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Published: November 27th 2006
Hi hang, I´m still here, just having too much fun to sit in the internet cafe and update the blog...but I finally did. As usual all the photos are on the kodak site, just copy and paste the following link into your browser to view the new ones.
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=n1ics9r.93p8kikz&x=0&y=-kdovgs
I've been traveling a lot since my last report. As a general overview, from Antigua I went to Coban (smack in the middle of Guatemala) with side trips to Semuc Champey and Languin Caves, then to the Rio Dulce which is on the East side of Guatemala, then to the Caribbean port of Livingston, then up to Belize. I traveled from the Southern Belize town of Punta Gorda up to Placencia for a few days and then bused and boated up to Caye Caulker. Last night I flew to Panama City (cashed in some Marriott points so I have a few days of absolute Luxury) then heading to the beautiful Bocas del Toro to hopefully get a crew spot there.
Coban is the real Guatemala. No fancy touristy stuff like in Antigua. I was one of the very few tourists in town. It was a little nervy at first, but I quickly started feeling more comfortable. I had a travel companion with me, Gunther from Germany (great guy, except that he's a meat eater and a capitalist😊), so that made it much easy to get there and get around safely. We met up with a few people that were working there for Mercy Corp so it was a nice educational experience to learn of the specific challenges of the region. There really isn't much to do in Coban, except for a few side trips. I did a 2 day trip to the beautiful Cloud Forest. The first day we went to the pools of Semuc Champey. The limestone makes the water a sparkling blue. After a long hike we swam in all the pools, diving from one to the next and at the end we had to climb down a waterfall on a sketchy wooden ladder. I stayed the night at this tiny rustic place in the forest. I mean rustic, I checked all over the room, under the mattress and all for tarantulas and scorpions. There was just me and this couple from Guatemala City staying there. He's a surgeon and she's a psychologist, they were great to hang out with and I subsequently cleaned them out with a night of poker. Our host at the hotel was a very funny guy named Selvin who loved the song "Walk like an Egyptian" by the Bangles, he thought is was brand new and he wanted to learn all the words, so I tried to help him out. The following day we did an amazing hike/swim through some underwater caves. It's very dark and you only have a few candles to see by. You really need to be a good swimmer because some parts were very deep with nothing to hold onto (and of course you have to keep your candle above the water). We would climb up and down rope ladders into small caverns where water was rushing out. It was truly one of the most interesting experiences I've had. After that we hopped into some rapids and floated down a very beautiful river while butterflies flying around us. From there we went to the caves of Lanquin, which were quite a disappointment. They are dirty and dilapidated. They are black inside from years of fires from the Mayan Rituals and there is no new stalactite/stalagmite growth because of all the deforestation above the caves.
From Coban I trekked to Rio Dulce via 2 buses and a minivan with me and 24 Guatemalans! I didn't think we could fit any more people but they just kept stopping and picking up more, of course by then the sliding door couldn't shut and people were climbing in the roof. I love this country! I did some informal interviewing for crew positions in Rio Dulce but nothing was appetizing. Turns out this is not really a good place to look for a crew spot for a variety of reasons. I stayed for 4 days and waited for my friends Suzanne and Jackie to meet me so we could head out to the coast. Once they arrived we boated over to this great lodge in the Mangroves, called Casa Perico, a really cool place to stay the night. The next morning we went via boat down through the beatiful cliffs of the Rio Dulce to the Caribbean town of Livingston...which is so very Caribbean and not much Guatemalan. The town is a mix of Mayan, Guatemalan and Garifuna (descendants from African Slaves). Not a whole lot to do there so the next day we hoped on another boat and headed upto Belize. The entry port town is called Punta Gorda. As soon as we got ashore we realized there was an airport so we walked over and hoped on a plane to the beautiful beach town of Placencia in Southern Belize. We stayed a few days there and my friends had to leave so I took a bus up to Belize City (via the most boring capital in the world, Belmopan). From the City of Belize I took a boat over to Caye Caulker.
Caye (pronounced key) Caulker is very laid back and absolutely beautiful place . If you walk to fast on the island, they say, ¨slow down sista, youd gonna git a speedin ticket. One of my main reasons to come here is to dive the famous Blue Hole....unfortunatley it didn't work out because of bad weather. We've had a storm front out here for the past week. I think it's fine since it keeps me out of the sun, but the locals are freezing, wearing coats and beanies in the morning (it does after-all get down to about 65C!
Thanksgiving Day I had a wonderful Turkey Dinner in a pub on the beach and watched football. My hotel (there are only 6 rooms) was right on the water. I lucked out and got a great group of people staying at the hotel. We would have group happy hours with food and rum drinks (Rum is the drink around here). Belize is an English speaking country (with an interesting sing-song type of English at that). It took me about a day to get out of the speaking Spanish thing. Now that I'm in Panama....I hope I didn't forget all the Spanish I just learned.
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Paula & Dave Lazarus
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Interesting travels
Hi Kathy! Your Blog is very interesting and fun to read. I can visualize where you are. I think when you are all done with your travels you should write a novel about all your travel experiences.We love looking at the photo's too, Take care!