Viva Mexico! ORALE!

Wow, unfortunately such a short time, but I love Southern Mexico! We ended not being able to leave Guatemala for one more day (until Tuesday) as there was another big protest closing down the highways. We did eventually get to leave though and made it to San Cristobal de las Casas (Chiapas) Mexico on Tuesday evening. We found a nice, safe hostel and then went out for delicious tacos! We knew what we wanted: a hole in the wall with Mexicans inside and cheap food...just like in the States, that of course means they are the best! We found just that at a place called Tacos and Beer and even got our ears chatted off by our friendly waiter, Brian. We even spoiled ourselves to dessert afterwards (an ice cream bar for me) as we barely ate the whole day. Then we had all Wednesday to walk around San Cristobal, eat more good food, get caught in the rain, and just enjoy the nice colonial town.

Our time in Chiapas was short though as Wednesday we took a 12 hour bus ride to Oaxaca. Yikes! We got into the bus terminal in Oaxaca around 7am, but waited around until 8am to get a taxi to a hostel. We found a place, got free breakfast, and then took a 2 hour nap. We probably could have slept longer, but we had to relish every moment. We walked all around town, found more tacos, ate Hawaiian Shaved Ice in the central plaza (zocalo), and even got a bit l0st. We needed another nap after all of that though, but went out again around 8pm for amazing sandwiches and walked around town. There was so much action all around the central plaza and great people watching! We especially loved watching this clown show in a plaza area, but had to get back to the hostel before 10pm in order to get hot showers! We made it just in time, 9:45pm, to get great (and much needed) showers in!

Then we were on the road again, at 8am on Friday morning we left Oaxaca for a 6.5 hour bus ride to Mexico City. We came in starving and a little nervous about the big city, but we easily found the subway and even a McDonald's ice cream sundae in the subway area to give us the energy to make it to the hostel! We are now at Hostel Amigo and love it. They have free breakfast and free dinner, so it definitely promotes community. Well, so much 'community' that Jen and I gave into peer pressure....

We attended a LUCHA LIBRE show last night. Wow. What an experience. For those who don't know, it's basically like WWE but they wear these masks and very tight pants. I actually enjoyed more than I thought. (I thought it was real fighting..eek) It was really just funny, kind of ridiculous and definitely a once in a lifetime experience!

Today, we had so much fun just exploring this great city! It's like New York City or Chicago or whatever...big, lots of people, but also lots to do! We got a tour from this very passionate man, Arturo, who taught us so much about Diego Rivera and his paintings. They are really interesting and include so much historical and political commentary. Then we got amazing Mexican Tortas al Pastor....great sandwiches that I think are shredded pork with some kind of flavoring, cheese, and avacado! And all topped off with a gigantic Papaya Licuado (Batido)! Aka a great day!

All that we have left to do tonight is go out for margaritas for our last night in Mexico! Then tomorrow we fly to Tijuana and meet Aunt Kitty and Uncle Scott in San Diego.

After 14 months, it doesn't feel real that I will be back on American soil so soon. And at this point, I don't really know how I feel about everything except that I am so excited to see my family and friends! I love you guys and miss you! God has blessed me and protected me this past year, and I thank you all so much for your prayers! I will try to add a couple photos and maybe one more blog update, but truly at this point I can only ask for your continued prayers. Prayers for all of these people that I have met along the way, my great big CMT family in Ecuador (and all over the US again), and for me as I readjust to life in the US working world. I don't know where I will be yet, but I am open and willing. Although I'm a bit anxious, I also know that God does have a plan for me and things will fall into place as they should be.

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

Adios America Latina!
Abrazos gigantes!
Love,
Taylor

Guate Guate Guate

Oh Guatemala...

It has sure been an experience here - absolutely gorgeous, from incredible landscapes to all the lovely very colorful indigenous dress, but also a challenge to get some to talk straight to and lots of 'gringo' prices.

After the beautiful Tikal experience, we took a shuttle bus to get to Semuc Champe. Well, almost anyway, we got to a town called Coban instead because there was an indigenous protest over a dam being put in the river, so we couldn't make it to our final destination. (Really reminded me of Ecuador) By 5 am the next morning the road was cleared, however, so we were woken up at this time and left within 10 minutes to Lanquin (Semuc Champe). We got there around 7:30am and arrived at by far our best lodge yet, El Retiro. We got a loft room (and Jen, scared of heights, was such a trooper about getting on the latter up to it...I just had to carry her bag up ;) ). We were able to get breakfast right at the lodge and then headed out on the tour to Semuc Champe at 9am. Semuc Champe is a beautiful place, but half of the experience is the ride out there. We were all exhausted from holding on so tight in the back of the truck through the unpaved, very rocky and windy road. First we went though these awesome caves. We literally used little candles and had to swim though many part of the caves, climb latters, and go through waterfalls. Our guide, Elvis, was great though and did a good job managing our big group! Then we went swing jumping into the river, tubing in the rapids, got lunch, and went to Semuc Champe. Semuc Champe is hard to explain, but it is limestone bridge of pools that goes over the river. We first hiked up to see it all from above and then we got time to be in these natural pools. It was absolutely gorgeous. That night we had family style dinner at the lodge and hung out for a while with Elvis and some of our new friends, mainly from Israel. It was interesting as our group was 16 Israelis, 4 Americans, and 2 British girls... a fun group though and they were really nice and mainly tried to speak English with us!

After Semuc we went to Antigua. Antigua is a clean, cobble stone colonial town in the highlands of Guatemala. We enjoyed exploring the town and hanging out in the Parque Central for a while. We even made a little friend there, Dulce Maria. She was selling bracelets, which of course we first said no, but then she was just sweet and asking Jen about her bracelets. Then we got to talking about dogs and pets and I told her about my dog, Duke, and showed her a picture on my camera. She proceeded to go though almost all my photos and ask me about them. She was so sweet and of course in the end we bought her bracelets!

From Antigua, we went to Panajachel and onto San Pedro. They are both towns around Lake Atitlan which is large, emerald lake surrounded by mountains and many indigenous villages. It was a beautiful place, but we mainly just walked around a bit and relaxed here.

After San Pedro we packed on a Chicken Bus (old school bus) to Chichicastenango for the Sunday market. We showed up late Saturday afternoon and walked around town a bit to see everything being set up. Then we got dinner and hung out to get ready for the big market the next day. Today was the big, colorful market. There were some tourists of course, but it isn't really season anymore, so it seemed there were just a lot of indigenous people in their beautiful outfits. You definitely stand out more in white than a bright colored shirt! We shopped until we couldn't handle it anymore and got on an even more packed bus out of town. We are now in Quetzaltenango (Xela) where we have walked around town and then tonight got to see some football at the hostel! The highlights of Xela tonight though have definitely been the big sundaes we both got and the delicious nachos that we really didn't even have room for!

Basically Guatemala has been a lot of travel, but also amazing to see so much of this awesome country! It has been exhausting (and maybe taken a bit of a toll on my body), but worth it! Tomorrow we are leaving Central America and heading into Mexico. One week from today I will be back on American soil!

See you (or at least some of you) soon!
Love,
Taylor

Darling it's better down where it's wetter take it from me!

Up on the shore they work all day
Out in the sun they slave away
While we're devoting full time to floating
Under the sea

Wow, it really is pretty sweet under the sea! And now I am a certified Open Water Scuba diver to experience all that other life 60 feet below sea level! Cool!

Last week, Jen and I were in Utila, Honduras all week doing a Scuba class and then dives. We arrived on the island late Sunday morning after taking a ferry from the mainland. Then we went with Nixon to Deep Blue Divers - they seemed nice, calmer/smaller than some of the others, and the lodging and fun dives were all included in the price. So we signed up for the class, got out homework of 3 chapters of a text book (boo) and then got a delicious lunch at Bundu - chicken taco salad with a frozen lemonade! Later we did our homwork and hung out on pier before going out for pizza for dinner and watching The Karate Kid. (cute!)

Monday we started class (only us two with our instructors, Luke and Pablo). Monday was kind of boring as it was just lots of videos and book work and quizzes. BUT getting to see part of the MNF VA Tech v Boise St game made my day!

Tuesday we put all we learned into practice. 1st in shallow water just off the dock and then in the afternoon in the coral reefs with the boat - wow! So much to see down there and by the end of Tuesday we were exhausted!

Wednesday we got back on the boat 7:30am to go on 2 more dives. So cool. We saw fish of every bright, beautiful color, sea turtles, lobsters, a manaray, baracuda, eels... Then in the afternoon we took our final exam and we both passed! Yay! Now we're real Scuba divers! Thursday we got to do two more fun dives and they were the best ones. So great! We had to leave on the 2pm fery that afternoon though, but it was a lovely place and I left only a light pink ;)

Now we have moved onto Guatemala. We started in Rio Dulce at a little jungle lodge...open room in a thunderstorm! It was cool and tranquil though, which was good after a little bit of a crazy time over the border. With all the rains, there was a bridge out so we had to take two minibuses and a little boat to cross over, but other than that things seem to be okay here. Now we are in Flores, which is a cool little town in the middle of a lake. We didn't even know anything about it other than it was how we could get to Tikal, but we really like it. We went to Tikal today and saw the huge Mayan ruins. Quite amazing really! And there were more monkeys!!!

A week more in Guatemala then a week in Mexico and then the USA!!

La voz de los sin voz

After the coffee/chocolate town in Nicaragua, we went down to Managua in order to catch a 5AM bus to San Salvador the next day. It was actually a pretty nice bus though, just 11 hours is long which included 2 border crossings (Nicaragua-Honduras and then Honduras-El Salvador). We lived in luxury in San Salvador...in an actual hotel. It was called Hotel Tazumel and we had free internet, air conditioning, cable tv, and even free (good) breakfast in the morning.

In San Salvador, we went to the UCA, a Jesuit university in San Salvador, that was the sight of the assassination of 6 Jesuit priests, their maid, and her daughter in 1989 by government soldiers. It also had a museum that paid tribute to Archbishop Romero. Monseñor Romero was a Salvadoran priest who spoke out against the injustices and massacres occuring in El Salvador in the 1970s. He was then assassinated while giving mass in 1979. It was really moving to see all of this, especially since Kristin and the CMT got me more interested in the subject. It is said that 16 of the soldiers who commited the killing of the Jesuits were trained at the School of the Americas in Georgia. Every year there are protests to close this military school and this past year in Ecuador we held a prayer vigil for those going to the protest and the lives lost. Also, my good friend Kristin (my coworker from Youthworks in San Fran) went to a federal prison last Spring for crossing onto federal property while protesting 2 years ago.

Well, other than that, we are doing really well and are now in Honduras. Tomorrow we are going to Utila, one of the Bay Islands, to do a Scuba certification class! Should be pretty cool.

Love you all.
Paz,
Taylor

Lovely Nicaragua

Nicaragua is amazing!

The last 5 days in Nicaragua have been great. Okay, the border was a little crazy, but I like that these Nicas have a little more spark than the Ticos (Costa Ricans). The border was just chaotic with people even going as far as trying to sell us the customs form for $1. Of course we aren't going to fall for those traps though, and we got without problems.

Then we went to Isla Ometepe. It was actually very big (we only got to see half) and it gets it's name for an indigenous word that means two mountains. It is gorgeous as it is surrounded by Lake Nicaragua and has two large volcanoes on the two parts. We enjoyed walking around and also going to these natural spring pools. We even hitch hiked a ride part way back to our hostel by the 'milk men.' Kind of funny. We also met a really nice couple from Canada and England who had an adorable coffee shop with delicious breakfast food. Dad, I thought of you as you would have loved these great entrepreneurs!

After the two days on the island, we took a ferry back and went to Granada. Awesome!! We got there, explored the very loud and colorful food (and other goods) market right by our hostel and then also into the town and the lake front. At night we went out dancing with this crazy (but fun) 43 year old woman named Kimberely. She's from Florida but lives in Costa Rica now (she had to come up for visa reasons). She definitely out partied us, but she was sweet too. Granada was a great place for people watching, walking around (in the sun and heat!), great food, and some pampering. We both got pedicures and I got my first massage ever today too. Kind of painful, but also felt good. I definitely hope to get back here some day!

Now Jen and I are in Matagalpa and we are going to do a coffee tour tomorrow morning and a chocolate tour in the afternoon. Yummmm.

Abrazos from Nicaragua,

Taylor

Rafting, Turtles, Monkeys

This is so difficult....I can't even try to keep up with all that I have been doing. Between the limited internet access and all the fun we do in a couple days, unfortunately this blog just doesn't do this experience justice. I'll try a quick overview though...

RAFTING!!

Amazing! Literally the best rafting experience of my life. It was just so exciting the whole time with lots of huge rapids. We didn't really know what we were getting ourselves into, but Turrialba doesn't mess around. Rio Pacuare is the 5th best river in the world for rafting! Sweet. Our guide was so-so, at first he kind of yelled at us, but I guess he was just intense. Jen and I were on a boat with 3 Spaniards and they were good rowers. Thank goodness because there were some tight squeezes. I actually fell out twice...and one of those time the whole raft tipped over. Our guide (from Patagonia) told us that was the first time he had flipped this season, but it always has to happen to someone and it actually was fun! I got a couple new bruises, but it was seriously amazing and beautiful! The Spaniards were cool too, and we actually we went out for dinner with them that night too....good to practice some Spanish and hear the 'vosotros' :)

Then to Tortuguero...

We had to take 3 buses and then a boat to get to this remote 'island' part on the Caribbean coast called Tortuguero. It is a little jungle spot (no cars allowed) and when we got there we got right into a tour for the night to see big sea turtles laying eggs. It was so cool. It just happened to be this time of year, and it is quite the process. We went out with a guide at 10pm to see these turtle come out and then dig huge holes to lay about 150 eggs in, which will hatch in 60 days. It was of course a slow process, but it was cool to see it. Then the next morning at 6am we had a jungle canoe tour. We went around for 3 hours on this little canoe and got to see 3 species of monkeys, sloths, caymen, and many types of birds. I loved the monkeys, of course! It was fun too as we met these fun British friends (Max and Sophie) and a sweet Dutch couple. They really helped make our experience in Tortuguero great.

Now we are in one last Costa Rican beach: Playas de Coco. Then we will head across the border to Nicaragua. I will try to avoid the sun at all cost (aka more spf 50)...I am still peeling like crazy!!

Moving on up to the USA!
Love you all!
Taylor

Panama and Costa Rica

Internet has been more limited recently, so sorry for not updating very well.

Boquete was a nice, cooler town. We rented a moped for the morning, and Jen put her life in my hands to take us around all day. We went though the outskirts of town seeing many indigenous people out in their cute, colorful dresses (I wanted to buy one actually, but the tourist price was SO expensive!). We also passed by the coffee plntations and all the lovely lush vegetation. We also did the "Quetzal Trail" along the river deadending at a waterfall.

Then onto crossing the Costa Rica border - literally we walked across a rickety old wooden bridge with plenty of gaps to fall through! We crossed with this crazy Dutch guy and 2 Swiss guys who were on our bus. It was simple enough just kind of old and scary. We also gained an hour crossing that crazy bridge! So we got to Puerto Viejo (the beach) by 5:30pm, got a hostel and dinner. Everyone here has long dreaded hair and it feels like everyone is a tourist. I think a lot of gringos live here now. It has a very strong rastafarian vibe!

Yesterday, we went on a 13km bike ride (well 26 km in total roundtrip) from Puerto Viejo to Manzanillo. It is a beautiful rainforest/beach path. We saw a big iguana, a monkey, and a sloth all in the day! Awesome! The beaches are amazing here in Costa Rica. This morning I woke up early to see the sunrise, but it was too cloudy, and then went running along this path again. I almost felt like a real runner....the things they say about the altitude is true. I could run so better at sea level now! I was drenched in sweat, but it was great and fun. Then we were on buses all day and are now in Turrialba. Rafting tomorrow!!