Arne and Ada’s travel blog

We had to leave by lancha very early to Belize City, it was around six in the morning. From there we took a bus to Chetumal, the bordering town with Mexico. The houses in Belize looked nicer, than in any other countries of Central America, but I wouldn't say, that the country was doing very well after all. In the bus we met a Dutch couple, so we had some conversation with them. From Chetumal we took a bus to Tulum and the whole trip from Caye Caulker to Tulum took us the entire day. We arrived to Tulum around eight in the everning and started to look for an accomodation. That took us another hour and half, because everything was there relatively expensive and we had our budget. But after all we managed to find a beautiful and good priced accomodation, which we took. We left our bags in the hotel and ran to eat, because we were very hungry and tired. We had some tacos in local tacqueria, came back and crushed in our beds.

We had decided, we will stay one more day on Caye Caulker. We didn't do much today, just layzing around the hotel, sunbathing and talking to some Canadian guy. For the rest we just were enjoying the sunshine and chilling out.

In the morning we went swimming to the split again and also doing some snorkeling around the other part of the island next to the mangroves. The water next to the mangroves was very warm and snorkeling was very blurry. We snorkeled maybe for and hour, then sunbathed and hung around.

 

In the afternoon Andrea wanted to explore a bit more of the island, so she asked if Arne wanted to join in. We decided to walk to the end of the island, where there was some natural reserve. We also met the Germans, the Danish guy and the Swedish girl, with who we were the previous day on the snorkeling trip. We had some chat with them and carried on in walking.

After the main part of the island, where all restaurants and hotels were, we entered the natural area mainly made of extensive mangroves (Just for information: The whole island was before just a big mangrove swamp. But later they started to cut the mangroves and created a space for "beaches" and made the whole area more inhabitable for the locals and the tourist. The only problem is, that if the mangroves are cut the water flushes the sand of the island away, creating a shrinking effect. So they most of the time have to build superfical protection against the sea, which was a role of the mangroves before. From the other hand the other unhabited islands, full of mangroves are getting bigger, because the mangroves are catching the sand in their roots growing the islands year by year).

But anyway the whole walk was very nice and there was no one to meet. We also saw some other islands in the distance. On the way back we passed the area, where the locals lived. It felt very Caribbean, lots of kids running around and playing.

In the evening we were just again chilling out and enjoying the whole evening.

We decided to cancel our snorkeling trip in the morning. Arne went to the office, but he came back not cancelling the trip yet. The English woman, who owned the agency made him think again.

She told him, even though the trip is quite expensive it is definitely worth going, because many people who went snorkelling in Great Barrier Reef next to Australia or any other reefs kept saying that they never seen anything like that. And this is the best you can get from anywhere in the world. We didn´t know what to do and we had only one hour to think, if we gonna do it or not. At the end we decided we are going to do it.

At half past ten people started to gather in front of office, which was five meters away from our hostel. Today there were many peole wanting to do this trip. We counted around 35. Because there were many people, we needed to take two sailing boats.

 

On board there were maybe 15 people plus two guides. There were two of us, three Germans, three fatty Alaskans, one American, one Danish, one Swedish, one Dutch and some more.

 

 

 

 

 

The first stop was Coral Garden, where we could see manatees, if we are lucky. Andrea got lost over there, because she joined a completely different group, not realising it. She had to swim from far away to join her group being very scared and swallowing lots of salty water. When she finally reached them, they just spotted the manatee, so she just came on time. The manatee is a very strange animal looking like a big seal. The coral reef was beautiful, full of colorful fish and coral. When we finished everyone got some lemonade and bun with fish.

The second stop was Shark Valley. When we anchored our sailing boat and the guides started to feed the fish in the hope to attract Nurse Sharks. And there they were, maybe ten of them fighting for food  just in front of our sailing boat.

The guides encouraged us to jump in the water so we can be close to them. The idea of swimming with the sharks made everyone quite uneasy, but they reassured us, that they are not harmful, so we don´t have to be scared.

Andrea jumped as a first one coming very close to sharks, everyone else joined in. 

The sharks were actualy very scared of us and as soon the guides stopped to feed them, they were gone. All around there were lots of giant sting rays, big fish, small fish and even a turtle.

We swam in between big schools of fish and beautiful colorful coral in many colours and many varieties.

The third stop was Hol Chan, the protected national marine reserve very close to Ambergris Caye. Our group split into two groups and each group swam a different direction. Our group swam towards a coral split, where there was a gate to the open sea. We again saw lots of different kinds of coral and  fish including big baracudas. Arne even swam under some cave guided by our guide. Everyone else was quite scared to do it, because it was quite deep down on the bed of the sea.

When we were swimming back to our sailing boat Andrea spotted a beautiful sea turtle, so she made her time to watch it. She also called Arne to take a look at it and make some pictures of it (we also rented an underwater digital camera, so we could make some nice pictures under the water). Arne came back a bit excited, because he had just spotted a real shark maybe two meters long.

This stop was also the last one. As soon, as we came on board, they started to serve rum punch. The way back we sailed back (instead of using a motor, which we did on the way there) and everyone started to be very chatty after two rum puches. In the middle of our way to Caye Caulker they also started to serve Ceviche (raw seafood or fish marinated in lime juice, tomato, onion and cliantro). We drunk the whole rum and everyone on board was quite tipsy. Everyone  talked to everyone and it made the whole trip very pleasant.

When we finally arrived to Caye Caulker, few of us wanted to meet again in the evening. We came back very tipsy and tired from the whole trip. Andrea fell asleep immediately and Arne a bit later. When we woke up it was too late to meet the people again, so we gave up and carried on sleeping.

 

 

It was very sunny today. Andrea spent the whole day sunbathing and Arne on and off. 

Today we had a dilemma, if to go or not to go on a snorkeling trip. All snorkeling trips were quite expensive and the one we wanted to go on would cost us around 90 dollars for both of us. It was the whole day trip making 3 stops and seeing manatees, nurse sharks, turtles, sting rays and baracudas. All of this sounded very luring, but the price was quite high. At the end of the day, we thought we are going to cancel it.

In the evening we went to the Lazy Lizard bar, which was a very laid-back bar just next to the split and had some rum punch. We talked to a local guy and two french girls in the bar. Ater that we went for one more drink to another bar, ending up talking to some Americans about silly things. In the bar, there was a ladies night, so every girl got a ruffle ticket with every drink. Andrea was leaving the bar disappointed and without any price winning.

We took a bus to Puente Ixlu at six in the morning and from there we took a connecting bus to Melchor de Menos (the bordering town to Belize). From there we had to pass the border control. We had to fill the swine flu form and paid a leaving fee for Guatemala.

From the Belize border we took a taxi to Benque Viejo del Carmen and from there a chicken bus to Belize City. The first part of Belize was very pretty; lots of brooks, rivers and beautiful nature. The second part was a bit drier, but still very nice. The houses in Belize looked prettier and you could see, that people here are better off, than in the other Central American countries.

We arrived to Belize City in the afternoon. Some guy from Lebanon started to talk to Arne and told him, that Belize City is very dangerous and he is willing to take us to the port, where a ferry was leaving for Caye Caulker (one of the Cayes of Belize). Andrea was a bit suspicious about his motives, but Arne was convinced he is a good guy. After a bit more talking to him, we found out that his family owns a big bus company and the bus driver told him that we wanted to go to Caye Caulker, so he felt to have a responsibility for our safety. He took us all the way there and waited until the ferry left. It was very nice of him and we really appreciated it.

The journey to Caye Caulker was beautiful. We passed many small uninhabited islands mostly covered by mangroves and the water around the island was turquoise blue.

When we finally arrived to Caye Caulker, we were quite tired. We started to look for an accommodation, but the first one we checked out was full.

Just in front of the port lots of golf carts (local taxi on the island) were standing and one  of them stopped us to tell us he knew a very nice accommodation and he can take us there for a small fee. The accommodation suited us, so we took it.

Caye Caulker was a very pretty island, although lacking good beaches. Even though the sand was beautifully white, it didn´t have proper beaches, just a very small one next to the split, where most of the people were hanging out, swimming and snorkeling around the fallen pier.  

In the late afternoon we went swimming at the split (a few years ago a hurricane split the island into two, so now a days Caye Caulker is not one island anymore, but two islands).

In the evening we went to check out the prices for snorkeling trips, looked around the town centre and finally went sleeping.

We woke up quite late and decided to take a walk in a national park not far from here. We packed our rucksacks and off we went. We took a walk along the lake until we found the entrance to the park. The entrance was out of our budget, so we changed our plan and went to Internet cafe instead.

After a while whilst sitting behind a computer in the Internet cafe it started to rain very heavily. It didn´t stop for about an hour. Also the Internet connnection stopped working, because the rain created a disturbance. We were happy we didn´t go walking, because we would get soaking wet today in the forest. We waited until the rain subsided and made our way back to our hotel.

 

The rest of the day we spent chilling out, making pictures of the lake and talking to Salvador and his wife about many interesting things.

 

 

We woke up at 4:45 in the morning and left at half past five being "abducted" by a mini-van just in front of our hostel. We arrived to Tikal at six, just after the sun started to rise.It was supposedly the best time to visit Tikal, because you will miss the crowd and you can spot lots of birds around. And it was true, we didn´t even enter the site and we saw a big wild turkey running on the grass.

We made our walk to Central Plaza, where only five tourist were walking around. It was quite impressive - two big pyramid temples reaching the sky and one small building seeded with stairs. We made lots of pictures and climbed one of the pyramids (we couldn´t climb the other one, because it was closed for the tourists). The view was very nice seeing many more buildings hidden in the forest. Next to that temple we saw another kind of turkey a bit smaller than the previous one and also lots of different kind of birds. Not far from the main plaza there were other buildings, scattered around.

 

After that we decided to walk to Templo VI, the most remote temple of the site. That was the nicest walk we expecienced on this site. We saw lots and lots of birds and even toucans flying around and we believe we also saw a quetzal. On the way to the temple we suddenly heard lots of noice coming from the forest. We feared it could also be a puma, because the Lonely Planet mentioned, that it is possible to spot pumas over here. We walked off the path and started to walk to the forest in hope to see something unusual. But there was no sign of puma, but instead very curious monkeys started to jump on the trees heading towards us. There were maybe 30 of them leaping, jumping and showing off. When we came to the temple seven it wasn´t very interesting at all.

We started to walk towards group G, where we saw some woman meditating . Group G was quite nice and from there we just carried on seeing more and more. From Group G we carried on to Templo V, which is 58 meters high and possible to climb. There are wooden stairs next to the temple and they are pretty steep. Andrea immediately went up and Arne went a bit later. On the top of the temple there was a fairly narrow platform which went all around the temple, with visitors sitting on it and enjoying the view (and some trying to control their nerves). The views over the jungle and the surrounding temples sticking out from the canopy were spectacular and worth the climb.

From Templo V we carried on to Plaza de Siete Templos and from there on to El Mundo Perdido. We started to realise how incredibly large this old city had been, with temples and plazas everywhere, many restored and still even more hidden under the forest.

From Plaza de Siete Templos we went past Templo III, a still uncovered large temple, to Templo IV, the largest temple of Tikal with a height of 64 meters and climbable via a set of stairs on the side.

Again we hiked up and were rewarded with the most spectacular view over the jungle stretching far out in all directions and Templo I, Templo II and Templo V sticking out above it.

 

We slowly made our way back to the exit, still seeing many more smaller temples and stelas. We were back about half an hour before the little bus brought us back to El Remate. It started to rain as soon as we got in, how lucky! When we came back we went for a swim in the beautiful lake right in front of the hotel. In the evening we had some beers with Salvador (the caretaker of the hotel) and had an interesting conversation about the differences in life style between Guatemala and Europe.

We woke up very early, maybe at four in the morning, because we needed to take a boat to Puerto Barrios at five. It was even dark when we got into the ferry. Lots of people travelling on the ferry were still very tired, because it was too early.

Most of the people were locals making their way to work at the very busy port of Puerto Barrios, where you could spot big ships of the banana company Chiquita getting bananas from Guatemala to the US or Europe. The sun started to rise at half past five, making this boat journey very special. It felt very nice, seeing the sunrise, the sea and distant beaches backed by green hills of the rainforest.

From Puerto Barrios we took a bus to the Rio Dulce turn-off and from there we took a bus to Rio Dulce. We didn´t need to wait long to connect to another bus going straight to Flores, the main gateway to Tikal.

In Flores we ate some revolting station food, which we of course did not finish. From there we took a minibus to El Remate, the nearest place to Tikal. We checked out a few accommodations, but it was quite difficult, because we were looking for one with a kitchen. After about an hour a very sweet girl maybe 11 years old approached us, telling us she knows some nice accommodation. So we followed her, until Arne decided to stay and Andrea carried on walking with the girl.

Andrea liked accommodation, decided to take it and walked back to get Arne. The guy who ran the place was an uncle of the girl, but he wasn´t the owner. He gives her always 5 quetzales when she brings some guests, so he makes her happy. She also appeared to have a birthday today, so we gave her something extra to make her even happier.

In the evening we went out to organise a pick-up from our hostel called Casa Rojo to Tikal and back. We ate some light food again, had a couple of beers and went sleep quite early.

We woke up very late and wondered why. It was twelve midday.  Also we had a bit of hangover from the previous night, even we didn´t drink that much. The day was very hot and uncredibly humid, which disabled us to do anyhing else, just hanging around, breathing and sweating excessively.

In the afternoon we went to the port to find out about the ferry to Placencia, the next destination of our travel. We also checked the migration and found out, that this trip is off our budget. We had to think what to do and decided to go to Tikal instead. The black guy who led us previously to this accomodation showed up eager to help us with migration and different kind of thinks. But he found out he is not useful anymore, because we managed everything by ourselves of course- a piece of cake. When he couldn´t find a way to get money out of us, he directly asked Arne for it, making up the story, he needed to return some money to some guy and promising he will give it back to Arne the next day in the morning (of course bla-bla-bla). Never trust any Guatemalans. We don´t want to sound negative or anything, but that´s the way it really is. Guatemala is full of opportunists and cheaters promissing you lots of things and then take money and never return. Also the whole mentality is very money hungry like i.e bus drivers and taxi drivers.

 At the start we got quite angry and were very emotional about the whole thing, but now we just learnt how to deal with it. You either don´t trust anyone and ending up being completely separated , missing out the people who really want to help you not wanting anything in return. Oh yes there are very nice people too, but unfortunately they are not always the people who directly deal with the tourists, because they live in the villages around.

Or you are being very nice let everyone run over your head, ending up with empty pockets and a feeling of being riped off and angry at yourself, because you allowed them to do it. Or you just allow people to help you and learn to say NO, when you feel you got trapped in their game  and say NO to bus drivers and taxi drivers, when they try to overchage with not feeling guilty about it. That way you will show your dignity not only to youself, but also to them. And also you will create a space for nice people, whom you can share lots of experiences with.