Thursday, November 20, 2008
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Honeymoon update.... day?? too close to leaving...
Sorry, this is a long one... partly because I want to remember the history of our one of our visits.
Its Sunday... The wind is going CA-RAZY!!!! It started last night.... According to the one weather station its blowing 220 km per hour... i don't know about that... but it sure is blowing. Ryan says its "rediqulous" and he feels like he's "already back in Oklahoma". I would not want to be here during a tropical storm, that's for sure, though this little cabanas are pretty tough. Asside from hearing the wind and the breeze through the 2 open doors, nothing is rattling. and I can't feel any breeze through out closed screen window door things. Plus, we got things scheduled just right. We had all our tours done. Today was massage day which happens on the island... and we requested a couple movies... so we're nice and cozy. PLUS- its football day... so we weren't planning to go anywhere out of the cabana anyway. It also is keeping the mosquitoes at bay.
It seems strange to be going home tomorrow. I'm a bit torn. I'm ready to come home and move completely into OUR house... see the puppy, cuddle in OUR bed and have MY pillow back. And yet, we have had amazing weather and done awesome things. People here (not just on our private island) are so nice. We have seen some cool things and waking up to the sounds of water, overlooking total blue is not a bad way to live. We've been trying to figure out how to pack for our return trip.... Its a little tight. We should have just brought a bigger suitcase, but alas, we weren't thinking... I think we'll get it though. We can leave behind some of the toiletries we brought and we've used up most of the 80 SPF.
At anyrate... You don't want to hear about packing and I'm rambling here.... So- On with more stolen pictures!
Yesterday we took a boat from our little island and crossed the blue water to the mainland. We took a river inland farther to a tiny little town called Bomba. It has between 75-100 people who live there, and its primary buisness is selling would carving to tourists and taking them up the river and in buses to various other tourist sites. It is a very impoverished little town. Everyone goes barefoot (though I did notice that's more of a choice than a necessity). There are about as many dogs that live in the town as children (about 7 or 8 of each), and everyone there basically lives off the land and has enough garden and chicken to feed their family.
From there, by bus its about 20 minutes to the next larger town (maybe 300 people, but i'm guessing here) where the school and hurricane shelter is. Its a gnarly little road that looks like at one point in time it may have been paved. Today its this chalky colored dirt with tons of potholes and crosses a stream a couple of times. The waters around here are supposedly home to crocodiles, though we never saw any. Later on we found out the water is about 7ft higher than normal (not sure why), but that's why we didn't see as many turtles or any crocs.
So from Bomba we took the bus about an hour and a half to Orange Walk -a larger city along the main north/south highway. We didn't actually go into the town; from the outskirts we took another boat 30 miles south to Lamani (which is supposed to mean "submerged crocodile" but the Brits screwed it up and now it actually means "submerged insect")-- at anyrate, its a Mayan site.
Lamani is one of the largest in Belize, and has over 700 buildings on the site, most aren't excavated however. Our tour guide told us that just about every hill you see on the site is not a hill, but some sort of Mayan temple or building. It makes sense as the land all around is very flat. The Mayan's in this area were farmers and traders and, according to our guide, clear cut most of the jungle away. According to history it was inhabited by Maya for over 3000 years until at least 1600 AD. The jungle has definately grown back since then. Howler Monkies inhabit the trees above, and reportedly all assortments of wild cats and snakes lurk in its jungles, though we didn't see any of the later.
As you come down the river if you look carefully you see one of the temples, affectionately named 10-43 peaking out from the jungle. It is 108 feet tall, and while a short climb, it is quite uh... tiresome. The "steps" up are very tall and shallow. They have a yellow rope hooked near the top to assist you in your climb... good thing too, and getting up to the top isn't nearly as bad as coming down.
This is also the site of a cool temple thing with a face on it, appropriately called the Mask Temple. It had 4 masks on it at one point, the top two were removed and one is still uncovered. The one showing is covered with a poor shed type structure, which was put in place when the blue paint that once covered the face was washed away, along with a crocodile headpiece on the mask. It is someone from the Olmec society. It is believed that the origins of Olmec are African as the features on this face are not typical to the Mayan (broad nose, large lips).
Ok. So enough of the history lesson- Here are some stolen pictures from our journey.
Map outline of our journey
Typical Bomba "shop" We bought a bowl from this man.
A broader view of the town of Bomba, and the bus we took.
Lamani peaking over the jungle.
The tall temple we climbed to the top.
The Olmec Mask
Its Sunday... The wind is going CA-RAZY!!!! It started last night.... According to the one weather station its blowing 220 km per hour... i don't know about that... but it sure is blowing. Ryan says its "rediqulous" and he feels like he's "already back in Oklahoma". I would not want to be here during a tropical storm, that's for sure, though this little cabanas are pretty tough. Asside from hearing the wind and the breeze through the 2 open doors, nothing is rattling. and I can't feel any breeze through out closed screen window door things. Plus, we got things scheduled just right. We had all our tours done. Today was massage day which happens on the island... and we requested a couple movies... so we're nice and cozy. PLUS- its football day... so we weren't planning to go anywhere out of the cabana anyway. It also is keeping the mosquitoes at bay.
It seems strange to be going home tomorrow. I'm a bit torn. I'm ready to come home and move completely into OUR house... see the puppy, cuddle in OUR bed and have MY pillow back. And yet, we have had amazing weather and done awesome things. People here (not just on our private island) are so nice. We have seen some cool things and waking up to the sounds of water, overlooking total blue is not a bad way to live. We've been trying to figure out how to pack for our return trip.... Its a little tight. We should have just brought a bigger suitcase, but alas, we weren't thinking... I think we'll get it though. We can leave behind some of the toiletries we brought and we've used up most of the 80 SPF.
At anyrate... You don't want to hear about packing and I'm rambling here.... So- On with more stolen pictures!
Yesterday we took a boat from our little island and crossed the blue water to the mainland. We took a river inland farther to a tiny little town called Bomba. It has between 75-100 people who live there, and its primary buisness is selling would carving to tourists and taking them up the river and in buses to various other tourist sites. It is a very impoverished little town. Everyone goes barefoot (though I did notice that's more of a choice than a necessity). There are about as many dogs that live in the town as children (about 7 or 8 of each), and everyone there basically lives off the land and has enough garden and chicken to feed their family.
From there, by bus its about 20 minutes to the next larger town (maybe 300 people, but i'm guessing here) where the school and hurricane shelter is. Its a gnarly little road that looks like at one point in time it may have been paved. Today its this chalky colored dirt with tons of potholes and crosses a stream a couple of times. The waters around here are supposedly home to crocodiles, though we never saw any. Later on we found out the water is about 7ft higher than normal (not sure why), but that's why we didn't see as many turtles or any crocs.
So from Bomba we took the bus about an hour and a half to Orange Walk -a larger city along the main north/south highway. We didn't actually go into the town; from the outskirts we took another boat 30 miles south to Lamani (which is supposed to mean "submerged crocodile" but the Brits screwed it up and now it actually means "submerged insect")-- at anyrate, its a Mayan site.
Lamani is one of the largest in Belize, and has over 700 buildings on the site, most aren't excavated however. Our tour guide told us that just about every hill you see on the site is not a hill, but some sort of Mayan temple or building. It makes sense as the land all around is very flat. The Mayan's in this area were farmers and traders and, according to our guide, clear cut most of the jungle away. According to history it was inhabited by Maya for over 3000 years until at least 1600 AD. The jungle has definately grown back since then. Howler Monkies inhabit the trees above, and reportedly all assortments of wild cats and snakes lurk in its jungles, though we didn't see any of the later.
As you come down the river if you look carefully you see one of the temples, affectionately named 10-43 peaking out from the jungle. It is 108 feet tall, and while a short climb, it is quite uh... tiresome. The "steps" up are very tall and shallow. They have a yellow rope hooked near the top to assist you in your climb... good thing too, and getting up to the top isn't nearly as bad as coming down.
This is also the site of a cool temple thing with a face on it, appropriately called the Mask Temple. It had 4 masks on it at one point, the top two were removed and one is still uncovered. The one showing is covered with a poor shed type structure, which was put in place when the blue paint that once covered the face was washed away, along with a crocodile headpiece on the mask. It is someone from the Olmec society. It is believed that the origins of Olmec are African as the features on this face are not typical to the Mayan (broad nose, large lips).
Ok. So enough of the history lesson- Here are some stolen pictures from our journey.
Map outline of our journey
Typical Bomba "shop" We bought a bowl from this man.
A broader view of the town of Bomba, and the bus we took.
Lamani peaking over the jungle.
The tall temple we climbed to the top.
The Olmec Mask
Friday, November 14, 2008
Honeymoon update...day #...?????
So, I'm not entirely sure what day it is... I think its Friday.... which means I've been on this island for.... ummmmm.... ah, who's counting!?!?
We have taken tons of pictures... alas we don't have a card reader to upload those pictures.... so i've scoured the internet.... (spent about 10 minutes googling) for some update pictures for you all.... here is what I've stolen:
We took a flight out of Dallas on Tuesday into Belize City... Here's the international airport... as you can see, its HUGE! (ok... not really.... about the size of Chattanooga Airport... maybe a bit smaller)
From there we waited on our little plane.... (I actually flew in this plane and wasn't TOO freaked out... I'm growing!-- actually it was kinda cool- so long as you didn't think about a rough landing in the ocean). Sadly, it wasn't one of those planes that have the cool pontoon landing pads...
--- just took a little break to learn to fly fish and my face feels sufficiently burned. yay. ------
At anyrate.... we took our little plane to San Pedro on Ambergris Caye where the people from Cayo Espanto picked us up and took us on our little boat ride to our private get away....
This is my current view:
Actually, this was my view all day yesterday too... while Ryan went scuba diving ..... i didn't go.... thought about it... but ended up not... which was good because I ended up very sick yesterday.... but by the time he got home I was much better... still didn't eat much, but all ok....
I know I should probably be upset that he had fun and i was in bed ill.... especially when I was entertained with stories of coral and fish at his return... and then he told me he saw lots of boobies. ON OUR HONEYMOON! He even went to the Booby shop, but in the end, I suppose it was ok...
Actally, yesterday wasn't all bad... once i felt better I had my mini massage and then a got a coffee, honey, coconut scrub and a facial.... so by the time he got back I was quite relaxed, and I smelled really good too.
and now that I've made you all sufficiently jealous, I am heading to change into my swim suit and sit in our shaded plunge pool and nurse this sunburn.
Sabbath we head to the jungles and go on a tour of Lamani... will definately post some from that too.
We have taken tons of pictures... alas we don't have a card reader to upload those pictures.... so i've scoured the internet.... (spent about 10 minutes googling) for some update pictures for you all.... here is what I've stolen:
We took a flight out of Dallas on Tuesday into Belize City... Here's the international airport... as you can see, its HUGE! (ok... not really.... about the size of Chattanooga Airport... maybe a bit smaller)
From there we waited on our little plane.... (I actually flew in this plane and wasn't TOO freaked out... I'm growing!-- actually it was kinda cool- so long as you didn't think about a rough landing in the ocean). Sadly, it wasn't one of those planes that have the cool pontoon landing pads...
--- just took a little break to learn to fly fish and my face feels sufficiently burned. yay. ------
At anyrate.... we took our little plane to San Pedro on Ambergris Caye where the people from Cayo Espanto picked us up and took us on our little boat ride to our private get away....
This is my current view:
Actually, this was my view all day yesterday too... while Ryan went scuba diving ..... i didn't go.... thought about it... but ended up not... which was good because I ended up very sick yesterday.... but by the time he got home I was much better... still didn't eat much, but all ok....
I know I should probably be upset that he had fun and i was in bed ill.... especially when I was entertained with stories of coral and fish at his return... and then he told me he saw lots of boobies. ON OUR HONEYMOON! He even went to the Booby shop, but in the end, I suppose it was ok...
Actally, yesterday wasn't all bad... once i felt better I had my mini massage and then a got a coffee, honey, coconut scrub and a facial.... so by the time he got back I was quite relaxed, and I smelled really good too.
and now that I've made you all sufficiently jealous, I am heading to change into my swim suit and sit in our shaded plunge pool and nurse this sunburn.
Sabbath we head to the jungles and go on a tour of Lamani... will definately post some from that too.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
That's MRS DOHLMAN to you!
Well- the grand event has come and gone.... it was everything I had hoped it would be... minus a few of my friends who are new moms.... but i still love them... :)
The only thing that I think went wrong was that I forgot my beautiful garters I had ordered with Ryan and my names on them.... but thank goodness for good friends. Keri, armed with GPS trapsed around Tulsa until she found me an ivory one. And only a couple were the wiser.
It was so wonderful to have so many girlfriend, good friends, and family there, and despite the coldness of outside the wedding was just as warm and as beautiful as I had hoped... (and I wasn't all the cold, despite what people thought... i just didn't know what to do with myself... so I was a little jumpy).
At anyrate... friends have already started posting pictures on the internet.... so here a couple of my favorites thus far.
The only thing that I think went wrong was that I forgot my beautiful garters I had ordered with Ryan and my names on them.... but thank goodness for good friends. Keri, armed with GPS trapsed around Tulsa until she found me an ivory one. And only a couple were the wiser.
It was so wonderful to have so many girlfriend, good friends, and family there, and despite the coldness of outside the wedding was just as warm and as beautiful as I had hoped... (and I wasn't all the cold, despite what people thought... i just didn't know what to do with myself... so I was a little jumpy).
At anyrate... friends have already started posting pictures on the internet.... so here a couple of my favorites thus far.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Oklahoma- Land of Strangeness.
Yet another strange experience since moving to the wilds. We went to church yesterday- the Adventist church here was holding its Fall Retreat at Quartz Mountains, when we came home after lunch and our Sabbath afternoon drive, this met us at the door. (this happened in about 3 hours time). These mini-tumbleweeds tumble around pretty frequently.... but I've never seen them get this type of group rate....
Outside Ryan's house
Dad lends perspective
This is Ryan's friend Brian's house... he lives just around the corner...
Outside Ryan's house
Dad lends perspective
This is Ryan's friend Brian's house... he lives just around the corner...
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
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