"Home" again and enjoying getting back to North American food and customs. The experience of travelling in the third world, particularly Honduras was certainly a real eye opener into the poverty that exists. You can read about it, watch it on TV, but until you experience it first hand the reality really doesn't sink in. The strength of the people to survive and overcome and keep smiling is amazing. We, here in the USA and Canada, have so so very much to be thankful for! And yes, Dale and I would go back in a minute. We fell in love with the beautiful country, the friendly people and the relaxing life style. Too hot to be in a hurry so you go on "Honduran time" and enjoy each day.
On our return to Palm Springs, Joan & Paul were at the airport to greet us and get us safely home. Our travel day was not to bad, only about 12 hours, but we were travel weary and very glad to get into our own bed. After a relatively good nights sleep it was time to unpack..oh my goodness..had no idea how much "stuff" we had stuffed into our bags. I think they literally exploded when the zippers/clasps were undone. A day spent sorting, putting things away, laundry, getting groceries...and so it went.
On Monday, one of my kayak buddies (Jackie) and her husband (Jim) were passing through Palm Springs so stopped by for a visit. They are on a car trip down the west coast, across the USA, up the east coast and across Canada..will be back in BC in May!! I cooked dinner here on the bus for us and we had a wonderful evening. I know I talk a lot about food, but you'll love this menu: A choice of red or white wine; Watermelon Greek Salad, garlic/mustard crusted roasted leg of lamb, roasted white/yam potatoes, green beans,/carrots with maple syrup glaze and for dessert, chocolate fudge brownies with vanilla ice cream, followed by freshly ground Honduran coffee for those who drink coffee. Green tea for me! Now, doesn't that sound good. It was great to be back cooking with all the condiments that we take for granted and so readily available.
There is a spice they use in Honduras that is underlying in almost all the food prepartions. Haven't been able to figure out what it was but must say I didn't really care for it..sort of a cross between curry and cilantro, (and I like both), but then again, everything has a lot of MSG in it so could have been just that. Linda, on each trip from Canada/USA to Honduras, is bring more spices/condiments MSG free, to use in their restaurant. Just hard to find MSG free items in the stores there right now.
The rest of the week was a flurry of activity, getting the bus cleaned, getting some Christmas shopping done, spending a day doing some baking (gotta have homemade fruit bread for breakfast Christmas morning); visiting and reconnecting with all our friends in Two Springs.
Christmas Eve we had two couples in for a baked ham/scalloped potatoes and all the trimmings and must say the ham was spectacular in flavour. A little crowded with six of us but we managed just fine and we had a lovely evening.
After a Christmas morning of each of us being thoroughly spoiled, we were invited to an open house at 9:00 am, followed by a late delicious breakfast at another friends RV before it was time to get our offerings (brussel sprouts with a maple syrup glaze and walnuts) ready to take up to the clubhouse for Christmas dinner at 3:00 pm. There were lots of folks staying in the resort over Christmas and lots of families with visitors, so the clubhouse was pretty full. As usual, the food was plentiful and delicious and the volunteer cooks did an awesome job on the hams, turkeys, gravy and potatoes. No one went hungry that day!
At the beginning of the week we were experiencing torrential rain storms that did quite a bit of damage to some of the lots here in the park. We were fortunate to make it through unscathed, but one friend lost their retaining wall and washed a lot of the sand away, undermining the back of their lot. The amount of water that came down was astounding..a lot of roads were closed all over the city and after driving around the other day, the amount of sand that came through the washes and over the roads was unbelievable. So many people had their homes flooded and streets were impassable. Now, after several days of glorious sunshine, it is hard to believe the storm was actually here! Mother Nature is busy playing her tricks on us again.
Dale is still suffering the effects of his bad fall in Puerto Vallarta a few weeks ago. The bruising is now coming out and his left leg is bruised from mid calf all the way up his thigh and is a bright purple! He is still having difficulty with steps and says it is still very sore. Between his leg and my hip we are quite a sight! Ahhhh, the golden years!!
With the sun shining as brightly as it is and no wind today, it is time to get outside and enjoy this glorious weather. Hope this finds everyone hale and hearty and we hope you each had a wonderful, blessed Christmas. Till next time then......
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Sunday, December 26, 2010
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
Another day with blue skies, ocean breezes,swaying palm trees and warm air. This is the life!! Our hotel is lovely and our room is very comfy. A one bedroom with kitchenette, two bathrooms, sitting and dining area, outside patio with jacuzzi tub, all overlooking the ocean and Banderleras Bay.
Arrived finally on Sunday night, after a further hour´s delay from DFW, so didn´t arrive until after 8:00 pm. Then as we exited customs, were tackled immediately by a time share salesperson. We did listen for awhile and it resulted in a free taxi ride to the hotel with our promise to visit the time share....of yes! We´ll do that when we have nothing else to do. So by the time we got to the hotel it did make for another long day of travel, however, after a good nights sleep all seemed much better.
We headed to WalMart Morning to stock up on groceries as too expensive to eat out every night or morning. Then spent the afternoon just relaxing and resting, trying to catch up from the past few days of travel. As we are both having another attack from
We are obviously being very lazy these few days.
Excuse the typing...the keyboards are set up a little different and keep hitting the wrong keys!
We are getting a complimentary breakfast this morning, compliments of the hotel
That brings you up to date. Watching the weather channel, we are definitely enjoying much better weather than most of Canada and-or the USA.
We only nine more days to enjoy this warm sunshine...reality will be much cooler!
Till next time....
Arrived finally on Sunday night, after a further hour´s delay from DFW, so didn´t arrive until after 8:00 pm. Then as we exited customs, were tackled immediately by a time share salesperson. We did listen for awhile and it resulted in a free taxi ride to the hotel with our promise to visit the time share....of yes! We´ll do that when we have nothing else to do. So by the time we got to the hotel it did make for another long day of travel, however, after a good nights sleep all seemed much better.
We headed to WalMart Morning to stock up on groceries as too expensive to eat out every night or morning. Then spent the afternoon just relaxing and resting, trying to catch up from the past few days of travel. As we are both having another attack from
We are obviously being very lazy these few days.
Excuse the typing...the keyboards are set up a little different and keep hitting the wrong keys!
We are getting a complimentary breakfast this morning, compliments of the hotel
That brings you up to date. Watching the weather channel, we are definitely enjoying much better weather than most of Canada and-or the USA.
We only nine more days to enjoy this warm sunshine...reality will be much cooler!
Till next time....
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Trujillo, Honduras, San Salvador, El Salvador to Dallas/Forth Worth..Dec 5,10
Well good folks, we have made it this far and are sitting in the airport at Dallas/Fort Worth, waiting for our flight to Puerto Vallarta (a 4 hour layover).
We left Trujillo on Thursday afternoon, travelling to La Cieba with larry and linda who stayed an additional two days, which worked out extremely good for us. otherwise, we would have had to take the local bus in la Ciebe, which could have been interesting (converted school bus!!). We left Tranquility Bay at 2;00 pm, larry had to use the internet office in town, so we didn't leave Trujillo until 3;15 pm. The roads were not improved and we hit a police roadblock. And i mean a police roadblock..about 50 officers with riot shields and backup of about another 50 army. There have been some shootings and vendettas going on and the governement is intent on stomping on it before a full blown riot happens. A little unnerving!!
A qucik stop at pizza hut. yes!!! pizza and it tasted it very good. Another quick stop that larry and linda needed to make and then to our hotel..Rainbow Village. We were there for two nights as our flight didn't leave until 0600 Saturday morning for San Salvador. We spent most of the day in town in la cieba and in the big (and only) shopping mall. Found a bank and an intermittment internet cafe..but too expensive to use it for long.
After a sleepless night, up at 3;30 a.m., to the airport at 4;30 a.m., and finally ona flight at 0600. We had to overnight in San Salvador last night and arrived without reservations, which proved to be of concern with customs even tho we told them we were en route..so we picked the name of a hotel out of the air and wrote it down.. now they were happy. We did wind up staying at a very lovely Quality inn, near the airport and they had a shuttle service which was a bonus. Finally got a good nights sleep and to the airport this a.m. for 7;00 am check in.
The downsides of today is that customs confiscated Dale's stone statue, saying it 'may' be an artificat. they will investigate and let us knpow, plus they took my safety pins and tape out of the first aid kit and a small tool kit that had a very small knife. Guess we were going to pin someone to the chair!!
This interent is acting up so will go now and try and cathc up later. All is well with us. Dale is actually reading a book and relaxing somewhat!! Still arguing with montezuma but think we are both winning the war. Weather has been mostly fantastic (except here in the airport where the outside temp is only a few degrees above freezing..we're in sandals and light clothing so sticking to warm areas).
Till next time
We left Trujillo on Thursday afternoon, travelling to La Cieba with larry and linda who stayed an additional two days, which worked out extremely good for us. otherwise, we would have had to take the local bus in la Ciebe, which could have been interesting (converted school bus!!). We left Tranquility Bay at 2;00 pm, larry had to use the internet office in town, so we didn't leave Trujillo until 3;15 pm. The roads were not improved and we hit a police roadblock. And i mean a police roadblock..about 50 officers with riot shields and backup of about another 50 army. There have been some shootings and vendettas going on and the governement is intent on stomping on it before a full blown riot happens. A little unnerving!!
A qucik stop at pizza hut. yes!!! pizza and it tasted it very good. Another quick stop that larry and linda needed to make and then to our hotel..Rainbow Village. We were there for two nights as our flight didn't leave until 0600 Saturday morning for San Salvador. We spent most of the day in town in la cieba and in the big (and only) shopping mall. Found a bank and an intermittment internet cafe..but too expensive to use it for long.
After a sleepless night, up at 3;30 a.m., to the airport at 4;30 a.m., and finally ona flight at 0600. We had to overnight in San Salvador last night and arrived without reservations, which proved to be of concern with customs even tho we told them we were en route..so we picked the name of a hotel out of the air and wrote it down.. now they were happy. We did wind up staying at a very lovely Quality inn, near the airport and they had a shuttle service which was a bonus. Finally got a good nights sleep and to the airport this a.m. for 7;00 am check in.
The downsides of today is that customs confiscated Dale's stone statue, saying it 'may' be an artificat. they will investigate and let us knpow, plus they took my safety pins and tape out of the first aid kit and a small tool kit that had a very small knife. Guess we were going to pin someone to the chair!!
This interent is acting up so will go now and try and cathc up later. All is well with us. Dale is actually reading a book and relaxing somewhat!! Still arguing with montezuma but think we are both winning the war. Weather has been mostly fantastic (except here in the airport where the outside temp is only a few degrees above freezing..we're in sandals and light clothing so sticking to warm areas).
Till next time
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