SwiftRambles

Belize At-A-Glance

Days spent: 8

Transportation taken:  Planes= 0, Buses = 4, Taxis = 1, Boats = 5 (6 if you count Tom's fishing trip)

Number of places we stayed: 2

Final daily budget: $135 (way surpassing our goal of $100 a day... the wrong way)

Wildlife spotted: lobsters, eagle rays, sting rays, nurse shark, big crabs,  live conch, octopus, barracuda, scorpion fish, and many other types of fish

Beers tried:

- Bitters (not a beer but a homemade brew good for your "back")

- Lighthouse Lager

- Belikin (light and dark)

- Guinness (Guinness brews a special brew in Belize)

Tours taken:

- Snorkeling on the patch reef near Tobacco Caye

- Glover's Reef Snorkeling

Most Touristy Activity:The whole time we spent in Plancencia

Least Touristy Activity: Getting to know the locals on Tobacco Caye

Amber's favorite memory:Night snorkeling near Tobacco Caye

Tom's favorite memory: Catching 2 large Barracuda on a fishing trip and then having them that night for dinner... it was tasty!

Items lost:

- Amber's nice Maui Jim sunglasses (well, she got them at Costco, but still...)

- Tom's sock liners (he wore them with his snorkel fins to keep from getting blisters, which didn't work but was an awesome look!)

- Amber and Tom

The Ultimate Hippie Pants

One thing that has at turns amused us and horrified us is how some of the other travelers we run across dress.  I know that I am a fairly conservative and preppy dresser, but you'd think from my years of living in San Francisco, I'd be used to just about everything.  However, one thing that we keep seeing are what I've termed The Ultimate Hippie Pants (TUHP).  I hope it's not some hip European trend that will make it's way across to the U.S. because quite frankly, that thought scares me.

To describe them, The Ultimate Hippie Pants are something a love child of MC Hammer and Jeannie (from "I dream of Jeannie") would wear... perhaps after some bong hits.  Both men and women are sporting this look, but the majority seems to be females of a certain... granola persuasion.

Here's a couple of pictures:

Sorry the pictures aren't the best; you have to be sneaky to catch a TUHP wearer in their natural habitat.  And if you are guilty for sporting this look, shame on you.  No seriously, I mean no offense, and I realize travel is all about opening up your horizons. I just didn't realize that also included opening up your inseams. Maybe it's my old age, but I don't get it and I am not sure the native Costa Ricans, Guatemalans, or Belizeans do either.  Hopefully they don't think we all dress like this!  But of course, to each his own... they do look quite comfortable.

- Amber

Peaceful Times in Placencia - Placencia, Belize

After having a great and relaxing time in Tobacco Caye, we headed to Placencia to, well... relax a bit more.  Placencia was recommended to us for having a nice beach and a laid back feel.  Although it was fairly touristy and the weather wasn't the best while we were there, we did manage to get in some nice beach time. And I have discovered sometimes the touristy places are more relaxing as they have good restaurants and infrastructure for tourists although they do feel less than authentic. Regardless, after no internet connection on Tobacco Caye, the best part was that we had wifi access on the beach! 

Doing the best surfing he knows how (on the internet). Although he is probably really playing Hearts, Tom's latest addiction:



The beach:

Belize it or not - Tobacco Caye, Belize

This story begins with a German named Marcos, a fellow student in our Spanish school in Antigua who is a photographer on a cruise ship (what an awesome job!). He had mentioned a great place in the southern area of Belize called Tobacco Caye where you can stay and eat 3 good meals a day for $30 US per person. I quickly ran to get a sheet of paper for Marcos to write down the details.

Several weeks later, after spending time in the cool highlands of Guatemala followed by the buggy jungles of El Peten, I was anxiously wishing for some serious beach time. However, we were concerned as Belize is the most expensive country in Central America (but the cheapest one in the Caribbean as I was quick to remind Tom!). We initially went back and forth on whether or not to go, but after some pleading begging nagging discussion, Tom agreed to risk getting a few more freckles and so off we went.

Crossing the border from Guatemala to Belize, we experienced our first bout of culture shock reading the English signs, being able to converse easily with the locals, and the straight 2 for 1 exchange rate with the US dollar. Traveling seemed easy again and after boarding the bus to Dangriga, so civilized after the chicken buses of Guatemala. I sampled some Creole bread being offered by little boy walking up and down the bus aisle, made friends with a couple from Oregon (is anyone even in Oregon right now?! They are all traveling it seems!), and soon we arrived in the Garifuna town of Dangriga.

Our goal was to head to Riverside Cafe to arrange a boat to Tobacco Caye. As we walked, a man with dreadlocks pulled up next to us and informed us his name was Doggie and he was a boat capt'n and he'd take us to Tobacco Caye shortly. So off with Doggie we went. When I told Doggie my name, he laughed and informed me that on Tobacco Caye, they have a saying "Every white girl is named Amber and every white boy is named Bob". The locals really got a kick out of my name actually being Amber during the next few days. And poor Tom got called Bob on more than one occasion.

Soon Tobacco Caye came into view. About the same size of a football field, Tobacco Caye is a tiny island with only about 3 or 4 "resorts" on it. The main draw is that the island is located right on the reef in Belize (the biggest reef outside the Great Barrier Reef) and it's paradise for snorkeling and scuba diving. We headed to Lana's, which is run by a 81-year old Jehovah's Witness known for making the best food on the island. Although the accommodations weren't the best, the food more than made up for it and we experienced 3 wonderful meals a day, with our first being conch soup followed by other fresh seafood. Not to mention the fry jacks for breakfast every day.

Our first view of the island (unfortunately a bit of a cloudy day):

Guatemala At-A-Glance

Days spent: 27

Transportation taken: Planes = 2, Chicken Buses = 8, Shuttles = 9, Taxis = 4, Boats = 4

Number of places we stayed= 9 (8 hostels plus 1 homestay)

Final daily budget: $71

Wildlife spotted:

- Spider monkeys

- Not much other wildlife in Guatemala but we did spot many, many ugly stray dogs and farm animals

Beers tried:

- Gallo (Amber's favorite)

- Moza

- Homemade IPA at "Pool and Pizza" (Tied for Tom's favorite, see below)

- Brava and Brava Extra

- Cabro (Tied for Tom's favorite bc it was sold at the bodega close to Maria's house and was roughly $2 for a liter, quantity/proximity over quality)

- 2 homemade drinks from a town outside of Xela called "Soupa de Frutas" (Fruit Soup) and Rompopo

Tours taken:

- San Antonio Indigenous village, outside of Antigua

- Pacaya volcano (no lava!), outside of Antigua

- San Pedro volcano, Lake Aitilan

- Indigenous villages/hot springs tour outside of Xela

- Tajumulco volcano (Tom only)

- Semuc Champey and Lanquin caves

Most Touristy Activity:Taking the shuttle bus to Chichicastenago, an outdoor market that only sold touristy items

Least Touristy Activity: Staying in the port town of Puerto Barrios after crossing back into Guatemala from Belize.  It was not at all touristy but also not a very fun place to stay! 

Amber's favorite memory:Traipsing through the caves of Semuc Champey in candlelight

Tom's favorite memory:  Seeing the sunrise from the top of Volcan Tajumulco, the highest peak in Central America

Items lost: 

- Replacement sunglasses (for the ones I lost in Belize)

- REI bag that packed up really small (this was sort of my purse so this is very sad for me!)

- earrings

 Here´s a link to the photos we took in Guatemala, many which have been featured on this blog.

California Tom and the Temples of Tikal - Flores, Guatemala

With my leather jacket, brown hat, and whip in hand, I walked through the jungle searching for a lost civilization with my trusty sidekick (Amber). Trekking through the trees, and hearing a chorus of monkey, birds, and large bugs we made our way deeper. Thousands of years ago a large civilization prospered and we were destined to find the ruins. We tread carefully so that we did not trip any booby traps. We came to a break in the jungle and there looming before us was a large stone Mayan temple partially hidden with years of vegetation...(feed in "In the Wild Blue Yonder" soundtrack).

Avoiding the scary jungle beasts...



Not my boot:



California Tom in the jungle:

Water Under Rocks - Lanquin, Guatemala

After settling in at our new hostel and taking a sauna following a quick plunge into the cold river, we decided to go on a tour of a bat cave that night. Our guide didn't speak much English, and of course our Spanish is horrible, but we were able to go off the trail in the cave to see some cool caverns and rock formations that looked like animals or people. He even showed us where we could swim in the underground river if we so desired (we didn't). The highlight was at dusk when we sat by the cave entrance while thousands of bats flew by our heads and out of the cave to fetch dinner. No bats ran into us, but you could feel them coming awfully close.

Us outside the cave:



Tom being attacked by a lion:



BATS!

A long way to Semuc Champey - Lanquin, Guatemala

Note: We are very behind in blog posts (about 3 countries!) and we're trying to catch up... We are in Patagonia, Chile now and are not feeling any of the earthquakes as we are so far down south.  We are safe and are planning some hiking/camping trips over the next month or so.  Sorry the following post is so long, as the quote goes, we don't have time to make it shorter :)

After waiting out our week in Xela, following Tom's hike, we headed north to the remote region of El Peten. Our goal was to visit the the lowlands and in particular Semuc Champey - a cave / river system that is strikingly beautiful. Although we knew it would take a long time to get there, the journey was more difficult than anticipated.

After getting up early for our 7:00am shuttle, we were still waiting by our hostel come 7:30. Tom was getting understandably anxious. Luckily an owner of one of the travel agencies strolling by noticed we were waiting and we figured out together that they did not have our reservation in the "system" (or lack thereof). It was interesting getting his perspective about running a travel agency in Guatemala and some of the labor issues he's experienced. He fixed our problem and 5 minutes later a shuttle arrived to pick us up. So we left Xela at 7:30am thinking happily we were on our way! However, multiple transfers and side trips later, not to mention a 2 hour "layover" in Antigua, caused us to arrive at our final destination at 11:00 at night.

We befriended an English couple on the shuttle bus and we decided to continue our journey on the shuttle with them to Lanquin instead of stopping in Coban (which is what we paid for). After many twisty turns, a stop to cover our backpacks on the roof from the rain, a long gravel road, and some really bad Spanish music blasting on the radio, we arrived late in Lanquin and our first choice for accommodations was full for the night. However, we were in for itluck! Our entrepreneurial shuttle bus drivers knew exactly where to take us: Jam Bamboo. The sales pitch for our accommodation began in Coban which we didn't realize. Someone mentioned staying at some random place and Tom said yeah maybe just to get the person to leave him alone. Then he noticed the same gentleman riding along in our shuttle bus. We could foresee that we would likely have to go where our drivers took us and that they were going to get a kickback for taking us there, but we were powerless to stop the well-oiled machine. So another 20 minutes down a gravel road, we ended up at Jam Bamboo, but lo and behold, it was full also.

Volcan Tajumulco - Xela, Guatemala

As I mentioned before, one of my goals for Guatemala was to climb Volcan Tajumulco, the highest point in Guatemala.  After biding our time in Xela for the week, the morning of the volcano trek finally came.  Unfortunately Amber was still under the weather and not up for a major expedition, so I again went off on my own, meeting new travelers.*

I hiked the volcano with Quetzal Trekkers, which helps supports a local boys home and a school. The hike was not very long distance-wise, but we went up from 11,000 feet to just under 14,000 feet to the top. We got to the campsite near the top and it started raining. I borrowed some equipment from the tour operator, but my legs were still cold. The inside of the tent got soaking wet and we somehow fit 8 people into one tent. I didn't mind the conditions, but with the rain, cold, and cramped conditions, I was thinking that Amber made the right choice to stay home.  We went to bed around 8pm and woke up at 4am to hike to the top and see the sunrise. The view was breathtaking as you can see a range of volcanoes silhouetted by the sun. The volcanoes were all ones that we had seen in Antigua and Lake Atitlan and now they looked puny in the distance.

Volcanoes in the distance (from left to right: Agua, Acetenango, Fuego, Atitlan, San Pedro, and Santamaria):

Waiting for the sun to come up:

Big Market Day - Chichicastenango, Guatemala

One of Amber's Guatemalan goals was to check out the large outdoor market in Chichicastenango (ChiChi for short.  So from Xela, we traveled a couple of hours for a day trip to ChiChi. We went on Thursday which is one of the main market days and we actually were underwhelmed by the market. It seemed to mainly have touristy items for sale and didn't seem as big as we were expecting. We had already been to a large market in Antigua which seemed more "local".

I did leverage some of the skills I learned from my "Negotiations" class from Wharton to haggle for some items including a $2.50 watch, a $2.50 ornament (since we collect them from our travels), and $2.50 knit gloves for my volcano hike. Everything seemed to cost about the same thing, which was good for our travel budget.  However, that was before Amber came across the most beautiful scarf in the world and decided that was what I needed to really practice negotiating on. Unfortunately, the seller asked for about $60 for it and I was still thinking $2.50 should be the going rate.