By Julian

La Ventana is a beautiful beach, and they have a lot of kite surfers there. They go there because the wind is perfect for kite surfing. The kite surfers are very skilled and talented. They were flipping a lot. They would go in the air and doing cool flips.

The people who we talked to in the campground were very nice too. Some of them come and stay here for many months just to kite surf every day. It was very warm and windy when we were there. The wind starts every afternoon, which is when the kite surfers go out. Someday I would like to kitesurf, but for now I like to watch them.

By Maddy

Well after a while on the road we were all feeling like we could use a little space and break from the tight quarters (and maybe from each other a bit!) So we booked an Airbnb in La Paz for 4 days. It was a great decision and we loved the place we stayed which was super unique and Gaudi inspire architecture. The whole house was all round and curvy and white with great windows and art all around. We loved it! The master bathroom didn’t have a door, which was a bummer but it did have insane views of the city and the sea.

The house had a pool which was a bit too cold for us, and the hot tub wasn’t working which was too bad. But we still spent a lot of time hanging outside.

We also got the chance to catch up on work and have the kids do some blogging and math and such.

I enjoyed running on the malecon (beachfront walkway) though I did have to wear a mask as there were some other people around, which always makes it hard to breathe!

By Mirabelle

You may have heard the song “There’s no place like home for the holidays.” Well, I think there is. And it is California! On our way to Baja Mexico, we stopped at my Grandma’s house for Christmas. We stayed there for 10 days, and we mostly just spent time at Oma’s house because California had a stay-at-home order because of COVID. Luckily Oma is a doctor and got her first vaccine shot while we were there.

We were able to get a Christmas tree by going to a Christmas Tree farm in the Santa Cruz mountains near her house. We took a twisting road up to the farm. Once we got there, we looked around and we hiked up a hill to find our tree. I helped my dad cut it down. We brought it back to Oma’s house and put it up and put on the ornaments. I got to put the angel on the top of the tree.

On Christmas eve eve, we made lefse and sausage for dinner, which is a tradition from my dad’s family. Lefse is a norweigian potato bread – kind of like a pancake but made with potatoes. In Wisconsin you can buy Lefse at the store, but we couldn’t find it in California, so we had to make it for the first time. Caroline helped peel potatoes, dad mashed them, and mom cooked the bread. It wasn’t quite like we are used to, but it was still delicious. We wrapped up little sausages, or just had butter and cinnamon sugar. Mmmm!

On Christmas eve we had a big dinner with crab legs, and we got to open a few presents, including a game called Exploding Kittens. I liked it a lot. We also got to open a rock-painting kit from our grandma.

On Christmas morning, we came to wake up our parents early, and then we got to open presents. Me and my siblings got hoverboards which we were really excited to play with. We rode them to the park. The rest of the day we had lots of fun hanging out with our family and cooking dinner.

The rest of our time there we went on lots of walks and hoverboard rides, and spent time with our grandma, Oma, and went in the hot tub. The pool was super cold but we jumped in it a few times too!

After Tikal we headed to Flores. It was a pretty easy and scenic drive there, through the countryside and past lovely lakes.

Flores is a little colonial town on an island in lake Peten and is connected to the mainland by a bridge. You can also take little water taxis everywhere around the lake.

We had a bit of anxiety about our lodging. We had booked an Airbnb which was part of/next to a hotel, but the owner informed us that due to an issue with previous guests the apartment was not available. I thought it might be one of those scams going around but they went out of their way to accommodate us in the hotel. We got three lakefront rooms, each with a balcony. The hotel had a pool and restaurant where we got a nice big free breakfast each morning. So it all ended up just fine!

There was lots of loud music happening and street closures when we got there. Our lunch waiter told us there was a celebration in the town for 2 weeks that we arrived in the middle of. Something about the anniversary of becoming a county or something? In any case it meant we got to see some little parades, hear lots of loud music, and enjoy the very loud sound of firecrackers basically all night long both nights we were there. It was mildly annoying but we got used to it.

We were pretty chill while we were there. Did some school and work, strolled around the town, ate in cute restaurants and street food stalls. Jules and I went out on a paddle boarding ride around another little island near us, which was a ton of fun and very good bonding time.

Hotel pool with restaurant and view of the lake in the background

View from our balcony with the little island Jules and I paddled around

View across the lake.

Gorgeous sunsets

Selfie time

Darling Caroline looking all tropical

Tuktuks heading up the little streets. We never needed to take one because nothing is more than a 5-10 min walk

One of the parades. This one had a band and some dancing clowns

By Mimi

Our family went to visit a cave in Belize. It is called the ATM Cave, short for Acton Tunichul Makual. To get there, we took a van on a bumpy road. Then we had to hike for 45 minutes to get to the cave. On the hike, we crossed rivers and heard screaming ants.

In the ATM cave when we were done swimming, we climbed up a boulder and saw some artifacts. Later I learned about them and guess what? The Mayan’s ceremonial rituals included offerings in handmade vases or pots. These included blood, handmade chocolate, vapor from food and human sacrifices. At the end, part of the ceremony was to throw the pots or vases onto the ground so they would smash. The Mayans just left them there. I also saw human bones and pots like the smashed vases, they were growing crystals on them. I think they crystals were formed by either drips from stalactites dripping down or tiny waterfalls from holes up above washing down on those items. Or a mix. When we were swimming, I saw some cool rocks, from big boulders, big rocks in the water to tiny pebbles tossing and turning in the current. It was really fun, plus I like swimming and the hike was nice. This place is great!

Hi. It’s me, Julie, and I’m going to talk about the amazing iguana. If you don’t know what an iguana is, it is a scaly lizard. And guess what? It can grow to 7 feet long! Wow! That is a pretty big lizard.

I’m going to start at the beginning. We get in the car. I was so excited. I tried to go to sleep but I just couldn’t. I twisted and turned. By the time I was about to go to sleep, we were there. I was confused at first because we were at a hotel. I saw our guide a little while later. Our guide led us through a passage way and we hiked about 10 minutes and we were there. I saw a humongous spider. I was terrified, but then I saw a big iguana. It was super cool. Then we sat down and the guide told us some facts and rules.

Big Spider

One male with 2 females

Another male came to see the females but couldn’t get in the cage

This is an iguana sanctuary. The green iguana is endangered so they try to breed more of them and rescue injured ones. They also go and collect eggs from the riverside so that they can incubate them and more will survive, then they release them to the wild.

Petting the iguanas

We went into a room with iguanas. It was so cool. I asked the guide if it was a boy or a girl. He said if it is a male it is orange. He said the males cannot be together because they fight. So there were lots of females but only one male. We looked at the beautiful iguanas for a minute. My sisters saw one pooping. It was grosssss! Then the guide asked if we wanted to feed them. We all said YES! (Except for my mom and dad.) The guide brought out some big leaves and then he brought out a ladder. I got up the ladder and fed some iguanas up high. It was so cool. The iguanas were munching down the leaves.

Feeding the iguanas

One leaf, two mouthsBefore we came, mom told us we could hold baby iguanas. But the guide said they don’t do that anymore because the iguanas would lick people and ingest bug spray or sunscreen, and some of them died, so they decided it wasn’t a good idea. It was too bad because the little ones are SO cute and bright green! But we did get to see some of them, who they keep separate from the adults.

A leaf full of baby iguanas. You can see why we wanted to hold them. They are so cute!

They do let you hold the big iguanas! The guide went to get one big one. We got on our knees to hold it. I was the first one to hold it. And then me and my sisters held it together. It scratched me a little bit but it was worth holding. It was cool touching them because it felt like a scaly creature.

Holding the iguana

Putting her down gentlyThen we went down the trail and then I noticed iguana poop was on my knee. It was disgusting. I just washed it off. But it was still disgusting.

If you go to Belize you should go see the iguanas!

Hello all! Mike has done a great job keeping you all up to date, but I figured I would weigh in occasionally as well.

We had a bit of a hectic morning on Friday. I had some work calls and other work to do for vChief starting early. Mike got the kids going with school but they were all clamoring for my attention, which I just couldn’t fully give them. And it was one of those mornings where school was a battle and it seemed like one breakdown after another from the girls. It took a while, but we made it through all of our work and headed out for lunch. Alas, we waited a bit too long to eat so there was a lot of hangry attitudes on all parts.

By the end of lunch I was about at my wit’s end, so afterwards I took a couple of hours of “me” time. Mike and I have realized doing this occasionally help us both maintain our sanity in light of spending 24/7 with the family.

I was excited to walk around the city and see the sights a bit. The kids don’t really love extended walking tours, so it is a real joy to be able to just do it alone! Saigon has a lot of lovely colonial architecture. I saw a beautiful church and the huge post office.

Church

Post office

maps Hi Chi Minh City and the Mekong delta on the walls of the post office

After an hour of strolling around, I stumbled across a massage place (they are ubiquitous here as in most of Southeast Asia, to my great joy.) I got a lovely hot stone massage and then tried to make my way back to the hotel. It was damn near impossible to find a cab, so I ended up, after a long wait, hopping on the back of a motorcycle taxi. It was a bit of a wild ride- zipping between cars, occasionally onto the sidewalk or into oncoming traffic. Just par for the course around here, but I spent the whole ride alternating between squeezing my eyes shut and praying to the Almighty Lord. Luckily I made it back with all limbs intact and feeling rested and relaxed and ready to jump back in with the kiddos.

Fancy massage place. Paid a whole $20!moto selfie!

So Mike went off to Montevideo Uruguay to sell the car. I felt bad for him having to drive 30 hours. I also felt bad for me having solo parent duty for 3 1/2 days. (I know, cry me a river!) As it turned out, we did just fine, though of course we missed him. 

While he was gone we did work and school each morning, had a lot of pool time, and went on an adventure each afternoon. 

The first day we went to Ipanema beach. It is far from where we are staying but the water is relatively clean (compared to the pea soup/ “broccoli water” in the bay) and of course it is pretty iconic so we didn’t want to miss it. Turns out it is quite similar to Copacabana but with just a slightly different view (islands in the distance and different peaks to view). The girls built sand castles, played at the edge of the big waves, and generally had a lovely time, despite whining about not wanting to go.  

Thursday’s adventure was visiting the Rio aquarium, AquaRio. We took the trolley down there which was fun for the kids. It is free on the way down but they charge coming back up.  The aquarium seemed like a pretty new facility. Super modern and nice with great exhibits. Caroline would hoot and holler with every new exciting discovery she found. Tons of cool fish and other marine life. They had a huge tank with big fish, sharks, and manta rays. They also had touch pools with starfish, clawless lobsters, and baby stingrays. Kids loved it but surprisingly our daredevil Mimi was a bit too nervous to touch the rays and then felt all sad about that after the fact. Overall it was a hit. Then we played at a playground, got some acai, and walked down a cool area with great street art. 

Friday we went up to a playground near our Airbnb and then went strolling through Santa Teresa. We happened upon the trolley again so took it a couple of stops. Then we went to Parque das Ruinas which is an old historic house with insane views of Rio. We snacked on some chocolate cake on the terrace, which the kids gulped down in about 40 seconds. From there we walked down escadaria seleron, some really cool tiled steps, and ended in the marina de Gloria area where the kids practiced cartwheels and then we had pizza dinner by the water. 

A lovely few days, but there was definitely a lot of “I wish dad were here” and “I miss dad.” We will be glad to have him back tomorrow. 

We were happy to come back to Rio for a week before ending the trip. It was a bit of a necessity so Mike could drive the car down to Montevideo to sell it. But before he left we had a couple of days to explore more of Rio as a family. 

Last time we stayed in Copacabana near the beach which was fun. This time we are in a totally different area of the city- Santa Teresa- a historic neighborhood, perched on a hill, complete with a winding labyrinth of cobblestone streets and great architecture and street art. We found an interesting Airbnb with a pool and two bedrooms each with a loft. It has no indoor living/ dining area but there is a covered outdoor kitchen which has worked just fine with us, except the occasional mosquitos. Pool is on the cool side but kids have been in it every day regardless. 

Our first full day back we took off school for Memorial Day. We spent the morning emptying the car. Oh my the amount of garbage (literal and figurative) we have collected!!! We did a first round of organizing and purging but we will likely need another one. 

In the afternoon we went to Florista de Tijuca- a big jungle park in the middle of the city (contains lots of huge peaks including Corcovado, where the giant Jesus stands).  We drove around a circuit and stopped at a couple of points for to see the visitors center and go on a small hike. We were hoping to see some big butterflies but no luck. We did find a nice little playground and 2 lovely waterfalls. Kids did reasonably well on the hike. 



After we came back to our house, we wandered the neighborhood and found a nice little place for dinner. 

The next day we were back to school and work in the morning. Then Mike went to get the car washed… I didn’t think it could ever look quite so clean again. In the afternoon we went to another cool park- Parque Lage. Mike didn’t join us because he was on a failed mission to collect the car deposit from Western Union, but the girls and I had a blast. There was an amazing old building we checked out. Then we went hiking around the grounds and found lots of treasures. First were some cool caves. Then we saw these little marmosets (like mini monkeys with long tails) hopping through the trees. After walking up to a pond, we saw bigger monkeys farther up the hill and in the trees. That seemed exciting enough but later we were waiting around in the courtyard below the building for Mike to pick us up, and there were 2 monkeys we got to see super up close! Almost too up close in fact. One was basically about to pounce on a neighboring guy to get his snack. Then he just walked around the square and the girls wanted to go right up to him. I kept them back a safe distance but it was a pretty cool experience for all of us. There was a second monkey just chilling in the trees, so we got to see lots of that one too. All in all a huge success and super fun day! 

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Monkey #2 in the tree. Loved watching him!

Our time in Copacabana on the shores of lake Titicaca was a bit more mellow than expected given some illnesses and some rain. We didn’t make it out to Isla del Sol as planned, but we did catch up on some work and homeschooling. And we had some fun activities too.

On our last day we hiked up to Horca del Inca on a big hill near town. Mike and Julie were still feeling a bit sick to their stomach, and Caroline was tired so the three of them cut out early. Mimi was eager to hike, so she and I continued up to the top.

We couldn’t find the actual trail so we just scampered up the steep rocks until we were about 2/3 of the way up the mini-mountain. It was really fun and Mimi loved it. Both she and Julie are proving to be good little hiker/climbers this trip! Eventually we did find the trail and followed it up the rest of the way. The view from the top was gorgeous and there was some cool structures used by pre-Incan people for astronomical purposes.

After that we meandered home and had some noodles for lunch (lots of starch in our diet these days- I’m hankering for a gigantic salad!)

The kids had been begging pretty much every waking moment since we got to Copacabana to go on these hamster wheel floaty things on the lake. We finally gave in and let them go. The girls and Mike went out, while I stayed on shore with our stuff. Apparently Caroline was too afraid to let Mike spin the wheel for them and spent a lot of time screaming (she’s our nervous nelly) so the twins said it was no fun and she “wrecked it” for them. They tried to talk us into going again but we weren’t up for that… oh well. I think they will look back and remember it as a fun time regardless.

Later that afternoon Mike headed out to pick up our new minivan from the border. But that is another story entirely for him to tell….