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Published: September 16th 2005
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Just Hanging Around
After the chicken bus, we decided to take a dip in the river before our canoeing trip. August 25, 2005
We arrive in the Cayo District via the chicken bus. It was a very interesting & long 2 hour drive. The bus was overpacked and everyone smelled like dirty diapers. We buy a couple of tamales from a street vendor at one stop. I loved mine but Dan´s wasn´t entirely feather free. YIKES! Hey, at least it wasn´t some sort of domestic animal fur. We almost miss our stop as there are no signs for Georgeville and our spanish speaking skills are minimal. I see our host at the side of the road and he waves us down as we are the only 2 white people on the bus. We yell for the driver to stop and he finally does. We are getting alot of looks from the locals. I hear several people cursing us in spanish. Something about gringos and alot of giggling. We did get our revenge however; when exiting the bus Dan and Aaron (our MET host) bonked a few noggins while carrying our 70 lb dive suitcase overhead. That´ll learn em! We go to Barton Creek for lunch and to canoe thru a cave. The restaurant (if that´s what you call it) was more
Barton Creek
The river to the cave. of a treehouse. There was a baby in a rocker waiting in limbo for someone to come along and claim him. No one does, so I assume the parents are canoeing somewhere. We have a pre-lunch swim in the creek and take part in the rope swinging festivities. The cave was really cool. The Mayans used this cave as a burial and sacraficial place. The Shaman believed this cave was the link to the next world. The plethera of bats and low hanging stalagtites were enhanced by the pitch black darkness and cool air. The best part of the cave was the exit where our guide instructed us to turn off our flashlights and concentrate on the outside light filtering in. As he was paddling forward (you could see the forward motion by looking at the sides or the water) we felt like the boat was being pulled backwards. It was the weirdest sensation. Very much like the hall scene in The Shining. This sensation of being sucked back into the cave is believed to be why the Mayans chose this location. We ride horses back to MET where we wait for several hours until Aaron shows up with our
Canoeing up the river
Canoeing with my new best friend what´s his face. bags. I´m not overly excited about this because I wanted to shower and change after the jungle tour. There aren´t even cold drinks for us in the kitchen as Aaron was sent to town to do a last minute grocery run. When he finally does show up my backpack smells like kerosene oil from the back of his truck. He is about as worthless as they get. He reminds me of a steriotypical Californian stoner/surfer. His girlfriend, Allison (from Austin, TX) does all the cooking. Meals are surprisingly very good and with fairly big portions. Have I mentioned that we are in the mountains with no electricity? There are many, many bugs. After we retire for the evening I attempt to make a bathroom run only to find out that the flashlight has rolled under the bed and the lanterns have gone out. I am standing in the midde of pitch black darkness with God knows how many bugs crawling around me. I panic and freeze like a deer in headlights. I wake up Dan with my wimpers. He was not too excited to have to kneel under the bed to find the flashlight. With the lights finally on I
Lizard with Fly in mouth
Lisa getting a picture of a lizard with a fly in it´s mouth. Later, she will prove once again her expert skills in photography when she catches a lightning bolt on film. can see exactly how many bugs were around me. Recall the hotel.com commercial where the lady is choosing her vacation destination and the room description says mosquito nets. She imagines a scenario exactly like what we were staying in. It was awful. There were bugs as big as birds flying into the netting all night long making it hard to fall back asleep. What if they penetrate the netting and carry me away?
August 26, 2005
Needless to say I didn´t sleep much last night. We have breakfast and ride horses to a hidden waterfall. The ride was long and hot so we jump in and have a swim. Per our hosts we are supposed to do a little cliff diving while here. Dan does several times, going higher and higher each time. I start lower and do finally make it to the high cliff but it takes me a good 30 minutes to work up the courage to jump. Don´t look down, that´s the key. Of course I didn´t figure that out till afterwards. Looking down it feels like I´m 100 ft in the air. Turns out it was only about 40, but that´s still pretty dang high!!!
Barton Creek Cave Entrance
The entrance to Barton Creek cave aka the Mayan burial cave. The dog that followed us on our ride climbs the rocks as well but doesn´t jump off the cliff. Guess he´s done this before. Lunch was peaceful. We sun for a few and get back into the water. We try to push ourselves to the back of the waterfall but the current is way too strong for me to get passed the first few rocks. Our guide tries to pull me thru and manages to pull my top off instead. He gets a cheap feelski. Back on the tick infested horses. The biting flies are horrible. Our guide shows us how to keep them away. You grab one (if you can do it with chopsticks you are really cool - The Karate Kid) and shove a stick thru it´s butt. Then they fly away and don´t bother you anymore. Surprisingly this works. Back at the lodge we have plenty of bugs around for dinner. I think it was the rain. We catch a tiny bat behind a painting, there are several scorpions in the rafters, and many wolf spiders on the walls. I find a large scorpion and wolf spider in our room which Aaron disposes of by squashing the
Barton Creek Cave
Another view of the cave before we enter. spider and ripping the stinger off the scorpian. He´s been in the mountains his whole life so I guess he knows which bugs to step on and which ones to turn into defenseless ant food. Another critter was in our room as well but he didn´t suffer the same fate. The tick infested dog that accompanied us on our horseback ride decided to take a nap in our bed on top of all our clean clothes. Gross! It rains all night long. I´m not as freaked out tonight as I have stratigically placed flashlights and matches all over the room. I´m prepared ... bring on the bugs!
August 27, 2005
Chivalry is not dead. Dan took a bullet for me this morning. We are heading into town so we pack our dirty laundry in my backpack to drop at the cleaners. I still feel yucky from the bad chicken night so Dan offers to carry my bag. He puts it on, screams, dances a little jig and throws the backpack to the floor. I´ve never seen him move so fast! Turns out we forgot to exterminate 1 scorpion. He was hiding in my shoulder strap and stung Dan on
Bats!
A little nest of bats in the cave. the left forearm. It hurt like hell and felt like it was on fire for several hours. It was a poisonous scorpian but luckily not deadly.
August 28, 2005
We are up early to pack and head to the airport. We thoroughly check all clothes for ticks, bugs and scorpions before packing them. We opt for private transport to the airport. No more chicken bus if we can help it. Good thing we did cuz on the way to the plane we saw the bus broken down on the side of the road. We can´t fly direct into Peru. We have a 2 1/2 hour flight to Miami and then a 5 hour layover. Everything within 30 miles of the airport is wiped out with no electricity due to the hurricane so we are stuck in the terminal for 5 long, grueling hours. Dan exchanges some dollars for Peruvian soles and gets screwed on the exchange rate. They offered him 2.8 to 1 where in Lima we got 3.25 to 1. We board the plane at midnight. The plane is mostly empty so we each grab a row, pop a valium and sleep for the remainder of the flight.
Watch your head
Trying not to wack my cabeza on the Stalactites The attendant wakes us up in Lima.
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Talia
non-member comment
I hate bugs!!!!!!!!!!!! And No electricity, ouch. I will remember never to visit this place, glad you had fun though. This is why I love you blogs so I can go without being there. Thanks.