Guatemala Part 1: Tikal and Rio Dulce

Our first stop in Guatemala was Tikal, the famous Mayan ruins.  Since it had been raining, it was a long, muddy road to get there.  We really enjoyed Tikal because of the rainforest setting.  The ruins were very extensive, and they were not as excavated as most of the other ruins we have visited, so to get from site to site, you had to walk through the forest.  It was beautiful there.  Here are some pictures:

Ceiba tree

walking through the jungle

Stela

Ricardo absorbing Mayan power from the ruins

View from the top of Temple IV, you can see tops of the other temples in the distance

fun at the ruins

Friendly coati waiting for someone to feed him

Don't remember which temple this was; there were many!

Tikal ruins

From Tikal, we went to Rio Dulce in Guatemala.  Rio Dulce is situated on a river (Rio Dulce) that flows into the Amatique Bay and Caribbean Sea.  There was a perfect spot to park in a little neighborhood just next to the Rio Dulce bridge, by the river. 

View of the River from where we parked Cubby

dog waiting for his human in the boat

We went to the little shop next door for a beer, thinking that we would probably leave in the morning because there didn't seem to be a whole lot going on in Rio Dulce.  To get to most places around Rio Dulce, you need a boat.  But it was there, sitting on the dock outside of the shop, that we met a 9-year old boy named Denny, who lives right next to where we parked Cubby.   Denny began talking with us, and little did we know he would become our best friend for our time in Rio Dulce! 

Denny's aunt had a lancha, a small motor boat, to take people around.  We decided to head across the river to the fish market to buy some fresh fish to make ceviche, and Denny negotiated a good price for us on his aunt's lancha.  Denny personally escorted us through the fish market and supervised the buying of the fish.  On the way back, we invited him to come over to have some ceviche with us that evening. 

Well Denny never really left - he wanted to come in and see the camper.  We gave him the tour, and a little later, more of the neighborhood kids started showing up, so Denny gave each one a tour of the camper.  Pretty soon we had a large group of children hanging around the camper, waiting for some ceviche.   



some of the Rio Dulce kids we met, gathered for a ceviche dinner

Ricardo in the camper, preparing ceviche, with some litte helpers

That night we had a big ceviche dinner with at least 8 kids to help us eat!  The kids were so curious about us and the camper that they didn't want to leave.  We ended up talking to them for quite a while - they were such a sweet group of kids!  We had a fun evening, and decided that the next day we would take a trip to the nearby Castillo San Felipe. 



Castillo San Felipe

Castillo San Felipe de Lara is an old fort built by the Spanish to protect the area from pirate attacks.  The fort was actually attacked several times, but has been rebuilt and redesigned since.  It now resembles an old castle, with lots of different rooms, narrow passageways, and lookouts. 

 

Castillo San Felipe

We brought 3 of the kids from Rio Dulce along with us to explore the fort - they had never been there before despite living so close!  They had a great time running through the passageways like a maze.  We also visited the pirate museum next door, very cheesy but entertaining for the kids.

posing with the cannon

Back in Rio Dulce, we stayed a couple days more getting to know the kids and the area.  We had a barbeque and had another dinner party outside Cubby. The adults in the area also began to open up to us - we got to know the mothers and the grandmother of some of the kids.  They were very kind to us - they brought us into the house when it started raining and fed us.  We heard a lot of stories about their lives - from happy stories to very tragic - that they shared very openly.  We learned so much about the lives and the culture there from their stories, things we will never forget.

Rio Dulce was one of my favorite stops in Guatemala for the cute kids and friendly people.  We had a great time, but as always, the time to move on came quickly.  The kids asking ´¨Why can´t you just stay here?¨and ¨Won´t you stay just one more day?¨ did not make it easy to leave, but we said our goodbyes, and headed on towards our next destination, Antigua, Guatemala...

Belize Part 2: Sun, Sand, and Stingrays

We arrived in Belize City with the idea of taking a ferry to one of the Cayes to celebrate the new year.  We arrived in the afternoon and found out that we could take a ferry the following day, which would be New Year's Eve - perfect.  We parked by the ocean for the night.

View of the pier from Cubby in Belize City

The next day we boarded the ferry - time for some beach and relaxation!

 

Belize City harbor

 The ferry was packed.  We rode in the very back of the ferry.  What a great view, and we got to feel the air and spray from the water.

from the ferry leaving Belize City

Arriving on the island, we immediately liked the place.  Caye Caulker is famous for its beautiful clear water and laid-back beach atmosphere. 

 

Obviously many people had the same idea we did - to spend the holiday on an island in the sun - because all the hotels/hostels that we came to were full.  This was the first time we would spend a night NOT in Cubby since the U.S. and we realized how lucky we are not to have to search for lodging in every place we visit.  We split up to save time and eventually came to some cabins toward the end of the island that had vacancies. 

Our home away from Cubby

 We had a cute iguana that liked to visit us in our cabin.  Or rather, we were the intruders that took over her cabin.  We named her Iggy:

Iggy sunning herself on our porch

 

Since Sarah and Matt would have to leave to go back home to New York after our Caye Caulker trip, they graciously invited us on a snorkel trip to the reefs as a last hurrah - thanks guys, it was awesome!  I had never been snorkeling before and it turned out to be so much fun.  We saw lots of beautiful coral, and many fish and other undersea creatures.  One guy with a fancy underwater camera got too close to a moray eel and it started chasing him!

 

 

 

There were three different stops on the trip, and the second stop was a very shallow area with nurse sharks and stingrays.  They of course congregate in that area because the guides handfeed them.  The sharks stayed a bit away from the boat, but there were huge stingrays everywhere around the boat.  They move really fast - I was scared to jump in the water because I didn't want to land on one of them.  I made Ricardo come watch and tell me when it was safe to jump. 

 

After I did jump in, it was really interesting, and slightly terrifying, to swim around with the sharks and stingrays.  Ricardo was loving every second of it, but the guides were handling the rays a bit too much for my taste.  Ricardo pet the rays and fed them.  I just watched!  It was a cool experience, one we will never forget.

The guide holding a stingray

That night we went out to celebrate New Years with some drinks and some music.  Happy New Year 2013!

We originally were planning to spend only one night on the island, but we ended up staying longer and spending two nights.  Ahh, such a beautiful island...hopefully we will be back some day.

Sadly, the third day we boarded the ferry to head back to Belize City.  We dropped Sarah and Matt off at the bus station and said goodbye.  It was great having them along for two months of the trip - many great memories that we will share.  The bus station drop-off was so quick (everyone was yelling at us to move the car!) that we did not get any pictures.  We left and immediately the car felt empty with our travel companions gone.  We will miss you Sarah and Matt!

  That night we drove out of Belize City and toward the Guatemala border, ready to start the next part of our journey...
 



Belize Part 1: Mud and Monkeys

We left Mexico from Chetumal and crossed into Belize.  We were excited to be headed to a new country! The fourth country of the trip.

 

Crossing into Belize

Incredibly, even just beyond the border, Belize seemed to have a whole different atmosphere than Mexico - much more of a Caribbean feel.  English is the official language of Belize, although many people speak Spanish or Creole as well. 

 

 

After the huge spaces and distances in Mexico, Belize seemed tiny.  Driving to the first city of Orange Walk took no time at all.  We decided to stop for a look around and a bite to eat.

Plaza in Orange Walk

 I found some funny signs that I just had to take pictures of...

 

Where would you prefer to eat...the Excellent Restaurant or the OK Restaurant?

I love the feel of sand in my clothes.

 

We stopped for a beer and discovered that in Belize there are alternatives to all the bland lagers of Mexico!  They actually had Guinness and Dragon Stout, a Jamaican beer.  A friendly guy in the restaurant even bought Ricardo a Guinness as a welcome to his country.

 

From Orange Walk, we went to the Crooked Tree Wildlife Sanctuary, known mainly for its bird life.  The sanctuary is a series of lagoons and marshes surrounding the village of Crooked Tree.  It is a peaceful, laid-back place.  We decided to spend the night there in order to have time to explore its hiking trails and the village.



The first thing we did upon arriving, however, was disturb the peace of the area by driving a little too close to the lake... the ground was quite wet and we got stuck!  We detached the XTerra and got that out easily, but Cubby's wheels were deep in the mud.  After several unsuccessful attempts to pull, push and dig the trailer out, all with no avail, somehow we improvised a system to rotate the trailer until we could pull it onto hard ground.  The masterpiece:



I had to sacrifice a frying pan for the effort, but it paid off.  We slid a long board under the support post on the hitch end of Cubby and smeared mud along the length of the board.  Then we slid the frying pan under the post, on top of the muddy board.  We tied the hitch end of the trailer to the back of the XTerra.  Ricardo in the XTerra pulled the trailer sideways, while the rest of us pushed the trailer from the back.  The hitch end of the trailer slid, in the frying pan, along the muddy board, until either reaching the end of the board or tipping the frying pan over (like in the picture).  We had to repeat the whole process about 5 times before Cubby was turned around enough to be pulled out to dry ground.  

 



 

It was a long, muddy effort, but in the end teamwork paid off and we managed to get cubby safely out of the marsh.  And we provided much entertainment for the park ranger who watched the whole process from the entrance station...when we were done he told us that he never thought that we would make it out.

 

parked safely in front of the ranger station...whew!

It was too late that day to do any hiking, so we went to the village for a bit and did some hiking the next morning.

Crooked Tree Wildlife Sanctuary

 There were plenty of cool birds to see.  We spent the morning wandering the trails and watching the birds.  It was quite muddy in places, like walking through a swamp!

 

After we had walked the trails in Crooked Tree, we went to the Community Baboon Sanctuary, another national park in Belize.  We hadn't yet seen any monkeys on the trip, and we were excited to have a chance to spot some.  The baboons are actually howler monkeys, but the locals call them baboons. 

 

When we got there, our guide took us right to where one pack of monkeys was hanging out, and she knew how to call them so that they would come down from the trees.  The monkeys that live in the sanctuary are protected, (it is illegal to kill them), and they are used to people.  Don't expect that from other wild monkeys, though! We were actually able to feed and touch some of the monkeys that were daring enough to come right to us.

 



Feeding the monkey our guide called "Grumpy Old Man"

After feeding and watching the other monkeys, our guide took us on a tour through the rest of the sanctuary, though we didn't see any more.  She was very knowledgeable and taught us a lot about the native plants and other animals in the area.

 



Mama monkey with baby

 Our wish to see monkeys fulfilled, it was time to head on to Belize City and the Cayes (pronounced "keys") to celebrate the New Year with some fun in the sun. The details will be coming in the Belize Part 2 post!