Beaches, Jungle, Wildlife, Volcanoes

From the beaches and sun of lovely Roatan we arrived in Costa Rica. The first couple of days were crystal clear and we saw the sillouette of Poas Volcano from our vantage in Atenas. But, this last week has been rain, rain, and more rain. We have enjoyed some wonderful hikes in the jungle and seen all variety of wildlife. I've been playing around with the blog and hope you enjoy the slideshows of Honduras and Costa Rica.

We treated ourselves to some luxury and stayed at a place called the Peace Lodge by La Paz Waterfall Gardens. (See Liam enjoying his bath with a cascading waterfall in the gargantuan bathroom.) It has a huge enclosed butterfuly garden, an aviary, hummingbird garden (the kids got to feed them in the morning), monkeys, and a gorgeous trail that skirts the Sarapiqui and 4 incredible waterfalls.

At Arenal we hiked a trail with 20 or so suspended and hanging bridges that afforded us a view at the jungle canopy. We saw howler monkeys,blue morpho butterflies (that weren't enclosed), and toucans (that weren't accustomed to being pet). As you can see from the picture Liam was unphased by being hundreds of feet above the river canyon below. He keeps us on our toes by constantly running (and face-planting). One of his infamous falls sent us looking for a Costa Rican dentist earlier in the week. That amidst a GI bug that took its turn with each of us over a few days.

The weather cleared enough one day for us to see Volcan Arenal. It spews ash and fiery embers regularly and didn't dissapoint us. A couple of times the rumbles that we heard through the day were paired with a phreatic eruption and we saw smoke and ash billow up from the top. Russell captured some pictures of the pyrotechnics at night. It, of course, would have been fantastic to have watched it more. But, apparently only 1 in 2 guests ever get to see the volcano at all in the green (rainy) season. So we were lucky.

During this break in the rain, Russell did a zip line canopy tour. I was supposed to get my adrenaline hit yesterday, but the high wind gusts and driving rain persuaded me to wait for another opportunity - Panama perhaps? Instead we decked the kids out in their raingear and went for a hike in the jungle (they are Alaskan after all - what's a little weather?). We visited another butterfuly garden and ranarium and had an interesting wildlife encounter. As we were crossing a stream bed Russell and I both saw a very large, black animal descend down a tree, crash into the understory, and dash through the bush. We'll never be certain, but we both think it was a jaguar. That or an aberrant coatimundi. Natalie thought we both should draw what we saw when we returned to the hotel and with her sleuth prowess she would determine what animal we witnessed. I think Liam said, "See monkey!"

Today, we travel on to the Pacific Coast on the Nicoya Peninsula. Hopefully, this tropical depression or whatever it is will move on as well. If it isn't downpouring we may take a diversion float on a mellow river along the way. We won't have internet access much for the next week or so. The next update will likely be from Panama after visiting the San Blas Archipelago.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Onward from Punta Gorda

A week ago we left our temporary home of Punta Gorda. There was some envy of one of the families that we left behind. They, too, have two young kids and have made a commitment to serving Hillside for the next year. We had only just begun to get settled, meet some wonderful people, and get our bearings that a month did not seem long enough. The last couple of weeks I spent quite a lot of time in the car traveling the not so great roads of the Toledo district to what seemed like every Mayan village in the vicinity. It wasn't, but we did hold mobile clinics in at least a half dozen different villages. In one clinic we had to throw a tarantula out of the "pharmacy" before setting up shop. Ninety percent of our day was spent treating scabies, upper respiratory infections, diarrhea, and headache/neckache/backache. The women all have headaches, et al. They work tremendously hard, have the charge of watching way more children than I have (and they seem to control them better!), and carry their babies slung from their foreheads. I'd have a headache too! I was so fortunate to have a really sharp group of medical students with whom I worked. It rejunvenated my interested in teaching medicine again to have such enthusiastic and eager young doctors around me. Only one American student who I so wished I could have lured to Alaska. But, his wife isn't game for severing their midwestern ties to family. (No comments from you, Mom.)

Russell had the much more challenging duty of caring for Liam and Natalie all day. They visited the market most mornings, exhausted the Punta Gorda library of all available children's books, enjoyed fruit shakes, went swimming at the pool next door and occassionally off one of the piersin the Caribbean, explored every corner of Punta Gorda, visited a cacoa plantation, took a nature/butterfly walk, to name just a few things. We did travel as a family out to the Snake Cayes just off the Southern coast with our neighbor and his son in their boat. Xavi (posing with the iguana) is five and became a frequent impromptu guest at our house when he wasn't at school. November will be a month filled with festivities in Punta Gorda, much of it centered around Garifuna Settlement Day. Of the many ethnic groups in Belize, I found myself most enamored with the Garifuna and it was a bit of a disappointment to miss out on hearing the drums, seeing the dancing, and perhaps tasting casava bread.

Saturday we headed to the Cayo district of Belize northwest of Punta Gorda, a few km from the Guatemalan border. After a month in Toledo the disparity of wealth between Toledo and the rest of Belize was so much more apparent. Toledo is quite a bit more undeveloped than the rest of the country. But, what is worse is that due to the transportation costs and its "remoteness" the food and other durable goods cost easily twice as much. We were shocked that we were spending almost the same on food in Belize as we do at home in Alaska. Not so if we had been elsewhere in Belize. It is really a double whammy for the people of Toledo and why Hillside was established to help out this region.

From San Ignacio, Belize, we took a combination of buses, vans, and taxis to El Remate, Guatemala. We spent two nights there and used it as our base to visit Tikal. It wasn't a huge stretch to get the kids up at 5am to start our day since we now seem to back to that schedule of waking anyway (much to our chagrin). They were amazing troopers and made it until noon traipsing all over Tikal. Natalie probably walked at least 4 miles. She was very keen to hike up all the temples and is particularly proud of herself for going up Temple 5. Not the tallest temple (although she went up that one as well), but certainly the one with the steepest staircase. Liam walked a fair bit as well, but saw much of Tikal from my back. A guide would have enriched the experience for Russell and I, but was unrealistic with the kids. We saw some fun wildlife in the park as well. Spider monkeys (I see monkey! exclaimed Liam again and again), heard Howler monkeys, a toucan, green parrots, and Natalie's favorite, a pack of coatimundis. Liam finally gave in and fell asleep on my back on the hike out and took almost a 4 hour nap when we got back to El Remate.

The next few days are a blur of repacking, car, bus, and air travel from El Remate to the island of Roatan, Honduras. We spent election night in Belize City. Fortunately, with a TV. Unfortunately, without internet access and with the TV in the same room as our two sleeping kids. Nonetheless, we watched and listened quietly as our country did something that makes us feel very proud, elated, and excited. Being outside our own country we also get to witness how excited at least this part of the world also is about our new president elect. Russell bought a CD off the street with this reggae tune called Barack Obama. He's played it a few times on the computer and yesterday I heard Natalie humming it, "BARACK OBAMA, BARACK OBAMA" (insert your own most familiar reggae tune....). We are more than a little disappointed and confused by our own state's elections. We're having a tremendously hard time believing that Alaskans really, truly re-elected a senator that has been convicted of a felony. It isn't final yet and there are some questions arising about the record poor turnout of voters in Alaska. Doesn't seem right.

Paloma is circling southeast of Roatan. We have sunny skies, but it is quite breezy and the visibility for snorkeling will likely not be as good. It is the off season for a reason, I suppose. It is a tranquil spot if not a bit pricey. Very much oriented around diving which doesn't benefit us much with two little kids. We did a jungle hike this morning and on the way back our driver pointed out the roiling water and told us that it was probably a pod? of whale sharks. It would be incredible to see some. There is a place where we can snorkel with some trained dolphins. Very touristy, but I think we'll do it because I'm sure Natalie would love it. Heck, I think I'd love it.

Will update again when we get to Costa Rica. Cheers to all!