We got off the plane yesterday and took a cab into Belize City. We had the cab driver drop us off at the bus station because we still weren't sure where we were going or staying that night. After some debate, we decided to head out to San Ignacio. We found a cab for a decent price ($20 USD each). It was about a two hour drive with a stop for our first Belikin ("The beer of Belize"), along the way. Once in San Ignacio, we stopped into the first "cheap" hotel we saw ($12.50 USD for all 4 of us). It was a TOTAL shithole. No A/C, no hot water, and bugs all over the bathroom. Oh, I forgot to mention our cab driver (Renee) was hella cool and ended up staying all night and hanging out with us. We ditched our bags at the hotel and went out for some dinner and drinks. After eating, we did some bar hopping, finishing off at a pretty cool little club. We drank a shitload of Belikin, did a little dancing (dancing... jumping around obnoxiously... same thing), then stumbled back to the hotel.
This morning we woke up at 7:30am to Renee (our cab driver) knocking on the door. Last night we had arranged for him to take us cave tubing out at Caves Branch. It was a little tough getting up and motivated thanks to a gnarly hangover, but once we got out to Caves Branch, I totally forgot about it. It was absolutely amazing. You walk a couple miles through the jungle carrying your tube on your back. When you get to the river, you put your tube in the water then walk backwards down a rock face holding a rope, plopping into your tube. Then you just kickback, relax, and enjoy the ride. Right away you float into the first cave. It is about 1/4 mile long and pitch black. Renee had a big ass spot light, but the battery was dying, so it would only stay on for a couple seconds at a time. After leaving the first cave, you go through a mini rapid, then enter the second cave. About half way through the cave opens up where a smaller creek joins the river. Before you know it, its pitch black again. After leaving the second cave, you float lazily down the crystal clear water for about another 30 minutes, bringing you back to where you started. Freak'n awesome! If you ever find yourself in Belize, cave tubing is an absolute must. After our excursion we headed back to San Ignacio to find somewhere to stay (there was no way we were going back to that shithole we stayed in last night). We ended up finding a pretty bad ass hotel up on a hill over looking San Ignacio. Its got great views, a full restaurant/bar, and a cool pool with a rock waterfall. Still recovering from the night before, we went up to our room, threw down our bags, hit the beds for a nap, and didn't wake up till the next morning.
Date: Sunday, 9-3-06
Location: San Ignacio, Cayo, Belize
I'm not really in the mood for writing right now, so I'm gonna try to make this brief. We woke up this morning and headed down to the restaurant for some breakfast. After eating, we walked down to the center of town and caught a cab out to San Jose Succotz. From there we took a hand ferry across the river, then walked a mile up the hill to Xunantunich. Xunantunich was a Maya city from about 650 A.D to 1000 A.D. and was discovered in 1938. We checked out the visitors center, then wandered around the entire site. As we were walking back down the hill to the ferry, we ran into a guy we met in the ruin, and he offered us a ride back to San Ignacio. Sweet! We got dropped off near Cahal Pech, the next ruin we wanted to see. Cahal Pech is much older than Xunantunich and was home to more people. It existed from 1000 B.C.E. to 650 A.D. and was discovered in 1950. It had a cool little visitor center that housed a bunch of pottery, sculptures, and artifacts found at the site. After Cahal Pech, we went back to our hotel, got a bite to eat, then met up with a guy who was taking us horseback riding. He took us about 30 minutes outside of San Ignacio to a little farm. There we got our horses, then headed off into the jungle. It was a pretty cool ride. We had complete freedom with our horses. The only rule was don't get hurt. Paul and I even did a little racing. After the ride we went back to the hotel and hung out in our room for a little bit. Danny and I watched a movie, Paul and Sarah napped. Then it was back down to the restaurant for some dinner. After stuffing our faces, we lounged around by the pool for awhile, just kick'n back, enjoying the view. Great ending to a great day.
Date: Monday, 9-4-06
Location: San Ignacio, Cayo, Belize
Ok, so we did a little boozing this evening, so I'm not going to go into details about today's events. Basically, Danny and Sarah stayed in town and just hung out, Paul and I went out to Barton Creek. Yeah, Barton Creek... bad ass! Its a sweet cave with a swimming hole and a cool restaraunt/bar in the middle of no where. There are even some cute animals running amuck. I HIGHLY recommend it. After our days festivities we all hung out by the pool for awhile, then went into town with the hotel crew for some drinks. After quite a few pitchers of Belikin, we headed over to this Chinese joint for some grub, then called it a night. Tomorrow we are doing some "Lost Mayan World" tour or some shit. We'll see how that goes.
Date: Tuesday, 9-5-06
Location: San Ignacio, Cayo, Belize
Today Danny hung out in town while Paul, Sarah and I went on a tour called The Lost Valley of the Mayans. It is a fairly new tour that only a couple people offer so far. First you drive out to a small town called Seven mile. From there you hike a couple miles into the jungle while your guide explains how the Mayans used the different plants for various things. Along the way you go into several small caves that have some Mayan pottery in them. You make your way back towards the starting point, then hike another mile or two in the opposite direction. After passing a couple small crop fields you come up to the entrance of a cave, which, if you didn't know was there, you would just pass right by. After a steep, muddy, narrow entrance it opens up to large rooms with tons of stalagmites, stalactites, and columns. The Maya believed that caves like this were part of the underworld and would use them for sacrifice rituals and such. This cave is still mostly unexcavated, but we still got to see some human remains and pottery. After the cave our guide took us to one of his friends house in Seven Mile for lunch. She made us a huge plate of rice, chicken, avacado, and cucumber. We hung out for a bit after lunch chit chatting, then headed back to the hotel. Later that evening Paul, Sarah and Danny went over to the Guatemalan border town for some drinks, while I stayed back and relaxed at the hotel. After getting a bite to eat and taking a dip in the pool, I went back up to the room, threw on my ipod and fell asleep.
Date: Wednesday, 9-6-06
Location: San Ignacio and San Pedro, Belize
Today was pretty much just a travel day. We woke up , checked out of the hotel, and headed back out to Xunantunich for some trinket shopping. They have a bunch of little vendor stands with local art work, jewelry, and carvings. After shopping we drove the hour and a half back to Belize City to catch the boat out to Ambergris Caye. $15 USD and 45 minutes later we were wandering the streets of San Pedro town looking for some where to stay. We weren't in the mood for walking around so we ended up just renting a golf cart (the main mode of transportation on the island) for 24 hours (we'll probably just end up keeping it the entire time we're here). After driving around a bit we found a sweet deal at the Belize Yacht Club. 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom, full kitchen and living room, cable TV, on the beach... $150 USD a night ($40 USD each). Score! We threw down our bags and went out for a bite to eat. After stuffing our faces we went back to the hotel to relax and get some sleep. Tomorrow we're going fishing.
Date: Thursday, 9-7-06
Location: San Pedro, Ambergris Caye, Belize
Today we woke up and walked down to our pier to meet the guy who was taking us fishing. He pulled up in his boat, we jumped in, and off we went. After about 4 hours of fishing we didn't do as well as we had hoped. Our guide was kind of a dick. The highlight of the trip was Paul hooking a four foot Nurse shark. Unfortunately he did it while fishing for red snapper on 12 lb test. After about 30 minutes of fighting the shark while trying not to snap the line, it finally broke. So no pictures. After our reef fishing trip, Paul went to the store and bought a rod so we could do some fishing off the pier. That was pretty cool. We caught a bunch of colorful little fish. No clue what any of them were. We then went up to the room and showered and went out for some dinner and drinks. After dinner Sarah wasn't feeling too well so she went back to the room to get some sleep. Danny Paul and I went over to the Jaguar Paw for some drinks. There we met two locals named Nigel and Andrew. They told us the Jaguar didn't start getting busy till a little bit later. So to kill some time we asked them to take us to some small local bars where no tourists would be. So we jumped in the golf cart and headed north out of San Pedro town. We ended up at a bar right on the lagoon. After a couple beers there we headed to the south end of San Pedro to another bar. Talk about a shithole. I think we were there for all of about 5 minutes. Off to one more bar before heading back to Jaguar. This one was on the way back to Jaguar and right on the beach. We parked the cart and headed up to the bar. Before we even got our first beer we heard some commotion around the corner. It was Andrew getting tossed around by two cops. We're not sure what started the whole thing, but what happened for the next 20 minutes was pretty ugly. Andrew thought he was being unfairly arrested, so he wasn't making it easy on the cops. Eventually they pulled out their metal baton stick things and started beating him. Eventually they handcuffed him and got him onto their golf cart. We were freak'n shocked man. We took Nigel home, then went back to the hotel and went to bed.
Date: Friday, 9-8-06
Location: San Pedro, Ambergris Caye, Belize
We didn't do much today. We all slept in pretty late. Sarah and I got a little too much sun yesterday, so we stayed inside and watched movies most of the day. Paul did some more pier fishing. Danny hung out at the pool bar. Once the sun started setting, Sarah and I came out of our cave and met Danny and Paul down at the pool bar. From there we went out for a bite to eat. After that it was off to Fido's (Feedoze) for some drinks. A few beers later and I was headed back to the hotel to go to sleep. Tomorrow I am gonna do some snorkeling and maybe rent a jetski for a little bit.
Date: Saturday, 9-9-06
Location: San Pedro, Ambergris Caye, Belize
Today we snorkeled! It was bad ass. My first time snorkeling. First we went to the Hol Chan reserve. We spent about 45 minutes there. Our guide swam around with us telling us about the reef and pointing out various fish. I got some pretty cool pictures. As we were getting back into the boat, I hit my camera on the ladder and cracked the lens. Fuck! I wasn't pissed that I broke the camera. Big fucking deal. I was pissed because now I will have no pictures of our last two days here. Oh well. So any ways, next we headed over to Shark Ray Alley. Now this place was bad ass. As soon as you pull up the Nurse sharks, rays and fish all surround the boat because they know sardine chunks will soon be thrown overboard. Even though the Nurse sharks are mainly bottom feeders and very docile, its still kind of freaky swimming around with them at first. The place was amazing though. Gorgeous coral, neon fish, sharks, and stingrays. But again, not pissed that I have to buy a new camera, pissed that I couldn't get pictures of all this crap. Oh well. It was an awesome experience. After snorkeling we all jumped in the shower then headed back into town to drop off the golf cart (we don't really need it any more) and get some food. We ended up eating at this pizza place that we ate at our first night in town. Its pretty damn tasty. Afterwards we went across the street to the San Pedro Sports Complex to watch the semifinals of the basketball tournament. One of our buddies from the hotel (bartender at the pool bar) is actually playing in the first game. We hung out there for a couple hours then went back to the hotel. Tomorrow is our last full day here. I don't really have anything exciting planned. I may take a snorkeling trip up to the north end of the island. Or I may just stay here and rent a jetski for an hour or two. Or I may lay on a lounge chair down on the beach listening to my ipod all day. Who knows. But I guess that's the beauty of being on vactation... you can do whatever the hell you want.
Date: Sunday, 9-10-06
Location: San Pedro, Ambergris Caye, Belize
Today was another lazy day. We slept in, then went into town to grab a bite to eat and do some trinket shopping. We also got to see the parade celebrating Belize's 25th year of independence (it used to be British Honduras). That was kinda cool. After that we went back to the hotel for some more laziness. Did some napping, a little more pier fishing, watched some tube, more eating, and then some more tube.
Welp, that wraps up another adventure. Tomorrow we hop a boat back to Belize City to catch our flight home. As always, I'm a little sad that its ending, but happy to be going home. Time to start researching my next international adventure. I've already got some ideas floating around, so stay tuned.