Vacation: Part II (Border to Blue Skies)

If we had known this is what awaited us, would we have made the trip to Guatemala?? :)



Well, let me back up. So due to the storms, with all of Belize, including the western border, being flooded, our only option to get out was to fly. We decided to take a Tropic Air flight (nevermind the mentioned swamp-crashes in Lonely Planet!) across the border to Flores, Guatemala.

This was our plane.


Shomir enjoyed the broadcasted announcing, from the pilot seated three feet in front of us, to buckle our seatbelts, etc. Did you think, on a plane like that, we were NOT going to buckle those??!


We arrived (sans crash) late morning in Flores, which is a pretty town on this little peninsula into a lake in the Peten area of northeastern Guatemala. We were able to get transportation to the Mayan ruins of Tikal, which are perhaps some the most impressive in all of Central America.

Temple which we climbed in the rain, inducing severe acrophobia on my part (and its canopy view on the right).

Doesn't it look like I'm having a great time?! ("These are the same raindrops that fell on us yesterday!" exclaimed Shomir. "I recognize them!")

Shomir climbed this one solo.

.

We did get a brief reprieve from the rain where we enjoyed some of the temples with a touch of sunlight! This was quite amazing.

Wild turkeys!

Strange animal (I forget the name, again-- will have to look it up unless JB helps) we watched while having tea and soup at a cafe at the bottom. No, it is not a mini-dinosaur. That is the tail.

We stayed overnight in Flores (perhaps the most welcome hot shower I'd ever had!) and then, the following day, tried to get a bus to Coban to visit the Grutas (caves) of Lanquin and Semuc Champey, a place of lagoons and waterfalls deemed the most beautiful site in ALL of Guatemala. However, we were thwarted by the floods (which, at this point, had moved west) where transport couldn't navigate the roads and thus had to take a major highway to Rio Dulce east of there....

.... but this is what greeted us on our arrival 6 hours later.....

BLUE SKY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I had to take a picture of it :) We seriously take California weather for granted.

In any case, we took a river boat through the Lago De Izabal all the way to the town of Livingston on the coast, only accessible via vessel. Very neat!

Sunny picture by some thermal waters (aguas calientes) and a bat-infested cave which Shom explored.

Livingston harbor


We finally felt like we were on vacation!!

Despite no hot water in our $5 hotel, a million itchy bug bites at this point, and a rather uncomfortable 4-hour walk along beach trash to the Siete Altares, we had a nice time in Livingston, enjoying some good food and other tropical treats.

The Siete Altares, a series of lagoons and pools on the coast.

Spider we saw along the way. In case you were wondering, I did NOT take this picture but instead ran very quickly in the other direction.

We also saw a ton of crabs and other sea creatures along the way.

Pelicans

Mangy dog which followed us on the street (this is Shom's favorite picture from this trip!). Guatemala has a TON of street dogs, almost as many as there are guys with guns on the streetcorners (not sure if that made us feel more or less safe!)


Anyway, away from the ugly to:

Relaxation time, Carribean seaside.

Breakfast of plantains, coconut juice, and limonada. Mmmm.

Fantastic seafood dinner. The Tapado, or seafood soup, is famous in this area. The licuados, or shakes, were also to die for! Livingston is the center for "Garifuna" culture (blacks descended from slaves) and we enjoyed some reggae-like music over dinner.


We were LOVING Guatemala (and the food :)).

Next post: A Antigua.... (onto Antigua)...

Vacation: Part 1 (Betza's and Belize....)

There are SOO many pictures from these last 2 weeks! It has been, while not as we expected, a fantastic time! I am going to try to be brief w/ the text and descriptive w/ the pics so you can get an idea of our stories, but bear with me as I must be complete and methodical in my picture-posting and must start from the beginning....

Betza's potluck!
Betza and Tom had some of my classmates over to their home in West Sac on the 1st Saturday night of our vacation (it was a rotation switch for the others). It had been AGES since we'd all hung out. Labor and Delivery really kicks butt, and others had been scattered about, so it was great to come together! We had great food, fellowship, and played a fun game- "Wise or Unwise" or something like that where you get to create your own ending to an old saying and you have to guess the real one, you get points if someone guesses your made-up one, etc.

Here are Tom and Brenden w/ the birds on their shoulders...

Brenden alone...

Here is baby Sage (Susanna's 4- month old), which, as you can see, is very advanced, already self-comforting w/ thumb-sucking!

Betza with baby Sage (and, we were so excited to find out, her own baby in her tummy! I have had 3 pregnancy revelations of great friends in the last several weeks (you know who you are...! SOOOOO Fun!!!)

She is going to be a fantastic mom!!!

Okay, so onto the trip. From my last brief post, I think you got the gist of the first few days.... Anyway, we flew from Sac to Belize City last Sunday. Here is Shomir with his travel bandana (which he wore the whole plane flight(s). He also wears earplugs so he really cuts of all contact with his seat-mate, i.e. me.). He and my dad would be GREAT travel partners as they have equally embarrassing (to their partners) travel gear :)



Belize was amidst a tropical depression with POURING rain, etc., so we really couldn't do much there except plan to get the heck out. We did have a good meal and get to see the zoo, though, termed the "Best Little Zoo in the World"....

It was pretty neat. Not that it ever stopped raining for us to see the animals, though :)

Howler monkey Tapirs, which, we learned, can projectile pee!

Shom looking a bit nervous...

PUMA!
We also saw a jaguar, Junior, raised since he was abandoned as a cub, who was very elusive and hid under the wet bushes. He was cute anyway!

We did have a brief respite from the rain (leading Shom to consider changing our travel plans BACK to one which included a jaunt to the Cayes) and got to see a bit of Belize City:

Lighthouse

Harbor


We tried to go to this restaurant, mentioned in Lonely Planet, I think, but, alas:

This sign (NO building!) was all that remained. Thwarted again!!

We instead ate at a neat little restaurant, Macy's, serving authentic food:

We wandered into a grocery store which posted this appropriate flier.


Maybe preparation for hurricane season would include NOT buying tickets to Belize in October even though this was a seemed anomaly, i.e. the most rain in 10-15 years. Oh well.

.... anyway!

Next post: Puddle-jump to Guatemala.....

Un momentito para decir, ¨hola!

Just a quick note to tell everyone ¨HOLA¨! from Guatemala! (and that, yes Mom, we are alive!)
On Sunday, Shomir and I found ourselves in Belize City amidst a tropical depression (¨¨who were we to think that we could visit Hurricane Alley in hurricane season and NOT have rain?!¨) remarked Shom when all we saw were raindrops.

With what looked like continuing downpours, nationwide flooding, and a possible cyclone, we decided to abandon our previous vacation plans to head out to Ambergris Caye for beach'-lying, cave'tubing, and diving, and instead puddle-jumped westward to Guatemala where, initially, we faced more drenching adventures, but now are quite content and DRY, here at an internet cafe in the delightful town of Antigua.

Despite being damp (or, worse, SOAKED) for approximately 4 days, we´ve managed to have a great time. We´ve visited the Mayan ruins of Tikal, taken some interesting bus rides, visited Livingston and Rio Dulce via boat on the tropical coast, had wonderful food, had time to sleep and read, and plan to hike an active volcano tomorrow.... And (well, you can ask him later what he really thinks) the best part is that Shomir apparently doesn´t think I´m crazy enough to want out yet ;) We´ve gotten along amazingly despite a somewhat initially disappointing travel situation, frustration at being uncomfortably wet, and some less'than optimal accommodations. I couldn´t have asked for a more perfect and easygoing travel partner!

Anyway, we have just a little more time of daylight left, and this keyboard is driving me crazy with the placement of all the punctuation marks, so I´m going to say ´hasta luego¨¨for now.

I promise lots of pictures to come when we return back stateside. Tuesday, we fly to Shomir´s sister´s place in Boston and it´s back to Sac'town a week from today. Miss you all! Con mucho amor,
t

Short but sweet visit

It was so great to have my parents in town this past weekend! While my Mom has been in SF for a couple of weeks and I got to see her last weekend, my Dad flew into California last Tuesday and they arrived in Sac-town on Friday night. Despite my being postcall and groggy Friday, having to work all day Sunday, and trying to switch back from a nights to days schedule, we tried to make the most of the sort-of-weekend (i.e. Saturday!). While my Dad helped me move out to CA last summer, it was my Mom's first trip to my new home! They both stayed with me and graciously put up with my guest futon and cramped living quarters as well as my horribly crummy call schedule. Shomir lucked out w/ the weekend off and was able to join us for the festivites.

Friday night, we went out and had yummy Ethiopian food at Queen of Sheba, a nearby restaurant. Mmm. Saturday, we had brunch at the famous Tower Cafe and then headed out for a mini-road trip to Marshall Gold Discovery Park between Placerville and Coloma where, in 1848, James W. Marshall discovered gold, an event which "led to the greatest mass movement of people in the Western Hemisphere and was the spark that ignited the spectacular growth of the West during the ensuing decades." (Marshall Gold Discovery SHP)

It was actually a special festival ("Coloma Gold Rush Live") weekend and we got to observe people in period dress among the horse-drawn carriage riding and such. Kind of touristy and cheesy, but interesting to visit :) It was also the most perfect of fall days, just crisp enough to want your sweater, but still beautifully sunny.

Here are some snaps:

with Mom and toothless Shom

Panning for gold!

A little slice of history... Wouldn't this advertising draw you into this shop? :)

Saturday night, we had a little FP/OB get together/bbq at Joe's new house (Joe is the 1st year FP/OB and now the token male resident in the OB dept!), which was a great time, although I didn't take pictures.

Sunday, after work, my parents and I hung out at Gaea's house for some yummy salmon and icecream. It was a fun weekend! They flew back to Northern VA on Monday. Next time I will see them will be in MN for Thanksgiving!

I am excited and getting a last surge of energy as I have TWO DAYS LEFT before my vacation starts. After 2 weeks of nights, which is always extremely exhausting, this week has been a fairly good one back on OB days. Yesterday, this included the adventure of delivering via C/S (glad she didn't do a trial of labor!) a 12-pound, 5 oz baby!! He basically walked himself out of the OR! Crazy stuff!

Two more days, two more days, just two more days.....

These are a few of my favorite things....

Hooray for days off (gives me something to blog about, as I'm sure no one really wants to hear about how much I hate the ER, where seeing people with either threatened miscarriages, ectopic pregnancies, or vaginal bleeding is pretty much what is dominating my nights on OB [at night, we carry the gyn consult pager]).

Although I had post-call FP clinic on Friday, I was able to catch some sleep and headed to San Francisco that evening, where my Mom has been working doing some foreign service recruiting. I forgot how great the city is! Although I only had about 24 hours there as I had to work Sunday a.m 24 into week2 of nights, It was a refreshing break away from work and Sac and I felt like a "real" person for the first time in a long while! It is really very close (like an hour and half's drive) and I'm ashamed I don't get there more.

Friday night, we had wonderful Indonesian food at a restaurant near Mom's hotel. After a long luxurious night's sleep in the fluffy hotel bed (my mom couldn't understand how I could be so tired!!), Saturday we did a lot of walking around the city.

We climbed Nob Hill to the Grace Cathedral, a very grand Episcopalian church built after the SF fire in 1906.




I love the stained glass windows!



We (, blessed with good weather!) continued walking around the city, including Chinatown where there was a Taiwanese parade going on.

North Beach (or "Little Italy") has this restaurant, the Stinking Rose, that Amy has told me about and which I have to try sometime. We randomly passed it and so I felt obligated to take a (crooked) picture!

We hiked to the top of Telegraph Hill where the Coit Tower overlooks the city and bay.


We then had a lovely seafood lunch on Fisherman's Wharf and headed on the boat out to Alcatraz, also a new adventure for me although Mom has been there before.

We took the audiotour about all the hardships and escapes that happened before the prison shut down. Interesting!

The day concluded with a very touristy cable-car ride, a quick nap, and more wonderful Asian (Thai) food before I had to head back to Sac.

View of the street from the cable car.

Fun times! Days off, SF, and Mom are a few of my favorite things!

The best news is that my Dad is flying into SF today and Mom and Dad plan to come out to Sacramento this coming weekend to visit some more! I again have Saturday off, which will be great! We'll have to find some fun things to do.

Okay, it's back into work soon for tonight.... Pray that the ER does not call me!