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Published: June 25th 2011
Hello there! How are things going? Good? Bad? Indifferent? Interesting, glad to hear it. I myself am good, well apart from the fact that a large number of winged creatures are currently treating my body as some sort of banquet.
Between the title and general Simon Botley knowledge a lot of you will know that I´ve become another year older and wiser since the last time I wrote to you. Once again, to all those people who sent me some sort of Happy Birthday message, thanks very much. It was much appreciated.
We´re currently sunning ourselves on Caye Caulker, a small island in the Caribbean off the coast of Belize, which is a very long way away from Leon in Nicaragua. The most sensible way to explain how we´ve got here seems to be to carry on from where I left off last time. You may recall it had something to do with a completely safe sounding activity known as volcano boarding...
Perhaps unsurprisingly, sliding down a steep pile of loose rock isn´t without its drawbacks, in the form of numerous cuts and scrapes on the odd occasion that you lose control slightly. However, the images I had in my head before we started were of broken arms and legs so I was delighted to make it down in one piece. I even got to save the life of a French girl on the way. I know, I know, I´m a hero.
Of course, it was me that was going to kill her but I really don´t see that that should count against my heroism. Basically, I was sent on my way by our guide who had unfortunately assumed that it wasn´t going to take the French girl who went before me 3 days to complete the 45 second run. As I finally built up some speed and came flying over the slight crest in the hill I found none other than said French girl shuffling along directly in my path. I had a split second to make the decision. To kill Frenchy or not kill Frenchy? Choices, choices. I settled on not killing her and painfully, but spectacularly (all that matters) threw myself off the board. Told you I was a hero.
When planning our next move in Leon we decided that the whole of the length of mainland Honduras had nothing going on, so the next journey that we embarked on was to our longest of the entire trip. It managed to stretch into a third day of travelling.
We were tired after this so we stayed for 9 nights.
The first two of these were spent on Utila, which was alright, but a little too hectic to be the tropical Caribbean island that we´d envisioned. The main point of Utila´s existence however is diving, so we sorted ourselves out with Captain Morgans Dive Shop and on the third day we were taken over to one of the many tiny little Cays which exist just off of Utila. This was more like it. Captain Morgans has a sister hotel on the tiny Pidgeon Cay and this was to be our home for the next six nights.
The diving itself was as good as its reputation suggested it would be. with some amazing visibility and water temperatures which hovered around thirty degrees celsius. We got to see a wide range of interesting fish as well of course, the highlight for me being a Spotted Eagle Ray lazily drifting along way above our heads.
The best treat came on our way to the very first dive site when our skipper spotted some dolphins in the water near to the boat. There was a mad scramble as everybody grabbed their snorkels and fins and jumped in as quickly as they possibly could. It was quite an experience. When I first entered the water I was within sight of three of them, and only about 10 feet away from the one. They didn´t hang around for too long but we were all delighted with it. Me and Chris even more so as we realised afterwards from the Captain Morgan regulars just how rarely they are spotted.
After a few days of doing as little as humanly possible the little Cay just off Utila was able to join the illustrious company of Wales, Leeds and the Lake District as a destination for one of my birthdays. We spent the day enjoying the laziness that had become the norm by this point. In the evening we were treated to an epic sunset, had a pizza and a few beers and watched a funny film. All in all it was exactly what I had hoped it would be and I was very happy.
It was with a heavy heart that we eventually departed the Cay, stopping for one more night on the actual island of Utila, before hitting the road again and making our way to Guatemala.
Our first three nights in Guatemala were spent in the vicinity of a town called Rio Dulce, where we had a quiet couple of days, before a long walk to a nearby castle on our last day there. From here our next stop was Flores, a small town in the middle of a lake which we used as our base for taking on the ruins of Tikal.
These ruins come with a big reputation and are widely considered to be the best Mayan ruins that the Central America region has to offer. They more than lived up to it. We started our exploring at about half past 6 in the morning so as to avoid the crowds and heat as much as possible and spent over 5 hours working the quads by clambering over the towering temples and enjoying the view from the top. It's quite a sight to look out over the top of a canopy of trees to see the greenery punctuated by these ruins.
The following day we got to enjoy our second consecutive 4:30am start (I have such a tough life these days) and made our way across the whole of Belize to get to Caye Caulker. Strangely this is our penultimate country and the only real plan we have is to fall back into our favourite habit of doing nothing, I'm sure. It's relatively expensive here so I'm not sure how long we'll be here before moving on to tackle Mexico for the final few weeks of our trip.
Anyway, that's enough from me for another day. I hope everything is good with you wherever you are, as always. Speak soon.
Si
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mum
non-member comment
.... Pesky Frenchies!!
Hey Si, glad to hear that you remembered your manners and gave way to a French lady perhaps she was confused - they do drive on the wrong side of the road you know! Sounds like you and Chris are enjoying doing as little as possible it is indeed a hard life by the sounds of it. No green eyed monster here and Gem thinks dolphins are over-rated anyway! (Yeah she might) As for Birthdays in the Caribbean - pfff! Keep it up both - it all sounds amazing, enjoy your final few weeks, take care in Mexico and we will see you very soon!! Lots of love mum xx