San Ignacio, Belize

We're now up on the Belizean highlands in a town called San Ignatio, close to the Belize / Guatemalan border. This is the town everyone stays in to do some adventuring in the Mayan caves and jungles before heading over to Guatemala, or vice versa. We came here from Caye Caulker this morning, after a brilliant time there.

We LOVED Caye Caulker and all the happy people there. We went on a brilliant sailing boat called Raggamuffin for the day and went to 3 spots snorkelling on the barrier reef there. So cool. We saw loads of sharks, turtles, barracuda, corals, spotted eagle rays, patted some other massive sting ray, looooads of huge fish, some rare groupers and loads of other stuff. We met some other cool people too, and hung out having fun on this tiny and relaxed island full of palm trees. :-)

Tomorrow morning we set out for a day of cave tubing in three ancient Mayan caves. Basically, you get on these big inflatable rings and cruise through rivers in caves while a guide educates you about all the historical things which the Mayans did in there, points out the skeletons which are still lying about and there are also loads of ancient Mayan artefacts which have to be left in the caves. It's really hot here (really hot) so it will good to get wet again.

Our immediate plans:

This is a quick rundown of where we think we'll be over the next couple of weeks..

- San Ingacio, Belize until 15 Jan
- Then on to Tikal, Guatemala for one or two nights
- Then making our way to Antigua, near Guatemala City and stay there for a few days (til about 20 Jan?)
- Then going to Lake Atitlan west of Antigua where there's a lake in the middle of 3 volcanos and is amaaaazing apparently
- Then making our way to Honduras (not sure where) - will go on recommendation and whim
- Definitely want to get to the island of Utila just off the coast of Honduras (til late Jan?)
- 30 Jan we fly out of Tegucigalpa, capital of Honduras, bound for Brazil and the rest of South America!

Anyway, that's a rough idea of where we're headed.

Both of us are really well, very tanned, and having a great time. We're getting good at catching local buses everywhere and throwing our backpacks on and off buses and boats. We're trying to stick to a budget, but it's not easy with tours and everything else. Will be eating most meals out of tins soon... We have LOVED Belize and know we've been spoiled with everyone here speaking English as their first language.. man, it makes EVERYTHING so much easier. Soon we'll be in Guatemala and back to the Spanish. There's a lot to be said for 'lost in translation' but we're getting there...!

Another update soon, love to all....

xx Erin and James xx

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