Back in Guatemala!

First of all, Happy Holidays! I hope that 2009 will bring all sorts of wonderful things such as Sunday Brunch, World Peace, and time in the garden.

I am back in Guatemala after a month of traveling. First I met Chris and Laura and Chad in Belize and afterward traveled with my mom in Mexico.

Our trip to Belize was utterly exciting and absolutely relaxing, by turns. We first spent several days in San Ignacio which is very close to the border with Guatemala. The chief excitement of this town is that you can travel to the ATM cave. (Our camera broke so these pictures are from Chad: http://thecusters.shutterfly.com/532). The entire cave experience was other-worldly: after taking a van and then 8 of us squeezing into and on top of a jeep, you hike through seemingly prehistoric forest to the cave entrance. The river disappears into an enormous yawning cavity. The river is so deep at the beginning in passageways to the large rooms inside that you have to swim (without getting your headlamp wet). The cave system itself is enormous and we hiked inside for about 2-3 hours without exploring even a tenth of the entire thing. There were incredible stalactites and stalagmites as well as ancient pots and skeletons that had been left exactly where they were found.Laura and Chad spent a day in Tikal while we explored ruins closer to San Ignacio where we were staying. (This was after we tried to take a canoe up the river but the guy was too stoned or drunk and never came back after he supposedly went to get the canoe.) Here are L&C visiting Tikal:

We took a bus and then a very very small plane to Ambergris Caye off the coast of Belize. On the way we were going to stop and see a zoo, but left a bag on the bus. The bag contained the camera (before it was broken) so Chris and I tried to catch up with the bus to get the bag at the bus station in Belize City. We were going to try to flag down the next bus and I thought there was a 10% chance that we would ever see the bag and camera again. A very nice group of people picked us up and we rode in the back of their pickup truck to the bus station. Unbelievably, Chris found the bus and the bag was still on it. Furthermore, a guy who the ticket-taker at the zoo had called to try to get the bag for us actually had tried to get it (but wasn't allowed to take it as it wasn't his). He came and found us also! We were so thankful and wanted to give him some money but he didn't want any. So, the entire experience resulted in us meeting some very generous people :) However, then we were in Belize City for a few hours which at least around the bus station is quite poor and seedy. Some drugged out guy started talking to us and calling us racist for not wanting to talk to him etc etc. He was a bit threatening and manipulative (playing on our desire not to be racist). We were relieved when we finally sat down somewhere inside to eat.

Eventually we made it to the airport (2 little airline offices and a small airstrip). The plane to Ambergris was very exciting and we saw hundreds of smaller cays off the coast. San Pedro itself (the city in Ambergris) is very quaint and we stayed in a beautiful condo that had a pool and a outside bar and was right on the water. What's more, the couple who rented us the place were amazingly helpful -- we were spoiled! Besides eating delicious food and drinking fruity drinks, we rented bikes one day to explore the island and went snorkeling another day. Here I am holding a shark and Chris on our bike ride:

After Chris and Laura and Chad flew home (sniff), I went to Caye Caulker. This is the tiny and quieter island and I just stayed in a guest house and read by the water.


After a couple of days I was ready to go to the big city: Mexico City. I will write about Mexico in the next post since there is much to tell. Hope all is well :)