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Published: December 30th 2007
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The view
Our hotel had a great view of San Ignacio We found a shuttle service going from Flores to Belize but it was US$20 to Belize City and we only wanted San Ignacio. They wouldn't give us a reduced fare but we did arrange to have them take us from San Ignacio to Belize City a couple of days later as part of the same fare.
On the mini bus was Paul, the Australian, who we had met at Tikal. He was going all the way through to Mexico. Pieter sat next to a Dutch guy and talked all the way. It took 3 hours to reach the border where a guy got on the bus and told people about the border requirements for money and visas. There were 4 people on the bus who did not realise they needed a visa (US$50) for Belize. And it took time to process, they needed to go to the nearest town to get photos taken for the visa. Waiting on the Belize side the driver wanted to leave without them but everyone on the bus wanted to wait. Eventually we left one short. A Japanese guy was left behind.
It wasn't far to San Ignacio and passing the car ferry to
Xunantunich we were on familiar ground. We had been here almost 3 years ago. Dropped at Los Amigos agency we talked to Gina and made a booking to see Caracol the next day. Bit steep at US$125 for the two of us for the day but we were in Belize and we knew it would be expensive. As we walked across the bridge to San Ignacio to look for accommodation Gina's son came running after us and called us back to talk to his mother. We were worried something had changed to prevent us going to the ruin. Instead she said her husband was coming to the office to give us a lift to a hotel. Elias was full on but a great guy. He took us to the hotel of his nephew, Cahal Pech Village Resort. We were quite sure we couldn't afford it but Elias got us a deal for US$40 a night. The normal price is closer to US$80. He said it was better to have someone in a room at a discount than no one in the room at all. We couldn't argue with that. High on a hill we had a great view of San
Ignacio. There was a pool and a lovely restaurant as we found when we had a late breakfast.
We straight away visited the Mayan ruin of Cahal Pech which was next door. It was US$5 each entrance. It had a great little museum and guess what ... it was all in English!! The site was only a short walk and surrounded by forest. The ranger, Dean, led us to one side of the site as a group from a cruise ship was on the other. Dean gave us some info on the site and showed us where to go. We talked to a Polish couple and to Dean a bit more. The recurring comment from Belizeans is that 'everyone knows everyone else'. Dean knew Lincoln who we knew Lincoln from our previous visit to Belize. And Elias had known our friend Marge who we would be visiting again in Belize City.
We made the most of the hotel, swimming in the pool, enjoying the view, and ... sad to say ... watching the TV. It had been a long time since we had seen that many English speaking TV channels and we watched a good 3 hours of
US games shows. We dined in the restaurant with the lights of the town below and the pool lights changing colour from white to green to blue to purple. Pieter had a pineapple chicken served in a pineapple and I had a lovely strong curry. We were living it up a bit. For breakfast we were introduced to Fry Jacks. Deep fried tortillas. Oh so tasty.
It was a full day trip to Caracol. It was a long way and the roads were rough. Edward was our guide (he was one of the hotels guides) and it was just us in a Chevy truck. We passed small villages and soon headed into dense forest. About an hour out we passed the gate into the Mountain Pine Ridge Forest Reserve. Then it was pine forest. It took half an hour to get to the army post. Here the British army were based for jungle training and the Belize army were based to escort tourists to Caracol. In the past there had been robberies courtesy of some Guatemalans. One army vehicle in front and one in back we headed off to tackle the last 45 minutes and the worst bit of
road. At one particularly steep muddy bit our truck stopped moving forward. It was an automatic and the transmission was leaking. A new seal had been recently installed and had failed. Edward stayed behind and we went with the 3 army guys and their guns in the back of a double cab ute. They were quite friendly and chatty. The one in the back with us pointed to a guy in the front being their commander. Pieter replied 'and you are the general?'. This got laughs. They were stationed here for two weeks at a time.
At the site we joined Evrol and his two British Canadian guests on a tour of the site. Evrol was great, having worked in archaeology for many years. The British couple were keen bird watchers. Being novices ourselves, we didn't mind stopping on the way to identify some birds. We saw toucans and woodpeckers amongst others. Standing on top of Caana we saw a Social Flycatcher catching a butterfly in mid-air right in front of us. The view from Caana was fantastic. Rising 43.5 meters it served as a magnificent palace and temple complex.
With no sign of our ride we travelled
with Evrol back to the river where we had the option of a swim. Returning to the van, another truck, a GMC, was waiting for us. Louis from the hotel had come to pick us up. We tipped and thanked Evrol for not abandoning us. He told us only on one occasion he had not helped another breakdown. But that was because on a previous trip when he needed help, another operator had said 'Sorry, can't give you a lift, this is a VIP tour'. So Evrol had got his own back when the tables were turned, giving the same response. Generally, the operators helped each other out.
The next day we were picked up the same service we had arrived on and headed off to Belize City.
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