Feliz Navidad and Prospero Ano Nuevo

So we may have let down some of our loyal fans recently; zero posts over the last month is poor form, we know. But we´re back on the horse and we promise these pics will not disappoint.

the rest of guatemala was amazing (i´m not even mad). spent a few days camping on and paddling around lago peten itza by Tikal where we wandered for 7 hours through the jungle, climbing ancient temples and conversing with the howler monkeys.

the boys standing atop a temple at Tikal

welcome to the jungle

the jaguar temple in the central plaza of Tikal. those steps are f'n steep, i have no idea how those mayans did it.

our private lakeside campspot

while in antigua we locked ourselves out of Tremendo for the 2nd of 3 times so far, which turned out to be a blessing in disguise. the friend we met in our attempts to break back in happened to own a hotel near this spot in livingston, guatemala. i´d say things worked out for the best. thanks, juan carlos.

our friends the quebecoise who joined us on our resort stay at the mouth of rio dulce near livingston.

extreme rock climbing! and the fall didn't even hurt, 75 degree water makes for a pretty nice landing. random rockface along the shores of rio dulce.

a nice vista of antigua, guatemala from el cruce with the now-dormant volcanoe towering in the background

honduras, from our observations, seems to be good at three things: fast food restaurants (more than you could imagine), growing bananas (also more than you could imagine), and scuba diving. we saved our money for the diving. and it was fantastic. unfortunately the digital camera doesn´t work too well under water, but here´s a sweet sunset from the dive shop.

pre-dive preparation

nicaragua was also a blast. ranks right up there with guatemala. the first few days we spent in león happened to fall around national fireworks day a.k.a. the day of the immaculate conception. it sounded like we were in a war zone for a good part of our stay there. to escape the bombas we booked it to the beach for an $8 open bar extravaganza. the Jose Cuervo chicas were deadly.

granada, nicaragua. a gorgeous colonial town on the shore of lago nicaragua.

spent about a week on isla de ometepe in the middle of gigantic lake nicaragua with our new furry friend and chris (whose new nickname will remain classified). We hiked the smaller, though no less treacherous, of the two volcanoes on the mountain and came back looking like we´d taken a mud slip-n-slide all the way down.

our mischiveous monkey friend. we didn't quite make it to monkey island, but this was upclose and personal enough.

yet another gorgeous central american sunset, this one from playa madera near san juan del sur with our friend carla.

our nicaraguan camping and surfing crew with our rugged off-road vehicle and loyal companion, tremendo.

after a few more days of camping on the beach near san juan del sur and attempting to surf, we made our way across the border to costa rica where we spent Christmas with my family, santa claus, and barney. oh yeah, new years on bocas was pretty fun too.

Feliz Navidad y Prospero Ano Nuevo from the boys!