Hi everyone. Thought I´d capture a few things about our trip so far. I hope you enjoy reading it and do feel free to send it on to others if you wish. Hope it's not too boring. Funny how our priorities have changed. Things that matter most now include: hot showers, laundry, wifi, book exchanges and finding the cheapest beers. Okay, so that last one ain´t new.
Belize: We got there on 12 November despite the best efforts of border security at London and Houston. The conversations went as follows:
Jobsworth - "So, you´re returning from Belize in 6 months?"
J&R - "Yes"
Jobsworth - "We need to check the visa requirements before allowing you to fly"
J&R - "We can help you there. We can stay a month without a visa"
Jobsworth - "I´ll have to check that"..................20 minutes pass..............."You can stay a month without a visa"
J&R - "Yes"
Jobsworth - "You have a ticket for 6 months"
J&R - "Yes. We´ll be travelling around Central America"
Jobsworth - "We can´t allow you to fly unless you can prove that you´ll leave Belize within a month"
J&R - "We´ll be leaving within two weeks...on a chicken bus...and they don´t accept internet bookings"
Jobsworth - "I´m going to get my supervisor"....10 minutes pass.
UberJobsworth - (Repeat all of above)....another 10 minutes......."You can fly but we cannot accept any responsibility for you having the correct visa requirements. Do you understand?"
J&R - (Wearily) "Yes"
Best things about Belize - 5 days of very sunny weather (before we realised how cold it gets in Guatemala); Garifuna culture (basically Rasta, so Bob´s best hits on repeat 24/7 and knowing what 10cc meant by Dreadlock Holiday); the shock of seeing several Amish communities there; boats run by Rastas with cool names like Captain Doggie and Captain Buck; spending my 48th birthday on a tiny, tiny island called Tobacco Caye where we were looked after by an 82 year old lady called Lana; and seeing turtles, sharks, rays etc while snorkelling off Caye Caulker near the world´s 2nd biggest reef. Then we moved up country and the rain came. So, time to move on to Guatemala!
But, before we go, the best street sign so far seen on Caye Caulker - "Go slow. We have two cemetries and no hospital". Fab.
Guatemala:
The first thing that struck me about Guatemala is how lax the border crossing is. Luckily we did it right, literally walking across, but have met people who innocently missed the unsigned left hand turn to the ´Guatemala Entrada´ desk and paid heavily for it later when leaving the country!
Second thing that hit me was that everyone here spoke Spanish (in Belize it´s all English). No surprise of course but it felt like the adventure was really beginning - as should my Spanish lessons! For now, hiding behind Jo seemed to work fine.
The third thing? Just how much the Mayan culture is part of Guatemala. The traditional clothes, the amazing ruins (especially at Tikal) and of course the various languages. Spanish is very much a second language in many places. One advantage of that is they speak much more slowly! We´ve only sometimes had to resort to ´Mas Despacio Porfavor!´
Loving the breakfasts here. Fruit, granola and yogurt, huevos revueltos, pancakes, fresh juice, great coffee, frijoles etc. That´s not the menu btw, that´s one selection! And only $5 max. Things are quite cheap generally. Beer is $3 a litre, decent accommodation $10-15 and of course the chicken buses.......
I assumed the chicken buses got their name due to the manner in which they stuff so many people in the bus. It may however also relate to the impact they have on all other traffic ie if you´re anywhere near one of these you´re essentially playing ´chicken´! But, I´m starting to appreciate them. They are really quite iconic looking, reliable, frequent and never ever dull. The music selection is as diverse as it is loud and you´ll never go hungry or thirsty with all the hawkers that jump on at each town. Just be ready for the conductor to try and cheat you though...
We spent a month in Guatemala but I shan´t bore you with all those details. Highlights would be Tikal, Rio Dulce, Semuc Champey and Antigua. We stayed with a crazy Polish lady in a remote spot in the Rainforest off the Rio Dulce. Lovely place. The first night we all got a boat into town as there was a celebration of the Garifuna (them again) culture. We got back late and hammered and desperate to crash. I shone the torch in our bed and there, inside the mozzy net, was a very large spider....with only 3 legs...and a big eggsac attached to it´s abdomen (bum). No idea how it got in there and even less idea how to get it out. Best tool we could find (there wasn´t a vacuum cleaner large enough) was Jo´s Clinique soap dish. Only problem was that the spider was twice as wide as the dish! Brave from the beer and determined from the exhaustion however, mission was accomplished. And the spider smelled much better too.
Semuc Champey is just gorgeous (see the photos on Facebook). We stayed about 11k from there in Lanquin at a large hostel (more like a campus) called El Retiro. We stayed in a tiny loft accessed by a steep ladder from a narrow ledge. Getting up in the night for a pee, still wobbly from the evening´s libations, was actually a high risk operation. Lots of cool folk here, mostly young and all apparently called ´dude´! Once they realised we were staying and not there to take someone home we had a fabulous time.
We shall defer Antigua for another post as we shall return here for New Year. Next up is a two week diversion to Honduras. Oh, lowlights of Guatemala? Pretty cold at times, infuriating cockerels whose watches are clearly stuck at dawn time as they crow continually and missing our friends and family of course!
Honduras:
The trip to Honduras was painful, long and frustrating. Near the end of it we crossed the border and, quelle surprise, one of the guards tried to con us out of money. Managed to shake him off though. Copan is quite lovely and we visited the Mayan ruins nearby. They worshipped the macaw and who could blame them. Gorgeous, funny, beautiful birds. They also had a sport (the Mayans not the macaws) where the winning captain had the honour of being sacrificed. Apparently own goals were commonplace!
Next up was the town of Gracias. We soaked in some (very) hot springs and observed the growing frenzy for Navidad (Xmas). Parades, costumes, fireworks, Santa driving through the streets throwing out sweeties and local versions of all your favourite Xmas classic tunes, Also one of their own called, of course, 'Feliz Navidad' - horribly catchy in a birdie-song way.
We spent 5 nights at a cool wee place with it's own Microbrewery on Lake Yojoa. Until then the longest we'd stayed anywhere was 3 nights. The microbrewery was clearly not a factor at all..... There's a bloke lives nearby called Malcolm who does ace birdwatching tours and is a real character. A 60's man both in age and era with long grey hair, a pleated beard and earrings. Top bloke. We also had a crazy day when the manager's Jack Russell (Santiago) decided to follow us on the bus but not off it. Before he ended up miles away we rescued him, had to buy a lead for him and haul him around with us all day. No one here puts their dog on a lead so we got some funny looks. So, we leave you here in Lago Yojoa, our Xmas location on a beautiful lake by a bird reserve, relaxing and thinking of y'all.....sometimes!
Feliz Navidad!
Robert & Jo
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