Monday, March 19th, 2012 / Kama & Derek
Our adventure with Belize began on a cold December evening as we waved goodbye to Seattle and boarded our plane.
Flight to Miami was pretty uneventful aside from Zoë being cranky, but that was to be expected from a 12-month baby during an overnight trip. But the short flight to Belize City was a treat as we were put in Business class and enjoyed grand food and free drinks 
Well, Derek did as Kama was (and still is at the time of writing) pregnant with Aidan.
We landed in Belize City and boarder a small, 12 or so passengers plane to Punta Gorda. The runway was perhaps 300 yards long, but it didn’t seem to be a problem to the pilot, though it did look a bit scary to us.
We spent the days in Punta Gorda eating, exploring the city & market and visiting Mayan ruins and cocoa plantation with Chris’ family who came in a van a few days after our arrival. We even managed to grind our own chocolate (HARD work I tell you) and everyone, including Zoë, got to taste it.
And, if someone from Chris’ family reads it – I’ve included a photo of one stinky dog, who sent the whole family running to take shelter at home. Hope you remember the dog who just wanted to be friendly .. LOL
After Punta Gorda we flew to Placencia, small town on a tip of the peninsula of the Gulf of Mexico. Filled with shops, restaurants and sandy beaches (and HUGE caterpillars!) was a pleasant place to visit.
We even rented a golf cart (which seemed to be a main type of transport in San Pedro – our next destination) and drove around the peninsula.
Our last destination was San Pedro on island of Ambergris Caye where Boni & Adam’s wedding took place – some of the photos of wedding itself can be found on Derek’s blog.
We took our time diving (with small sharks), snorkeling (with manta and sting rays), eating, driving around in golf cart and enjoying the gorgeous weather.
Zoë, scared at first, seemed to fell in love with the ocean and couldn’t get enough of the water and splashing. She even tried eating the sand, but learned soon enough that it wasn’t the best idea.
Derek spent his mornings taking photos of the ocean, cranes and piers (which covered most of the coast) – some of the processed images can be found at his photo blog.
Category: Belize, Central America
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Monday, May 02nd, 2011 / Kama & Derek
Soo, we’ve finished our RTW a while ago (can’t believe it’s been over a year) but this site hasn’t been updated since December 2009.
Well, it’s time to change this situation and post some additional photos from the RTW trip along with new photos taken during recent adventures.
After all – life is an adventure – a never-ending story (here comes the song by Limahl from The Neverending Story (courtesy of Youtube))
PS
Derek’s been busy with photography site (flash & blog) and you can see some of his latest photos at http://derekrak.com/blog/
Category: Uncategorized
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Tuesday, December 29th, 2009 / Kama & Derek
Flight to London was .. interesting to say the least. The popular budget airline Ryanair surprised us by not having assigned seats (just sit anywhere you want) and with constant in-flight advertising, successfully preventing any rest. I guess the saying was right and you get what you paid for.
We were picked up by Derek’s older brother – Sebastian – who found us a place to sleep and spend some time at (for free, which was great – thanks bro! 
).
First few days were spent visiting London’s most popular attractions: Tower Bridge, London Bridge, Big Ben and Buckingham Palace. Days were a bit cloudy and sometimes cold, but nonetheless very good for sightseeing. Our main way of transportation around the city was London’s metro system (The Tube) – fast, and quite reliable (most of the time as it had a problems once and we were forced to take a detour).
We saw a lot of street performers in the vicinity of the largest Ferris wheel in Europe called The London Eye. But no surprise there as it is located just 5 minutes away from the Big Ben, hoarding thousands of tourists every day.
Just a short metro ride south is the Greenwich Royal Observatory which is the house to the Prime Meridian (0 longitude) and is surrounded by gorgeous parks. We visited it the following day and did the “Where East meets West” scene and both of us stood and kissed across the Prime Meridian
Few days later we decided to visit Ireland – a one-way train+ferry ticket from London to Dublin was just 29 pounds (~$50 USD). The ride was long, but extremely comfortable. While waiting for the ferry, we managed to get a delicious fish and chips for just 6 pounds.
We spent a few days in Dublin, sightseeing and drinking beer at Guinness brewery, which coincidentally was celebrating its 250th anniversary of their 9999 year long lease. Not surprisingly, all of the pubs were serving free beer
We left Dublin after a couple of days and took off to Limerick – a beautiful region of Ireland with some magnificent castles (like the Bunratty Castle). We stayed in a 4 star hotel where we got a fantastic view of the river and castle. Sadly in the evenings the city looked more like a ghost town as the stores closed and the streets got empty – just like the “good” old times back in communistic Poland .
On our way back we stopped at a small harbour town of Barbigan – we were so tired that we almost missed our morning bus to Dublin. We packed our bags in a record time of 15 minutes, though some of the clothes were still wet after the evening wash . The trip back to London was smooth and uneventful.
Before we moved on with our journey we took a train to Sailsbury to visit nearby Stonehenge with the massive awe-inspiring stone circles.
Few days later we left England and took a plane to Paris, France – this time we used easyJet – no more unassigned seats – hurray! Paris – here we come!
Category: Europe, UK & Ireland
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