It's been well over a year since we returned from our trip. I've been doing all the normal things; working... But I have begun planning a South American trip, hopefully in the next year or so. I'm in process of renovating Curious George, making it more like a camper on the inside. I'll post more as I progress.

Surprise, Surprise: We are back home!!!

Hello everyone! We are now back home. Our original plan was to be home around December 18 but you know how plans change. We had the transmission repaired in San Pedro Sula, Honduras but when we left there, headed for Copan, it started acting up again when we were about two hours away. So...we had to make a decision: take the truck back to the mechanic in San Pedro Sula or keep heading north, out of the mountains and towards home? The problem with the truck was that when the transmission got really hot, esp driving in the mountains, it wouldn't go into high gear, and we had to drive alot slower. We decided to continue driving north toward home, out of the mountains and hopefully onto smoother highways. The roads in Belize were good and we took the toll roads through Mexico, which was alot quicker and better than the way down. And then, once on the interstates in the US, no problems!
We missed some stuff we wanted to see in Mexico but still got to visit and camp at a few nice places in Belize and Mexico.
What a great trip! I'll post an "after trip" report in a few days, once I get settled back into life at home.

As much fun as we had, it was still a great feeling to be back in the United States of America!

View from one of our last campsites in Mexico

Bad section of Hwy 180

Back into Mexico

A new house being built next to Erroll's place on the river

Local Police Station in Burrell Boom, Belize

Campsite at Erroll's place on the river

View from the campsite

A cool palm tree

Greg, the owner of Inglewood Campgrounds in San Ignacio, Belize

Trash dump right by the highway in Belize

Popsi feeding the monkeys

Garrett, our guide at the Community Baboon Sanctuary in Belize, feeding the monkeys

Update from Carolyn

I just spoke with Adam. He and Popsi are doing just fine. They are in Belize and have NO internet. They plan to see some sights for a couple more days and then they will continue North towards Mexico.

I can't "Belize" we're here!

We are now in Belize, our 8th country. I don't know about you, but it's hard for me to believe! The Belize border was only about 100 kilometers from Tikal, so we decided to drive on over late this afternoon. The last 20 or so miles to the border was some of the worst roads we've traveled so far (other than the trip into the Darien province in Panama). The border crossing was super easy. And it feels so good to be in a country where they speak English! My Spanish was so bad and so limited, I got tired of using my same 8 or so Spanish words over and over again, especially when nobody could understand me in the first place! There are only so many combinations of Cerveza, Banos, la Quenta, Ola, Beunas, Si, No, and gracias...
We have a few places to visit here in Belize so I'll try to post some pictures in the next day or so. I don't know what's happened but my luck with good, high speed internet access has run out. Also, my supposed international phone evidently doesn't know it's supposed to be working internationally because it doesn't or at least it hasn't in the part of "international" we've been in!

Tikal, Guatamala

We spent today at the Tikal Ruins in Guatamala. Awesome doesn't begin to describe it! Everything at Tikal is massive. And when you think about when the city was built and rebuilt (600 BC-900 AD), you can't help but wonder how they did it? We've got alot of other pictures but once again, slow internet makes uploading pictures a major pain so these will have to do for now.

Temple IV

Popsi at the Palace Complex

The Travelers with Temple I in the background

Temple II

View of the Grand Plaza from atop Temple IV

Climbing the steps to the top of Temple IV

Popsi standing at the base of a very, very big tree

There were monkeys everywhere

Various pictures

Warning signs on the road inside Tikal National Park

We camped at this waterpark after we visited Copan. It had two security guards. One of them had a machine gun and a pistol. He rode off at closing time on his bicycle, carrying his machine gun.

Campsite at the waterpark. Popsi enjoys a visit from some of the local geese

Treehouses and huts you can stay in at Finca Ixobel

Our campsite at Finca Ixobel

Overland Camper from Iceland. at Finca Ixobel. We never caught them at "home" to talk with them about where they were headed.

Finca Ixobel Resort, Guatemala

We are currently camped at Finca Ixobel resort about 3 hours south of Tikal. We were going to Tikal today but found out they have laundry service here so we decided to wait, have our clothes washed and then head out for Tikal tomorrow. The internet service here is via satellite and is very slow. It took me over an hour just to upload the Copan pictures! We're still having a great time and are slowly making our way north, towards home.

11/30 Copan Ruins

We spent Friday afternoon at the Copan ruins in Honduras. They aren't the largest ruins by far but Copan was an intellectual city and contains more history about the Mayans than any other city. We had been advised to hire a guide, which we did and it was well worth it. Our guide, Antonio, had been a guide at the ruins since the 70s and knew all the history which made our visit that much more interesting. We're going to Tikal in Guatemala next which has the huge temples that stick up out of the jungle. I can't wait to get there!

Section of bad road on the way to Copan. It still amazes me how the highway will be perfect and then suddenly you run into a section like this!?

Walking down from one of the temples

This is the oldest (800 years) and biggest tree in the Copan ruins. You can't really tell from the picture but it's "humongous"!

This staircase documents 300 years of Mayan history. The missing sections are in a university in the US.

Sleeping bench

Macaw head markers. Very prominent througout the city.

Tablet showing the transition of power between rulers

Ball Court, view from above. The game was played with an 8 pound solid rubber ball. They had to keep the ball in the air or bouncing on the side ramps without using their head, hands or feet. If the game was religious, the winner was sacrificed and if it was a normal game, the loser was sacrificed.

Popsi and Antonio

Grave marker. This skull marker was a sign that their were people buried underneath the temple, house, etc...

Ceremonial altar. The "victim" would lay on their back and put their head in the hole so they were looking upward when their head was chopped off.

Popsi and Antonio (our guide) examining the "goody pit" underneath a grave marker where people would leave stuff to honor the dead.

Macaws

Cepudo

We spent all day Thursday and Friday visiting with the folks from Cepudo, a Honduran non-profit agency that receives their funding from Food for the Poor. Popsi and I both agree it was the highlight of our visit! Linda Coello is the founder of Cepudo and her nephew Carlos is the project coordinator. Linda started Cepudo about 8 years ago, mainly as a women's development organization, and it grew from there. They received their non-profit status (NGO in Honduras) about 3 years ago. Today they're building houses, schools, hospitals; giving Tilapia farms, goat farms, chicken houses, etc... to various communities, churches and coops, teaching sewing and farming, and all on and on and on...
It was great visiting with them and seeing the various projects that they are involved in. While in San Pedro Sula, they made us feel like family. And we could tell that everyone involved with Cepudo is truly Called to be doing what they're doing. Linda and Carlos are great people, as well as all of their family, and they're pretty smart. They wanted to show us everything they were doing in Honduras because they knew we couldn't keep it to ourselves, we would have to spread the word! As I've said before, God is truly alive, well and at work in Central America!!!

Cepudo is building 20 houses in this project. All the community members help with the work on all the homes.

This is a typical home in the current community being replaced with the new homes.

Discussing the location for a new Tilapia farm. Cepudo is planning to give this farm to a local church instead of a cooperative so the church can use the fish and the income to run a feeding center.
Popsi, Carlos, Samuel, A local church member (also the leader of a neighboring Tilapia coop)

Tilapia pond at a Tilapia farm. The typical farm consists of 4 to 6 ponds.

Goats (raised for meat)

Tilapia reproduction tanks

Sign at the Training Center

Desks used by the students are made at the school in the Steelworker class

Sewing machines used in the sewing class

Sewing class

Standing in front of the technical training center being built by Cepudo
Popsi, The Principal, Linda, Adam

One of the better public schools

Graduation ceremony in the school auditorium