Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala

In Guatemala we decided to go to Antigua, a city that was a 90 minute bus ride inland.

We totally lucked out on this stop! Our one day stop here happened to fall on the biggest celebrated day of the year in Antigua. There is a huge Holy Week celebration called Semana Santa held in Antigua and on this day, Good Friday, there is a grand procession. People travel from all around for days and days to attend this celebratory week.



We got there before the procession started and saw a few of the floats lined up at the beginning of the procession route and snapped a few shots.



People make these elaborate sawdust rugs in the street for the procession to walk through. These take hours to create and are is so many different shapes and patterns.




There is a large jade mine in Guatemala and we spent a lot of time in the shop/factory/museum, Jades S.A, of the woman who discovered the mine years ago. She is very passionate about the entire process and oversees everything. This big 'rock' Rob is touching is pure jade and is her 'retirement rock', worth quite a chunk of change. This was a really interesting shop...our bags were much heavier and our pockets were quite a bit lighter after we left!



I loved all the architecture...especially all of the old churches. This is the Church of San Francisco.



Iglesia de las Capuchinas. Even though it's a crumbling mess, I think it was my favorite.

The Cathedral de Santiago



Sure, the place was old...but naturally, they have a Dominos! They deliver too...on bicycles



Now isn't this the cutest little taxi you've ever seen!?! They aren't very fast though...you'd get around quicker by walking.



This little city is surrounded by huge volcanoes (which we had to drive over to get there), but somehow I managed not to get a picture of a single one! You can see the base of a couple of them in a few of these pictures though. Go here to view a couple online shots, they are definitely worth glancing at.

I didn't get any procession pictures either, but Rob says that is just a reason to go back...I don't disagree! This would have been an amazing visit any day, but it was extra-super-incredibly amazing that our visit happened to fall in the middle of such a special celebration.

Puerto Chiapas, Mexico

Our third stop in Mexico was Puerto Chiapas Here we took a bus into Tapachula for some shopping and sightseeing.

We visited the Museum of Archaeology where there were a lot of Olmec and Mayan artifacts.



The city was a madhouse because they was construction on most of the main roads. This was construction different than anything I'd seen before. Nearly all of the digging, breaking down of the old road and transporting of debris was done by hand...as in without any fancy equipment, just shovels and wheelbarrows. Rough!

Next up we rode out the the Izapa Mayan ruins site. This is where the Mayan calendar supposedly originated.

Behind Rob, to the left was the field that they thing was used for the infamous ball games.

We had a lot of 'king of the mountain' pictures, but will only make you look at a few of them.

This site was a lot smaller than the Tulum Mayan site we saw last year in Mexico, but I think it looks a lot better preserved.

This was a bit of an overcast day, but the hottest of the trip by far. We stayed here for an hour or so then headed back to the port for a little shopping before getting back on the ship.



This was our last stop in Mexico...next up, Guatemala!

...pardon the interruption...

After Blogger's breakdown last week, I was waiting for them to fix the cruise posts/comments that had already been written before I continued on, but I think this is as good as it's going to get.

If I wait any longer I will forget all the details...or what details I still remember. ☺

We really know how to do birthdays

The Robster turned thirty-something today.

I made dinner reservations at a Brazilian steakhouse, but he said he'd rather celebrate his birthday with his favorite, IHOP. He then decided homemade crepes would be even better. Yeah, I make awesome crepes.

So we ate crepes and watched Shameless.

It was a birthday for the history books, obviously.

Napoleon is back!

Either you loved the movie or you hated it. I thought it was hilarious and will definitely be setting the DVR for my Napoleon fix this Fall.

I am honestly excited about this. Really.

Huatulco, Mexico

Our second stop of the cruise was Huatulco, Mexico.

We went on a catamaran excursion that took us to five of the gorgeous bays along the coast. Our original choice was a snorkeling excursion, but it got canceled at the last minute.

We did manage to fit in a little snorkeling at the end before heading back to the ship.

See the face in the rocks. They call it Rock Face Rock. Clever, huh.



Yeah, we didn't take many pictures here. It was beautiful though...you'll just have to take our word for it.

Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

First thing on our agenda when we arrived in Puerto Vallarta was to visit Our Lady of Guadalupe Church.

We then walked along the beach where there was a strip of sand sculptures. Some were really good, some were so-so and some of them we couldn't tell what they were. There was one of The Last Supper in progress, which was probably my favorite.

Rob really liked the the sculpture of the Mayan calendar, which was almost finished.



We did a little more shopping in the city before we took a coach ride to Hacienda Doña Engracia for a Tequila factory tour and tasting. In order to be true tequila it has to be made in the state of Jalisco from blue agave, which is the shorter blue plant on the left.

After growing for 12-15 years they cut off all the stems until there is just core left, which looks like a pineapple. They cut them up put them in a oven and cook them, or something. I lost interest after this point because the smell of the distillery was making me feel a little funny.

We had a few sips then braved the cantina for a late lunch. We were a bit hesitant about their taco bar, but our grumbling bellies made us brave and we gave in.

There was the cutest little chihuahua running around that kept coming up to Rob.

We then boarded the lovely air conditioned motor coach and headed back to the port. And that was Puerto Vallarta, in a nutshell.

Cruising, baby!

Last month we took a few much needed weeks off and made ourselves comfy a little nearer to the Equator.

We started in San Diego and cruised through to Fort Lauderdale, with a handful of tropical stops in between.

I've been working on sorting through the bazillion and a half picture we took on the trip to post...and I've almost made my way through. Stay tuned.

Roller Derby!!

Saturday night we found ourselves hollerin' in the crowd of the Jet City Rollergirls finals.

The first bout was a bit tame, but the second bout did not disappoint. There were some super aggressive players and a lot more action. It totally made it worth having to drive all the way up to Everett!

There were so many shoves and falls but the only jam that I got video of was a little lame. There are a few girls flying off the track, so it is worth watching.

The very best part of roller derby is the player names. A few of my favs: Terror Faceoff, Ivana Hercha, and Bullinda Chinashop.

Roller Derby, we're big fans.

Hey batter, batter!

We got our Cinco de Mayo on at Safeco Field watching the M's dominate barely win the Rangers.

It was the emptiest game we'd ever seen, but that just meant that we didn't have to sit in parking garage traffic once the game was over.



Apparently we haven't quite mastered the art of smiling for the camera. Contrary to how it looks, we really did enjoy ourselves. Really.