Day 195 - Travelling From San Ignacio, Belize -To Flores, Guatemala & The Tikal Ruins

Today we awoke to an too familiar rum punch hangover, thank god were leaving Belize & the rum punch behind today.  An early start after a big night never helps & we were in the van by 6.30am.
The drive to the border was very easy & only 20 minutes away. We paid an exit tax & waved goodbye to Belize.
The entry requirements for Guatemala were easy & we didn't even go in the building. Suzie took all our passports & had them stamped for us, while we loaded all our big bags onto the roof of a small van & found seats.

Guatemala gained its independence from the Spanish in 1821, which is the same year that El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras & Costa Rica also gained their independence. It has a population of 16.9 million people and is known for its scenic natural wonders such as the forrest's, lakes & volcanoes, as well as it's archaeological sights. Because of these things Tourism is Guatemala's second biggest industry, employing 35% of its citizens. The common language is Spanish, however there is 21 different Mayan dialects spoken in Guatemala as well. It is a big exporter of chocolate & coffee, with coffee being the biggest industry & surprisingly is the worlds leading producer of Jade. Unfortunately there is a dark side to Guatemala with it having one of the highest violent crime rates in Latin America, mostly due to the uneven distribution of wealth & development in the country. In 2016 alone, there was an average of 101 murders per week. Which is a crazy high number!! Admittedly, we did notice the lack of wealth & development in some areas, however, everyone we met in Guatemala was very nice.

After entering Guatemala we went to the Tikal ruins, an ancient Mayan ruins that only just missed out on the people's vote for the title of world wonder, a title that Chichen Itza holds. Our guide blames this fact on the high number of the Mexican population that voted as opposed to the smaller population in Guatemala. This makes me feel mildly better about missing Chichen Itza, Our guide definitely thinks Tikal is just as special, if not more special than Chichen Itza.

Our excitement to be exploring a new Mayan ruins was short lived. It was in the car park here that Tom couldn't find the battery for the DSLR camera & realised he also had this plugged in to the wall socket behind the microwave at Playa del Carmen. Another piece of technology lost & another inconvenience. We are now relying on our phones for all the photos & are having to borrow the wall adaptor & cords to charge our phones. At this point, I honestly wanted to cry. We have no Go-pro, or DSLR camera & our phones are constantly dead & we are unable to charge them conveniently. Once again, Barbie saves the day & the blog posts, by sharing all her pictures. She let me use her Go-pro to take photos & video's at Tikal, while she used her phone.

The Tikal ruins are really something special & we are glad we saw them, especially cause we missed Chichen Itza. We had to walk 20 minutes through jungle & on our arrival in the main archaeology area, we received a refreshing sun shower. The jungle is really dense here & full of life. We can hear lots of birds & howler monkeys, we can see lots of insects & frogs. Some of the tour group catches a glimpse of a fox, running past.

Tikal is was of the biggest Meso American cities in the classic Mayan period, with a lot of it still un-escavated and an estimated area of 575 square kilometres. This is a huge ruin site & is considered by archaeologists to be a Mayan super power city & the capital. The ruins contain evidence of a sports stadium, school, hospital, library & even some books were uncovered here. Another incredible thing about this Archaeological site is the grand & very tall Temples & pyramids that they built to worship the god's. The top's of these structures can be seen sticking out from over the top of the jungle canopy.

The site has an Indiana Jones type of vibe about it & we spent quite a few hours walking around, admiring the stone tablets & smaller structures as well as climbing up 1 pyramid & 1 temple to look out over the jungle canopy. As is the case with other Mayan cities from the classic Mayan period, nobody quite knows why it was abandoned. The typical Mayan collapse theory which includes problems surrounding deforestation & drought, is thought to be a factor here.

After we have finished with Tikal, we hop back into the Van & continue through Guatemala.

The drive to the island of Flores in Guatemala was only approximately 3 hours & only mildly uncomfortable. On our arrival it starts absolutely bucketing down & we wait in the van for 15 minutes before unloading our bags & walking to the hostel.

Thankfully the island of Flores is now connected to the main land by bridge.
It has a very colourful history about the initial resistance to the Spanish invaders & the Christian movement. Unfortunately the Guatemala people who were also Mayan descendants in this area, eventually had to relinquish their old ways & convert to Christianity or they would be slaughtered.
Flores is a town that we immediately wish we had more time to enjoy! Sadly there's only 1 night here.

Tom & I set off exploring the town & hunt down a 3 storey cafe with a bohemian vibe, live music & cheap vegetarian food. We order stuffed peppers & mushrooms with goat cheese, salad & a balsamic vinegar dressing, which was amazing!

After this we walk along the lake, getting startled by the locals letting off fireworks in celebration of something. As was the case in Mexico, there's always some sort of celebration in Guatemala. The island town is very small & before long we are heading back to the hostel to shower & nap before going out for a group dinner to celebrate B's birthday.

It was a pretty tame event for both Tom & I, a few people still had some stamina after the previous night & ventured out after dinner. Not us!
We only have 1 night here & it was spent in bed.

- Alli

Day 194 - Cave Exploring & Tubing

Today we were all off to go cave exploring & tubing through the connecting river system. 

Something that the region is famous for. 

By 9am we were all on board the bus & driving the 1 hour journey to the national park where the caves are located. 

Once there we put on our newly bought wet activity shoes, swimmers & were fitted with life jackets, helmets & a tube. 

Before we could get into the water we had a 45 minute hike through the surrounding rain forrest & caves to the river, where we launch our tubes. 

The walk was a bit awkward carrying the tubes, but it was really picturesque with gorgeous deep green plants & trees. The caves we walked through were also very visually pleasing with a white colour & in some areas they seem to glimmer. 

We woke up a few tiny little bats that flapped away & into a deeper & darker sleeping nook, scaring some of the girls. 

Finally, it was time to put our tubes in the water & start floating down the river & through the caves. We floated for nearly 3 hours, with a stop in the middle of one of the bigger caves, where we could get out & walk to another swimming hole. 

Sadly, we don't know as much about caves as we would like to. They are such fascinating, natural & unique structures. Doing more cave explorations is definitely something that will be in our future. 

The only bad thing about today is that right at the end when we were getting out of the tubes, Tom dropped the go pro, which got swept up in a current & washed away down river. 

It had a few days worth of footage, yet to be put on the laptop, as well as all the footage from today. 

Obviously it's just a material item, but not having it will be a disadvantage & loosing the footage is a real shame. Thankfully I copied over the snorkelling footage from Caye Caulker & the manatee ! Insurance should cover it & we will hopefully be able to replace it in Thailand. Because of this reason, a lot of the photos that have been used in the blogs, were donated to us by some of the amazing people on the tour. A special shout out needs to go out to Barbie who could always be trusted to have a go pro in her hand & has been so gracious about sharing her footage. 

In true Belizean style, after the tubing we had a really nice lunch, which was followed by rum punch! 

The bus ride back home was full of laughter, singing, drinking & a disco light which carried put us in the mood to continue on into the night as we celebrated our last night in Belize. 

- Alli

Day 193 - Travelling from Caye Caulker to San Ignacio

Sadly today we leave the island of caye Caulker, nursing 9/10 hangovers.
By 7.30am we were all standing on the jetty terminal waiting for the signal to board the ferry back to Belize city.
Tom & I sat at the rear of the boat & looked back mournfully, at the waves that came off the motor & the disappearing island.
Caye Caulker has been really special, definitely a place we would recommend & visit again.

The ferry ride back to the main land was approximately 1 hour & very uneventful, thankfully! Following this we caught taxis back to the bus terminal. Before we left the ferry terminal, Tom made a singlet purchase & is now rocking some Belize merchandise. It feels like with each country & each washing experience more & more clothes vanish or are ruined. Hopefully this singlet will make it back. 

The local bus ride was as sweaty, interesting & crowded as they come. Tom & I found single separate seats next to local's, which changed frequently over the 4 hour trip with people getting on & off. 

It was a relief to exit the bus at San Ignacio, shoulder our packs & walk the 1 kilometre to the home stay.  Once again Tom & I were in different dorms & in fact different buildings. 

We had a few minutes to put down our bags, allocate bunks & hand in our dirty washing before heading off again. G tours work in collaboration with a foundation called Planeterra who provides a link between tourists & indigenous culture by providing work, support, education & assistance to preserve their traditions. 

We were going to learn about the traditional Mayan pottery techniques, see a demonstration, have a local meal & have the opportunity to buy something.


By giving tourists this experience, the women in the village are provided with jobs & a reason to continue making pottery the traditional way.
It was very interesting & we learnt a lot about the process of finding clay, refining it & the long process of making something.

The meal was also really nice & consisted of a fresh salsa, a type of plant similar to spinach & kale, tortillas, beans & a boiled plant called plantain, which looks & tastes like a starchy banana had a baby with a potato.

The village had a really nice feel to it, with modern dwellings & a big primary school in the middle. There was lots of tropical plants & flowers around & we could either see or hear chickens at any point in time.

Once we arrived back at the town, we were all very tired & in desperate need of naps. We have all booked in to do activities tomorrow with cave's in the area, which promises to be a big day.

The only other note of interest today is that Tom & I went for a walk after 7pm along the main road, looking for a dinner place. From up ahead we could see something on the road, it was a weird shape with awkward movement & for a few seconds was very puzzling. As we got closer it revealed itself to be a giant spider! We're guessing a tarantula.
We've got a 20 second video of it walking on the road & onto the grass. It was very cool to see. I have also had victory against the tour company today & we have had our money refunded from the Chichen Itza tour. We never received an apology & I had to write a very long email, involving lots of photographic proof & threaten them with the Mexican tourism board. But finally, we have our money back.

After an average, but cheap dinner, it was straight to bed! Sleep has never felt better, even from the top bunk, lying on a lumpy mattress.


- Alli

Day 192 - A Treasure Hunt Race In Caye Caulker

Today was a planned free day for most of the group. Suzie, has been so lovely & has organised us an 'amazing race' challenge around the island, which involves a list of things we need to do & find, with photographic proof in a time limit.

At 11am we all met downstairs & split into 3 groups, before we were given the list of challenges & rules. The group's are random, so Tom & I were on opposing teams.
It was great fun, very good for team building & fiercely competitive.
Some of the things we needed to do was find the different signs that said "go slow", a common thing to see in Caye Caulker.

Find certain places like the sea horse conservation, the bakery, police station & animal shelter.
There was a lot of interactions with the locals such as playing basketball, hugs & getting them to quote "this is unbelizeable" with us.






















There was a few embarrassing things like getting the whole group to pile into a boat & sing 'The yellow submarine' while dancing & bonus points for collecting bags of rubbish.
Our team collected a total of 15 bags of rubbish!
Two & a half hours went by so quickly & we only just finished the challenges & got back on time.
The point scoring was very close, unfortunately we got penalised for having 1 extra person on our team. A guy called Rob, who was quite hungover & arrived late, but didn't want to miss out on all the fun. Sadly, our team didn't win... but it was all good fun & a really good way to see the island.

Following this we all put on our bathers & walked back up to the other end of the island near the split. Here we all ate lunch, drank cheap buckets of beer, swam in the ocean, danced our asses off & played volleyball. It was such a great day & only ended with the rapid & aggressive onset of thousands of mosquitos & sand flies appearing. We all raced back to the hostel & straight onto the roof top for more rum punch & to celebrate our last night on the island of Caye Caulker.

- Alli

Day 191 - Snorkelling In The Hol Chan Marine Reserve, Belize

Despite getting enough sleep, we all woke up feeling rough, Some looked much rougher than others.
Pretty much everyone had booked to do the snorkelling trip today which left at 10am.
Before leaving, we all went to Suzie's favourite fast food breakfast option, a pancake type dough concoction made of corn & deep fried. It's known as a fry Jack.
Tom & I got one with beans, egg & cheese, which was delicious but very greasy.
I started to feel a bit queasy after eating this, especially following all the sugary juices consumed last night.

We met our snorkelling guides who all had extreme tan lines, dreadlocks & big smiles. Captain Sherwin, Marvin, Haviar aka half a beer & Shane were their names. They had a jetty out the back of their office, which was a tiny shack & a small wooden boat which took us out to the catamaran we would be sailing on.
It was a really good set up & the weather was perfect. We felt instantly rejuvenated from sitting on the front of the boat with the early morning sun in our faces & wind in our hair, while the big white sail flapped overhead.
The waves were small & the occasional spray of sea salt was welcome.
It was very shallow & we could see lot's of reef & fish in the water as we sailed past.

After about 30 minutes a few of us started to feel nauseous & the first person started to spew off the back of the boat. I was still feeling a bit gross from the greasy fry jack but nothing too bad & the crew were handing out fresh water melon & pineapple.The crew announced an emergency detour & an extra dive spot & we dropped sail & anchor suddenly. The reason for this was a manatee !!!

Another tour boat had called it in & the crew was really nice to take us straight there. It was a big scramble for everyone to get their gear on & get in the water. The water was a really gorgeous temperature & so clear. It was probably only 6 metres deep, with some sections of healthy reef & other's of kelp forest. The manatee was swimming along the bottom grazing on the sea grass, totally relaxed & oblivious to the awe it was inspiring. It was only a small one & was very graceful swimming along below us. Tom got some really nice video footage of it. We are so incredibly lucky to have seen it in the wild. What a gorgeous creature!! We had about 20 minutes in the water with him (?)  before we all got back on the boat.

About 15 minutes after getting back on the boat & setting sail, there was 6 of us feeling very close to spewing & unfortunately I was one of them.

Sitting at the front of the boat, I had about 3 seconds warning before the first vomit came up & just made it to the edge. I vomited 4 times in close concession, in front of all these people we had just met! I was mortally embarrassed, especially when they started cheering.

After being sick I felt considerably better & was excited for the next snorkelling spot. A spot famous for the reef sharks & sting ray's. As soon as we dropped anchor we could see 4 sharks, all over a metre in length, circling around the back of the boat.
We were assured the sharks here are vegetarian's & rely on suction rather than teeth for eating their food.
It's still a tiny bit intimidating when you see one that's really big & swimming towards you.

It was a really nice spot to swim & we saw heaps of beautiful fish & coral. As well as 1 small green turtle, 2 different types of sting ray & about 20 sharks. We had about 40 minutes before going back to the boat.

Once on the boat I started to feel sick again & vomited another 2 times before falling asleep on the net. I continued to feel sick & elected to skip the next dive spot, as did 6 other people. Tom, the lucky bugger, has a much more stoic stomach & wasn't sick enough to vomit. He said it was a good spot & they saw lots of reef & fish, as well as a marine turtle, but no more manatee's or sharks.

After Tom & the others got back to the boat & I had woken up, I felt much better.
We had one more dive spot & I hopped in again, determined to redeem myself & make up for the last dive I missed.
Tom & I spent about 20 minutes here looking at the clumps of coral & fish. We also saw 2 more small sharks, sadly no more Manatee's.

Once back on board the crew had made a fresh salsa with prawn's, which we ate with corn chips. They had also made a really yummy lunch earlier on in the day, which I couldn't eat at lunch time, but ate just before the last dive.
I'm convinced it was the greasy fry jack which made me nauseous, but being on the ocean & hungover was never going to help.

As well as the salsa, we were given cups of rum punch to wash it down with. 1 cup quickly became 10, accompanied with straight shots of rum & before long the captain had us all singing & dancing as we approached the mainland.
Once back at the hostel, we showered & then regrouped on the roof top with our own supplies of rum punch. 

Sadly, Tom & I got an email back from the booking company for the Chichen Itza day trip, saying we weren't eligible for a refund. It was quite rude & dismissive. I'll have to spend some time compiling proof of their multiple discrepancies before I reply to this. It's $151 AUD & I am determined to get it back!

Regardless of the shitty email, It was a very good & very loud night of dancing & singing to music from the 90's.
We're really enjoying the group of people on this tour. Everyone so far has a good personality & seem's really genuine, funny & nice. There's no tension & it's a really good environment for getting to know each other.

- Alli