It's been a few days since I've written and I must confess I've lost track. The email systems in some of the places I've been to have been very dodgy and I haven't always been able to get online. I'll try to reconstruct the last few days regardless.
Panjachel (Pana) was great. I had the best time (see my last entry). After Pana we went to Antigua where the tour group split up. Rene, Martin, James, Stephen and Elle went south to Honduras and Costa Rica with Kirsty and we got 5 new girls and a new tourguide. I spent my couple of days in Antigua commiserating with the old tour group, buying a new pair of jeans (I didn't bring any and I couldn't cope without them any more. I bought some for less than $20) and sightseeing in the town (although carefully as Martin had been mugged in Antigua 3 weeks previously and we were all on alert).
The new tour group isn't as lively as the old one. We are now 8 girls (I am way older than everyone else) and our male tour guide. He is having trouble keeping us all in check!
On our first day our of Antigua we went to Rio Dulce, where we stayed in individual bungalows on a little island. A storm came up in the evening, so we played cards and watched the rain.
The next day we took a boat to the tiny Carribean town of Livingston. The town wasn't much, but the trip on the boat was scenic. Most of the locals still live in tiny cottages with thatched roofs, built right on the river bank. I hate to think what global warming will do to these communities.
That evening we went to Flores, which was stinking hot. At least the beetles we were promised didn't eventuate. The highlight of my evening was borrowing some bug spray from a Parisian bloke named Dennis. It was the most thrilling conversation I'd had all day.
On Monday we went to Tikal, another set of ruins. These ones were very pointy compared to Chichen Itza or Palenque. They were definately worth a look, although the others are starting to get sick of ruins. We crossed the border into Belize after lunch. It was a smooth border crossing, very fast. On one side of the border there were rough dirt roads and all the signs were in Spanish. Straight after the border, we were on tarmac with all the signs in English. What a change! Strangely enough, I have a lot of trouble understanding the accents in Belize and in some ways it was easier to understand the Spanish in Guatemala!
Yesterday was a huge day. I did the ATM in San Ignacio, which is basically a caving adventure. They pick you up at 8am, drive you for an hour to the bush and then you do a 1 hour hike into the jungle. After an orientation walk, you swim in through the mouth of the cave. There are sharp, jagged rocks, tiny crevasses to slip through, bits where you swim and bits where you climb. Eventually you come out into a dry chamber where there are heaps of broken pots (they are 'killed' by the locals to appease the gods) and even a few skulls (the same thing happened to the people as to the pots). It was an amazing day. I didn't get home until 6 but I loved every minute of it.
I have to go now because the sun is about to set and I am due for coctails at the other end of the beautiful sand island resort. You get told off if you walk to fast in Caye Caulker, so I'm off to meander off to see the sun set. In shorts and a tshirt. Oh yeah, I love the Carribean!
