A little slice of Paradise...

I have to say that the batch of icing on these is the best I have ever made!
Yum! Yum! Yum!

Not too bad with a spoon, knife, and a Ziploc bag!

Antigua...

On our trip to Glover's Reef we met Nicole and Adam. They are heading to Guatemala soon.

Seconds after mentioning that they were going there, I was already back there in my mind. Guate! Guate! Guate! The sounds of the conductors yelling for you to join them on their exquisite buses back home from Antigua at the end of the weekend.

We had such a great time there. I danced the Salsa- ok, not really, but I did take a free class. But salsa was not all that La Salsa Dance Academy offered. The night we were there the famous Buena Vista Social Club was playing. (I broke down and downloaded one of their albums on my iTunes tonight and am listening to it now.) How did we end up there? We were having dinner at El Cafecito- a restaurante comida Portuguesa- and a gentleman stopped by our table to hand us a flyer. It was one of the most memorable nights I had there.

I checked out another site just to see if I had the right location. Maybe I did, maybe I didn't. However, there is a mention about the Buena Vista Social Club on this website. It has been nearly two years since we were there so they may have moved on. I don't think you can go wrong though. Enjoy.

For those going to Antigua...

La Salsa's website is www.lasalsadance.com and the email is info@lasalsadance.com I had trouble accessing the page. But then again I have had trouble accessing everything today on the internet. Nicole, you aren't going to believe it, but I had the correct intersection! The following is what is on the flyer...
7 ma. Av. Norte y 2 da. Calle poniente esquina No. 18 Antigua Guatemala (Interior Bar y Restaurante Chimenea) The telephone is 5400-0315

El Cafecito is at 5 ta. Calle Poniente 7/A

Enjoy!!!

Kitty Poo Poo Pants...

So, there was a little kitty who was in a box. The kitty just meowed and meowed (for hours!) So I called Sterling- not his cat. Visited Maritza- not hers, but she had rescued him. Kitty was playing in the middle of the street and nearly got himself killed. Maritza- the animal lover that she is- picked him up and brought him home. This was Sunday. She had planned on taking him to Saga Monday morning. I knew that he was frightened and wouldn't stop crying anytime soon. It seemed as though there would be little hope of me sleeping if he was in the carrier. I asked Maritza if I could take him in until she could take him to the the shelter. He is a scrawny little guy with a fat stomach- worms. He had really bad "dead rear" as Dad would say. Poor thing!


I put him in my bathroom with a box of sand- courtesy of our "yard"- as a litter box, a bowl of food, a bowl of water and a towel. He came to have the towel, not because I initially gave it to him, but because he found his way to my rather large and plush stack of towels. (EEEWWW!!!) The rest got moved. He did really well. He only cried a few minutes after I went in the bathroom and left him. He was really really dehydrated but wouldn't drink the water. He acted a bit off balance, weaving a bit, I think because of it. I soaked his food and he seemed to do better.

Monday was a holiday in Belize so Saga was closed. I knew this, but I think Maritza was a little surprised. No worries. Kitty had earned the name Little Poo Poo Pants because of a certain odor that was on him and he emitted. To take care of part of the odor and some flees he received a bath. He was not too happy about this mind you. But he was quite happy with me holding him and rubbing him down with the towels and removing the fleas afterwards. His smell improved (most of the time). His diarrhea had slowed down and he didn't seem as dehydrated later in the evening. I gave him an aluminum foil ball to play with but he didn't seem to get it.

Tuesday morning he was moving around, playing a bit, and seemed to be in much better condition. Unfortunately I had a few meetings to go to so I had to put him back in the carrier and leave. I felt soooo guilty! It was heart wrenching! Especially since he was crying, sounding confused that he was in the awful box again.

Yesterday I went to check up on him. He is in isolation for 2 weeks because of his condition. :^( poor little guy. So I talked to the lady at the desk and asked if I could walk over to check him out. I told her a little bit more about him. So I talked to LPPP and he quieted down and started rubbing on the door of his home for the next two weeks.

Just now I thought of a new name. Bunny. It seems appropriate since he was found on Easter. I will ask them to call him that from now on.

I want him. I am having a really hard time convincing myself I should not get him. Especially if I get the Volunteer Leader position. I would be here another year. Ugh. Don't need another cat. But I miss my Quilly, Chloe, Mal, and Tess. If he gets adopted quickly then I have nothing to worry about. But if he doesn't then I don't know what I am going to do!

Happy Easter...

Happy Easter Everybunny...

I had a nice but not as expected trip to Glover's Reef last week. Details to come. We met some wonderful people, most of which were from NC. I think I recognized one of the guys from Wilmington. Rather strange. There was a lovely couple that had gotten married the week before in Hopkins. Adam and Nicole were great. They are going to be traveling for about 6 months to celebrate. They are documenting their travels on their own blog. I was so excited when I got the chance to chat with them about places to visit in Guatemala. I can't wait to read about it too.

Trying to recover from the lack of sleep and a possible sinus infection. YEA..

Unfortunately one of our guard dogs disappeared in the last 24 hours. I saw Blue about this time last night. I love the little guy so I hope he is safe and finds his way home soon.

I have also taken in a kitten for the night. Maritza picked him up out of the middle of the street today. He nearly got himself run over. After a few hours of hearing him cry I asked her what was up, then requested to keep him inside. He only cries a few minutes after I leave him in the bathroom. He is scrawny with a wormy belly. Unfortunately he also has the runs. She is going to take him to Saga tomorrow. He is a sweet and loving kitty so he has to belong to someone around here. Maybe she will leave him long enough to get better and he can return to this area.

Off again...

Hi Friends, I am off again. This time I am heading south to Glover's Reef. I am going to be gone from later today until next Saturday. Then I am not sure. I have possible plans to head to Corozal in the north, to Mexico for a few days, or to St. George's Caye for sailing. Right now the sailing sounds the most appealing. Somehow I didn't think to get the contact info for the guys out there. Not sure how I will make it out... But were there is a will there is a way.

Out in Glovers I plan on doing some diving and snorkeling. I am taking plenty of sunscreen and a long sleeve shirt. I am heading out with several other Peace Corps Volunteers so it will be nice. I have my bags packed, but they need to be redone. I ran out of room for some essentials such as soap... Not something that anyone wants me to run out of.

I'll be sure to let you know how it all went. Take care and happy holidays.

La Ruta Maya- Burrel Boom to Belize and San Pedro

Monday morning was the final morning, thank goodness. I had my blow up camping mat. It looks like a super strong float for the pool. It is kind of appropriate since we had several puddles 2 inches deep in the tent. We got everything packed up and moved to the BATSUB minibus and most of us were off an hour before the start of the race. We first went to the base to catch up with Derek who was driving the other minibus and Link. When we got there I took full advantage of the fact they had flush toilets and running water in a sink. We got ready to leave only to find that the other minibus was not going to start. Jackie got kicked out, Derek got in and we headed off to find jumper cables. She and Link were waiting on us. After getting the minibus started we headed for the city. I was the one that would direct Kelvin to the location we were going if we got separated. The ironic thing was that I actually did know where we needed to go and how to get there! They didn’t need me though which was good.

We enjoyed cheering on the teams and watching them complete the 170 miles long race. It was great that Kim and Anthony came out to join us. I am disappointed that I didn’t get a chance to have dinner with the crew to celebrate Ashli and Todd's 2nd anniversary or watch the ceremony, but I was exhausted and needed to go home.

A funny note here… I was talking to Wids and he said something that I wasn’t necessarily meant to understand but did. While I wasn’t shocked- Thanks Dawn- he was.

I got a ride, yet again with the guys to the Caye Caulker Water Taxi. I went in to find 10 of the British boys that had come over from their posts in Germany for the race and some relaxation for two weeks. Some of the guys from BATSUB made it sound like they would be heading to Afghanistan shortly after they return home. I took a good look at them, most looked younger than the students I had taught at Glenn. I can only hope that they all make it through safely.

I had dropped my stuff in the house last night for a little while to go out for some groceries. When I got back I could barely breathe. Ok, maybe a small exaggeration, but my bag was full of nasty smelling clothes. I had to wash two loads of laundry before going to bed. Today I washed my backpack off and left it in the sun. Two tents from Enes are drying on the line and my shoes and a laundry bag are soaking outside. My house is a disaster from all of the stuff that came from my bags. It will be Friday before everything is straight again.

La Ruta Maya- Bermudian Landing to Burrel Boom

Sunday morning we get up and put our gear on the truck and head down to watch the start of the race. The 4-H kids had been kicking PC butt on the river and having a good time. I didn't realize it until I was told that they were being interviewed that they were the youngest team competing. It was overcast that morning but didn't take long for the rain to set in. We went directly to Burrel Boom.

We had an huge amount of food left over. One of the things was a bag of cookies. I pulled these out of the food bag and offered them to the guys. Wids preceded to eat 9 almost immediately. He said if he had one more he would be in the river swimming from one side to the next. The guys tried to get him to eat it for the rest of the day. At the end of the day he put the last cookie in a shirt that I had loaned to someone so I wouldn't see it. It almost made it into the bag until I felt its plastic bag. I thought you would enjoy the picture of Wids sniffing the cookie that was hung from the tent.

I wished we had put all of our gear in the back of the BATSUB vehicles as Steve had suggested, my raincoat was in the Big H truck and the rain had arrived. Eventually the Big H truck that we had transported our stuff on showed up. This was about the same time that Steve asked if anyone wanted to go to watch the race at Grace’s Bank. Shirley and I joined him, Phil, and Derek. Soon after we arrived Jenny G, Micah, and Jerry arrived. We cheered on practically everyone as they went by. Back at camp the rest of the crew had set up the tents and were waiting the rain out. We returned before the first boat reached Burrel Boom. Matt from Corozal joined us. It was great to have him around. This night I had planned on going over to Belize R U/ the Black Orchid to visit Mr. Doug, Mrs. Karen, and their daughter Armeid. We got invited to eat again and my blistered feet didn’t want to make the trek through the rain. We sat around and talked for hours. It was really great getting to spend time with everyone. This night I loaned the tent from Enes to a guy from Galen University that didn’t have a tent.