Since I rarely post in this blog, and most of my posts really are for my own benefit and archival purposes - I bet many of you didn't even know I was going to Belize. Day 5, out of 15 already - and here's a quick rundown of adventures.
We arrived in San Ignacio (Cayo) earlier today. It's a nice, fairly bustling town, full of taxis nearly hitting pedestrians, aimless dogs milling about, trinket shops, and lots of tour guides for the plethora of activities in the Cayo area.We're sitting right now in Cocopele Bar, which is supposed to be a happenin' sort spot for folks passing through town, though it's empty as of now. San Ignacio is Belize's second-largest town and the capital of all things adventurous - caving, rivers, jungle hikes, Mayan ruins, horseback riding, kayaking and more. And we just heard "What's Love Got to Do With It" on the stereo (Latin America is where all things U.S. go to die - old school buses, tee shirts, pop songs!).
Our plans for tomorrow will involve hiking and wading into an ancient Mayan ceremonial cave called Actun Tunichil Muknal. Yes, I mean wading, as it's apparently mostly half underwater. We'll be exploring ancient Mayan artifacts left in the cave, ceremonial chambers, crazy geology, and some crystallized skeletons.
Today, we crossed the border back from Guatemala, where we had just visited the enormous ruins of Tikal. The city, once the New York of the Mayan civilization, is pretty crazy - words won't really do it justice, it is 25 square miles of ruins, and the 3,000 partially uncovered structures (some buildings over 200 feet tall) represent a fraction of the 10,000 known structures in the city. The synopsis is that we arrived in time to see the sunset from the top of an astronomic observatory pyramid (tucans, parrots, spider monkeys flying through the canopy below us) and woke up in time to see the sun rise (like a dragon eye, our guide noted, aptly), framing spires of ruins in our view.
It was a bit adventurous getting across the border into Guatemala, hitching a ride from Caves Branch (our first stop of thet trip) to Belmopan, the state capitol. From Belmopan we caught a bus (despite the apparentl national holiday making the schedule funky), all the way to Benque Viejo. Caught a cab from there to the Belize side of the border. Walked across the border, got suckered into paying a $10 quetzales fee to the bortder agent that went straight into his pocket (read: not required by law). then suckered by a cute young boy who was all of 10 into a taxi ride to catch a collectivo bus which would take us into Tikal. The taxi ride was all of 500 yards, and the collectivo bus actually just took us to El Remate, the nearest town to Tikal, but still ~30 kilometers away. We flagged down the next collectivo we saw, which suckered us into paying far too much to get us the rest of the way to the park.
We actually just made it to the park entrance, because if we waited 30 minutes until 3, our entrance fee was valid for the next day as well. So, we waited by the side of the road until 3 and caught a ride with the first vehicle we saw coming. All told, we took a few too many vehicles than we needed to to get there. but Meredith's spanish held up enough to get us cheated out of only around $15 US - which is actually quite impressive considering the smooth dealings of Guatemalans - and how much they tried to cheat us out of. Getting back to Belize was a snap - hitched a ride with the supply truck for one of the resturants in Tikal back to Ixlu, and then waited on the side of the road for the next collectivo bus back to the Guatemalan border. We even rebuffed the currency traders - getting a better exchange rate trading quetzales back into Belize dollars than what we got going in. Crossed the border, didn't pay a dime.Oh, and ran into two nice folks from our sunrise tour of Tikal, who shared a ride with us back to San Ignacio in Belize.
Before Tikal, we stayed at Caves Branch, about 10 miles south of the capital, Belmopan, to take an introductory adventure or two through the highlands of Belize. What a way to acclimatize! Ian Anderson's Cave Branch adamantly bills itself as NOT a resort - but an "Adventure Lodge".There's some grey area there in our opinion - while they don't have pina coladas at poolside (yet!) - they do have a really nice, beautiful, well run place. The rooms do have thatched palm roofs, and it is set in the middle of the jungle - so it pushed some limits of the mostly yuppier folks staying there, but is still accessible to budget backpackers too. Our first night we were greeted with a scorpion in our room, and woke up to howler monkeys screaming through the trees - which make an amazing soundtrack for the undead. They are really something that needs to be heard to be believed.
Our first tour was called the "Black Hole Drop" where we rappelled 280 feet down into an enormous sinkhole that used to be the gallery of a huge cave. Pretty amazing views, and my first time really hiking through a jungle. By way of background, most of the geology of Mayan Highlands of Belize is composed of limestone, which means that underground streams carve caves into the mountains readily and often. It's called "karst" geology, and creates some crazy features: turqoise sinkhole swimming sites (cenotes) and deep, scary, miles-long caves with rivers that travel both under and above ground. There is extensive evidence of Mayan usage of nearly every cave found in Belize (and there are thousands, many still unknown) - with remnamts of pottery, ceremonial chambers, sacrificial offerings and skeletons.
After our rappelling trip - we wandered down the road to Blue Hole National Park, to go swimming in an amazing cenote fed from an underground spring, that is part of a 8 mile river that flows mostly underground. This was a great swimming hole, with beautiful water, and a neat cave at one end you could swim into - just you, pitch blackness, and the bats. We met a nice local man at the park, who offered to guide us on a trip the following day, of the famous Crystal Cave (one of only 10 crystal caves in the world) and then on a cave innertubing trip through St. Herman's Cave.
Crystal Cave was amazing - words can't even explain the formations of stalagmites and stalactites that adorned every inch of this massive underground world. It's surreal how dark and mysterious the underworld is (Xibalba to the Mayans - the "Place of Fright). Even with headlamps, some ropes, and tough hiking boots it is scary to not know what lies ahead, and so easy to twist an ankle or just get confused on the route while climbing over massive boulder piles and crystals.
After several hours in Crystal Cave, our guide Jose led us out, and a 45 minutes jungle hike took us to the entrance to St. Hermann's cave. We had lunch inside the mouth opening, and began a much easier (comparatively) hike though St. Hermann's. We finally came to the underground river, where Jose had hidden several innertubes earlier in the morning. Incredulously, we packed our gear into dry bags, and hopped in the tubes and into the river. The water was chilly, but we were drenched in sweat so it was refreshing to say the least. We followed the river for maybe a mile, pasing more amazing rock formations, bats, scorpion spiders, and the occasional catfish.
We finally came upon the more "public" area of the cave, where a group of ~25 young students were walking on the guided, roped trail. They were in disbelief at the sight of us floating down the river in the cave, we gave them quite a laugh. It was really unreal when we all turned off our headlamps and floated in utter darkness for a while. It'a amazing how sensory deprivation will affect you - and while it was very tranquil - feelings of paranoia set in (will a bat fly into my head? What just touched my foot? Was that water dripping from the ceiling or....?) Amazing.
From here, we'll be doing the cave trip in the morning, and then maybe 1 more day in San Ignacio. We're debating horseback riding to more ruins, either Xunantunich or Cahal Pech. Then? Beachward for us. Plancencia to the south, and hopefully Glover's Reef Atoll 28 miles out if we can catch a boat out there... Scuba and snorkleing on the 2nd largest barrier reef in the world...
Yes, we're taking hundreds of photos like good American tourists. A few are already up at http://flickr.com/photos/losinghand/ - the others will be up soon!
-Matt