Guatemala & Belize II

Central America Caribbean » Belize
November 30th 2006

Published: December 12th 2006

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Community Baboon Sanctuary

Feeding the Howler Monkey

So we took a quick side-trip to Guatemala to visit Tikal, the Maya ruins in the jungle. After handing over our (ripoff) US$18 just to leave the lovely country of Belize, and avoiding the hassles of the locals trying to charge us US$50 for a bus journey, we got on the local Collectivo bus for $4 and bumped our way to Flores.

After being so long in Australia and NZ, I had forgotten the trials and tribulations of a bargaining culture (for bargaining read: ripping off the tourists) and at this stage of the trip, I was just too jaded to deal with it when we arrived in Guatemala, difficult enough as it was dealing in Spanish, after having English for so long to lean on!

Tikal itself was.....good. It is supposedly one of the best Maya sites in Central America, and certainly it was very atmospheric being stuck in the middle of the jungle, with nothing but the roars of the howler monkeys to disturb your admiration of the architecture...but after being to Angkor Wat in Cambodia, nothing really compares to it, and looking at the Temple de Jaguar, you get the feeling that the Angkor civilisation would

Xunantunich

Relief

have thrown it up in half in hour if the mind took them!

Back we got to Belize (via the local buses again that blare out the reggae on the radio accompanied by the disco lights above the driver) for a last week in, what we had hoped, the sunshine and beaches of Plancencia, but alas we were to be disappointed! Despite my best efforts at willing the sun god to grace us with some UV rays, it was nothing but overcast skies and rain. With the dodgy weather, we took a quick side trip to the "Baboon Sanctuary" except there were no baboons, only howler monkeys. Completely against all regulations, our guide gave us some bananas to entice them ground-ward, and so we got some great pictures of us feeding the monkeys.

Overall, Belize is a nice country, with really nice people. But I wouldn't be recommending it for people to go out of their way to visit. Everything there is very expensive for what you get - US prices for Asia standards. Diving here was more expensive than Australia, seaside rooms more expensive than Thailand and the exit taxes - US$37 to leave by plane -

Tikal

Crocs!

are just plain ridiculous, the most expensive in any country I have travelled round the world.

Counting down the days til the end of the trip...I'm glad only travelled for 9 months, any longer and I'd be banging my head against the wall. I think I've had enough, and really looking forward to getting home.

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