Guatemala

Hey everyone

Well we have moved on to our third country and are now officially in Guatemala. Initial impression was that the roads weren´t too good and damn hot. Second impression is that the country has a great deal to offer including Tikal which we visited today on our way to Flores. Everything is the least expensive thus far and the security concern I had does not appear to be such a big factor. Always being careful is just standard practice.

Anyway, here we are in Flores and should be here for a couple of days before moving on to Coban and then Antigua. We are staying at the Hotel La Casona de la Isla in room #36 and you can reach us at 502-7926-0593 I know it appears to have too many numbers but apparently it is correct.

Tikal was fantastic and Flores is very cool since it is located on an island in the Peten province. We are on our way to dinner so I will be brief in saying that we hope you are all doing well and hope to hear from you soon. I will follow with a more thorough e-mail of what we have seen the last few days very soon.

Love,

Mark and Honor

St Ignacio

Hey there everyone

Well here we are in St Ignacio and we are staying in the Maya Lodge. We do not have a phone in the room so contact will be limited to e-mail for a couple of days unless we are able to call from an internet cafe. The place we are staying in is very nice and rustic with a thatched roof etc. It is located on the way to the Mountain Ridge Reserve and Caracol surrounded by lush vegetation. I don't have more info in front of me right now, but we will send more details later. We did not do too much today as Honor went to get her Nails and Pedicure in Belize City and we headed here thereafter.

Once we eat and get back to the room - we will work on some info to
send to you from the past few days.

Love you all,

Mark & Honor

Belize City

Hey there everyone

We are in Belize City and are staying at the Radisson room # 210, you can contact us at 501-223-3333. We are having a wonderful time, today we stopped at the Altun Ha ruins and had a great tour of the ruins. We will probably tour the city tomorrow and see some of the local sights and depending on how things go we will spend a couple of more nights and use the hotel as a launching point to other sights in the area. The food continues to be outstanding with no end in sight. Tonight we moved away from the more traditional fare and figured on having some British influenced dishes given the background and commonwealth heritage that is still so strong. We went with the ever famous Fish & Chips, and I had a Steak and Kidney Pie. All of this was washed down with a few Guiness made extra special with the added 7.5% alchohol level. Check out some of the pics of the past few days at Kohunlich, Lamanai and some of the other places along the way. The hotel isvery nice, facing the water. I can't tell you too much about Belize City since we arrived a little late in the evening but I will be sure to give you the breakdown tomorrow. Hope you are all doing well and we hope to hear from you soon.

Mark and Honor

Pic breakdown:

Tulum,




Lunch in Calderita just outside of Chetumal,





The ruins at Kohunlich and one seriously dirty Jeep at the ruins,




A very hot day in Belize Orangewalk, a visit to the Crooked Tree Sanctuary and a very happy Honor at dinner at the best place to eat in the entire NorthernDistrict,





A long boat ride to Lamanai followed by


pics throughout Lamanai and an incredible dinner afterwards.






Pics of Altun Ha ruins and believe it or not, tons of broken pieces of recovered pottery that are unfortunately laying there exposed to the elements.




Enjoy and hopefully I haven't destroyed your computer with so many pics.

Expedition update

Hey everyone,

Well we have finally moved on to our second country, we are now officially in Belize! Yeaaah! The border crossing was interesting but of no major consequence, I did use a local customs "broker". Not! But he was helpful and did earn the $10 usd I gave him. The Jeep got sprayed for $5 usd in case I was bringing any weird diseases into the country, not that the mosquitoes that call this place home aren't already caring some.

We are actually staying in Orange Walk about 1/2 hour drive south of the border along the Northern Highway. The Orchid Palm Hotel is our home for a couple of days while we explore the region. The phone # is 501-322-0719 but please do not call since we do not have a phone in the room # 7. Hey Lucky 7! The address is 22 Queen Victoria Ave. and you can look it up at http://www.orchidpalminn.com/. The hotel is quite nice with very comfy rooms and extremely clean with internet, a/c and most importantly rather inexpensive.

Our first dinner has been a success with a jerk fish filet that was very good and Honor chose a fish fry burger since she is feeling a little so-so, but she will be fine. Tomorrow we have in mind visiting Lamanai and possibly some local national reserves. We will keep in touch and keep you posted. Hope everyone is doing well.

Love,

Mark and Honor

P.S. send an e-mail and make us feel loved.

Cancun touristy thing

Hey Everyone, I hope that you are all doing well.

We are currently in Cancun, this place is a blast and completely ridiculous. The hotels, beaches, bars and especially restaurants are more than you know what to do with. Our hotel is nice, inexpensive and well located to both the city and the strip. Today we spent the day roaming around town and then over to the strip where we did the tourist bar hopping thing. We went to Pat O Briens, Margaritaville, Bubba Gump and a few others where we recieved free drinks at each. Pretty Cool, FREE, Yeah baby! Attached are a few pics of the drinks and food.


Not to regress, but yesterday on the way here we went to Chichen Itza which was very impressive and much larger than Uxmal. However, Uxmal was much more attractive because there were hills and changing elevations that Chichen Itza does not offer. In addition, there were many vendors within Chichen Itza selling trinkets and etc. It gives too much of a touristy/commercial feel that we didn't find in Uxmal. We are going to Xcaret tomorrow for the entire day and possibly Tulum & Xel-Ha the day after.

Again hope you are all doing well.

Monica - I am still not getting any of your e-mails for whatever reason.

Ricardo - Espero que todos esten bien. Los ultimos e-mails que mas has mandado llegaro bien pero sin ningun attachment. No se si estaban supuestos a tener algun tipo de attachment o no. Tambien recibie un e-mail que decia algo sobre abuela y el Residential Plaza pero no aparecia nada.

Abrazos para todos.

Chichen Itza

Hope all is well.

We arrived into Cancun this evening at 8:00pm after visiting the ruins at Chichen Itza built around 900-1200 A.D they were really cool - We both thought that Uxmal was better as the area around it was hilly.



Anyway we are staying at the Terracaribe in Cancun away from the Hotel zone -(closer to downtown Cancun) We are here for at least two nights and may add a third night.

Tell Aunt Susie Mark and I said "HI!", And while she is there make sure you get some well needed sleep Dad - Tell aunt Dee to do the same!

Love ya,
Honor

Still in Merida

Hey Everyone

We are doing well, we are still here in Merida and it has been fantastic. The city is beautiful with great sights and plenty to do. There have been street festivals with plenty of music, food and dancing. We have purchased internet access for the next 24hrs. so we will be sending new pics and updates on the blog etc.

Yesterday we went to the Uxmal ruins and were truly amazed at the construction and surrounding areas. Keep your eyes open for the update that will be coming tonight. Tomorrow we are departing for Cancun and will provide you with the hotel info as soon as we have it. For now we are going out to see some more of the city so hope you are all doing well and we shall speak later.

Love Mark and Honor

Campeche

Hey everyone;

I just want to let you all know that we have arrived in Campeche and will be here for a couple of days. Just an FYI, I am so overwhelmed by the beautiful trip and then am twice as amazed by this city that I can not even begin. Especially since we are hungry and on our way to have dinner and drinks. However, please know that we are doing fine and everything is absolutely fantastic.

Mark

Another update

We are loading the car now as we were waiting for the rain to stop here in Villahermosa and heading to CAMPECHE for the night. From there we should be heading to MERIDA thereafter not sure of how many nights at each as of now we are winging it.

Will look for another hotel with internet capability.

Honor

Update

Hey Everyone,

Well what can I say other than "I would do it again and again." We are currently in Villahermosa for the second and last day. Things have been great so far with plenty to see city wise. As a quick recap without too much detail we went on from Brownsville to Tampico where we stayed for two days. Tampico was very nice with a less touristy feel than some other places. A very local feel is what you experience in this city, although it has everything to offer from food to amenities and architectural sites. The city still has a considerable amount of original spanish construction buildings and churches with a great deal of other things. I will detail much more in the journal we are preparing for posting in the Blog that Gael set up. (Thanks Gael !).

From there as you know we moved on to Veracruz. I can't say anything other than wow !!! The city truly displays its Caribbean and especially Cuban influence with a strong emphasis on the later. This compounded with a history that has been even more strongly impacted by Spain and its Pirate related history and you imagine heaven for me. We had the good fortune of witnessing Pre Semana Santa celebrations that included displays of local folkloric dances, large group danzones in the central park, and even an incredible religious procession to the Catedral. Again, enough cannot be said but please check out the pics and soon to come journal at the Blog Spot.

We departed after two days in Veracruz to Villahermosa but with a slight underestimate on the distance we decided to make a pit stop in Minititlan for the night. While the town itself does not have much to offer tourist I can say that it does have plenty of amenities and restaurants to choose from. The following day we completed our trip to our following destination Villahermosa. This city does have plenty of attractions from both a Historic as well as scenic perspective. The city is very tourist friendly with beautiful coble stone streets that are closed off to traffic with plenty of art galleries, parks and most importantly restaurants with excellent food. We will be leaving from here tomorrow for Campeche and then on to Merida.

I will hopefully post both pics and those journal entries I mentioned shortly. Hope everyone is doing well, I know that we missed a couple of call attempts and for that I am sorry. I am now making certain that the phone is on me at all times just in case.

Take care and we will speak soon.

Mark

Location update

Hey Everyone

Just wanted to let you know that we are spending the night in Minatitlan at the Hotel Madrid. It is approx 3 hrs from Villahermosa. The trip from Veracruz was a little longer than we wanted to drive. We will be departing from here tomorrow and will go through Villahermosa and hopefully as far as Campeche. We will keep you posted.

Mark and Honor

---------------------
Be careful guys, Villahermosa passed an Anti-Nudity law in 2004... So don't go hanging around "freestyle".

Frenchie

Response to an e-mail from Cristy...

Thanks for the info, we are getting ready to leave from the hotel in Veracruz now - We are not going to go through Oaxaca - as there are too many problems in that pridence - and not too sure of San Cristobal either - From Villahermosa - we will head to Merida.

Send you an email later.

Honor

The journey begins...

Hey There!!

I hope everyone is doing well, just a quick little update as to where we are and where we are headed. I am writing to you from our hotel room at the Gran Hotel Sevilla (Best Western) in Tampico. The city is very nice with plenty of old Spanish architecture as well as having plenty of everything from restaurants to shops etc. As of right now we haven't decided whether or not we are going to spend another night or move on to Veracruz. I will send a quick e-mail once we decide.

So far the trip has gone very well. After leaving Jacksonville later than anticipated we headed West on I-10 bypassing Tallahassee for a scenic side trip near Pensacola where we headed towards the Gulf Coast. There we circled towards Perdido Key an apparent Spring Break/Summer Home destination. We stopped at an excellent local Seafood restaurant for lunch called the Reef where we consumed our share of Crab Cakes, Blue Moon Beer and Oyster Po Boys. We continued around the coast and crossed over to Alabama eventually returning to I-10. After arriving at the Garden District Hotel in New Orleans, we quickly changed and took off for the French Quarter. New Orleans is always a good time, we had diner at the Red Fish grill which was very tasty as well as well decorated but slightly over priced for the overall experience. The french Quarter has basically recovered from the Hurricane and was in full swing with plenty of music drinks and all the other strange on goings that is New Orleans. There is still considerable damage in the surrounding areas and the resentment towards local, state and federal government is very evident and clearly vocalized in in traditional New Orleans style. The following day we had what must be one of the best breakfasts ever at a local cafe called Cafe Beignet. On the menu and piping hot was excellent coffee with Cajun sausage mix, eggs and potatoes topped of with what else but some very fresh beignets. A bit of strolling and window shopping followed by a frozen Hurricane put us back on the road west bound for Texas.



The trip to Houston was enjoyable due to the couple of deviations from I-10 to check out some local food fare. As we were close to exiting Louisiana the munchies got us again after we Id'd on another side trip in Lafayette a well know local hangout called Mulate's. This place has been visited by everyone and anyone although it is quite insignificant in appearance and somewhat out of the way. The gumbo is without question the real deal and is only matched in authenticity by the local Cajun accent and general looks of the place and area (this IS Cajun Country).



Moving on we arrived later than we wanted in Houston and as such only wanted to have some dinner and call it a day. Amazing how when you least expect it you are pleasantly surprised, having chosen a local restaurant that turned out to be a Texas based chain we experienced some of the best if not the best food so far. Having been unable to try some boiled Crawfish back in Louisiana we were happy to see that Houston's proximity to Louisiana and general reputation for bar-b-que is also complimented by its heavy southern bayou neighbors. Given that it is the season we ordered a couple of pounds of the finest boiled Crawfish ever as an appetizer followed by a Redfish filet accompanied with dirty rice with a serious kick and some crawfish etouffe on the side. After washing it all down with a couple of beers who could ask for more but wait there is. After raving on to our waiter about the outstanding quality, flavor and freshness of their food he kindly said he would pass on the compliment to the cook. As such one thing leads to another and before you know it we have the manager listening in on our expedition and comping some dessert (pumpkin/pecan pie a-la mode of course) An excellent close to our day.

I will follow up with the trip to Brownsville and beyond as soon as possible followed with some pics of the places and things mentioned. For now all I can say is that I miss all of you and wish you could experience all of this with me. I have much more to tell but for now it will have to do, I hope all of you are well and I will send a last minute e-mail letting you know of our plans for Veracruz.

Love you very much.
Your Bro.
Mark