Its been a while

Well, we made it back to Salt Lake City but I cant say we have settled in yet. Our house is rented until February 1st so we are still living out of our bags and between houses. So far we have found 2 dog sitting gigs to keep a roof over our heads and plenty of dog love to keep us entertained and exercising. I am getting better at managing three dogs on a walk, it is picking up after them that remains a challenge.
I started my new job on Jan 4th and it is good to be back in the hospital. I feel like my brain needs a serious resuscitation but the knowledge is slowly coming back to me. I get frustrated frequently because I am relearning what i was teaching to new hires before i left but the year off was worth it. I came back to SLC pretty motivated and with that energy i have managed to fill my time, I am working full time, I finally signed up for the pottery class that i have been trying to take for 3 years and today i worked my first shift at the free clinic in town (as if full time ER nursing isnt enough I picked up a volunteer nursing shift) the clinic seems like a great environment and it is a great feeling to provide care without out the thought of payment or insurance.
John is enjoying some free time for skiing (although the snow is not very good) and doing some work to prepare for the next Canyonlands Field Institute season.
We are happy to be home in SLC and looking forward to being home in our house again!!!

I feel better!!!

Good news... I am feeling much better. After a few days in bed on the liquid diet i am ready to enjoy the last few days of our trip. Unfortunately after we put some plans in action for the end of the trip John woke up with the same illness, fever and stomach pain. He pulled himself together and survived a long bus ride back to Antigua (near Guatemala City) where we could be near some of the comforts of home while he got better. The best part is the town is in the mountains and the air is cooler, i was getting tired of the jungle heat. Now we have 3 days to explore the streets of Antigua, the various coffee shops, read another book or two and listen to music around town, not a bad way to end the trip.
We return home on the 30th, just in time to celebrate New Years in Michigan!!! We hope your holidays were wonderful. We had a quiet Christmas at a hotel on a Family Farm in Rio Dulce. The hotel was essentially closed so the family could celebrate Christmas so we had the run of the place for a few days. Thanks to my illness Christmas Dinner consisted of crackers and gatorade and for john... cold pizza. (yumm)
Be Well

Life on the Sea....

Soon after our spanish school ended we were on a bus headed for Rio Dulce. This small town sits near a beautiful lake that provides access to the carrribean sea. There is a busy market street and the dock is frequented with dingys coming from a variety of sailboats and small communities spread out along the lakeshores. It was from this dock that we departed for a week sail out to the Cayes (or reefs) of Belize. Our craft was a 46 foot plolynesian catamaran with a crew of 3 and 7 other passengers.
On board all was well, the people were friendly, the food fantastic and our accomodations in the hammocks slung out front between the two hulls were comfortable and airy. Things soon changed...
As we sailed out to the cayes the wind was perfect and the waves somewhat big, it took some focus not to get seasick and we pulled up to our designated moreing just as a rainstorm came in. It rained thru the night but we had a sturdy cover. The boat rocked and splashed and the wind blew for the next few days making snorkeling difficult and chilly. Despite the fact that the weather was not ideal we enjoyed the place and made the best of it.
Unfortunately on the 5th night the wind blew cold and we got soaked in our hammocks, Elie soon got sick and had to fend off illness during our early return to Rio Dulce and Lago Izabel. Since then we have had a few days to rest and plan for the final week, it is christmas eve and not much is going on...our best go out to friends and family.

Spanish School... DONE

Well we finished our last spanish class yesterday and our brains are all jumbled with verb tenses and new words I feel like i understand less but I am sure I know more my brain just needs a break. We had a great time in the small lake side town of San Andres. Our homestay family was very welcoming and our days were spent on the front stoop watching the local kids slide down the steep streets on plastic bottles and cooling off in the lake. The temperatures were WAY higher than in Xela (our first spanish school town), at times it was hard to think it was so hot.
We took a weekend trip to the Mayan ruins site of Tikal last weekend and had a great time climbing the temples and viewing the jungle from a top ancient structures. We camped in hammocks near the park so we could watch the sunset from the top of the temples and enter the park at 6am before the tour buses arrive. For the most part we had the park to ourselves which can be a little scary when you hear the howler monkeys coming close to you... the sound like LARGE tigers, luckily they just throw poo at you if they feel threatened!!! (we stayed clean!!)
This morning we caught the bus to Rio Dulce, another lake side town in southern Guatemala but this time the lake accesses the carribean. We are now in a cafe waiting for a boat which we are going to sail on for 7 days to the belize cayes (which are actually off the coast of Guatemala) and back. It sounds like a great trip and a special way to spend christmas, now we just need all of you to share it with!!!
The temperatures definately dont feel like christmas but the people remain festive, there are fake trees made out of green streamers and adorned with flashing Gallo lights at the top (Gallo is the local beer in Guatemala and they have managed to get their name on everything).
I hope this message finds everyone well and excited for the holidays.
Best wishes...

Down into the Heat

We started our journey north toward the province of Peten and the well known mayan ruins in the area. We decided to break up the trip north with a stop over in the small town of Lanquin and it has turned into my favorite stop so far. The hostel is definately a major stop on the gringo-backpaker trail, which i could do without, but we have a private bungalow on the river so i cant complain. yesterday we went on a tour to the local park... semuc champey... a park not to be missed when in guatemala. The tour included a trip into a cave, jumping off idilic waterfalls, a steep hillside hike, 5 minutes of tubing in the river and a few hours of free time in beautiful limestone pools. I am a bit biased as floating in limestone pools is one of my favorite activities.
Today we are taking more time to relax, walk around the small town, sit by the river, lay in the hammock, try and practice some spanish because we start spanish school again on monday in San Andres, Peten. The lodge has done nothing for our spanish since everyone speaks english, even when i try to speak spanish.
enjoy the pictures, one of john and i at semuc champey, one of lake atilan, one of me teaching the kids in xela to be elephants!!!

a weekend off...

We finished up our classes in Xela and hit the road for the weekend. Xela was great but it is really nice to get out of the city and into the fresh air (until a truck pushes the gas in front of you and you are surrounded by disel smoke). We spent the weekend in a truely beautiful town on Lake Atilan, the town is called San marcos and access it by boat, the boat ride was a great trip in itself. The town is popular for yoga and relaxation so in the spirit of relaxation we enjoyed another traditional sauna, glorious. Unfortunately the lake is polluted so we could not swim but the views, the gardens, the people and the hiking made the weekend great.
After a relaxing weekend we decided to take this week off spanish classes and let some of what we leared last week soak in so tommorrow we are off the Semuc Champey, a river and park in the middle of the country, it looks beautiful.
We will resume spanish classes next week in San Andres, a small lake town in the northern part of the country.
Blessings to all.

The latest from Guatemala...

Hola friends! Thankfully we have learned more spanish in the past two weeks than just this greeting. We are enjoying the day to day goings on of life in Quetzeltenango (Xela) each day seeing some of the same sceens on the street and feeling more apart of the scene. Tomorrow we bid farewell to spanish class for a week and travel to Lake Atitlan for a bit of relaxing. The lake hosts a myriad culture of new age studies schools, yoga shops, middle easter restaurants and hostels made of recycled materials. The lake itself sits in the caldera of an ancient collapsed volcano. It is surrounded by 5 other volcanoes so there may be some hiking and we plan to visit one of the nature preserves in the region. This said the adventure begins on Saturday as we take our first long ride on a "Chicken Bus" the local version of an economy coach. I don't know if they got this name because of their cargo or because of how the drivers careen down the roads taking on all challengers! More to come....