Escape to Belize - Altun Ha Mayan temples

 On  Belize - there are Mayan Temples.. and we just HAD to see them!!

After our Snorkeling day - we got up at 4:30 and headed to San Pedro. In the early morning there are maybe 2 restaurants open - where all the workers go to eat... so we jumped in. 

Fresh corn tortillas and all sorts of yummy breakfasts - then we headed to the Water Taxi. Of course, The tour would be on the Main land. 

Our Water Taxi stopped at Caye Caulker, and a lot of kids in uniforms got on. One girl told us, she goes to High School on the Mainland - so every day she has to take the water taxi in ( 1 hour ride) and back home. Their schools are not Government funded, they are paid for out of their income. I am told that only the wealthy can send their kids to school on the mainland. 

We arrived at Belize City and were picked up - and we headed out!

First Stop : AltunHa Mayan Temples

it was Jungly and Rain Foresty. Our tour guide told us that a lot of this land is open because things just don't grow there and it is marshy or floods seasonally. 

He also told us that they discovered AltunHa by accident. they were creating new roads and came across these hills, in flat county. so they started excavating and found the first temple. Road construction stopped - and digging began.

This is a pretty cool site - so far they have excavated a lot and identified over 500 mounds. 

This is kind of what they found - the mounds just came out of flat ground ( or flat ish) 

When they started excavating - the things they found!!

There are a lot of history sites on it. But Our guide was half Mayan, so he told us a lot of what he had learned as a kid, and lore from his family. It was really cool!

This one ( above ) is called A1:

A tomb was discovered under the temple floor with Jade Objects in it - they dated it to about 550 AD.

you could climb up to the top of it - so you know we did!

It is like Two plazas - they called this one Plaza A - and the Structures lined up perfectly - East and West. So they could follow the sun - rising and setting.

This was behind the Structure we were on 

My New Friend (above) 

This was also behind A 1 - they were very symmetrical folks - so if you found this on one side, there was another exactly opposite of it.

This is the Temple in Plaza 2

Our guide told us the the High Priest would go to the top of it to give his speeches - to the right ( or left if he was standing on top) was the Houses of the Elite. The Elite were the protectors of the high priest, and to the left -was the admin buildings.

The commoners would live outside of these structures.

But!! if you got on the top and talked normal - your voice really carried and you could hear down at the bottom!

This view 👇  Is from Plaza 2 ( the structure above) looking out at Plaza 1!  ( yes we climbed BOTh!!!)

My son went to the Very Edge and I think my husband had a heart episode. He got a little pale watching him go so close

This is us up on the Top of Plaza 2 - Behind the Kid is the leftovers of where the elite would have lived, and behind K ( to the right) is the Admin buildings.

There is also a little museum. and of course, when you leave the site - there are people selling things. Lots of things, but the one that caught our eye - a lady made fresh fried plantains - like big old chips - so we had to try them

They include hot sauce - but blech - the plantains were great by themselves.

next.... We drove further into the jungle for lunch and another adventure.... which will be in another blog post!!!

Check out Day THREE on the Dust off a Book Blog Hop too!

• MooseStashQuilting
• WithStringsAttached
• citymouse quilter

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Dust Off a Book Blog Hop!!! and Weekend Quilting!!!

Today is MY Day!!! On the *Dust Off a Book* Blog hop!!

I liked this idea especially since I have books, and I have Quilts to make, and I thought what a better way to make myself look at my books, and then I went down the rabbit hole, and looked at WAY to many and now I have a big list of what I want to make...

But it's all good!!! I have fabric!!!

This is the Book I chose!  1 - it has some awesome patterns in it, and 2 . It promises you can make a top in a weekend.

Truthfully - It took me more than one weekend- but that is not the books fault!! She has the steps laid out by time. So you cut. Then Hour 1 is step one, and so on . Each quilt has the idea of how many hours it should take you. That is an Awesome Concept.

However - she does not have my dogs continually interrupting her plans.😅😆😅😆

Here is the Quilt I decided to make!!

I just loved all the bright colors. But then!!! i thought!! ( watch out world that is how earthquakes happen!!)

I have a LOT of weddings coming up this year - I wonder.... could I make this one for one of my wedding couples???

I got to sleuthing out their favorite colors..... and planning the time line - I think it would all work out.....

Of course - the day I finished it , that exact moment when I wanted to take photos - the wind came up!!!

So I went to the other side of the house - and guess what?  The wind was there too!!!

So we took a photo inside as well - but I love this one!!!

I used Navy, Royal, Teal, Purple , two greens - it was so fun to play with the colors. 

We know this couple well enough to know Black is not their vibe - so I used White as the background, and in real person - it makes those colors pop!!!

This was a fun challenge - with a deadline - so I had to power thru!! ( read NOT start 16 more projects in the same time frame) and I enjoyed it!

Again the Book is Weekend Quilts - Here is the Amazon Link if you want to see it for yourself.

Link to Weekend Quilts

There is a lot more quilts in the book - and of course - Iwant to make a few more of them!!!

Shout out to BeAQuilter for putting this all together!

Check out all the other Bloggers on the list!! Maybe be inspired by a new book!

March 3

• Karrin’s Crazy World
• Textile Ranger

 March 4

• Alyciaquilts
• KathleenMcMusing

 March 5

• MooseStashQuilting
• WithStringsAttached
• citymouse quilter

March 6

• NettieSews
• Beaquilter

ALSO Linking to:

Wednesday Wait Loss

Finished ( or Not) Friday

TGIFF

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Escape to San Pedro - Snorkeling

 After resting a day - we were ready for an Adventure!!!

I called this trip - Overcoming Fears Adventures!!! and I DID IT!!!

See!!! That's us after the first  snorkeling of the day!! They dried faster than I did - but it was 80 - so I was in heaven!

Remember back to those dark days where we had to wear masks? I am so claustrophobic that they made me panic. But in order to work where I did - we had to wear them - so I sat in my house with a mask on for 10 seconds - then took it off, then 12 seconds...slowly getting longer - It took me a few days to get to an hour - but then I thought I'd be good....

Fast forward to SNORKELING Gear!!! I was panicked about that - so I bought my own set of Gear :

And  I sat on the couch with the mask on for 10 seconds - then I added the mouth thing for 2, Took it off ... and tried again.

That was a great plan - Because after jumping in the ocean I just had a mild panic attack and once I stretched out ( like a floating dead guy) I relaxed and went all over!!!

It was AWESOME!!

This is Shark and Stingray Alley - They are Nursing Sharks and their mouths are at the bottom, so they can't bite you like a Jaws shark - but I wasn't sure I wanted to swim with them.... So I took photos first - and then ... jumped in!!

There was a TON of them - and stingrays - they aren't aggressive tho - they just swim at the bottom and you are not supposed to go over them.

We boated to a few more spots to snorkel and the fish, the reef, the coral, the colors and all the greens - oh man - it was a color attack - I loved it!!

After we all decided we were done snorkeling our guide took us to feed the Tarpons - they JUMP!!! and I did not opt to feed them. You had to hold a Fish in your hand and they  jumped to it.

I do not like to touch fish - and I decided I had overcome enough Fears for the day - So I watched my husband and son do it! and I didn't scream - I decided that was a success too!

We had visitors on the boat as well - they were So funny . They kept trying to get closer, but then they would back off. I think they were hoping for some of the fish.

after that - we stopped on Caye Caulker for lunch - Landshark is another local beer - so it had to be tasted - Ignore the face .. I made him laugh....

But check out these colors? Aren't they just so pretty!

Caye Caulker is more of a Party Island vibe - as in the WHOLE island just parties the day away. I am sure there are excursions off this Caye too - but it was just a fun vibe. And very Happy People - everyone was pretty friendly .

This is the Elvis Restaurant - it had 4 different painting of Elvis .

Then of course I needed to explore to see where the locals lived - again!! That color!! SO fun!!

We got back to our dock about 4, OH!!! BY THE WAY!! Our adventure Guide PICKED US UP AT OUR DOCK!! So super cool !!! our Guide was Hill of No Worries Tours - he and Mario made the day amazing!!!

We got to go Conch diving, they made ceviche on the boat, he brought water and soda , and a Rum Punch. Apparently Rum punch is all the thing.

 ( again - allergies - it has pineapple juice in it so he wouldn't let me have it)  Hill was awesome - I told him my food allergies and he never forgot them !!  ( all week!)

We got back to clean up and our caretakers brought us a great meal of tacos and fried plantains and we shut our eyes... for the next day.... was to start at 4:30 am.....

but for real time Tomorrow is my day on the *Dust off a Book * Blog hop - so come see what book I dusted off... and what I made from it!!!  Day 1 can be found here: Day 1 Dust off A Book

Linking up with :

My Corner of the World

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1860's Log Cabin Quilt and !! Finished ( or not) Friday!!!

 Happy Friday!!!!  ( the LAST Friday of February!!!!)

Even though I have been on Vacation - you know I had to finish something before I left to make sure I could show off today!!!

This is an 1860's Log Cabin Quilt and I am in love with it!!!

This was a find by Deb!!! She found a bag of blocks in a Basement and they needed a LOT of work!!

She hand washed each one, and re-stitched the ones that were coming apart. then She set them in this setting!

its amazing!!

I was discussing it with my friend K and then I talked with Deb too - we haven't seen a Log Cabin this old with half squares as the center block. I am sure they were there - but just not documented. Have you seen one?   

Truly - its just lovely!!!

And that Cheddar - Swoon worthy!!! I like how the make kept the cheddar rows consistent - In my opinion it draws the quilt together!! 

I did have to give it back, but I put a caveat on the invoice - if she ever doesn't love it anymore... call me first!!!

Now you all know what time it is right?   FINISHED ( or not) FRIDAY LINK UP!!!!

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Escape Away.... Belize ( San Pedro)

 We ESCAPED..... it was -12 and I was done with it - so!!! we jumped a plane or two, a water taxi, and golf cart - and we went to San Pedro, Belize, Central America.

I will admit - the Central America thing did not register in my brain until I saw the C.A  and it did not mean California!!!

Who has been to Belize? To San Pedro?

it was a brand new experience for me - and I loved it- 

We arrived into Belize City from Houston - to stand in the Immigration and Customs line for 2 1/2 hours - that part.... Keeelllllled me!!!

But the cool thing is you do your customs online before hand - so you just show them a QR code with your passport - easy peasy.

We were traveling to San Pedro, Ambergris Caye - so we either needed to take a puddle jumper plane or a Water Taxi - I decided the Water taxi to get there, plane to get back. After traveling for 12 hours - that might not have been the best decision - the Water taxi took another 1 1/2 hours and the flight would have been 15 minutes - but its all good - we were on Vacation!!!

On the Caye - the main mode of transportation is GOLF CARTS!!! Too much fun, and a lot of crazy driving!!

We are in a golf cart - following the guy in front of us. He was the Caretaker of the VRBO we were staying in, and!! Our luggage driver!! Also - he knew we had no clue where to go!!

The quilter in me was drawn in by the colors - Look at that pretty teal ish greenn color - and Yellow!!! ( which is the RSC color but I didn't know it at the time!!)

We quickly learned to Navigate the roads - and just jump in - no real signals and only a VERY few stop signs exist there - also - the local beer is Belikin.... and it is MUCH cheaper than anything brought in from another country

We ARRIVED!!! This is our own little beach and oh man you all - it was HEAVEN!!! For a country girl I was a little worried about crowds and noise - but this place we rented - AMAZING - you had your own beach!!

And our Caretakers wife - she cooked for us. I love her, I asked her to come home with me, Sadly - she declined - apparently she is not a fan of snow or cold or , well, leaving her family ( sigh)

We decided our First day would be just to hang out on our beach and see what we could see:

Not a bad way to start your morning. and yes - I am wearing sandals; I am a weird one and I don't like feeling things on my feet ( like sand) 

Guess how many days it took for me to just walk barefoot???

That is our house - we stayed on the top floor. The caretaker and his family live on the bottom floor. and we had a Paddleboard, a kayak, we brought our own snorkeling gear and did it all off of our beach - SO SUPER COOL to us!!!

Another view from our Beach.

When I travel - I do like to learn about the culture - so it was great to have the caretaker. There are a lot of things I don't think about living in America - like food - we have so much of it all the time.

There really aren't Seasons anymore when you have a grocery store - there? Lobster season ends 2/28 - so they won't have lobster from the island until it is in season again. Which will increase restaurant prices as they will have to import it from another country.... Interesting.

We have been complaining about eggs and produce - my sad was that avocados in the US doubled ( to like $2) in price - she said they rarely pay less that $4 per avocado.... That shut me up!!

Anyways Day 1? 

Awesome - 

We were cooked for, we played in the ocean, we had a beer ( okay the boys had a beer - I am allergic) 

and I read a Book - A WHOLE book..... that's usually a 3 week task around here!!

Proof that I read!!!  ( and yes I did start it on the plane - but Seriously - I finished it!!)

its about a Grandma and Granddaughter switching lives and it is SOOOO good!

All while it was snowing and blowing and I was feeling bad for my Chore people - but not that bad to come back!!!

Oh and Nann - that is why there were no comments haha - Internet/Wifi/ Cell service... not as easy as one might think ;-)