Acapulco used to be a mecca for actors and musicians so we decided to follow in their footsteps and visit all their favourite places. We stumbled upon John Wayne’s (I used to have crazy crush on this guy when i was 2) favourite flamingo hotel with the best view. Visiting an old part of Acapulco was a bit creepy as we didn’t see many people on the streets and of course hearing it being the most dangerous city in Mexico Mom started using her 360 degree sensors. Nevertheless, the taxi driver told us that during Christmas season they bring over 12 000 police to town and it becomes the safest one 😉 So Mom decided to get to a small island and see the Lady of Guadalupe sunk under the water and the sculpture on the island. We found out that that was the main destination for Mexicans on their vacations and we had a great time with them sharing the boat and the beach.

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Guatemala was a very special to Mom as she was here about 8 years ago backpacking around with dad. We drove to Antigua through an active volcano landscape. Locals dressed up in traditional clothing, colorful buildings, yummy food and lots of history hidden in the little gem of Antigua. It has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We visited a community which lives off of their handmade arts and crafts. I got a beautiful old hand woven poncho while we were there. We visited an old monastery, some churches, candle factory, jewelers studios and we walked and walked in the cobbled streets of Antigua.Shotguns seems in fashion in Guatemala.

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Thanks to Reynaldo (mom found him online) we had a great time in lush Nicaragua. Volcanoes, hot mud pools, the colorful city of Leon and lovely people is what I remember from the trip.
It was hot no doubt, mom had to carry me for a bit as i just didn’t have the energy in such heat. We visited a lovely village next to hot volcanic mud pools where kids my age were digging mud and making lovely pottery for sale. We had a great time in a great place.

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To get to Tortuga wasn’t easy, but knowing my mom she would manage. The lovely thing about Costaricans is that if you ask for something they will do everything they can to make it happen. We asked our taxi driver how to get to Tortuga (well a boat is not a taxi, but mom does stuff like that). The taxi called somebody who called another person and than we had another person picking us up in a car and dropping us off at fisherman house. And off we go! The fisherman had a boat It took us 1.5 hours to get to the paradise. On the way there 2 tortoises stuck their heads out of the water. In the port we found a craftsman who carved my name in wood.

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The Panama Canal crossing was something completely different from what I had imagined. It was quite a process and it lasted pretty much all day. In a very organized manner we moved through the first locks which took about 2 hours and than we sailed on Gatun Lake. Finally we got to the last locks and the Pacific, open gates with thunder in the sky.
I strongly recommend watching the National Geographic movie about the history of Panama Canal. I learned about Mr John Stevens and Mr Gorgas, two big names that made the canal happened. About the big scare of yellow fewer and malaria that killed thousands of workers. Great documentary to watch before you cross the canal.
While passing Panama City we saw Origami-Like Biomuseo designed by Frank Gehry with lots of happy colors.
A bunch of us made a poster for the crossing with elements of our lives, where we come from and where we live.

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Colombia welcomed us with warm hearts and warm weather. I think I swelled up from the heat. Looks like Colombians like orange colors for clothing, building, paintings and fruits, where ever you turned there was orange. Even Stella was wearing orange that day. We visited an old monastery on top of the hill with gorgeous view of Cartagena, an old fortress which was way to hot for me to climb up and of course Cartagena, city of a million colours (mainly orange). My mom was super excited watching goldsmiths making jewelry with columbian jade. There wouldn’t be a trip if we didn’t see monkeys and parrots in the end. The good news was that they were not in captivity. I finally lots my first tooth.

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Thoughts on Japan. Well, it was nice being with Dad for a while. But I didn’t really like 12 hours of walking. I liked the apple pie in Starbucks but nothing is better than Pablo Mini. Watching Sumo was my evening treat. I liked the Imperial Palace. It was my first trip with my own camera, so in this post you will see mine and dad’s pictures. Lots of things were very exciting even when I went on the automatic toilet and the water spray went all over the bathroom :o) I spent a lot of time doing craft on the Tokyo to Kyoto Shinkansen (we went 4 times). Tokyu Hands is great, they sell real scissors for kids. Shrines are nice places to take photos. It was good of Dad to carry me up the Fushimi Inari Taisha Shrine, as it was rather warm and humid that day, and I’ll really just didn’t have the energy. Oddly enough when I got back to the bottom I seemed to have endless energy. Mom arrived week after and we were her tour guides. She loved everything but ginkgo leaves the most. I miss Japan.

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Our week in Yellowstone felt like an entire year. We drove though 4 seasons ranging from +18 to -3, snow, rain, storms and sun.
This trip was dedicated to wildlife, as you can see there are maybe 5 pictures of me ;). Yellowstone was empty of tourists and full of animals. The 5000 elk herd wasn’t hard to spot, bison were convinced that the road belonged to them, coyote, foxes or grizzly bear munching on elk carcasses kept our eyes wide open. Prong horn antelopes looking like they belong in Africa were easy to photograph until mom got a bit scared. ;). All the pictures are taken by mom and dad. Enjoy 3 pages.

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