Trip's Eve

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Trip Start Dec 03, 2007 Trip End Mar 29, 2008 Next
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  Guelph, Ontario, Canada
Sunday, December 2, 2007

Hello everyone!  Today is the day before we leave and we thought that we would send out our first travel entry while we are still at home and on a familiar computer. We do not anticipate having any problems finding internet cafés with speedy computers in Central America but Guatemala certainly will be a new experience for us. Hopefully, the website is easy for you to follow, but please be patient as we get used to using it.
 
Amy has kindly offered to wake up early tomorrow and drive us to the airport in time for our early morning departure to Guatemala City. We have booked a room in the Hotel Posada Belen Museum for the first two nights. The owners are kindly meeting us at the airport, with a 'Smith' sign, at 2 p.m.  See pictures - www.posadabelen.com
 
We see our trip as being broken down into five different phases:
 
December 3 - 18  - After spending a couple of days in Guatemala City, we will head to the western highlands area of Guatemala, more specifically to Lago Atitlan (Lake Atitlan). We will use a hotel in the village of San Pedro as our home base and take 4 hour Spanish lessons at the Cooperativa School. The rest of our time will be spent exploring the surrounding area.  

December 19 - January 4 - Antigua, Guatemala. Wanting to travel safely through the countries of Central America during the Christmas holidays, we chose to take a G.A.P. tour from Guatemala through Honduras and Nicaragua and end up in San Jose, Costa Rica. Our tour, called the Volcano Trail, promises to be "filled with breathtaking scenery, from crystal blue ocean teeming with marine life to tropical forests alive with jungle melodies". Just for your information, we will be in Leon, Nicaragua for Christmas and in the Monteverde Forest Reserve, Costa Rica for New Year's Eve.  

January 4 - 10 San Jose, Costa Rica.  We will be on our own for a week as we make our way  to the Caribbean Coast of Costa Rica on the way to Boquete, Panama. Our intent is to visit Parque Tortuguero, which has been compared to as a mini Amazon; then  the village of Puerto Viejo with its beautiful botanical gardens and beaches; the islands of Bocas del Toro; and then finally arrive in Boquete, Panama.  

January 10 - February 29 - Boquete. We have rented a cabin on an estate in the mountains for 2 months. The owners, originally from Holland, decided to make Panama their home and have lived there for 12 years. They have 3 young teenagers and seem very active in the community.  We will use the cabin as our home base as we make day trips to some of the interesting little nearby towns and villages.  

End of February - Panama City, Panama.  We will be meeting our friends from Washington State, Gail and Pat, and spending most of the month of March traveling together to places in Panama and Costa Rica that are a little off the beaten track. We do know where we will be on  March 29 - in San Jose, Costa Rica getting ready to catch a plane to come back home!  

So, that's our 4 months in a nutshell. Everytime that we get a chance to update our website, we understand that you will get an automatic email from us telling you that we have made an entry. Hopefully it works.
 
Connie and Chris

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