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Archive for October, 2005

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Deeper into the Jungle – Tikal, Guatemala

Tuesday, October 11th, 2005

I got to the border of Guatemala and crossed without issue. I was absolutely innundated with people offering to change my currency (from Belize dollars to Guatemalan Quetzales) or for rides to pretty much anywhere I wanted to go. I decided to follow the advice of John (the owner of the guest house in San Ignacio) to get to Tikal. I took a cab from the border into the town, where I was dropped off with some uniformed-type men. They put me on a minibus (a van stuffed with people, bags piled on the roof), which I took to what’s called El Crucero, where the road forks. The first half of the road was unpaved and in very poor condition – we couldn’t have gone faster than 20 miles an hour. I guess the rule of the road there is ‘drive wherever you can to avoid the big holes as much as possible’, which was much appreciated. The scenery was beautiful through the northern hills of Guatemala. After a little while, the road improved and we started cruising, so I took this opportunity to hang my boots out the window to start drying them. At El Crucero, the guy dropped me off – they were going south, and I was going north. So, there I was, at some crossroads in the middle of Guatemala, backpack strapped on, just standing there. I felt like the devil should appear any second, offering to buy my soul or something. So, as I was instructed, I just started walking to the next town, where I was told I could find a bus or some sort of transportation to get to Tikal. Some little kid on a bike came and talked to me, asking if I needed a hotel. Not long after, another minibus headed for Tikal came and picked me up, and so I was back on my way. [read on]

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Spelunking with skeletons

Sunday, October 9th, 2005

After swimming with the sharks in Caye Caulker, I left the island to head west, on my way to Guatemala. I stopped in a town in the mountains of Belize called San Ignacio. I was recommended to stay at a place called J&R’s Guest House, so I walked around trying to find it, with dark clouds threatening above. Some guy asked me if I needed a place to stay, and when I told him I was looking for J&R’s, he directed my straight up this huge hill. Well, there was no J&R’s at the top of this hill – he must have just sent me up there because I wasn’t interested in his place. Bastard. Anyway, some sort of medicine man told me where it was, so I walked back down the hill, the sky getting darker, and found the place. It was a little house owned by an old couple – John and Rose. Within minutes of arriving, the sky opened up and it absolutely poured. I was talking to some German carpenter trying to find work in Belize, sitting right next to him at the table (outside on the covered patio), and I could harldy hear him because the rain and thunder were so incredibly loud. [read on]

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Best hangover cure? Swim with Sharks

Thursday, October 6th, 2005

As soon as I arrived in Belize City and got myself a hotel room, I regretted the move. I was planning to go next to Caye (pronounced Key)Caulker to do soms snorkling on the reef, but thought I’d spend some time in Belize’s big city first. I was not impressed. About after 15 minutes of walking around, I ran into Hiro again, so we checked the place out together. The Belizean Creole language, as I mentioned before is a very garbled, Jamaican-sounding version of English, and a lot of times you can’t even understand what people are saying to you. At one point, I heard some man say something as I walked by, like: Yah wah bla di’lay, dond eni, which I soon translated in my head to be “You want black dick lady, don’t deny it.” After I left Hiro (he was going to the Caye), I was sitting on a stoop reading the local paper and some lady wearing a very tattered dress, came up to me screaming something with this awful shrill voice. Iwas like, no, I don’t have any money. Then she continued screaming, and I heard swimsuit, so I was like, no, I don’t want a swimsuit, I don’t have a swimsuit. Then I heard something about ‘fight’, and I was like, no, uh, no, I don’t want to fight, and I decided to leave to avoid any sort of fight or swimsuit and to avoid catching whatever she was scratching at in her crotch. [read on]

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Arriving in Belize

Thursday, October 6th, 2005

So, Hiro and I headed down to Belize. I was headed to Orange Walk to take a jungle boat tour down to some Mayan ruins called Lamanai (submerged crocodile in Mayan), and invited him along. I got off the bus in the Mexican border town of Chetumal…I was kind of excited to cross my first border overland. I got off the bus and got right onto another one. The guy who directed me onto the bus complimented me on my Spanish, which I thought was really hilarious because he had to repeat himself three or four times before I understood what he was saying to me, and I was still a little unsure whether I was in fact getting on the right bus. Hiro said it was the one to Belize – he speaks and understands Spanish better than he does English. I think my Spanish is better than his, but he’s been traveling for a while longer, so he might be better at understanding what he needs to. [read on]

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Tulum or not Tulum

Sunday, October 2nd, 2005

Tulum, Mexico is a town about an hour south of Playa del Carmen…it’s another beach town, with some Mayan ruins, and it’s supposed to be a backpacker favorite. I arrived and found my hostel pretty quickly (Tulum is pretty small – my book didn’t have a map of the place, but seriously, there’s only one major street). I didn’t do much – it was hot (it’s really hot and humid everywhere I’ve been so far. Like way worse than those really bad days in Chicago, and I just sweat through everything, especially when I’m lugging my backpack around). [read on]

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