This voyage has been a dream come true. I am so fortunate for all of the experiences I have been able to have with my entire family. I think the most difficult thing about a voyage like this one is the end. We have met so many wonderful people on the ship, and never again will we be all together as a shipboard community. The saving grace to the goodbyes here is being able to see family and friends back home. We’ve had an incredible time, but we are looking forward to 10 Abbott Lane and all its love and familiarities.

We have visited 8 countries in the past 2 and a half months. Seeing the differences as well as similarities in the people, food, music, geography, and overall cultures is amazing. Traveling opens your eyes and heart to the differences and inequalities that exist outside of home, and it also makes you appreciate all the more what you have in your everyday life. We are not only lucky with an immeasurable amount of opportunities for ourselves and our family, we are blessed with loving family and good friends. Let me tell you, we’ve got it made.
Two biggest milestones of the summer...
Brandt learns to walk...

Emma loses her first tooth...
We will miss all of the great people we have met...especially the crew!I dedicate this blog to my parents..thank you mom and dad for giving me, Elsa, and our families the opportunity to see the world. This will be my dad’s last voyage as an I.S.E. employee...and it's been an amazing 28 years! There is going to be a huge retirement bash for him on the 25th on the ship, but we will unfortunately not be able to make it. We both start work on Monday, so we will be home this Thursday. I'm so proud of him, and it's been a blessing to be together this summer. Thank you!We will all be back in the U.S.A. tomorrow...it’s meant a great deal to us for those of you who have kept up with the blog...thank you, and we’ll see you soon! XOXOXO

Guatemala $1U.S.=7.6 QuetzalesWe spent the first 2 nights in Antigua (about 90 minutes away from the port). I immediately fell in love with the beautiful town of Antigua, Guatemala. The main plaza is gorgeous, especially in the evening when the church and buildings are lit up. We heard marimba music everywhere, and there is a large Mayan population with many wonderful handicrafts.We all went to the university welcome reception where it took place in ruins of an old church/convent. There was food, music, and dancing, and I don’t know who had more fun..Cory and I, or Emma...she was a dancing machine! It was a very late night for all of us, Brandt finally fell asleep in my arms around 11PM! Antigua is a town I could have definitely spent more time in. The colors, architecture, surrounding volcanoes, and mix of people are a breath of fresh air. Our hotel, La Posada de Don Rodrigo, could not have been better..the rooms, courtyards, and restaurant were breathtaking. It almost felt as though we got to sleep in a museum..it used to be the mayor’s house and was built in the 1600s!


It was hard to leave Antigua, and I hope to make it back someday. On the day following our return to the ship, Cory, Emma, and I went to Guatemala City to learn more about the program called Safe Passage/Camino Seguro. This is a program that a young woman from Maine, Hanley Denning, founded. She started this program to help children and families who were living and working in the Guatemala City dump. She tragically passed away earlier this year in a car accident. We were able to visit two different facilities involved with Safe Passage (very school-based), and we were able to see the Guatemala City dump.There is a DVD called Recycled Life that we watched prior to going. Children are no longer allowed to go into the dump (this regulation was just passed within the past few years), and Safe Passage is geared to help the children whose parents work in the dump during the day. Even though I thought I was prepared to see the dump, I didn’t expect the overwhelming feelings that came over me when I was put physically in front of it. The smell was terrible. I wasn’t sure how Emma would deal with seeing this..she didn’t like the smell, and questioned about where the people who worked here got their food. I explained to her that they did get their food for their families through finding it in the garbage. I think she is young to put everything together, but I’m sure it effected her in some way. Before going, we went through clothes and toys to donate to the program..Emma generally has a difficult time parting with anything..and I was very proud that she did choose things to give. What gets me most with this picture is that Emma usually has a smile and a pose for a picture...this was her reaction when I told her to turn around and she saw the camera....Our guide explained to us that the people who work in the dump have a high sense of dignity because they are actually working to support their families. Only a 15 minute walk from where we stood (on the other side of the hill) is where people survive by dealing drugs. The Guatemalans who work at the dump are proud that they are working, and not involved with the drug world. We actually had police escort with us because we were in a very unsafe part of the city. Cory and I hope to find people back home who may be interested in learning more about Safe Passage.

Guatemala has so much more to offer that we didn’t get a chance to see such as Lake Atitlan, Chicicastenango, Tikal Ruins....but it was good for us to see these two drastically different sides of Guatemala..beautiful Antigua and the Guatemala City Dump...merely an hour drive from one another, yet different as night and day.

Thank goodness for tortillas again! I can’t even count how many I ate! Even though we’ve been traveling Latin America all summer...we haven’t had tortillas since Mexico...you can’t get tortillas in the other countries we visited.Emma and Brandt enjoyed the tortillas as well...we will be home in no time!

Nicaragua $1 U.S. Dollar = 18 Cordobas Capital: Managua

We had a wonderful time in Nicaragua. It was the least touristy and commercialized compared to the other ports-of-call, which made me love it all the more. We docked in the little town of Corinto which really reminds me of my mom’s home town of Acaponeta, Nayarit in Mexico.We visited a number of towns during our visit: Leon, Granada, Masaya, and Managua. The towns of Leon and Granada were beautiful. Very colonial with breath-taking colors and architecture.Each of these towns had the typical plaza which is very common in most towns of Latin America. We listened to marimba music (similar to a wooden xylophone), guitars, and singing while we had a yummy lunch. We visited a live, active volcano called Momotombo.Cory and I were lucky enough to visit a school on our last day where he was able to sit in on an 8th grade math class, and I was able to sit in on an 8th grade English class! It was so much fun meeting the students and teachers.How lucky we are with all our facilities at B.E.!

We met a sweet boy who walked around with the group we were with when visiting the school. Many of us asked him why he was not at school and he had a number of different answers for each of us: his teacher is sick, he doesn’t own shoes so he can’t go to school, he’s going tonight, he’s going tomorrow. We found out later (by talking to a family who owns a market in town)that this little boy doesn’t have a home, he lives on the streets, he doesn’t know how he got to Corinto, he doesn’t have family in the town, and he cannot go to school because he doesn’t have a house or family in Corinto. He never asked us for anything, just kept us company. This little boy is 10 years old, his name is Rudy...

Costa Rica $1 U.S. Dollar = 515 Costa Rican ColonesI absolutely loved Costa Rica! There was something about this place that was just unlike the other countries we have visited. I had two tours during our four day visit...one was to a beautiful waterfall, and the other was to a rainforest. We spent the remainder of the time walking around Puntarenas, the port where the ship docked.Emma and I had a date on our first day in Costa Rica to La Paz Waterfall Gardens where there was also a Butterfly and Hummingbird Garden. Although the bus ride was extremely long (3 hours one way!), we had a fantastic time together. Cory, Brandt, and my mom had a date to the town of Sarchi (where the famous Costa Rican Ox carts are made and painted). My dad went on a tour to San Jose, the capital. Elsa and the kids weren’t feeling well so they stayed on the ship.The following day I wasn’t feeling too well. There’s a terrible viral cold/cough/achiness thing going around and we’re all getting hit with it (my sister, the kids, and I). Besides our wonderful lunch at Guga’s restaurante where I ate casada con carne (rice & beans, beef, maduros, ensalada) I spent most of the afternoon resting.

My parents, Cory, Emma, Brandt, Nikolas and I (poor Elsa & Mariana still not feeling well) went on a Skywalk hike through a rainforest. There were 3 suspension bridges that we were able to venture across through our hike. Cory and I would have loved to try the ziplines through the rainforest..but the Skywalk hike was more suitable for the kids:)I really enjoyed our last day in Puntarenas because we walked around the entire morning (shoe shopping for Brandt and grocery shopping for batteries, deodorant, wipees, etc.) Emma headed back to the ship early with Elsa, my mom , and the kids. Cory, Brandt, and I had a nice lunch at La Casona restaurante(I ordered a casada con carne again, and Cory ordered a Pork dish with yummy pickles).

I think this is the day that really made me love this place because it was so nice to walk around and people watch. Puntarenas is a busy little town, but without all of the skyrises, malls, condos, urbanization that we have seen in most of the other countries we’ve visited. I also loved the weather...very hot during the day, cool in the evening..and showers here and there in the afternoon into the evening.After lunch Cory, Emma, Elsa, Mariana, and Nikolas (Brandt stayed with my parents) went to a futbol (soccer) game right in town. We bought the kids the orange & white Puntarenas jerseys..and off we went to the game! What I liked most about the game were the good looking men on the team...ha ha jk..I liked that there was a band playing most of the game. Drums, drums, & more drums....we had a great time!On our last night, my dad, Cory, Emma, Mariana & Nikolas and I went back out for one last Costa Rican meal. It was a little hectic, but we enjoyed our time...Pura Vida (a great expression used here meaning...life is wonderful).