Oh my, it has been since August that I last submitted a post to my blog, can it be? I think I have writers block, because each day I wake up and say, "today I will do a blog post", and then the day is gone and I haven't done it. Trying to get, Charlie, the writer in the family to blog but for some reason he won't come anywhere near the computer for that, so it is up to me. Being that he is the cook, it is the least that I can do.

My, my, where do I begin since last August? We have been to Ruinas Copan, Honduras to see the ruins of Copan. An amazing place with some absolutely beautiful stellas. Copan is liken to Paris and Tikal to New York in the Mayan anthropology crowd. I took way too many pictures and some of them were actually good, hopefully frame-able. But, it was a mesmerizing place and it made us want to read more about the Mayan culture. While in the area, we did a 16 stage zip line from the top of a mountain down. No helmets!!! Kinda scary, but very exhilarating too. Went to "Macaw Mountain", which is a bird sanctuary and saw many birds that are indigenous to the area and also a butterfly farm. While still in the area, we visited a hot springs up in the mountains that was so relaxing. The drive to the springs was over and hour and a half, but the country side was beautiful. Many terraced farms and just the housing was so incredible, and so primitive. It was a great side trip that we took with two other couples from our marina.

We made our first trip back to the state to see family and friends. Somewhat of a culture shock as life in the states is so fast paced compared to our last four months. Way too much to do in only 4 weeks. Charlie had somewhat of a medical scare as a tumor was found on his pancreas. Needless to say we had to postpone our trip back to Island Sol so this could be looked into. And, as luck and Lord would have it, it turned out to NOT be a cancerous tumor but a benign pseudo-cyst. Many thanks to all our family and friends who put prayers and good vibes out there for Charlie. A prayer was even tucked into the Wailing Wall in Israel by a fellow cruiser who was visiting there.

So, after 7 fun, crazy and hectic weeks in the states, it was back to Guatemala. Where again, we had to decompress for a few days and slip back into the pace of life here. I am taking watercolor classes every Wednesday, which hopefully is extending my brain power somewhat. Charlie is walking most mornings and Pot luck dinner is every Monday evening. There is always some sort of card game or dominos being played at the cafe in the marina. Never a need to find something to do, here. This past weekend has been Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) and we took a walk up to the town's cemetery to see all the festivities. It is a day (actually 2 days) for families to clean the grave sites, place flowers, paint tombs bright colors and in general have a picnic at the family grave site. All of the vegetable venders in town now are selling beautiful flowers, too. We really enjoy seeing what other cultures find important and most in Guatemala are woven around their families.

But, we have now realized that we need to get on the stick and get some things done as we will be leaving soon for the Bay Island of Honduras. We are ready for some salt water and white beaches, it has been too long. We will be hauling our boat out of the water next week to install a Dynaplate for the SSB radio, in hopes that this will fix our problems with it. The bottom just needs to be cleaned and then back in the water. So, I will blog again either before the trip or after reaching Utilia.

"Shells sink, dreams float, life is good on our boat!" ....Jimmy Buffett