Standing above Guanajuato, Mexico

Guanajuato is amazing. So, even though Nate had gone through Guanajuato on his drive down before I met him, we went again. This time, I wanted to experience this colonial town first hand. When you enter Guanajuato, it feels as if you’ve just stepped into Europe. The streets are cobblestone and most of them are closed off to vehicle traffic. The cars drive under the city through a maze of tunnels dimly lit with work lights hanging from above.
The buildings, which are smattered with color emit Mexican flair mingling with the European-looking colonial charm of the architecture and design of the city. The two together, set the stage for this enchanting place.
Between vegetarian street food and the vegetarian sections on each restaurant’s menu, Guanajuato is a vegetarian paradise. When I asked the waiter if something on the menu was vegetarian, they proceeded to make sure I could eat egg or cheese products. If you know much about the battle of finding vegetarian food in other countries, you know that when this happens, it is pretty promising. The food was amazing, just how Nate had promised me.

Having fun in Guanajuato

Each night, the town was full and alive. The pedestrian streets were packed with people of all age, listening to all the mariachi bands and entertaining themselves with one of the many things going on. I have never heard more amazing mariachi bands than the ones I heard in Guanajuato. The 10-piece bands complete with horns, guitars and voices would surround your table for a full, breathtaking audio experience.

At night, above the city.

The last night we were in Guanajuato, there was a VW car show in the main part of downtown, a walking/singing dinner party that lasted hours, roaming all over historic Guanajuato, led by minstrels dressed in medieval clothing, and there was a free folk ballet happening in one of the many town squares.

After 4 months, crossing back into the US

As we pulled out of Guanajuato, we decided we were ready to be home, ready to see Sage, and decided to drive until we couldn’t drive any further. Twenty-seven hours later, without any stopping for sleep, Harmony rolled into Denver with 263,300 miles. It’s good to be back.

260,000 miles!

Let me back track a little bit…

One of our first days in Mexico was a big day-we hit one more Mayan ruin, Palenque, visited a waterfall, Misol-Ha, and then went swimming in some cascading pools, Aqua Azul all before finding a place to stay in San Cristobal.
The ruins were pretty amazing, but we went through pretty quickly-I am about ruined out right now. But it is beyond words, thinking of how people lived in the same buildings I was walking through so many years back.

The view of Palenque from the top of a temple.

Nathan and I in front of Misol-Ha.

From behind the waterfall, inside a cave.

Hanging out in the Aqua Azul pools.

Aqua Azul pools

We ventured back to San Cristobal, Mexico and found it a little different than we had from 3 months ago. Three months ago we were searching out shade; now we bundled up in all the layers we had to stay warm. But we ate all the street food we could and found plenty of places to watch the World Cup in the company of many Europeans (sadly, the American support was lacking).

The not so usual picture of us hanging out in Mexico.

After a couple days of my feet being numb from cold, we set out for the warm sunshine of the Pacific Coast with three German guys who were looking for the same warm weather. It seems as though, the Central Pacific Coast is dotted with many towns: some of them, small little gems sitting along the sandy coastline and the others, disappointing villages strewn with trash and dilapidated hotels.

The view from our room at San Augustillo.

Nate getting in some quality guy time with one of our German friends.

However, as much as we have been raving about Central America and Mexico throughout our blog posts, I have to say that being down here for so long reminds me of how much I really like the US.
-When you say “vegetarian” and ask if the food does not have any kind of meat in it, the question is also presumably indicating whether the same is true for the sauce that is all over it.
-There are toilet seats on every toilet in the US.
-In the US, more often than not, when I speak to a male, my words are heard. They don’t usually ignore me and then speak to my husband.
-Whereas you can find some amazing coffee in some areas down here, you can always find some kind of great coffee in the US (well, speaking for the NW and CO anyway).
-There aren’t as many flea-bitten, sad dogs wandering around the streets in the US.
-If we never see a tope (English: very obscenely jutty and elevated speed bump) again, we will be the happiest people who ever lived.

Just a 1500 year old pot, no big deal

Caving through crystal clear water

Mom and Dad swimming through the cave

Getting cooled off in a water fall at the Rio Frio Pools.

After San Ignacio we headed to Cay Caulker, a beautiful Belizean Island out in the turquoise waters of the Caribbean. We spent 5 days there snorkeling, laying around the pool, watching the World Cup, laying around in the a/c condo we were renting, and playing at the beach and in the ocean. The coral and the fish were absolutely spectacular. But snorkeling with Manatees was probably the highlight of the week, of course, it ranked second to getting to spend ten days with my parents.

Snorkling with 1000 pound Manatees

Eagle Ray

Beautiful pics underwater

Nate diving down deep into the water

Laurie snorkeling in the warm Caribbean waters off Belize

Laurie and I riding through Caye Caulker on the cruisers.

Hanging out on the beach.

Chilling on the rooftop of the condo at Caye Caulker, Belize

Limestone etched pictures that are still being excavated.

“Only 6 km the first day and 8 km the second day,” that is the information Nate thought he received from our friend who had set up the trip for us. We raved to eachother about how this was going to be one of the easiest treks we had ever done-they even had mules that carried our bags! As we started hiking, we turned to the guide and asked him again how far we were going that day:
“25 km,” he said. What??
“How long is the hike?” we asked.
“60 km,” he said.
“You mean round trip” I said.
“Nope. 60 km to El Mirador” our guide replied.
We didn’t believe it-until we had been hiking for a couple hours. After 4 days of hiking and 120 km (about 75 miles) we realized that our guide had been right.
El Mirador was hot, buggy, dry and beautiful. I broke down on the 4th day and paid for a shower. (I did it Charla-I have now finally paid for a shower!) After that night, I realized how ridiculous it had been for me to not pay for one earlier-I slept 100% better.
The place was pretty amazing. The ruins in El Mirador have not been fully excavated and Nate, Brett and I were the only tourists in El Mirador for the day. It seemed as if you were discovering it for the first time, hiking through the trees and seeing a grand, partially excavated temple emerging through the trees.

Seeing the pyramid, Danta through the trees.

The night we stayed in El Mirador, we coaxed our guide into letting us climb to the top of the temple and staking our tent. We slept on top of El Tigre, a temple built around 200 BC, measuring 55 meters high surrounded by a sea of green trees flocked with lorokeets. It was surreal-falling asleep to brilliant colored skies as the sun went down and awaking to stunning pink skies in the morning.

A view from our tent on top of El Tigre.

After our long hike out, we jumped in our air-conditioned car, and drove to Flores, Guatemala to meet Nate’s parents who came in on the bus to meet us for 10 days. That next day we went to Tikal to see some more Mayan ruins that had been more excavated and pimped out for tourism. It was amazing to see what El Mirador would look like if more of the trees and earth were removed from the ruins.

Atop one of the temples in Tikal.

I definitely thought our guide was going to put the tarantula in my mouth. Eek.

The largest cricket I've ever seen!!

The Central Plaza at Tikal