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Published: March 1st 2007
I have had a 'fanastico' 2 weeks travelling through Belize and Guatemala with Scott, who joined me in Cancun, I can’t believe all the stuff we have done … kayaking, caving, volcano climbs, walking on lava, sunsets over ruins and more. He joined me in rather a delicate state; I had been puking all morning from a cheap group meal on the beach at Playa de Carmen, not ideal. So we didn’t see much of Cancun, but there is not much too see, large resorts containing large Americans. We briskly headed back to Playa de Carmen and mid morning headed down to Tulum, where there are Mayan ruins situated on the rocks above the crystal clear blue waters, the location of the ruins where what made it, the water colour was amazing. It was a Sunday, thus on our arrival back into Playa there were about 100 or so men just sitting around in the main square doing a whole lot of nothing, all a bit strange. We strolled around Playa and found a nice spot for lunch before it bucketed down with rain, streaming down, so it was a long lunch. We ventured back out but on our way back along the beach the rain came down again, but as luck would have it we found a lovely beach bar, just in time, so we sheltered under an umbrella with a cocktail or two and watched the storm out at sea. We wandered up to the main drag for dinner and stumbled across a wonderful restaurant called ´Ulaigula with a Twist´, and a twist it had. I had snapper with a melted feta sauce and for desert we shared a white chocolate soup with coconut ice cream. The following morning we woke to more rain, hammering down. We thought our trip out to Cozumel, an island just off the coast where all the massive cruise ships dock, was in doubt. But we jumped on the ferry anyway, somehow getting a slightly cheaper ticket than we thought. By the time we got to the island it had cleared, but due to slippery roads we went for the VW convertible option rather than a moped to go exploring. We had fun cruising around the island stopping at different beaches and then driving up the wind swept and wild east coast, with birds of prey swooping over head. We had lunch cliff top at a place called Coconuts, there were plenty of obvious jokes with that one, and the Americans loved it! When we returned to the touristy part of the island, I thought it would be a good idea to go to a place called Senor Frogs, I thought it was a cheesy Mexican family restaurant / bar similar to Hard Rock. I could not have been more wrong. Wow, it was ugly. It was across from all the cruise ships so maybe that should have been a hint at what we would find. It was about 4pm, there were lots of people boozed out of there heads on the dance floor, some wearing balloon hats fashioned into men’s genitals and feasting on the largest plates of mince nachos I had ever seen. However the most frightening thing I saw was the shooter girl giving Nana, yes she was sitting there with her children and grandchildren, a shot of blue booze then giggling her boobs up and down. Luckily, her son caught this all on camera, before he took a shot from his wife’s cleavage. In shock, we boarded the slow boat, thus the mystery re the cheaper tickets was solved, back to Playa as the sun set over the coast. We went back to the place with the umbrellas on the beach for dinner and picked up a Cuban cigar as an after dinner treat in Belize as we had heard Lobster was on the menu.
5.15am start for our travel day to Belize, it was a very long day. On the bus to the boarder they played ´Hotel Rwanda´ a strange choice for an early morning bus, we got in a little late but managed to get on a local chicken bus so we still had a good chance to get the 3.30 ferry to Caye Caulker, other than that it would be hanging around the tip which is Belize City. The boarder crossing was a breeze, when we got to the Belize immigration, Scott got asked where he was going, he promptly replied ´Belize´ and he could hear the sniggering from me behind him in the line, tehehe. You could certainly tell the difference between the 2 countries, the Belize houses are made from wood and terraced all very colourful, some on stills, there was heaps more open space and the road quality dropped significantly. The make up of the people also changed with a very large Afro Caribbean population. We raced to the ferry just on 3.30 to find the timetable had changed and departure was at 4pm, so we jumped on that overloaded speed boat and gunned out to sea. Caye Caulker is a great little place; palm trees lined the shore, crystal blue waters, brightly coloured little lodges and there is a very laid back attitude. Freakily as we were walking to our hotel we bumped into Madeline, I suppose the island isn’t that big, you can see from one side to the other. She joined us for a sunset drink at the end of the island called the Split. During one of the hurricanes the island split, thus the name. The sunset was beautiful and we were eaten a live by the mosquitoes. LOBSTER, yip it was second to last day of the lobster season, so we all rocked up to Jolly Rogers, who was the fattest man on the island, he had been eating more than a few lobsters. It was an out door BBQ, we all sat around picnic tables on the waters edge with our BYO coconut rum from the Chinese owned min mart across the street. Needless to say the lobsters were divine, cajun flavoured, unexpected but good. After all that coconut rum we ended up in a swing bar down the end of the island, it was full of swings and hammocks. There was a separate room where the DJ was he was playing pumping hard techno to no one, and going NUTS behind the booth, later on I saw him busting some moves on the dance floor while a record was playing, too funny.
Scott and I had a nice lazy day on Caulker, woke up late wandered around, but it got way too hot so we headed for shade and lunch, lobster 2. After that we kayaked around the island, took bang on 2hrs, and it was rather tiring coming back up against the current and wind, but good to get some exercise in. That evening it was time for lobster 3, delightful, we followed that up by puffing on the Cuban sitting on the dock … rather a nice Valentines Day, I got lobster instead of flowers, great! On the way back to the hotel we popped into a bar to watch some Americans acting the goat.
It was another early start to get to San Ignacio, but only 4hrs travel time. We were on another chicken bus, it had AC!!! But it didn’t work, when we reached San Igancio a bunch of school kids jumped on so we had fun playing with them on the way to our accommodation a few miles west of the town. Trek stop was situated in the middle of no where, surrounded by trees, plants, flowers and it had a butterfly enclosure - yellow, orange, grey, blue all swirling around you, great. Our cabins were very basic and the loos we eco, i.e. throw sawdust down the long drop, not that fragrant. That afternoon we headed to the local ruins - Xunantunich - by crossing a river on a pulley barge then hiking for a mile in the jungle. There was a 40m high pyramid which we could climb; it gave fanatic views back to San Ignacio and the surrounding rolling hills. That evening we had a round of frizzbee golf, this is where you throw a frizzbee through the jungle and try and get it in a net, clearly I sucked at this game, Scott was rather good and kicked everyone. However later that evening, he got kicked around the 500 table, so all was even. The following day we visited the ATM caves (Actun Tunichill Muknal) and had a simply amazing experience. Orlando our guide was carrying a machete … yikes, so did the guy we picked up to watch over the van. On the drive to the drop point we past a El Salvador refugee community, a couple from there went into the jungle just behind us they were collecting food to sell at the markets, we actually ended up giving them a ride home. The food they collected looked like large needles, but the inside is soft and you can boil this up and cook it with egg, I tried a bit it was bitter. When we got to the drop off point we got our hard hats, I wore mine on the 45min walk to the entrance of the cave. On our way there we had 3 river crossings, wadding across up to our knees at some points. Orlando attached our lights and we were ready for the first challenge, swim 5m into the cave through a beautiful aqua pool, our guide then proceeded to walk around and in, oh good. We spent an hour walking deep into the cave with water up to our ankles, knees, waists and at some points swimming. It was loads of fun, many large open spaces, but there were a few squeezes here and there, and navigation around a few large rocks. There were beautiful stalactites and mites and other formations that looked like sparkling coral. Finally we reached the place called the Cathedral, but we had to climb up to enter it, up on to a large rock then scampering on to a platform … a little frightening. We removed our shoes at this point as there were artefacts scattered everywhere, mainly pots and jugs. Then our guide used his torch to illuminate a skull. The Mayan elite in the area had been scarified in the caves as there was a massive drought, the one that they think brought the civilisation to an end, this was their last effort to communicate with the gods. There were 14 individuals in the cave, all those scarified, apart from a 12 year boy where there are signs of him being tied up, went willingly. The last 2 individuals we saw were higher into the Cathedral, and we had to climb up a ladder into a cavern … even more frightening. We made our way back out of the cave to find it hammering down with rain, so we walked back in that, given we were already wet it didn’t make much difference. We finished the day off with a curry at a Sri Lankan restaurant, crazy.
PHOTO LINK
Onwards to Guatemala! Scott and I broke away from the group at Flores a lovely little town situated on an island jutting out into a lake. We were ferry across to Nitun Lodge a beautiful eco lodge, we were originally going to stay at in 04 before the hurricane caused a massive landslide and other damage in the country. The location was beautiful and our room was a giant leap up from the cabins in Belize. We got stuck into the vino blanco over a shrimp meal that evening. It was a lazy morning at the lodge watching the hummingbirds before departing for Yaxha ruins. The owner joined us for the ride over to Flores, with her 2 dogs both wearing doggie life jackets, she was swimming back to the Lodge from half way across the lake! Yaxha was situated on a lake with the same name and lots of the buildings were still being restored or under jungle, we visited a few of the pyramids then went to watch sunset over the lake with some wine, cheese and pineapple …perfect. There were only a handful of other people up there so it was something really special. The following morning we headed back to mainland and to Tikal, we decided against a guide and headed off with map in hand. The place is set in jungle and the pyramids, the tallest 65m, were phenomenal. There were tonnes of wildlife around as well; turkeys, monkeys, cat type things, lizards, birds of prey drying there winds on top of structures … great, but no Toucans. We climbed a few of the structures and got a beautiful view of the pyramids peaking over the jungle canopy. On our way back to the car park a spider monkey leap from one tree to another about 10m about Scott’s head, nature, love it. Our flight to Guatemala City was on time and on a new plane, on arrival there was a guy standing there with a sign reading ‘Kylie’, he dropped us straight to the hotel in Antigua … too easy.
Now we moved from ruins to Volcano climbs, firstly Volcano Acatenango (3975m). We had a bit of a shock when they didn’t know we had requested a porter for the climb, but luckily Vincent a local farmer was available so we stuffed the tent, roll mats, sleeping bags and warm clothes into my ruck sack and we were on our way. On the way to Acatenango we stopped for gas and a parade went past, kindergarten kids all dressed up marching behind a float with a vehicle blaring music behind them, not sure what the purpose was, but very cute. We arrived at the start point and were straight into it, and it was straight up and I mean straight up. The walk was nice through farming land, and then it changed to lush forest (a bit more zig-zag, thank goodness) then into a pine tree forest. We stopped for lunch there, tortillas with fresh salad fillings, pretty good for half way up a volcano. Then we were off again, but walking around the cone (and up) through wild flower fields between the pine trees. Then we hit the section that had been burnt down, a group of stupid tourists had a party in the carter and started a fire, burning a significant amount of the forest down, idiots. Scoria - now it gets really hard, the last section was a killer, wind was howling as we made the final approach to the crater, again straight up in scoria, so one step up, half a step back. It was SO cold, again cold, damn it! When we got into the crater the guide tried to pitch his tent so Scott and I got our tent out. However my hands were frozen so I couldn’t really help, so I wrapped the tent around me. The guide’s tent fell over, thus we had to pack up and make for a camp on the other cone (this Volcano had a double crater), we stopped to look at Volcano Fuego as we warmed our hands in Acatenango’s sulphur vents. Then Fuego blew and smoke came pouring out, I managed to get a great snap, yeehaa! Then we started slipping and sliding down the side of the cone, I managed to fall over a number of times and obtain a large graze at the top of my leg. However the sunset was stunning over the multiple volcanos towards the Mexican boarder, the clouds covered most of the land so only the tops were peaking through and they were lit up by the setting sun. The evening, even though the camp site was sheltered, was freezing and we nearly didn’t get up for sunrise, mainly because we thought we had to make the tortuous climb up the cone we climbed the previous day. However we were just going to the top of the peak we camped on so we scrambled out of the tent and head off around 5.30. And thank goodness we did. The sunrise was spectacular over Volcano Aqua and Pacaya, which was puffing away in the distance, the view was towards the El Salvador boarder. We spent some time warming up before packing up and whizzing down the mountain, practically running in some places, we were covered in dust, teeth and all. On returning we celebrated by a long boozy lunch in Peru Café, never tasted food like that in Peru, so good. But the best was yet to come; we saw a commotion on the street so booted up there to see what was going on. Ricky Martin was in Fridas Café, Scott got a great snap! The girls were going mad as he speed off huge 4WD with darkened windows - Livin' la Vida Loca!
At this stage we joined back up with the group and headed to Chichicastenango, the famous markets. The markets did not disappoint - very colourful, local people everywhere in traditional dress, little old ladies elbowing you, fruit, veggies, and heaps of stuff for tourists to buy! We were lucky enough to see a religious procession; it started at one church then moved through the market to the church at the other end of the plaza - chanting, praying, smoke, drums … great stuff. Scott and I made a few purchases including a very colourful oil painting of the markets. Then it was back on the bus heading for Panajachel on Lago de Atitlan. This place is usually known as Gringotenango (place of the gringo) … yip there were lots of tourists and hippies. It is a really pretty area the lake is surrounded by 3 huge volcanoes; Toliman, Atitlan, San Pedro. The lake itself is actually a collapsed volcano cone. The sunset over the volcanoes was a fantastic site. Scott and I have been very lucky to see so many great sunsets. The next day we did a trip around the lake visiting a number of little villages, the highlight was Santiago and visiting the home of Maximon a combination of Mayan gods. He was housed in a local house and when we arrived the statue/doll was smoking and drinking rum, with the help of a local of course!
Volcano Pacaya was our last volcano and also Scott’s last day with me. We arrived back in to Antigua faster than expected as our private transfer driver drove like the devil after we mentioned we needed to be back at 1pm. The hike up Pacaya was a breeze compared to our last climb, but we had to navigate around horse poo, yuck. Walking across the dried lava was a little frightening as it was razor sharp. But what was even more frightening was how close we got to the lava, JESUS. The lava was oozing down the volcano cone in red streams, occasionally exploding rocks and lava into the air. On the way down, as the sun was setting we realised that we had been walking over hot red lava, crickey! That evening we had a lovely dinner in a local restaurant, where the food was describe as poetry, and it was.
PHOTO LINK
Sadly I had to say goodbye to Scott as he headed back to NYC, the snow and work. I am now continuing down through Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica for more volcanoes!
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Matt
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Sweet lord, your trip just gets better you little Rockstar. Never thought I'd see and lava in the same photo...nice one. What on earth were those chickens doing in those bags??? Loved the sunrise snaps, but the best one is of Scott caught napping... Didn't see Ricky though!? Look forward to seeing you soon...take it easy...