Day 2 in the Cayo

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Hello!

Tomorrow I will head for Guatemala. Last time, I took the budget and long route. First, a bus to Benque, then a taxi to the border, then through both border/immigration offices, then a walk into town across the bridge, find the market and locate a bus to Santa Elena and then finally hire a taxi to take me to Flores.

This time, I'm taking the deluxe treatment. I'll get picked up at my hotel for the ride all the way to the border, cross the border, get on a tourist bus which means NO standing, comfortable seats, AC and a nice ride. All this luxury for the special price of $20.00.

I'll spend the night in Flores exploring and perhaps shopping for a few Guatemalan things. The next day, I get on a local bus which will drop me at Gringo Perdido and I'll begin my adventure in the Bio-Reserve.

Once there, I don't know what kind of service they have so this might be my last entry for a few days.

This morning I was on my way to the local Saturday market shortly after 6:00 am. Talk about local and fresh!!! They weren't finished setting up yet but the breakfast booths were cooking. I found the French Bakery was open, got a good cup of coffee and headed to the river to wait for my canoe guide. He was late and then again, this is Belize?!

What a great morning! We were out early, the river was quiet. The morning mist was rising as the day warmed up. Birds galore sang from the crowded shoreline! I saw one of the smallest bats in the world on the way up, spied a Trogon which was gorgeous, lots of shore and water birds, a Forest Falcon, many hummingbirds, lots of Iguana's and so many shades of green on the trip up. Yes, it is amazing but THEY HAVE GREEN plants here!!!!

After a little more than 2 hours canoeing and 7 miles, we arrived at the spot where I would get out and go exploring. I visited the self-guided Panti Maya Medicine Trail which was very cool! I learned which tree to use if you get snake bite which, preferably, should be avoided in the first place. I learned that the poison and cure grow near each other. Not only does the Gumbo Limbo tree heal the skin rash and irritation caused by the Black Poisonwood Tree, their root systems grow near each other because they help each other grow.

I then visited the museum and the Morpho Butterfly Farm. The Blue Morpho has a life cycle of 3 to 4 months but a life expectancy of 2 weeks. When it is through going through the cycle from egg to catapilar to larvae, it hatches and lives about two weeks. Within hours of hatching, it starts breeding and may lay eggs as early as 5 hours after it hatches. It will lay approximately 10 eggs a day and two weeks later, it's done!

We paddles back to town after having a lunch in the forest. It was nearly 2:00 when we got back. The weather was perfect and it wasn't tooooo hot on the return trip.

I scurried to Pop's restaurant to tell him goodbye as they are closed tomorrow. He was gone and they are no longer closed Sunday's so I'll go have breakfast in the morning before heading off to Guaremala.

Now, to post some photo's for you and go find a nice dinner spot!

Ciao....Larry

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