My quick Belize recommendations

we were in Belize for 15 days spit between San Ignacio, Placencia and Ambergis Caye. Depending on how much money you want to spend and what you want to do depends on what i would recommend. I would recommend renting a car if you are not going to stay on islands.
We rented a car from Belize airport and drove to San Ignacio, then to Placencia.

 In San Ignacio we did Crystal caves - very cool and mostly untouched caves, not sure how much longer they'll let people down there. Not sure what this tubing thing is mentioned on trip advisor, maybe you can tube when waters are lower? we just scaled down a cave for a few hours and its a tough climb out from the bottom. comfortable with heights is a good thing, but it's not too bad. http://www.tripadvisor.ca/Attraction_Review-g291970-d1137844-Reviews-Crystal_Cave-Belmopan_Cayo.html. "Diego" was our guide, he was kind of nuts but awesome and serious when need be since there are a couple somewhat sketchy places you need to go.

We also did a tour to Tour from san ignacio to tikal, guatemala. it was worth going to see. Elias was our guide: http://www.belizeculturetours.com/

my parents friends, (canadian)friends, own https://www.flipkey.com/san-ignacio-villa-rentals/p661245/ and rent it out. it is out of the town of San Ignacio a bit, but kind of nice to cook our  own stuff and drink a bunch of Rum there

Placencia was mostly about scuba diving. we tried snorkeling for a bit off out of our cabana at Trade Winds but not much was to be seen. All the restaurants and a bunch of hotels/pubs are mostly owned by Canadians here. there are a couple places to watch sports and get some good adult beverages, but also very relaxing to stay on your patio at the cabana and watch the fishing boats come and go.

the last part of our adventure was to ambergris caye. i don't have much positive to say about it, other than the scuba diving was cheap and only took a couple hours instead of a full day (like in Placencia). there are more restaurants/pubs and whatnot, but it was more touristy and expensive. by the time we made it here we were starting to want to watch our money a bit. Ambergris is the most well known tourist destination of belize, lots of americans/europeans alike. only good thing is like i said, the scuba was close and snorkeling and the "blue hole" is closest to here.

Help! Stuck in Guatemala...

... Just kidding. We made it to and from Guatemala with no problems. Our guide to tikal was part Guatemalan and knew everyone along the way. We had a small group of only 3 to walk the ruins with so the guide was very personable and accommodating. We lucked out and there was no rain during our walk about, but it poured all the way back. Yesterday we went to a newly found cave called crystal caves. We will have to show pictures when we return because they are on the (hopefully mud proof) camera. The pictures will not show the greatness of what we saw 900 ft down. It was a dangerous scramble, crawl, slide and climb throughout the journey. Today is a rest day. To placentia tomorrow. Take care, PS. The picture of the top of the jungle canopy is in a famous movie.

cannons everywhere!

It was a gloomy Sunday winter day in Varberg, Sweden...not a store open, not a thing to do.  I should have been working, but instead I get to post something here.  There hasn't been a large number of chances to travel in my short career as an SQA Engineer, but this one is significant.  This is the first time I've been out of the North American continent! (not including Hawaii, but i'm not sure if that counts). Also, this is notably not the most desirable destination for any traveller for a mid-winter trip.

Recently, my small 35 person employer has been acquired by a more larger ~90-150 person company.  Not too long ago, I mentioned I was part of a different acquisition which enabled me to move to Sunnyvale, California.  After moving to California and back to Kelowna again and working for another networking company, it didn't take long to realize the company would eventually be acquired.  It is the way of the world in the tech business.  This time, I'm happy to say, everyone's job stays and our product is sitting at a great standpoint to take the world by storm.  The exact roll I'll be playing is unknown at the time, but my time and resources are getting shifted to work with the new company that is based in Sweden.  There could be a chance to travel over here fairly often.  It will bring on new challenges as an Engineer and new opportunities for various career paths.  The QA and R&D group over here is brilliant.  I'm sure there will be a lot for me to learn.

On a travelling note, this part of Sweden seems to be a fairly dismal place to visit during February.  I do not recommend it.  There are a lot of geographically local people that travel to stay at the Varberg Best Western because of the Asian Spa associated with it.  I haven't had a chance to see any of the Spa since i've been here because it's been all work, little play.  I've heard it is just hot tubs, saunas and the like.  Myself and a group of 3 others including my boss travelled here last Friday (Feb. 8th).  It took about 24 hours from leaving my house in Kelowna to getting to the hotel in Sweden.  It took about 4 days to become fully accustomed to the sleeping schedule.  Feeling incredibly tired from 5pm on, to waking up at 4:30am is not a great way to spend the first 4 days.  You get the feeling of trying to figure out - am i tired? sick? hungry?  Luckily the purpose of the first week is to mainly go through regular scheduled product training classes.  The Swedes like their Candy, Coffee and Fika.  All great things to stay awake with.

In General, the people are happy and moderately well off.  Sweden is not a place where homeless and jobless  people would be able to afford or be able to live.  The beer at the hotel is 75 :- (75 Kronas), which right now is 75/6.5=$10 per beer.  Just down the road at the pub, it is a bit cheaper at 55 :-.   Food is about par with canada.  The TV channels are mostly english.    I've tried to learn a bit of swedish, but when it comes down to it, what i know is not enough.  It is not a problem though, everyone in Sweden speaks a competent amount of English which is great.  My work peers and I went to a movie last week, unfortunately the storyline was based based in Russia.  So it was russian language with Swedish subtitles.  Luckily, it was the new Die Hard, so the explosions were as expected.

All in all, it's been an experience to be over here.  It doesn't feel much different from Culture in the Okanagan, which is lack there of.  It sounds like there is a ton to do here in the summer and Varberg seems to be a very popular destination.  As for now, our 1 day trip to the larger city of Gothenberg will have to enough to suffice.  Back to the grind tomorrow.  Today is probably the only day since my last blog post that i've had a chance to sit down and write anything.  Maybe it's good to have nothing to do sometimes!

QA read

I get these monthly, some are interesting, some bring up obvious points. This interview with Michael Bolton has a couple viewpoints that are new and different.

Part 1 http://blog.utest.com/testing-the-limits-with-michael-bolton-part-i-2/2011/10/
Part 2 http://blog.utest.com/testing-the-limits-with-michael-bolton-part-ii-2/2011/10/

“You’re not a gatekeeper of quality; you’re a speed bump on the road to quality.”
“Formal testing”, which often takes the form of dog-and-pony shows for regulators or auditors, is one thing. Testing to make sure that people don’t die or lose a fortune or pile on some horrible risk is another thing. Excellent testing of the former kind of testing depends on excellent testing of the latter kind.
Okay, let me give you a few things that you can say about both sex and testing:
a) Don’t ever, ever use it to hurt or embarrass people.
b) We shouldn’t be scared to learn about it, because if we are, many people will be inclined do it irresponsibly and unsafely, which leads to it being not fun at all.
c) It’s how the human species has survived this long, although not without some cost.
d) Don’t let your eyes make your decisions for you. The good-looking ones aren’t always the best, or the best for you.
e) Whatever your thinking about human sexuality might be, ideas weren’t meant to be monogamous, and they weren’t meant to live alone. Let ideas be frisky, and let them play with each other and make new ideas together. That goes double for ideas about testing.