Last stop El Salvador (El Cuco)

Posted on March 26, 2013 by Teresa

Our final stop in El Salvador was (conveniently close to the border with Honduras). We stayed at La Tortuga Verde which I would describe as designer camping – cabins with an open air feel (we slept in Taj of course). The hotel is known for their turtle hatchery. Unfortunately in El Salvador, the locals collect turtle eggs from the beach and eat them. There doesn’t seem to be any organized government effort to prevent this, so the hotel owner purchases the eggs from locals for $0.25 a pop, so they can hatch. He buys thousands of eggs a year. The beach was lovely and there were apparently great surfing spots near buy. I did read to be on the look out for jelly fish though, which can really throw a wrench into your wave frolicking. We were only planning to stay for a night, but hung around for several days enjoying the hammocks.

To the Yucatan

Posted on February 1, 2013 by Teresa

Do you remember one of your teachers asking you what the best day of your life was in third grade? Well, when asked, I answered that it was the day L.Batt. came into the world. There have been many amazing days since, but it often crosses my mind how boring our family would be without the youngest daughter. It should also be known that I love (LOVE) surprising people (and hate to be surprised).

So I had my mind set on surprising Lynds in Cancun. I let her know that it was too far out of the way and then cut off contact a week before she was set to arrive in Cancun. George and I literally drove two weeks straight of 7+ hour days across Mexico to get to Cancun. In all honesty, my contribution to that was small. G was a trooper. The first road we had to take out of Oaxaca was over a mountain pass in Mexico. Did you know that the Mexican interior is all mountains? Anyways, it took us 6 hours to drive the mountain pass. We calculated about 21 turns a mile. If you put your hands in front of you like you’re grasping a wheel and move them from side to side at a reasonable pace, you’ve grasped the ab workout we endured. We were both car sick.

It took us 3 days to drive from Oaxaca to Cancun. I was bubbling over with excitement. G had managed to find a campground right beside the five star resort Lynds was staying at. When we pulled in, I was frantically emailing Brian who I was colluding with to organize the surprise. Meanwhile, G walked out to the beach. The resort was preparing for a wedding. I wasn’t sure if it was ‘the wedding’ Lynds was attending until I heard country music. This was definitely a Mitchell (small town – south western Ontario) wedding. G was in the shower when the wedding was wrapping up. I told him I was going to make my move if they started leaving. Thankfully, he made it out to the beach in time because he would have been pissed if I went in without him.

We spotted Brian who directed us at the wedding party. They had just finished up a toast. I was a little apprehensive to disrupt the festivities, but with Brian’s prodding, I got in there. Lyndsay turned around and started sobbing (awesome).

We spent a few days catching up with them (which I’m immensely grateful for) and partying at the resort. Thanks to happy newlyweds (Maureen and Trevor) for putting up with us.

PS. (placeholder for cursing). Our food container, tent and basically everything we own was invaded by thousands of tiny ants. We used a garbage bag to build a moat in the sand around the ladder. This was successful until the ladder punctured the plastic and the water drained out. What a well-adapted species. We hosed down the tent, drove hundreds of miles, and those damn things were still climbing out of everywhere when we popped the tent in Belize.

Puerto Vallarta

Posted on January 18, 2013 by George

The next morning we woke up by the broken squeaking sounds of an army trumpet. It turned out we slept right next to a army/navy base in San Blas. The sound of the trumpet was the call for all the `armigos` to go exercising in the morning. Teresa and I were still really anxious to get going so the early awakening was welcome. We quickly grabbed a coffee and parted ways with our new friends from Japan, France and Utah and headed to Puerto Vallarta.

I did not have any expectations about Puerto Vallarta. I had heard a lot from friends about the resort but still the only thing I remembered was that there wasn’t enough wind for kiting. After a few wrong turns (thanks to quite a few incorrect traffic signs …) and a few hours of driving we made it to the resort. It took us some time to find a campsite.

Hot showers with good water pressure … Yes! Time to wash the ferry ride off …

We spent the next morning exploring downtown. It is a beautiful, moderate sized, yet not crowded resort. Judging by the number of clubs in the downtown area it is probably not the same during spring break. The resort has a long pedestrian only street by the water. It reminded me a bit of Varna. There was lots of interesting art around town. Also there were a few abandoned large hotels in the middle of the resort. We later found out that those buildings were damaged in a large earthquake in 1995. The same earthquake took down the top of the Roman Catholic Church (wikipedia). You can see the new artistic top of the church in the pictures below.