Note: there are some picture issues here. will fix later.

Yesterday, we had a 12 hour adventure to Tikal, Guatemala (more stamps on the new passport…YES!). Now, I’m not a big history buff, but you can’t not be impressed by the work the Mayans did on these structures dating from 600BC-900AD. It’s really amazing. I’ve put some pictures here, but you really have to see it yourself to appreciate it.

Star Wars View

Stairs we climbed to the top of one of the ruins

RUINS!

Three notes about our trip yesterday:

1. Jeff claims that the view from the top of one  of the ruins can be seen in the Star Wars movie w/ the Ewoks in it. I think he’s crazy. I’ve seen these Star Wars movies and don’t remember that scene. I do however remember the Ewoks films, which Jeff says don’t exist. Looks like I’ll be sneaking those films on to his Netflix list.

2. The Mayans were really good at math (among other things), so I really appreciated the good job our tour guide did explaining their base 20 number system. He drew diagrams and everything! Good job Hugo, Jr!

3. We saw lots of wildlife in the JUNGLE! Spider monkeys and toucans to name a few. Pics to come later.

Finally, I wanted to post some pictures of our cabana and the view that we’ve been enjoying the last few days. It’s been a nice stay here in the jungle, but I’m definitely excited to head to the city/beach for a little change of pace.

our cabana

view from cabana

After my disastrous encounter/one night stand minus 23 hours and 59 minutes with the preying mantis the other day, my macho status was completely up in the air, strangely just like the 143 moths that seem to be circling our cabin in the air at all times. I know you are probably going to think I freaked out again, which is a pretty damn good guess, but that’s in your face because I bought my self this double headed Mayan serpent carved in slate (not to be confused with my friend Slade – who has successfully made the switch from country music performer to emo cover band eye line wearing keytar player). Anyway this bad boy is known for giving people strength and “othirity” (says so – carved in the back of it) so I’m serving notice to all these buggy bastards. However, one way I’ve learned NOT to serve notice is desperately spraying OFF brand bug repellent in the air only seems to make them angry and beat their lil moth wings even faster as they dive bomb your face. Don’t try that – unless it’s that new OFF skintastic scent or something, hope you guys at the office like that smell, it’s really growing on me and exudes the kind of confidence and professionalism any decent office demands . Also I would like it noted that as I typed this message I just forcibly removed a roach from Alison’s toothbrush case, no joke – I can’t even make this stuff up. I’m not sure why that is funny to me… it just is. Maybe just cause I will probably cry when I look what’s in mine.

Anyway about roaches, today brings a new story about the latest addition to our little family here, we have named it/he/she by the name of BAR, not as in I go the bar and drink Belikin Stout, which is good, but as in Big ASSSSS Roach! We found this giant fellow on the floor waving his cute lil antler? type apparati at us, as if saying I’m here to totally and completely freak you out with my giant palm sized body, but BAR didn’t know that I’m rolling with the serpents now SSSSSSSSSS SSSSSSSSSS SSSSSSSSSSSSSSS and I had to eject him as well. You know… show my orthirity!

BAR

Random Questions:

1. Shelee – What is BAR’s scientific name?

2. Chris – How much would I have to pay you to eat this… again we are talking 4 or 5 bites easily?

Also before I go, today we went to Tikal in Guatemala with the Mayan double shot tandem of Hugo and Hugo Jr. and this giant ass Bull almost rammed our flimsy tourist van. It was awesome. Tikal was cool and you might have had an interesting day but you don’t have a thing on me until you are dodging fist sized roaches and angry Guatemalan Brahma Bulls. Serpententor out!!! SSSSSSSSSSSSS

Bulls on Parade

I can’t think of a much better way to wake up in the morning than hearing distant birds chirping, the splashing of a nearby waterfall, and a clean mountain breeze flowing through our little cabin.   The lodge is amazing (we haven’t eloped Andrea ) and Belize in general seems really awesome.  Speaking of awesome, after I got up, I was putting on my bathing suit and I felt a little something move down there, if you know what I mean.  Naturally, being a full blooded 32 year old American man I screamed like a 12 year old girl with a skinned knee and flapped my arms around wildly. Very macho, I know. This sounds totally made up but I assure you after tearing my trunks off I felt something scurry down my leg and let me tell you, if you were wondering, seeing much less feeling anything scurry isn’t pleasant.  Little did I know I had disturbed a new friend, a large preying mantis insect that had taken up residence in mis pantalones over night.  No joke. Good thing my brother Chris and his wife Miki are having a boy soon, this could have been a possible drastic end to the Noble bloodline. So I’ve heard some wild stories in my day but seriously you haven’t lived until you’ve gone toe to toe with a preying mantis… in your swimsuit… in a secluded mountain paradise, wait do preying mantis’ even have toes, I realize they do have large pincher type claws…. Yikes.

Creature from Jeff's pants

Hi everyone!

We’ve enjoyed a relaxing day here in Belize. We took a tour of some of the attractions of the Mountain Pine Ridge Forest (where we are staying). We went to the 1000 foot falls (which is actually 1600 ft) and got to take some pics. It was very peaceful. Then, we headed to the Rio Frio cave. It was a big open cave w/ a sandy beach on the inside! We even got to be escorted by the Belizean defense force in case any banditos came to get us!! Yikes! Then, we went on to the Rio On pools where we got to cool off from the heat and play in the waterfalls.

After we had some lunch back at the lodge we took the long hike down to the Five Sisters waterfalls here at the lodge. That’s where I took a nice long nap in a hammock while Jeff worked on a blog post.

Here are some pics from today:

7/21/09:

I’m not sure what it is about airports but I think something about them could be responsible for  temporarily disabling peoples’ brains…. and my manners.  Giant families without a clue,  random lady complaining about taking off her shoes on the yucky floor, granny with her 17 gold chains (yes – you have to take those off), slow moving people, people walking the against the flow of traffic, loud talkers on their cellphones that I can hear over the music on my headphones (I can tell you are important), people trying to board in group 1 even though their boarding pass says group 6, and people that generally are too close and running into me.  I think I found  a solution though, what if you could just step into a giant human sized hamster wheel or zorb type thing and just roll over everything?  Step into your airport ball and start rolling folks!

Noble family fun fact: My brother’s hamster once escaped and we couldn’t find it for about a year, we eventually found it later – it had survived on an old bag of halloween candy that my brother had tucked away in his closet when our parent’s made us clean our rooms (aka throw everything in the closet) and was like double the size it had been.