Here are some photos of our time in Guatemala City with Javier's family

We celebrated Javier's and Kerri's birthdays! Kerri enjoyed the Guatemalan tradition of having cake thrown in her face :)
Later Gary's mom and grandma had the whole gang over for dinner to celebrate
A few days later we picked up this stranger and went to an amusement park
At the amusement park

Back to Where We Started

Here we are back where we started in Guatemala City, Guatemala! After taking some time to rest, we spent a few days in a town called Panajachel which is about 3 and a half hours away from the city and over looks beautiful Lake Atitlan. These are a some pictures from our trip.

Downtown PanajachelOn a bridge through the trees with Javi's sister
Zip Lining! (well not really, we couldn't afford it, so we pretended)
By a waterfall
We fed bananas to monkeys

More pictures to come!

We Love Honduras!

After quite awhile without internet access we are back online, as well as back in Guatemala after quite a trip. While traveling was great, it feels good to finally be out of car and staying in one place for a little while.

We spent the last week or so in Honduras at Rotan, an island off the eastern coast. While it was the most expensive part of our trip, it was also the most beautiful. The pictures do not even come close to doing this beach justice.

Beach at Rotan

After the long walk to the beach Kerri was a bit bitten by the sand flies

Before crossing the border into Guatemala we stopped at Copan Ruins. The Copan Ruins are Mayan ruins that date back to the 5th century and were pretty cool to see.

We'll be updating with more pictures and our travels around Guatemala soon. Thanks for reading!

Heading North

Hola from Matagulpa, Nicaragua! We left Costa Rica two days ago after spending almost a week in various locations around the country. As seems to be the trend on our trip, crossing the border once again took several hours. With each border comes long lines, people trying to rip you off, confusing rules, various papers that need to be signed (by people who always seem to be on their lunch break and are no where to be found), photo copies that need to be made, little fees for this and that to be paid, etc etc etc. At this particular border crossing our car was determined to be "suspicious." So for the next hour our car was intensely searched by the Nicaraguan police (who themselves needed to be carefully watched as to insure they didn't steal anything from us). Every bag was completely gone through and every panel of the car was taken off until it was obvious we weren't carrying anything illegal. However, besides inconveniences such as trouble at the borders, everything thus far has been relatively smooth sailing.

As we travel, we are continually impressed by the kindness of those who have generously hosted us in their homes. We've had wonderful meals cooked for us, had our laundry done, been taken out to dinner, been given tours of various cities, and have even been given the last beds in the house causing family members to sleep on the floor. God is good, and we have seen his love through the hospitality of various brothers and sisters along the way.

Lord willing, tomorrow we are off to La Cebia, Honduras!

¿Hablas español? ...muy poco

We are now once again back in San Jose after two nights on the Caribbean coast. After a relatively smooth drive from San Jose we made it to Puerto Viejo, a very chill, hippie, laid back beach. Even though it had its far share of gringos, Puerto Viejo (and the whole Caribean coast in general) had a very different vibe from the other places in Costa Rica we had visited thus far.

After much looking we decided to stay at a place called ¨Rocking J´s.¨ However, Rocking J´s is not your typical hotel...upon arrival you have two ¨room¨ choices...either a tent or a hammock. If Rocking J´s were to be summed up in one word it would probably be hippie...or maybe trippy. Either way simply staying there was an experience in and of itself, but at $5 per night it was impossible to pass up.

After our ¨adventure¨ at Rocking J´s we were ready to get back to San Jose. Unfortunately, we were a little too ready, and our speed was not appreciated by the Costa Rican police. Being pulled over in Costa Rica is much like being pulled over in the states, expect the police officer does not speak English. Because we are incredibly smart, we thought it would be a good idea to pretend that none of us spoke Spanish...that way the officer could not give us a ticket because we would not understand what was going on. While in theory this was a good idea, it did not actually work. However, it did provide much amusement when Shawn responded when asked by the officer ¨hablas español?¨ with ¨muy poco¨ and then continued to simply look confused as the officer explained why we had been pulled over, while Javier sat crouched in the backseat behind a towel. In the end, we still got a speeding ticket, but the laughter that insued after the officer drove away may just have been worth it.

Here are some pictures from Rocking J´s and our stay with my (Kerri´s) host family in San Jose!

Rocking J´s Entrance

Is Shawn really learning Spanish from Julie?

Kari and OlgaKerri and her host mom

PURA VIDA

Wow, we have drove around 1600 kms. total

We have visited 5 countries so far:

Guate, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica

At El Salvador we went to a lake called Coatepeque.

Shawn tooka a Kayak and Kari and I (Javier) took a canoe. We paddled for a long time...it was FUN! After the little ride at the lake we enjoyed with our friends Ashley and Elvis a Salvadorian lunch.

El Salvador highlights: Eating lots of pupusas, drinking some poleada, sleeping on the floor and the couch...

WATCH THIS PICTURE!! ...

...We arrived to San Jose yesterday. Before, we spent a day at Playa Brasilito, which is very close to Playa Conchal, one of the most beautiful and famous spots of Costa Rica. The beach at the hotel we stayed at was great! However, we walked a couple of miles to another beach called Conchal. You come to this point where a rocky mountain separates part of the ocean and forms bigger waves. After crossing the rocky mountain you get to Conchal and the view totally changes. It was a very gorgeous place to be at. I think (Javier) this was one of the highlights of our stop in the coast of Costa Rica.

Now, we have a couple more days here at Costa Rica. We are planning to visit the north east side, and be able to enjoy some of the most well known natural reserves of Costa Rica. Our plans so far are to stop at a place called Gandoca Manzanillo, find a good hotel rate, enjoy a day there, and then get immersed into the wilderness next day.

We are excited to see that you guys are reading our blog and somehow experiencing our trip through the words we write!

PURA VIDA!

We Hate Honduras

After a long two days we´ve made it from El Salvador to Nicaragua, and the trip was defintely not a boring one. We got a bit lost (well more than a bit) in El Salvador. We drove for 4 hours to a road that dead ended into a random river. We faced several cow attacks (where a large herd of cows stood in the road for several minutes...making the trip even longer)

Once we made it to the border of Honduras we got scammed out of $100 that a noble appearing man said we need to pay because we didn´t have a fire extinguisher and triangles. Then we got stopped again by the police who we had to bribe in order to be able to continue. Yes, indeed, we hate Honduras.

Now we are in blissful Granada, Nicaragua enjoying not having cows in the road and no one trying to rip us off. Tomorrow we go to the best country of them all!