Saturday, July 30, 2011
Sprucing up the Place
Luke and I have been talking about different ways we can make la casa de Martin more ours and we decided today that we would spruce up the living/dining room area. We went to our local Carrione and picked up some curtains, a table runner and place mats. Wan Tzu really likes the curtains so we are trying to keep him from rubbing his head against them too much. We are excited to entertain anyone who wants to come see them in person. :)
Friday, July 29, 2011
Welcome to the Tropics Where Everything Grows Bigger!
As Luke and I were watching 'Friends' minding out own business when a giant moth came flying into our living room. Luke proceeded to shriek and I grabbed my ice tea and a book to defend myself. Let me just preface this with - we weren't sure if it was a bat, small bird or butterfly when it entered. Eventually, Luke was able to scare it out and he saved the day. Here is a photo (which doesn't do it justice), but like they say, everything is bigger in the tropics.
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Sambo Creek
Today we went on a fantastic adventure to Sambo Creek. Sambo Creek is a small beach town about 15 minutes outside of La Ceiba, it isn't anything too fancy but a fun get away where the beaches are cleaner and so is the water. We had heard of a place called 'Helen's' that was supposed to have fabulous margaritas so we decided to start our adventure.
We left La Ceiba a little late because Natalie and Tyler had to sign the lease for their house that they are renting *exciting!* and so we met up with them around 11. Another teacher at the school, Erika, explained that we could get a cab to Sambo Creek by walking over to the north side of town and taxis will be there for that very purpose. Sure enough they were and $6USD later we were in our Caribbean paradise.
The driver dropped us off and we walked along the coast looking for 'Helen's', sadly...sort of, we missed it and ended up walking along the beach for a while. It was amazing because there was no one on the beach at all! A couple local people, but really, no more then 7. We walked until we found a bar/hotel with a pool and we decided to stop. It was a great place to jump in the water, sun bathe, eat and drink. We stayed there for two or three hours before continuing on our journey.
We asked the owner, a nice man from Boston, if he knew where 'Helen's' was, he laughed and pointed us back the way we came; it was right next door to 'The Canadian'. When we got their we knew why everyone raved about this place. It was very tranquil and the food and drinks were amazing! We will for sure be going back there.
It was a great day in our new home. It is nice to know that we are so close to a beach getaway and have a nice place to take people when they come to visit! Here are some photos.
We left La Ceiba a little late because Natalie and Tyler had to sign the lease for their house that they are renting *exciting!* and so we met up with them around 11. Another teacher at the school, Erika, explained that we could get a cab to Sambo Creek by walking over to the north side of town and taxis will be there for that very purpose. Sure enough they were and $6USD later we were in our Caribbean paradise.
The driver dropped us off and we walked along the coast looking for 'Helen's', sadly...sort of, we missed it and ended up walking along the beach for a while. It was amazing because there was no one on the beach at all! A couple local people, but really, no more then 7. We walked until we found a bar/hotel with a pool and we decided to stop. It was a great place to jump in the water, sun bathe, eat and drink. We stayed there for two or three hours before continuing on our journey.
We asked the owner, a nice man from Boston, if he knew where 'Helen's' was, he laughed and pointed us back the way we came; it was right next door to 'The Canadian'. When we got their we knew why everyone raved about this place. It was very tranquil and the food and drinks were amazing! We will for sure be going back there.
It was a great day in our new home. It is nice to know that we are so close to a beach getaway and have a nice place to take people when they come to visit! Here are some photos.
Perros y Comida
Everyone has been asking 'how are the dogs?' so I thought I would throw a post out there for them. Wan Tzu is adjusting well but he does really enjoy the air conditioned room. Tofu is the same. Our friends Natalie and Tyler are bringing down a 'firminator' which helps strip the undercoat of long haired dogs, so we are going to do that to Tofu to see if that keeps her cooler. They are enjoying being pampered but I do think they miss their cousins at home.
On another good note, a lot of people we curious about the food down here. We have found that most of the food is either fast food (no Taco Bell though) or foreign food. We have a sushi restaurant, and Italian place, a steak house and so much more. Luke and I have been taking to cooking at home because it is more affordable and we can make staples like beans and weiners and so on. However, my gem of a husband came back from the market the other day with something so glorious I could not believe it....
MAC AND CHEESE!
Yes, I think I will do just fine here.
On another good note, a lot of people we curious about the food down here. We have found that most of the food is either fast food (no Taco Bell though) or foreign food. We have a sushi restaurant, and Italian place, a steak house and so much more. Luke and I have been taking to cooking at home because it is more affordable and we can make staples like beans and weiners and so on. However, my gem of a husband came back from the market the other day with something so glorious I could not believe it....
MAC AND CHEESE!
Yes, I think I will do just fine here.
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Mr. Martin
We stopped by school and we able to get into Luke's classroom. He seemed pretty comfortable as soon as he saw the giant AC unit in the back.
Monday, July 25, 2011
Newest Obsession
For all those who know Luke and I, you know we are Disney/animated movie nuts. When we first met we hit it off by talking about the movie Anastasia...romantic right?
Anyway, I recently watched the movie 'Tangled' by Disney and was so impressed! Recently, most Disney movies have been letting me down, they are tired and the music is not very good. However, Disney got this one right. Not only was the music fantastic, the story was a great take on the classic fairy tale, and there were a lot of funny lines in it!
I recommend this movie to everyone and hope that Disney keeps up the good work!
Saturday, July 23, 2011
La Casa Martin
Last post for the day! As you all have guessed, because the company provides us with a living allowance, they hired a local man (Arthur or as we call him Arturo)to take us around to find a place to live. A live action House Hunters International if you will. So Luke and I were both very excited about this. Neither of us has really had a house before... let alone by ourselves, we felt pretty grown up as we set out in La Ceiba with Arturo, Natalie and Tyler.
La Ceiba is a very small town. Not too small, but you can walk anywhere you need to in the city in about 30 minutes. So Arturo decided to take us to a couple of the safe sections of the city to look at houses on the 19th. We walked through a neighborhood or as the call them here 'Colonias' called Naranjal (no idea how to spell that). It was an extremely nice neighborhood but there were no houses there for rent. We then walked around through downtown and saw a couple houses there. There was one that was right next to the futbol stadium that was promising, but we decided it would be too loud for us and the dogs. After a day of walking around and not finding anything, Luke and I were feeling a little sad. But we decided to keep our hopes up and decided that the next day would be our day.
Natalie, the new Kinder teacher, is playing on the volleyball team right now and was taking to a colonia called El Sauce (pronounced El Sao Se) and found a couple of houses there. We really liked one of them that was near a park that also had a small yard for the dogs. We looked at a couple more but nothing really struck us except for the one.
We decided to think on it for a couple days but on our anniversary I told Luke that I really saw us in the house. It was the perfect size (3 beds and 3 baths), large combined living and dining room area, room for the laundry, great sized kitchen and the neighborhood is really safe. He told me that he liked the house a lot and if I thought that it was the one we should go for it.
The next day we called the owner and were moving in! Before we did though, we had to go and buy everything! Rentals here do not come with anything...and that includes appliances! So Arturo took us to the second hand markets to pick some up. The only thing that we bought new were our bed and the table for our anniversary, everything else was as cheap as we could get. Luckily, we can use our credit card down here. lol.
Here are some photos of the house which include a napping Luke, don't mind him.
Last but not least, the fruit tree in the back! Luke didn't get a mango tree, but he did get a lemon tree and we do have some fruit on it. Not much but I am looking forward to some fresh lemonade (not really but Luke is). Cheers!
La Ceiba is a very small town. Not too small, but you can walk anywhere you need to in the city in about 30 minutes. So Arturo decided to take us to a couple of the safe sections of the city to look at houses on the 19th. We walked through a neighborhood or as the call them here 'Colonias' called Naranjal (no idea how to spell that). It was an extremely nice neighborhood but there were no houses there for rent. We then walked around through downtown and saw a couple houses there. There was one that was right next to the futbol stadium that was promising, but we decided it would be too loud for us and the dogs. After a day of walking around and not finding anything, Luke and I were feeling a little sad. But we decided to keep our hopes up and decided that the next day would be our day.
Natalie, the new Kinder teacher, is playing on the volleyball team right now and was taking to a colonia called El Sauce (pronounced El Sao Se) and found a couple of houses there. We really liked one of them that was near a park that also had a small yard for the dogs. We looked at a couple more but nothing really struck us except for the one.
We decided to think on it for a couple days but on our anniversary I told Luke that I really saw us in the house. It was the perfect size (3 beds and 3 baths), large combined living and dining room area, room for the laundry, great sized kitchen and the neighborhood is really safe. He told me that he liked the house a lot and if I thought that it was the one we should go for it.
The next day we called the owner and were moving in! Before we did though, we had to go and buy everything! Rentals here do not come with anything...and that includes appliances! So Arturo took us to the second hand markets to pick some up. The only thing that we bought new were our bed and the table for our anniversary, everything else was as cheap as we could get. Luckily, we can use our credit card down here. lol.
Here are some photos of the house which include a napping Luke, don't mind him.
Last but not least, the fruit tree in the back! Luke didn't get a mango tree, but he did get a lemon tree and we do have some fruit on it. Not much but I am looking forward to some fresh lemonade (not really but Luke is). Cheers!
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