Forgotten post

1. OMG i forgot chicken pizza......i mean Chichen-itza! We actually went there after Cancun. See what happens when you get behind, you forget. I can't believe i forgot this actually because this part of the trip was pretty beautiful. We headed first to check out a cenote. Holly cow, it was amazing. It's hard to describe it actually. When we first arrived we payed a small fee than walked about 100meters to where some stairs went down down down into the earth. Finally you came to an opening and it was a massive open round cave, with stallagtites and stallagmites everywhere. Their was an opening in the roof no bigger than a well and the sunlight streamed in to where the water was. It was at least as big as a bball court in there. Mark and Rryla went for a swim, while the rest of us just waided in. The water was cold and murkey. Birds flew all around the ceiling and you could hear them calling to each other as it echoed about the cavern. After seeing that cenote, we looked at another one, that was a bit smaller and had a much wider opening and not much water, but still spectacular. From their we continued on to Chicken-itza. We parked at a motel that housed a hundred cats. It had a pretty good pool and again seemed abandoned, which was fine with us. It was close enought to the ruins that we could bike there. We had heard of a light show that was going on at the ruins in the nighttime. We thought we'd check it out. It turned out to be very boring, especially for the little ones, Aidan actually fell asleep, and im sure it gave Brooklyn nightmares. They really shouldn't even call it a light show because it was more of an information night and they shawn different colored lights on a pyramid while they talked (in spanish) . We did have head phones that converted it to english, but still it wasn't very great. The next day Mark and i went the the ruins together and left the kids to play in the pool. They were pretty good, although you couln't climb up any pyramids which was too bad.
2. It was after this that we made our way to Campeche.
3. Love to you all.

Campeche and Pilanque

We arrived in Campeche and stayed in a dynamite rv site. It was right on the ocean and it had a huge pool. It was called the Nautico club, and it was practically deserted! We took full advantage of the emeneties such as the pool, the washrooms, showers and sauna. Their was a tv room and a games room, an outdoor soccer space, which Rry and Mark used to kick some balls around. Their was a great playground area for the little ones as well. It was great. We decided right away that we would stay 2 nights. The second day Mark, myself and the little ones went to go check out the town. Rryla and Teaghen opted to stay and play. The town was really interesting. It was an old colonial style town with a spanish flare. Four Hundred years ago their was a stone wall buit up around the city to protect it from Pirates that kept attacking it and raping and pillaging.We checked out a museum as well as a couple of amazing churches. The town square was lovely. We did abit of a walk around, hung out on the seawall and took some pictures. We than hit a super market, got caught in a rainstorm and went home to the girls. Apon our arrival we learned of a young cat and her kitten that had hidden themselves in a rock crevase close by our motorhome. We went and had a peak at them, but the momma cat was growley. We left her and went back to the motorhome as a big storm was coming in. The lightening and thunder was unreal. By far the most amazing lightening and the loundest thunder i had ever seen and heard. The dogs were freaken out, especially Keesha. Teaghen and Rryla ran out to check on the cat and her baby. They discovered that the baby was left by itself and ran back to tell us. We had decided that the mother would come back for her baby and that we shouldn' t take it. (I know you are breathing a sigh of relief right now Marie!). The next morning Teag and i went to check and both were gone. We later found out that the momma cat actually had 3 kittens, it sounds like she may of scattered them around the place. We searched and searched for her and the little ones but to no avail. I kept telling myself that it was for the best, but i don't think Teaghen or myself thought of anything else for the better part of that day on our drive to Pilanque. I only hope that the baby wasn't taken by a predator that night of the storm. I will say a little prayer for it tonight for it saddens me greatly to think of the homeless animals in this country. Their are so many homeless dogs and cats everywhere you look, it's hard to bare. I read a great little blerb in this pamphlet in Isla Mujaries about this couple who went on a trip to Isla Mujaries and wound up staying and rescueing all the homeless and injured dogs on that island. What a great story.
So i have finally caught us up here. We are now in Pilanque, this is our second night here. We spent the day driving to Aqua Azul. I had origianally opted to stay. You know to chill by the pool with the little ones, get some time away, but Mark was insistant that we all go. Really, i was imagining being stressed out on the narrow, winding road, stressed about the little ones in the water etc... etc..., but i gave in and went. Now im not sure why i don't have a six pack yet because my stomach muscles pretty much stay tensed the whole way on drives like today, and believe me we have had no shortage of them here on our trip. We first went to a 100ft waterfall, which was pretty spectacular, than drove up the road another 40km to Aqua Azul. It was beautiful, thank god, because this is the whole reason we came to Pilanque. We forewent the ruins because Mark and i have seen them and our kids are "ruined" out. Anyways the pools of water are a light blue color and they flow over these lava type formations all the way down the side of a mountain. It's so pretty. A very popular place as well. It was packed.
Tomorrow we are heading for ? Destination unknown. We will look at the map and figure it out. I just hope the roads are better than they were today.
Sorry about the lack of blogging lately folks, it's been buisy. Oh i forgot to mention that the rv site we are staying at has its own resident howler monkey. It's a male and its alone which we learned that when that happens its because the male has gotten too old and was kicked out of its family and therefore spends the rest of its days alone. Anyways he is loud, very loud, i don't think he likes the dogs very much . We had a massive cockroche in here last night, but Mark got him out. We now have a son who is totally addicted to gameboy, and it is so hot that we are all melting. Today it was about 42 degrees. OUCH! Our older girls look too old and more beautiful than when we left and our little ones are swimming and diving into pools. We are so lucky and so blessed for this family, for this experience and for this life.
Sleep well friends and family, for we love and miss you all.
xoxo
US>

Back in Mexico

The border crossing was a sinch, well except for the fact that they made Mark, the kids, and the dogs get out of the rv and walk across. I had to drive the rv through by myself because it is in my name. I had some difficulty with the red light green light thing, but i won't get into it right now.....it's kind of embarassing. So we were off to Paa Mul and wow, it was beautiful. We also ran into our European travellers there. They were leaving the next day though so it was a quick hi and bye, they were heading for the interior of Mexico. The kids loved the pool. We even got in on some volleyball games that were being played by some of the lifers and some of the staff. The beach was great and we found some more amazing shells. We stayed for 4 nights, but in retrospect we should of stayed longer because it was a truley beautiful place. We toured Tulum one day and got in some more ruins to add to our list. The beach there was to die for, it was pretty packed though and the waves were quite strong. We enjoyed a kareoki night at Paa Mul, we didn;t actually sing anything but it was entertaining!! We danced and had a great time. Teaghen and Rryla met some of the locals and really enjoyed themselves. We did some bike riding up the coast and got attacked by gigantic mosquitoes. I even got a run in, it was so nice. The water in this area is so amazing the sand is white and the water is just crystal blue. It was brilliant, we really miss it.!
After reluctantly saying goodbye to Paa Mul we made our way to Cancun. The rv site we had picked out for this area was just on the outskirts, we didn't have many choices actually. Our goal was not to check out the massive city of Cancun anyways, but to take a ferry across to Isla Mujaries. We checked into our site, than tucked in for the night so we could get up for a big day. The ferry ride across was abit rocky. It took about half an hour to get across. Our ferry was not the nice looking one that they showed in the brochure, but we made it safe and sound at any rate. Once there we rented a golf cart to check out the island in. So imagine this......there was a small bench seat in the front and one that faced out the back. We had myself (driving), Aidan and Mark in the front and Teag, Rry and Brooklyn in the back, oh and the 2 dogs up front with us. We must of looked like a sight because everyone was staring at us!!! We also took this opportunity to teach Rry and Teag how to drive, they loved it and did really well actually. Teaghen was abit of a lead footer though, and about as graceful at the wheel as she is on land. Rryla was much more cautious and we all felt much safer with her at the wheel. Anyways we checked out some sights and than hit the beautiful white sandy beaches of the island. Mark even got some snorkeling in and, of course, we found some more seashells!! The day was great, we headed back towards dinner time, but this time we took the big ol car ferry back. It was cheaper and closer to our rv site. We had planned to walk the distance. Mark had been assuring us that it wasn't far......well let me just say that it was HELL! it ended up being about 5 km and we started getting eaten alive by mosquitos.! I should of realized that something was up when Mark insisted on taking Aidan from me. I think he started realizing alot sooner than the rest of us that it was going to be a bit of a slog. Oh well, honestly since we were sitting in a golf cart for most of the day, we all needed abit of excercise. Perhaps it might help us sleep through the heat as well!

Belize

Ok, so lets talk about Belize. Now, i think this country is great if your visiting the Que's, but not that wonderful if your just traveling around, of course thats just the opionion of me and the older girls. We decided that it wasn't that interesting overall, but it was great that they spoke english!! We arrived in the evening, after going through a nice relaxed border crossing and stayed at an rv park in San Ignacio. It was just outside of town. We biked in one day and spent sometime at the river. The older girls and Mark jumped off the suspension bridge while i took pictures. At first we were hanging out on the river bank across from all the locals because of all the boys oggling our older girls, it was crazy! However, we did have to move to the locals side eventually because we were informed by an 8 year old boy that we were hanging out where the pigs hang out. And sure enough right after he told us this a gigantic pink pig came strolling down to the river bank. We quickly left. I spent some time talking to the locals and taking pictures of the kids. I was than asked by a group of young men if they could get a picture taken with our girls, i agreed, as long as we were all in it. Im sure you'll see it posted on the blog, Mark took the picture. We than rode into town and had a great lunch, and than rode home again. It was a big day of riding because it was pretty hilly. The next day we headed for an rv park just outside of Belize city, but first we stopped to check out a howler monkey sanctuary. It was called a baboon sanctuary, but it was howler monkeys. The owner and operator was very knowledgeable, and extremely passionate about the monkeys and thier habitat. He was very friendly and happy to tour us around. We enjoyed the sanctuary and would recommend it to anybody traveling in Belize. We got to hand feed a baby howler monkey, and yes we have great pic's of that as well. After the tour we headed for the marina. It was great to have the breeze off the ocean for we were all very hot. The reason we chose this particular rv destination was because they had laundry facilities, which we were in great need of. The facilities included one washer and one dryer, we bought some tokens for a high price and realized that some of the tokens given to us were actually 2 peso coins from mexico, well lucky us!!! We just happened to have a few of those hanging around the motorhome and it a good thing too because we had lots of laundry to do, we finished sometime around midnight.! The next day we headed for the border, we were all excited to be getting back into Mexico. We were headed to an rv park called Paa Mul. It promised to have a beautiful beach and swimming pool! YES.....it had been awhile since we had been on a beach and on the ocean for that matter.

Belize

The road to Tikal

So after we said goodbye to Manfred and thanked him graciously for his hospitality we were off to meet up with Mark and Leisel. They were a couple that Mark and the girls met while visiting a hotsprings waterfall in Rio Dulce. They were waiting for us when we got off the boat from the Finca. They introduced themselves to me and the little ones and it was a go. Off we went, we were on our way to Tikal. Along the way we heard all about Mark and Leisels travels, they were on a sailing expedition, they had been all through Central America and it sounded like a great trip. Our estimated time frame was approximately 5 hours to get to Tikal. It was great to have the added company of this new couple. Mark quickly talked us into getting chickens for our back yard, while Leisel endured a 101 questions by Brooklyn. I was so thankful that she was so great with the kids, she had the patience of a god. The road to Tikal was pretty good, not to bumpy and fairly flat. We stopped to fill up on fuel at a Texaco and quickly resumed speed on the road to Tikal. After about 50km we stalled out, Mark restarted and continued, but only to stall out once more! What now?....Thankfully we were just coming into a little town, we limped the motorhome to a gas station, thinking that we need to change the fuel filter. Well in guatamaula when you buy a fuel filter the guy installs it for you same as an oil change, you buy the oil and th efilter the guy does the oil change free of charge, crazy. Anyways the attendant drops the old fuel filter and smells his hand. I think to myself this guy must be good if he can 'smell the problem' turns out anybody could because the filter was full of gasoline not diesel. Turns out that the attendant at the Texaco filled us with gasoline!! Can you believe it. Our smooth running day just took a turn. Mark took off to find a Taller Mechanico and I went to phone my brother for mechanical advice. No luck with the phone call Mark soon returned with a Mechanic. This guy was awsome, hooked up a bypass so we could limp the motorhome to his shop. Then he and the 2 Marks drained 50 gallons of diesel and Gas from the tank using a 2 gallon bucket (no kidding). The kids, Leisel and I walked down the street to check out some animals. When the local kids saw us they all came out of their houses, in no time at all our older girls were playing a game with all the local little kids. It was great! Leisel got lots of amazing pictures of this. It started getting dark so we made our way back up to our motorhome to check on the progress. It turns out the owner of the Texaco, where the unfortunate incident occured, was also there. He had heard of the problem and came with a drum full of diesel for us. Things were starting to get better. Although i felt so bad for Mark and Leisel, that their trip to Tikal got abruptly interupted, i was so thankful they were with us because Mark was so helpful and knew more spanish than all of us combined and Leisel was calm and great with the kids! Once we were all fixed up the owner of the Texaco invited us to stay at his place so we accepted his offer since it was quite late. He slept through a driving rain storm and woke up to the humid heat of Guatamala and hit the road once a gain.
Half way to Tikal we stopped off for a swim to cool down and let the dogs run around. Mark had talked us into smuggling the dogs into Tikal. This had been an issue since no dogs were allowed in the park. So we did..........We parked in abit of shade, and all went to check out the ruins. They were amazing. We got some great pictures. The sun was starting to set so we went to climb a pyramid to watch the day come to a close, when a Tikal Park Ranger stopped us to ask us if we had a big motorhome with dogs in it!! OMG! we played completely dumb saying "no espanyo" when Mark came to our rescue and had a big conversation with this guy. Turns out he said we had one small dog, was that ok, we were going to keep it in the motorhome only. We stayed the night in Tikal. Mark and the older girls got up early the next morning to go with Mark and Leisel once again on a guided tour this time through the ruins. I stayed with the little kids and cleaned up the place. We left Mark and Leisel in Tikal and headed towards Belize. Another country behind us and a new one to discover.

The Finca

We woke up and met Manfred on the dock. We were headed for the Finca. We were all so excited. The day held so many promises and we didn't want to miss a beat. We headed up a river, the smells and raw nature that surrounded us was intoxicating. Manfred gave us a brief hstory of what we were seeing. The mountains were home to jaguars, and if one was lucky, it was possible to see a manitee in the waters. Crockodiles called some of the shore home, while birds dived into the surrounding water for their morning breakfast. We waved to fellow boaters as they past and inhaled the beauty that enveloped us as we headed upstream. It took all of 40 minutes to reach the Finca. Andrea and the kids were waiting. There was horses, cows and sheep, a dog and a cat. It was perfect.! It felt like we were the only inhabitants on earth. The finca was so remote. The house, with it's thatched roof and outdoor living space was amazing, like something out of swiss family robinson. Manfred gave us a rundown of how things worked and where things were. We put our belongings away and settled in, relishing in our great fortune of not only meeting Anrea and Manfred and the children, but being invited to their place as their guests. To live in the majestic beauty of their world for just a day. What an experience for us all. The girls quickly got aquainted with the horses and took to riding them around the enormous property. Mark, myslef and the little ones got versed on the different fruit trees that they grew, the fish pond, and the ways of their remote life. They had two toilets, one inside, as well as a composting toilet outside. Andrea did all her washing in the river, and made all her own bread, and cheese. Not only was she beautiful inside and out, but i was taken by the way that she excepted this way of life and did it with such grace. We talked about having children in a remote place, and the different hardships one endures living off the land with few amenities close by. I felt blessed to know her in those two days. Mark and Manfred were like old friends, chopping down trees in the mangroves whilst getting biten by ants. Fishing in the pond, drinking beer, we were enjoying every moment of our time. Andrea made an amazing pasta sauce and we ate spagetti and homemade bread. The children had fun in the dirt pounding nails and sailing to distant places in the boat. We cooled off in the river and talked until late into the night. Manfred and Andrea gave us their loft bedroom while they took to sleeping in the guest quarters. The rain pounded on the roof of our home on the Finca, but we slept soundly in our beds dreaming of the day we had together with our new friends. The next morning Andrea made us a wonderful breakfast, we hugged her and waved goodbye to the children. I stood one last time on the hill staring at the Finca, at Andrea and the kids, at the horses,cows, the sheep and the dog trying to take a mental picture of this perfect place we hade the privaledge of coming to. I wanted to burn it into the depths of my mind, a place that i could come to on days when i felt overwhelmed. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but in that moment i didn't think a picture could possible capture what i was seeing, what i was smelling and how it all made me feel. We got in the boat with Manfred, i closed my eyes and just inhaled, i could feel the breeze blow through me as we headed up river towards our home on wheels. I could smell the Guatamalan nature that was all around me. I wanted to hold onto the minutes that fell by me, to remember this experience forever. The effect that it had on us all that day was a highlight in our lives. Thank you so much Manfred and Andrea, for your kindness, your hospitality, your friendship. We will hold onto our time with you close to our hearts, we will see you again one day.
All our love,
Us

Manzanilla beach

Brandy enjoying a huge beer at the beach concert.

Las Brisas Hotel in Escondido

Aidan hanging with the locals at La Punta.

Aidan Shows off his Tan. Sunset at Zihuat

PaPa Stu Catches a 20 lb Tuna for lunch

Enjoying the catch

Mexico and Guatamala

Wow, do we have some updating for you.! Ok so lets backtrack here abit, we were on our way across Mexico, at least that was the plan when i last blogged. But traveling is funny that way, just when you think you have a plan, you meet someone, and it changes. In our situation that is what happened. We were at Jaultuco and we met this young couple traveling north back towards Quebec, they were going home the same way we had come. They had been all the way to Panama so we exchanged infor and travel stories. We said goodbye in the morning and came to a fork in the road. We had to make a decision, continue on our plan to cross over, or to head for Guatamala. We all agreed,... Guatamala it was.! We headed to the border town and stayed in a hotel parking lot. It was a super fancy hotel called the Loma Real. We were not allowed to use the pool or playground unfortunately, i think they took one look at our crew and decided they didn't want their "overpaying" guests to see what they had allowed in!! No big D, we had some dinner and went to bed. In the morning we headed the 20 minutes it took to reach the border at Talisman. Now i've crossed borders before, and so had Mark but nothing could of prepared us for the crossing at Talisman. Before we actually got their we were accosted by several men (and boys really) trying to get us to pay them to help us have a smoother crossing. We, very politely were trying to tell them "no thank you", however, they were not taking no for an answer, they were hanging off our mohome, literally and being very agressive, we finally shook them and thought we had rid ourselves of them. We went into stamp our passports out of Mexico. We had read in our book about crossing the border and remembered that it said we did not need to give up our tourist cards, which was great because we did not want to have to pay for 6 more when we came back to Mexico. This became an issue because the guy we were dealing with took them and would not give them back. We ended up conversing with these 3 men behind us that offered to help in the translation regarding our book and such. Finally we were able to keep our cards. We thanked the 3 men and in exchange one of them gave Mark a "Guyo" hat and told us it was great Guatamalan beer. He said "enjoy the country" WoW, maybe things were about to change for the better. We came out and were again accosted by other men trying to get us to change our money with them, they had set themselves up right in front of the mohome. We finally exchanged some money and headed up the road 100m more to go through the border, we were stopped again by the same guys that had originally jumped on our bus. They told us we had to park in this big lot and they would take us where we needed to go to get through the border. By this time we were feeling a little nervous. I stayed with the kids in the lot and Mark went with the men. While he was gone other guys were coming to the motorhome trying to wash it for money, wanting to buy a bike off the back, wanting to know if we had any shoes to shine, it was a zoo. We kept the doors locked and waited. Mark came back about an hour and a half later. He still hadn't gotten us through. The guys that he had originally left with gave up on him after he repeatedly told them he had no money to pay them. So he was on his own. Finally after about 3 hours in total we got our tires sprayed (they had to fumigate them before we crossed) and we were on our way. Both Mark and i with pits in our stomachs wondering if we had made the right decision to come into this country. Our goal at that point was to get as far away from the border as was possible. We checked the map and decided to head to Quezaltenango for the night. Unfortunately as we were heading out of Ayutla, which was one of the first little towns we entered we passed a fork in the road. We took the upper road, which was the wrong road, which we realized much later. It took us up to the highlands of Guatamala. The roads became very steep, narrow and winding. We went through little villages that were beautiful, rugged and primitive. The children and women dressed in traditional Mayan dress, and shyed away from us as we passed through. The kept going up, the motorhome started to get hot and the break lights came on. We were worried. It started raining, and getting very cold the further we went up. Finally we pulled off the road when we felt we could not push the motorhome any longer. Mark and i got out trepedatiously, with nerves knotted up in our bellies, the kids, oblivious to what was going on grabbed a soccer ball and played together. Children up on the hill, peered at us from behind trees. We waited......Half hour later we once again set out. When we finally felt like we had reached the sky the road started down...down....down. The rain stopped, but the mohome once again started to heat up, the brake light once again came on. We headed into a town called San Marcos, and the brakes stopped completely. We pulled to the side of the road. Mark ran back and up the road looking for a mechanic. He appeared a few minutes later with a guy. Together they went over the brakes, bled the breaks, topped up the break fluid and we waited. Dusk was apon us and we were getting worried about making it to our destination. We headed through the town of San Marcos, it was crazy.! The streets were narrow and we had to turn on a 90 degree radias more than once, it was an amazing accomplishment for Mark. He did so great. We hadn't one centemeter left to spare in those turns as we were right up to buildings. We made it out of San Marcos and headed towards Quezaltenango. Our next mission was to find a spot for the night. Our books do not have alot of info on this part of the world when it comes to rv spots so this was a challenge. We had all eyes out looking for a suitable spot, finally we went to a gas station to ask the locals in our broken spanish. While dialoging with a gas jockey and getting nowhere, i heard a man speak in english from out of the night. "Follow me" he said, "I maybe have a place for you ya". We trusted his words and in moments were in a big truck yard that was fully fenced. He talked to the tendant at the front gate and they allowed us to park for the night. Turns out he was a beer rep, a beer rep for Guyo beer! WoW, the universe works in peculiar ways, someone is watching out for us up thier! So thier we were, locked into a truck yard, farrow dogs barking in the distance, We ate and went to bed. Rry and i stayed up talking well into this night, for i had insomnia from nerves, and she was so excited about the adventure. ahhh to be young. Next morning we were optimistic, we pulled the blinds and saw the world alive around us. The truck yard was packed with people getting ready with their goods for market. It was bussiling!! Mark had gone off to get some supplies from the "taller mechanic" and came back with some as well as the "taller mechanic". They went over the motorhome together, topping up this and tightening that. When all seemed a go, we set out. We were now on our way to Lago de Atitlan. Which in english just means lake Atitlan. It was promised to be beautiful, an we needed to rest for a couple of days. The roads looked better, still abit steep, but not as narrow. We had read in our book that their were 2 routes into Lake Atitlan, one was through a little village called Salola with narrow streets and a steep decsent, especially in the last 6km. The book emphasised that if your breaks weren't trust worthy to use the later route, which was longer, but safer, we opted for that route. Just before our turn off we stopped at a look out point, and started chatting to some folks that had rolled up and immediately started speaking to me in english. We had some travellers talk, discussed where we were heading and where we had been. When we mentioned we were taking the 2nd route down to the lake the one guy said "well let me just check with someone and make sure it is safe for you". The gentleman that he spoke to said "no, es mui pelligrosso" which means, Dangerous! OMG, now we were back to square one. Luckily for us their were police officers close by that got in on the conversation and agreed to escort us to the lake. THank GOD! As we descended, our brake lights once again came on, no problem, the police found us a "taller mechanic" and he looked at them, said they were too hot that we should pull over and rest them for half an hour before continueing the descent. Great, the police found us a great look out spot and we waited, them beside us with their guns, the little kids collecting bottle caps, Teaghen feeding random stray dogs, and poor Rryla in the mohom with cramps.! Just than the cops got a call and had to go, we waited out the remainder time and continued down to the promised beauty and tranquility of Lago de Atitlan. When we were just about to the bottome we came across this bridge, now i can't exactly explain it to you because words cannot do this thing justice. We had a bus in front of us, loaded to over maximum, they let out half the people to walk across it and than, they themselves crossed over. We, being wider, and perhaps a little longer, had a crazy time getting over this thing. Could we just get their!!!! I was starting to frey at every last seam. Finally, our destination was at hand. And honestly it was gorgeous. It was everything the book said it would be and more. And to improve things, there were about 16 other motorhomes thier as well. It was a caravan tour. It was called the "Panamerica tour" The people were from Europe, mostly Germany and Switzerland". I was so happy to talk to them, the guides were lovely people and made us, well mainly me, at ease about the rest of our journey. In my defense, i was on day 3 of very little sleep, so things seemed abit desperate for me at times. The kids were having a great time, swimming in the lake, jumping off abandoned boats into the water. We loved the little village, with all the merchandise. At night fireflies danced around under a starfilled sky. The little ones rode thier bikes and continued collecting bottle caps, The Gallo caps were becoming Aidans favorites, because he was finding so many of them, probably had something to do with his dad and his choice of beverage?! The European travellers were heading the same way as us, so that was very comforting as well. We made it through Guatamala city without too many wrong turns, which was a blessing. It is a massive city, sectioned off by zones, good zones to be in, and bad ones, luckily we managed to stay within the good boundaries.
We are now in Rio Dulce, at a beautiful rv park. Right on a lake. Thier is an amazing pool for the kids and even a playground (that we can use) Thier is a resident goat, that the dogs have already chased, and some fascinating people that we have had the pleasure of sharing a drink with. In fact we have been invited to their farm. It is via boat access only, they have cows, horses, chickens oh, and 2 kids as well. They are originally from Austria, but sailed here 7 years ago and bought some property. The older girls are excited about going horse back riding, the little ones excited about playing on a farm with Noah, thier 3 year old, the dogs are excited about chasing the animals, and Mark and i are just happy to of met someone our age and converse in english with them.
Our journey has been full of surprises, some good, others not so good. I believe we are all learning about conquering our fears together, and that no matter what we are in this together. You really realize that you are only as strong as the weakest person, so it is important to make sure everyone is happy and healthy. We are a team, "Team Willmot/Healey/McIntosh" and we are living a dream.
The day, yet overcast, is warm, and unfolding in front of us, as it should.

All our love to you all. Thank you for your supportive words, and your continued love.

xoxoxoxUs

Hello everyone, we are still in Puerto Escondido, enjoying the week of "Semina Santa". It's a big week long celebration for Easter. I think every Mexican family in all of Oaxaca is on the beaches in P.E., it's so great to see them all enjoying their holiday and each other. Their are parties going on in the streets and on the beach at all hours of the night and day. Anyways a couple of things to report. First off we have had our first official injury and trip to the hospital, it was Mark. He was out surfing at "la Pointe" and hit a wave on his way out to catch one and had the surf board fly up in the air and come down fin first on his head. So he quickly feels his head, realizes he's bleeding, goes and checks in with the lifeguard; who ushers him to the waiting ambulance. They stop by mohome on route to the hospital to inform the fam, how nice. The kids and i were catches some rays out at the pool, you know maxin and relaxin. I get this tap on my shoulder, look up to see Mark with his skull wrapped up like an injured soldier from M*A*S*H, "i've been in an accident", he says, "OMG!" I say, staring at the dried blood on his face. "it's ok im alright, i just wanted you to know, im on my way to the hospital" I was in shock, i watched him get in the ambulance and drive away. Two seconds later, i realized i should of gone with him, i run out to the road, grab a cab and head for the hospital. Im greeted by a manly looking short woman wielding a baton, who informs me, in spanish of course, that i cannot go see Mark. So i wait in the waiting room, all the while trying to kill the flies. Finally im able to go see Mark, the doc stitched him up pretty good, we pay, than head home to show the kids.We have been to a few different beaches here in Puerto Escondido, they are all pretty packed right now because of the holiday. They are all very beautiful, but some have enormous waves and are not suitable to swim in. We have spent alot of time swimming at the swimming pool here at the rv park, it's big and refreshing. The heat is constant and sometimes makes one feel clausterphobic, or maybe thats just me. At any rate we have our airconditioner on to relieve us as well. Brooklyn is on antibiotics, she had a chest infection, but she is on the mend. The girls are enjoying the stores, as am i, we are trying to keep things in check though because we still have a couple of months left. It looks like they have almost gotten all the friends on thier list something special, so thoughtful.Last night Mark and i checked out the live music down on the beach for an hour, it's only a block away from where we are staying, we needed the sanity break. It was great to see hundreds of Mexican families out and on the beach listening to the bands. When we first arrived an announcer was welcoming everyone from around the different areas of Mexico, than he saw us and asked where we were from "Canada" we yelled, and then he yelled "ariva Canada" and the crowd followed, it was pretty cool.Unfortunately this morning we woke up to discover that in the night someone stole one of the surf boards. We felt pretty bummed out because not only does one feel violated when that happens, but also the 2 surfboards we have with us have been loaned to us. At present Mark is asking around town, trying to replace the board. After doing some further research and going through our lonely planet book we have decided to traverse across Mexico to the Yukatan side. We will go and check out Pelanke, which is a Mayan ruin, Mark and i have been thier before, but really wanted our girls to see it. Also the waters are much calmer on that side, and are great for snorkeling. We had wanted to go as far as Costa Rica, but feel that it is just too risky, the roads are not great, and we've heard conflicting things with the border of Guatemala, it was a hard decision to make. When we do cross the border into the States it will be at Brownsville. We will than head to Austin Texas to see my girlfriend Barbara and her husband Scott. We plan to also see the Grande Canyon and go to Las Vegas for Kerri's stagette. In Las Vegas Mark plans to take the kids climbing at Red Rocks, while i hang out with the girls for a couple of days. From thier we will head for home. Well thats about it for now, tonight we are all going down to the beach to see the bands. Easter is fast approaching and the kids are conserned that the bunny will not find us here, and if he does will the eggs be melted?!To be continued........All our l ove

P.S.
Happy Easter Love all of us!! =]