Caye Caulker, Belize

It was late afternoon by the time we got settled at the Caye Caulker Plaza Hotel, and we found it difficult to tear ourselves away from the excellent a/c, so we didn't leave again until dinner time. After it cooled down a bit, we ventured out and ended up at Rose's Grill, where we had a variety of grilled seafood and meat. We started to get used to topping everything off with Marie Sharp's hot sauce, which they had everywhere in Belize.

Our objective for the next day was to go on a snorkelling tour. The receptionist at front desk was extremely helpful in calling around to get information and pricing for us, and in the end we ended up booking a trip to Hol Chan and "Shark and Ray Alley" with the well-recommended Carlos Tours. The cost was about 50 USD per person, which seemed pretty good for an all-day tour.

The next morning we walked over to the Carlos Tours headquarters to get geared up. After we were fitted, we headed over to the pier, where we were divided into two boats, one guided by Carlos, and the other by Romeo. Our group of eight were assigned to go with Romeo, along with one other guy who said he was from England.


The tour was advertised as having three stops, but Carlos spotted some fishermen hunting conch, so we made a "bonus" stop where we saw tons of rays:


We spent about half an hour there, and then proceeded to the Hol Chan Reserve. In the Coral Gardens, we saw sea turtles (we couldn't wait to jump out of the boat to see them up close!), eels, and schools and schools of fish:





For lunch we went to a restaurant called Celi's in San Pedro, on Ambergris Caye. They served a variety of fishes/meats with rice and beans, and also had burgers and sandwiches. I liked the food pretty well, but couldn't tell if it was due to being super hungry from snorkelling or because the food was actually good. Ambergris Caye was certainly much more built up and crowded than Caye Caulker.

We didn't have much time to digest our lunch before we headed back out, this time to Shark and Ray Alley. There were again tons of rays, and this time we saw nurse sharks too! The largest ones were over six feet long:


Our last stop wasn't at a specific location; instead the goal was to find and swim with manatees. We were very successful; Carlos managed to drop us in an area with three manatees, and we were able to get to maybe 30 or 40 feet away from them:



After all four exciting stops, we were all quite tired and ready to head home. On the way back, Romeo served us a giant plate of fresh tropical fruits. The mangoes were my favorite, but there was pineapple, watermelon, banana, and more. Between the ten of us (eight in our group plus the English guy and Romeo) we eventually managed to polish it all off before we arrived back in Caye Caulker.

We were very happy with both Carlos and Romeo, and gave them a nice tip, as well as buying the DVD (15 USD) of the photos that they had taken during the day with their underwater camera. (All of the snorkelling photos posted above were taken by them.)

It felt really good to shower and change, and soon afterwards we went out looking for dinner. Unfortunately, several of the restaurants that we were looking for were closed, so we ended up at the Rainbow Grill. I was not too fond of the food there; it was overpriced and pretty bland. It seemed quite popular with all the other tourists, though.

The next day, four of us started the long trip back to California, to attend a Memorial Day wedding. The other four stayed another two days to do some diving.

First, we caught the noon water taxi back to Belize City. I took this as we were waiting for our boat; it was our last glimpse of tranquil Caye Caulker.


We arrived in Belize City a little bit after 1pm, and then negotiated a taxi ride to the airport. Most of the taxi drivers wanted to charge us 30 USD since we had four people, but one agreed to take us for 25 USD, so we went with him. His taxi was not in great shape, and he stopped to put 0.8 gallons of gas into his nearly empty tank, but we didn't start to get really worried until the car started slowing down and finally stopped on the side of the road, a few miles from the airport.

The driver got out and fiddled around with the engine for awhile, and finally put in a new battery, which seemed to fix the problem. I remember thinking that I was going to be pretty pissed if we ended up having to walk the last couple of miles.

From there it was a pretty smooth trip back; we checked in, grabbed a quick lunch after security, and then sat around waiting for our flight to San Salvador. In San Salvador, we had a 40 minute connection, and two of our friends had to go through secondary screening, which involved removing their checked luggage from the airplane for a complete search, but we still made it onto our connecting flight to San Francisco, and then back home.

Overall I think we all had a great time. It was hard to say which part was my favorite; the snorkelling tour was amazing and rivalled our experience at the Great Barrier Reef, but the ATM cave excursion was also an unforgettable experience, and I really enjoyed our time in Guatemala learning about Mayan culture and seeing all the wildlife and ruins as well. Before the trip, we'd heard a lot about dangerous conditions in Guatemala, so we were careful with booking our tours and activities. In the end we were fortunate that everything went very smoothly, including all of our shuttle pickups, the border crossing, and even our very short international connections. I hope we'll get to do another fun group trip again soon!

San Ignacio, Belize

We arrived at the Table Rock Jungle Lodge in mid-afternoon, so we were a bit disappointed to find that they didn't have a/c. (I guess none of the jungle lodges in the area do.) I guess it wouldn't have made much sense anyway, as our rooms were located in thatched cottages which were not airtight.

The couple who ran the place, Chris and Jen, showed us around; there were only about ten cottages, plus a main lounge/dining area, but the property itself was gigantic, with acres of fruit trees. They were also very serious about sustainability; we were given instructions on water and electricity usage, as the lodge generated most of its own power and used mostly purified rain water.

As it was still quite hot out, I chose to read in the hammock area, but several in our group decided to go fruit picking, and came back with a substantial haul of mangoes, oranges, and even some coconuts.


Afterwards, they went swimming to rinse off. The lodge is located on the banks of the Macal River, so it was only a short walk, and we discovered there were canoes available as well.


There were several resident dogs at the Table Rock, and they had a great time swimming with us as well.

Our first night's dinner at the Table Rock was amazing. Chris was the chef, and he served up a papaya salad, followed by delicious pork chops. Dessert had to be ordered separately, but after tasting the entrees we decided we had to try them. I liked the coconut flan very much, but I hear the cheesecake was good too.

After dinner we sat around playing board games for awhile, but we went to bed pretty early since we had to be up early the next morning.

The next day we had a tour booked with Pacz Tours to go to the famous Actun Tunichil Muknal (ATM) cave. It was quite expensive at 100 USD per person (normally 80 USD but with an extra 20 USD surcharge because of our "inconvenient" location), but nearly half the cost was the entrance fee, and they did supply us with lunch, so I guess it wasn't really so bad. It was certainly much more expensive than any of our Guatemala excursions, though.

We were picked up around 7:45am, but drove around San Ignacio for awhile getting our lunch and such. The drive from San Ignacio was over an hour as well, so by the time we got out of the van, it was nearly 10am. We hiked for about 45 minutes, fording the river three times, before we reached the entrance. There, we stopped and ate some of our lunch food as a quick snack before proceeding.

We were all wearing mostly swim gear, but we were instructed to fold our T-shirts up and put them into our helmets, so they wouldn't get wet. We were also given headlamps, and then we jumped into water about neck deep (or maybe chest deep for the taller people) in order to get inside. From there it was about an hour and a half of walking/wading/swimming through the cave, to reach the dry area with most of the Mayan artifacts. There were several areas where it was a pretty tight squeeze; at one point we even had to turn our heads sideways so that our necks would fit between the rocks on the two sides! I'm really not sure how a large person would be able to make it.

Once we got to the dry area, we were instructed to take off our shoes and put on our socks. We were then led through several areas where there were ancient Mayan artifacts just lying all over the floor. Orange lines were drawn on the floor to keep us from stepping on them, but otherwise there were no other barriers.


There were some places where we had to climb up rocks and ladders which were quite tricky and even a little scary for those who were afraid of heights, but we made it through with no mishaps.

Near the end, our guide pointed out some skulls which were the remains of human sacrifices, and finally the famous "crystal maiden", a young girl whose skeleton was almost entirely intact.


It was all a bit eerie but very cool. After taking lots of pictures, we turned around and headed back. For some reason, everything went much faster on the way back, and we exited the cave a little bit after 1pm. We were all pretty hungry so lunch disappeared quickly, and then we did the short hike back to the van.

When we got back to San Ignacio, we stopped at the main Pacz office to pay our tour fees. The guide seemed a bit surprised at the amount (he seemed to think it was low) but the guy in the main office verified our arrangement and rang us up. Next door, there was a homemade ice cream place, so we got some dessert for the bumpy ride home.

Overall I would say we all enjoyed the cave tour very much, but I'm not sure if that was because of our guide or in spite of him. He seemed to like the sound of his own voice a lot, and was very repetitive, but in the end I guess he got us where we wanted to go.

That afternoon we did a bit more exploration on the Table Rock property, and discovered a neighboring lychee farm! The lychees were delicious; just as good as in Taiwan.


For dinner, Chris served us another fabulous meal. The starter was a chilled melon and cilantro soup, and then we had roast chicken as the entree. The chicken was good but not as amazing as the previous day's pork chops. For dessert we had peanut butter pie (yum!). After dinner, Chris and Jen let us play games in the dining room until we were tired.

The next day, we had a nice leisurely breakfast; Chris made pancakes and french toast, and there were lots of fresh fruits as well.

We weren't scheduled to be picked up until 1pm, so we spent the rest of the morning canoeing and mountain biking (yes, the lodge even had bikes), before returning to our rooms to shower, change, and pack. Once we were ready to go, we returned to the dining area for lunch, where we had giant chicken and cheese quesadillas. They were much too large to finish (I think I ate 1/3 of mine) so we took quite a bit to go.

Our driver, William Hofman, arrived promptly at 1pm. He was quite a character; during the entire drive from San Ignacio to Belize City, he regaled us with stories about his own life, Belizean life, and more. I was napping on and off, but here are a few choice tidbits that I do remember:
- The police in Belize are armed, but their guns are old and crappy, and the Mafia has much better guns.
- The women in Belize are mostly out to find men that will give them money. As a result, they'll sleep with anyone and everyone.
- There are TV stations in Belize where movies are shown a day after US release. It's unclear how legal they are, but the police don't care.
He also had an unhealthy obsession with the Fast and the Furious series, so we got to hear a lot about how many times he'd already watched Fast Five.

We'd planned to take the 4pm water taxi, but we arrived early, just as the 3pm was about to leave, so with some mad scrambling we were able to get on the earlier boat. The ride itself was pretty uncomfortable; hot and crowded, but only 10 USD per person for an hour-long ride. After we disembarked, it was only a few blocks walk to our hotel, the Caye Caulker Plaza Hotel. Despite the name, it was relatively simple, but had awesome a/c, which was pretty much all I cared about at that point.

Tikal, Guatemala

The next morning we woke up in time to explore the property a bit. Casa de Don David is located next to a lake near El Remate, 15 minutes outside of Tikal itself. There are some cute fruit trees and all the rooms are well air-conditioned, which turned out to be really important, as it was much much hotter in El Peten than in Antigua.

After a hot breakfast, we were picked up by our driver and our guide for the day, Samuel. We made a quick stop to buy our entrance tickets (about 20 USD per person) and then we were on our way.

We started out over by Complex Q (and the matching Complex R). Pretty much every place we stopped, Samuel asked us if we wanted to climb up to take a look, and we said yes. At the top of the Complex Q pyramid, we had our first glimpse of some howler monkeys, but they were too far away to get any good photos.


We wondered why Complex R and Complex Q were so similar, and Samuel told us that each set of twin pyramids was built at 20 year intervals to mark the end of a "k'atun", a unit of time in the Mayan calendar. These particular pyramids were built in the late 6th century.

At first we were really psyched to see these coati running around, but we soon realized they were really common.


From there we hiked up towards Temple IV, the highest point in Tikal. This is the view from the top of Temple IV, with Temples I, II, III, and V visible in the distance:


There were some people working on replicating of the original carved lintels that had been inside of the temples, and Samuel persuaded them to let me (and my camera) take a peek:


It was a hot day and we were a bit tired from all the climbing already so we stopped at some picnic benches after descending from Temple IV for a snack and some cold drinks (amazingly there was a guy there selling drinks, and even more amazingly, they were not a total ripoff).

Afterwards we looped by Complex N and saw some of the giant underground caves that the Mayans had used to store food and water, and then went to climb "El Mundo Perdido", aka the Lost World. Samuel explained to us that it was the oldest part of Tikal, and had been built in the 4th century.

Nearby he showed us a series of seven temples which were built for astronomical observation purposes; when viewed from a nearby platform, the first would line up with the sun at the winter solstice, the middle one at the spring and fall equinoxes, and the last at the summer solstice.

Next we attempted our highest climb yet; Temple V.


The climb was not so bad despite the wooden stairs being a little rickety, but it was a little scary to look down from the top.


After catching our breaths again at the bottom, we headed for the famous Great Plaza. On the way we spotted some spider monkeys at close range:



The Great Plaza and its temples (I & II) are probably the best known structures at Tikal. Samuel told us we could climb up Temple II, so we went up and were able get some nice shots of Temple I.


That was pretty much the end of the guided part of our tour; from there he set us loose in the North Acropolis and we wandered around exploring by ourselves for an hour or so. It was amazing that there weren't more tourists; I think the whole day we ran across maybe ten small groups of other people. We guessed that the rest had been scared away by the reports of gang violence on the Mexican border, and enjoyed the peace and quiet immensely.

On the way out we spotted some toucans; one living inside a tree trunk, and this one just hanging out on a branch:


We got back to our lodge in mid-afternoon, and were eager to shower, change, and just lounge around in our hammocks for the rest of the day while we waited for the heat to subside. For dinner we had beef shortribs and some delicious fresh juices (mango and watermelon), and of course eventually we ended up playing some Settlers.

We'd had a good time with Samuel the previous day, so we asked him to take us to another site the next day called Yaxha. It's most famous for being the site of Survivor Guatemala, but also has several impressive ruins and borders a lake.

This is one of the temple pyramids at Yaxha:


I think we were all a bit tired from the previous day's excursion, and certainly Yaxha is not as impressive as Tikal, so we mostly just wandered around, occasionally climbing some ruins and spotting monkeys and other wildlife.

There was a large ballcourt near the entrance, which prompted Samuel to explain the Mayan ball game to us. The players were not allowed to touch the ball with their hands or feet, but were expected to put the ball through stone rings to score points. The games were sometimes played as part of rituals and could even involve human sacrifice (we were unclear if it was the winners or the losers who would be sacrificed).

After leaving Yaxha, we proceeded on to the Belizean border. We had arranged for Samuel and our driver to take us all the way to our lodge near San Ignacio, so they coached us through the border crossing. First, we had to pay an entrance tax to Belize. Then, we got our passports and unloaded all our luggage from the van. We crossed the border on foot with our luggage, so they could inspect it if they liked (they didn't bother), and then we reloaded the van on the other side. Samuel cautioned us not to speak to him in English while we were crossing; I wasn't clear on the rationale but it seemed there was some hostility between the English-speaking Belizeans and the Spanish-speaking Guatemalans.

The border crossing took a good half hour, and it was really hot, but otherwise everything went smoothly. There were tons of guys trying to help us exchange money on both side of the border, but they were pretty good at going away once we refused.

It was less than twenty minutes from the border to the town of San Ignacio. We stopped there briefly to get some Belizean dollars from an ATM (roughly 2:1 vs the USD). We had booked two nights at the Table Rock Jungle Lodge, and distance-wise it was only about three miles from San Ignacio, but unfortunately it was down a really nasty dirt road. I think it took us another 20-30 minutes of very bumpy driving to get there, so we were quite exhausted when we finally arrived.

Antigua, Guatemala

In late May, D and I went on a trip with a bunch of college friends to Central America. I've been delinquent about posting trip notes, so I've probably forgotten some stuff, but I'm going to try to remember as much as I can.

The eight of us set out from SFO on Thursday night. We transferred through San Salvador early the next morning (the airport was nicer than I expected) and then arrived in Guatemala City around 9:30am. It took a few minutes for us to get oriented, find an ATM, and find a shuttle driver, but eventually we were on our way to Antigua via shuttle bus. The fixed price was quite reasonable; 10 USD per person for an hour-long drive.

The Guatemalan quetzal seems to be pegged to the US dollar in the high 7s, but a lot of locals would use 8 to do calculations, so it turned out not to be a bad thing to have brought some US cash.

We arrived in Antigua before noon and checked into our hotel, the Posada de Don Rodrigo. It was located centrally and was quite nice, with a couple of courtyards, traditional decor, helpful staff, and even some free internet terminals (and very weak free wi-fi).

After we got settled in we headed out for lunch. We decided on Fondo del Calle Real, which was recommended by several tourbooks as having good traditional Guatemalan food. I ordered a combo plate which came with a pupusa, chili relleno, fresh cheese, beans, plaintains, rice, and salad. It was pretty good; I especially liked the plaintains and the pupusa. Others ordered various meat stews which they did not like as much. So much for tour books.

For dessert we picked up some chocolate bread from Dona Luisa Xicotencatl bakery, and then hung out munching on it in the Parque Central; a cute square bordered by a cathedral and lots of shops, with some benches and fountains.

Later we visited the Cathedral de Santiago, a ruined church from the 1770s. It was rather peaceful walking around inside the high walls with no ceilings.


For dinner, we ate at our hotel, which was pretty pricey by Guatemalan standards, but the food was better than at lunch.

The next day we were up bright and early for our Lake Atitlan tour. We were picked up by our driver and driven several hours to one of the villages bordering the lake, where we met our tour guide, Lee Beal.

Lee and his wife Elaine fed us some delicious tropical fruits (the mangoes were especially tasty) and then hooked us up with some kayaks so we could explore the lake.



We kayaked for about an hour, and then got cleaned up and proceeded onward by boat. We stopped in the village of Santiago first for some lunch (delicious fried chicken plates for about 5 USD) and then to hunt down the current home of Maximon, a local Mayan god. Maximon is a very interesting kind of god; his worshippers offer him cigarettes, alcohol, and money, in addition to prayers, and his effigy appears to smoke continuously. I didn't take a photo because it would have cost us 10 quetzels, but I did find this photo online:


We got back on the boat in order to get to a smaller, more peaceful village named San Juan. There we visited a women's weaving cooperative where we were given a weaving demonstration.


The quality of the material and the work were quite good, so many of us bought souvenirs to take home. I myself bought a large shawl which was dyed in bright blues, greens, and purples.

From there it was another short boat ride and then a 30-45 hike back to Lee's place, where we were picked up by our van driver and taken back to Antigua.

For dinner we decided against trying to find more Guatemalan food; instead we ate at a panini place called Tartine's. We had a much better experience there than at either of the restaurants we'd eaten at the previous day; there was a nice roof deck and the food was tasty. Some of the neighboring tables seemed to be annoyed that we were talking and laughing, and kept looking at us oddly (they were all couples), but the staff were perfectly nice so we didn't let that ruin our evening.

For dessert, we returned to Fondo del Calle Real to try "traditional Guatemalan desserts". We ordered four of five of them, and they were all terrible. Sigh.

On our last day in Antigua, we had a late afternoon flight to Flores, so we decided to fit in a Pacaya volcano hike in the morning. Unfortunately the volcano had just erupted the previous year and no actual lava flow had been visible since then, but it was a good workout and we certainly saw a lot of ash and could feel the pockets of hot air near the top of the volcano.

On the way down we ran into this cow, which was very much not amused by us. Our guide Jose finally chased it away with a stick so we could proceed.


As we were walking down, I noticed that an older Asian man was wearing a baseball cap with a Taiwan flag on it, so I asked him in Chinese if he was from Taiwan. He said he was but had been living in Guatemala for over 20 years. We had a nice chat (later he discovered D and I spoke Taiwanese and he was even more excited) and at the bottom he ran to his car to get us some pineapple cakes. I was quite amused.

We got back to Antigua in plenty of time to shower, pack, and check out, and even had time to grab a proper lunch before heading to the airport. Again we went with the non-local food; we had some sandwiches and pasta at Dona Luisa Xicotencatl, the place we'd been buying bread from, as it was just down the street from our hotel.

After checking in for our short flight, we sat around playing games for awhile, and then headed to our gate. There we were informed that our flight would be delayed 1.5 hours, but we were immediately given vouchers for free meals, which turned out to include our choice of sandwich, drink, and dessert. I was quite impressed with TACA's handling of the situation, actually.

Nevertheless, when we finally arrived in Flores, we were quite exhausted, so we were happy to see the shuttle driver from Casa de Don David (our lodge in El Remate) was still there waiting for us. Upon arrival David immediately showed us to our rooms and told us we could figure out registration at breakfast. Nice.

chloroquine monday

I got back on Saturday night (Sunday morning, really) from a week-long trip to Guatemala and Belize with friends. The eight of us spent two nights in Antigua, two in El Remate (near Tikal), two in San Ignacio, and two in Caye Caulker. After that, four of us left so we could attend a wedding on Sunday, and the remaining four stayed for two days of diving. Details to follow, before I forget everything...

Anyway, we were advised to take precautions against malaria, so we all started on a chloroquine regimen about a week before the trip. The pills are supposed to be taken weekly, on the same day each week, for a week before and four weeks after exposure. I took the first dose on a Monday, and I didn't feel any severe side effects (a little headache maybe), but one of my friends experienced some dizziness. "Chloroquine Monday", as we've been calling it, hit again on the day we spent hiking all over Tikal. Most of us were okay but the same friend had really bad nausea and fatigue all day. I just took the third dose last night, and again it wasn't too bad, but nevertheless I will be quite glad when we're all done.