We are back from our trip to Honduras, Guatemala, Belize, and Mexico. I can honestly say that REALLY visiting these places changes you somehow. I never imagined I could love a place so different from the U.S. Hands down Guatemala is my favorite spot in the world now. We were able to spend the day there seeing and visiting with the Mayan Indians. What humble lives they live! We traveled up the Rio Dulce (Dulce River), deep into the jungle, and witnessed first hand how these people live. The only means of travel in these areas are by little carved boats. Little children can be seen paddling about fishing for their meals. There is no electricity and no running water among most of the Mayans who live on the river. There is a spot on the river where a pipe supplies the only clean, fresh water which comes from the side of the gorge. The people come from all over to acquire fresh water for their families. We saw a school on the river (education is only for those who can afford it) and there were kids running around outside playing on their break. The kids who attend school are brought there at age 5 and do not leave until they are 16 years old. They live there year round. At one point, we stopped at this little house where a family had a little covered deck that housed handmade crafts and some goods. There were about 4 or so of the cutest kids you've ever seen there. We noticed a small hammock swinging and inside was a little baby. The father told me (in Spanish) that the baby is a girl and 3 months old. She was sound asleep and so precious. The people we met were very kind and very gracious. When you see the way in which they exist you really understand how terribly spoiled we are. What is meager to us is luxury to them. I fell in love with Guatemala. My whole family did. There is an orphanage there where we hope to visit in the very near future. We are going to be gathering much needed supplies and take them there. I can't wait to go back.
On a more frivolous note, we did some very awesome and adventurous things. In Honduras, we did some incredible zip lines in which between tree platforms you had to cross small planks on cables or just a cable!! It was a blast. I will try to put up video or pictures. I felt so sorry for our guides (who were FABULOUS). One would go first and be ready on the other platform to "catch" us and slow us down. These are all in trees and at a high rate you are traveling towards a big tree!!! The first line I somehow got turned around backwards and was wide-open headed for the tree. The guide stands between you and the tree on the platform...like I said, poor guides! I smashed him every time right into the tree. I always apologized and he would always say in broken English "No worries". There is no telling what he was really thinking. But it was so fun!
We caved tubed in Belize and our trip photographer, our friend James, lost his camera somehow in the water. Our guide there (again, FABULOUS) said he would bring his son back and they would try and look for it. Never in a million years did I think that would happen. First of all, you are talking about over a mile of water, through three caves which is pitch black and has little inlets. Also, the caves are a good distance from where our guide was from and with gas over $5.00 a gallon I just thought, goodbye camera! That was a week ago today and not only did he go back and find that camera in the water but he sent it to James at the beginning of the week! If you ever get to Belize, go cave tubing with cavetubing.bz They are wonderful and on the hike up he pointed out some really cool things. Afterwards, he took us to this restaurant in the middle of nowhere. I was a little nervous at first but it was wonderful and so delicious! Lunch was included in our tubing. Oh, one last thing about our guide..on the way back to our port he took us into town and showed us the local LDS chapel and the LDS mission office. We had no idea he was going to do that and it meant a lot to us.
Needless to say, our trip was the most memorable trip for all of us because of where we went and the people and things we saw. I was not ready to leave.

Beautiful Honduras.
Zip line guides.
One of the much nicer homes on the Rio Dulce.
Kids playing at there home on the Rio Dulce, Guatemala.Rope-swinging into the water.
Fresh water pipe I mentioned on the Dulce River.
School on the river in Guatemala.
Some Mayan little girls who lived deep in the mangroves. The water was covered with thick lily pads.
A boy we encounter on the river. He was very proud of his catch. He had three more in his little boat.
Baby girl in the Guatemalan version of a baby swing.
The beautiful Caribbean.