Seattle and what's beyond....

Life like I knew it over the last 18 months may be over, but what I have seen, experienced and learned will sure stay with me forever. It was a great trip covering most of what I had planned to see, and what I had to leave out makes me want to go back, one day...

I just arrived in Seattle and the memory of the last few weeks is still fresh so I ll go right ahead and cover that, more of the Wild West later.

I left for Belmopan in the Belizean Mountains to check out some caves that I heard were worth the trip, well I had to transfer over to get to Belize City and the Cayes anyhow, so I was game to check it out. While waiting for the tour to start (well it ended up being just me, and my tour guide had drinken too much and overslept by 1.5 hours!) I met Shaina, an American that was going to the Cayes as well, so I already had company for the trip through Belize, which was great.
My tour guide, hungover, driving a 35 year old volkswagen with gigantic rust holes in the bottom (when you lifted up the floor mats you saw the ground) was a spitting image of Bob Marley... spitting image! Same face, dreads, and talking in the usual creole accent I though I just travelled back in time. Spending a day with him and his buddy was already worth the trip, but the caves, the canoeing trip there, and the bundles of information I got doubled it all, what a lucky punch!

Canoeing into the caves...

I met Shaina the next morning to transfer over to Belize and realized quickly we will get along great, most of the time you can tell within a few minutes. I met my share of complete nutcases, freaks and weirdos, but hey, in 18 months you see it all, and most people I met were truly great, out there to enjoy the travels, to take it all in, to have the places you see change you, and vice versa, in a positive way. We took a bus to Belize City, then transferred over to the "ferry". Traveling through southeast Asia ferries used to be a ginormous time suck... wait for hours until the boat finally arrives, late, if at all and there is no storm, and then go at 4 miles per hour to your destination. Belize is a pretty modern country and what also helps is the flat water around most of the Cayes. So our "ferry" was a speedboat, an a real one that carried 40 people but still flipped up when the two gigantic turbines started... we were hauling 40 miles perh hour across the water, incredible.

Pure serenity

Once we arrived at our island we went off to find a hostel, and book our snorkeling trip. Shaina did not dive so I decided to go snorkel for once, I had one my fair share of diving in the previous weeks. The trip was great, and we saw lots of mantanees, stingrays, nurse sharks and gazillion of colorful fish. Another few days of relaxation, running on the beach, great food and company, she had to leave (on my birthday of all days) to travel back home. I had a month left almost so I decided to stay, and spend my Birthday on the island. Coincidence has it I ran into a guy I met in Tikal, and spent my Bday with im and two english girls in a karaoke bar. Turning 31 one I had a good reason to get hammered, and I sure did, I remember singing some Bob Seger song with this guy called Chuck, sure hope it was not recorded anywhere, it could and would be used against me some day.

A lazy day of backgammon

A good place to play hoops

Drenched and hammered...

It was time to leave, I had planned for months to get to Playa del Carmen on the Yucatan Penninsula on the 22nd of December to meet Marina again. Marina is a space cadette just like me so information was not very accurate and much, and after an hour of deciphering the directions and address a bus driver dropped me off at the side of the road to walk to the hotel. It was nestled away north of the city, no public access. For some reason they did not require one to wear bands to show that you are part of the hotel, probably due to its remoteness... and so it was no problem staying there for a few days.

I had never been to an all-inclusive hotel, sure is nice not having to carry around a wallet but it does sort of cause one to lay on the beach and drink coctails all day. We made sure to run and explore the surroundings to offset that, but both became a bit restless, so the deal was to escape the false paradise and go to Isla Cozumel for a few days. First though the whole family wanted to go see all the ruins, so the dad wanted me to drive his rented car (none of them spoke any spanish) and drive em around. Sure thing!! So we saw all the famous sights such as the beach ruins of tulum and especially chichen itza. At the hotel, Marina, her family and friends there soon realized that whenever they sent me to get the drinks (which was often since not many spoke spanish) I would bring stronger drinks back. Apparently since I talked to all the waiters up there they would give me the "special treatment", alcohol from the lower cabinet (better quality) and higher amounts.... so I became very familiar with the 6-8 waiters that regularly would be at the bar, good noone ever found out that I did not even belong there!

Tulum ruin...

Chichen Itza

Lack of gas, no gas station, no problem, there s always a solution

After that I took the overnight bus to a big transit center (San Christobal de las casas) and found out that Annie, who I travelled with through the south, decided to come north to finish up her travels in MC as well, so we struck a deal and met halfway... lago aticlan in Guatemala. Another night bus (2nd in a row..grrr) got me there. We spent a few days there, including new years, which turned out to be quite the desaster (too much smoking and drinking) and got me thinking the next morning that now is the time to clean up... really clean up.. no more drinking, smoking, etc.... its perfect timing, my travels are over in one week, and its a good new years resolution, though probably a bit drastic, I think I can hold on to it.

Funky taxicabs in Mexico City

At the museum...

Xavier and his family!

Flying home... wow, this is really it...

So anyhow, we spent a few more days traveling up north before we had to split up, was great seeing her again but now it was time to see one more friend, Xavier! We met in Patagonia and he invited me to his house in Mexico City, and I got to stay with his family while there. I had a great time, being shown around the city, and taken out to fancy dinners. He is the VP of HR of Bimbo Bread, a gigantic mexican owned company, so quite a different style to my raggy usual travel style. I still managed to get sick, (yummy tortillas at the subway stand) and spent a day out cold at their house, but overall it was a great end to the travel and I was ready to start my new job, postdoc-ing in Bioengineering at the University of Washington.

18 months, 35 countries, close to fifty flights, tens of thousands of miles on the bus and train, and stories I will be able to tell for the rest of my life.