We will be quite surprised but most pleased if any of you are still following our blog, given that recently, it has been as neglected as some of the dogs down here. We are alive, we are having fun, and we are sorry that we´ve been sub-par bloggers.
We´ll pick up where we left off, which was the blog we wrote from San Ignacio, Belize. We´ll do one post on our last week in Belize, and a second on our first week in Guatemala (feel free to go to the bathroom, get some more popcorn, etc., in between). Some of what we´ll talk about will even relate to the photos we posted last time. What a treat.
After a few nights in San Ignacio we headed further west to a little backpacker camp called the Trek Stop. We camped a couple (spider free) nights and used the Stop as a base to see the ruins at Xunantunich.
Xunantunich, our first big ruin, was incredible. We got on the first ferry across the river, and had the entire maya city to ourselves for about an hour. We ran around like Maya lords and took lots of pictures. We also watched a family of howler monkeys doing their monkey business for well over an hour. They are impossibly cute but also impossible to photograph. Unfortunately for Dave and others who enjoy a good howler monkey impression, they were very quiet the whole time. At one point we got a little too close and one of the big males attempted to pee on us (for the squeamish, skip the next sentence). You may not believe it, but this primate´s pee lasted for at least 3 solid minutes. I´m not sure I have ever seen Torrie laugh so hard.
All in all, we spent close to 5 hours in Xunantunich, and really enjoyed the ruins. We also spent quite a lot of time talking to David, a local artisan in the village below the ruins, who is involved in a really neat project to promote indigenous culture through traditional ceramic art. It was a really cool initiative and we hope to find more like it in our travels. He also gave us some great cucumbers from his garden – really the first fresh veggies we´d had in about a month!!
The rest of the time at the Trek Stop we spent swimming, cooking, and reading. Trek Stop even has its own Frisbee golf course (jealous Robby?), so we were sure to play a round of that as well.
Next, we went south to the Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary – known in Belize as “the Jaguar Preserve.” Right off the bat, no, we did not see any Jaguars. We did however get a guide for a night jungle hike, which was an incredible experience. We saw lightning bugs the size of chicken wings, a gibnut (like a weird little gopher), a kingajuu (like a small monkey-cat hybrid) and an ocelot. The whole time the howler monkey calls were absolutely deafening. The next day we hiked all day, and really enjoyed the dense jungle scenery.
After two nights in Cockscomb we headed further south, to steamy Punta Gorda. We got into town and looked into the boat for Guatemala, which didn´t leave until the next day. For anone who stumbles upon this blog and has the lonely planet guide, the boat doesn´t just run on Tuesdays and Fridays. Thankfully for us (we lost track of days and arrived late Friday afternoon instead of Thursday as planned), it runs every day. There´s not a whole lot to do in Punta Gorda, so we wandered around, and enjoyed Belize´s national dish (chicken, rice, and beans from street vendors, for the equivalent of about $2.50) a few last times. The highlight was a visit to a small scale chocolate factory. Lisa was in heaven.
The next day we were on the boat to Livingston, Guatemala, to begin our second country. We really enjoyed Belize, and would recommend it to anyone. The knock on Belize is that it´s quite expensive, which can be true. If you´re into luxury you can find what you´re looking for in Belize. But if you´re willing and able to spend some nights in a tent (we camped over 2/3rds of our nights in Belize) and hunt around for the cheapest (and best) dinner in town, Belize can be done on anyone´s budget. For cultural diversity, world class snorkeling, gorgeous jungle highways, and lots of fun in between, head to Belize.
Lisa and Tor
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