It rains

Well, the last leg of my trip is turning out to be a bit disappointing. Some sort of tropical storm is in the area, and it poured all day yesterday and looks like it won't let up today. Even Roger the guy with the cheap lobster is closed because he can't barbecue in the rain!

My snorkeling trip today to the reef, the reason I really came to Belize in the first place, got cancelled too. So, for the last day of an amazing trip, I'm feeling a little glum. Fortunately I'm staying at a really cool hostel with some fun people, so at least the day should be somewhat entertaining.

On the plus side, my outing being cancelled frees up the budget a bit, so I can afford to spend an hour on the internet here. At $14 Bz ($7 US) it's insanely pricy. The rest of the places I've been have been less than $1 an hour. The locals pay $3/hour Bz, which kinda irks me. Just because we're travelling doesn't mean we have unlimited budgets!

I have a couple of pictures to post from Finca Ixobel:

Fernando, our guide, and me on our day-long horseback riding trek.


Bernadette (from Austria) and I on the mid-river rocks where we ate our lunch


Finca Ixobel = Summer Camp

Tomorrow I get up early to take the ferry from Caye Caulker to Belize City (about 45 minutes...maybe more if the weather doesn't improve) where I fly out at about noon back to Toronto.

As there always are at the end of a great trip, I'm having mixed feelings. I'm sad for this fantastic journey to be coming to an end. I've met some cool people, seen some interesting things, and as always happens with travelling, learned a lot about myself.

At the same time I'm starting to get a bit excited to be home. I've got some really exciting things on the horizon for when I get home: doing my physiotherapy national exam, graduation, getting a job, some promising business opportunities. So I'm eager to get going on all of those things. And I'm looking forward to seeing Marcel and all my friends, not to mention my Dad and Tammy coming out east in just a few weeks for my convocation. And right now a shower without flip flops and some clean clothes seem mighty appealing!

Thanks everyone for reading along, and for all comments and emails. I've cherished all your words and encouragement, not to mention some good laughs. A special shout-out has to go to my best gal Dani and her mom Gail for commenting on every single post! Love you all, and looking forward to seeing you soon!

Caye Caulker, Belize

Not much time to post today - the internet on this island is outrageously expensive! So sorry, still no pictures, although I do have a bunch to post.

Today I left Finca Ixobel with Bernadette, my Austrian friend. We had an amazing day-long trek on horseback yesterday. It was about 8 hours long through a really remote area, and it was so lovely and peaceful. For lunch we stopped at a mountain river, and ate our lunch on some rocks in the middle of the river before having a swim in the icy cold water. And we had a really nice guide so I had a whole day to practice my Spanish with him. I think it was the most Spanish I've spoken in one day since leaving Spanish school.

I always seem to have such a hard time leaving places I feel so at home, and today was no exception. But both Bernadette and I were eager to get to Caye Caulker in Belize! We took a series of about 5 buses to get to Belize City, and broke my record from the other day for most people crammed into a minibus. Today there were 34 people in a van meant to seat about 15. But it was an adventure! We were rushing to catch the last ferry to the island, and managed to get to the ferry terminal just in time. Although we took the ferry over here from Belize City in dark, so far it seems really beautiful and relaxed. A really Carribean feel with friendly people, sand and palm trees.

Our first choice of accomodation was full when we arrived, so we're staying at an absolute dive of a hotel a few doors down, and then we'll move over to the other place tomorrow. But never fear, we consoled ourselves with an amazing outdoor supper of freshly grilled lobster tails, right beside the ocean at a picnic table. And at $7 each, I think we'll be having lobster every night.

Caye Caulker is famous for it's diving and snorkling on the 2nd largest barrier reef in the world. There are some amazing diving trips that are WAY out of my budget, but the snorkling is also supposed to be out of this world, so we'll look into that tomorrow. Only a few days of my trip left, and I'm torn between just relaxing and trying to cram in as much activity as possible!

Camp Finca Ixobel

Hi everyone. First of all, apologies for no pictures today...the internet here is a satalite connection and it's been stormy here, so it is way too slow to upload the pictures. Hopefully tomorrow.

I'm at a place called Finxa Ixobel, and it is utterly amazing. I feel like I'm at an international summer camp. The dormitory I'm staying at is a wooden bunkhouse with bunkbeds and little shelves for all my things, and is exactly like every camp cabin I've stayed at. The only addition is mosquito nets (bless them) hanging over every bed.

The grounds are gorgeous, and include a horse corral, a pond for swimming, and tons of animals hanging out. The only animals I'm not so thrilled about? The tarantulas.

I woke up yesterday morning and headed to the cabin with the bathrooms, and almost stepped on a giant dead tarantula. Thank god it was dead, because I think I would have had a heart attack if it was alive. One of the American guys who is volunteering here for a month showed me where a bunch of tarantula lairs (ok, little holes in the ground) are, and how to make them come out by sticking a twig down the hole so they bite them and then pulling them out. I won't lie, I wasn't exactly close to him while he was doing this. Needless to say, since seeing those my choice of footwear has changed from flipflops to hiking boots.

The food here is amazing. They have little order sheets where you can write down anything you want, hang it on a little peg, and they'll make it for you asap. Dinners are huge buffets full of delicious organic produce and fresh baking, all from the ranch. And in true summer camp style, we're summoned to dinner by a clanging bell.

The dangerous part of this place is that everything you buy or use you have to write down on your own special page in a big binder, and then is tallied up when you check out: food, internet, laundry, drinks at the pondside bar, daytrips, stamps etc. Could easily get out of control. Especially since they have really cool activities here during the day (I'm telling you, it's camp) like horseback riding trips, hiking, swimming through underground caves, tubing on the river. And one of their best activities- lying in a hammock reading a book (in english!) from their lending library. I read 3 entire books yesterday. For those of you who know me, you know this is like heaven.

Today I went on a nice horsebackriding trip through the surrounding pine forest. There's a really cool Austrian girl here with a similar affinity and experienc with horses, and we might do a repeat trip tomorrow! Jill, my frequently commenting friend who was here a few years ago, has strongly recommended a cave trip, so that is on the list as well.

Lest you think I'm at some kind of wimpy resort (if the tarantulas didn't convince you otherwise), I must tell you that I'm still practicing my Spanish, as many people don't speak much english (except the owner who is american and some of the volunteers) and there are actually more Guatemalan people here than foreigners.

A big group of architecture students from Guatemala city was here over the weekend.
Last night I had the opportunity to sit down and talk with one of the guys who spoke good English and we had an amazing conversation about his views on Guatemala and the world. For an 18-year-old, he was remarkably insightful and articulate. Only 2% of Guatemalans attend university, and many of the students spoke of their gratitude for being fortunate enough to attend school (a different story than in Canada for most people!) and the need to give back to their community once they completed their studies. I don't know how many 18-year-old (or 30-year-old for that matter) Canadians could give such a passionate explanation of our place in world politics and the future of the country's economy.

My plan right now is to chill out here at the Finca until Wednesday, when I'll head to Caye Caulker in Belize to spend my last 2 nights before I fly out of Belize City on Friday (thanks for correcting me Dani, it is indeed Friday and not Saturday as per my last post). Some more SCUBA may be on the horizon, or maybe just snorkling and enjoying some sunshine.

Tikal

Thanks Marcel for relieving me of my blogging journalistic duties yesterday. You did a fantastic job.

I guess the details of our Tikal trip are left to me. As Marcel said, we opted for the sunrise tour of the ruins that involved a 3 am (yes, you read that correctly) departure from Flores to make the 45 minute drive to Tikal and the 20 minute walk from the park entrance to Temple IV to watch the sunrise.

It was very eerie, sitting on the top of one of the tallest structures in the Mayan world in the pitch black, surrounded by jungle. When we first arrived the surrounding forest was mostly silent, but as the daylight creeped in the jungle started to come alive with howler monkeys, toucans, spider monkeys and other creatures. For me it was worth the early rising, even though we were surrounded by mist and missed out on seeing the sun rise.


Looking down from the Temple IV at around 6 am

After leaving Temple IV we ran into a huge herd (flock?) of coatis coming down to find some breakfast. They are apparently the
Central American equivalent of racoons, but I thought they were adorable, kinda like a cross between a cat, a monkey, and an anteater.


My less-than-wonderful picture of a coati. They have cute faces with long anteater-type noses.

We then moved on to see some of the other structures of Tikal. There are 4000 buildings in total, and I think only 15 percent have been uncovered (most are covered in jungle and really just look like big hills). There were a lot of steps, and it was steep going. A bit scary thought that 2 people in the recent past have died falling down steps at Tikal.


Marcel on the steps up to "The Lost World" pyramid

We finished off at the Grand Plaza, a huge square (Tikal's downtown, back in the day) including 2 huge temples facing each other, one being the spectacular Temple I, aka Temple of the Jaguar. The two big temples in the plaza are perfectly aligned so at the Spring and Autumn equinox their respective shadows fall precicely in the centre of the other.


Temple I


The North Acropolis of the Grand Plaza

(If the temples look familliar, and you are a bit of a nerd, you may remember seeing the temples at the end of Star Wars Episode 4)

It was an awesome day, and there was much more to see than we could handle. I also had the excitement of learning that our awesome guide Luis was involved with Survivor Guatemala (he was on the show delivering the contestants videos from home and helped organize logistics). What can I say, I'm a huge Survivor fan and found it really exciting, you can all stop rolling your eyes now.

Sadly, Marcel left this morning to head to Belize City from where he flies back to Canada tomorrow. I'm going to miss him, but I'm determined to get the most of my last week in Central America. Today I'm planning on heading to a Finca Ixobel, which sounds like a chilled out ranch-type place about 2 hours south of here. I'll stay there a few days, and then who knows! I just have to make it to Belize City by next Saturday.

An entry from our guest columnist

Hey everyone,
Today I've got a special treat for you: I'm turning over the keyboard to my beloved Marcel to give you his impressions of the last few days. (I have to say "impressions" because he's vetoed all references to the words "post" or "blog" or anything else he feels is "goofy".) I take no responsibility for what follows, but it's sure to be entertaining.

Hello all you kids in this electronic world inhabited by freaks, ghouls and the occassional guest columnist. At Laura´s insistence I am venturing into this new frontier, where hitherto I´ve never treaded. For those who don´t know me I´m Marcel, otherwise known as Laura´s "main man".

We are currently sitting in an internet cafe in Flores, Guatemala. My mission is to attempt to bring all you goodly people up-to-date on our most recent travels. As I am not a religious reader of internet-based information, I´m not entirely sure where Laura last left off. So I´m going to start by telling you all that Laura is now a certified Open Water SCUBA diver. Not a bad accomplishment for a gal that just started 5 days ago. At first our lovely gal was well and truly escared, you know, almost crying underwater (sorry Babe, I can´t keep a secret). But tears are useless underwater. Once she got over the initial panic, it was smooth sailing.

Laura and I got to dive together, although not as "buddies" since she was still on her course. That girl rocked underwater, like a true water baby. This was done in Utila, which is one of the Bay Islands off the coast of Honduras.

The island is strange in that people speak mostly English. It is a Creole form that is rather difficult to understand, especially when they speak to each other. The island is small and can be cycled in under an hour. It is touristy (backpackers, not Tilley hat-wearing types) but very nice. We stayed in swish digs with air conditioning, microwave and small fridge, to keep the copious amounts of water we drank cold.

Utila is a friendly place where people smile and say hello without any prompting. In fact, the local gay guys found my butt to be rather captivating (not that I can blame them). I think Laura was a tad bit jealous. Not to worry though Baby, it´s you that I love.

Food was quite cheap, where for less than US$5.00 you could eat a complete meal. I think I scared Laura though when one day all I had was 6 fruit drinks with hardly any solid food. But I´ve got a hardy system. Hey, at $1.00 per drink, who could say no. Heck, even Laura herself regularly drank 3 per day.

Unfortunately, due to my tight travel schedule, we couldn´t travel overland to Tikal, so we had to take a flight. It cost $164.00 each, which is cheap, but compared to $20.00 by bus, it was outrageous. But when time is the limiting factor, you gotta do what you gotta do.

The flight was a bit of an adventure, starting from the Utila airport, which was no more than a wooden lean-to beside a runway. No control tower, no check-in desk, just the travel agent who showed up 5 minutes before the flight left on her boyfriend's motorcycle. (Her boyfriend helped out by loading the bags on the plane.) Hell, locals just kept on showing up well after the flight was scheduled to leave with not a concern that the plane would have left without them.

After a long day of travel (our flight alone had 4 stops in various islands and towns) including a 5 hour bus ride from Belize City, we arrived in Flores, the town closest to Tikal, Guatemala's largest Mayan ruin.

I will let our lovely Laura e-mail you folks the details of our Tikal trip. My only recollection was waking up at 2:45 a.m. to catch a 3:00 a.m. bus to Tikal to watch the sun rise (but due to clouds we didn´t see diddly). It was bloody tough, but worth it because of the beauty of the fog and the jungle critters coming to life. It´s a good thing they don't like gringos.

I haven´t left yet (leaving on Saturday), but I miss Laura already. We´ve had a great time together and I´m glad to have been a part of this awesome journey.

Be cool, one and all.

Okay, I´m done yipping and will turn over the computer to Laura.

Scuba Dooba Doo

Sorry for the lack of posts in the past few days - I've been very busy learning to scuba dive, and haven't had time to get to a computer during the hours the internet cafe is open. So today will be a bit of a catch-up post.

First, back to Copan, since I now can post some pictures. The Copan ruins were absolutely stunning, with really intricate carvings and hieroglyphics.


Intricately carved stone "stella" representing and documenting the life of one of its rulers

And the best part? The place was pretty much completely deserted. Other than a few other travelers we occasionally glimpsed, the only other people were groundskeepers. And boy did they keep those grounds pristine.


The grounds at Copan


A Mayan temple at Copan

After our day at the ruins, we were early to bed, since we had a 5 am bus to catch (with one transfer) to get us to La Ceiba, where we were to catch a ferry. Seemed simple enough, and we were booked with a luxurious busline that was going to be air conditioned with a movie and refreshments. Too good to be true however, because there was a "problemito" and the 5 am bus was cancelled. But we couldn't wait until the next bus at 10:30, because we'd never make it in time to catch the ferry to the island.

We ended up getting our money refunded (thanks to the teenaged busline employee who, lacking a manager with a key, jimmied open the cash drawer with a screwdriver and a hammer) and hoofed it to another bus station to catch a much less fancy "Pullman bus" (greyhound Bus circa 1960, little maintenance done since its glory days) to another city, where we had to run 6 blocks to another bus station to catch a bus to La Ceiba. We finally arrived in La Ceiba around 3 pm in time to catch the 4:30 ferry to Utila (if the ferry to Roatan, another nearby island, had left any earlier we would have gone there instead, we were so sick of traveling).

So now, Marcel and I are here on beautiful Utila, a small Honduran island about 1 hour away from mainland by boat. Angelica and Signe (my friends from San Pedro) met us at the dock, and took us to Underwater Vision, the dive shop they'd chosen to take their scuba course at. They also provide free accommodation to their students, but Marcel and I opted for a much nicer cabin with the best AC I've ever experienced. Here's the view from outside our door:



I signed up to start my open water certification course starting the next day, and that's what I've been up to for the past 3 days. Although Utila is the cheapest place in the world to get certified, the course is extremely rigourous, and Marcel has been amazed by how much more we've done than when he did his course. Really long days though...yesterday we went from 7 am to 8 pm! The first 2 days were theory and shallow water work, but today I took my first two open water dives.

It was spectacular. So many fish and other creature on a gorgeous colourful reef. Today I saw a stingray, a green moray eel, a pufferfish, and we had dolphins swimming at the bow of our boat. No whale sharks, although they are seen fairly often at the north side of the island. Tomorrow I do two more dives in the morning to finish my course, and in the afternoon I might try to get my 2 free fun dives done as well with Marcel. We're leaving here on Wednesday morning, so it's my last chance. 4 dives in one day will be exhausting, but hopefully worth it!

I'm loving having Marcel here - and not only because his Spanish is about a million times better than mine. He did one day of diving so far, and today rented a bike for some island exploration. On Wednesday the two of us head back to Guatemala, this time in the north, to see Tikal, some more Mayan ruins that are meant to be spectacular in a totally different way from Copan.

Island Bound

Marcel arrived safely this morning! We had a very nice relaxed day (poor Marcel deserved it after over 24 hours of travelling, on what should have been a 5 hour trip) and went to see the amazing Mayan ruins here. I have some good pictures, but this computer isn't cooperating, so I'll upload them soon.

We're leaving tomorrow at 5 am for La Ceiba, a port town on the north coast of honduras. Once there we have to make our final decision about Utila vs Roatan. Thanks everyone for the advice and suggestions...I'm still feeling so indecisive. It may just come down to which ferry leaves first!

The internet cafe is closing soon, so I'd better sign off. I'll write from the islands, hopefully with some pictures of paradise.