I left Tulum on July 18th, my last ride in a ADO bus (Mexico's interstate bus company) they have been fantastic really cheap, efficient, aircon and just a good bus company. That morning, i walked about 6 blocks from the hostel to the station, on the way i stopped at a bakery to get some breakfast to eat on the bus, it was only 7:30 am, the bus was due to leave at 8:00. I was catching the bus from Tulum to Chetumal about a 5hr drive. Chetumal is on the boarder of Mexico and Belize. once getting off the bus in Chetumal i got talking with two English guys Oliver and Max, who were also heading to the island Caye Caulker of the coast of Belize City. I decided to tag along with them and share there taxi to the port where we then got the water ferry to Caye Caulker. Before boarding the ferry we had to clear immigration before we could leave Mexico. It was absolutely pouring rain and had been for an hour or so all the roads where flooded and the ferry company wasn't sure if the would be running the ferry that day. Eventually the aggressive storm past, they confirmed it would be leaving at 3:00pm. Max, Oliver and myself went to get something for lunch whilst waiting. It was sad to leave Mexico i had many great experiences there and met so many great people, but at the same time i was just really excited to enter into Central America and continue heading south. The seas where extremely rough, so the 2 hour ferry was now going to take 3 hours. We had to get off at San Pedro to enter and clear Belize Immigration and Customs. It was located in a tiny little wooden hut with sand floors, the Immigration officer was texting on his phone as he stamped my passport haha it didnt really feel like i was entering another country. I then moved about 2 meter to my left for bag check, the officer said "anything there shouldn't be in that bag" i said "no i don't think so" that was it, i was now in Belize the whole process took about one minute. We waited there for everyone else to clear before getting back on the ferry and heading to the island of Caye Caulker. Arriving right on dusk the mosquitos were insane, Max, Oliver and myself split of our separate ways, because we had different accommodation plans ( forgot to mention Max and Oliver are brothers). I basically tried to run, i had a swarm of mosquitos chasing me down the road. They were bad on Caye Caulker but only on dusk and dawn, most the days were windy so that helped keep them away also. I check into Bella's Hostel, it was a very chilled place majority of the people were smoking weed half the time, but apart from that it was good. They also had free canoe's and also free bike's to use. That was handy to get around the island. Most of the time there i spent with Max and Oliver, we spent most of the days hanging out at the SPLIT where everyone goes to swim, drink, listen to music and just chill out. The boys did a day tour diving in the famous Blue Hole, it was quite expensive ( $220 US ) so i gave that a miss, but the next day we organised a sail / snorkel tour. It was absolutely fantastic, Caye Caulker has a real rustic vibe to it, the people are super friendly and talk like Jamaican with alot of them having dreadlocks it's really cool. We got to swim with hundreds of tropical fish, nurse sharks, turtles, stingrays and lot of other animals. It was a little crazy with the sharks and barracuda, as we arrive the crew were throwing out fish for the sharks to feed on, there was probably about 30 sharks and hundreds of barracuda. Then he said "ok everyone in the water" haha people were hesitant at first but we all jumped in. I wasn't scared because the sharks don't pay any attention to you so it was fine. On the way back from the tour they had organised rum punch for everyone, it was just amazing we could not have had a better day for it, i was sitting there thinking look where i am right now, on a yacht sailing the caribbean sea after a full days snorkelling, drinking caribbean rum punch looking out at the amazing blue seas. It almost felt like a dream, one of the best tours i have done. Max and Ollie left a day before me, so i was hanging out with a few people from my hostel. I met an American girl Christina, we took out the canoe's and went on a little adventure, we found this cool little place to swim of this jetty which we hadn't known about. It was better than the split if you wanted to just relax without lots of people and loud music. The following day i left Caye Caulker, i could have spent a little longer there but 5 days was enough. I'm starting to think I'm running short on time because i really need to get to Panama by around mid September because then I'm going to do a 2 week cruise around the Caribbean Islands from Puerto Rico. It will be the cheapest way to get around the islands, it also visits 7 of the islands on the east, like St Kitts, St Vincent, Barbados, St Martin, Dominican Republic, St Lucia and a couple of others. Then that only leaves me with about 5 and a half months to do South America, because i want to do the Africa Safari with Oasis Overland in April, which goes from Cape Town to Cairo over 4 months, they only run 2 a year and the next safari would leave me with to long in South America.
So after leaving Caye Caulker i got on the ferry to go to Belize City, as soon as i got on the ferry i got talking to a Canadian girl ( Caroline ) she had been travelling for 7 months already going down through Central America and coming back up again. We were both heading for the same town San Ignacio so we teamed up. We then met another girl ( Sophia ) from London at the bus station, who Caroline had met earlier and so had I, finding out later. Sophia i had actually slept next to on the first night in Caye Caulker before i had to change rooms. We all caught the bus to San Ignacio, it was a really old bus and a two and a half hour ride. Such amazing country side, the landscape changed continuously on the trip, from flat paddocks, to pine forests, to big mountains and then jungle. Once arriving we decided to stay at a guest house and share a private room which actually worked out cheaper than a hostel. The guest house was ran by an old man named Mr John 78 years old. He was a beautiful man, so kind, he really loved all his guests, he would tell so many stories about all his years growing up and living in Belize. Mr John spoke perfect English, he had planted a big beautiful tree out the front of his house ( which he had built him self ) this tree was to attract humming birds and that it did, there were heaps of them, even a couple of bee humming birds which are the smallest birds in the world, extremely rare also. Caroline and myself spent at least 2 hours trying to photograph the birds but it was so extremely hard. They move quicker than you can point the camera at them, i gave up that day, in the morning i tried again for another 30 minutes and got 2 perfect shots of each bird, i was then satisfied. Also while we were there we went to a local mayan site that they were still restoring. This site was called Cahal Pech, it was first built in
1,000 BC which makes it over 3,000 years old, the site was deserted years later, only to be rediscovered in 1950 which wasn't even long ago, they found many ancient mayan skeletons and other artefacts. We were the only people at this site so it was really fun.
The main attraction in the town of San Ignacio is the cave, called ATM cave. Brad had been there and written in my guide book as a highlight to visit, i'm so glad we went there the tour was absolutely amazing. It cost $85 US but it was well worth the money. We woke at 7:30 am, the guide picked us up in his car and off we went, haha it was funny because we stopped along the way to pick up our lunch and supplies for the day. It was a 30 minute hike to the cave through the dense juggle crossing rivers and hiking the hills. We had a 30 minute introduction at the cave entrance, about when the cave was found ( only 1989 ) the cave was a ancient mayan burial site, where they would do sacrifices. The cave goes for 5km under ground and has a river system flowing through it. There are crystal walls, stalagmites and stalactites off the limestone walls. We seen mayan skeleton remains, also there pottery. It was so interesting, also a very strange feeling knowing that thousand of years ago there was people living in there, doing real sacrifices. My favourite part of the whole day was entering the cave by swimming 20 meters across to the rocks on the inside where you then stand then turn around. The view out of the cave was just incredible, almost like it was a painting or a fairy tail. It didn't look real, sadly there are no cameras aloud in the cave because a person about 4 years ago drop a camera on the skull of the mayan skeleton, putting a large hole in the skull. The tour was fantastic i loved it and so glad we did it, both the girls really loved it to. We went out for dinner that night just talking about the day and how good it was. San Ignacio is a great little town set on the side of a hill with a river running through the town down the bottom. Our plans for the following day were to cross the boarder into Guatemala. So Mr John insisted on driving us the 20 minutes to the boarder, he was so lovely when we arrived he waited while we changed money so we didn't get ripped off, he also gave us a couple of lectures about not catching night buses because they have been known to get held up on back roads by guys with machine guns and they take everyones stuff, he also said don't pay the fee that they pretend you have to pay when entering Guatemala because its a con, haha he really cared for us. We crossed the border with ease, got a collectivo from the boarder to a town near the famous Tikal ruins called El Remate where Mr John had told us to go. We stayed at a place right on the lake with its own jetty called Mon Ami. It was an amazing place, the dorm was great and we all had double beds, it was quite there we were the only ones there basically. When getting off the collectivo at the cross road about 4km from Mon Ami, it was pouring rain so heavy we couldn't barely hear each other talking. We waited for the rain before walking the 4km into El Remate. The jetty was a great place to hang out so we spent bit of time there. A guy showed up in the dorm a little later that day ( Josh ) from San Francisco. We all decided to do the Tikal tour the following day, it was great, i'm finding all the history of the ancient mayan's so interesting. I just wish i could be there back then, so i could just see how it was and how they lived. Walking around these ruins it's hard to get your head around how many thousands of years they lived there, they were so smart the way the built things, all the temples are in the positions they are for specific reasons, something to do with the seasons of the year, the calendar year and where the sun will set at that time of the year to work out exact north, east, south, west. They also reflect noise off them so when you clap it makes a weird echo sound, that was how they used to call each other. It was a little complicated to understand but they were very clever the way they built them. We heard howler monkeys, seen spider monkeys, toucans and held a tarantula. After Tikal, we got some drinks and the four of us hung out on the jetty just swimming and relaxing, Caroline had to leave on the bus that night from Flores ( the main tourist town close by ) so we got a taxi into Flores with her, Caroline organised her bus ticket for 10:00 pm and we went onto the island of Flores on Lake Peten Itza. We sat on the islands edge and had some drinks before going to dinner. Dinner was great we actually went to the main hostel in Flores to eat. Sadly Josh, Sopia and myself said our goodbyes to Caroline and went back to El Romate. Early the next day we had organised a shuttle to take us to Lanquin, where Brad had also advised me to go, and stay in Zephyr Lodge which is just epic. The bus ride was crazy, the roads are so rough and windy, we came to a river where we had to cross on a ferry powered by two outboard boat motors. It was 9 hours on the bus and the last 11km took about an hour, down steep cliff edge dirt / rock roads with no protection barriers stopping anything from going over. We arrived at Zephyr Lodge at around 5, it is a hostel on the ridge of a mountain with amazing views. Its funny how many people follow the same path, there are 3 or 4 groups here that i have met previously, even as far back as Mexico before Cuba. This place is fantastic so i will probably stay here maybe 5 days. The tourist attraction of this place is Semuc Champey, which is a series of limestone pools with other options of caving with candles, cliff jumps and river tubing. We are looking at doing the tour tomorrow, today i am relaxing, just uploading photos. I have been so busy from the time i left Caye Caulker to now, so i haven't had the chance to blog for a while, also internet is starting to get hard to find to. I'm currently sitting eating some bacon and eggs for breakfast. I will blog again when i get the chance.
I have been having such a great time it seems to be getting better and better as i go south, also alot cheaper. Accommodation is around $6 a night and the 9 hour bus trip was $15. you cant even get a taxi for 5 minutes for that in Aus....
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