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Honeymoon log May 28th
In the last 15 minutes at work I think they tried to
promoted me to manager (again), well... whatever, I'm on
my honeymoon now.
The first few days of our honeymoon seem to have the
theme 'a little bad news comes before a lot of good
news'.
The bad news is the up coming 11 hour flight to London
followed by another 5 hours to Athens. The good news is
that we got upgraded to 'world traveler Plus' a new
class with British Air somewhere between Business
class and Cattle class. Leg room galore! Oh, and a
personal movie screen with video games. What? I have to
get off the plane already??
Honeymoon log May 29th
Not much time in London, had to make a little run to
our connecting flight to Athens. Good news is that we
made it. Bad news is that our luggage didn't. Good news
is, we have some sort of insurance for that! Little
shopping spree on behalf of American Express
thank-you-very-much.
Fresh in Athens we meet up with Bart Hovers and his
Lithuanian girlfriend Iris. Bart lives in Athens since
2 weeks and is enjoying himself. Not a surprise because
Athens is a fun city. Well, the cities around Athens
are fun at least. Athens itself has traffic, the
Acropolis (high city), traffic, the Parthenon, traffic,
several more temples, but mostly traffic. We do get to
see the Parthenon at night, rightfully one of those
things you should have on your life's to-do-list.
Earlier in the evening we have dinner with a view over
the sea and we are already in love with Greece.
It is 1am and we say good night and goodbye to Bart and
Iris and spend the night in a very luxurious hotel
across from the airport without as much as a toothbrush.
Honeymoon log May 30th
Up early, still no word of our luggage so we
pack...ehhhh...and head for Santorini. Boarding takes
longer then the 30 minute flight itself and we are
pleasantly surprised to see our suitcases roll out of
the airplane. We take a taxi to our hotel. The hotel is
bad (news) and Teresa takes it upon her to find
something better (the good news). We go from a smelly
fly infested dump to a beautiful light room with a
magnificent view in 3 directions and 3 yards away from
the pool. Life is back the way it should be.
We dive into Santorini and decide upon a nice little
boat tour around the main volcanic island in front of
the place to be 'Fira' (which IS the place where we are
:-)
The promised swim to the hot springs is a little
disappointing. We don't have enough time to both make
the swim, which was probably good because the water is
freezing and mostly dirty where the springs are
supposed to be. And not hot either. The second part of
the boat tour is way better. We get to walk on the most
recently active volcanic island and have the most
wonderful view of Santorini, this place is so
beautiful. Several greeks have already told us that
Santorini is the (only?) reason they are proud to be
greek.
With some concern we look at the development projects
the greeks are promising to start any moment now in
preparations for the 2004 Olympics. They already have
4 miles of freeway in all of Greece, so why hurry...eek.
Back at the hotel we take a quick dip in the pool and
prepare for dinner and a night out in town.
We discovered gold! More precisely, we discovered 'gold
street' what looks like the main artery of the
Santorini tourist industry. The jewelry shops are
conveniently located in one of the narrow shopping
streets that make up the center of Fira. Convenient in
that after walking through them once you can
conveniently avoid that street.
But the tourists that we are we get sucked into one of
the stores and get to listen to the history of Greece,
Santorini, Fira, gold street, the shop we are in and
(at length) the shops owners family. Still a little
dazed with the information we happily buy the
'Infinity+1' earrings and without asking get a 50%
discount and a bottle of white wine. And more stories
of which the made up content now starts to exceed 100%.
Nevertheless an altogether pleasant experience.
As is the dinner in town. Looking from one rooftop
terrace at all the people sitting on other rooftop
terraces around us. We are so relaxed...'Ahhhh', or now
that we are in Greece..."Fetaaaaaaahhh".
Honeymoon log May 31th
After a refreshing breakfast we walk through Fira
shopping around a little and continue our walk along
the crater ridge. Around every corner the view is
different and more magnificent. We get to what looks
like a lonely rock peninsula and venture our way over
rocky steps and then climb with some effort towards a
nice lonely lookout point to be surprised to find a
little white and blue church standing in the middle of
nowhere with a view of both Fira and Ia. How they ever
managed to build this (or why) remains unknown but we
are thankful for this little wonder and enjoy the view.
We visit a little museum displaying fresco's and
paintings recreated in 3D from an excavation site in
the south of Thera (Santorini) dating back 3500 years.
The oldest known pieces of art from an almost
forgotten Aegean bronze age era. We hope to visit the
actual site tomorrow. The evening we spend in Fira with
many a glass of ouzo watching the sunset and enjoying
more Greek food.
It is late, we are sitting outside our apartment and
are listing to bats and watching a group of stray dogs
drink from the pool to tired to shoo them away. Tomorrow
we tour the island.
Honeymoon log June 1st
We get up at a reasonable time noting that the dreaded
jet lag has pasted us by this time.
The bus for our tour is fashionably late but
comfortable. First stop is the excavation site of
Acreteri. They have dug up about a soccer field and
claim this is less then 3% of the total village. A 3500
year old civilization with art, 3 and 4 story
buildings, plumbing under the streets and thriving of
trade with nearby island Crete. Destroyed in one big
blow by the volcano around 1650 B.C. . Supposedly they
saw this event coming and everyone had fled the area
(no bodies have been found at the site, yet). We are
quietly wondering if they all fled to Crete where they
saw the 70 meter (200+ foot) tidal wave coming. Eek.
Next stop is the new port, 10 hairpin turns and 200
meter lower. We get into a big motersailer and after a
short trip get to walk up the volcano (again). After
this the skipper silently decides that the swim at the
hot springs isn't worth the money and we are the only
ones in the boat with the experience that supports this
decision but nevertheless enjoy the show of upset
people demanding part of their 20 Euro back.
Next stop is the Island of Kritera, right across from
Fira. Looking at another 150 meter climb we decide that
this is the time to try the donkey ride up. Donkey =
1.60m from the ground + me = 2.40m from the ground.
Donkey = 0.001m from the edge. Edge = 150m above the
sea.
We walk down.
Next and last stop on our day tour is the city of Ia on
the northern edge of Santorini. This town is known for
it's artists and sunset views. We 'walk' up the 150
meter stairs and giggle at the tourists screaming on
their donkey's. In 3 days we have now been up and down
the volcano ridge 19 times and feel strong as, well,
donkeys I guess.
Ia is as promised. We find ourselves a seat with a view
in one of the restaurants and enjoy good food and a
stunningly spectacular sunset (with applause at the
end). The bus drops us right in front of our hotel and
we happily drop dead in bed.
Tomorrow we plan to sit still all day.
Honeymoon log June 2nd
We are asleep for 12 hours and consider sleeping till
tomorrow, but the bar just outside our room next to the
pool also serves greek coffee and after half a cup of
that stuff we are bouncing around again looking for
something to climb.
It is hot and we enjoy sitting by the pool at our hotel
for most of the day.
We share another stunning sunset with fellow tourists
in Fira and after dinner try some of the night life in
town in the form of a Jazz bar (smoking is still allowed
everywhere and it seems that 99% of the greeks smoke).
Later that night we end up at the pool side bar at our
own hotel where we try one after another spectacular
cocktail mixed by our bartender Adonis (I kid you not).
Late and drunk we crawl the 20 feet to our room and
sleep before hitting the pillow.
Tomorrow we try to remember some of this.
Honeymoon log June 3rd
We are both in a little pain, but remember last night
with a smile and start drinking water. We pack and
leave the luggage at our hotel for now and try to
figure out how to get to Crete and from there to Capri
(Italy). Our original plan of taking an overnight
cruise is torpedowed by unwanted connections. The best
we find is from Crete back to Athens, there take the
train to Palasomething and from there the overnight
cruise to Bari which is on the east side of Italy
leaving us with a train trip to Napoli before the boat
to Capri. Whatever. We will take our chances getting
this organized tomorrow. In the meantime we wait
patiently on the Jet One hydrofoil. This gets us to
Crete at an average speed of 40 (nautical) miles an
hour.
Ok, I have to admit that I am not a hero when it comes
to moterboats and waves. For this inconvenience we have
bought us a modern little toy at Sharper Image. Wearing
it on the wrist like a watch it sends electrical pulses
at short intervals interfering with the mixed signals
the stomach is getting (or something). Anyway, playing
with this watch I forget to pay attention to the trip
at all...so it did help!
We quickly find our 4 star hotel in the center of
Herkalion the main city and port of Crete and head for
dinner.
Tomorrow we explore Crete.
Honeymoon log - June 4th
Heraklion, the settlements, towns and castles around
this area of Crete where once a center of civilization.
They held on to that for a mere 12 centuries. Culture
here started over 9000 years ago at the beginning of
the bronze age. The archeological museum right next to
our hotel shows remains that tell of an endless amount
of civilizations that prospered and collapsed leaving
fragments with which we literally pieced together their
cultures over the millenia.
After that much culture and history we walk through
Heraklion over it's restored 15th century fortress wall
and enjoy the view over the mediteranian sea. We walk
the busy shopping streets where shopkeepers are about
to take a siesta break between 2 and 5pm and take a
quick swim in the pool on top of our hotel. The large
city is alive with shoppers but lacks the (any)
atmosphere like Santorini. We walk through the
night life back to our hotel.
Tomorrow we head for Capri.
Honeymoon log - June 5th
After breakfast we head for the airport and fly with
Aegean Airlines (business class only plane woohoo!) to
Athens from where we take a Fokker 100 plane from Alpi
Eagles to Napoli Italy. This route saved us 24 hours of
travel. A 40 minute bus tour through the city drops us
in front of the hydrofoil that zips us to Capri in 50
minutes. It is overcast but warm as we are welcomed by
a hotel shuttle that drives us to our Hotel La
Bourgainville. We freshen up a bit since I was sweating
at every part of the story containing the words 'bus',
'fly', 'zip'.
Food is good in Italy. We start dinner early at 9pm and
leave the restaurant at 10:30pm when it finally starts
filling up.
Tomorrow we go and discover the beauty of Capri.
Honeymoon log - June 6th
After breakfast we wander into the village and find a
little one person chairlift that takes us to Capri's
highest point at 590 meters. A stunning view over Capri
and the Amalfi coast. Steep rocky cliffs and lush green
landscapes. We decide to walk down over a path that is
not marked all that well but eventually find our way to
the little city if Saint Michelle. A Swedish adventurer
by the name of A. Munthy build his home here. Now a
museum where we enjoy the beautiful house and gardens
on the edge of a 300 meter high cliff overlooking the
port of Capri. From here we walk back to Anacapri.
The island of Capri is smaller then Santorini,
approximately 10 km diameter, and divided in the center
by a high cliff. The bigger city on the eastern side of
the island is called Capri and the smaller but
favorable and less touristic village on the west side
of the cliff is called Anacapri. It took us a day to
figure out we where actually staying in Anacapri.
Pretty confusing reading maps that way.
We walk to the next natural wonder known as the Grotto
Azzurra. The road there (and most everywhere) is on
average a little more then 1 car wide without
sidewalks. We see no signs of any speed limits. Someone
thought it would be smart to build the busses at half
the normal length, but we wonder why they build them at
their normal width. Only the newest of cars have paint
or mirrors left on their sides. We survive the walk. A
little adventures walk along the coastline rocks gets
us to the caves. Here we step into a small unsteady
gondola where we are told to lay down flat on the
bottom. Our captain manouvres his little boat in front
of a very small opening in the steep rocky cliffs and
waits for the right wave before pulling the boat (using
chains attached to the rocks) through. We find ourself
inside a 60 meter long 3 meter high and most
impressively 20 meters deep cave. We came through the
only opening . From the inside one can see that more
then half the time the opening is 'less' then a boat
wide. The depth of the cave opening provides the
miracle. The sun shines through the water and this
creates a deep deep blue shine inside the caves. The
refractions in the water add to the effect. At any time
there are about 5-ish boots with tourists and singing
guides inside. Very romantic!
We value our lives so we take one of the frequent
busses back to town. We are in love with Capri, the
food and the atmosphere.
We decide to head for dinner in the town of Capri. The
taxi trip takes 3 minutes. In that time the taxi driver
passes 5 busses (two going our way) on this 1-ish lane
canyon road. Honking the horn is a drivers way of
saying 'watchout', 'sorry' , 'hello' , 'f&^%Łu',
'whatever' all at once.
The town of Capri is rich with rich tourists. Looks
like mostly the type of people that want to be carried
around instead of having to walk the narrow steep
streets. The main street is a collection of Cartier,
Tiffany and pink-outfit-for-man's fashion stores. With
some luck we find a romantic restaurant where we enjoy
more of Italians very fine kitchen.
Tomorrow we plan to visit the Amalfi coast.
Honeymoon log - June 7th
We take the bus to the port of Capri and take a Jet
boat that flies us in 20 minutes to Sorento (just below
Napoli). We take bus and train and 30 minutes later we
find ourselves at one of the entrances to the town of
Pompeii. With a view of the volcano Vesuvius standing
large and quite (we hope) nearby we take our
audio guides through the streets of this large city. For
a city with it's history starting over 2600 years ago
and ending rather abruptly 2000 years ago it is
interesting to find instances of daily lives that are
awkwardly familiar with modern life. Not all of them
happy. We see graffiti and posters for political add
campaigns. We hear at the Colosseum about a particular
gladiator match (think soccer) between gladiators of a
nearby village and those of Pompeii. The supporters of
both towns had started making jokes at each other and
had gone through yelling and throwing stones to the
drawing of arms. Several casualties later the district
of Pompeii found itself with a 10 year ban on the games
and it's principal coordinators exiled (can we learn
from this?).
There are so much interesting little things about daily
life here. We see a very organized grid of housing
blocks with streets measured exactly for 1, 2 or 3
carts wide with sidewalks and heightened street
crossings and all. Temples, theaters, bath houses,
brothels (with pictures on the wall I try to remember
for tonight....hey, this IS our honeymoon :-).
One interesting similarity we notice between the
village of Acretera and Pompeii is that both towns
where still rebuilding from a major earthquake aprox 20
years before their volcano's erupted and buried
everything.
Tired on our legs and spinning with historic knowledge
we make our way back to Capri. One ice cream later we
find the energy for a walk to the Arco Naturale, the
still barely standing rock arch from a collapsed cave.
We have dinner in Capris village again before collapsing
from the days exercise.
Honeymoon log - June 8th
We are in super shape now and decide on some more
walking over the island. First we walk the 350 meters
vertical decline of the Venetian stairs to the port of
Capris. Then back up again with the tram and back down
again to see the Funigolare (rock pillars still standing
in the sea) and the Porto Picolo on the south side of
the island. We laugh at the tourists cramming
themselves in the bus and take the stairs back up to
Capris where we arrive at the same time as the bus, ha!
We must have now walked the length (and high) of the
island several times. I promise myself to keep walking
and rest when I get back to work ;-)
The atmosphere in the village has noticeably cooled for
a bit now that Italy has lost to Croatia in the world
championship soccer. I guess for once I am happy that
Holland didn't qualify so I am not tempted to watch any
of this seriously.
We enjoy our last evening meal on Capri at a local
pizzeria with a view of incoming clouds. Tomorrow we head
for Rome.
Honeymoon log - June 9th
It is now raining, so a good time to head for our next
destination. The taxi and hydrofoil (I dare it without
my sea sickness watch now) take us to Napoli from where
we take the Eurostar 1st class at 300+ km/h to Rome. We
like Italy but notice that not all Italians return that
feeling. Several times we find ourselves a few more
Euro lighter then needed and with tickets that only
partially satisfy our needs. So far we happily ignore
this.
Santorini and Capri behind us we head for another
center of history and culture.
After we settle into our hotel in the center of Rome we
start what we think will be a short walk around the
neighborhood. We come to a beautiful fountain that we
admire for a while and continue our walk. Minutes later
we come to another fountain. This one makes the first
one look like a leaking pipeline. Impressed we stumble
on and go from one wonder to the next. The venitian
forum is a building spanning as much history as it does
space. The Colosseum is simply to impressive to be
appreciated from up to close. Rome is alive with much
more then history. The traffic is less hectic then I had
expected, but that is probably because the traffic on
Greece and Capri was worse. We try the subway for a bit
and end up eating at a cute street side restaurant near
our hotel in the political district. One after another
police escorted group of cars race down the street. We
have barely been 6 hours in Rome and have the feeling
we have seen enough to last a lifetime. Happy and tired
we head back to our hotel. Tomorrow is when we really
tour Rome!
Honeymoon log - June 10th
We have a little more trouble then usual trying to get
up early, probably the 'little' walks we take. We head
for the Vatican first. It is a pleasant yet very
impressive museum. By far the most impressive part is
the Sistine chapel. The museum setup forces tourists
to walk through all the rooms with fresco's, paintings,
tapestries and sculptures before ending at the Sistine
chapel. I actually agree with the audio guide
commentary that the chapels restoration can be
considered one of the most important events in art this
(last) century. Besides that they did a marvelous job I
think that the Sistine chapel might just be the most
impressive single room of historic art in the world. To
top this of we run through the St Peter. This place is
what you find when you look up 'big' in the dictionary.
For the Dutch readers: you can stand the Dom tower (112
meter) inside it without it touching walls or ceiling.
For the american readers: dude! It's like...huge! ;-)
Teresa decides to climb to the top (inside and outside
view) of the Copola (dome) and describes an awesome
view over Rome as well as experiencing vertigo which
justifies my staying on the ground (something I am
working on to overcome...but not today).
We are now tired beyond belief and with the excuse that
it will be impossible to enjoy anything after what we
have just seen we head back for the hotel for some well
deserved rest.
Honeymoon log - June 11th
We walked through Rome a little more through some parks
and shopping streets. The two weeks of continues
walking and sightseeing is now taking it's toll. We
take it easy and take naps. The last night in Rome is
spend in anticipation of our stay in Holland.
Honeymoon log - June 12th
We pack and take a taxi to the airport. The drive takes
us past quite a few historic buildings and beautiful
streets that we unfortunately don't see since we have our
eyes shut for most of the time out of sheer fear.
If the driver isn't honking or shouting at people out
of his window then he his manuevring his car in any way
he sees fit to get us in an unclear direction (we drove
over a sidewalk...twice). I wander what would happen if
we tell him to hurry...hmmm, then again the thought of
that already scares me. We fly into Amsterdam and are
picked up from the airport by my dad. Shari, Mr Sarabia,
Teresa's sister Margaret and her fiancee of 3 days
Conrado already made it to Lelystad.
Tomorrow there will be sightseeing for the tourists and a
special day for me.
Honeymoon log - June 13th
After a huge breakfast with 10 or so people the group of
americans is taken for a touristic tour of holland by my
dad. I am picked up by my sister and we drive to The
Hague where we pick up my brother for a brother-sister
day! We go down memory lane visiting the building where
our grandmother used to live. So many good memories. We
actually ring the bell and explain our situation to some
elderly lady who happily lets us enjoy the view over the
sea from the 6th floor. We head for kijkduin and have a
dubble portion of poffertjes (the single best Dutch
delicacy). We hang out around Scheveningen and at the
end of the day we are tired from laughing.
Honeymoon log - June 14th
With the younger generation of americans we make our way
to Rotterdam where at my brothers house we all take
Dutch bikes (to break: pedal backwards!) for a fun ride
across typical old Dutch countryside. Windmills, farmers
on wooden shoes and cycling, doesn't get more Dutch then
this so I quickly take a few pictures (first time for me
too).
Back at home we are welcomed by two more americans, my
cousin and her husband, and we all feast on an
Indonesian rice table. I miss the Indonesian kitchen.
Tomorrow is the party!
Honeymoon log - June 15th
Party time!
We spend the morning doing the last preparations for our
second wedding reception. There is a 5 level cake,
flowers for on my suit but the prize of the day is my
wife, for the second time in her wedding dress. As
stunning as before! The party is one big reunion with
old student house room mates, friends of the family,
family, old neighborhood friends, fraternity friends
and lots and lots of little kids. As with other parties
organized by our family everything is under control
including the weather. It rained yesterday it will rain
tomorrow but today is sunny, warm and blue skies under
which we try many a glass of champagne and beer from the
tab in the back of the very green garden.
A new and popular neighborhood hangout is the Finnish
hut in the back of my parents garden where we all end up
after the party group has shrunk to 15 ish diehards (the
usual suspects). Late but very very happy we end the
day.
Honeymoon log - June 16th
After a large breakfast at Hotel Lelystad most everyone
heads for the old-timer car exhibition in town. Me my
brother and Wilko pick up Jan-Willem and head for the
Loosdrechtse plassen where we have two small sail boats
and 5 more guys waiting for us. It is the start of
Marco's bachelors party. The sailing is good, a little
better by our boat then by the other as usual. The
weather is nice and we quickly find ourselves in a water
fight between the two boats. A 9-1 victory leaves both
boats and all the people inside them drenched, the day
has just begun. Lacking any towels or dry clothes we are
forced to sit in the sun and drink beer till we dry up
enough to head for amsterdam.
In a certain district in amsterdam (featuring the color
'red') we go from bar to bar until only the designated
drivers can find the way back to the cars.
Honeymoon log - June 17th
My head hurts, and it takes me a while to remember why.
My parents leave for a trip to Prague and the south of
France and we make our way to Utrecht. The weather in
holland has turned surprisingly hot all of a sudden so
we take it easy and sightsee our way through Utrecht for
the day.
Honeymoon log - June 18th
We toss Margaret, Conrado and Mr Sarabia into the train
to the airport at 7am and get back into bed. At the more
reasonable time of 11am we make our way to Amsterdam
where we do more 'typical' Dutch things. For the second
time in 3 days I hang out in a bar in the red light
district. We visit a museum featuring an exhibit 'love
for sale' about the history of prostitution. We check
out the goods at a coffeeshop and get to see how South
Korea (with a Dutch coach!) kicks Italy out of the world
cup. We also buy our plane ticket to London. Earlier we
where planning to drive through the chunnel, until my
wife heard that the 'chunnel' is not a ferry but a 30
mile tunnel connecting France to England. In the evening
I get to enjoy Indonesian food once more.
Honeymoon log - June 19th
A taxi gets us to the train to the airport. We say
goodbye to Shari and head to London Heathrow. We decide
to rent a car for the 5 days we will spend in England.
An hour later we find ourselves in the countryside
somewhere south of London. Lost. Well, not really lost
ofcourse (I am a guy) but more like temporarily
positionaly challenged. 5 minutes later we are
practically stuck in the mud in the middle of nowhere
and I have to give in to asking a local for the way to
our hotel. He speaks english, we are after all in
England. Unfortunately the english is not of the type
that I can make out more then about half the words. But
as mentioned before I am a guy and we only need about
half the directions to find our way. 30 minutes later we
have now been on most every little country road in the
province of Hampshire and my wife is getting the feeling
that our hotel will end up being a barn with some dry
grass in the corner for us to sleep on. To our surprise
out hotel the Trooper Inn ends up being a very cute
place with 8 rooms. We are in England to attend Marco's
wedding. Out of the 8 rooms 4 are reserved for various
people attending that wedding and to a bit of everyone's
surprise we are now with 5 groups of people. To most
peoples delight it ends up that Marco will sleep on the
floor of his parents room until another room becomes
available.
Honeymoon log - June 20th
We solve the over booking by disappearing to London for
two days. We end up parking just outside of London at a
Holiday Inn a 5 minute train ride from the center. We
take the London Underground and a dubble dekker tour bus
through London for some sightseeing. I take another step
in conquering my fear of heights and actually enjoy the
ride on the London Eye a 130 meter (400 foot) high
modern ferris wheel giving a magnificent view over all
of the city. The highlight of my wife's trip is when we
get to visit Harrods. After enjoying some sushi at one
of the 12 food halls we tour through this awe inspiring
shopping building for several hours. I personally like
the toy department best. Among other things it features
a 1/3 scale model gasoline engine powered hummer (does
40mph).
Honeymoon log - June 21st
Our second day in London is spend mostly in the tour bus.
It is surprisingly nice weather in this surprisingly
expensive city. Time to head back to Froxfield and East
Tisted for the last preparations for tomorrow's wedding.
At this time we have 7 rooms out of the 8. But with the
arrival of more unexpected guests we are still one short.
Being the honeymoon couple we get our own room and
leave the discussion of who gets to sleep where to the
other people. The family Driest has organized a small
party at a local pub to introduce the different families
and friends to each other. Many a beer make sure that we
all forget each others names again before the evening is
over. I'm not dwiving.
Honeymoon log - June 22nd
The wedding takes place in a cute old church from where
the bride and groom are driven to the party in a
decorated tractor. Great party in and around a large
tent. The weather barely holds up, but does. During and
after the speeches we enjoy the unlimited flow of
champagne and good food. There is disco and fireworks
and again, I am not driving. We end up taking a few
bottles back to the hotel for the after party but get
into trouble because we only have 7 and not 8 out of the
8 rooms in the hotel.
Honeymoon log - June 23rd
We are one of the very few that make it out of bed in
time for the Full English breakfast. Eggs, sausage,
bacon and ham. No those are not choices...all of it. In
the early afternoon there is a brunch at the brides
family. It is time for most people to head home but we
have one more day here and head out to find nearby
Stonehenge. A little disappointed that I don't get to
carve my name in a stone we head back and take a nap
before having dinner with the few leftover guests. We
prepare to leave europe.
Honeymoon log - June 24th
We discover (just in time) that we fly out of Gatwick,
and not Heatrow. At 6am in the morning we manage to
avoid most traffic by taking back roads leading us through
the beautiful and lush english countryside once more.
Mentioning our honeymoon gets us seats with extra leg
room for our 10 hour flight to Houston. After a trip
like that it comes as somewhat of a surprise that we
miss our connecting flight to Belize by 3 minutes. We
spend the night at the local Marriot.
Honeymoon log - June 25th
Jet leg gets us up early and I enjoy a cup of Starbucks
before setting foot outside. Here we notice that we have
not actually been outside of air conditioned rooms since
we left London. It is hot an nastily humid in Houston.
A few hours later when we get on the plane it starts
pouring rain like mad (2 weeks later Texas finds itself
with some major flooding problems).
Ok, so Houston wasn't hot at all compared to Belize.
From Belize international airport we take a 10 seat
propeller plane to San Pedro on the Ambergris Caye
peninsula. Ok, ok island (not the first or last bet I
lose this vacation). We are welcomed at the airport by
the owner of the Hotel we stay in and taken on a tour of
the city on a golf cart. The 'city' consists of 3
streets. Shops and restaurants everywhere and our guide
is busy pointing out places to go (all of them) and
mixing this with menu specials.
Our hotel apartment is beautiful. Palm trees and a
white sand beach away from the Caribean Sea. It is a
little windy and there are a few clouds.
During the mid part of the day it gets hot enough for me
to break a sweat while sitting still. Somehow it is not
unpleasant. The humidity quickly slows you down to a
very relaxed pace. At night we leave all of the window
panels wide open and create a little mini storm in our
bedroom. At midnight it cools to about 85 degrees (25
Celsius).
Honeymoon log - June 26th
The time difference with England is only about 5 hours
and with the long days in England (4:00am-10:30pm) it
somehow is easy to adjust to Belize time.
It is still pretty windy and partially overcast so we
decide to take it easy and check out the Island for a
bit. Our hotel helps us book some tours for the coming
days and also provides free bikes. We bike through San
Pedro (features in one of Madonna's songs). Half the
houses are still visibly on stilt's and made of wood. All
the modern buildings (mostly hotels and resorts) are
made of concrete and build with a ground floor. This
puzzles me a little after hearing that only 2 years ago
the island was last hit by a major (Cat 4) hurricane.
The hurricane ruined most of the weaker wooden buildings
while at the same time flooding the island causing
damage to anything that wasn't build on stilt's. I'd
rather take my chances with the earthquakes in
california.
We tour to the north side of the island and after a hand
pulled ferry we find some older housing in an area
quickly being overtaken by more hotels and resorts. This
part of the peninsula is at most 200 yards wide and we
consider investing in beach front property. People are
friendly and speak English (English-Honduras turned into
independent Belize in 1981). Quite a few older british
people live here but all claim they moved here AFTER
1981.
The wind isn't dying down which is causing us to
rearrange some tours. Tomorrow we go snorkeling with
Alphons (highly recommended).
Honeymoon log - June 27th
The wind (storm) is still here. Night and day. We hear
that without the wind it will be 110 degrees...so we
start enjoying the breeze.
We are up early and take our time fitting snorkeling
equipment at our hotel. It has been recommended we
don't learn how to scuba dive on our honeymoon. We only
have 5 days at the beach, and spending 3 days in classes
is a waste of our honeymoon. Next time we take the
classes at home and go for the certified dive over here.
So we wait for Alphons, the super snorkeler, fish-man,
legend...and surprise for us, only about 30 (we expected
some old geezer :-) With 10 other tourists we head out
to the Barrier reef. At the first stop called Hol Chan we
get in the 4 foot deep water and are greeted by a group
of 1 and a half foot tall fish and a 3 foot huge black
grouper. They swim around and between us within arms
length. I have to control myself to save some of our
under-water-camera pictures for later. Alphons shows us
why other divers point to him and tell their groups to
just follow him. He points us fish, large (6 feet) and
small. Crabs, a 2 foot lobster(!) and moray eels. Corals
of all sizes and colors. 45 minutes later, when we are
on our way to Shark Ray Alley, everyone is super excited
about what we have already seen. Alphons know's sharks
by name. "This here is pete" he says when grabbing a 6
foot brown nurse shark and turning him over so we can
pat his white belly. Pete seems not to mind. The water
is about 10 foot deep here and we are swimming in between
schools of huge fish, several sharks and about 10 large
stingray. Alphons shows us that stingrays make nice
hats. I get to hold Pete for a photo shoot. I keep
turning the shark around and showing him the smaller
tourists in our group, just in case he decides that
photo time is over and it is now lunch. Have I mentioned
that the water temperature is 82 degrees (26 Celsius)
year around. We run out of film.
The rest of the day is spend leisurely. I (finally) get my
haircut and Teresa now has braids (cute). We find the
local beach pub and hear gossip and weather predictions.
Storm=2 votes. Rain=2 votes. Sun=2 votes. Heatwave=2
votes. Hurricane=2 votes. Boy this rum is good.
We fall asleep way early.
Honeymoon log - June 28th
We signed up for the Bacalar Chico Tour today and find
ourselves in a boat with Captain Ricky, little Ricky,
Josh and 6 other tourists. Our first stop is at
artificial reef at the other side of the island. The
reef is not very interesting but the stories around it
are. A guy by the name of Pinkerton lived at this
secluded spot on the island claiming to do some fishing.
In reality he had found a nearby Maya ruin and over 10
years time had removed and sold all the relics, dumping
the excess stones in the sea (the artificial reef).
Finally when the police showed up someone had tipped him
of and he had fled to Mexico.
Next part of the tour takes us through a 1 mile canal
dug several thousand years ago by the Mayans separating
the key from the mainland. This canal is also the border
between Mexico and Belize.
We get to snorkel at two spots near the reef. Nice but
no Hol Chan. More fresh fish for lunch and here we hear
someone make a remark that I now treasure as the best
expression heard during our honeymoon "Leftover
Lobster".
In the mean time our skipper decides that we can't make
the full circle around the island because the ongoing
storm doesn't allow us to go outside of the reef.
Honeymoon log - June 29th
Today we take it easy. We head for town and rent a golf
cart, the popular form of getting around on the island.
We head north first, past the hand ferry and have a
wonderful lunch at Sweet Basil. From here we go back
south. An hour later we find ourselves at the swampy
south end of the island. The reef continues for several
hundred more miles all the way to the southern border of
Belize and Guatemala.
Dinner in San Pedro at Elvi's. The wind has died down a
bit and it is getting (even) hotter.
Honeymoon log - June 30th
Teresa has convinced me to go on a full day fishing
tour. We hook up with another honeymoon couple we met a
few days earlier and step on Servio's fishing boat early
in the morning. Once we are out near the reef we share 2
fishing rods with a live sardine on one end and a
tourist on the other. So far I still don't like fishing.
5 minutes later one of the sardine's ends up as breakfast
for a big fish. The fight takes 10 full minutes and we
end up staring at a 10 pound red snapper. Our lunch. I
am now wildly excited about fishing. We continue to
catch several yellow fin snappers, an amberjack that
we have for dinner later, a 3 foot barracuda (also
dinner), a tiny grouper, some large and wild needle fish
(thin, long, strong, and full of teeth) and a huge queen
trigger fish. The last one we toss back because we feel
guilty about it looking straight from a professional
aquarium.
Lunch is the red snapper. Servio grills this while we
sip on some pinacolada's and it is the best single piece
of fish I have ever had. After lunch we snorkel a little
and try some more fishing, but the fish like siesta as
much as we would like it now. We bring some of our
freshly caught fish to a restaurant for dinner, what a
delight.
Now that the wind is almost gone it has turned hot and
clammy during the night. We are looking forward to our
inland trip tomorrow.
Honeymoon log - July 1st
Up early. It is hot. Start packing and start sweating. I
stop sweating later in the afternoon when we arrive at
the Five Sisters Lodge. From Belize airport a 2 hour
drive over paved road + another hour over un-paved road.
Our apartment has a view, the best one in the whole
honeymoon. We are looking at the Fives Sisters
Waterfalls. 5 small waterfalls about 200 foot below us.
We take a quick walk down and a dip before it is time
for dinner. We decide to hang out at our apartment
after dinner to play some cards. Big mistake. After 5
minutes we spot the first bug (a 3 inch spider in our
bed). 10 minutes later our apartment is filled with
bugs. We hurry (and some of us scream) to get into bed.
The mosquito net over our bed is a pleasant luxury. We
try to sleep. Teresa refuses to let go of me. I refuse
to stop sweating.
Honeymoon log - July 2nd
John our guide for today drives us and another honeymoon
couple to the entrance of the Barton Creek Caves. We
take two canoes into these caves and go in for about a
mile (the caves go on for another 11 miles). Beautiful
stalagtites and stalagmites full of bats. This place was
also used as a sacrifice place for a mayan culture. The
human bones of the 'volunteers' are a creepy site.
We spend the afternoon at the waterfalls at our lodge.
Honeymoon log - July 3rd
For the second day in a row we hook up with the
honeymoon couple Jean and Andy from Georgia. Today we
make a trip to the maya ruins of Caracol. Archaeologists
are still busy with the excavations and they have nicely
restored one of the biggest temples. We climb to the
top, 120 * 1 foot steps. A nice view over the trees from
here. At least that is what they tell me because I am to
busy trying to drink water faster then I am sweating it
out. Hard to believe that this was not just a temple but
actual living quarters too. The biggest surprise about
the whole maya culture to me is that this advanced
culture that lived from several thousands years B.C. to
aprox 1100 A.C. never invented the wheel! We also get
to visit a local butterfly farm and a few caves before
we go for a very pleasant and refreshing swim near yet
another waterfall.
Honeymoon log - July 4th
We say our last goodbye's to Jean and Andy who are now
heading for the Ambergris Caye and decide to take it
easy for our last day. Hanging out at the waterfalls and
playing Skip-Bo in the bar we think back at a wonderful
honeymoon. To make sure I don't miss out on any of the
goodies this country has to offer I order 'Belize
Cocaine' from the menu. Only a little disappointed I find
that this is a drink. Disappointment quickly turns around
when I hear that the amount of alcohol in this drink
makes a long island ice tea look like a cup of earl
grey. I trust Teresa to find the way back to our hut.
Honeymoon log - July 5th
On our way to the airport we make a stop at the Belize
Zoo. Not an unpleasant place with lots of room for the
animals to run around. We finally get to see the howler
monkey and a few jaguar's. It is still very very hot and
before we totally get eaten by mosquitoes we make our way
to the airport and with a stopover in El Salvador make
our way back to San Francisco.
A perfect trip with perfect company. This promises to be
a good start of the rest of our lives.
With love,
Dam & Teresa Backer
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