After a month of being stationary, the restless urge to hit the road stirred heavily in my body and mind. We said good bye to our friends and families, packed our belongings in the truck and left our temporary home, but not before picking up an additional traveler to toss in the back seat. Her name is Terra and she's from Wisconsin. She asked if she could tag along with us for a few weeks, hitching a ride to Nicaragua. We were surprised that even after we told her that we sleep in the dirt and rarely shower that she was [View Full Entry]

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For the past month I've been studying at Juan Sisay Spanish school in Xela, Guatemala. It's been a different experience than I expected, but highly enjoyable. We met a great group of students and the times we shared were reminiscent of the days of college where we studied hard and played hard, going to five hours of Spanish class, then usually a school arranged activity before drinking with friends at a bar or disco at night. Well, I'm not quite sure how hard I studied, but I learned a lot and had a great time. Some of my favorite activities included [View Full Entry]

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From Tikal we drove through Flores and San Andres, stopping to restock on supplies. We then headed north toward the remote Mayan ruins of El Mirador, which contains the tallest Mayan temple, El Tigre. The sun was setting so we pulled off onto an abandoned road that was blocked by some logs. We moved the logs and parked out of sight from the main road. In the morning we packed our backpacking backpacks for the five day trek through the jungle. Just as we were leaving, we saw a man and his son wielding machetes approaching. They were very friendly and [View Full Entry]

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I opened my eyes to see a large, hairy spider resting on top of my mosquito net a foot above my face. The sky had lightened slightly, so I carefully slid out from under my bug shelter to check the time. Five forty, time to go to the ruins. We bought tickets and entered with the opening of the gate at ten till six. The plan was to catch the tail end of the sun rise from he top of the tallest temple, templo cuatro, which was located on the opposite side of the archaeological site. It was over a mile [View Full Entry]

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On our way toward Belize's western boarder with Guatemala, we stopped at the Blue Hole National Park to check out a swimming hole cenote and a system of caves. The cenote was refreshing but not as impressive as the ones we saw in Mexico. After cooling off, we took a 2.5 mile trail towards the caves. The trail was lined with information signs describing local birds. The mosquitoes were out in force, so we didn't fully stop, but just slowed down enough to read some of the information on each sign before resuming our brisk pace. As we approached the opening [View Full Entry]

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Placencia is a relaxed beach town in south eastern Belize that is situated at the end of a long peninsula. After 20 miles of bumpy dirt road we arrived in town looking for a place to stay. An interesting aspect of the town is that its main road is actually a footpath near the beach, where all the hotels are located. We parked the car at the harbor and walked to Lucia's Travel Inn, which offers rooms for $10 per person. With a room secured, we took a siesta then headed to the beach. White sand, palm trees and 80 degree [View Full Entry]

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From the highway we turned off onto a dirt road toward cockscomb wildlife sanctuary, the only sanctuary established specifically for the preservation of wild jaguars. We began to descend into the lush, semi-mountainous jungle where these impressive predators reside. Arriving at the visitors center we paid the park admissions and campsite fees, reviewed the trail map then headed toward some waterfalls to cool off. The trail was fairly short and not too strenuous but enough to work up a good sweat in the hot, humid jungle air, which made the cool water supremely refreshing. The jungle here i [View Full Entry]

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Reaching the boarder a little after six in the evening, we passed through with surprising ease. We were unsure why no one wanted to stamp our passports or search the truck so we pulled over at an auto insurance booth to ask about the Belizian boarder crossing formalities. They told us to cross back over the boarder and on the other side there was a blue booth that would collect our Mexican tourist visas and stamp our passports. From there we were told to go to the Banercito on the Belizian side to work out the car permit. Upon arrival we [View Full Entry]

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After traveling for a month through this great expanse of land, we say ''Adios'' to Mexico... for now. After consuming nearly 5,000 miles of road under our black treads, we have become accustomed to the sights and cultures of this land. The familiar image of cinder block houses, run down cars and brown skin provides a recognizable continuity from day to day as the kilometers rush past the windows and the landscape changes between deserts, mountains, and jungle. We have become fully comfortable with their loose rules of the road, perfecting the art of tope (speed bump) passing, using the sho [View Full Entry]

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The great castillo is one of the most aesthetically pleasing and interesting structures I've ever seen. It is a physical representation of the Mayan calender. The nine levels are divided into two by a staircase representing the 18 months of the calender year. There are 91 steps on each o the 4 stair cases, which when combined with the top platform makes 365, the number of days in a year. On each facade there are 52 flat panels which represent the 52 year calender round. Also the pyramid is oriented in such a way that on the equinoxes there is a [View Full Entry]

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