Glory Days

There's a bit of nostalgia for me in visiting my sister at Gran Pacifica. It is a place associated with happy memories and it has become a comfortable second home. I'll be the first to admit that I am nostalgic about many parts of my life. As much as I enjoy planning the near future, I spend a lot of time reminiscing over happy times from my past and wondering how to recreate them. I imagine one day moving back to Montana; if I could live in the pseudo-trailer apartment from my sophomore year of college with my best friend and swing dance every weekend, I would in a second; and I'd love to quit my job (yes, again) and travel for a period of time longer than a typical vacation. But if I am never able to repeat theses things, at least I know I'm able to return to my sister's home and step back into the same lifestyle with the same people that make this place worth returning to.

 In León we chose to head "home" instead of a side trip north. We spent two days in León, gorging ourselves with jalapeno chicken (Nicaragua's signature meat dish), climbing atop the roof of the blindingly white cathedral, and some basic shopping. We caught a bus from León to Managua, confronted the bus helper for intentionally overcharging us (impressively, only the 3rd time in all of our international travels we feel this has happened), and got off at the cross roads. Timing was impeccable as the bus we needed to switch to picked us up on the side of the road within a few minutes, and we were on our way.

Blue skies

Volcano views from the cathedral

Luckily, little changes at GP (Gran Pacifica) between our trips so it does feel like we were just here weeks ago, instead of an entire year. There are small, notable differences: few new houses have been constructed on property; there are crayon marks and dirt on the walls that we spent weeks painting; piña coladas have returned to the happy hour menu. Otherwise, our days and time at GP have been the same. Although now we're helping my sister and her husband keep two small humans alive.

We follow the same pattern each day- breakfast once we get out of bed, practice throwing the frisbee with Kaiden, make faces and noises at Dominic in an attempt to make him laugh, eat lunch, swim in the pool, eat dinner. We spice up the schedule occasionally with walks, rides in the golf cart, fishing (unsuccessfully) for barracuda, and trips to the beach. We haven't yet made it golfing or surfing, but we're content for now.

A few of the men

Micah and Osman fishing off the point

Fighting a big one (seaweed)

Dominic's first swim- cheeks and chins for days!

An evening run in the rain before jumping in the pool in p.j.s (Julia, Micah & Kaiden)

Two days have differed from this norm. The first of those days was Thanksgiving Day. If you recall, last year we made the turkey, gravy, and stuffing with Mark's help for the restaurant's "American" Thanksgiving feast. After hearing stories of how awful the Canadian thanksgiving meal was one week prior, Micah and I gave Angie the ok to offer our services again this year. Her boss accepted, and we made a grocery list for items needed to cook 30 pounds of turkey and 3 batches of stuffing. As the day approached, there was some hesitation whether the dinner would occur, thanks to Hurricane Otto's projected path floating just south of us. By Wednesday evening, we got the thumbs up to cook regardless, with hopes that the 70mph winds and heavy rain wouldn't hit until late Thursday night or Friday morning. All was smooth and by noon, we had 1 turkey in the oven with the 2nd turkey on its way to begin the cooking process. When Micah returned to the condo where we were working for the day after turning the second oven on, he stated with disbelief that some random person had just told him that we were evacuating. We shrugged it off, but two minutes later the boss' daughter frantically stormed in to the condo and told us that Angie sent her to evacuate us immediately. We quickly learned that there had been two earthquakes, approximately 60 miles off the Pacific coast and just north of us, registering at 6.8 and 7.2. We decided to turn all ovens off and ended up ridding with Angie in the golf cart off the property and <1km further on the bumpy dirt road to slightly higher ground in preparation for a possible tsunami. Most of the restaurant workers and permanent residents were already there; the Nicaraguans were telling jokes and laughing, the gringos were a bit more concerned. None as freaked out as the intern they currently have at GP though, who told Micah she was practicing holding her breath in anticipation of the large wave that was going to hit her. The entertainment, at her expense, was amusing.

The calm before the storm

Slightly higher ground

There were reports of the water receding, indicating a tsunami was coming. We sat in the shade on the side of the road, Kaiden showing his mini dump truck to the local construction guys, for just over an hour and a half. We learned that there was in fact a small tsunami, likely just a visible swell and large wave. When we got the ok to return with the warning that we were still on tsunami alert due to potential after shocks, Micah and I turned four ovens on and got back to work. Dinner was only 30 minutes late despite our set backs, and we ended up not needing to use the 3 natural disasters that hit as an excuse for gross food; the turkey and stuffing turned out great. And luckily, Hurricane Otto's side effects missed us that night, and didn't hurt the country as much as was feared.

"Cheers"ing to a memorable Thanksgiving

Our other atypical day at GP was this past Tuesday. Micah and I, with the help of a girlfriend of my sister's, were able to pull off a surprise baby shower/welcome home BBQ for Angie, Osman, and the niños. We cooked hamburgers and drank Toñas with 20 of their friends, and made people tie yuccas around their waist and fight to be the first to get the tip in a bottle. Our friend from Texas who reminds us of George W was the priceless winner.

Yucca in the bottle

Party

Yesterday we rented a vehicle and headed into Managua with the family. We took advantage of cheap foreign healthcare and went to the dentist for $30 per person, followed up by some market shopping. Around 1 o' clock, we said adios to the others and Micah and I took a taxi to the bus terminal to head north. When traveling to Nicaragua from Honduras, the map revealed that the only part of Nicaragua we'd neglected to visit was the north eastern towns. Since we headed to GP after León, this was our chance. We boarded a chicken bus with 56 locals and a goose and drove up the mountains to Matagalpa. Once arrived, we dusted off the cobwebs and began our hotel search. After four attempts, we found a winner one block off of the smaller of two central parks, a great view of the urban city, and less than $20/night.

We set out to explore last night and discovered that this bustling city thrives on its coffee plantations and used clothing shops with few tourists. Nestled in the highlands, it's refreshing to wear long sleeves again. We walked through the parks, stepped into the cathedral and peeked in a few of the stores. Had success in one store in particular, where we purchased Micah an authentic Nicaraguan wedding ring! Found our typical plate dinner and were reminded of how well Nicaraguans season and cook their meat.

Full plate of grilled meat, gallo pinto and plantains for $3

Iglesia Catedral San Pedro

This morning we both agreed that this town deserves a second night of our attention. We always enjoy towns where there are few other gringos to be seen, the food is cheap, and there are hills to climb. We paid for a second night and are now planning our last few days on the road. Need to soak up as much of this budget traveler lifestyle as we can, knowing that we'll be back in the U.S. and putting on work clothes before we know it.

Comin' Back

It is a little weird to be back in Central America so soon. We are straddling the line between "backpacker" and "vacationer", with our relatively short timeframe, we splurge on some things while opting for others on the cheap. The goal being to keep it less stressful and enjoy our trip. With that all in mind, we haven't had any crazy adventures to share but I will write some words about it anyways.

The first days in Roatán are hard to remember. We arrived just after noon on a Saturday, surrounded by hundreds of middle aged Americans in the airport. They flock here for the cheap scuba diving during what is the wettest month on the Caribbean side of Honduras. We stayed in the same hostal in West End as last year (Casa del Sol) but the feeling wasn't the same. Now home to more long term tenants, it was crowded and dark and noisy. The next door neighbors watched The Voice and listened to Trump speeches. Below us, we heard a guitar and singing until 1 AM, and smelled all varieties of smoke. The bed was uncomfortable, our clothes didn't dry, plus we had a few cockroaches running around. On election night, we somberly watched CNN on the Kindle. But enough of the bad stuff, we actually had a good relaxing time.

With no real schedule, we slept in every morning and made a casual brunch in the room. We would wander into town for groceries and snorkeling in Half Moon Bay. It rained every once in a while but there was mostly sun and plans never got ruined. The only thing we didn't do was rent a scooter, because I have a fear of wet hilly curvy roads. The people are still really friendly and the street food (particularly the Baleadas) is still very good.

On the nicest day we had, Julia and I made the 30 minute walk down the beach to touristy West Bay. The lady who runs our hostal warned us of the occasional muggings that take place along the path, advising us to try running into the water to get away. We opted for carrying weapons; Julia armed with a big rock, I brandished a sturdy stick. No thieves were seen that day, we like to think they were scared off.

It was cruise ship day, so the beach was packed but still amazingly beautiful. The sand is white and the water is clear. It was the first reminder that we are on a vacation, and we soaked it in. After some swimming and mediocre snorkeling, we chose the safer boat ride back to West End and treated ourselves to some good seafood at a decent restaurant.

That is about all that is worth sharing from our time in Roatán. We paid for a week upfront at our hostal to get a discount, so this most recent Saturday was our departure day. The initial plan was to head to the mainland and slowly make our way to Gran Pacifica, but we changed our minds. On our daily strolls through town, we kept noticing the signs for a ferry from Roatán to the other Honduran island of Útila, a route they just opened up 12 months ago. This other island, known to be more of a backpacker scuba destination intrigued us, so we went.

We arrived mid afternoon, and being somewhat lazy, chose the first place listed in our LP guidebook (Rubi's). Turned out to be a good decision because we got a cockroach-free room on the water, with sunset views for $25.  There is one main road through town that follows the waters edge, with a few side streets winding the neighborhoods. The homes are almost all built on stilts, with a mix of English architecture and basic stone. Útila is fairly flat with garbage filled swampland on the outskirts of town. The locals build wooden walkways or coral rock land bridges to access their raised casas. The laid back people speak either a Caribbeanized form of English or Spanish. There is a pretty little beach on the west end of town that we spent our first afternoon playing in, despite the abundance of biting sand fleas. We enjoyed the place immensely.

With just one full day there, we paid a dive shop a few dollars to let us tag along and snorkel. The reef was amazing. We have rarely had the chance to venture into deeper waters and gaze off into the abyss where the reef wall drops down some hundred feet. I will be honest, it frightens me a little, but I love it. Which means we now might be talking ourselves into a return trip to learn how to scuba.

That afternoon we wandered the small streets, enjoyed cocktails by the sea, and purchased tickets for Monday's long travel plans. With 2 extra nights spent on the islands, we now wanted to push on through to Nicaragua. The initial idea was to take the ferry, a taxi, and 2 local buses to a town halfway, stay the night, then a bus, a taxi, and about 4 buses later, we would arrive at our destination. Although this actually sounded kinda fun, we saw a sign for shuttle service to León (Nicaragua) for $55 and this sparked our interest. Julia did some searching online and found a company offering a November special of $40. Amazed to find a direct shuttle for cheaper than all the local buses combined, we were sold.

So here we are now, on hour number 12 in a van, almost to our destination despite some initial worries. We got up at 5:20 AM to catch the ferry to the port of La Ceiba, where we were taxied to our shuttle. Being the low season, they initially said we were the only 2 passengers and offered us a free night stay at their hostal and tour of the city if we would wait until tomorrow. We wanted to get on the road and luckily a traveler from Israel was going the same way, so we felt better about making them take us. The ride is bumpy but a great scenic view of the lush hills of Honduras from north to south. Unless the construction delays continue, we should be checked into a room by 10 PM, and asleep shortly after that.

The next step is yet to be determined. We are temptingly close to family at Gran Pacifica, but still want to see some sights in northern Nicaragua, though they could be tackled during a short side trip sometime after Thanksgiving. Decisions decisions... all we know is that it is nice to be back in a country that we consider a second home.

Family Tradition

Somehow, it's already early November. The leaves have turned, the days are becoming shorter, and as much as it pains me to say, stores have Christmas displays up. And this year, early November also means that Micah and I are filling our backpacks with dri-fit clothes, sunscreen, and snorkel gear as we prepare to embark on another, although much shorter than our previous, journey. Before we get there though, I'll relive the last month with a few words and a few pictures.

In an attempt to always keep it fresh and re-awaken my blogging ability, I'm going to update you in a slightly different fashion. Since we returned to the Portland area in late August, our families have been our focus. They are the reason we settled here for the past two+ months, they are the reason that we're able to live the carefree (and mooching) lifestyle that we choose to live, and they are the reason that we plan to someday plant roots in Portland. They will be how I tell you about our events over the last month.

The Smetanas
My parents live just over an hour north of Portland; they moved to the PNW 6 months after I did, back in 2009. As you are all aware, my sister (Angela), her husband (Osman), and their almost 4 year old (Kaiden) flew from Nicaragua at the end of August with the intent of Angela delivering her second child here in the states. All went smooth and Dominic Albert arrived on September 27th.

 Osman, Kaiden and Dominic

Meeting his baby brother

This family of four is staying up at my parent's house, living in their basement (it runs in the family), and so for the past two months, Micah and I drive back and forth between two and three times per week. The days at my parent's house are lively, since Kaiden talks/sings/hums/laughs non-stop, and full of great meals, as I'm blessed with two parents who enjoy spoiling their children with good cooking.

The entire Smetana family had a few reasons to get together in the past month. In mid-October my brother (Mikie) proposed to his girlfriend; Dominic was baptized; and we celebrated Mikie and Osman's birthdays, both in October. For Osman's birthday present, Micah and I took him to the Portland Timbers versus Costa Rica Soccer Match; he may have been the biggest fan there only by default of his hate towards Costa Rica.

3 Smetana kids, 3 significant others, 3 offspring and grandparents

When I root I root for the Timbers!

On two occasions, Micah and I braved the elements and babysat the Nicaraguan kiddos. We borrowed Kaiden for an overnight trip which included the museum, pizza and a slumber party at Micah's dad's house, and the muddy pumpkin patch. The Oregon Museum of Science and Industry was featuring space and astronauts as their main exhibit, which pleased Kaiden... but was only his second favorite to the train he rode inside the Vancouver mall. We also took on the 4 week old Dominic so his parents and other uncle and aunt could enjoy a dinner on the town. Despite the fact that my sister conveniently forgot to pack his binky, we all survived the night.

 Tractor ride around the pumpkin patch

Admiring his Tio

On Halloween, we stayed up North at my parent's house to observe Kaiden's first Halloween experience. Dressed as a dinosaur with a clown wig, he struggled a bit with the concept of when to say "trick or treat" and when to say "thank you", but the night was a success with a heavy bag of candy by the end of it. And it only took 6 adult assistants to accomplish this.

Family Halloween Selfie

The Hoelters
Micah and I cashed in on our 2015 Christmas present to his 4 nephews and 1 niece by taking them to an indoor water park for the day. I'm not sure we thought this plan through very well. We had 2 kids in life jackets and 1 other that we definitely had to keep an eye on for his swimming skills, and the 2 oldest were pretty independent. I feared for all their lives for the first hour, as Micah and I played zone defense, coaxing the kids to stay relatively near each other so they were all in sight. After the first hour, we eased into our game a bit more and had a blast. We unintentionally used the buddy system and in pairs, would run up the multiple flights of stairs to whiz down the large and winding slides. In the late afternoon, there were no lines and so the only thing that stopped us (Micah and I) were how tired our legs got from running stairs.

 snack break at the water park

 preparing their train in the wave pool

Jackson and Sarah getting ready for the slide

Micah's dad, Mark, turned 70 at the end of September. This was a great excuse to get together with Micah's three brothers and their wives along with Mark for dinner at a popular Brazilian restaurant in town. The brothers capped the celebration off with taking Mark to Top Golf, a driving range + bar for the modern age. Tarah (for lack of longer explanation to those who don't know, Tarah is Micah's youngest brother's wife and also happens to be my best friend since I was 15) and I were volunteered to babysit two of the nephews while the boys golfed. Babysitting consisted of Tarah and I sitting on a bench at a park while the two boys dug around in mud looking for worms and then viciously murdering the worm, often after coo-ing over how cute the worm was. We were nothing short of entertained.

The majority of our time in Portland, we live in Tarah and Lucas' basement. If it weren't for these two, our belongings would be in some far away, musty storage shed and we'd be sleeping in our car. We try to show our gratitude for their kindness with home cooked meals and afternoons of fetch with their dog, but we really just enjoy getting to spend our limited time with them. The past few birthday and holidays, Tarah and I have opted out of present giving and enjoy a girls only weekend. This year, we spent a night in Long Beach, WA, with a romantic walk on the beach, long conversations, and a meal at the rooftop restaurant.


Along with so much family time, a good majority of the past month was spent earning a paycheck to pay for our next vacation. I'm still doing fill-in work for the company I previously worked for in Portland and am enjoying the non-permanence that comes with it. Despite the fact that our calendar is  light with work and commitments, we manage to feel busy driving between homes and soaking up as much family and friend time as possible. We have been able to check multiple things off our "wedding to-do list", and are currently enjoying all that planning a wedding entails.

At a friend's wedding on the Portland Spirit (boat on the Willamette River)

With that being said and all we feel we have accomplished in the month, we are ready to hit the road. In 5 hours, we will board a plane and then board another plane that will eventually drop us off in Roatan, Honduras. If you had asked us last year, I don't believe either of us would have said we'd be returning to our favorite snorkeling spot this soon, but yet, here we are. I'd like to say that the budget travelers in us couldn't sit still, the baleadas were calling us, and we miss the chicken busses terribly- although there is a bit of truth to this, it is not the reason we're putting our packs back on. It's just that the plane ticket to the island of Roatan cost as much as the ticket to Managua did so how could we pass that up!? Per usual, we have nothing booked or planned, but we know that we will spend multiple afternoons in the Caribbean Sea, wash our clothes in the hostel sink, and eventually ride across Honduras to reacquaint ourselves with my sister and her family who are now waiting for us back at Gran Pacifica.

Buen viejo!

Everything's Not Lost

We will just keep this picture sharing going, with a few less pictures than we should have, which will be explained later.

Julia wrote the last blog entry while I was watching some world-class disc golf in Emporia, KS. Since then, we have returned to our hometown of Portland, OR and life has not really slowed down that much. I will try to provide a brief description of each stop along the way, as well as some details about the adventures we have had back here in the Northwest.

I had an amazing time watching professionals play this game I love. The relative ease with which they can throw a disc 450ft and routinely sink putts from 50ft out; it was cool to see but also frustrating that I can't replicate it. The screenshot above is taken from a YouTube video of the tournament. The reason I included this shot is because we have the #1 player in the world, Paul McBeth, sinking a birdie putt on the left side of the screen, while Julia and I can be seen through the basket chains. If you are into this sort of thing, the entire video can be seen here: 2016 PDGA Pro Worlds Round 1.

From Emporia, we drove to Boulder, CO to visit with some of my extended family and got a nice tour of the University of Colorado campus from Uncle Bob. The next day, we rolled down I-70 into Utah and camped in Capitol Reef National Park. We picked some peaches, hiked around the rocks while the sun was going down, and saw a Bighorn Sheep.

After one night in Capitol Reef, we drove through the impressive Grand Escalante National Monument on our way to Bryce Canyon NP. It is a great drive and highly recommended for anyone in the area. Bryce was even cooler than I thought, with red rock spires and amazing views. That night we checked-in to a timeshare in Mesquite, NV, where we would spend the next 6 nights.

It was very hot in Mesquite, so most of our time was spent either in the pool or the casino. We played some blackjack, ate at the buffet, learned bingo, and did some cheap bowling. One of the days was spent in Zion National Park. Above, you see us doing the Narrows hike... you may also notice the lady hiking in a bikini. I am not judging, just pointing it out in case you missed it.

We watched the sun go down in Zion from the Canyon Overlook Trail before driving back to Mesquite.

I played golf at Wolf Creek Golf Club on our final day in Mesquite. With temps around 105, it was the low season and rates were too good to pass up a round on a course that is featured on the EA Sports golf video games.

We left Mesquite, drove along the extraterrestrial highway in central Nevada, and landed in Yosemite National Park for a quick 24hr visit. We got lucky to find a camping site and explored the main valley. The next day we hiked amongst the granite and enjoyed some quiet in the less visited northern parts of the park before we were off to our next destination.

The last stop of our month long road trip was South Lake Tahoe, CA. We spent 5 nights in another timeshare where we were joined by our friends Megan and Brock. The next few days were spent on the beach along with shuffle boarding and barbecuing on the resort rooftop. We also ate some good food and played a round at Zephyr Cove Disc Golf course where the views were spectacular, as seen above.

After Tahoe, we made the long drive back to Portland, where family was gathering to remember my Cousin Katherine, who passed away in August after a 10 month battle with cancer. It was a bittersweet reunion, catching up but always thinking about Katherine's husband and 2 young daughters.

On Saturday, August 27th, we headed up to the Seattle area for the wedding of Julia's good friends, Nick and Dayna. The reception was held at a tree farm in Issaquah and the live band and yard games made for a great evening. The next day was when the picture above was taken. We were being tourists in Seattle; shopping at REI and walking around Green Lake. After our short walk, we returned to discover our window smashed in and my suitcase and Julia's purse gone. Inside my suitcase was my iPad, my digital camera that was so good to us throughout the trip last year, and some clothes that I had become attached to. Julia lost her passport and wallet as well as my wallet which was in her purse. It just happened to be the rare time our favorite things were in the car and we didn't lock our valuables in the glovebox. It also hurt losing photos from Yosemite and Tahoe that I never got transferred to a computer. Oh well... we try to remind ourselves that they are all just things that can be replaced and that we can recover from the financial loss.    

After a week of being extra careful with what we left in the car, we attended another wedding, this time for Julia's friends Maria and Jens. Following the wedding, we drove out to northern Idaho to meet Julia's family for the Labor Day weekend. As I think we have mentioned before, her sister is back in the country to give birth to her 2nd child and she brought her guys with her. We did some camping and fishing, with a little rain mixed in to make things interesting.

We had a brief gathering with the extended Smetana family at Grandpa's ranch, just north of Moscow. That night, we camped in Lewiston, next to the snake river and rolled back to Portland the next day.

 The following weekend, we took advantage of the good weather and had a kickball and latino food birthday party for Julia. A great turnout of friends.

Julia's actual birthday was September 16th, so we celebrated with her family and cake.

A week or so ago, Julia participated in the Warrior Dash with Ashley, her brother's girlfriend. They climbed wooden obstacles, army crawled under barbed wire, and swam through a muddy swamp. The beer and shower at the end of the race were well earned.

Since I no longer own a camera, that is all I have for pictures. All of the later photos were taken with Julia's phone. Some other things to note here before I let you go; Julia has been doing some random fill-in work for her former company here in the Portland area, we have used our free time to go through all of our clothes and get rid of as much as we can, and we are also ramping up the wedding planning. The next blog post we put out will give details about the arrival of a baby and whatever else life has in store for us in the month of October. Thanks for reading.