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Published: August 2nd 2008
Belize
Caye Caulker, great snorkelling but lots of rain!Since leaving Mexico, we´ve travelled south, passing through Belize, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua.
The Belizean island of Caye Caulker was our first stop, a friendly place to hang-out. Given the absence of good beaches, days are spent diving or snorkelling, with evenings filled with reggae music, dancing and cocktails. We spent our two days on the island snorkelling, as the world´s second largest reef (Australia´s great barrier reef is the biggest) lies just five minutes off-shore.
On our first day, we snorkelled with numerous sting-rays (fantastic) and with hundreds of beautiful fish. Sadly, there were also a few jellyfish in the waters, and Sarah got stung (not too badly) across the face. This didn´t deter us from venturing further afield on day two, in search of nurse sharks and more rays. We had a great day, met loads of people and were given several glasses of rum punch to enjoy as we sailed home.
That evening saw the start of LobsterFest 2008, an annual event to crown Miss LobsterFest. We´d seen the big pre-event parade the previous evening (about half a dozen candidates on golf-carts cruising the island - there are no cars - waving at the "crowds").
Belize
Caye Caulker, Just so you know how far we were... But that night saw the main event, with promises of even more reggae music, dancing and cocktails than usual. Unfortunately, the rum punch on the boat proved to be strong stuff, and by 9pm, with heads a little sore, we collapsed into bed. Pathetic!
The following day we crossed into Guatemala, and headed to the pleasant lake-side town of Flores, close to the Mayan ruins of Tikal. We woke at 3am to visit the ruins at sunrise. Sitting atop one of the temples, looking out over the rain-forest, accompanied by the early morning chorus of waking birds and monkeys was a magical experience, although the hoped for sun never really materialised. Indeed, much of our time in Guatemala was spent under rainy or cloud-filled skies.
From Flores, we ventured south to the unpleasant riverside settlement of Rio Dulce. The village is the starting point for a beautiful trip downriver to the beach-side town of Livingston, dominated by the Caribbean influenced Garifuna culture. It contrasts markedly with the indigenous culture found elsewhere in Guatemala.
After two nights by the river, we travelled west towards the Guatemalan highlands, and the second city, Xela. Xela doesn´t possess many tourist attractions
Belize
Caye Caulker, it´s relaxed here man! (although we enjoyed the nearby hot springs immensely), but it is one of the friendliest cities you could ever visit - it´s not often you leave a laundrette shaking hands with the owner, after a 10 minute conversation on where you´re from and how you like the city.
The only person we didn´t warm to was our taxi driver on arrival in Xela. Having spent 12 hours on buses, travelling via Guatemala City, we couldn´t locate the bus stop on our map. We haggled for some minutes, before agreeing on a fare with the taxi driver - who dropped us perhaps 200 yards down the road at the entrance to our hotel.
Our next destination was beautiful Lake Atitlan. We spent two days on the lake, kayaking, swimming (briefly - it was cold!) and visiting a nearby nature reserve. The lake itself is stunning, surrounded by volcanoes, although again the weather was overcast throughout our stay.
The final stop in Guatemala was the colonial town of Antigua, not far outside the capital. It´s a pleasant place to wander, with several churches and numerous picturesque buildings. We also climbed part-way up the nearby Volcano Pacaya. This active volcano
Guatemala
Tikal, Mayan ruins in the jungle has a slow but steady stream of lava moving down its flanks - although we expected the lava to be hot, it was amazing how much heat was radiated by the molten rock (it managed to melt the glue in my trainers from a distance of several metres).
Guatemala is not the safest place to travel, and we´d heard stories of numerous incidents involving tourists over the years. During our time we experienced nothing untoward and found many of the people very friendly (in the case of the old man who decided to rest on Sarah during a ride on a local "chicken bus" perhaps a little too friendly). However, whilst climbing Pacaya we heard from another tourist that a hostel in Antigua had been raided by an armed gang two nights previously, and everyone had all their valuables stolen at gunpoint. It was time to move on.
We booked a direct transfer across the border into Honduras to the pleasant village of Copan, close to the ruins of the same name. Our last Mayan ruins were also one of the best - stunning stone carvings, a great jungle setting, and a number of macaws in the surrounding
Guatemala
Tikal, jungle ruins tree-tops.
Aside from a night in the unpleasant capital of Tegucigalpa, our only other stop in Honduras was the island of Roatan. The island is the largest of the Bay Islands, located a 90-minute boat-ride off the north-east coast of the country. It is a stunning location, littered with beautiful beaches, and lying minutes from the Belize Barrier Reef. It is renowned as a great place to dive and to learn to dive, with numerous sights scattered across the reef.
Sarah and I had initially planned an eight-night stay, so we could obtain our PADI open water certificate. Sarah was an absolute natural, passing every classroom exam with ease (she got 95% in the exams) and looking very comfortable in the water. Whilst I was fine in the classroom, the water was another matter - I simply couldn´t equalise properly (adjust the air pressure in my ears). Accordingly, each dive required several minutes of painful effort for me to descend, which does take away some of the enjoyment.
But some problems with equalisation apart, the diving was great, and the rest of our time on the island wonderful. A planned eight night stay soon became nine, and
nine became twelve. Sarah dived a further four times during our stay, including a night dive which apparently was spectacular (when the torches were turned off, she was surrounded by luminescent fish and other sea-dwellers) - although whether her enthusiasm was in part driven by the (apparently) rather fine diving instructor, I can´t say. I dived once more - on our final day - but will definitely be back in the water once my ears improve.
Our final destination in Central America was Nicaragua.
We´d heard wonderful things about the local people, but things certainly didn´t start well. Following a ten hour trip from our hotel on Roatan to Tegucigalpa, we arrived to find that all international buses for the following day were full. We therefore were up at 5am to start a journey requiring a taxi and five local buses to reach the Nicaraguan town of Granada, another ten hour trip. Things had gone well, the border crossing had been smooth and we´d enjoyed meeting the locals on the buses, but we were initially unable to find a hotel on arrival.
After an hour of fruitless searching, we eventually settled on a more expensive option, unpacked
our bags, and planned an evening of showering, eating and sleeping. However, it transpired that the hotel had problems with its water supply, which had been going on for several days (they simply neglected to tell us). Following several heated discussions and promises of it being resolved imminently, we returned from dinner that evening to find the problem remained. After all my toys had been thrown out of the pram, we recovered the money we´d paid for our three-night stay, but found ourselves forced to leave at 10pm. We crossed the road and checked into an even more expensive hotel, and vowed never to return to Nicaragua.
Our misery was compounded the following morning, when we moved to another hotel (the hotel we´d found at 10pm being full the following night). Whilst hauling our bags across the cobbled streets, Sarah slipped and fell hard. A number of locals came running to help pick up our belongings, but with Sarah in obvious pain I thought we´d be visiting a local hospital when I saw the state of her knee - it was horribly swollen. Or so I thought. It transpired that Sarah had actually hurt her ankle, and her knees
Guatemala
Tikal, view from the top of Temple V are, well, just a bit knobbly (I´d never really noticed before!). Fortunately, after some rest and ice, the ankle was much improved.
The reaction of the locals restored our faith in Nicaragua somewhat, and we enjoyed the rest of our time in Granada, including a day visiting the nearby Laguna de Apoyo and a morning riding zip-lines through the canopy. Our last three nights were spent on the beautiful Island of Ometepe, at the heart of Lago de Nicaragua, Central America´s largest lake and home to rare freshwater bull sharks. We declined the opportunity to swim, but walked through the island´s beautiful countryside, dominated by a volcano at either end. Evenings were spent watching the sunset from our beach-side cabin, accompanied by the sounds of birdsong and mice scuttling about in the roof.
It was a nice end to our time in Central America. Next stop, New York!
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