Advertisement
Published: July 12th 2008
San Ignacio
Woke up in San Ignacio and ambled down to the bus plaza around 9am to head to the Guatemala border. The bus wasn´t very crowded and we climbed the hiull up and away from the town. It was a very lush, beautiful area with more hills and ranges than we saw yesterday on the way from Bze City to
We arrived at the Belizean ´border town´of Benque within 30 min or so. It isn´t actually on the border, so we had to take a cab a couple km to the border because busses don´t go the full distance. There wasn´t a line and the woman at the first post took our BZE exit fee (18us) without any hint of a smile. The guy at the next booth (immigration) was more friendly and asked where we were from and who we´d vote for in the election. (It appeared he was an Obama support too!)
It was a short walk to the Guatemalan border station and we met Hugo, a friendly charter bus driver who offered to rip us off with a pricey ride to El Remate. We had been cautioned that charter busses were twice as expensive as
collectivo mini busses so after getting passports stamped and paying the GUA entry fee (1.50us each, so change a little money when you get to the border). When we broke the news to Hugo a collectivo driver appeared and took us to the minibus. It was about a 5min cab ride away and we probably wouldn´t have been able to find it without connecting with the minibus driver at the border. Our bags were getting loaded on top of the bus as we got out of the taxi and we were off to El Remate.
El Remate
The bus ride started out like a deleted action scene from an Indiana Jones film. The driver weaved his way through town at about 45mph, honking constantly and swerving to narrowly miss pedestrians, livestock, and oncoming traffic. The whole time the conductor had the folding bus door open, yelling "Flores! Flores!" to anyone interested in a ride. The bus would skid to a dusty stop whenever someone wanted to hop on, and off we´d go again. It appeared that locals paid far less than the tourists (we were the only caucasian people on the bus) but that seems to be a
The lake at El Remate
view from the garden at our placetrend across the country and the 15us that we paid was well worth the ride.
The countryside was noticably different than Belize, though still very lush and beautiful. It was about an hour and a half to El Remate, which is just a couple km north of the juunction at Lago de Peten Itzan - where the road splits to Flores or north to Tikal. There was a collectgive groan and some dirty looks at the conductor when we turned away from the road to Flores and it was clear that the Americans were at fault for this detour. Once at El Remate, we smiled, offered a humble ´muchas gracias´ and put on our packs. We´re staying at La Casa de Don David, which is on the north side of the 1-road town and about one km walk. El Remate seems to be a couple cafes and shops with a handful of guest houses. Quaint and cute town right on the lake, with goats and horses periodically crossing the street and pigs, chickens and dogs in yards along the way. Don David is a really nice, clean place that we´d recommend to others. All the duplex bungalows face a
Our El Remate lodging
The topiary toucan at don david large yard that goes down to some hedges near the lake. In the yard, there is a gazebo with hammocks, where we wpend a bit of the afternoon reading, and some large topiary hedges shaped like toucans. For interested travelers, our double was 38us, including dinner. We finished the night on our patio with a crossword and four little gecko friends.
We leave for Tikal at 530am for a sunrise tour and canopy zipline ride. Should be a fund day, and we look forward to another night in El Remate at the LCdDD.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.098s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 8; qc: 49; dbt: 0.054s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Nicole
non-member comment
Love the product placement
As a Nike employee, I am LOVING all the swoosh product placement in the photos. :) Ha ha ha! It looks like a lot of fun so far! I'm so jealous!