Family, Fires, and long Frosty Sunsets - We are Home

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It wasn't the easiest adjustment to reaclimate to the bitter temperature change and lack of daylight. Our second day back when we hauled the kids off to the zoo in single digit temperatures they both balked at the number of layers they had to wear. I believe Liam's words were "Want Off!" referring to the coat, hat, and gloves. But, as you can see he has adjusted and is back to wearing the hats as a fashion statement indoors. It helped that it was Christmastime and Russell's parents arrived just a few days after we did. The excitement eased the transition for the kids.

Understandably so (I guess), after three months away, I was more or less thrown back to work and saw very little of my wonderful in-laws. Although I missed visiting with them it was probably a blessing that they were there for that time period to help Russell. They are now visiting their newest grandson, Atagan Asher Hood, in Juneau. After much anticipation he arrived on December 18th.

The kids have been having a ball reacquainting with their toys - both old and the new Christmas ones. But, Liam still has a fondness for the trusty little cars and planes that traveled Central America with us. They just a get a ride in the John Deere dump truck now. Natalie will start at her new pre-school next week and I have no doubt she will be glad to have some interaction with kids other than her brother.

Meanwhile, Russell and I are slowly trying to get back into skiing shape. Fortunately, the snow is awesome so far this winter. We just need to toughen our skin up to the cold and strengthen those skiing muscles. After a week solid in the hospital almost all my freckles have faded. Sniff. And I think I need to go buy some Vitamin D now. I miss humidity as well. But, this is home and it is good on some level to be back.

The trip slideshows can still be found scrolling to the end of the posts.

Happy 09!!

Panama

One of the highlights certainly of our Panama travels as well as one of our favorites during our entire trip has been our visit to the San Blas Archipelago. It is a strip of land and offshore islands (mostly coral atolls) on the Caribbean coast. It is owned and managed autonomously by the Kuna Yala people. The island on which our lodge was located was about a half acre in size and all sand with 19 coconut palms (Natalie counted them). It was idyllic and we could have easily killed some more time there. The famous molas - a brightly colored reverse applique emboridery characteristic of Panama - are made by the Kuna Yala women. The water was incredible and there is nothing like a small self contained beach island to keep two kids entertained and out of trouble for a while. Our Kuna lodge manager took us snorkeling, to visit his village, and up one of the rivers to see their plantations. They made wonderful meals of seafood for us every night as well.

We used Panama City as our coming and going spot and during our stop-over days visited the canal. Natalie and Russell were enthralled by the ships going through the locks. I might have been too, but was busy keeping Liam from damaging himself or destroying something. The lack of sleep, missed naps, and schedule (or lack thereof), have made him into a bit of a handful at this point. It was fascinating to watch these ginormous barcos move through the locks. And the museum detailing the construction gave me an awe for this feat of engineering - especially at the turn of the century.

The following day we did a boat tour on the river and lake that make up part of the canal. We saw more monkeys and a toucan as well as some more mega-boats transiting the canal. The jungle around this part of the canal is protected (the rainforest must be preserved to ensure that there will be adequate water to operate the locks) and rich in wildlife. We visited a national park nearby that had an observation tower overlooking the canopy. Despite a sign warning us not to take children under 12 Russell and I took Natalie and Liam (on my back) up the winding spiral staircase trying to reach the top before the sky unleashed a storm on us. We had just reached the top and were admiring the view when a lightning bolt struck not more than a half mile away. As soon as I was able to say, "Time to go down!" the clap of thunder reached us and Natalie let out a blood-curdling scream. She was in hysterics the entire walk back to the visitor center and did not really calm down until we got in our minivan back to the hotel. Liam fed on her hysteria and we had two wailing kids in the pouring rain. We really couldn't do anything but laugh at the whole scene. It is a shame we didn't get to explore this cool park more and look for more wildlife (other than our kids). I did enjoy watching about six or seven - at least - different species of hummingbirds feeding around the visitor center. The Hum Birds also helped to calm Liam at least.

From Panama City we took another flight to the northern Caribbean coast to visit Bocas del Toro. The area, unfortunately, was hammered by about two weeks of storms about a week before we arrived. The winds, high tides, and rough seas combined wiped out a lot of their beaches including the one small beach at our accommodations. The heavy rain also meant that the mosquitos were much worse than normal - in fact the worst we've experienced the whole trip. Our accommodations were really lovely, spacious, serene, and again with kitchen which was great. There was a huge expanse of jungle all around us which would have been fun to explore. We really wanted to see a sloth! We were treated to the sound of Liam's Howler monkeys and green parrots. And at night we were serenaded by the sound of frogs and crashing surf (and rain). But, the mozzies were a deterrent for much jungle exploration and the distance from town made getting out to see other parts of the area more of a hassle. We took a boat tour and did a bit of snorkeling and dolphin watching. The coral in the area was gorgeous! So many different types of soft coral in the most vibrant colors. The visibility could have been bettter (also affected by the rain), but it was stunning nonetheless. Our last day we went sailing on a trimaran and did more of the same - snorkeling, watching dolphins, soaking up our last rays of warm sunshine to fuel us through the upcoming months.

Left Bocas this morning and spent the day in Panama City. Natalie got to go diving for rings in the outdoor pool and show off the swimming skills she's acquired in the past three months. We realized that her feet have outgrown all her shoes that we brought with us except the Chacos she's been wearing exclusively for the past 6 weeks. Since Chacos aren't so hot in snow we had to brave the Mall of (Central) America in Panama City and buy her a pair of shoes. It was an anti-climatic way to spend our last night in Panama to say the least.

We are feeling bittersweet. Russell and I are both pretty ready to be home. We are definitely ready to ski and get back into shape! As fun as this laid back life is we are both craving a little exercise and wanting to sweat because we worked hard, not just because it is stinking hot. Liam is ready to have some routine in his life again and the opportunity to sleep as much as his little body needs. Natalie does not at all want to go home or have any of this end and has let us know that today. As would be expected! She says she is looking forward to seeing Grannie Sue and Grandad, Christmas, and reading all her magazines that have accumulated in our absence. But, has no interest in cold and will miss the ocean and swimming pools A LOT. It has a been a wonderful adventure with memories that will fuel us for months to come. It has proven to us that we can travel with kids and we hope it will only get easier in the future. It has helped us all learn to be more adaptable. And it has been a fabulous time spent together. The sun, wildlife, culture, ocean, and jungle will be missed by us all. But, we are looking forward to being home and getting back together with our friends and family! We leave at 5:30 am tomorrow and travel from Panama City to San Salvador to Belize City (pick up two left bags and two carseats) to Houston to Seattle. We get to spend the night in Seattle before our last leg home. Russell informed me that we will have taken 23 separate flights byt the time we get home (he would count them). So, with that ahead of me I should wrap this up and get to bed!

Costa Rica Pacific Coast

We spent our last week in Costa Rica at Samara on the Nicoya peninsula. We had an adorable little house with the perfect pool for Natalie and Liam. The two beaches in the vicinity were also ideal for swimming and we had one of them mostly to ourselves. We had grown weary of eating out with our kids every night, so having a kitchen and the independence that affords was a welcome break. Natalie helped me celebrate my birthday by doing a zipline canopy tour with me in the nearby jungle. Howler monkeys and parrots greeted us in the morning and at sunset with their calls. One of our favorite Liam phrases is, "Hear How monKEYs!" His vocabulary has exploded during this trip and it is fun how many of his words are related to the jungle and tropics. Time to go home and teach him words like snow, ski, moose, cold. I will be sad to no longer hear him say, "I see GeCKO", "Where did dolphin go?", "I hear parrots", "Do you see Hum Birds?". We have been a bit scatterbrained on this trip (as traveling with two little kids can do to you) and have left a trail of forgotten belongings behind us as we have moved along. Most were minor, but Natalie's blanket was unintentionally forgotten in Samara. Lucky for us it is going to be returned to us at home. But, in the meantime her security and familiarity to help her sleep in new beds was gone. I felt terrible and indulged her in an entirely too expensive stuffed toucan which has been named Flappy. We are amused that Natalie traveled down to Central America with a white bear that she named Louie (after the polar bear at our zoo) and will be returning to the land of cold with Flappy the toucan. Louie was left in Belize with other luggage because "he would be too hot in the rest of Central America". Boy, Flappy is in for a shock when he gets home. His orange bill sticking out of Natalie's backpack has generated many smiles.

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!

Belizean Chocolate

Today I went to the Garifuna village of Barranco for a mobile clinic. It is a charming village on the coast south of Punta Gorda. The Garifuna are descendents of the Carib Indians and the Africans that were brought over as slaves. They are wonderful, garrulous people full of stories and we had a very enjoyable morning with them. They served us lunch before we headed back to PG.

Russell took the kids to a lodge/cacao farm called Cotton Tree Lodge. It is along the same gravel road that we took toward Barranco. Our first week here I came across some amazing locally grown and produced chocolate in one of the grocery stores. The cacao grown in the Toledo district is sold to the UK company Green and Black's for their Maya Gold chocolate bar. But, this Cotton Tree bar was also produced right here in Toledo. And, it is some of the best chocolate I've ever had. So I encouraged Russell to go check out the farm and try to procure more of the stuff for me.

It is actually a high end luxury lodge along the Mojo River. The kids enjoyed walking along the extensive boardwalk trails in the jungle. And, yes, Russell did bring me home some chocolate! I'd still like to see a cacao plantation and see what the cacao plants/beans look like. But, it apparently is not the season at present.

On his way back to PG Russell saw a very clever cow. I , for one, am glad to be out of the States during this election. But, I could hardly say that we are insulated from it. Just goes to show you that many worldwide are interested in who will be taking office!

We have one more week in PG. There will be only one student with me next week so he and I will be busy. The kids seem to have settled in. Just in time for us to pick up and disrupt their routine again. Perhaps off to see Tikal in Guatemala after we leave PG. Northern Belize got a ton of rain with this tropical depression (the south did too, but not as much). There is a fair amount of flooding and we are reconsidering our plans.

Placencia, Ruins, and Fishing

The Ball Field at the Mayan Ruin of Nim Li Punit




























































Placencia: Natalie snorkeling, playing in the water in front of the cabana, the cabana, and Liam enjoying the boat ride.


Russell with his yellow tail snapper on a fishing trip to the keys offshore Punta Gorda.

















The clock tower on Punta Gorda Main St.