Going to Italy. looking for Mike Frantz

[Karen]

LOL - makes me wonder what the other top thing is!!!!!!!!!!

[Ofilia_Cinta]

Hi Karen, Do I wanna?!
Is the Pope catholic?! Mother may I!? Have a great time and tell us all about it when you get back! Dreaming about being over there sure beats this frigid cold icy Midwest weather. Ofilia

[Ofilia_Cinta]

Oops, I should have addressed the last post to Nancy!

Karen, my absolute most cherished memory is from my adventures when I took a ten day bus tour of Mayan ruins after finishing college. It was with a Mexican tour company which I feel had a different impact, because all the people on the trip were natives. The guides were not bilingual, which helps not narrow down your prospects of knowledgable tour guides and they truly were outstanding in Mayan history.

It started from Mexico City went straight east to Veracruz. We worked our way around the Gulf visiting Mayan ruins in Chiapas (Palenque being one- my favorite, it's in the jungle and full of mystique ), and then up and around the Yucatan peninsula visiting Chichen Itza, Uxmal, Tulum, Labna, Isla Mujeres, swimming in the Xel-ha lagoon with its underwater caverns and visiting other lesser ruins along the way. The most erie of all places we experienced was a HUGE underground cavern names Lulton. It reminded me of the Huck Finn story where the boys entered one end and had to pass thru all kinds of underground calcifications (I forget the name- look like spikes) from one darkness into another [img]/forum/ubbthreads/images/icons/shocked.gif[/img] . They would light the area we were entering and turn off that which we had passed [img]/forum/ubbthreads/images/icons/shocked.gif[/img] [img]/forum/ubbthreads/images/icons/shocked.gif[/img] ! It had big crevaces and you dared not stray or surely you would never be seen again! It was way cool! A couple of the guys went crawling off and found pottery shards with painted designs of some undetermined peroid not to mention finding big-ass albino millepedes!

That whole Mayan experience has to still rank as #1 in my heart!

Ofilia (who will come back in her next life as a travel/tour guide for sure! But of course in addition to making lampwork ! )

[Ofilia_Cinta]

Okay, I will have to correct my Italian spelling myself. I apologize for my spelling errors, but I mostly write from work during my lunch break. I get "caught up" in the thought and forget my spelling- particularly the foreign words. I love speaking (or trying to speak ) foreign languages. But my spelling them is lesser by far- just ask my Mexican cousins! I'm always good for a laugh with them ! But hey, what is family for, huh?

Anywho, the correct Italian spelling for (Mexican) "jumping bean" is "fagiolini saltarini". It had such a cute ring to it that I had jotted it down on my sketch pad I was carying about. I now had a chance to look it up. Again, my apologies for my inaccuracies. Ofilia