turtle time

we adventured 6 days, 7 nights, like the movie of the same name, into the wilderness to work at a leatherback turtle project called Quelonios del Caribe on the shores of Costa Rica, the shimmering ocean in front of us and the canals of the rio Pacuare to our backs. we were surrounded by nature, and all the gazing into the stars, the waves on the beach, the coconuts and pine trees, clear skies and sunsets has reduced my tolerance for looking at a computer screen.

we took an active role patrolling the beach at night to save the mamoth "baula" or leatherback turtle from extinction: one in ten thousand leatherback turtle eggs reach the age of a mature adult turtle. mostly because poachers steal their eggs when they come to the beach. some things you didn't know about leatherback turtles:

they lay 80 to 100 eggs at a time

they mate by mounting each other and staying mounted for two weeks (!)

the females travel 25,000 nautical miles (larger than a mile) and still lay eggs on the same beach where they were born.

they travel by "flying" through the current

they eat jelleyfish

there was the boat journey from the rio pacuare, an incredible reserve. here we are painting the walls, we love our turtle guides sabrina, arnold and ben. i made the alien spaceship sending love. it has something to do with turtles, somehow. also pictured is the hatchery where the nests are re-dug by us and watched over to protect them from poatchers 24 hours, every day.

still on the road

jungle people on a suspension bridge on our way up volcano santiaguito in guatemala. we packed everything but our humility as we set off on a rocking adventure... without knowing how much adventure we would soon boast about
you have to look very carefully, but you can see the natives

charlie's angels, with our friend Rea from switzerland, getting ready to take off from xela on our trek

here is where we set up camp - in the middle of the jungle. here we are drying our wet clothes
we arrived to a gorge about 40 feet deep. we could hear the rumbling of a volcano... which was really a lahar, a mud slide mixed with ash and steaming vapor that came spewing down the gorge like an avalanche and sent mud flying several feet over the edge, eroding the cliff near where we were standing. without knowing how much danger we were in, we stood stunned as our guide said, go. Go. GO!!! we ran down the path pouring rain ankle deep in water and slid down a waterfall all the while the loud rumbling behind our tracks
here is volcano santiaguito, daring another group of people to test their supposed superiority over nature and its awesome power again

Fun times in XELA (Quetzaltenango) - this is where we took spanish classes at casa xelaju, went to the hot springs at fuentes georginas, met some more travelers and ate swiss food at a restaurant called panarama.
amanda, jessica and neil, susie´s (and now our) friend with a gift of adivination. this was taken in san marcos la laguna, where we took meditation, yoga and metaphysics classes and learned about the tarot and the kaballah as well as astral traveling and lucid dreams

Susie's WILD BIRTHDAY (Aug. 8)

here is susie with a life-size blow up doll of someone special to her. the hair is pantyhose, the beard is cotton candy, the shirt says 'hello i am your jungle boy lover' and yes, the doll was manufactured to be anatomically correct. she loves it

to celebrate we went to a guatemalan drag show, where britney spears gave us all he/she had in a whopping rendition of hit me baby one more time

i'll leave you with a sneak peak of the top of non-active volcano santa maria, on a midnight hike with tom. more of those pics to come. now it is off to costa rica, where we'll be dancing with sea turtles on moonlit beaches

oops, i forgot to mention... a little out of order now...




we took a trip to tikal, site of mayan ruins in guatemala.



i think this was the temple of the great jaguar




semana santa in xela








choco krispies!!!

and now for the artistic series....

volcanoes and antigua

leap!!

jessica the flower child. she had her following anywhere she went





makin´tortillas! i´m so proud!
the boyz

in the streets of antigua

a ceremony performed by a shaman for us. we learned about the mayan calendar and the significance of our birthdays. now we´re on to Xela (Quetzaltenango) where we´ll be in Spanish School and be present for semana santa.