India!

Hi everybody!
We are in India!
Our trip here was loooong. We had to catch a taxi, two trains, a shuttle, and a bus to get to the airport in New York (it took about six hours). At eleven pm we caught a thirteen hour flight to a small country called Qatar next to Saudi Arabia. (We had to fly over Iraq to get there.) We then waited for two hours at the airport before catching another flight to Cochin airport in India. The flight was about four hours and after it we had to take an hour cab ride to our hotel in Fort Cochin. It was about 28 hours of traveling but there was such a large time change that we arrived at our hotel at five am the day after we left. The jetlag is TERRIBLE.

That day we walked around Fort Cochin. We walked down by the river there and saw these Huge fishing nets that Fort Cochin is famous for. We then went and saw the church where Vasco Da Gama used to be buried until he was exhumed. Some guy said he'd give us an hour tour of Fort Cochin in a tuk-tuk (look at the picture on the bottom). So, we all piled in and took the tour. It turns out the driver gets money from shops if he gets us in their doors so instead of going to all the major sights we went to see all the major shops. We got really tired of it really fast. The tour wasn't all bad. We got to go see the places where spices are prepared, stored and sold. They smelled heavenly. I tried using a huge sieve to sort through ginger with the workers, but they stopped me when I started sneezing all over it. We also went to a dutch palace with cool wall paintings. I haven't mentioned it but it is boiling here (high nineties) so we never stay outside for that long.

The next day we went to a very old Jewish synagogue because we heard there was an awesome bird show there. It turned out that the birds were actually at a Jain temple but we stayed at the Jewish synagogue since we were already there. It was cool but pretty small so after that we went to the Jain temple. It was pretty impressive. The art was amazing and I liked the domes on the buildings. We missed the bird show. That night we went to a traditional dance show, it was amazing. The coolest part was during the martial arts section when a guy spinning swords accidently broke one and part of the sword flew away towards the edge of the stage dangerously close to the front row.

The next day we went to an Indian amusement/waterpark called VeegaLand. It was a lot like an American amusement park except for some big differences. The women just wore their normal clothes into the water and men wore shorts and t-shirts. The wave pool was divided into two sections, one for the women and children and one for the men. The men's section was like four times bigger than the women's and had bigger waves. It was still alot of fun though.

Today we did nothing but homeschooling (fun). Tommorow we leave Fort Cochin and head for Allepey. I'll try to post soon. Please comment.
Goodbye!

Back in the USA

This is my last post for our Central American trip.

We did manage to get Colin to a zip line. We even got Mom to go (she was shaking when she landed on the first platform, but got used to it). Colin said he expected it to be scarier then it was, but it was still awesome.

The next day we caught a bus to Rio Dulce. It is a beautiful river, and it is mostly settled by people from the Caribbean. Our hotel was so cool. Our room was like a gazebo on the second floor. There was a thatched roof and floor, but the walls were open. The room was in the shape of a plus sign, and each of us got an alcove with a bed, chest, a mosquito net, and a reading light. The whole hotel was on walkways over the water. On our first day I was having stomach problems so Dad and Colin kayaked to a fort which they liked while Mom and I stayed at the hotel.

The next day I was feeling better so we went to a natural hot waterfall. On the ride there we took one of the vans they use like public buses. Our van was made to hold fifteen people, but they managed to mush in 24. The water was a perfect temperature. There was a small area under a rock behind the waterfall that felt exactly like a sauna. There were also tons of fish. You could jump off huge rocks on the side into the water.

The next day we had a loooong bus ride from Rio Dulce back to Antigua. We only stayed there for the night and the next morning we caught a plane out of Guatemala City to Florida. We are now at our grandparents’ vacation cottage in Florida. We got to have orange ice cream which was really good. It is COLD here. I know it’s not nearly as bad as the rest of the US but you’re not meant to be wearing a jacket in Florida. Tomorrow we start our drive up to Philly.

As I said this is my last post for this trip. I should start posting again around March 21^st when we catch a flight to India for our next adventure.

Goodbye!

Tikal

Hi everybody!

The day after we went to the Copan Ruins we caught a seven hour van ride back to Antigua where we spent the night. The next day we caught another van to Lake Atitlan. We stayed in a town along the lake called Santa Cruz. We didn't do much there. We hiked on a path above the water to a Mayan village. All the villagers there stared at us like we were in a zoo. Dad, Colin, and I went swimming in the lake. It was cold but fun and there was a giant seaweed forest. (There weren't any fish though.)

While we were staying there we caught a van to Chichicastenango. It is a town that is normally quite unremarkable except for on market day when the whole center area is filled with stalls and TONS of people. People from all the surrounding cities and villages come to sell and buy the things they need. It was a bit overwhelming but cool. One of the other cool things about Chichicastenango is its religion. The churches mix Mayan and Christian practices. We had just gone in to explore a church when a procession of people in traditional Mayan clothes marched up the church steps. In the lead were two people. One was playing an old fashioned drum while the other was playing a wooden instrument that seemed like a cross between a recorder and an oboe. Some of the men were carrying a platform holding the statue of a Christian saint. In the back a guy was holding a small statue of a horse and dancing. The group stopped at the entrance of the church where they burned incense on a platform and then proceeded to kneel several times, each time facing a different direction. After they went into the church the dancing guy stayed. Someone handed him a wooden sphere covered with firecrackers. As he danced the firecrackers on the sphere he was holding started to explode. It was so awesome! The ceremony then ended and everybody filtered into the church.

After we had stayed near Lake Atitlan for three days we caught a van to Antigua. The next day we caught another van two hours to Guatemala City where we caught a bus to Flores. It was around ten hours in all. Flores is a little town by a lake. It's nice but the real reason we came is that it's only an hour away from Tikal. Yesterday we went to see it. Tikal was amazing. The temples were Huge. You don't realize how big they are until you climb them. Another thing you don't realize is how far apart the temples are. Between them is vast amounts of jungle. Our tour was four hours long, but we only covered the amount you would normally in a two hour tour because we spent most of it hiking through the jungle. We saw lots of wild howler monkeys, spider monkeys, and toucans. There were also giant, hairy, tarantulas (shiver).

Today we hope to let Colin finally zipline but we are not sure where we are heading next. I will try to post soon. Please comment!

Bye!

P.S. For all those people who are in the middle of that huge snowstorm, we are so jealous (except for Mom and Dad who are enjoying being cooked)

Hello from Honduras

Hi everybody!

We are now in Honduras, but first I will write about our last day in Antigua.
We had to get up at five in the morning to catch a bus to the bottom of the Pacaya Volcano. From there we took a hard one and a half hour hike to the top of the volcano(well not to the top-top but close enough). I think the only reason we made it to the top was because a couple guys on horses kept on following us asking is if we wanted a ride. They seemed to think that we couldn't make it to the top, and we wanted to prove them wrong. At the last part of the hike we were clambering over a huge area of lava rocks that made mini avalanches when you took a step. At the top we saw molten lava and you could stand less then a foot away from it if you could bear the heat. We got to roast marshmallows over the hotspots at the top. It was then another hour hike down, though it wasn't nearly as bad.

The next day we had to get up at three (after gettting up at five the day before)to catch a six hour bus to Copan (the town not the ruins)in Honduras. Two hours in we learned that Colin and I had diarrhea and it was not a fun rest of the trip. We had planned to go to the Copan ruins the next day, but while I was better by then, Colin started puking, had terrible stomach aches, and even worse diarrhea. Mom came down with it too. Dad and I left a sick Mom and Colin at the hotel and went zip-lining. I got kind of scared when we asked one of the zipline workers how high up the ziplines went and they said 3 thousand feet (I realized a few minutes later that he meant 3 hundred feet but it was scary at the time). It was sooooooooooooo cool. It felt like you were flying. You just had to try to forget how high up you were and enjoy the ride.

The next day (today) we were all feeling better, so we went to see the Copan ruins. They were pretty spectacular. We got to see the ball court, the hieroglyphic stairs, and climb to the top off the tallest pyramid. I think my favorite was the hieroglyphic stairs. There was also a pyramid where the whole front was made to look like a serpent and the stairway was its tongue.

I hope to post soon but I don't know that there will be internet at our next hostel. Please comment.
Goodbye!

Pictures!!

Follow this link for our travel pictures on Flickr - there are a couple of sets that we finally uploaded. Let us know what you think.

Pictures on Flickr

Hello from Antigua

Hi everybody! This is Madeleine. Sorry I haven't posted for so long. I will start where I left off before. Boquete was really nice. We went to a flower show and at our hotel a toucan kept on flying into the dining room. We were going to stay longer, but Dad's computer crashed. That meant we had to leave early for Alajuela (a city near San Jose in Costa Rica) so he could get it fixed. We took two bus rides to get there, ten hours in all. At the bus station, someone was selling tons of cute little chicks for 75 cents each. In Alajuela we went to a butterfly farm where they raise butterflies to sell to live butterfly exhibits all around the world. The butterfly exhibit in Philadelphia has butterflies from this place. It was interesting, but in the end they gave a long and reeeaally wierd speech about finding your inner butterfly. We also went to the top of the Poas Volcano. The crater was huge and smoking. The sulfur SMELLED when the wind blew the smoke cloud toward us. I would like to say that we had alot of traditional Costa Rican food, but we mostly ate at a Tex-Mex place. We got to fly from Costa Rica to Guatemala in first class. We got comfy seats and cushions, our own mini-TVs where we could watch free movies, and a whole meal that looked fancy and actually tasted good. We are now staying in the city of Antigua in Guatemela. In Mom's words, it is a charming colonial city with cobblestone streets and many ruined churches and monasteries. We have spent alot of our time here touring them. There was one with an underground room that had an amazing echo. We have also gone to the Antigua market. There are lots of beautiful Mayan products like huipiles, but also lots of fruit, dvd's, confetti, and underwear. We have had to be careful about what we eat and drink here because certain foods and tap water can give you diarrhea. It's kind of annoying. I hope I will be posting again soon, but I don't know if we will have WiFi in the places we are going to next.

Goodbye!

Boquete

Hi everybody!
We've just arrived in Boquete. It is a small town in the Panamanian mountains. Our last few days in Bocas del Toro were alot busier than our first. On Friday we took a trip to Red Frog Beach. Our boat ride out was awesome. We had to go through an area of water with tons of waves and the boat flew into the air when ever it hit one. Oddly, none of the adults enjoyed the ride. Red Frog Beach gets its name from the little red frogs that live there. We went searching for some, but the only ones we found were four that had been caught by local kids, and we had to pay 25 cents per person just to look at them. (When Valerie saw them she immediately said "They're cute, I want one". In the middle of our beach trip it started to rain and we all had to get under the roof off a restaurant. (It was closed because the cook was missing.) When the rain didn't show signs of stopping we decided we should go. We had to hike across the island to catch a boat in the pouring rain. We had to stop at the main island to get groceries, but by the time we got there we were all WET. We finally got our groceries and thought that we had a nice 15 minute boat ride before being warm and dry in our villa. We were soooooo wrong. Just as we got on the boat it started pouring buckets and the fog was so bad we couldn't see much out of the boat. Our boat driver got lost and for a while we weren't sure if he knew where the island was at all. We finally arrived back at the island soaked through and shivering fifty minutes after we left the main town.

The next day we spent at home, recovering from the last one. We spent most of it homeschooling. Dad, Andrea, and I went snorkeling and found hundreds of sea urchins.

On Sunday, we went on a trip to Starfish Beach. On the way we passed a group of five wild dolphins which was really cool. We also stopped by a place called Bird Island because of the many birds there. (Whoever named the island must be very creative with names). I have to say I liked it even though I don't normally like bird watching. Starfish Beach had an amazing amount of starfish (as you can guess by the name). I had no idea their could be so many types of starfish. After that we took a boat out to a spot in the water where we could snorkel off the boat. There was a beautiful reef there. It looked exactly like the ones you see in movies. I saw rainbow fish, coral of every color, and some things that I don't know what they are. After that we went to the main town to get supplies. Dad left my clothes on the boat (I was wearing my swimsuit at the time) so I had to walk through the town wrapped in the towel.

Monday, we took a tour of our island's cacao plantation. It actually was more of a forest covered with cacao trees. There were tons of wierd trees like one that had things that felt exactly like needles covoring it. The leafcutter ants were also really amazing. There were pathways that looked like the trails you take hikes on, but thinner. It turns out they were made entirely by leafcutter ants walking over that strip of ground thousands of times. We saw a hill that looked normal, but if you looked closely you could see that it was all one giant anthill. We got to try cacao beans grown there. You could taste a sort of chocolate flavor, but it didn't really taste good.

Today we got up, packed, and took a 4 hour ride in a cramped van to a city called David where we caught a cramped school bus 45 minutes to Boquete. There we caught 2 cabs to Villa Marita where we are staying. There is an amazing view and our rooms are alright.

That's all (this has been a long entry) I'll try to keep posting.
Goodbye!