We're Baaaaack!

We got home from our Central America adventure last Thursday, but have been so busy since then visiting family and friends and moving to a new apartment. I honestly don't even know where to begin! Maybe I will just start with the biggest fun things we did in each country.

We stayed at a beautiful beach town in Costa Rica called Samara. Here I discovered my obsession with bakeries. For the whole trip we had pastries for breakfast and I was a happy girl.

The beach was a happening place with locals working as beach bums, oh what a life they live. In Samara they offered surfing, boat tours, kayaking, fishing, yoga... the options were plenty!

We rented surfboards for $10 a day. Drew had been surfing before and it was my first time. I got up a few times, but not for the camera unfortunately. It was fun to be able to ride the wave in and feel the ocean push you it's sort of surreal. I can see how addicting catching waves is for all those surf bums!

The next country we visited was Nicaragua. We spent a little over a week in Nicaragua. We traveled by taxi and bus and when we went to a new destination we would find a hotel or hostel first and then do whatever we felt like! It was fun to meet people and eat yummy food and find fun things to do. In Nicaragua we decided to surf a volcano! It was actually more like sledding with the hostel we went with in Leon. They gave us free t-shirts and a wooden plank to sit on for our ride down the side of the most active cindercone volcano in the world dude!

So this is the fun shirt we got, the volcano is called Cerro Negro. We hiked for about an hour before we got to the top and man it was hot and tiring but the most beautiful view!

We got to wear these awesome jump suits and goggles, looking good I know. 

So we didn't get any pictures of us going down, but we did have someone take a video of Drew and I racing. You can probably guess who won, Drew. 

This was only moments before I crashed and found myself tumbling down the side of a volcano, eating lava rocks for lunch! Let's just say I had lava in every place possible and the bus ride to Honduras that night was very uncomfortable. Lava is not a very smooth ride. I definitely had the worse crash of the whole group! Take a looky at the entertaining video, you might be able to tell.

We have lots of video footage as well but that will have to come together at a later date!

So after a bumpy ride back to Nicaragua and a few cold beers (we missed out on that "perk") we headed our dirty buns to Honduras. We went to Honduras two separate times and spent the most time there because that is where Drew served his mission and he wanted to show me everything. I can see why he loves it so much down there! Life is harder in many ways due to the poverty, but in many ways it is also so much simpler. In America we truly do have so much more than we really need I felt ridiculous coming home to my I-phone, car, and everything else I lost count of.

Anyway, our first stop in Honduras after visiting several of Drew's mission areas we went to the Copan Ruins. Drew always wanted to sneak a trip during his mission, but he did the right thing and waited to take his wife with him! It was beautiful and interesting to see all the crazy things the Mayans built.

I love this happy face! This is a field where they played some sort of sport like soccer, hence Drew's huge smile. 

Personally, I think my favorite part about the ruins were the macaws! I love animals and parrots up close just fascinate me. 

Guatemala was our next visit. I was so excited for Guatemala! It was beautiful and colorful and the people were cute and short and came straight from the mountains blanketed with corn. Guatemala was a lot cooler in temperature than the other countries so that was refreshing. The people were so friendly and smily I loved that. Some kids even helped us find some chocobananas, which are delicious! 

Did I mention I got microbraids? These two beautiful Guatemalans did it, one had some great nappy dread locks. The braids turned out to be fantastic for the trip, but sadly had to go when we got home because they itched and started to get loose and frizzy.

We went to Guatemala for the huge market in Chichicastenango which was a blast to say the least. I was in heaven! Hand made goods are my absolute favorite. I choose to ignore the great chances that many are still made in China.

After Sunday market we headed to Lake Atitlan in Panajachel, Guatemala, famous for their scenic volcanoes and green water. 

I know.... GORGEOUS right?

So we thought we'd rent a kayak. While we were kayaking rain spit on us every once in a while making it a very peaceful experience!

We were sad to say goodbye to Guatemala after a relatively short time, but excited to go back to Honduras. This time, we saw paradise first hand--ROATAN.

Oh my.... that was rude of me to rub it in your face. But seriously, it felt like a second honeymoon.

We stayed in this cute little cabin and I was pleased as punch (Drew loves my grandma sayings, wink wink) to have hot water and a mosquito net. The one huge downside of paradise is all the bugs... mosquitoes, sand flies, spiders, and everything that bites itches!

We did many big fun things here in Roatan, Bay Islands, Honduras. Including snorkeling, renting a scooter, visiting an iguana farm, and yoga!

I was able to attend a yoga class by the beach! It was early in the morning and the instructor was so smiley I loved it. I like attending different yoga classes because each instructor does it a little differently and I always learn something new. This class I learned a new pose called the fish, it was so fun!

I was the only one in the class that wasn't included in some teen service group, but sadly the instructor didn't notice the difference. It was cool to do yoga in a new environment and especially one that is so peaceful already. Yoga is just the best.

We rented a scooter for a day that took us all around the island for exploring. 

The iguana farm was AWESOME. They literally carpeted the ground and blended in so we had to watch our step! Iguanas are going extinct on the islands because the locals eat them, so this farm is a place of refuge for them and they tend not to leave by choice.

Iguanas are seriously like dinosaurs. So many different textures on their scaly skin! But they weren't scary, we could actually pet them and feed them making them seem more like cows.

I just have to add pictures of the other animals we saw.

So that leaves us with the last big thing... snorkeling. I know this post is so long and I'm sorry, but there is so much to share! We went snorkeling at Half Moon Bay and West Bay. The reef was pretty destroyed by tourists they say, but I saw several Hondurans standing on it so I don't think we're the only ones to blame! And sometimes a leaky mask or snorkel that makes you gag on salt water forces you to stand abruptly even if you don't want to. Despite that, the reef was beautiful. Some was grassy, some was like swimming through caves, and some was dotted with big purple sea fans! 

So the pictures didn't come back as great as we thought, I swear we were taking pictures of something cool! It was so much fun to swim right along with the fishies, I felt like I was in an aquarium. Snorkeling was a blast, and I have to say it beat my Hawaii experience (sorry Ky).

 Well that's the gist of our trip in a nutshell. I will blog more about it on our traveling triplets blog and more details about each country later. It was a beautiful trip and the best graduation gift ever! I'm so thankful I was able to do this with my hub and best friend. This trip really opened my eyes to how most people in the world live and made me really thankful for what I have, but probably the greatest lesson I learned came from my sister in law Megan in one of her emails. 

"The world is beautiful, and so is home."