The Grand Canyon

Here are some photos of the Grand Canyon. It's as amazing as they all say.

Arizona

My Dad, Aunt and I decided to skip the last snowfall (at least I thought it was going to be the last!) of the season and to visit family near Phoenix. We had a great time driving all over the place, looking at as many cactus and mountains as possible, went on some scary roads a little too close to shear drops, and hung out with our Arizona family. It was sunny and beautiful every day. In the mornings, we ate fresh grapefruit from the tree in the back yard and studied maps of where we were going on our daily adventure. After 5 or 6 days, we headed up through Flagstaff (loved this town!) and to the Grand Canyon!! I don't need to tell you how beautiful this was - it was sort of unreal and indescribable (not very helpful, I know). After spending the night in a cute little town on Route 66 called Williams, we traveled over to the Nevada border. We stopped at the marvelous Hoover Dam and then over to - you guessed it - Las Vegas. We didn't win big, but we had a lot of fun. My Dad hadn't been there for about 35 years, so it was fun to show him around a bit.

Here's some images taken from our travels in AZ:

Ahh, the open road...
big rocks everywhere

I didn't get sick of seeing cactus and desert.





this is a petrified cactus:




I heart Arizona!! :)

Panama!

I'm a little behind on my posting, but I had to throw up some photos of Panama. We were enjoying our worry-free days spent drinking coffee, sitting at the beach and taking a bike ride or two, when we realized that we were too close to Panama to not check it out. So, we spent an exciting three days on the islands of Bocas Del Toro and Bastimentos. We stayed in Bocas for two nights and then went to the island of Bastimentos. At times I've felt like we were in another world when traveling around, but spending time on Isla Bastimentos, it felt more like I was dreaming. Could this place really exist outside of my imagination? Drew and I wondered around in our dream-like state, accepting that if we were making it all up, at least we had happy imaginations. Bastimentos has one foot path running the length of the island, lined with houses and a few restaurants. Cars and roads have no place on this island. Locals sat on their porches and in their yards chatting and doing each other's hair. Women walked down the foot path with large umbrellas to guard themselves from the sun. We didn't have an umbrella so we just walked slower, trying to stay cool and take it all in. The island's heavy Jamaica influence made us forget that we were in Panama and not visiting Bob Marley's old stomping grounds. We sat at a small restaurant to grab a bite to eat and the owner informed us that they hadn't caught any fish that day so the menu was pretty limited. Drew ordered a lemonade and a water to rehydrate and the man brought him a beer. Without skipping a beat, Drew said "thank you" and drank his beer. This is the type of place where you accept what was given and just enjoy it. Later in the evening, we ate on the water at a little place called "The Red Rooster." The owner said he visited this island for a couple days over 20 years ago. He immediately went home to Texas, sold his business and house and then came right back. He said he doesn't like going to the main island of Bocas because he doesn't like the "traffic." I guess any place that has cars is seen as having traffic when you live in a place like this. We slept in a cabin in the jungle. The insects sang us to sleep and the birds woke us before the sun had a chance to rise. We caught a water taxi to Bocas in the morning and then to the main land to start our journey back to Costa Rica (which felt like going back home) in a curious but happy state, never wanting to - or being able to - forget the glimpse we witnessed of life on the islands of Panama.


This is the bridge we had to cross on foot in order to enter Panama:just across the border:


water taxi:
Bocas Del Toro:
my sweetie:
being silly - that was the key our hotel gave us:
Red Frog Beach:



Isla Bastimentos from the boat:
This 3 year old bi-lingual, adorable girl crawled right into Drew's lap to show him pictures:
She insisted that she do my hair:
typical house on the island:




at the end of the foot path:

can you see the bug in this picture?