This one is going out to Gordy

I just needed to make a shout out to my best friend Gordy. Gordy and I have grown up together and have been through thick and thin together. He is one of those guys I could not imagine life without. I probably see him on average of two to three times a day. One might say we are drawn to each other and have a wonderful "working" relationship.

Cheers to Gordy!

The Finale in Roatan

Well Day 5 was also a tough one! We had this day planned and packed with activities (we actually just make up an itinerary as we go but it became a full day).

Travis and I have been eying the water with it's composed aqua blue water all the while one of the best barrier reefs in the world was beckoning us to it's humble abode. We, as any good moth drawn to the light, took the plunge and went scuba diving on Friday with the fine folks from Anthony's Key Resort.

Now let me set the stage a little here. I was open water certified to dive back in 1996. Certifications do not expire and as any school boy would do on the playground when he wants to play I told them that I could play even though I hadn't dove in 13 years! Travis was certified in Thailand and has dove a couple places like Australia and such but it had been about 8 years for him. To his advantage, he is a Fireman in Huntington Beach and plays around with similar equipment as oxygen tanks and masks...

We buddied up and had a blast! Now before we left, Hector our dive master had us get in the water right there off the boat before we left. Even though it was only about 10 feet of water it was very unsettling stepping off the back of the boat into the water. Let me paint a little picture for you... you have a +/-30lb tank on your back, a constricting wet suit, about 20lbs of weight strapped to you and all this extra gear on you and I am supposed to flipper walk to the edge of the boat and just hop in with out looking like an idiot in front of an audience of professionals.

The dive was a ship wreck dive taking us to a grand total of 130 feet (which I think is deeper than my Open Water Certification allows me to dive...hmmm...). I felt like I was in one of those National Geographic documentaries. We progressed from there to the reef which must have been 70 or 80 feet high. It was just stunning to see this wall of coral, growth, fish and sea life! Loved the whole experience!

Trav and I went back to the hotel and picked up Rod and Beni and headed out to a family members home for a wonderful lunch. All week we had talked with Roni about going out on his speed boat and after lunch at his place he invited us out. The water was a little rough but we had to go anyways.

Does any speed boat buffs recognize the above symbol?

Fountain is the name of this speed boat that falls in the price range similar to that of a loan I would get on a $200k house! Again I say it... we were treated like royalty. We took out the 40ft speed boat and saw some different places and one time reaching a speed of 70mph. We had a grand ole' time!

Finished up with a lovely dinner to close our Friday night.

Day whatever... the last day for me. They were doing a birthday party this afternoon with all of the family and meeting all of the uncles and cousins that had hooked us up over the week. I unfortunatly had to head out on a plane for home.

But before I left I had just one last thing to do. I ended the trip with a Canopy Zip Line Tour Saturday morning. After 12 stations I "zipped" off to the airport to make my journey home.

In all it was a phenomenal trip. I love everything about it and am excited about the next trip to come! Thanks to all of you who have followed this blog and my trip!

Nothing But Love,
Scherba

Stay tuned...

Stay tuned for the latest and greatest of the Roatan experience! I will be updating with one more blog...

Still living the rough life...

So day 2 finished with dinner at the resort where we were playing as guest of the owner. Dinner was served by waiters in formal attire and powder blue vests (my favorite color). Being on an island I thought it appropriate to have the fried fish with a cream shrimp sauce. It fish was covered in pieces of shrimp unlike the token portions we might recieve in the States. Unfortunatly I do not take well to fish and shrimp and was barely able to finish my meal. I do not know why but it never settles well...

Day 3 lead us to Anthony's Key Resort http://www.anthonyskey.com/en/index.html which is the most known and best resort on the island! I would recommend it to anyone on a honey moon, or adventure getaway! We got hooked up with a Dolfin Encounter where we were able to hang out in the water with the dolfins and pet them and watch their tricks. Pretty cool. It happened to be Rod's neice's 8th birthday and it was all free to us because it was a cousins resort. Pretty weet place! Roatan is known as the best place to dive in the world with the second largest barrier reef in the world. Lunch there was a three course all inclusive style lunch that, hmmm... we didn't have to pay for either!

Before I got all lazy at this resort I went to a local pediatric medical clinic. I connected with this clinic before I went and arranged for me to bring medical supplies. I brought a 60lb duffle bag of goodies for them. I was super impressed with the clinic. It was started by an American Nurse about 15 years ago and has won amazing favor from the islanders and been blessed by God in so many ways. She basically offers services free of charge unless they can pay the $2 for services. the two doctors are local but all of the others are mainly volunteer staff from elsewhere. I enjoyed my time there emensly!

The day finished with a small brithday party at Rod's sisters house for 8 year old Dani.

Day 4 took us to a small island owned by Anthony's key which I will just let you check out from the web site http://www.finsandflippers.com/en/index.html Just spent the day there and arranged with cousin a diving trip tomorrow morning with the best dive service on the island. THis place bought and sunk two ships to provide some extra scenery for their divers!

Today is going to finish up with some Cuba Libres (rum and cokes) and a fried chicken place we have been wanting to try.

Nothing But Love,
Scherba

P.S. This is where we are staying...

Honduran Bay Islands

So I made it to Honduras. More specifically, to Roatan the Honduran Bay Island in the Caribbean. Hmmm, how did this happen. Well, a buddy of mine (Rod de la Sotta) was coming here to visit his sister and family here. I just happen to tag along. The island is beautiful! It is certainly not an established touristy location though. This is the real thing. Or maybe it is because I am getting the inside family treatment and not the resort treatment.

Now this definitely does not mean that there are no resorts involved! It turns out that Rod's Brother-in-law is from this island and has connections, or should I say more specifically family ties, to some of the best resorts and touristy stuff on the island! The first day we went to the best beach which is in West Bay. It is called Tabyanna and this is the resort we spent the day at http://www.infinitybay.com/ The next few pictures are of this beach and activities...

The Sun sets on the first day here and the next part of our day begins. Four dudes (Rod, Travis and his brother Ben Terich and myself) traveling together and staying in a one room hotel with only two beds (yes we share- and we rotate every night... J/K about the rotating) is not a recipe for retiring early to the room. So we walk the road that is converted from the beach to the various social gatherings and listen to competing music and get some drinks...

Day two finds us here at another family resort called Turquoise Bay http://www.turquoisebayresort.com/... We have the whole bay and beach to ourselves. We take out some kayaks to the near by keys and explore. This place is rough also because we just have to wait here for Rod's family to show up and the owner of the resort and we will all have dinner here. The sun has set on this beautiful day but I am sure it is barely over half way done!

I am sure tomorrow will be just as eventful and will try to keep everyone posted.

Nothing But Love,

Jesse

Locks of Love

So, I'm not totally sure how this blog thing is gonna work out. I know we want to keep bloging, but, I think we might create a new blog and leave this one as a journal of our trip. . .not sure though. If we do create a new one, I'll put a link for it here. For now though, I thought I'd share with you my latest change of appearance. . .
My friend Jaime and I have been talking about donating our hair for a while now, and well, the time finally came. We just did it this morning. It's still a little shocking!
"Before"

"During"

Ahhhhh!!

"After", with my adorable hair dresser Caroline.

Luckily, I LOVE it!!
Jaime's turned out really cute too, although all the pics of her are one her camera.
Okay, more later.

The faces you know you miss!

It Finally Happened!

"Ladron, Ladron." That is what I would have shouted if I knew! ¨Thief, Thief.¨ We made it two months, minus two days, without any problems. We returned last night to Quito from the coast (perhaps my favorite location), left the airport, walked to the public bus route that we were proud of knowing already, got on for 25cents each instead of the $8 the taxis wanted to charge and headed on our way. Well, some how we got on the wrong Linea (Line). We started in the right direction but at some point things just seemed wrong. ¿Äh, disculpe señora, a que direcion estamos yendo... A La Marin?¨ Somehow in the mix of it all the troley like bus had flipped around and started heading back towards the airport. Hmm, I suppose we should get off here since in a couple more stops we will have traveled for 2o minutes and returned to the exact same spot. Mind you, we have each a large traveling backpack and an additional small backpack. The bus had gotten packed with in the last two stops and we needed to navigate towards the door. Successfull! We decide to hail a taxi to just take us to our final destination. We get in and in the midst of trying to explain the place we wanted to go I cannot find my wallet, which is ALWAYS in the same, front right pocket. Hmm, Sir, we need to stop and get out, I lost my wallet, perhaps it is in the street where we got in your car. Now we have just traveled across the country from sea level to 9,000+ feet in elevation. I am high tailing it back to the intersection hopeing for the best, all the time seeing the taxi drivers face in my head when I told him that I did not have my wallet. He gave that look like, well, I hope it is in the street, but friend, you´ve been punked. Panting, we reach the intersection. No wallet. Well, I supose we should hail another taxi. We took 4 taxis in about 6 blocks until we were able to find a guy that knew where we wanted to go. It was quite an ordeal. Now back to the states to replace that which was once mine with a new one.

See you all soon,

Check back periodically as we will probably post a few more pictures and some wrap-up stories.

Nothing But Love,
Jesse and Cassidy

The Gosple of Luke: Chapters 15-24

Yeah, I finaly posted a comment on what I have been reading. Feel free to go back and read them. You can easily click on the link to the right to get them together.

IF you have not been reading I would encourage you to. It is wonderful stuff!

Join me as we read through the book of Luke in the Bible and write your comments about what you think.

Nothing But Love,
Scherba

Montanita

We have been in this little coastal town called Montanita *the second n actually has a squiggle line above it, but I can't make it work on the keyboard* Being here has been super relaxing. I(Cass) have been working hard at enjoying each day since all I can think about is being home....in four days!! We have been super relaxed here. We had originally planned on visiting a few different coastal town but tonight will be our 6th night here. Woops... We ended up really liking it. It's a super chill, surfer, party, touristy town. We of course don't really surf or party for that matter, but we have just really soaked up the chill vibe. Jesse actually did surf though, and did pretty well for basically his first time and zero instruction.

The street. There's really only one main street. The town is super small.

Jesse enjoying his FRESH morning juice that we have come to enjoy and almost expect. In Ecuador you have freshly made juice with pretty much every meal. I think this one was pinapple banana...one of our favorites.

Classis beach. There are venders everywhere. Everything is pretty cute, but after looking at it alllll the time everything kinda blends together an you don't really see anything. Haven't bought anything yet... maybe today, our last day here.

More classic beach. Ceviche venders everywhere too. I had my first share of it last night. It was very good, and I am not sick today!

We have talked about getting henna tatoos since our honeymoon. There are tons of people "vending" these as well. We did it our first day which probably wasn't the best idea since mine is already pretty much gone. Oh well. It was pretty cute though.

This is Edison, the "artist." Acctually he just traced a drawing, pressed it onto our backs, then traced it again with the henna. He was super sweet though. He even helped Jesse create his own.

Jesse wanted to try out surfing, since that's basically the only thing that people do here. He had only done it once in the freezing cold rain in Santa Cruz about five years ago. He did great. Got up pretty much every time. It may have had something to do with the fact that the board he rented was a GIANT, super boyant plank. . . .perfect for learning!! I was super proud of him.

These drink street venders were out every night. They lined the street. There were always lots of people at them, so I think that they were probably safe, although we never ordered anything on the street.

So, yesturday we went to this little island called Isla de la Plata. Some people call it "Poor Man's Galapagos." It has some of the same bird species as the Galapagos. The travel book that we have warned us that it might be a rough ride, but we didn't take it heart I guess. My poor sweetie threw up three times. Once on the way there and twice on the way back. He was such a good sport though, making jokes and smiling the whole way. He was pretty beat by the time we made it home though. We had a windy hour car ride to finish off the trip. I was quite miserable too, but willed myself not to puke. Thank you Lord, I HATE puking..
The Blue Footed Boobie.

Don't remember this one's name. Cool bird with gian red neck/chest.

Ummm don't remember this one's name either. But look at the one in the back, there were two eggs under him.
Then we had a chance to stop and snorkel.. It was pretty chilly though and we didn't really have that long, then we had to ride on the rough water again, so Jesse and I just took pics from the boat.

Our trip to the coast has been a good one. An extremely relaxing way to end our trip. We splurged on a hotel, $30 per night..it has a pool, jacuzzi, and nothing that Jesse is allergic to!! It has been quite the treat. We leave the coast tomorrow on a plane back to Quito where we will finish up our souvenier shopping, visit with our new friends, Jon and Anna, and then fly out Friday afternoon. . .

I'm sure we'll have plenty of thoughts to share with you when this is all over, but for now... please pray for safe journeys and health. . . my throat is sorta feeling yucky today, and I'm hoping it's nothing more.

Nothing but Love.

See you soon.