Entry 9 - Belize/Guatemala

We left on January 25th from California and caught a flight to Belize City, Belize. We were meeting Kevin's dad, Dan, and his wife Christine there on the same day. We arrived in Belize City in the afternoon after a short stopover in Houston, and Dan and Christine arrived in Belize just after us. An hour later the four of us were flying in a puddle jumper on our way to an island in the Caribbean called Ambergris Caye (pronounced 'key') which is still a part of Belize. The plane was packed full of tourists, so Kevin got the opportunity to ride in front, in the co-pilots seat. Ambergris is a mecca for watersports lovers. The second longest barrier reef in the world lies off the coast of Belize and was only a half mile off the coast of the island. We all shared a really, really nice room in a beautiful resort, with air conditioning, PLENTY of hot water, and drinking water supplied for us. It was truly a luxury for us to be there, and we couldn't thank him enough for treating us.

After a day of settling in and relaxing a bit, we did some snorkling at a place called 'Shark-Ray Alley'. We know you can guess what was swimming around down there in that clear, turquoise blue water, yep, that's right, sharks and sting rays. After some hesitation on our part and re-affirmation on our guides part that we would be alright, we jumped right in. It was so incredible swimming with those giant, gentle creatures. It's hard to believe but it's true, they were extremely gentle. Our guides were able to lure the rays up towards them with food so that we could touch them. We also were able to touch the sharks as our guides held onto them for us. It was so neat to be that close to animals that we've only been able to see on televison. Afterwards, we went to a really popular snorkling spot called Hol Chan Marine Park. All four of us were able to stay in the water for about an hour, checking out all the different types of coral, fish and sea animals living down there. There were also currents of warm water that would move through the coral, and we tried our best to stay in the warmer spots, because otherwise the water was pretty cold after being in it for awhile.

Besides enjoying the company of Dan and Christine, we were also able to enjoy some really great seafood, and we really were thankful that Kevin's dad was treating us to luxuries that we would never have travelling on our own. The island was absolutely beautiful, and besides how expensive it is, it's definitely an attractive place for tourists. In fact, Ambergris is where 'Temptation Island' was filmed. When we found that out we were pretty shocked that Belize would let that type of American show be filmed there. Some of the locals, at least the ones that didn't work for the show, seemed pretty angry that America had exported its filth there.

Like we said, Ambergris was really expensive and it wasn't too long before we realized how expensive Belize is as a whole. About 80% of the things that Belizians use or consume, like food and household products, have to be imported. Therefore, prices are outrageous, especially considering that Belize is a third world country. For example, gas is $3.75 a gallon, a small bag of Cheetos (2oz) is $2 and a box of Cheerios is $7. Speaking of gas prices, here is an unusual sidenote...a surefire way to piss off a foreigner is to be an American complaining about U.S. gas prices. We quickly learned after we left home that Americans pay a lot less for gas that the rest of the world and the rest of the world knows this (except Americans, of course). Ok, back to Belize. After five days on the Caye maxin' and relaxin' all four of us left Ambergris on a speed boat taxi to the mainland. We took a nice air-con bus travelling south of Belize City to a town called Dangriga where we met up with Chris and Alyson Jones. The Jones' are friends of Dan and they run a ministry called Christian Advance International. We spent a couple days with them on their citrus farm sharing stories and taking short side trips to sights around Dangriga. The Jones' are extremely busy since they run several missions in various parts of the world. They were extremely accommodating and we had a really enjoyable time with them and their family.

After a week together, it was time for Dan and Christine to fly back home, so we said our good-bye's at the bus station in town. They were heading north to Belize City to catch their flight home, and we were heading south to a beachtown called Placencia.

There are so many exciting things to see and do in Belize, but because of cost we really couldn't explore it like we wanted to. But we did enjoy the bus ride to Placencia, as it was really beautiful. We drove through a lot of uninhabited countryside full of palm trees and tall grasses. It was nice to see nature like that after spending so much time in India where all the land exhibits some type of human activity. We arrived in Placencia towards dusk, and it didn't take long for us to notice that the town was trashed. We knew beforehand that Placencia had experienced a hurricane in October, but we had no idea the extent of the damage. We tried to find several budget hotels that were listed in our guidebook, but they were nowhere to be found. After talking with a couple locals, we were informed that most all of the establishments along the beach had been completely washed away. The next day we were able to see the damage in the daylight and it was really unnerving. Apparently 95% of the village had been decimated. Where buildings once stood, there was nothing but sand. Most of the palm trees had no palms on the top, they were just naked sticks in the sky. The worst we saw was the amount of debris that had accumulated in the lagoon side, opposite the beach. All the tangled branches of the mangrove trees acted like gigantic nets for all sorts of stuff from small boats to washing machines, corrugated metal, sinks, plywood, and all sorts of smaller trash items. It was a mess! The photos of Placencia that we had seen previous to our arrival there made it look like a totally different world from what we were seeing. Amazingly, there were no fatalities of any locals in any of the areas due to advanced warning, but tragically, 20 tourists did perish in a nearby lagoon. Apparently, the captain had convinced them that it was safe to stay aboard and they had capsized in the midst of the storm.

We only stayed in Placencia for a couple days before heading out of the country to our next destination....Guatemala !!! We've been looking foward to Guatemala since we started planning this trip and have known that we were going to spend more time here than any other country in this region. Guatemala has a lot to offer to travellers and we've tried to fit as much in as possible. We took a bus to the border and have never been happier to leave a country than we were with Belize. It's not that Belize wasn't nice, it was just too ridiculously expensive for a developing country. At the border, our excitement was short-lived because we were hit with an exorbitant amount of exit fees, which we reluctantly had to pay. The total was about $30, which isn't much back in the States, but when $30 is our budget for one day it really hurts us. So anyhow, we made it through the border, griping to each other the whole way. We were further aggravated by the fact that we got ripped off by a money exchanger. It was our fault, because we didn't know the proper exchange rate, which is unusual for us because we're normally on top of that kind of thing. But, we have come up with a saying when we make mistakes, we just say to each other, \168Lesson learned.\168 It's kinda funny though, because even though we know that we made a mistake and that we learned from it, chances are we won't ever be exposed to that type of situation ever again. We've had probably 6,294 \168lesson's learned\168 on this trip. That situation was especially unique because we had read that using the people walking around as money exchangers (rather than a person behind a counter) is essentially a black market exchange and is illegal. In this case they were the only way to exchange and we were subject to their rates.

We got through immigration and had to figure out how we were going to reach our destination. Central America brings on a whole new group of challenges for us when it comes to getting from point A to point B. Previously, we have never faced any real obstacles when it came to getting around a country, whether by bus or train. There was always sufficient means for us to get around, if you could figure out how to use their systems. But here, in CA, it's a whole different story. Public transportation is often very limited in certain areas and you have to rely on hitch-hiking, which is a foreign concept to most young Americans these days. Hitch-hiking is used as much down here as it once was by our parents back in the day. Sometimes, though, if there is limited traffic to your specific destination at some point in the day, then you can't even rely on hitching a ride, and are basically stuck. This was our situation as we crossed the border, as there were zero buses to be found. We were headed to Tikal, which is an ancient Mayan ruins site found deep in the jungle, and is still being excavated. Fortunately, there were many Guatemalan men capitalizing on the influx of budget travellers crossing the border wanting to go to Tikal, and they had their mini-buses/taxis lined up and waiting. These are usually too expensive of an option for us, but we happened to meet an American couple crossing with us who were also on their way to Tikal and we all agreed to share the cost of the ride.

The couple was Debbie and Pat and they were two weeks into a seven month around-the-world trip that included many of the destinations that we had visited like Morocco, India and Thailand. It was like deja-vu for us because it totally reminded us of how we were when we first started. And, like them, we met a couple (Ian and Kylie) two weeks into our trip who provided us with a ton of information on some of the places that we would be visiting. We all got along really well and ended up spending the next week travelling together. Their original itinerary didn't include anything other than visiting Tikal in Guatemala, but we invited them to join us for however long they wanted, as we had a pretty extensive itinerary planned for this country.

We arrived in Tikal and immediately were confronted with the language barrier that we've been dreading. We hardly ever had to deal with one in Asia, but except for in Belize, almost no one in Central America speaks English. Thank God Suzanne speaks enough Spanish to get us by. We set up camp and quickly headed for the ruins in order to catch the sunset. Tikal is unique in that it truly is buried deep in the jungle. During our half hour walk to the site, we saw a lot of wildlife, much of which we had never seen before. This included a family of howler monkeys jumping from treetop to treetop, quashes (which look like a cross between a raccoon and an anteater), a wild boar, and a whole bunch of different birds. We eventually made our way to the center of the ruins, called the Gran Plaza, and were totally awe struck by what we saw. (The very first glimpse of the temples we had is the exact photo that's on this page). We had no idea that the ruins were as massive as they are, and that they were in such good condition. The steps of the temple pictured (on the other side of the temple) were closed because, like at the pyramids in Egypt, several tourists fell to their death while climbing. We climbed the twin temple that sat opposite to this one and it was pretty nervewracking because the steps are so incredibly steep. We relaxed for awhile, taking in the sounds of the forest, and were relieved to finally be there. Afterwards, we headed to the top of another temple, which is the highest at the site. From the top we could see clear across the jungle canopy for what seemed like 20 miles in all directions. Here and there, we could see hunks of temples jetting out above the dense cluster of trees, and some of them had groups of tourists on top. The sun was setting, and there was a small group of us gathered, watching the changing colors of the sky. It was such an awesome experience listening to the sounds of the jungle coming alive. In the distance, we could hear a pack of howler monkeys grunting to each other. Birds that are active only in the early morning and evening came out and flew around in pairs, calling to each other. What an intoduction to Guatemala!

That night, we had dinner with Pat and Debbie and a Dutch couple that we had met at the ruins. By chance, the Dutch girl randomly knew some Dutch people that we had met when we were in India. She had met the same couple while she was travelling in China a couple years ago. Small world, huh? We slept that night in our tent and enjoyed the sounds of the jungle. Actually, they were a bit terrifying at times and we then understood all the stories we had heard about people who couldn't sleep their first night in the jungle. We visited the ruins again the next day and then headed to a nearby town where we hoped to find a way to a town in the middle of the Verapaces, which is a mountain region in central Guatemala. It is fairly remote and we knew it wouldn't be easy to get there, but we found our way and arrived in the small village of Lanquin two days later.

Lanquin had two points of interest which drew us there, caves and waterfalls. The day we arrived, the four of us decided to set up camp near the caves, right next to a spring water river that came from the mouth of the caves not far away. The water was emerald green and it has to be the most beautiful rivers that we have ever seen. Kevin had never been in a cave before and was incredibly excited to venture inside. We had about 45 minutes to explore the cave before it closed for the day, so we all hurried inside. We were all totally amazed at how huge this cave was inside. Formations of stalagtites and stalagmites were all over and their was a lighting system highlighting some of the caves features. We walked in for several hundred meters, making sure to not slip and twist an ankle or slip and fall into one of the many bottomless abysses that were all around. Suzanne had been in several caves in the past, and during the visits inside her and her family were always accompanied by a guide who could give history on the caves and make sure that no one vandalized, littered or stole anything from the caves. Guatemala is not that advanced, as they let you in on your own, and you can roam around anywhere you want in there at your own risk. Many people have died in these caves in the past, but that still doesn't mean that you're gonna get a guide. The only rule they have is that you can't go in at night. We opted not to go past where the lighting stopped for fear of getting lost or injured. We headed out to the campsite, bathed in the river, and then that night we returned at dusk and joined some people who were waiting at the mouth of the cave. At about 6:30, thousands of bats began flying out for their nightly feeding session. They were only a few feet above our heads, but we could hear them quietly flying past us. We were not afraid of any of them hitting us as we were well aware of their unrivaled navigation skills. When it was all over, we went back to the campsite and cooked dinner with our friends.

As we fell asleep, it began raining and never stopped all night. We awoke several times to check the water level of the river only 15 feet away from us. The next morning, we arranged some wood chips as markers on the river bank to measure how fast the water was rising. Six chips placed about six inches apart with a height of about five inches were all covered in about an hour and a half. We knew the river was rising fast, so we packed up camp and headed to a hotel not far away. We managed to find a pick-up truck to take us the 10 kilometers that we needed to go for our next destination, the waterfalls of Semuc Champey. The rain was now just a slight drizzle, but we decided to go anyway, since we are on a tight time schedule. When we arrived, we found that we were basically the only people there because of the rain. We had read that the area was famous for a natural wonder which is a great limestone bridge, but we didn't know what to expect. When we first saw the waterfalls, we were in shock at how beautiful and picturesque it all was. We'll try to explain how it looked since the whole experience is something that we will never forget. First of all, when we arrived, we weren't sure exactly where this limestone brige was that everyone was talking about. What we saw was basically a series of pools and short waterfalls which were at different levels and were divided by limestone narrow walkways. The water creeped over the walkways at a continual downward slope and at only about a half inch depth so you could walk in between the pools. The pools were, of course, emerald green which just added to the beauty. At the bottom there was a high waterfall and then a river down below that led to some rapids. We couldn't understand how there was so much water in the river below with only a little trickle of water heading over the edge of the pools. We didn't concern ourselves with this for long, but instead tore off our clothing and went for a swim in the rain. We dove from pool to pool and had a blast.

Before we left we decided to head to a level of pools above us to check them out. This is when we realized what was going on. We heard the roar of white water and as we approached the water the limestone pools came to an end. At the edge we could see the most violent river that we have ever seen and probably will ever see right in front of us. Instead of washing us away, the rushing water crashed off rocks and went down into a hole, disappearing from sight. We then realized that the raging river at the other end of the pools was fed by this white water that was going down into that hole. Suddenly, we knew that what we were standing on was the giant limestone bridge. The water that made the small pools was really nothing more than a trickle that was actually a separate river that came down from another part of the mountain. The bridge was actually where these two rivers met, the slower one flowing over the top of the limestone, making the nice, calm pools and waterfalls, and the faster raging river going underneath. A little Guatemalan boy approached us and told us (in Spanish) that the river is only this violent during heavy rains. We felt fortunate to happen to be visiting there during this time, since we were just shocked at the force and the roar of the river. The water all connected at the end, with the bottom of the small river's waterfall meeting with the torrent of water coming out the other end of the underground channel. We hope that you can picture this and that we havn't confused you too much. Wait until you see the photos and the video clips that we have and then you'll see what we're talking about. Needless to say, it was AWESOME!

The four of us woke up at 3:30 am the next morning to catch a bus but ended up hitching a ride in a pick-up truck driven by a Guatemalan man. Kevin and Pat got covered in mud and caught a nice little buzz from the fumes as they had to ride in the covered bed with the bags while the girls sat in front. Later that day we arrived in Antigua which is an old Spanish colonial town that is considered to be one of the most beautiful cities in the Americas. It lived up to the hype and was definitely different than any other city that we had seen yet in CA. It had cobblestone streets and gorgeous old buildings and churches. It was a good place for us to get errands done but it was just too full of foreigners, which can really get on your nerves. People come from all over the world for Spanish instruction in Antigua and this is one of the reasons why there are so many gringos there. The second day that we were there we decided to hike one of the nearby active volcanoes. Antigua sits in a valley, nestled between several volcanoes, several of which are currently active. One in particular, Volcan Fuego, began erupting the day we arrived and you could see the smoke and steam pouring from the side of it from a distance. We arranged a trip to visit Volcan Pacaya which is about an hour away from Antigua. We knew it would be an adventure when we read the description that the guidebook gave of the area.

It says, \168Although foreigners climbing the volcanoes around Antigua sometimes used to be robbed and even raped or murdered, recent tourist safety measures have reduced the problem dramatically. Because of its status as an active volcano, Pacaya attracts the most tourists and most bandits. The situation is improving, however, since each group is now accompanied by a security guard (little comort when he turns out to be prepubescent). Guards or no, a hike up Pacaya still entails risks. Still, travelers now are more likely to be hurt by flaming rocks and sulfurous fog than criminals. Climbers have sufered serious, even fatal injuries when the volcano erupted unexpectedly while they were near the summit. In early 2000, the frisky Pacaya was upgraded to orange alert status.\168

After we read that, we told ourselves that we had to go visit this Volcano, it sounded way too exciting not too. Plus, we have travellers insurance incase anything were to happen... Anyhow, we set off in our group to hike to the top. We were promised three things by the tour operator. 1) An English speaking guide. 2) Armed security to the top of the cone. 3) Transportation to and from. We picked up a couple of armed policemen on the way, and arrived excited to start the climb. You could see steam and gases pouring out of the crater in the distance. We began to ascend the mountain and quickly noticed that the security guards were nowhere to be found. We asked our guide (who didn't speak a WORD of english) what happened to them. He replied that they are lazy and probably were at the bar. We were angry that we had been lied to, but continued on, wondering if we really were climbing to the top or if that had been a lie as well. We reached a plateau after a gruling one hour climb. Hot, sweaty, dusty, and out of breath, we sat down and enjoyed a break while staring at the black cone that laid before us. At this point, the earth turned from grass and soil to black volcanic rock and dust.

We continued hiking along the plateau until we reached the bottom of the cone. We were staring up at the smoking cone, questioning ourselves whether we really wanted to climb it or not. As we started climbing, the angle of the ascent became steeper and the surface was totally covered with small volcanic pumice stones about two feet deep. The rocks gave way as we climbed which made it much harder, kind of like climbing up a really steep sand dune. Members of the group began lagging behind but the village dogs who had accompanied us the whole way were staring at us like we were a bunch of wimps. As we approached the top, smoke was rising out from under the rocks and the ground was warm in spots. The guide congratulated us all and then led us the last 20 meters or so up to the open crater. We have to admit that the excitement of reaching the top was somewhat tempered at first by the realization of where we were. We were saying to ourselves, \168I can't believe we are looking into an active volcano!\168, while at the same time saying, \168What the hell are we doing looking into an active volcano?!\168 At times the wind would change direction and we would be engulfed in a cloud of the most horrible smelling sulfurous fumes. All in all, it was a really great experience, and we were very relieved that the going down was much easier. Much like walking down a sand dune, the stones gave way and we kind of \168surfed\168 our way down. We were wishing we had our snowboards so we could be like those \168extreme sports people\168 they always have on MTV, \168Like, yeah dude! We're like, volcano boarding, dude!\168 Kidding.

Anyways, we left Antigua after experiencing a bout of \168Post-Valentine's Day Food Poisoning\168 and headed for a market at Chichicastenango. This is a world famous market that takes place in a small town in the highlands of Guatemala. Saturday evening we walked down to the plaza and watched the men and women setting up their stalls for the next day, and then sat on the steps of an ancient cathedral, admiring the people of this small village. We awoke early Sunday morning and could hear bus after bus coming into town. Some were loaded with tourists, and others with villagers from surrounding towns along with their goods to sell. This is why these local buses are referred to as \168chicken buses\168 since they not only carry people, but livestock as well. We cautiously ventured into the huge market, not sure what to expect. But it really was huge. We wandered around for hours through streets and passageways looking at all the handicrafts for sale, yet it was not the best shopping experience for us since the merchants were rather rude. We are used to shopping around for items and \168polite barganing\168 with the sellers. If you simply asked the price of an item in Chichi, they expected you to bargain for it and buy it right then and there or they gave you an attitude, which we quickly grew tired of. So we caught an afternoon bus to our current location, Lago de Atitlan. We'll continue with our travels from here in our next entry, but we wanted to add a few other things, just for the record.

Many people have asked us how we are getting along with eachother. To make it simple, this trip has re-confirmed everything we already knew about each other and about our relationship. We're getting along great and always seem to keep each other laughing. Actually, it's almost weird how little we annoy each other after spending the last 150 or so days straight together. To be honest, we were both a little apprehensive about how we would get along before we started this trip. We actually made an agreement that if we needed to take a break from each other we could spend a day or two apart, depending where we were of course. That has never come up, though. We love being together and figuring out what we're gonna do next.

Also, we've had several people that have written and told us that they are concerned for our safety in Central America. There is no doubt that these are the most unsafe areas that we have travelled in thus far. Decades of war have left many of the people down here armed and angry. We promise we're taking every precaution possible to ensure our safety. Although there are cases of tourists being attacked, these are rare and few and far between nowadays. As for kidnappings, these are almost always done to \168rich\168 foreigners or locals, not to grungy, dirty, smelly, grimy, skinny, starving, homely looking backpackers like us. The color of our skin is not an issue in these cases. We are not going to be venturing too far off the beaten \168gringo trail\168, and we do not expect any problems so long as we take the normal precautions. Another thing, to these people, tourism means jobs and money, and they really go to lengths to keep tourists happy. If the tourists get scared off because of crime and bandits, the government usually steps in, because they really thrive off the revenue we bring to their country. Having said this, please continue to pray for us and our safety as we continue travelling!

Suzanne has had a bad case of food poisoning the last few days, and so we got a room with a TV. We were able to watch the Olympics last night and see some Americans win a few gold medals in bobsledding and speed skating. What a treat for us as we didn't expect to be able to see any of the Olympics. Hope you all are enjoying them back home.

So long for now! Kevin and Suzanne