After spending a couple of days in Syracuse, I went to New York City to play for a few days. I actually liked the city a lot more than I thought I would. It’s definitely an urban jungle, but I loved walking around Central Park, and I’d like to scoop up Broadway and Times Square and transplant them into Seattle. I did a TON of walking – my toes were an unrecognizable mass of blisters by the end of my trip. I didn’t take very many pictures this time around, but here’s a glimpse of what my trip was like.

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I should have blogged this a month ago, when Ally and I got back from our trip to England and France (and Belgium for a few hours), but you know how I put things off.

Anyway, the trip was really fun. I think Ally’s favorite part was when we were looking at a menu outside a restaurant in Paris and the owner came out to talk to us. When I replied “bon soir” to his greeting, he looked at me and said, “You’re not French, are you?” It’s kind of discouraging that he could tell from two words. I’ll have to work on my accent.

The weather was cold and drizzly most of the time, kind of like Seattle at this time of year. But that didn’t keep us from walking all over the place. We both had some nice blisters on our feet by the end of the second week.

We were glad Paul could meet up with us a couple of nights in London and then in Bath so we could visit with our little bro for awhile. Plus, he just makes everything more fun with his quirky comments and good humor.

I didn’t take quite as many pictures as Ally did, but here’s a sampling of what I got:

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We started our trip with a jaunt across the Guatemalan border to see the Mayan ruins at Tikal. My mom told me it would be worth it to spend a little extra money to hire a guide, and she was right — we definitely would have gotten lost without one. The ruins that have been excavated were impressive, but it was even more awe-inspiring to look around and realize that pretty much every mound of dirt was actually another structure waiting to be unearthed.

The humidity of the jungle was stifling, and the mosquitoes were relentless, but the view from the top of Templo IV was majestic enough to wipe such trifles from my mind.

We waited by the pond for quite awhile hoping to see some cocodrilos, but the only one we caught sight of was the poor little guy tied to a tree to amuse the tourists. I felt guilty for taking a picture, especially after one of the workers at the site tugged on the little croc’s line to try to get it to move.

One of the reasons we chose Belize was that almost everyone there speaks English. The same is definitely not true in Guatemala. Let’s just say there’s a reason my freshman-level Spanish hadn’t crossed my lips in 18 years. Actually, I managed to get my point across fairly well in the few situations I had to speak Spanish, although I’m sure I butchered the grammar. I had no problem remembering the word for pool, though — I guess that particular memory trick worked. (Hint: The Spanish for pool is piscina — you can work it out.)

After our archaeological expedition, we took an extremely cramped bus (my left knee still hurts) and a breezy water taxi to Ambergris Caye for a few days of relaxing on the beach. There’s not a lot to tell about that part of the trip, just long, lazy days of getting up late, finding a decent restaurant for our daily rice and beans, and then strolling along the beach until sunset. San Pedro is known for being a party place, but since Meg and I don’t drink, it was much more pleasant to lie in hammocks and watch the boats scatter the moon’s reflection on the Caribbean. The hammocks were also a good place to overhear some interesting conversations, but I want to keep my blog family-friendly, so I won’t include them here.

We spent our last day on the island taking a catamaran trip to Caye Caulker with a couple of snorkeling stops along the way. I’d never used a snorkel before, so it took a bit of practice to get used to being a mouth-breather. (Some guys I know would have had no problem.) The marine life at the Hol Chan reserve was very cool to watch. We even saw a sea turtle munching on sea grass. It hung out just long enough for our guide to snap a close-up for us.

I have to admit, I have a completely irrational and almost pathological fear of sharks, so I almost stayed on the boat at Shark Ray Alley. But I managed to persuade myself to jump in, and we only saw a couple of nurse sharks at a safe distance. There were a lot of rays, though, and it was pretty cool watching them glide through the water.

Our plans for a zipline canopy tour and cave tubing on the mainland didn’t work out, so we went to another Mayan site, Altun Ha, instead. Just like Tikal, there was oppressive humidity, swarms of blood-sucking demons the size of snot, and remains of the grandeur of an ancient civilization.

Our last full day was more of the same, but on a larger scale with a river trip to Lamanai. Our guide on that trip was pretty interesting, telling us the history of places along the river and pointing out native species of birds and plants. When we motored past the Mennonite settlements along the river, he slowed down to point them out to us as though they were another interesting type of animal. “Look, there’s a young Mennonite, maybe 12 or 13. And there’s one wearing green standing by the tractor with steel wheels.” As for Lamanai, it can’t quite compare with Tikal, but it’s still very impressive.

We probably could have squeezed in one more activity if we had known our flight home was going to be delayed by three hours. As it was, we spent pretty much the entire day at the airport sweating and smelling other people doing the same. I’m glad to be back to Seattle’s version of summer.