Egypt 2018 video

In Feb 2018 we took an 9 day adventure to Egypt with our kids, 2 couples from our home town and couchsurfing friends from Australia.

We had a great trip, lots of laughs and learnt so much about egypt. You can see more pictures on our Facebook and instagram pages under Our Family Travels.
Here is a 13 minute video of some of the highlights from that trip.


https://youtu.be/KNGnbx6SE8s

We went with My Odyssey tours and our guide was Mohamed Attia Abdalla

The experience with Odyssey tours was fantastic! We were really taken care of on the tour from start to finish. Our guide was amazing. Attia is a university trained Egyptologist. He was so educated in the history of Egypt and he tried very hard to help us get a grasp on the history of everything we saw. He could read all the writing on the walls :)

             Below is the oldest pyramid in Egypt in Saqqara. This is a great example of a step pyramid.

                     Our driver Jimmy got us to where we needed to go in our big tour bus!!

                                                      Dean and Craig catching up

                                 Colton Braxton and Miranda hanging out on the Felucca sailboat

                               Dress up party on The Blue Shadow (cruise boat) on the nile

                                          Attia telling us all about where we were

          The Great Pyramid is the centre one in this picture. It is a little larger than the other 2. We got to go inside the pyramid and climb up to the tomb at the top.

                                      Miranda wanted to have a camel ride

                                                        The streets of Cairo

Afternoon tea on the cruise boat

Potty talk

When you travel, the thing that is the biggest elephant in the room is how the bowels are running. 

Have you drunk enough water?

Are you going to be traveling all day without a clear option of getting to use a toilet.

Is the toilet going to be something you can see yourself using?

 Is it clean enough? 

Private enough? 

A squatty potty?

 A western toilet? 

Do you have a choice? 

Who knows? Not always. If you've gotta go. You've gotta go! 

If you haven't been drinking enough water and it's really hot, what will happen? 

The runs.

The quick trots. 

The squirts.

 Tourista. 

Monte zumza's revenge.

Cramps and diarrhea.

Our biggest question is.....

Have you cleaned out the pipes? 

Sometimes the opposite happens.Stage fright!

The fear of what might happen if you have to go and there may not be a toilet or the toilet is scary. 

You just hold it in. 

For days. 

Until all you can think about is how much has gone in and how much hasn't come out. 

How is that possible? 

What might happen at some point? 

Where will I be when that "some point" happens.

Will we be on a train in India? Nope, not going to happen! 

Ever seen an Indian train toilet? Yes, this just about sums it up. A big nope!! 

This gem of a bathroom above surprised me a bit. I walked into the bathroom at a tourist location and there was this row of toilets. Umm no.....just no.... Then I saw there was one in a private room. Phew.... 

So we talk about our bowels when we travel. Yup, pretty much whenever.

Hey Sandra! Have you been going yet? No? Me neither 🙄:(

Hey Craig! Have you cleaned out the pipes yet? Ya! Great! I can't wait till my pipes are clear! 😉

On another note! I LOVE the bum cleaners that lots of counties have. The ones that sit beside the toilets so that you can spray off your backside afterwards? So nice! A little shower for your bum 🤗.

Prince Rupert, BC fishing trip

Dean and I went on a long weekend fishing trip to see Dean's brother Jann and his wife Tina in Prince Rupert BC in June. Here is a short video of our time there.


https://youtu.be/IZSxC0M2JwY

India

It's 4am in the morning and I'm lying in our dark hostel room in India thinking of our last week here in Delhi. We try not to have to many preconceived notions of how a country or culture will be before we see for ourselves. But India was so easy to judge. There are so many tv shows and movies that depict a scary India. An India not safe for woman and children to travel within. But so far that has not been our experience. 

As a whole, I've felt safe, I've been respected as a woman with a voice. I have not been touched or looked at  inappropriately. We have all been stared at. A lot. But not so much out of anything much more than an honest curiosity. We stare a lot to. 

India is definitely stretching us. There is so much trash, so many people, thousands of tuk tuks, motorcycles and cars. The honking is insistent. I want to yell STOP IT. Just stop all the honking. We get it, you want to go faster. But it's their way. Not our way.  The smells are at times overwhelming. Sometimes the smells are so good. Curry, garlic and other food smells tempt us of some amazing food being cooked along the streets. Other smells are not so good. Cow dung, rotting garbage and the smell of poverty are the hard ones. In Varanasi, the smoke from the wood burning cremations that go 24/7  was at times stifling. Putting our scarves over our mouths was the only relief we got. Breathing was hard. I can't imagine the local people breathing in that smoke day after day. Do they ever get a lung full of crisp Canadian like air. Oh, we are so fortunate to live in a country with fresh air. 

The drivers go this way and that way, winding their mode of transport through the narrow streets, trying to find a path past the others, past the dogs sleeping in the streets, past the cows walking through the middle of traffic, oblivious to the rush of the city., past all the people walking in the streets. The crowds are unbelievable. So many people, vehicles and animals. It's hard to comprehend how it all works. Why don't we see more accidents? A few times as we were riding in a tuk tuk, we gasped at a close call. Yikes, that was almost an accident. The drivers seem to know within inches, how close to the others around them are. But other than a few slow touches, we haven't seen an accident. 

  

The early mornings that we've walked through the streets, we notice people cleaning up from the mess of the day before. Piles of trash swept up into piles. Sometimes cows are riffling through the trash like pigs, looking for a snack. Things are much more quiet in the early mornings. The shops tend to open closer to 8, so there are less vehicles racing around. It's a good time to explore with a little less chaos. 

So far, we have found an India worth visiting. A beautiful country full of ancient temples, forts, ghats, rituals, religions and beautiful smiles all mixed into a crazy chaotic space. Friendly people that are very much worth taking the time to talk with. They are as interested in our way of life as we are in theirs. Bring on the next 2 weeks! We are ready to learn and experience more of what India has to offer. 

Guatemala and Belize 2017

We decided to go and explore an area of central America that we haven't yet been to. Guatemala  was our last Central American country left unexplored. So off we went in Feb. 2017 to see a little part of Guatemala and go back to Belize for the 4th time to revisit.

We started our journey flying into Belize city and taking a small plane into Flores, Guatemala. We landed and went to our little guesthouse for a night. The next morning we took a bus to Tikal to hike around the ruins. We spent the day hiking the large Myan ruins and spent the night at a hotel in the jungle.

The next day we took a local bus back to Flores, where we spent another 3 days. We loved the friendly people, the great nacho platters and being on the lake.



Sitting on our rooftop deck at Flores Boutique Hotel with some guacamole, fresh salsa and chips. Plus a cold glass of white wine to sit on as we watched life pass us by on the lake.

 We took a 1 1/2 hour bus ride out to Tikal National Park. We spent the day hiking around the park, climbing the ruins and enjoying the area.

                                        I "PASARed just a little.

Sitting up top temple #4. The highest temple in Tikal 

One of our favourite places to have breakfast or coffee or a beer looking out over the lake.

After 5 nights we took a bus back to Belize to be on the ocean. We went directly to Belize city where we then took a boat taxi out to Caye Caulker. Back to the island that has held our love for almost 15 years. Caye Caulker had definitely changed.

                     Our favourite bakery on Cay Caulker 

 It is now much busier and the small mom and pop guesthouses have been replaced by larger hotels and restaurants. we were a little disappointed. We spent 2 nights on Caye Caulker and decided to move on to Ambergris Caye to explore a place we had heard was quite popular. We booked 2 nights at a small guesthouse and spent some time driving around the island on a golf cart and walking many miles, exploring beaches and small little streets. 

We found a rotisserie chicken place and our mouths watered. So we picked up a chicken with a cold watermelon on the side and had an amazing lunch on the beach. 

We realized that San Pedro was really to busy for us and decided that we needed to find a smaller different island to spend our last 5 days. So off we went to Tobacco Caye.

               We went scuba diving for my birthday. It was amazing. We saw the biggest turtle I've ever seen, different types of rays, lots of colourful fish and I even got to spear fish lion fish!!

We stayed the first 2 nights at Paradise cabins. Our little cabin sat right over the water. We spent many days sitting on our deck watching the stingrays swim past sipping our cold beer.

 Dean went diving for conch a few times and our kitchen ladies prepared some amazing ceviche and conch fritters. 

Our cabins came with sea kayaks and paddle boards. SO we took advantage of them and paddled around the island a few times. 

We met so many people on the island. We met this couple from BC that has been to Tobacco Caye 9 times or more. We will hopefully catch up with them the next time we go. We also met many other people that we got to hang out with for the 5 days hanging out on the island. We loved all the conversations we had and the fun times going out for a snorkel or looking out over the water chatting. 

We really loved Tobacco Caye from the moment we saw it. It is the size of a football field and is right on the reef. Love it!! We enjoyed walking circles around the island, visiting other tourists and locals, snorkelling, diving, fishing for conch, and sitting in the sun with a book. We will definitely go back.

15 days. 10 planes. 10 beds. 4 boats. 3 buses. What a trip!