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Published: October 27th 2007
Caye Caulker
taken on our balcony - still very windySitting down today, we realised that we hadn’t updated our blog for a long time, and that we have been stamped in and out of six countries since our last update, so apologies in advance if this one is a long one!
Our last entry was from Caye Caulker off Belize, just after the hurricane took a diversion away and saved us from having to rearrange our plans.
We had a great time relaxing on Caye Caulker, Alex went out snorkelling for the day and was lucky enough that a couple of manatees decided to come and check him out - amazing creatures about 1000kg each and yet so graceful - needless to say that Lise was very jealous!
As the tourists began to return and Caye Caulker got busier, we decided to move on - a boat trip back to Belize city, and then two (chicken) buses, a taxi and a water taxi and we were in Placencia, a laid back town in the south of Belize. Not much to report from this town, we arrived on a holiday weekend and enjoyed the hammocks and the warm sea breeze. Two days here sufficed for us, not much was
going on as it was low season and the cost of Belize was crippling our budget!
The next journey was another epic all day adventure, we saw lots of the Belize countryside, then arrived in Punta Gorda to get stamped out of Belize. It was all very informal, with next door’s school children coming through a gap in the fence to buy sweets from the customs office! Our boat trip was an hour long and soon we arrived in Livingston, a strange town on the coast of Guatemala. Strange because of the mix of people there and the attitude to tourists, even though the place depends on tourism.
We spent only one night in Livingston and after a quick explore, we indulged in a huge plate of shrimp courtesy of the tiny waterside restaurant at our hotel. They were great, fresh from the pan and marinaded in the owner’s special sauce. The next day we decided that we would head off to Finca Tatin, a small guest house set on the Rio Dulce - a short boat ride took us away from everything, into the jungle and to the guest house. We were the only visitors and had the
place to ourselves - we spent the day swimming in the river which was beautifully warm and playing on the rope swing.
Realising that our time in central America was coming to an end, and that the independence day holiday was approaching we made a plan for the next day - to travel overland back to Honduras and back to the Bay Islands - this time to the other main island, Utila. The journey, as all journeys in Central America involved many changes, but these journeys were getting easier and we were much better at Spanish than two months previously. We had a moment of panic at the Honduran border when we had put our bags on a bus after confirming it was going to the right place, and went to get a coffee.
Turning around for a second, the bus had gone!!! With our bags on board!- Lise wasn’t worried as she wanted to shop for new clothes, but Al was slightly concerned. Fortunately, the bus came back and we headed off to San Pedro Sula to get a bus to La Ceiba for a second time this trip. After a night in La Ceiba we caught a
Alex eating Jonny Cake
Waiting on the journey to placencia - Jonny cakes are savoury scones boat to Utila - we sat on top of the boat as it was a fine sunny day… in the harbour, as soon as we got out into the open sea we were continually sprayed with huge waves of sea water - we endured it for an hour and arrived on Utila very wet, but the sun soon dried us again.
Utila is a very different island to its sister island, Roatan. It has no real beach, is much smaller and is very much focussed on the backpacker and novice diver market. Nevertheless, we had a nice few days there, squeezed in a few dives and enjoyed the independence day fireworks.
We had a day in the regional capital, San Pedro Sula before we flew out. We stayed in a very expensive backpacker hostel, which was OK, but we wouldn’t recommend it- someone stole our food! - and caught some taxis around and did some shopping - Lise even found a fabulous handbag! We also indulged ourselves in a great (huge) steak dinner before we caught our night flight to Miami.
Arriving in Miami exhausted, we changed airports and caught a flight to Grand Cayman to meet our
friends Heather and Andrew who live in this awful, awful, depressing nightmare of a place. We pity them.. JUST KIDDING! It’s a simply beautiful place and we can see why it’s the playground of the rich and richer. We were met at the airport by Andrew with a huge !Welcome! sign and for the next week we were lucky enough to be the recipients of their amazing hospitality. Their home has a gorgeous location with a view both down to seven mile beach (the “best” beach on the island) and a sunset sea view. They had loads of spare dive gear and we could gear up, waddle a few meters down to the water’s edge and jump in. We were so spoilt! Heather had to work much of the time we were there, although fortunately her hours are flexible and she skived off as much as possible to be our hostess (she’s one of the top professors at the university- an expert in veterinary science) and Andrew pretty much spent his time hanging out with us and being a fabulous host/chef/chauffeur/tour guide/comedian and pancake chef. The last day of our stay was Lise’s birthday. Since the day before was her
Lise getting in the swing of things
she followed this with a double somersault and tucked triple salco birthday in Australia (gotta love time-zones) she got two birthdays! She was spoilt rotten - a pedicure and manicure from Heather and Andrew (which was super as her rotten talons were in need of attention after 5 months of backpacking) and Andrew cooked an amazing meal, plus she got a personalised chocolatey cake and some other wonderful presents from Al too. All in all a perfect birthday, (except that we had to leave, boo hiss!) but we are looking forward to Heather and Andrew visiting us in London soon.. (now it’s published on the web it has to be true, right?) One of the best things we did in the Cayman was a trip to Stingray City sandbar, a snorkelling daytrip where the last stop is a shallow sandbar. The crew brings a bag of squid and pretty soon around 30 giant stingrays turn up, smooching up to you looking for food. It’s a little freaky at first getting used to being suckered by a stingray, especially given Steve Irwin’s fate but it really was fabulous and they are gentle creatures with very soft skin.
Next up was Miami and it was everything we expected it to be, our
Lisa diving on Roatan
Bay Islands, Honduras South Beach hotel was really good considering it was the cheaper end of the range and the art deco buildings were really great. Unfortunately the weather was absolutely pants (ha! Lise used an English word..) and it rained and rained. We picked up a rental car and drove around for a while but realised our sightseeing plans might need to take a rain check and we’ve promised ourselves we will return in better weather. We spent a few days shopping at the outlets in Miami and Orlando and got some real bargains given how weak the dollar is. We also took a trip to the Everglades and rode an airboat which was really fun and interesting all at the same time and reminded Al of the TV series ‘Gentle Ben’ from his youth. In Orlando we decided to risk the weather and get some tickets to Universal studios. To save some money on the tickets we signed up to a time-share presentation, basically you go for a 90 minute tour around a resort and get the hard sell on why you should finance a horrible apartment at a terrible interest rate. If you get out alive, you get half price
tickets (saving over $100us in our case) Everything we read about this led us to expect that we would find the experience harrowing and offensive but we must have had the perfect blend of blatant disinterest, valid reasons not to buy -( holidays are committed to Australia, UK and top diving spots in asia!) plus Lise was more interested in the mechanics of the salemans role so we got out with all 10 fingers and 10 toes intact, nothing signed AND cheap tickets.. we were so proud of ourselves.
Universal was really fun, there are two parks- one is more about the rides (Islands of Adventure) and the original is more about the movie experiences. Lise adored Islands of Adventure and Al found out just how much she loves rollercoasters, finding out that what he thought were squeals of pain, were squeals of delight! Al enjoyed the more sedate Universal Studios interesting from the movie/tech/sound side of things, so it was a perfect combination.
Lise flew north ahead of Al to spend one day visiting with her friend Kristen with whom she travelled round Indonesia with last year. Kristen lives in Washington DC (which Lise now knows is
a district, not a state and it lies half in Virginia and half in Maryland) and DC is a really pretty city. It’s all government buildings and monuments in the actual city and is really peaceful and pretty to look around. So of course Lise and Kristen went… shopping! Lise also met a lot of Kristen’s friends and her parents took them out to dinner and one day wasn’t enough. Alas, it was all there was time for and the next day Lise caught the Amtrak train north. Al spent an extra day in Orlando and visited the Kennedy space centre, which has been on his ‘must see’ list since Blue Peter went there in 1984! there was a shuttle on the launch pad so Al got to see that as well.
Our last stop was New York, New York. What more can be said but it is a fabulous city? Plenty more! Our hostel was adequate (again, given the hotel prices in NY it was really a bargain) and we did things we thought were appropriate, like eat pretzels, ride the subway, dawdle as we gazed in awe at the city that looks just like on TV and
get in the residents way, eat a pastrami on rye, eat muffins and bagels for breakfast, eat fabulous steak, walk through central park, catch a Staten Island ferry and see the Statue of Liberty, go up the Empire State building, do a LOT more shopping (well, we had a big baggage allowance so it’d be rude not to utilise it fully right? Right?) and generally see more sights. Even though we’ve enjoyed every part of our trip it was a great high to go out on and we’ve sworn to return when we can pick up some cheap airfares (although Al requests that Lise takes some other female company so he can beg off some of the shopping..)
So we are now in the UK, surrounded by boxes of our things which have arrived from Singapore, job hunting and facing the reality of life. To all our friends in the UK - lets catch up soon, to everyone overseas, you are more than welcome to come and visit!
Thanks for sticking with it and reading our blogs - we hope you've enjoyed them!
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anonymous
non-member comment
sounds like an awesome end of trip and you're completely forgiven for having so much fun that you don't take time out to update your blog ;o) hope the settling into the UK goes well