Butter: 08.2008

Those are the two words I choose to wrap up this vacation.....hardly a vacation, but we will go ahead and call it one. I sit here in Tigard writing this and I cannot help but feel incredibly grateful for the comforts I enjoy, and the freedoms I have. I would encourage you to do the same. It's not till you see how tough it could be, that you really understand what you've got going. You know what I mean?

Since last post we have driven 5,500 miles. What was I saying about vacation???

Costa Rica was....wet. Our plan was to hit the beach, go on a canopy tour, then start the return trip home. We booked a canopy tour. Canopy tours are just a maze of zip lines through the rain forest, on top of it, through clouds, and often hundreds of feet in the air over large valleys. Zip lines in the rain and clouds with no rain jacket are a blast, trust me. The first two cables were nice. The third to the fourteenth were wet. hahahaha. Waterproof boots are supposed to keep water out right??? Not today. So we really did have a blast, but clear weather is preferable. The last cable is more than a half mile long. At this point in the adventure there is lightning and thunder all around us and here we are climbing through trees loaded with metal cables, metal rails, and metal everything else, or so it seems. This is not the place to be in the middle of a lightning storm.

So, the last cable.....everyone is in a rush. Our tour guides are doubling people together and sending them over the 1/2 mile together, just to get people out of harms way. Tim and I are the last two people to go. Our guide is now strapping me in, I'm on my tip toes, rain dripping off everything.....when......ka - PLOW. Booom. Lightning. Suddenly, I feel a shock to end all shocks down the entire right side of my body. Bam. What was that? The poor guy strapping me up has apparently been shocked worse than I, he can't even finish his job. It was lightning, and it touched down on the last cable. Yeah, that's right. When lightning strikes the cable, you don't want to be holding it. I was. Crazy.

Since Tim is still blowing toilets to smitherines, and running a bit of a fever, we decide to stay two nights in the same place. Again, two nights in the same place.....

The trip north is a mixed bag for us. We are eager to head north, but it seems a little too large of a task. We go for it anyway.

Our path leads us back to the north where we will cross 5 borders in 5 days.

Nicaragua, check

Honduras, check
Guatemala, check
Belize, check
Mexico, check

One of the highlights of the trip was Tikal. Tikal is an ancient Mayan ruin that one of the largest cities of the Maya. It was nuts. We were able to explore Tikal for about 4 hours, climbing each of the temples (some over 65 meters high) and getting up-close and personal with antiquity. Pretty cool stuff. Tikal was also the site of a base in one of the star wars movies.

They speak English in Belize, so that was refreshing.

We then hurried to the Puebla, about a 4 day drive normally, but we managed to put it into 2, and picked up Jason and began our tour of Mexico rolling three deep.

We were then committed to getting hotels from here on out. Three people in hot pocket will not be possible. Jason is also 6'4", so spooning with him and Tim is out of the question, we need beds!!!

Day one takes us to Teotihuacan, home to the third largest pyramid in the world

Day two takes us to Qeurataro, and through our third and final dirty cop payoff....

This one only cost us 9 dollars. But it took almost 30 minutes. Initially, when we first were stopped, we did not have a cargo list (apparently that's a requirement the customs officials fail to mention)
We did however, have a cargo list. The policeman then quickly stated that we were in compliance now, but Jason and Tim did not have their seat belts on. huh? Ridiculous. What do you do when a cop tells you you didn't have your seat belt on, when you did? Do you argue in Spanish? Can you argue is Spanish? You can try. We did. it cost us $9. Oh well.

Mazatlan again, in search of one more day of surf. No luck there. We were able to get wet though.

North to Nogales, and we earned a secondary inspection of our vehicle by the US border patrol.

Phoenix is 112 degrees

Overnight in Flagstaff, AZ. Nice town