So after all the talk about the infamous 170 mile canoe race from the beautiful border of Guatemala to the trashy coastline of Belize City, we finally have pictures to post.
(Marcel, Johnny, and Todd)
After months and months of vigorous training, meaning no training whatsoever, the brave 'Croation Haulers' (sponsored by coincidently the Croation Hall--thanks Johnny) embarked on their 4 day journey logically in a lake canoe. Hoping that size alone would make up for the speed of the other weightless racing canoes. They couldn't have been more prepared, except if they had paddled intertubes or carried 100 lbs of food instead of 50.
Luckily they had a supaat kroo (kriol for support crew. we've been here for 9 months. and that is what we have to show for it.) The support crew-me, nicole, cat, ashley, alli, shirly, jackie, and matt, were supposed to go ahead, drop off supplies, and set up camp etc. As of the morning of the race, however, the support crew did not have a way to get to the campsites or the drop off points. But thanks to Alli's swooning, just as the 94 boats took off on the first morning of the race, we (the crew) climbed in to fancy, air conditioned SUV's of the British Military. After that moment, they pretty much took over, doing everything from feeding us dinner, giving up their chairs and patrolling our camp as we slept, while we ate their candy bars and cheered while they threw stuff into our teams canoe. It couldn't have worked out more beautifully!
The race started on a lovely foggy morning in Cayo ...
The mornings were always the best part of the day. Everyone would be freaking out running into each other waiting for the gun to shoot and at least 3 boats would flip with in the first 30 seconds. As the day went on, the space between boats would get longer and longer. The first boats getting in anywhere from 2-7 hours before the last boats.
Every night after paddling all day, we fed them lots of food and talked about why the crap they decided to do this. The nights were a lot of fun though. This is one of our more beautiful camps as you can see by the pile up of natural beauty in the background
And it ended in the scenic Belize City. A warm welcome.
And they actually did it. We still are not sure why, but someone had to represent for peace corps. After four days and about 28 hours of paddling total.
Which consists of regular things, that can look neat if taken the right way. so thanks to Cat who took these neat pictures of our regular being existence.
Guatemala was awesome. We were there for Easter and we stayed in Antigua for all the neat celebrations. It was so fun. They covered the roads in amazing colorful carpets made of sawdust, sand, vegetables and the like. Then the 'processions', which were parades of people in cloaks carrying large floats with depictions of Christ and his life would come and trample the carpets. The streets were filled with incense and by standers. Unfortunately our camera broke, and we haven't yet developed our disposable camera. And even then, we were too embarrassed by it to really get good pictures, but check out mica and john's blog (listed on the side) they got some good ones.
Then we went and got Annies. It was an Easter miracle that we even found her, due to our emaculate 15 leg plan including planes, boats, and cars. but we had so much fun and went around to some sweet places. When her pictures arrive, we will post about it. Thanks for coming annies!! we love you.
Then we had our sweet office party preceded by a trip to todd's park with some peace corps friends.
and so now we are here sitting in our regular humaness which feels kind of weird but will probably be good.
