Proud to be...

a tree huger !!!

Yes, I have to admit it, as a big time nature lover that I am, I hold a very, very special place in my heart for trees. I love their roots, trunk, branches and their foliage, but specially love the tall, big trees.

When I was a little girl, used to think of trees like giants and specially the big ficus trees in the rain forest in Costa Rica I used to imagine them being huge dinosaurs legs.

Whenever I am around tree I like to imagine about all the time those trees have been around, all of the animals and insects that have used them as a home. How many different types of weather they've been through and more...

I've seen some amazing trees in my life and specially growing up in Costa Rica but I know there are many others that I still need to see and hopefully one day I get the chance.

Here are some wonderful looking trees from back home Costa Rica.

Our national tree (Guanacaste)

We call this one "Higueron" (cattle loves to lay down under these ones)

Me inside a Ficus tree (we named it Jungle Jim) Costa Rica 2001

My brother Mau and Me sitting on a tree branch that connects 2 ficus trees (the twins)

Trees at Corcovado National Park (see the roots? awesome!)

Here are some wonderful trees around the world that I hope to see for myself someday;

Basket Tree

Not sure what kind of trees these are, but I sure like them!

Baobab Tree

Another BIG Baobab Tree

Baobab Forest in Madagascar

Fig Tree

Famous Redwood

I think this one is a Joshua Tree (not sure)

And now some beautiful foliage trees;

Cherry Blossom Tree

Jacaranda Tree

Royal Poinciana Tree

And last but not least a couple of Bonsai that I find to be like a piece of art.


We have a few nice and big trees in the Cayman Island, but nothing like back in Costa Rica, I sure do miss big trees, so I guess for now until I go back to Costa Rica or I visit another place with big trees I'm going to settle with posting about them.

Have a great weekend!!!

Dellis Cay

The other day I happened to pick up a free magazine (Caribbean Construction) from the grocery store and to my surprise I discovered one the most amazing places being built right now in one of the cays in Turks & Caicos Island. The name of the development is Dellis Cay, so I thought I would share it with you...

I'm just going to give a little information on it and then will let you judge and enjoy the picture of this very amazing project.

Dellis Cay has a surface of 560 acres and should hold 124 private villas, 154 residences, the Mandarin Oriental hotel, as well as a marina. The construction began on June 4th 2008 and is expected to be completed in the end of 2009. The vision of the project is to realize the beauty of nature by its architecture.

Seven of the world’s foremost architects will bring Dellis Cay to life with masterful designs that harmonize with the island’s natural beauty, such as Zaha Hadid, Piero Lissoni, Shigeru Ban, Carl Ettensperger, Keungo Kma, David Chipperfield and Chad Oppenheim.

The development includes the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Dellis Cay, The Residences at Mandarin Oriental, Lissoni Beach House Residences, Lissoni Beach Villas and Lissoni Ocean Villas, all of which have sold. The comprehensive Spa at Mandarin Oriental Dellis Cay, designed by Kengo Kuma, will span 30,000-square feet and feature 15 individual rooms and 2 VIP couples suites and state-of-the-art heat and water treatments.

So here it is:
From my personal point of view I guess if I was to build my own thing at the beach I would go for a different type of architecture, maybe not so minimalistic and futuristic as this. But hell, I would take it! What do u think?

Unfortunately not only the project is sold out but I've also read that the residences will range from $2 million to $20 million USD! Although with that price I don't even want to imagine the insurance on it specially cause Turks & Caicos gets hit by hurricanes some times...

Well, at least we get to enjoy the pictures, right? LOL...

Wednesday Movie Post

Since I haven't really watch any worth reviewing movies lately, today I've decided to review one of my all-time favorite foreign movies, Le Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain (in English: The Fabulous Destiny of Amélie Poulain, aka Amélie).

This movies tells the life story of a sweet, innocent and naive french girl, Amelie Poulain. The story starts from when she was an only child born to some very exentric parents that because they never gave her enough love and attention to her, every time her father will come close or even touch her, her heart will be beating very fast, which made her parents think she had some heart condition so she was bound to stay at home without the possibility of having many friends.

Because of her very lonely childhood this sweet girl grown up to be a somehow insecure person but destiny makes her find a reason to help all sorts of people with random acts of kindness. But this also makes Amélie challenged with the fact that if she only helps others anonymously, she may live her life alone and without the happiness she brings others. Amélie's conflict is what rounds out the picture and makes it complete.

But besides the rich plot and great performances by many of the charactres, what I really like is the cinematography, the use light and color to take you experience a very unique world filled with many wonderful shots and ideas.

Althought this movie is in French, I believe that is not difficult to follow even without not knowing any French and with subtitles.

When you get the chance check out the movie. If nothing more, it will make you want to fall in love, make you want to change things in your daily life or to just enjoy the simple things in life.... Maybe it will even make you want to move to Paris!

Happy Hump Day to you!

3-2-1 Anniversary Surprise

Although I already posted today I couldn't help to telling you all about a wonderful surprise that was waiting for me when I got home from work this evening.

First of all before I tell you my surprise I have to take you back to the afternoon when I talked to my husband last on the phone around 3:30pm and he asked if I was coming home straight from work and I said I was. Then after I left work I realized that I left my cell phone on my desk drawer but I did not feel like going back to get it. Then on my way to work I felt like renting a movie so I did a quick stop at the video store.

Finally I got home almost at 5pm (couple of minutes before) and my husband was in the front porch urging me to come up immediately, as soon as I got there he greet me with a big kiss and a smile saying: "You left your phone at work and I've been calling you, you barely made it at 5pm, anyway Happy 3(months), 2(days), 1(hour) Anniversary", so then I said: thank you baby, where's my gift? And then he was pointing at the couch where I can see a wrapped box. (Honestly I didn't really mean it and was not expecting anything at all, because I have never even hear of 3-2-1 anniversaries as he made it up!).

So the box contained a wonderful new Acer Aspire One mini Laptop (in blue) and all I can say is that I LOVE IT!I am excited to take my new "toy" to Costa Rica in a couple of week!

Video Tuesday

Last night we were watching a movie (Wayne's World) and I couldn't help but think how much I used to like watching Laverne and Shirley when I was young.

Although I don't think the show was around very long, the opening song was what I liked the best, so here's a little clip of it.




Now here's the Wayne's World Version (which I personally like much better)...



On other news... I have a very cool new Shark Brake Online Aquarium, check it out, you can choose your fish (shark, whale, dolphin, clown fish and puffer fish) on the left side bar and also on the top bar you can choose the background. The fish moves to the movement of the mouse, so the more you move the mouse the better, it is so much fun (specially when u move the mouse up and down fast, LOL!!!). Have fun and give your reviews on how well it works!

Have an excellent day!!!

My plans for August

Well, another month has come and go, and we are finally in August!!! I say finally because I've been looking forward to this month for a couple of weeks now and the reason why is because I am going back home to Costa Rica on August 20th and I can't wait.

Although this is really an "official visit" and not a vacation trip. The main purpose of the trip is because my American Visa is going to expire on Oct. this year so I have to go apply for a new one and for that you need to make an appointment, get and interview, bring a whole bunch of paper work and then hopefully get approved for another one.

But besides, that I also need renew my passport cause it is expiring on Jan. of 2010 so in order to apply for the American Visa I need to have plenty of time on my passport, otherwise they would not approve me for another visa.

I'm pretty confident that my embassy interview is going to go pretty good, I have all of the forms filled up, copy of the registry of my name (under my name), bank account statements, letter from my employer, 2 passport pictures and the rest of the stuff...

So, once I get all that done, then I can just lay back and relax, as I have to wait 4 business days after my appointment to get my passport back + there's a weekend in between, so in total I will be back home for 16 day, yey!

I am going by myself, and although I would have loved to go with my husband, I know that going by myself will give me the opportunity to go see a lot family and friends I haven't seen in years. I am already in contact (through facebook) with some of my friends from high school to get together while I'm there and most of my best friends are already planning a couple of parties.

And last I can't wait to go see my Labrador (Gaia), her mom (Negra) and her sister (Emma)...

The girls coming to greet me, last time I was home (march 09)

Negra (in the back is the mother), Gaia (my dog laying down) and Emma (closer to the camera)

I'm also looking forward to see my parents cat (Lea), she is just adorable! I am going to have a fab time...

Lea (aka: meuw) and Me!

So, as of today I have put a little countdown timer with a background image of my parents house to remind me every day that I am one day closer to see them again... Check it out on my side bar!!!

3 happy months

Today is our 3 month anniversary as a happily married couple and so far I have to say that I am very, very happy with my life and with my new status as Mrs. Danziger.

So, to commemorate this "milestone" here are some pictures of us through the years.

Our first picture together (Sept. 2005)

Meeting you was fate, becoming your friend was a choice, falling in love with you was beyond my control!

Our first picture in Grand Cayman

"When you are in Love you can't fall asleep because reality is better than your dreams."
Dr. Seuss

Our first Date- Cuba Nov 2005

"In my world, I walked to a different drum. You came along and joined me in my journey. I am now in harmony and at peace in the world of love"

"Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy."

July 2008

"Two lives, two hearts joined together in friendship united forever in love."

"This day I will marry my friend, the one I laugh with, live for, dream with and love."

June 2009

I love being married. It's so great to find that one special person you want to annoy for the rest of your life. ~Rita Rudner

Weather conspiracy

The way I see it, this is how it work on this island (at least) maybe the same happens in other places around the world.

Week days are nice and sunny, the ocean looks wonderful and you just want to be able to go to the beach, diving, just lay down or read a book on a hammock or something but outdoors... But NO! you have to be at work, from am to pm missing most of the day time and the great outdoors.

The on Friday, Saturday and Sunday is a whole different story... it starts getting cloudy and rainy and then you are off, at home and with bad weather. Today, it is pouring down outside as I write this, just in time for the weekend!

To prove my point, last year we had two alerts of hurricane proportions during the whole season, and guess what? They were both on Friday, just in time for the weekend. WTF?

So, yes I'm convinced that there is some kind weather conspiracy going on and I am going to get to the bottom of this... someday!

Have a great weekend, and hope the weather is nicer on your side of the rainbow!

Double rainbow from the back porch at our house

Harry Potter 6

Last night we ended making it to the latest Harry Potter saga. So even though today is not Wed. anymore, I am going to give you my humble review of the movie:

As a big fan that I am of Harry’s adventures, after reading all of the books and watching all of the movies that are out so far, I have to admit that the movie is up the standards of the story, so I give it a good review.

Maybe the special effects on the movie were not as spellbinding as on the previous ones, but I’m not sure if that is because there was so much information that they needed to include in this one movie in order to prepare and connect it well to the grand finally (which are actually two movies), or maybe after 5 movies I am more used to most of the "magical" effects that they have been using before.

Besides that, I have to say that if you guys have never read any of the book or most important the last one, I really have to say that Snape is definitely a very overrated character, I can’t wait to the final movies when you will see a lot of the real reason why he is like he is and acts like he does…

(Random thought: even though the actor that plays Snape in all the movies (Alan Rickman) does a fantastic job with the character, when I'm reading the books I don't really picture the character as him, I imagine him taller and skinnier with a longer face and nose... but that's just me!)

So, if you've watched the previous Harry Potter's I would definitely recommend you to watch this one. But if you have never watched any of them, this is definitely NOT a good one to start with, watch the first 5 first and then this one... I am sure I will be watching this one again!

One last thought though; How come if I have read all of the books and watch all of the movies, I still cannot do magic??? LOL

Wednesday Movie Post

When you live on a small place like this island (or any small town) there's just a certain amount of activities you can do every day, working, shopping, going to the beach, swimming, diving, reading a book, watch TV (but if you are anything like us, that do not have cable TV), watch TONS of movies...

Last night we rented the movie Angels and Demons with Tom Hanks, a I think it was pretty good.

I read the book a few years ago and I liked it, but last night watching the movie I didn't remember most of it but bits and pieces of the whole story.

It was pretty funny that both my husband and me, changed our idea of who the "bad guy" for a few times during the whole movie, and even at the end when we found out who was really behind the whole deal, it was a surprise!

So, for those out there that have not had the chance to watch it, I recommend it. Some friends of mine watched it at the movies and said it was boring, but I guess I missed that part, because as s good Dan Brown story it was full of facts, symbolism and a tick plot.

Also I felt it was a quite a refreshing rest from the whole Islamic/terrorism theme that is being going on around Hollywood now a days.

Another movie I really want to watch now is the latest Harry Potter one, I pushed for tonight but it looks like my husband is working later today so we would not make it in time to the movie, I just really hope I'll be able to drag him to the movies on Friday, we shall see...

Well, I guess starting today, Wed. is going to be my Movie Post Day, I will "TRY" to review recently watched movies and I even other ones I really like or not... So stay tuned!

Sheba's Anniversary

Yesterday was our 1 year anniversary of the day we adopted/rescued our dog Sheba a.k.a Girly Girl.

Sheba on her first day with us

Life definitely changed quite a bit from having one dog to having two, everything doubles; the walks, the food, the vet bills, but so does the companionship, the fun times and specially the LOVE!

Like I said on my first post about How Sheba came to us, at the beginning when we got her it was not easy to get Ditto our other dog to get used to her, because of him being with us so many years he really didn't want to give up his kingdom, besides he was worried that he had to compete for food, attention and probably our love.

"Cayman Gladiators"- just doing some wrestling, playing!

Cause of this, we had a few encounters that were pretty scary, once when Sheba was on the "zone" of the fight even bite my husband, but not by attacking him, but because my husband used his arm to separate them. Most of the encounters were over food, treats and a couple of time because of toys... The last incident was over 3 months ago, so I guess I can say we live pretty much in harmony now!

Things started to get better though, I guess either Sheba started to understand that Ditto is the alpha dog or Ditto started acting more like it. Then we started taking them to obedience training and that helped as well.

Still Sheba is less than 2 yrs old, so she has a lot of energy, she is funny, active and extremely playful, loves to catch anything and if you don't want to play with her, she'll play by herself. But also she is very sweet, loving, love the beach and swimming in the ocean but also she is very much protective of the house.

Sheba at the beach

So, after a year, I really do believe that Ditto and Sheba are getting along real well, they play at time (even though Ditto is much older and not so much into playing any more), they keep each other company and even give each other kisses sometimes.

Sheba close up

I am very lucky to have them both and along with my husband make the perfect family for me! Looking forward to more years with the three of them by my side.

I LOVE YOU GUYS!!!

All diving Sunday

Yesterday was an all diving Sunday for me, for the first time in a long, long time we did 2 shore dives on the same day, and for the first time in my life I did one on my rebreather and the other one on regular open circuit.

Me, just cruisin'

The first dive (the rebreather one) was FANTASTIC, we saw a huge and chunky green moray eel, a lobster, tons of trumpet fish, queen angels, my favorite fish which is a spotted drum and even the infamous lion fish.

But what I liked the best about the dive; the fact that it was only my husband and me, and while we were diving I felt so connected to him, us alone, doing what we really like and sharing it with NOBODY but us.

Aaaah, life is good and God gives me so many blessing and of the many I have my husband and the life we share together here in the Cayman Islands are definitely on top of my list.

So, here are some of the pictures we took yesterday, have a great week!!!

Queen Angel

Crab

Green moray eel

Spotted Drum (juvenile)

Trumpet Fish

Lion Fish

Parrot Fish