Where did I leave off? Oh, yeah. Picked up Kim at the airport with no glitches. Stayed the night in El Remate, a small one street town about 35 miles closer to Tikal than Flores (where people normally stay to get to Tikal). The next morning we got a 4am shuttle to the park entrance for the sunrise...all we got was haze. What can you do? Not to worry, Tikal was amazing. In the middle of the jungle surrounded by wildlife. You can get up on the different pyramids and see above the tree tops. Saw some toucans and spider monkeys along with a host of other crazy stuff. Walked all over the park...climbed everything that we could...took a bunch of pictures (loved having Kim around).
After Tikal we headed back into Belize to San Ignacio. It is right over the border and more in the mountains of Belize. We walked to some Mayan ruins (Cahal Pech) that were right out of town and started talking to a guide there that gave us a 3 hour tour. He was a talker..a tour usually lasts about an hour. Gave us tons of antidotes and info on Mayan culture... had us meditating...showed us a tree that could make women virgins again...a bunch of very obscure stuff. We ended up going out for a beer with him (too entertaining to say ´no´ to).
He brought us out to a bar near his house in the country, where we met up with some of his friends. One of which had a horse that, of course, I needed to ride...at night...through the trees...running. This horse wanted to go! Not your typical trail horse in the states. So fun!
The next morning we were on a tour of the Actun Tunichil Muknal cave. The cave itself is about 3 miles long with a river running though it. You enter the cave by swimming in a deep pool and continue swimming and walking the rest of the way. Beautiful formations. The cool thing about this cave is that the Mayans used it for rituals and sacrifices. So after about 1 1/2 miles, we turned away from the river into this huge side tunnel and saw tons of pottery and 5 sacrificed bodies. Those Mayans loved their sacrifices. Our guide even took us back into a small room (not on the tour) that had the remains of a baby surrounded by intense stalactites and stalagmites. Beautiful and creepy all at the same time.
After the cave tour, they left us on the side of the road to catch a bus to Hopkins, a Garifuna village on the coast. There is one bus a day to the village, so needless to say at 6:45 on a Sunday night we had to get a cab from a near by town to get there. But all works out for the best...ended up getting a super cool taxi driver that hooked us up with a couple of locals when we got into town (Dre and Alex). They took us to find a hotel and then out to Karaoke that night. Country Karaoke...John Denver, Kenny Loggins. What??? Before it really got swinging though, the boys ended up losing 2 darts...one out the window and one in the sand floor (don´t play darts around here much I guess)...it was time to skate!
The next morning Dre picked us up with another couple of friends and brought us bikes for us to use. Jumped on the bikes (felt like burning man all over again...we biked everywhere everyday) and headed down to set up our diving for the next day. As Kim was trying on her wet suit to get things set up for the next day, she started jumping around and freaking out...oops, there was a scorpion in her wet suit...it stung her 3 times! Luckily, the scorpions here aren´t
too bad...leg went numb, couldn´t feel her tongue, but not life threatening..Just hurts like crazy. Kim´s a trooper. After that fiasco, jumped back on the bikes, went to the other end of town, played some beach volleyball, went for a swim. So great to have tour guides dragging us to all the ´hot spots´ around the village. Kim and I just kept wondering where the catch would be. No catch. Just really cool guys with nothing to do (there is really nothing to do in Hopkin...but it was by far the best place we visited).
Diving the next day was fun. The only dive place in town is part of this all-inclusive resort type of place...they were dumbfounded that we were actually staying in the village. I mean, people can actually stay in town?
Took a huge walk out to ´1st point´the next day with the same guys. Cut us down some coconuts for us to drink from (us dumb Americans brought water). Ended up at the ¨rastaman´s place¨...this guys house down the beach about and hour walk. Didn´t even know that we had a destination until we got there. Another chill afternoon with more cool people.
Had to say goodbye the next morning. So sad...we wanted to take one of the kids (Stanley) back with us in our suitcase...he would almost fit. So sad. 16 years old, hasn´t been in school for the last 4 years (you have to pay for school in Belize, so no money, no school), lives with random extended family and just a month ago got to see 2 guys get killed in Belize City (where he normally lives) that his cousin (17) was walking down the street with...hard life.
From there we headed to Caye Caulker. Biked around the island one day...you are on this dirt trail that turns into the airport runway. Just watch out for the planes.
Had beers at the ´split´(where the island is cut in 2) for sunset and a mellow night. And finally, the next day, we got to do Kim´s crowning dive....The Blue Hole. You go down to 130 feet in this kinda crazy crater that is 430 feet deep. At 130, there are stalactites/mites and we were lucky enough to see some reef sharks. Cool dive. Nice and deep. Didn´t get narced out really though...kinda was looking forward to it. Nitrogen Narcosis is kinda like feeling drunk under water (it only happens when you get to around 100´+).
Our last day on the caye, we kayaked around on a double kayak...grabbed a couple of beers and floated in the water. Realized neither of us can just relax while paddling...every time we picked up the oars, we thought we were in a race. Hurry up, and chill. Floated the whole afternoon...even made it over to a bar on the other end of the island.
Kim left yesterday morning. I headed straight to El Salvador. A full day and night on a bus through Guatemala. But made it with no glitches except in San Salvador...It took me a good hour to locate the bus to take me La Libertad. It doesn´t leave from a terminal and it tends to change its route every couple of months so none of the locals could tell me where I could catch it. And, oh yeah, I couldn´t say the name of the town correctly for some reason, so it took about 3 times each time I asked for directions for them to figure out where I wanted to go. Love foreign languages.
But am relaxing on the beach after getting tossed all morning in the waves...crummy day of surfing for me...guess I have to try again tomorrow. Life is rough.
So the rest of my time in El Salvador was a whirlwind! Ended up meeting a guy from San Salvador, Juan Pablo, that took me under his wing.
Insta-friend. Its amazing what a quick chat while renting a surf board can turn into. We went to a near by town kinda on a whim and had a local kid take us to a waterfall. So I´m thinking, OK, a waterfall...a little fall, maybe a pool that you can swim in. It was about a 1/2 hour hike down into the ravine where the falls were. They ended up being crazy! Multiple falls with a couple of pools that you could not only swim in, but you could cliff jump into. Super cool. Spent the whole afternoon there just relaxing and getting up the courage to jump off the cliffs (yeah, i´m a pollo).
Then next day, he drove me and a couple of other friends from where I was staying back to San Salvador. Got my bus ticket for the next morning (5am!) and then went to visit the near by volcano...again thinking...volcano, nice view, whatever...again so much cooler than I expected. The crater was huge and the view was amazing. After that, he took me back to his family´s vacation home (complete with a live in caretaker...what?) that was on the side of the volcano with a great view of the city from the balcony. We went wandering around the coffee plantation that is part
of the property and got back inside just in time for one of the crazy torrential rain storms that he had been talking about (and I didn´t believe in). Hung out chatting there till I had to catch my bus the next morning. Super time...great company...what more can I ask for?
