TravelStream™ news feed for member travellinlunas on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/travellinlunas en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Tue, 09 Sep 2008 08:23:12 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/travellinlunas/3/1220789520/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/travellinlunas/3/1220789520/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/travellinlunas/3/1220789520/tpod.html Tue, 09 Sep 2008 08:23:12 -0400 Heidi's Australian Adventure!

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Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Woke up today (Sunday) and decided to take a walk to the Melbourne Zoo. The staff at the hotel thought this was crazy - in fact, the bellman told me "it's not possible - it takes at least 20 minutes by car". Well, it was possible. I walked about 3 miles through Central Melbourne until I reached the zoo. The walk wasn't too impressive, although I did meet some very friendly Australians that were happy to give directions. They're really nice people...

Showed up at the zoo and paid $23 to enter (!!!). I was the only person there without a husband, stroller and toddler in tow. No joke. I was excited to see the kangaroos - one even had a little baby in it's pouch and you could see the feet and tail hanging out...They only had two koalas, but they were crouched up in the tree and I couldn't see much...

The rest of the zoo was...well...ok. I guess after seeing elephants and giraffe in the wild in Africa, it's not as exciting to see them behind a fence with 100 screaming kids commenting...

After my zoo adventure (which lasted a total of 50 minutes; no, I didn't get my $23 worth), I took the tram back to downtown Melbourne. By this time it had started raining. I changed and went to the Hopetoun Tea Rooms in the Block Arcade.

The Tea Rooms date back to the 1890's and are really special! Not much has changed in the last 100 years. I had an avocado, bacon and chicken finger sandwhich with some tea. Unfortunately, when the tea service came, I lifted the cream pitcher to see where it was made (wanted to make sure it wasn't China), and I dumped the milk all over the table. The British couple next to mee was appalled at my teatime behaviour.

Following my hour in the tea rooms, I did...well...very little. Everything in downtown Melbourne seems to shut down at 5pm, and restaurants don't typically open on Sunday evening. Excellent. So, I layed in my hotel for awhile watching reruns of America's Next Top Model (which I don't even like when the original seasons are on in the US)...I read...I went to the hotel restaurant and ordered tomato soup and a side salad. This caused lots of discussion about why I was eating so little, why I was alone, etc. etc. The tomato soup was $13 and definitely ketchup with some hot water and garlic. Definitely.

Went back to my room and finished my book. And that was Sunday!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/travellinlunas/3/1220677260/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/travellinlunas/3/1220677260/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/travellinlunas/3/1220677260/tpod.html Sun, 07 Sep 2008 03:33:16 -0400 Heidi's Australian Adventure!

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Yerring Farm,, Victoria, Australia

Finally, a day of fun in Australia!

My morning started with another visit to Starbucks, and I've go to say, the standard for Starbucks in Oz isn't too good...They haven't had cream cheese for days, but are still attempting to sell bagels. And, at 7:45am they hadn't begun brewing coffee! Hello? We're not in Seattle anymore Toto...

Yeah, so after some toast and questionable coffee from a different corner shop, I boarded my tour out to the Yarra Valley wine country. The tour guide Matt was fabulous, and the other ten people on the bus were friendly, and fun! We had a few gals from Manchester, England, and the rest of the gang were Australians.

The drive out to the Yarra Valley isn't too impressive - it's like driving along the motorway of the Midlands in England.

We arrived in Lilydale, which is the gateway to the Yarra Valley. Lilydale is supposedly a rather rough neighborhood that looks a little bit industrial these days.

Not to worry, within about ten minutes we arrived at Helen's Hill Winery - a very beautiful winery set amongst acres of vineyards. Upon entering, there was a large wood-burning fireplace crackling, surrounded by tables and chairs made from wine barrels. A very cozy "cellar door" as the Australians like to call their tasting rooms.

Helen's Hill is a family owned winery with chardonnay and pinot noir vines that date back to 1984. They do a variety of blends all aged in French oak. We had a great time, and actually learned a lot about proper wine tasting! I left with a bottle of their "Evolution" - a 2006 white blend that had honey and butterscotch notes. Yum!

Following Helen's Hill, we ventured out to Rochford Winery for a tasting and some lunch. Rochford is set on a huge green surrounded by vines and mountains. It's so beautiful! They are famous for having concerts on the green, and in fact Sheryl Crow and John Mellencamp are going to be playing there in the next few weeks. Rochford did excellent wines, but there was nothing particular that caught my fancy.

They had a *fabulous* restaurant which had wonderful views. Given that we were on a tour with ten people, I really didn't expect lunch to be great. (I paid $84 for the entire tour which included lunch, 30 tastings at 4 wineries, a glass at Chandon and a glass at lunch, all transportation, etc.). Ok, so that's pretty cheap considering. You can imagine how surprised I was to be served a wonderful meal of baked snapper and green beans with a lemon, dill and caper dressing. It was so yummy! Following lunch, I walked up to the rooftop of Rochford and captured some of the pics you see woven throughout this entry.

After Rochford we ventured out to Domaine Chandon. Chandon purchased an old dairy farm during the 1800's, refurbished it, and built a beautiful wine facility. I wasn't too excited about Chandon since it is quite commercialized, I just visited their Napa facility in April, and this is one of five wineries which they own. I was so wrong! This place was great! It is NO wonder that sparkling wine is so expensive - there is so much work involved in rotating the bottles and moving the yeast around in process which is mainly done by hand and takes ages! The grounds were stunning and would be perfect for a wedding. I had a glass of a sparkling (red) shiraz wine which was beyond fabulous. It was a deep red, but bubbled up like a typical glass of champagne. Chandon provided breads, cheese, and tomato chutney to munch on while we tasted.

After viewing their barrel room and pressing facility, we ventured out to Yering Farm winery. Yering Farm is exactly how you picture wine tasting in Australia to be. It has a real farm feeling (in fact, the winemaker was out on the lawnmower when we arrived, later getting off to come and greet us). Our tasting was out in the grass, overlooking the vines, and an old wooden picnic table. This place is very unassuming, yet produced fabulous wines. The grounds were first planted with grapes by a Swiss winemaking family called the Deschamps. Now, the winemaker and his family run the estate, and ALL of the vines are picked by hand. Interestingly, on many of the vineyards you notice Vietnamese workers in traditional hats more commonly seen in rice fields than vineyards. They are typically employed for the harvest to pick grapes. Some wineries like Chandon primarily use machines to pick and only hand pick where absolutely required. Yering Farm uses their seasonal staff to handpick all of their acreage. And, they are paid standard wages as dictated by Australian law.

I left Yering Farm with a wonderful bottle of Shiraz (and I don't normally love Shiraz, but this one was exceptional!).

We ventured back into Melbourne, arriving around 5pm. I met up with a colleague, and we dined at a little restaurant that served amazing pumpkin stuffed tortellini with scampi. A great finish to my best day yet in the land down under!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/travellinlunas/3/1220611860/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/travellinlunas/3/1220611860/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/travellinlunas/3/1220611860/tpod.html Fri, 05 Sep 2008 07:00:58 -0400 Heidi's Australian Adventure!

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Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Well, this morning I was supposed to be able to sleep until 8am! But, I think my body was so used to waking up at 5:30am, it got me up around 7:30...I couldn't bear to drink another instant nescafe, so I trekked out to Starbucks and got a venti. Ahhh...

Came back to the hotel prepared for a leisurely morning, but that wasn't possible. Had several work emails and a phone meeting with my boss back in California.

Following that, our project team took a tram ride from downtown Melbourne out to St. Kilda. St. Kilda is a little bay/beach part of the city that has cute little boutique jewelery shops, flowers shops, etc. It was a nice sunny day, and we made our way out to the Stokehouse for lunch. The Stokehouse has a big fire-burning stove and long wooden tables overlooking the water. I had a risotto with smoked fish, peas, chives and leek. It was fabulous! We also had a Chenin Blanc from New Zealand which was great. Our external consultant got a bit tipsy, but that's another story.

Following lunch we headed out along the pier, overlooking the city. Apparently, in the evenings there are quite a few penguins that crawl up along the pier...

We stopped for coffee and cakes along the main road in St. Kilda where many Jewish European families settled about 60 years ago, and now run cake shops with great window displays.

We took the train back to downtown Melbourne, and I walked around a bit, doing some shopping and popping into jewelery stores. Went out to an Italian restaurant tonight for a quick dinner, and am now back in my hotel preparing for my trip to the wineries tomorrow!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/travellinlunas/3/1220525340/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/travellinlunas/3/1220525340/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/travellinlunas/3/1220525340/tpod.html Fri, 05 Sep 2008 06:50:34 -0400 Heidi's Australian Adventure!

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Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Last of my 12-hour meetings occurred today. Thank goodness! At the end of the meeting, our project leader announces that there was wine and canapes at the back of the conference room...! Always a good idea to provide alcohol after 40 hours of meetings during a 3-day period. So, after that little WV party, I came back to my hotel and relaxed for a bit...I went out for a salad and Chardonnay at the Block Arcade - just near my hotel - at a really cute little candelit restaurant. There was a band outside playing Gypsy Kings... It was just me and my book. Very nice after being surrounded by people constantly...Went home and slept...
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/travellinlunas/3/1220475600/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/travellinlunas/3/1220475600/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/travellinlunas/3/1220475600/tpod.html Wed, 03 Sep 2008 17:02:47 -0400 Heidi's Australian Adventure!

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Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Well, today started again at 5:30am as I race for another 11 hours of meetings. Melbourne was crisp this morning, but overall it was a nice day.

I won't go into all the details of my meeting..It was very long and very busy.

At around 6:30pm I ventured out for a little walk, and went to explore Target. Such a disappointment! Australian Target is very ghetto with very ghetto merchandise! :-( So sad. It was probably a step down from Walmart.

Following my Target run, I went with several colleagues to dinner at a restaurant in Federation Square called "Tjanabi". Tjanabi is owned by one of the heads of the local aborignal community. (I haven't quite done enough research on aboriginees to figure out their culture/structure, so I can't add more detail here). It was a very modern restaurant in Federation Square. Actually, Federation Square is a little bit controversial because it is a beautiful traditional square with an old church, old train station, etc. Then, in about 2000, they added a very modern geometric building which is very unattractive!

So, while at Tjanabi we had a sampler platter of crocodile, kangaroo, wallaby, and something called "calamari" which was DEFINITELY NOT squid, but some other questionable animal. I really liked the crocodile! The wallaby was too game-like, the kangaroo was good, and the "calamari" was horrific.

For my main meal I ordered baramundi in a white wine sauce over sweet potato mash. It was fine. A normal white fish which is commonly eaten in Australia. Some colleagues ordered the "Duet of Kangaroo and Wallaby" and a plate with TWO LARGE CHUNKS of meat was served. It looked horrid. They then proceeded to mau-chow the their national animal and a cute little wallaby...We ordered a bottle of Pinot Noir from the Mornington Peninsula - a little area about 40 miles outside of Melbourne known for growing wine, olives and lavendar. It was very nice! I wanted to get out to the M.P., but I would need to rent a car, and I'm not sure driving on the other side of the road + wineries = a good idea...

I made it back to the Novotel at around 10pm, in bed by 10:30pm. It's now 5:30am or so and I'm getting ready for another solid 12 hour meeting. God help me. I just need to make it to the weekend! I have plans to visit 4 wineries in the Yarra Valley, and have high tea at the oldest tearooms in Melbourne on Sunday. Fun times!

-HSL
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/travellinlunas/3/1220345640/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/travellinlunas/3/1220345640/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/travellinlunas/3/1220345640/tpod.html Wed, 03 Sep 2008 04:56:54 -0400 Heidi's Australian Adventure!

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Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Not much to mention here...Woke up and had instant Nescafe...The downfall of international travel is drinking instant coffee. Kill me now.

Walked to the office at 7am and stayed there until 7:30pm. Hmmm...I guess that's more then 12 hours. Had breakfast, lunch and dinner with colleagues. Mind you, it wasn't chit-chatting with colleagues - it was working on major projects.

Came back to the hotel, showered, watched some strange tv and feel asleep by 9pm.

Yay for Australia! Good times....
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/travellinlunas/3/1220264400/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/travellinlunas/3/1220264400/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/travellinlunas/3/1220264400/tpod.html Tue, 02 Sep 2008 06:45:33 -0400 Heidi's Australian Adventure!

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Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

I arrived to Melbourne this morning around 11am after 18+ hours on Qantas flight 94. It was painful.

Customs was a breeze, but of course, a customs guy with a dog caught me whilst waiting for my suitcase at the luggage carosel. I failed to remember that I had chocolates in my suitcase and had taken some cookies from the plane. I also got reprimanded several times for not leaving my Coach bag on the floor for the dog to sniff. Hello? Who leaves their purse on the floor for 30 minutes for a dog to crawl all over? Anyhow, I got a lecture about making sure I claim ALL food items when landing in Australia. Honestly, I barely remember the entire thing because I was so exhausted. Nevermind....

Grabbed a taxi with my boss, and a co-worker from Costa Rica who was also on our flight. My initial impression of Australia was...well...bland. Melbourne reminds me of Birmingham, England. Lots of modern buildings mixed with a few relatively decent victorian buildings. Just another big city really. I'm staying on Collins street which is the heart of downtown. But, I'm not really a city girl. There's a Tiffany's and Louis Vuitton across the street. There are tons of 7-Elevens, Lush, The Body Shop, etc. Not very exciting really...

Upon checking into the Novotel on Collins, I went for a walk in an effort to find Jimmy Watson's wine bar. After about 3 miles, I kicked it and settled on a little place in Block Arcade right by my hotel. Honestly, I was in a bit of a daze with jet lag and hunger...My exciting moment was realising that there was a TARGET across the road. Who knew they had Target in Australia?! I still haven't had the chance to venture over there yet, but they're open until 9pm each night. So, I'm stoked.

I had leek and potato soup at a little cafe called "Brown Sugar" which was very nice. Although, my bowl of soup was $10AUS - about $9 US. VERY expensive! I'm still a bit stumped about the "fat whites" the waiter kept referring to. Two women walked up to the cafe and sat down, and about 3 minutes later the waiter called to someone else working inside the cafe that he had "two fat whites out front". What's that about? At first I thought it was some harsh ethnic insult, but I have a feeling there were talking about cappucinos. Must find out...

Came back to my hotel about 4pm and crashed. But, my boss had asked if I wanted to have dinner at 6:30pm. So, we went and got curries at a nearby Indian restaurant last night. The number of Indians, Malaysians, & Indonesians are huge in Melbourne! It makes for a ton of interesting restaurants for sure. I had the best Indian food last night since...well...since I was in India I guess...

Turned in at 9pm after watching a little "Australian Idol" on the tv. Fun times.

I've attached some pics from my walk...Not sure what they actually are, but thought you might like to see a few snaps.

More later.

-HSL
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/travellinlunas/3/1220177700/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/travellinlunas/3/1220177700/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/travellinlunas/3/1220177700/tpod.html Tue, 02 Sep 2008 06:19:48 -0400 Heidi's Australian Adventure!

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Honolulu, Hawaii, United States

....

So, it turns out that my 15 hour flight to Melbourne turned into an 18-hour journey...Yes, the medical help that was requested turned into a full blown life threatening emergency and my flight had to stop in Honolulu, Hawaii to let the passenger off the plane. It was interesting, because I was fascinated by the idea of not ever experiencing August 31, 2008 since I would be crossing the International Date Line and arrive in Melbourne on September 1. But, alas, I did experience 8/31/08 on the tarmac in Honolulu. Fun times.

I drank a little Australian wine, had some questionable salmon, and nearly finished my Bill Bryson "In a Sunburned Country" book...

A very large man about 70 was assigned to the seat next to me and insisted on standing in the aisle, bent over, with his enormous backside in my face for much of the 18-hour journey. I wanted to kill myself.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/travellinlunas/3/1220110800/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/travellinlunas/3/1220110800/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/travellinlunas/3/1220110800/tpod.html Tue, 02 Sep 2008 06:15:43 -0400 Heidi's Australian Adventure!

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Los Angeles, California, United States

Woke up to a nice sunny day in Southern California. Wish I didn't have to leave home during the three-day weekend, but had to in order to get to my meeting ontime in Australia.

Tony drove me to LAX to board my Qantas flight. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get a window seat, and there was nothing available except my aisle seat! I inquired about possibly upgrading to 1st or business class and was told this would cost $10,000 ONE-WAY!!!!!!!!!!!! So crazy. I could hire a private yacht to take me to Melbourne for that amount.

Anyhow, flight was fine. Qantas has 3 inches between seats, and it seems everyone was going to Australia in the off-season this Saturday evening. The plane ride was VERY VERY long...In the first hour we the captain got on the speaker and asked if anyone on board was a medical professional...
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/travellinlunas/2/1212977400/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/travellinlunas/2/1212977400/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/travellinlunas/2/1212977400/tpod.html Wed, 11 Jun 2008 00:01:28 -0400 A little journey through Guatemala

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Chichicastenango, Western Highlands, Guatemala

Well hello...!

Today was an insane day...We decided to go to the market in Chichicastenango this morning. Chichi is an open-air market that is the most famous in all of Guatemala (perhaps in all of Central America)?

We booked a round-trip shuttle from Panajachel to Chichi for $12 each! (Sidenote: We are so impressed with the infrastructure in Guatemala, particularly how advanced their tourism is...It's so easy! They have a shuttle system that runs throughout the entire country, as well as Honduras, Mexico, & El Salvador. You can make it across the entire country for $10 - $22! And the roads are excellent compared to neighboring Costa Rica!)...Anyhow, in order to get the 8am shuttle from Pana, we had to go down to the dock to catch a lancha by 7:30am. It was Tony and I, and a couple of guys from our hotel that were going. The lancha stopped in nearby Jaibal and loaded up more passengers before stopping in La Casa Del Mundo. Um, yeah right. There were 50 people on the boat and the back of it was sinking. There was NO way we were going to get on and so we directed the driver to keep going. Fortunately, about 10 minutes later another lancha (not on the verge of sinking) came to get us. We arrived in Pana in time to buy some granola bars and "coffee" (scary coffee) for the shuttle ride.

The ride from Panajachel only takes an hour, and passes through the picturesque town of Solola. As we got closer to Chichi, we could tell we were entering a region where there was a different group of Mayan people living. The women dressed different, and looked very different from the Tz'ujil of Lake Atitlan....

We got to Chichi around 9:15am on a sunny Sunday. We walked around and were totally overwhelmed. Me, overwhelmed in a market? Hard to believe. There was just SO much to see, so many people, so many smells, so many colors - it was sensory overload. It reminded me of Khan el Khalili in Cairo - just madness...You think there is a "main street" in the market when in fact there are tons of little sidestreets that are also full of women selling their woven goods, candle holders, paintings, pottery, etc.

After about an hour we decided to we needed a little nourishment before we could really get serious about shopping. We popped into the San Tomas hotel which has a beautiful courtyard restaurant full of talking parrots that greet you with "hola" when you enter...We had a little toast and some proper coffee, and then returned to do some serious bartering.

The only thing I really wanted to buy was the handcarved candle holders that we had seen all over Guatemala. I ended up finding several and bargaining really hard! We also found shops selling yarn, and they were such a burst of color. Dozens of plastic bags full of little balls of yarn in every color. Fun. I bought several spools for my mom (who loves knitting). The bargaining is pretty intense in Chichi. Danny, Eric and I decided to go in on some table runners together (they are the guys from La Casa Del Mundo)...Danny had been bargaining with the vendor all day long. She started at 450 Quetzals for one runner. We finally (after hours) got her down to 165 Quetzals for 3. She wasn't stoked! She only gave us one bag (because she said the plastic bags are expensive). By this time in the afternoon it had also started pouring with rain. She would grab a stick and push the water off the top of her plastic shop ceiling onto passerbys in the street. Mean lady! But, a fun experience...

We saw some great sights...Groups of women buying their terracotta cooking pots...Women sitting on the church steps selling flowers...Since it was Sunday, the church of Santo Tomas was full of buzz. This church was built by Dominican priests around 1500. It appears as a Catholic church, but in reality is used for traditional Mayan ceremonies...The Mayan people were burning incense when we were there...In fact, the church has 18 steps leading up to it (seen in the photos of the flower vendors), and each of these 18 steps represents one of the months in the Maya calendar. This was the place where the ancient Popol Vuh text was found. The Popol Vuh is sometimes referred to as the "Maya bible". The Popol Vuh tells the story of heroes that are found in Mayan myths. It also begins with a creation story of the Ki'che people. In 1972, the Popol Vuh was declared Guatemala's national book...I haven't read much about it, but there are a few good English translations out there...Anyhow, while we were at the church, the Cofradia was also mid-procession. The Cofradia (brotherhood) has six to eight members with different ranks. There are 14 cofradias in Chichi...They attend church together in their ornate outfits, and they each are responsible for the care and celebration of their namesake saint. There are a few pics of them during their procession woven into this blog...

We also saw a very sad sight while in Chichi. Keep in mind that the entire time we are walking along very crowded cobblestone lanes full of people, live chickens, candles, tourists, choco-bananos, etc. It's chaotic and Tony and I have a hard time navigating. As I'm walking I notice something moving on the ground in front of me. At first glance I thought it was a child crawling. After looking closer I realize it is a man - probably in his 50's - walking on his hands. He has only part of one leg that is stretched out horizontal to the ground. I can't imagine how he's making it through the crowds and chaos without being trampled. He had one good glove protecting his hand, and a flimsy plastic glove on the other. His hands must of been killing him from pushing his body weight along the sharp cobblestones...It was very sad. I think it was also great confirmation for the work Tony does at Free Wheelchair Mission. It was a situation just like this, in Morocco, that inspired the start of Free Wheelchair Mission. Despite criticism from other organizations about the wheelchairs not be specially suited for children, or custom made for adults with certain disabilities, any kind of mobility is a gift for someone who's alternate is dragging themselves along the ground. If you're interested to know more, visit http://www.freewheelchairmission.org/mission.html. A donation of LESS than $50 will provide someone with a wheelchair, and this also includes the costs of shipping and distributing the chair to the beneficiary in their home country.

After doing our bit of bargaining, it started downpouring! Tropical storm style! We had some tea (cocoa for Tony) and got back on our shuttle to Lake Atitlan. And that's when things got dicey...

We were dependent on catching the 4:30pm lancha from Panajachel to La Casa Del Mundo. There's no other way to reach the hotel...You can't drive there, and walking from Panajachel would take hours. However, in a downpour, it would be impossible due to the frequent mudslides that occur in this area of the country. We got a bit of take away from a "restaurant" and then boarded the boat. It was very very stormy. In retrospect, we should have found a hotel in Panajachel, and just paid for double hotels that night. But, we were meant to be departing early the next day and needed to get all of our stuff. So, we board the lancha - full to capacity - with 23 people. The driver pulls out of the dock in the torrential downpour. And then, loses his engine. We start rocking violently back and forth in the water, and rain is coming in the sides of the boat. I totally started freaking out, mainly, because Tony can't swim. There were 11 old lifejackets on the boat, but double the amount of people. The lifejackets were old...To make matters worse, the lanchas are covered, so it wouldn't be easy to get out of it should it capsize. We remained like this for 5 - 10 minutes. I thought, "Ok, this is amazingly scary". I started coming up with plans to get Tony a lifejacket and try to swim out the window if needed. Then I thought, "Ok, am I being the gringa that's totally overreacting?". Yeah, and then the Mayan woman sitting next to me (who must make this journey twice a day) started saying "dios" repeatedly (God), and even grabbed my leg in what I believe was her attempt to comfort me during her prayer. Um yeah, not good if the locals are freaking and calling on Jesus. It was super scary. We finally got the engine back, and the boat got the ability to stay afloat without violently rocking back and forth. 30 minutes later we arrived back to La Casa Del Mundo - wet from the rain, but I also think we were sweating from the stress of it all!

We had hot showers and decided to join the dinner party at La Casa Del Mundo one last time. We had such fun talking with people from all over the world at dinner. By this time, a couple from Germany had checked in, and a cute gal called Wendy from New York was also there...We had grilled chicken, salad, soup, and crepes filled with melon and chocolate for our last dinner in Guatemala...
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