are we on vacation again?

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Today rained and rained and rained. We tried to go to a national park, but the route the girl told us about was 4 hours round trip. Then she told us about hot springs, and we decided to go there. I think the 4 hour walk would have been better. The place was called "simbiosis" and it was very disappointing. It was $20 each to get in and there were dry saunas, mud and very muddy hot spring pools. I just couldn't do it. I wonder what was living under the muck. Supposedly the water came from a hot spring that was mixed with river water, but YUCK! The other three were much braver than me and they sat in the muck while I got bit by mosquitoes..... fun! To their credit though, the place did give me my $20 back since I didn't use any of the facilities. On our way out of the place, we followed the signs the thermal pools at Rio Nigro. Bubba and Tom walked down there and said it was much better, cleaner and only $5 each to get in. Live and learn. We found a gem of a...

Today we are sitting in a hotel in the Monteverd Cloud Forest. So, how did we get here? Well on a whim we decided to take a drive over the mountains and through the woods and ended up here. It is very rainy and cloudy, so I guess the name is appropriate. Tracey was in heaven (of course she doesn't believe there is one) driving up here. It was a dirt road that had hundreds of hair pin turns and many many pot holes. there was even a section with a river running over it that we had to drive through. this was quite a change from our original plan of spending an extra day at a hot spring. I thought Bubba was going to throw up looking over the side that dropped hundreds of feet below us. Today we are going to going walking through the cloud forest. We made it back to the time share and to our surprise all of our stuff is still here. Today is Friday morning and if we can ever get the sleeping beauties up, we are going to the Rincon de la Vieja National Park. It's supposed t...

Well, It's actually the morning of the 3rd day, and we are sitting by the pool (hiding from the sun.) The weather this morning is beautiful and we just saw a plume of smoke shoot out of the volcano. What a sight! This hotel is absolutely incredible. There are a lot of tropical plants and flowers, and the humming birds are everywhere. One even flew so close to Bubba's head that he could feel the breeze from it's wings! We are having a great time. Yesterday we drove down here from Coco Beach, it took a few hours, but no one was really counting. We got here when the sun was still out and found the hotel, Volcano Lodge and Gardens-- as i said before it's beautiful! We went to a volcano viewing spot, and sat in the pitch black jungle waiting for hours for something to happen, but this isn't Disney and it doesn't erupt on cue. Walking back in the dark was interesting, yes, it's only 5 minutes, but 5 minutes in a dark jungle with an ipod (we're such c...

We just flew in yesterday, what a beautiful country! Unfortunately it poured and poured for about an hour, then it got better again. Today we drove to Santa Rosa National Park. It's such a nice place. We saw some white throated capuchin monkeys and some red-headed wood peckers. The rain forest was great,and no rain today... what a relief! We are having a lot of fun so far. The time share has a brick oven pizzaria on the property, and I can get wi-fi if I sit in one spot in the living room.... what more could you want? Tomorrow we are heading to the arenal volcano. We will be there for two over nights, and then back here to the time share again. So far, Tracey has done all of the driving, which means that Bubba gets to be a tourist too... very unusual for him. Tom's with us too. It's only 8pm and they are all in bed already. We really are getting OLD!!! Oh, one of my cameras is broken. Of course it is the one with the better zoom. That is the bad news. The good ...

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Well, today has been interesting to say the least. We are stuck for an extra day. By the time we left the airport, there were 30 people on the standby list waiting for 1 or 2 seats. Needless to say, we are in Cancun for another night. I just read on line that there is a tropical depression heading this way to top of everything! Oh well, so goes life! Oh, so on our way to the airport this morning, we were stopped twice. First it was a military check point. They made us get out of the car and looked all through it. I guess it's best to do what the guy with the machine gun says to do. Then about 10 minutes later we got pulled over on the highway for speeding. The cop said Bubba was doing 80 km/h in a school zone which is 40km/h. Of course everyone around us was doing the same speed limit and we were the only ones pulled over. After a lot of broken English, and the cop trying to get us to go to an ATM machine for 3000 pesos, he finally gave up and let us go with just a warmi...

We saw a baby dolphin born last night. It was pretty cool, but very dark so we only saw glimpses of it. we watched it again today swimming around with it's mother. It makes me wonder how many dolphins are in captivity down here. It seems like every "eco park" we drive by has a swim with dolphins program. Kind of scary when you think about it. Today we went to Playa del Carmen again and did some shopping. There's a lot to buy, but it's really not as cheap as I remember it from my younger years of going on shopping sprees in Mexico. Funny thing is that most of the stuff is still the same as then. We're leaving tomorrow... I hate when vacations come to an end and we have to go back to the "real world!"

Yesterday we went to Tulum. It is a wonderful Mayan Ruin site. The scenery is awesome and you can even go swimming. The water is as warm as bathwater and almost as clean, if you are the youngest of a large Irish family (LOL) Today we went someplace new to all of us, Kantun-chi eco park. It has a number of cenotes and a guide brings you on a tour of the totally enclosed one. Antonio was very informative and seemed to like his job. We got to walk through and swim through the caves. they were lit electically, and the colors kept changing. It was pretty cool. Tomorrow is our last day, and we are going back to Playa del Carmen to finish up our shopping. Then we will be home hopefully on Friday night......

We're in Mexico, if you haven't heard. The weather is HOT, HOT and HOT! Not exactly what I like! We've been in the water every day. Yesterday we went to Xel Ha and today to tulum. Xel ha is kind of like a natural disney world. everyone is nice to you, and you can snorkel to your heart's content. It's a lot like snorkeling in a giant fishtank, with out any nasty fish. Tulum is a Mayan Ruin that is right on the ocean. it is beautiful, but I would have enjoyed it more if it were about 20 degrees cooler. Tomorrow I think we are going back to Playa del Carmen, or to snorkel in the cenotes (under ground caves) we'll see what the weather brings, oh yeah, we're all sun burned from our day of snorkeling.....

For those of you who know me, you know how much I love glass. That being said, we spent two days in Las Vegas at a Glass and Bead show at the Southpoint Casino. It was close to heaven on earth. Aisle after aisle of things to discover and most importantly, things to buy. Are my credit cards screaming in pain? It could be worse, we could only buy what we could carry on the airplane. It was a lot of fun. It was great talking with people who are so passionate about what they do for a living, and passionate about sharing it with others. We even met the inventor of glass clay. Who would have thought you could sculpt glass like you do clay, then bake it in a kiln and it comes out as glass -- just amazing! And to meet the mind who thought of it, crazy! The hotel itself was pretty nice. The rooms were large and clean and there were eight restaurants on property, which was a good thing since it is no where near the strip. It's a good place to stay if you want to get away from the...