Our Wedding!

We thought we´d add a few photos to the blog of our day! And it seems fitting since today is our 1 month Anniversary!
All I want to say is MIL GRACIAS (a thousand thanks) to Jill for capturing the day so perfectly! We are thrilled with every single one! You are the best!
To see more pictures, check out the link to Jill´s Blog. (on the right under our slideshow)

Goodbye Antigua, Hello San Pedro!

So here are the pictures! We ended up hanging out with Jessie and Ben from Wisconsin for the past 4 days or so, that´s them at the flying dog reggae bar with us!


We spent five wonderful days in the beautiful city of Antigua, Guatemala during their Easter celebrations! We were soo excited for this leg of the trip. We had our hotel booked in October and we were ready to experience the party! Unfortunately, Mike came down with a wicked case of traveller´s you-know-what...so we ended up spending most of our time in the hotel room. We managed to get out and see some of the festivities (pictures to come!) and joined in on the super-fun processional for Easter Sunday. We´ve been learning to roll with the gastro-intestinal punches, so to speak. We have adapted to feeling mildly nauseous...pretty much everyday! ha.
We are now currently in a little village where you´ll find some very interesting indigenous Mayan people and other hippie travellers, like ourselves. It´s called San Pedro and it´s located on a 1000 foot deep lake called Lake Atitlan. It feels a lot like Muskoka here except for the fact that we´re surrounded by mountains and volcanoes!

Lost in San Cristobal de Las Casas

When we arrived in San Cristobal, we checked into a place called Planet Hostal, which was quite a nice place, but not found in our guide book. We then proceeded to stay out past dark and couldn´t remember where the heck the hostel was. Umm...not so much fun wandering around an unfamiliar city in mexico after dark. So, we approached a fairly nice looking man and asked if he knew where the hostel was. He´d never heard of it...great. However, he turned out to be our new favourite person in mexico! His name was Cido and he was DETERMINED to help us find the place. He threw us in the back of his pinata filled pickup truck (we´re talking life size Cinderella, Spiderman and Venom...) and drove us around for 45 minutes! He did not let us leave his side until we were safe in our ´´home´´ as he called it. It turns out Planet Hostal had just recently changed names. Once we made this connection, Cido told us that we started about 20 meters from the place and he would have been able to take us straight there. Cést la vie! We made a wonderful friend in this man even though each of us struggled to communicate all night in broken english and spanish. Mike and I both agreed this was our first "story" of the trip. Cido is in one of the pictures with us!

We have stayed for 4 days in San Cristobal de Las Casas, which was a welcome break from all of our travelling! The city is about 2000 m. above sea level, and so is actually quite cool, also a welcome break. We leave for Antigua, Guatemala to enjoy the Semana Santa (Holy Week) festivities. Adios!

Mayan Ruins

Buenos Noches! (thought I´d try a new spanish greeting...you may get sick of "Hola")
We have finally managed to get a few photos downloaded! It only takes about 5 minutes per photo! Luckily the internet is free right now!
In the past week or so we have visited 4 Mayan Ruin sites throughout the Yucatan. They were all so beautiful and so different from one another.
Tulum was the smallest, but right on the Atlantic coast. Many ancient buildings were set on the backdrop of turquoise water. (which we got to dive into after our hike through the site!)
Chichen Itza was the most impressive of the four. The main pyramid took our breath away. We wished we could have climbed to the top, but as we read, about two years ago a woman fell off and died...so now they have roped it off.
Uxmal, (pronounced oosh-mal) was one of our favourites! This one was much more interactive. We got to climb and explore all over the place! We toured around with some friends we met in Merida. Claire, who was from Paris, France (oo-lala), and Mark who was from Germany...not sure where exactly. We took a much slower pace this day (I think because there were four of us, and we didn´t want to rush anyone)It was gorgeous to look out from the top of some of these buildings.
Lastly, we toured the Palenque ruins. We found these ones to be the most scenic as they were set in the middle of the jungle. The plants in Palenque just THRIVE on the humidity, so every building, every stone was covered in ferns and moss. Unfortunately we had just taken an overnight bus ride into Palenque and decided to tour the ruins before taking a nap. Three hours later we collapsed in our cabana for six hours. We then woke up, had dinner and collapsed again for the night. We were exhausted.

Okay, ´nuff said.

Hasta la vista!

Mirinda y Miguel

Ps. we are actually in every photo... it´s like where´s waldo!

Merida - Our New Favourite Place!

After staying in Cancun, Isla Mujeres, Tulum, and Valladolid we arrived in Merida. We have seen so much so far and it has only been ´uno semana´! This city is bustling with culture. We arrived on Sunday and got a great room overlooking the Grand Plaza. The Hostel Zocala is a beautiful building with 12 foot ceilings and beautiful arches. Every weekend there is a festival in the Plaza and we caught the last day. We ate 60 cent tacos that tasted great and by the end of the night everyone was literally dancing in the streets! (Did I mention that this happens every week!)

This morning we found our way (with some difficulty and a lot of walking!) to Cuzama, a small town outside of Merida. There we took a horse and buggy ride to 3 cenotes. All the rivers in the Yucatan run underground and small pools are created when the ground collapses over them. These pools are called cenotes, and they are ¨muy bonita¨! We were basically swimmimg and diving in caves filled with the clearest water we have ever seen! Thank goodness for the man who lent us his goggles for awhile...

(pictures to come soon... our camera died)

Miguel and Mirinda

Hola from Mexico!

Our luxurious honeymoon is over! We stayed in a beautiful, all-inclusive resort in Cancun for the last 4 nights. We enjoyed our Pina Coladas and Sex on the Beach as well as the nightlife... Spring Break 2008 wooohoo!

Today we left the resort and went to Isla Mujeres (Woman Island) to swim with the dolphins! Our dolphin, Nala, was incredible, giving us kisses, handshakes and rides around the ocean! Our standards for accomodation have dropped drastically, as we are now at a dorm style hostel in seperate beds that costs $10 a night. It is a little overwhelming for both of us, but we have eachother and are excited to begin our travels!

Matt gave me a book to read that was apparently the Hippie Bible, called Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenace. I really enjoyed this quote and hope to live by it:

"Plans are deliberately indefinate, more to travel than to arrive anywhere..... We want to make good time, but for us now this is measured with emphasis on "good" rather than "time" and when you make that shift in emphasis the whole aprroach changes."

Buenos Noches!

Miguel & Mirinda