Janie's Photography Blog

Reflections

It isn't easy coming back to reality after an amazingly adventurous vacation in a beautiful country.  This week I feel like I wasn't as motivated to get 800 things done at a time.  Hence, I didn't post any more photos to the blog, only "worked out" once (a walk and doubles tennis with neighbors, definitely didn't work off all that I accumulated indulging myself in delicious food in Guatemala), haven't responded to the majority of personal email/facebook messages, etc.  I just couldn't bring myself to get on the computer after spending all day at work sitting at my desk.  I asked my friend, whose job is to seek sponsorships for the local chamber, if she would seek someone who would sponsor me to travel the world.  She said she'd work on it, but didn't sound too hopeful.  Besides not wanting to sit at the computer after work, Wednesday night we had a fun dinner party with Jeff Kuykendall (who was in town taking the FL bar), Jacki Waring (in town visiting fam), my mom, and Jeff and Jocelyn (my brother and his girlfriend who just moved into our condo complex, SO FUN!  They're currently out on our boat with their cute "puppy Rielly."  Them moving into the neighborhood makes three cousins, one brother and an aunt who live here. Yay!)

Anyway, this weekend I will be spending most of my time enjoying my hubby, since he'll be starting his second year of medical school on Monday and we all know that means I won't really get much time with him.  Over the next couple of weeks I will be studying for the GRE (NOT FUN) and don't know how much time I will have to post.  But man, I have SO SO SO many photos from our adventures in Guatemala.  So, I will have to find some time to blog, it's an outlet for me that I thoroughly enjoy . . . I'm just trying to practically balance "life" right now and I guess what I am trying to say is, I don't know when these photos will get up. 

It's kind of crazy thinking that a week ago today Kenzo and I woke up in the jungle in Guatemala.  A week and three planes later, we're back to "normal" life in Florida.  Are you ever amazed at how accessible our world is to us?  While walking around in the Guatemalan jungle on Thursday afternoon, we watched a group of 12 spider monkeys playing for almost an hour until they got upset with us (maybe we outstayed our welcome?) and started beating their chest and throwing sticks at Kenzo.  It was kind of funny and kind of intimidating.  I think it is incredible how easily we are able to travel.  And "we" doesn't mean everyone.  Maybe just Americans?  Probably Europeans and others too, right?  We were talking to our waiter, Mariano, at our hotel at Lake Atitlan.  He is from the small village of Tzunana located right below the hotel and has hopes of one day traveling to the USA but up to now he has not been able to acquire a VISA.  The owners of the hotel are a Belgian-Paraguayan couple who met while both working for the UN.  The wife, although born in the US when her father was a diplomat, has not been able to secure a VISA since 9-11, mainly because she is from a Latin American country.  Talking to a few people who really want to visit our country but simply are not able to, made me even more appreciative of the opportunity that we have to see the world (as well as even more overwhelmed at the huge global issues our world has that I don't know the answers to).  Guatemala was definitely a beautiful part of this world to see!  

Last Saturday, during our long day of travel, Kenzo and I were talking about how amazing our trip was because of all of the different things we saw and did.  We started off hiking on a volcano, which alone took us through four different ecosystems.  We then spent a couple of days in the busy city of Xela.  One of the best parts of our hike and time in Xela was getting to be with our friend Duni :)!  We moved on to Lake Atitlan where we visited several different small cities that circled the lake.  We spent some time walking the streets of Antigua and visiting the ruins of Cathedrals and Monasteries that were destroyed by earthquakes in the 1700s.  We took a tour of a Coffee Plantation and got to walk through the rows of trees as we heard about the process of making that delicious beverage I enjoy almost every morning.  We hiked an active volcano, Pacaya, and literally got to watch as the extremely hot lava flowed down beside us (not to mention that we did this around sunset so had a beautiful view of another volcano with the sunset behind it the whole time).  We spent a day exploring Mayan Ruins in the Guatemalan Jungle at Tikal and here got to watch the aforementioned spider monkeys, heard the intimidating screams of Howler Monkeys and saw several toucans.  We spent our last day playing on the hot and humid island of Flores that kind of reminded me of a smaller Bohemian Island.  We jumped in the lake because we were so hot and then spent the evening sampling Pina Coladas and appetizers at several of it's lake-side bars.  We truly did have a blast and a wonderful adventure.  Surprisingly, at least to me, we were both excited and ready to return to our home.  To hot showers, fruit, safe water, milk, air condition and people we know and love.  Anyway, those are just some of todays "reflections" of our trip.  The photo at the top of this post was taken on the dock of our hotel at Lake Atitlan.  You can see the beautiful view through Kenzo's glasses of what we got to see everyday.  A.M.A.Z.I.N.G! 

(Obviously I did not take the photos below.  Also, just FYI, besides photos that I am in, and obviously did not take, if I post someone else's photo, I will always tell you.  And typically they'll be a smaller size then the photos I took.  Just so you know that the photos I am sharing are my photos.)

For all of you who I have told we were close to flowing lava . . . this is it.  We were REALLY close.  It was SO hot.  I'll post more from Pacaya, but wanted to show you I wasn't lying.  That was really cool!

Fun with Duni.  He took this photo and looks like a giant in it. So naturally we laughed a lot.  Dune, THANK YOU for being in Xela with Kenzo and for staying around long enough for me to see you.  We've quoted you many times since your phone call to your senora, "Mama, es Daniel.  Estoy en el parque central . . ."

People of Guatemala

We got back from Guatemala late last night.  What an adventure.  Between doing laundry, going to church, watching a movie, cleaning the kitchen, etc the day has kind of slipped away from me.  So, while I plan to write more about the trip and post images of the places we went and things we did, today I wanted to post some images of the people we saw, as these images can pretty much speak for themselves.  

Hope you enjoy.

Estamos en Guatemala

I do not have much time to write right now, nor does this keyboard resemble a normal keyboard, and thus, it is harder to write.  But wanted to update the blog with this post and say that were ¿I cannot find the apostrophe or the parenthesis? having an amazing trip.  We are currently in Antigua, a beautiful city about 45 minutes outside of Guatemala City.  We spent four glorious days being lazy at Lake Atitlan.  I am really excited to share my photos from this trip when we get back next weekend.  I was hoping to be able to share one or two right now, but was not able to download even one to the computer.  So . . . for now, you can enjoy this email that I sent to my mom, dad and grandmama earlier this week.

I will be updating next weekend. Until then Buen Provecho.

July 13, 2009

Hi Mom, Dad and Grandmama,

 

Just wanted to let you know that everything here is great.  I arrived on Friday around 7:45 local time (9:45 at home) and we immediately went to meet up with Duni and then go to our hostel where we were staying.  It shared a building with Quetzaltrekkers (we did the 2-Day Pico Zunil Hike), the group that we went hiking with all day Saturday and Sunday.  We hiked up a mountain/volcano for 8 hours on Saturday.  It was beautiful but VERY hard.  When we got to the top it was freezing.  At sunset the thermometer read 40 degrees and it only got colder throughout the night.  We woke up at 4:30 am to watch the sunrise, which was beautiful, had breakfast and started a 4 hour treck downhill.  It was SO steep that I fell like 7 times and my knees and ankles were killing me. I felt like a big baby and told Kenzo that while the view was worth it, I think that I never need to do anything like that again.  I asked him to remind me of that the next time we planned an adventure.  It was fun, but probably one of the hardest things I have ever done, especially considering I went from Sea Level to 12000 feet in 24 hours. 

 

Last night when we got back we treated Kenzo´s host mother, Aurora, to dinner.  We let her pick anywhere she wanted and she picked an italian restaurant.  It was good and she was sweet and had nothing but good things to say about Kenzo, of course.

 

Today we´ret hanging out in Xela, the city where Kenzo has lived for a month.  It feels surprisingly very safe.  It is a large city (second Guatemala City) but feels much smaller and less chaotic then GC.  We walked his host mom home last night and then walked home around 9 and it really felt safe.  He said he hasn´t had uncomfortable encounters and has only been tempted to use mace on stray dogs in the street that have come up to him. 

´

Dad, if you get a chance to talk to Nuvia, please tell her THANK YOU for sending Iliana and Roberto to help me at the airport.  They were so sweet, gave me a driving tour of the city and sat with me until my bus rolled away.  It made it so much easier than it would have been getting into a taxi. 

 

The bus ride from Guatemala City to Xela was crazy.  Four hours of them stopping and trying to get people to get in.  I thought we were going to end at a station, but when I showed them the address where I was going, they said they´d get me a taxi.  They stopped for maybe 20 seconds told me to get off, handed me my bag, waved down and taxi and then drove off.  It was already dark in Xela and I was in this small alley with an unmarked taxi and was just praying that I would be alright.  He didn´t know how to get to Kenzo´s school, so luckily I had the phone number and we were able to call and I explained to him that they were expecting me, and eventually we got there.  But that was definitely the scariest part of the trip thus far.

Anyway, tomorrow we leave for Lake Atitlan, which I am so excited about.  Its the part of the trip that we really "splurged on".  Here is a link to our hotel:  http://www.atitlan.com/lomasdetzununa.htm

 

Anyway, I don´t know if I´ll have any more chance to write (right now I am at Kenzo´s school), but wanted to let you know that we´re safe and already having fun.  Although I am so soar from our hike that I can barely walk.

 

Love you!

Janie

Revisiting Japan - Summer 2008, Part III (FINAL)

If you're tired of photos from my trip to Japan, then you're in luck, because this should be the last of my "Revisiting Japan" series.  But you will have to be okay with only seeing these photos for awhile, as this will probably be my last post for a couple of weeks.  As far as Japan goes, I saved the best for last. Miyajima and Hiroshima were my two favorite places we visited in Japan last summer.  Miyajima is an island with an ancient shrine located on it.  The tori gate (top photo) protects the island and marks it as sacred.  It was probably the hottest day of our trip, but we had fun walking around the island, through the shrine and to the top of the mountain where there were wild monkeys and deer, the deer were also at the bottom as well.  

Hiroshima was amazing as well, but probably for different reasons.  One was the okonamiyaki that we ate there...my favorite meal of the entire trip.  But seriously, going to the museum and kind of getting a tiny grasp on the magnitude of the tragedy that befell this city when the atomic bomb was dropped in World War II was eye-opening.  I literally walked away thinking it should be a requirement that any leader of a country with weapons of mass destruction has to visit this museum.  The "A-dome" is pictured above.  I am sure that you can google it and read a lot more about the history, but from what I remember and understood, it was basically in the centrifuge of the bomb that went off 600 meters (maybe?) above it and thus, it kind of created a vacuum, so didn't completely get obliterated like the majority of the city.  And still, all inside died immediately.  They told us that the bomb was over 2,000 degrees fahrenheit and spread 215 meters in diameter.  The bomb went off at 8:15am and several of the watches found had stopped right at that time.  Those people who did not completely disappear in the blast were practically burnt to a crisp and jumping in the river (full of radiation and "black rain") to cool off.  People said several died begging for a sip of water, so now all over the city there are water fountains and signs that say something like "that no one would ever again die in the city for lack of water."  (Obviously these signs had to be translated to me, so not exactly sure what they said).  Another story we heard was about a girl who was little at the time of the bomb, maybe 7, who seemed to be fine.  However around age 15 she was diagnosed with cancer and while in the hospital had a thought that if she created 1,000 origami cranes, she would survive.  She ended up being able to create her cranes, but within six months died of cancer.  The city now recognizes the origami crane as a symbol of all children who were victims of the bomb.  Anyway, sorry for the history lesson, but looking through these pictures reminds me of all that I was learning while in Hiroshima, so why not share, right?

There are a few other photos mixed into this post as well, which I will be sure to explain.  Enjoy and again, thanks for revisiting these places with me.

Lanterns hanging in the shrine.  You actually get to walk through it, which is just amazing.  In regards to getting to photograph the lanterns, I think my words were literally, "I'm gonna have a hay-day with those."

Something you probably do not know about me: I have always loved monkeys.  Seriously.  When I was little I really wanted us to buy a chimpanzee or spider monkey as a pet.  So, I was pretty excited to see this mom and baby when Kenzo and I got to the top of the mountain.  So cute, right?

View from the top of the mountain in Miyajima.

A great partnership.

Family photo.

The Tori Gate one last time, just because I think it is majestic and beautiful.

 

Don't be sad babe...we still have a lot of exciting things to see!

Moving on to Hiroshima, but stopping at Himeji Castle first (and there's a possibility we actually did that in reverse last summer, can't remember) . . .

While the real Emperor lives in Edo Castle in Tokyo, Himeji Castle was used for the Emperor's home in The Last Samurai.  It's called the White Heron (Kaz, please correct me if I am wrong on that) because it is white & looks like it has wings.

And now to Hiroshima . . .

The A-dome from a different view.

This is a memorial for all elementary school students who were killed in the bombing.  Notice all of the cranes.

More cranes (above & below).  The Red Cross below really stood out to me.

This is a memorial.  The stone head under the arch says something like "We will never repeat our mistake" ("We" being a corporate, humanity-encompassing "we" and not just "we" as in Japan).

This is a water fountain made of a clock that stopped at 8:15am.  The water is significant because, as I said before, the city wants water to be available everywhere so that no one will ever die again because of thirst.

This was really cool to see.  While visiting a garden in Hiroshima we encountered a Japanese photoshoot.  I don't know if these are bridal portraits or if she is a model, but either way, it was really cool to see.

Can't get enough of this cutie.  He is a triplet and the grandson of one of Kaz and Mary's friends who was a visiting professor when they were grad students at the University of Tennessee.  So cute!

My absolute favorite meal of the entire two weeks: Okanomiyaki.  Yum!

Us, about to enjoy okinomiyaki with Nehira.

 

Below are just a few more photos from the trip from various locations.  Enjoy . . .

Street in Tokyo.

Garden at our Rio-kan in Atami.

The "showers" we used (naked) before getting into the hot springs/baths in Atami.

Garden at the Buddhist Temple in Tokyo where the Koike family grave is located.

The crazy fish market in Tokyo called Tskiji.

 

Peace.  In almost all of our photos with Japanese people we made the peace sign.  I don't know if they think it is something that we do or if they just always do it, but either way it makes for a comical viewing of 0ur photos.  

 

And a couple of fun family videos.  Haha.  Kaz, thanks for making us laugh.

Revisiting Japan - Summer 2008, Part II

Wow.  I cannot believe how many photos I want to share from our trip in Japan last summer.  I have been sitting here, watching Michael Jackson on Extra and then Opera on DVR and slowly going through my "Best of Japan" folder trying to figure out which ones to post . . . and I am having a really difficult time narrowing them down.  So, here is a shorter glimpse of some of the amazing sights we enjoyed last year in Japan.  There will be at least one more post from Japan before Friday.  Enjoy.

Revisiting Japan - Summer 2008, Part I

Last summer Kenzo and I traveled to Japan with his parents, Kaz and Mary, and his sister, Adria.  We had an amazing family vacation spending a week traveling throughout the country and visiting Hakone, Atami, Hiroshima and Miyajima.  We spent a second week based out of Tokyo visiting Kaz's family and friends from high school and college.  We made so amazing memories and saw some of the coolest places I have ever seen in my life.  Hope that you enjoy this first set of images from the trip.  I will definitely be posting more images and giving more details sometime soon . . . you can also see shots from this trip in three different albums on my facebook account.

I've had a fun week of really keeping the blog up-to-date and fresh.  Thanks for revisiting these fun memories with me.  I will be taking a break over the weekend as I host two of my best friends, Elizabeth and Ali, for the 4th.  Hopefully the weather will cooperate and allow us to enjoy the beach, bay, and lake.  I hope that you have a happy 4th of July too.