still carrying our 20-year old REI travel packs. While they have backpack straps and hip belts, we keep them tucked away and mainly use them as big shoulder bags, with nice, highly-padded shoulder straps. Lori's carrying one in the photo above. With two of them, we can carry most of what we need for the four of us. There are so many times on a trip like this that luggage wheels are useless (like in the scene above). For that reason, carrying around the extra weight of wheels or a hard frame seems a waste most of the time. These old packs qualify as carry-ons, they carry a lot comfortably and add a minimum amount of their own weight. On this trip, Elena and Jarrett are each carrying day packs, mostly filled with things we want close to us - books, water, rain shells, hats, sunglasses, TP, first aid.

To keep everything as lightweight and efficient as possible, we also spent a small fortune at REI, mostly on lightweight, quick-drying clothing. Thanks to our friend Mary, who works at REI and gave us one of her Friends and Family Sale cards, we got 25% off of everything. Thanks, Mary! Also, thanks to Lori's mom, who hemmed all of our new pants for us the week before we left. Great job, Mom, everything has worked out really well!

Why Those Day-Long Drives?

rarakaki — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 17:05:00 GMT

Many people who visit Guatemala and want to see Tikal skip the long ground trip, pay the extra money, and fly from Guatemala City to Flores, sometimes completing the visit to the ruins and the flights in the same day. We decided to take the slower route so we could stop at Semuc Champey and Lanquin Cave in the middle, to save money, and to see more of the Guatemalan countryside.

While we stayed in cities with good tourist support, we also wanted some exposure to how the vast majority of people live in this, one of the poorest countries in the Americas. As we hoped, it raised opportunities for conversations with the kids, and I think the views they saw of both simple, subsistance living, and of poverty, will stay with them forever, despite the fact that asking them about it fails to bring out any evidence of profound insights!

These long shuttle rides also yielded fantastic conversations with other travelers. There was the retired man who spent his career starting and rescuing orchestras around the world - got good scoop on Gerard Schwartz, the Seattle Symphony, and many of the famous conductors. There was the French woman interning in the French embassy in Guatemala City. There was the German electronics technician, making a career change, studying environmental engineering in the U.S.

There was the Japanese guy who's traveled to 63 countries, carries a tablet PC with GPS, a really miniaturized Sony camera, and a variety of self-defence weaponry, from stun gun to pepper spray. Watching him prepare to exit the shuttle in Belize City was like watching Rambo getting ready to go into battle - every bag and fanny pack double-strapped to his body in some way, meticulously clipped in, each one booby-trapped to set off a piercing siren (accidentally went off in the shuttle) or an electrical stun. I asked him why he carries all that gear, and he said he always does when entering 'black' countries. Great. Creepy AND rascist.

There were many young backpackers - I met ones from England, Scotland, France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Australia, Japan, Israel, the Netherlands, Spain, Ireland and others. With the exception of the young Israelis, both of whom had just spent 5 years on an Israeli submarine, all of these travelers were excited about the possibility of an Obama presidency, hoping he would lead the U.S. in a fresh direction as part of the family of nations, rather than against it.

Despite the good things we got out of these drives, we're all relieved that there are no more day-long shuttle van rides!

Gallery: Belize

rarakaki — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 16:00:00 GMT

Last week of our Guatemala/Belize trip.

Tikal

rarakaki — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 16:49:00 GMT

Lori felt well enough to take the shuttle van to Tikal this morning, so we made it! While seeing "a bunch of ruins" won't top Elena's list of highlights of this trip, it ranks pretty high for Lori and me. While they range widely, most of these limestone structures are about 1,300 years old. They've uncovered about 20% of the structures here and restored a few of them to nearly their original shape.

I'm reading Alan Weissman's book, "The World Without Us" right now. It's a fascinating book that envisions how the world would evolve if humans were removed from the picture. What things have we done that will leave a permanent mark, for better or worse? How quickly will Nature reclaim all else? As we walked through Tikal, Weissman's book was more than just a thought exercise, it described what we were seeing: structures of stone being the only thing to survive, and even those structures were completely overtaken by jungle. It's a great read. I highly recommend it.

Fortunately the trip to Tikal wasn't nearly as hot, humid and mosquito-infested as we were led to believe. We made it back to Flores in the late afternoon. Lori's still not 100% back, but has been improving steadily. She really kept it together today so she could see Tikal. She should be in even better shape tomorrow for the shuttle ride to our final destination, Caye Caulker, Belize. We're all looking forward to our longest stay (6 nights) in one place, with mostly relaxation being the plan.

PS: I think the highlight of Tikal for Jarrett was that a howler monkey pooped on my head from way up in the canopy.

The Price of Cheap Hostels & Drinks in Flores

rarakaki — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 15:47:00 GMT

Flores is a small city that completely covers a small island in the middle of Lake Peten Itza. The views of the lake are spectacular, especially at sunrise and sunset. I'll add a photo soon. If you switch to hybrid (satellite) view on the map below, you'll see the island.

We spent our first night in a reputable hostel, with a nice terrace on the roof with a palapa shack and hammocks. We had our own room and private bath, for $20/nite for 4 of us - really keeping that budget down! However, it's so oppressively hot and humid here, that after dinner, we immediately found another hotel - one that had A/C! We all hardly slept that one night in the hostel. An inadequate fan and holes in the screens meant we were hot and worried about malaria-carrying mosquitos all night! We were all awake by 5 or 6AM - too hot to sleep, checked out, walked over to the new hotel, and were all checked in by 7AM. The addition of cable TV at this point was most welcome, as we were all getting a bit homesick, and watching a bit of the Olympics again was fun.

We had planned to go to visit the Mayan ruins of Tikal today, but on Sunday night, Lori fell victim to the infamous traveler's diarrhea. I have a touch of it myself, but am doing fine compared to her. From the timing and the fact that the kids don't have it, we're attributing it to a short date we took yesterday afternoon. Having found "Cheaper by the Dozen 2" on TV, in Spanish, the kids were jumping up and down with excitement and high fives. We left them in the room and went downstairs to the neighboring bar for 2-for-1 margaritas. Within a couple of hours, it hit her hard.

It's to be expected when travelling in this part of the world, and I've been impressed with the availability of tourist-friendly food in Guatemala. The 4 of us have been eating out 3 meals/day for 2 weeks, and this is the first problem we've had. Nevertheless, it's unpleasant.

Yes, I'm getting the picture that cheap hostels and drinks aren't worth it. Given that we're spending much of yesterday and today just hanging out in an air-conditioned hotel room with TV (and not just caring for Lori, but trying to stay out of the unbelievable heat and humidity - reminds me of some of the worst summer days in Philly), I'm really glad we switched to the $40/night hotel! If Lori's up for it, we'll do Tikal tomorrow.

6 Hours to Flores

rarakaki — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 15:32:00 GMT

It was about a 6 hour shuttle van ride from Coban to Flores on Saturday. We rode with the family of the driver - her sister, one young son each, and Abuela. We're usually with younger backpackers on these shuttles, which I mostly enjoy, but it was nice to be with other parents and kids for a change. Along the way, in Sayaxche, the van stopped at the edge of this river. We weren't expecting this, and didn't know what was going on. One of the boys started jumping up and down, yelling, "ferry, ferry!" There wasn't a ferry in sight, just a line of cars on both sides of the river. Then the "dock" on the other side started started moving toward us, and all was well.

Jarrett's Zip Line Story

rarakaki — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 14:24:00 GMT

My favorite day in Guatemala is when we rode 8 zip lines. We were harnessed in but it was still scary. We were really high up so you could see the lake called Lago de Atitlan really well. The first ride when I braked my glove flew off so I rode with a guide named Carlos for the other rides. Each ride took about 10-40 seconds.

Relaxation Day in Coban

rarakaki — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 16:30:00 GMT

Needed some downtime after that long day of adventure. We toured the coffee plantation right around the corner from our hotel. Carmen, our guide, gave us an informative tour and one of the better cups of coffee we've had on this trip. Although Guatemala is a big coffee producer, they seem to like to drink it weak here. This finca was started by Germans over 100 years ago. The tour also included other crops from this area: cardamom, banana, papaya and guava. The rest of the day we relaxed at the hotel, and I blogged and did email while it poured rain outside.

What Kind of Parents Are We? - Pt. 2

rarakaki — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 16:14:00 GMT

After the afternoon of swimming and lounging at Semuc Champey, our tour continued on to Lanquin Caves. We entered the cave with headlamps on late in the afternoon. Wet, slippery, steep steps up and down the sides of this network of caves going deeper and deeper into the mountain. Minimal railings with nothing below the hand rail to stop Jarrett from plunging to his death.

While Jarrett is a coordinated athlete, when it comes to things that aren't as fun as baseball or soccer, like eating or walking, for example, he is unaware of where parts of his body are at any moment. Spilled drinks, knocked over displays, cuts, bumps and scrapes are the norm. I was terrified of him going into this cave. I refused to take them in. Lori talked me into it, and it turned out to be a great adventure. I was a nervous wreck the whole way, holding onto Jarrett, coaching him on every step, making sure he had a death grip on the railing and/or my hand.

At around dusk, the 1-2 million bats that sleep in this cave began to leave for their night of hunting and eating. They flew over our heads and past our bodies. It was creepy and cool! It takes over 30 minutes for this flow of bats to exit the cave, and during that time, we watched them and exited with them. When we emerged with the bats, it was dark out, and we began the long drive back to Coban. Jarrett complained that "Daddy scolded me the whole time in the cave." OK, guilty, I was freaked out. He's since forgiven me.

Swimming at the Amazing Semuc Champey

rarakaki — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 15:47:00 GMT

Formed by a river plunging into an underground tunnel, leaving a small flow of fresh water continuing above ground, cascading through several small pools, Semuc Champey was magical. As with everything in Guatemala, getting there was an ordeal, leaving at 7AM, getting back at 8:30PM, harrowing van rides on windy mountain roads, unpaved, bumpy roads for most of the last stretch, hikes up and down in high heat and humidity, long waits at the start and every transition. Elena and Jarrett held up well - we're proud of these adventurous kids. The swim made it worth it to them.