out of Guatemala and into Belize
BELIZE | Wednesday, 4 August 2010 | Views [1220]
Flores to Tikal:
After Rio Dulce we caught a bus to Flores so that we could visit the ancient Mayan ruins about an hour outside the city in Tikal. We were told by our travel agent that 4:30 in the morning is the best time to leave to go see the ruins. If you know me, then you know that getting up early is not my thing, but I have to say that this was worth it! We dragged ourselves out of bed and went to wait in the street with the rest of the people waiting to leave for Tikal.
Before arriving, we'd already decided that we weren't going on the guided tour like most other people and that we'd just check it out ourselves. The entrance fee into the park is 6x more expensive if you are not from Guatemala, so we tried telling the man at the ticket counter, "somos de Guatemala" but he only laughed. He wasn't buying it. Ha.
At Tikal there are multiple trails that you can follow that lead you to the different ruins. All the trails go through the jungle, which makes for a really nice hike as you move from each site. The jungle is filled with wildlife. We saw Howler and Spider monkeys swinging through the trees and a ton of birds. My two favorites were the Red-Headed Woodpecker and the Toucan.
The ruins themselves were impressive. I was amazed by the height of the buildings. We were able to climb to the top of most of the buildings and at a height of up to 70 meters the views were worth all the stairs we had to climb.
At the end of the day when it was time to hike back to the bus, it started pouring down rain. We were pretty far from any shelter so we decided to stand in one place and wait it out. The bugs start attacking when you stand in one place too long, especially after the rain washes away your bud spray so plan B was to run from the rain. We ran for about 5 minutes down the slippery stone paths when the water let up. We eventually made it back to the van only slightly soaked. All in all, it was a great day and I really enjoyed the ruins.
The next day we caught the 5am bus to Belize City....
Belize:
Caye Caulker:
We made it into Belize! Our second country! It's all about the white sand beaches and reef here. Straight from Belize City we took the water taxi to Caye Caulker. One of the first things I noticed was the slow island lifestyle. Walking slow is their policy. We found a nice hostel right across the road from the beach. We definitely took advantage of the outdoor kitchen where we cooked most of our meals. We were getting kind of tired of only eating eggs so Brett went out and found some fishermen to buy some fish from. The fisherman can be found by looking for the dock that the seagulls are circling. He got a couple of fillets of a Grouper that they'd just caught. They were delicious.
While in Caulker we got to dive the second largest barrier reef in the world! Only one day though, since the diving here is the most expensive that I've seen. We got a package where we got two dives and got to snorkel at Hol Chan in between. We saw huge sea turtles, sting rays, a green moray eel and a nurse shark. I discovered that my two favorite fish are the Yellowtail Damsel Fish and the Princess Parrot Fish. ;) People were feeding the fish while we were snorkeling so we were swimming past hundreds of fish as went we through the reef. We were so impressed with the snorkeling that we signed up for a half day snorkel trip the next day. I was pretty happy when I noticed that our guide for the trip wearing a burnt orange Texas Longhorns shirt. I said hook em' horns, but I'm pretty sure it's safe to say he had no idea what I was talking about. Ha. He took us out to part of the reef called Stingray Alley. I wasn't worried at all until we actually got there. At one point I was pretty sure our guide was trying to kill us. He told us not to splash when we entered the water and as soon as I got in and took a look at what was swimming around us, I understood why. There were Rays swimming at us from every direction! At first another guy and I were too scared to even get off the ladder of the boat. Then a shark showed up and next thing we know our guide is going after one of the Rays. He catches it and brings it over to show us. It wasn't a small one either, it was about 2 feet wide. I wanted to keep my distance but he forced us to touch it. Eventually we all got more comfortable with having to watch what was coming at us from all directions and started swimming around just in time for a Barracuda to show up. My first sight at Sting Ray Alley may have been the most terrifying moment of my life. Lol. Good news is that I'm not as scared of all these fish as I was before.
Our next destination is Placencia, Belize. We are on a role, this is going to be our third island in a row! I better go for now because I left Brett at the Tipsy Tuna with no money. Lol.
Love,
Sophia
Tags: guatemala, maya ruins, temple 4, tikal ruins
