Back to Guatemala for the third time

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19th Agosto- Caye Caulker

sweaty walk to a nicer hostel (complete with many comfy hammocks, and two VERY sweet puppies) followed by a very gruntling (symes language for the very opposite of disgruntling) day at the ´split´which is where island had been ripped in half by a hurricane about 10 years ago filling our time with swimming in the clear blue sea, swinging in hammocks, drinking lime juice and playing cards with Belizians... i don´t know how we fitted it all in!
Having realised we´ve been spending about double what we have everyday for the whole trip our new budget meant we were cooking for ourselves. This resulted in spaghetti, one month old philadelphia and tomato sauce. It tasted alright, it was only when some Italians sat down next to us with an amazing looking prawn, bean and rice risotto that we felt a bit embarrassed. Pretty soon we had bridged the language barrier with our pack of cards and some English people we had met the previous day joined us and meant we soon had quite a screaming, cackling group of card players. And then off we went to ´ladies night´! Cheesy music, stupid dancing,ashamed the next day.

20th Agosto- Caye Caulker

Hammocks and puppies all morning and then off for snorkelling! Much amusement as I introduced myself to snorkelling lady and she responded with,´oh! my husband is called Harriet also!´. Snorkelling was amazing. Glen who introduced himself with, ´Í am Glen, the ladies neva forget my name´ was our amusing guide. WE sawan octopus, a moray eel, many many colourful fish and incredible coral. One of our stops was slightly more scary than the others though, as Glen anchored the boat to our horror we saw the boat was being circled by armies of sting rays. Though tip toeing and squealing our way in, we survived. Under the water the sting rays looked less like the dementors from Harry Potter that could suck your soul out, but still pretty scary.
That evening we played cards with our Italians, England vs Italy games are quite competitive, we did our country proud with cards but lost miserably at darts, luckily no one lost an eye.

21st Agosto- San Ignacio

Buses all morning west across Belize. We got dropped off on the side of the road to go to Belize Zoo. Really cool zoo; big cages,looked very jungly and got to see many exciting animals close up like a Jaguar, Puma, spider monkeys, howler monkeys, a harpy (terrifying animal that looked like half bird half wolf, like something out of Greek mythology) and many other strange creatures like a tapir- a mountain cow that looked like a pig with a stumpy elephant nose.
Rugby scrum to get on the bus and a wierd man telling me my original colour was ´pale, far to pale, like an dead person´and that Roya´s cheeks were´red like a big juicy lobster´ we were pleased with the impression we were leaving on the Belizians.
Bit of trouble finding somewhere to sleep in San Ignacio, guide book proved to be wrong several times and very over priced taxis we eventually managed to find ourselves in a nice place with a caretaker called Glynn. Glynn was great, he was a reformed crack addict who has found god and spent the evening trying to show us the light. He fussed over us making us a fire for cooking, tying his dog up by our hammocks so we were safe and generally a pretty cool guy. Whilst making dinner some women found us incredibly amusing and sweet so cooked more food for us, gave us orange juice and stroked our hair!


22nd Agosto- Flores- GUATEMALA

Crossed the border and found ourselves talking in pigeon spanish and hand actions again. Many buses and eventually arrived in Flores at about lunch time. Really good hostel, crazy communal area with fairy lights and a tree you could sit in. Ate, played cards, read and watched David Attenborough. Then an early night.

Harriet

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Photos

paradise
view of the beach from a bar at caye caulker

Comments

[Alicia]

Can't imagine Roya enjoying a/ being described as red like a lobster and b/having a dog tied up to her hammock. Are you a prawn again Christian?

[Matthew Symes]

Joke
Knock Knock..... Who dare? Belize. Belize who? Belize in yourself, dahlin.

[Eve Perry]

I would hate to be called a lobster. I hope you are alright Roya, it sounds like a traumatising experience. I like the name Harriet for a man, I'm going to look for a husband called Harriet. x x x