Ok, lots of ground covered in 5 days!!! I successfully met Jon in Chetumal on Sunday night, the next morning we went for a walk around the town, which is a little sparse but has a great sea wall that faces the inlet that led to the river that goes ALLLL the way up to Blue Creek, where I was working, and is the reason Blue Creek river trade thrived. After breakfast we headed to the bus station to hop on our ride to Belize City. It was a somewhat long ride, about 3 hours or so, but Belize is really a pretty country. We drove through Corozal and Orange Walk, places I would have wanted to show Jon if we had had a car, but otherwise are too small to stop at, lug our backpacks through, and then leave again. We got to Belize City around 5, and rushed to get to the water taxi to try to make it to Caye Caulker. Our taxi driver Hubert was the nicest man and tried like hell to get us to the last taxi at 5 30, but unfortunately we missed it. He helped us find a cheeeeeap place for the night though, which was great since Belize is SO freaking expensive. Our room was about the lowest we would go, but pretty funny given the situation. We found a cute little mouse in the trashcan, and I tried to befriend it until it made a freakishly high jump that almost reached my face. We dumped him out the window. Once settled we went to explore the city. Belize City isn’t pretty. It’s a little bit like New Orleans, with lots of waterways and houses on stilts, and at sunset it was nice. During daylight hours though, its quite dirty, and you kind of felt like you were always about to be mugged. That might be a bit of over suspicion on our part though, because everyone we met was very nice. We found a great place for dinner; Marlin’s a local restaurant on the river. We had chicken rice and beans and some Belikin beer, and headed home. A couple European travelers had checked in too, and we chatted with them. Also it turns out the owner was a mayanist so I talked with her about a Mayan community center project she was starting.
Next day, Tuesday morning, we woke up at 7 to get an early start, headed back to Marlin´s for breakfast, and then realized our clocks were set to the wrong time, and it was really 6 am. Yuck. We sleepily waited on a stoop, and finally had an amazing breakfast of fry jacks, which are really good biscuits, with eggs and bacon and headed out to try the water taxi thing again. Success! We were on our way through turquoise waters and mini tropical islands to caye caulker. Getting an early start made the day we spent there last forever. The island is teeny, about 2 miles long and 4 blocks wide. Who knows how it hasn’t sunk yet. We found a cute hotel, dumped our stuff, and found a bike rental. In case you don’t know, im not the best bike rider, especially not on one too big…. However, I finally got the hang of it with minimal personal injury and no damage to others, and we biked the length of the island. It was so fun! Afterwards we stopped for a swim, in which I proceeded to cut both feet on coral, and with the threat of barracudas in the water, I sat out and took cool pictures of Jon in the water. The sea was clear beyond belief, and had those huge conch shells and starfish that you see in stores and don’t think really exist just littered everywhere on the ocean floor. We ended the day with grilled shrimp and beer watching the sunset…. fabulous.
Wednesday we woke up, ran the length of the island, jumped in the water and then grabbed some breakfast. We were out waiting for our water taxi about 10 15, and then realized that it left at ten. So, we problem solved, giving our ticket to someone else to use a different time and just grabbed a different taxi. Made it to Belize City, and onto the bus to San Ignacio by noon. On the bus we had our first brush with trouble (not really). Some guy came up and pretended to be the money collection guy. Little shady but we were frazzled and gave him money. As he walked away it sort of clicked, and Jon ran after the guy and grabbed our money back. Close call. Made it to san Ignacio, and found out that all tours to Caracol, the ruins I really wanted to see, were about 75 bucks per person. BOOOO. After much debate, we decided to skip it. We spent the night, having an AMAZING dinner at a Sri Lankan restaurant, and a nice relaxed morning before heading out of expensive Belize.
Thursday we made it across the border to Guatemala. So far it has been incredible. We took a shared van from the border, and thanks to our taxi driver’s recommendation took the front seats, and thus avoided being packed in with about 439857 other people. The ride was a bit long, but finally we made it to Flores. We LOVE IT. Flores is in the middle of lake Peten Itza, a little island about 10 blocks by 4 blocks, with a church in the middle covering the old Mayan center, which wasn’t conquered until the 1600s. The lake is pristine, with small mountains surrounding it, and the town is SO nice and quaint. We meant to only stay a night before we headed to Tikal, but we love our hotel so much, and love this area so much, we decided to take a rest day. Woke up at 10 today for the first time in weeks. SO WORTH IT!! We plan to go on a lake tour that takes you by boat to a couple small ruins around the lake, and then head out tomorrow to spend two days in Tikal. This trip is going amazingly. Also, ran into our Belize City Europeans! Ha!
Saturday we made our trip to Tikal. Our van got us there at 9 30 or so. We made a reservation at a hotel the day before, but the price was so steep and the hotel didn’t even have private bathrooms so we ended up deciding to camp. The Tikal camping area is right by the jungle, with palapas where you can set up a tent or rent hammocks with mosquito nets. We chose the latter, to my excitement. By the time we were finished getting settled, it was only 10 so we headed into the park, paying a guide for the first 3 hours. The guide was nice and took us through all the main spots. Temple 4 was one of the best, the highest temple that you can see all the roofcombs of the other temples from. Temple 5 was so steep that the wooden steps going up the side of it were more like a 50 m ladder. The park really is amazing though, it barely had any people in it, and it went on forever. The buildings are so complete, too, especially in the main plaza. There were two story buildings with several rooms, porches, arches, windows!!! We had been walking for a while by that time so we went back and took a hammock nap. Then, at 4 we planned to go back in, then watch the sun set. However right as we were getting ready it started pouring. It was kind of fun to watch it from within our palapa, and the thunder was louder than ive ever heard. It dwindled around 5, and the park closes at 6, so we went in through the sprinkling. The lighting was so cool. The sunset lit up the roofcombs on all the temples, and the almost empty plaza from earlier in the day was now completely empty. We pretty much had the whole park to ourselves. We ended the sunset by climbing to the top of temple 4 again, and sneaking around the backside where they were doing some construction to get the best view. On our way out it was just light enough to see in the jungle, and fireflies lit up every once in a while. Perfect. We took showers in the dark since the campground had no electricity, then had a quick dinner and went to bed. In the morning we woke up, ate a really good breakfast, and went to go see the museums. Wow, the stuff they found in there! Amazing ceramic figurines, whole intricate bowls, and the art was so pretty!! Then we caught the early bus back to try to make it in time to get to Coban today. But, we missed it, so were back in Flores again. We picked the cheapest hotel, are hot, gross, and the room has kind of a funny smell…. Hopefully tomorrow well get to coban easily, and into the cooler mountains of Guatemala. Hopefully…..
Monday we headed out early in the morning to the bus station. We had planned on taking a cheap chicken bus, but the minibus vans were more common, and we caught one right away. However, it was not very direct. It dropped us in Sayaxche, and we caught another minibus to where we had to cross the river by boat, and then from there catch a new minibus to finally reach coban. On this last bus we didn’t get the front seat, and were PACKED like sardines into the back. Right as we were about to leave, two more backpackers showed up. It looked like there was no possible way they could fit, but the driver is very adamant about getting his moneys worth out of a vanload, and in they went. When enough people had slowly gotten off at various stops and we could talk to them, we found out they were both named anna from denmark, on one of those ridiculous 6 week holidays that Europeans get every year. They told us about a place named Semuc Champey, supposedly the most gorgeous place in Guatemala, which was their destination today. We said goodbye to them in Coban, and went to find a hotel. However our guidebook, written for rich middle aged tourists with much higher expectations than us, had the cheapest place listed at $30. Nope. Tired after 7 hours of travel, grumpy, confused, we tried to flag a taxi to take us somewhere cheaper, and most unusually got blown off. Suddenly this guy in a bright yellow car behind us signaled us over and told us to get in, hed help us out. We quickly shoved our stuff in his car, and hopped in before the light changed. We told him our dilemma and he happily offered to take us to a cheap place. Right away he got on his phone, calling friends with hotels asking their rates and seeing if they had room. As we were driving, Jon and I thought about it, and asked the guy if there was any way there were any busses left to Semuc Champey that day. He spun the car around and said maybe if we hurry we would catch the last. We made it just in time, preparing ourselves for a final 3 hour drive until we could relax. The guy made sure the drivers would take us to a cheap hostel, and even argued with them for charging us tourist rates. When we asked if we could pay him he shrugged it off and told us to have a good trip, giving us his card. ANGEL!! Then, the lady at the minibus station who made meals was the nicest person in the world. She made us a quick meal making sure we had enough tortillas, and trundled us onto the van. It turned our whole tiring day around. We got to Lanquin, the city before the park of Semuc Champey, around 7. Our drivers put us in the back of someones pickup, and paid them to drive us to Semuc. (we think they were just too lazy to make the trip themselves). The ride was on the bumpiest road ever, but Jon and I stood up and were exhilarated by the cool air, mist, and mountains that surrounded us. After about half an hour, we made it to Posada Las Marias, a cheap hostel close to the park entrance. The owner Jonny had the kitchen make us some food quick before it closed, while jon and I took showers (ooooh man, I smelled). So, 12 hours later, we made it. Needless to say, we passed out shortly thereafter.
Tuesday we woke up when we woke up. Luckily that happened to be in time to sign up for the cave tour that the hostel did. They owned part of the river and an extensive 11 km cave system, and boasted a candlelit adventure tour. There was another couple from California and Massachusets, Pat and Christy, and two girls from Holland, Stenia and Reanna who went as well. I was expecting the usual touristy cave tour, you pretend its an adventure but really youre about two feet from the exit at all times. Our guide though, seemed to not be the touristy type. He was more of the I have been doing this for 20 years, I don’t care if youre weak you follow me and do what I say type. We began by entering the cave and immediately being in 3 feet of cold water. The two girls from Holland and I also happened to be barefoot, as flipflops tend to float away, so we left them at the entrance. I think I just shut off the part of my brain the wonders what could possibly be in the water, or on the walls, or in the ceiling, because I was unusually calm. As we got deeper in, he gave us all candles. Shortly thereafter, he told us “Now you swim!” Man of few words. So we all awkwardly half paddled trying to keep the candle up and the bat water out of our mouths. Next followed clambering awkwardly over weird formations, climbing up decaying ladders held together by twine, and shimmying feet first through teeny cave tubes. All of this brought us to an underwater waterfall. Here our guide chose to speak again. “You have two options. You can climb the ladder, here, or use this rope to scale the waterfall.” He barely finished when Jon (who, need I say, was enjoying this all immensely) was up on that rope. Of course if Jon did it, I have to do it too. Luckily all that bucket towing of the past month made my upper body strength amazing. So, I blew out my candle, stuck it in my mouth, and with gushing water smacking my in the face, made it up the little 10 foot fall. Upon removing the candle from my mouth, I found quite a bit of wax in my teeth, and the candle almost bit in half. Oops. Onward we went, to a spot where you could dive from the cave wall into the (murky and possibly shallow) water. Jon did it, I did not. Our guide was the last to jump, and then surprised us all by popping out of a cave tube behind us with the creepiest smile on his face. It only got creepier when a minute later, he grabbed all our candles and blew them out before we knew what was what. “Now we are going to enjoy the darkness of the cave”. While still trying to traverse quite a distance. When we got to what was our stopping point, he told us the cave went on a whole 11 km further, but you would need food to keep going, and that he had done it many times starting at the age of 10 with his grandfather. Then he told us we had to sit in silence for ten minutes to really feel the dark. I really felt the cold. I am pretty sure we all suspected that the guy had left us, or was going to scare us, or had hit his head and we were screwed, but finally his headlamp flickered on, and we started to head out. At this point though, I was freezing, and not feeling quite as adventurous. Unfortunately the guide still was, and the trip out included squeezing into another cave tube full of gushing water again hitting you in the face, and sliding into the unknown while the guide yelled about remembering to grab your candle!!! Finally, finally, we got out, and had a leisurely inner tubing experience down the river back to our hostel. Jon, the guide, Pat and Christy made a detour to jump off a bridge. I was happy to just float. The afternoon we spent with our group exploring Semuc Champey, which is a natural oddity (I think that’s what the guidebook said.. sounds like an insult) where a raging river disappears under a bridge of land, into a huge cave. On top of the bridge, these pristine blue pools appear from a spring, and you can swim in them with the river raging beneath you under the earth. Very cool. We ended the day with wine, dinner, and discussion.
Wednesday the plan was to head to Coban and to Copan. Worst travel day ever. We got to Lanquin, and were awaiting a mini bus. The stupid drivers didn’t bother to tell us they weren’t leaving for 2 hours and let us just sit in the hot hot van while they bummed around town doing various errands. When they finally did leave they packed the van full, then bummed around for another 45 hot hot minutes. Right as we were about to leave, more backpackers. They shoved them in, and we were off. Shortly after we left, the backpacker next to Jon, apparently part of Peace Corps, found out his grandmother had died via a message on his cell phone. The rest of the 2 hours were spent awkwardly listening to him calling everyone to figure out how to get home. As we got close to Coban, and they began collecting money, it became obvious they charged white people more. More awkwardness as the Peace Corps people yelled at the drivers and the drivers threatened to throw them out. Finally finally finally, we got to Coban. We had no chance of making it to Copan, so we checked into the hotel we had seen earlier. It is so cool, an old nunnery with dark rooms and thick wood floors and a gorgeous courtyard with a view of the misty mountains. And it s COLD! Woo! With hot water to counteract. Oh, so nice. A pizza place was right next door, so we showered, ate, and retired to snuggle under warm blankets and watch our tv. Tra la la. Today we are going to Guatemala City to get to Copan tomorrow. Hopefully our travel day is a little more forgiving. Oh, did I mention this has all been sans ipod? Pray for us.
the "now you swim" thing reminded me of "ladeeee, ladeee you buy. you buy!!"
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