Looking back: Bonus shots

We had to leave out a lot of things that we wanted to talk about during the trip or else we would've been up until 3 a.m. every night blogging. We took about 500 pictures and have only posted a small number of them, so here are a few more that we'd like to share:

LISA: We saw this fruit at a roadside stand in Tulum. Mom and Dad, if you know what this is, call me.


LISA: I felt like I was in a postcard the first time I saw the beach at Tulum.


LISA: I know it doesn't look like much, but it was really scary to walk on this wooden bridge in San Ignacio during our birdwatching expedition. I felt like Indiana Jones.


LISA: I know my eyes are closed in this picture, but this place (where we saw all the medicinal herbs) was so special and it really re-motivated me to continue learning about natural healing.


GREG: I trimmed my beard as close as I could before we left, but after a week it was getting scraggly, so I stopped at "Larry's New Look Barber Shop" in San Ignacio for a quick trim. It cost one dollar.


GREG: We introduced you to Orvin, a kid we met in San Ignacio, on one of our posts. A couple days later we met his brother and sister, Hector and Kendra. They were born in Honduras and speak four languages: Spanish, English, Garifuna, and Creole. They were really sweet kids and we promised to send them this picture when we got back. We also hope to send them some school supplies and other stuff.


GREG: This was an awesome bakery/sweet shop called "Sweet Ting" that had delicious homemade desserts. Unfortunately we found out about it on our last night in San Ignacio. Dad, you would have spent most of your time here.


LISA: We went to a lot of really great restaurants, especially in San Ignacio. Hanna's was my favorite. It specialized in Belizean, Indian, and Asian cuisine, with lots of vegetarian options -- and many of their fruits and vegetables were organically grown. In the four days we were there, we ate there at least five times. That's me waving, eagerly anticipating the rice and beans with coconut.


GREG: Here's where we got our laundry done in Caye Caulker. I just thought this was a cool shot.


LISA: We kept hearing about mangroves when we got to Tulum. Greg thought they were some kind of fruit, and I thought they were some kind of monkey. This is what they actually are -- trees whose roots help form the land on the coasts of the Yucatan and Belize and provide a home for lots of sea life.


GREG: Los Arcos, the last place we stayed, was a virtual museum. David, the owner, is an avid collector of art and artifacts from around the world, and they are literally everywhere in the house. On our first day there he asked me to go get the ice bucket from our room so he could fill it up. I was about this close to taking him the white object you see on the right in the photo below, which I think is actually a marble tortilla warmer -- in any case, it's a collector's item, not an ice tray.


LISA: This was our last dinner of our honeymoon, at a really nice restaurant in Merida. Greg tasted caviar for the first time. Neither of us was very impressed. But the rest of the meal was great. By the way, yes, I am wearing my wedding dress. When I bought it, I wanted to make sure it was something I could wear again on special occasions and not just have it hanging in a closet.


GREG: While we're on the topic of food, this was part of our final breakfast at Los Arcos B&B -- the best granola/fruit/yogurt mix I've ever had. And the crazy thing was, he bought the granola, which we both thought was painstakingly hand-dipped in honey, at Costco!!


LISA: There were many crystal shops in Merida. This one, Mineralia, had an amazing assortment of crystals and fossils. I could've spent all day there. I bought several crystals for my friends and for the healing/yoga/meditation room I created in our house.


LISA AND GREG: When we were leaving Los Arcos, David lit a candle for us, which he told us is something he does whenever a guest leaves his home. We thought it was really cool. Here's our lit candle (at the top of the photo) in a stand he purchased that used to be in a church in Merida.



That's it for now. We may add some final thoughts tomorrow.

Day 14 - Merida

LISA: Today was the last full day of our trip. We woke up this morning at Los Arcos, a bed and breakfast run by David Reed, a retired business man from Richmond, Virginia. He now spends his time as an artist. We've liked every place we've stayed on our trip but this may be our all time favorite. It is beautiful and we wish we could spend more time exploring it. David, is an avid collector of art from different parts of the world and there are treasures in every corner of the house. There are also a lot of different plants and many lizards. There are only two guest rooms so it is very peaceful and we feel like we are guests at somebody's house (which we are). We were served a delicious breakfast this morning, of orange juice, coffee, fresh fruit with yogurt, huevos a la mexicana and a variety of choices of Mexican sweet bread. The other guests are a veteran teacher and a museum exhibit designer from New Jersey. We had a great time talking to them and shared our hopes that Obama will win and help improve the education system (amongst other things). Here are a couple of pictures from Los Arcos, including the entrance to our room, a spiral staircase inside the main house, and the swimming pool.




GREG: We spent most of the day today walking around Merida, doing some shopping, and swimming in the pool (twice) because it was SO HOT. Here's me calling my mom and dad from one of the Casetas Telefonicas that are really popular in Mexico. They're basically little storefronts where you can use a booth to call long distance to other parts of Mexico or other countries and they charge you by the minute. It's much more convenient than trying to use a phone card, but as you can see, the booths are pretty tiny. Still, it's more room than I had on the school bus yesterday.


LISA AND GREG: One final shot from Caye Caulker that we forgot to include yesterday -- sunrise on our last day there. Lisa shot this as she did her morning meditation out on the beach.

Days 12 & 13 - Caye Caulker/Bus to Merida

LISA: Our last day in Caye Caulker was another relaxing day. When we were planning our honeymoon we set it up so the last days would be calm and rejuvenating. So this has been good for us. In the morning we went to a restaurant/store/spa place called Coco Plum. It's on a very secluded part of the island surrounded by palm trees and other tropical plants. Here is a picture of the path leading to it:



The place was very interesting. The food was delicious and the space was beautiful -- unfortunately the owner also made some comments that were pretty biased and offensive toward Belizeans. It's late (for me, not Greg, who loves to stay up) and I don't have the energy to give details, but I will share at another time. I might even write an article about it. We also saw more of the island and its people but I'll let Greg tell you more about that.

GREG: Caye Caulker is a tiny island -- the inhabited part is only a mile long, and it's only wide enough for four streets: Front Street, Middle Street, Back Street, and Back Back Street. Most of the guest houses, restaurants, and tour operators are on Front Street, but if you venture to the other side of the island you get more of a view of how life is lived by those who call this place home. Belize has an interesting mix of cultural groups (descendants of Africans, Mayans, English, and various mixtures of those three, plus large communities of East Indians, Chinese, and Mennonites), and most of them are present here on Caye Caulker. Since there are no cars, bikes and golf carts (mostly bikes) are the vehicles of choice, though you can walk anywhere on the island in about 15-20 minutes.




We spent a good chunk of Monday afternoon reading on the porch of our guest house. It faces east, so by 1:00 it's in full shade for the rest of the day (really nice when it's 95 outside). Lisa just finished reading The Soul of Money, and I'm trying to finish Barack Obama's The Audacity of Hope, which I started months ago but have never found the time to finish. Lisa reads about four times faster than I do, so seeing her start and finish books in the time it takes me to read a few chapters can get quite annoying.


GREG: Yesterday (Tuesday) was another long travel day. First we took a water taxi from Caye Caulker to Belize City, then a bus from there to Chetumal, Mexico, and then another bus from Chetumal to Merida. We were on the road (or the water) from 6:30 am until about 7:30 pm. The most interesting leg of the trip was the bus from Belize City to Chetumal. We took a "second-class" bus because it left 90 minutes earlier than the "first-class" bus, so we thought it might get us there quicker. It's also a little cheaper. The downside is that it is an uncomfortable bus , and it stops about every hundred yards to pick somebody up or drop somebody off. So what would've been a 2 1/2 hour drive took about 4 1/2 hours. It was like driving from Chicago to St. Louis on a school bus route. The upside was that we got to see a lot of the Belizean countryside, and it was interesting to see all the different people who used the bus as their means of getting where they need to go.

We arrived in Merida late -- only had time for dinner (after a lunch of hot cereal and chocolate chip cookies). But the place we're staying here is really beautiful. We'll have some pictures of it for our next post.

Day 11 - Caye Caulker

LISA & GREG: Today was, by design, a pretty uneventful day. Our plan was to just take it easy without any activities or excursions -- really for the first time since our trip began. We thought maybe we'd just take a walk and then relax and perhaps watch a movie in our air-conditioned room. But right as the hottest part of the day was beginning, the power went out on half of the island -- our half. The thought of staying in a hot room wasn't very appealing, so we decided to take a walk -- a very long, sweaty, unshaded walk. The power was still out when we got back so we walked up to "the split" (where Caye Caulker is literally split in two by the ocean) and swam a little, but mostly watched a group of small kids play in the water. It was cool to see the many different shades of kids -- black, Creole, Latino, Chinese -- playing together and having a ball. (Sorry, no camera to capture this moment.) The power was finally restored about 5 hours later, and we are sitting here writing this in a nice, cool room. Here's a shot of us on the dock right outside where we're staying.


GREG: Mike Baer, here's a shot just for you. Thought you'd appreciate this full-length basketball court on Caye Caulker just a few feet from the ocean. Two interesting things about this serious pick-up game we watched: one, most of the kids were playing bare-footed, and two, it was a co-ed game, which is pretty rare for kids this age, at least in Chicago.


GREG: Last item for today: Just wanted to say that I think Lisa set a new world's record in packing for this trip. I was determined (Lisa might say obsessed) that we would travel light for this vacation -- carry-ons only, no checked baggage. Considering that we'd be gone for 14 days, that's not such an easy task. Here are the bags we took -- Lisa's is the red one, mine is the grey one.


I thought I had done well to fit everything I needed (minus a couple items that went in a small backpack) in my bag -- a total of 32 items. But when I watched Lisa unpack her bag the first time, I couldn't believe how much she pulled out of there. It was like a magic trick or something -- the clothes just kept coming. She somehow managed to fit 65 items into her bag, including 21 blouses or t-shirts, 4 long skirts, 3 summer dresses, 4 pairs of shorts, 1 pair of long pants, 2 bathing suits, 2 pairs of shoes, 2 pairs of sandals, and a whole lot more. So if you ever need advice on how to pack light and still take a lot with you, call Lisa.