Hasta La Vista to La Isla Bonita

After an extremely exhausting day on Monday, it was all that much harder to get up in time for our next dive outing.  SCUBA School Belize was to have a cab pick us up at 8:00am. And, as has been the drill every morning, we had to pack up our bags and get them in storage and check out. We were on our own for breakfast, but found that the hotel next to us served breakfast. So we enjoyed an early  morning meal on the beach.  It doesn't get any better than that. 

Breakfast on the Beach

We ate quick, and got our bags pulled together, and the manager gave us a key for the storage shed on the beach for us to keep our bags in until we were done SCUBA diving.  We returned to the front of the hotel at 8:00 to meet our cab.  He was about 15 minutes late yesterday, so when 8:05 came, then 8:10 and 8:15, I wasn't worried yet.  However as it got closer to 8:30, I thought it was worth emailing the office. They responded right away (as they always do) and apologized profusely, and said they contacted the driver who said he was on his way.  Another 15 minutes went by and still nothing.  It was no 8:45.  Just then a person came walking towards us that looked familiar.  It was Junior, the owner of SCUBA School Belize.  It took a while for this to register, as his shop is a couple miles away, and I didn't expect to see him here.  He walked up and saw us still standing there, and said "The guy has still not come with the taxi?"  Nope.  So he found the first taxi he could, put us in it, and told the driver that the office would take care of the bill.  He said they had been using a new taxi driver the last few days, but they're finding he's unreliable. 

We made our way to the office, and picked up our equipment, and headed over to their dock, which

Pre-Dive Briefing

was 2 blocks away.  At the dock, our assigned Dive Master for the day was the same one as yesterday: Jovan.  Both Jovan and Junior are extremely thorough in their pre-dive briefing and went over all the very basic safety precautions as well.  Repeatedly everyone from the dive shop asked how I was feeling today.  Though my stomach was still a bit sore from all the issues the prior day, I was otherwise good.   I had put on the antiemetic patch that Junior had given me the day before, and hoped that would alleviate any seasickness problems.  The water was choppier today than yesterday, and so they said I would be the first one into the water, and should descend right away so as to minimize chance of getting sick.

When we got to the dive sit and I suited up and jumped in, Allie was right behind me.  We both descended slowly to the bottom of the ocean at this point, which was about 45 feet deep.  Half way down I had looked up and saw Kalyssa and Jovan's feet in the water.  Now that we were at the bottom, Allie and I began looking around and could see no one anywhere.  Visibility was pretty good (though no where near what Hawaii was last year), but yet we still couldn't find anyone.   We decided to hang tight a few minutes, but my anxiety began to grow at that point of being "lost" at the bottom of the ocean.  I started debating different approaches at finding Jovan and Kalyssa.  However after several minutes they emerged from the distant water, and we continued our dive.  We had one other diver that had joined us, and she was pared up with her own master diver.  The  first dive was to Pedro's Canyon.  The same dive we did yesterday, though I will say, we must have been in a different part of it, as it looked much different.  We also must have gotten further out, as I went to 60 feet deep at the deepest point, deeper than my dive yesterday.

The Ziemanns, Jovan, and a Shark

Allie and Kalyssa

After a half hour, we returned to the surface, and headed back to the dock for our surface interval before diving again.  (In order to prevent injury from decompression sickness, times of dives must be limited based on their depth, and consecutive dives require a "break" in between to ensure the Nitrogen in your blood reabsorbs.) Fortunately this time, I was able to do so easily and keep my breakfast down.

Sea Turtle (obstructed, but in center of picture)

Allie, while having enjoyed the dives much more than she though she would, asked if she could skip the last dive, as she was dived out.  I encouraged her to push through since this was the last one of the trip.  She ultimately did, and I think was glad she did.  The second dive of the day was a "drift dive", where we continually drift in one direction and the boat has to come find us afterwards, as opposed to the first 3 dives where we stayed in one area and came back to where the boat let us down.  This dive was in an area they call "The Mermaid's Lair".  The rock canyons in this area were magnificent 15-20 foot high cliffs of coral that dropped off to a white sand beach canyons between them.  I got to a max depth of 65 feet, and as we kept going the coral dropped off below me to what looked like another 25-30 feet below me.  On this dive we saw a couple sea turtles and a moray eel, as well as several nurse sharks. 

 

 

After this dive we resurfaced to choppy oceans and began climbing into the boat. Right as we started, the other Dive Master suddenly exclaimed with great excitement:  dolphin! dolpin!  We all stuck our faces back in the water to see, but only Kalyssa was able to get a good view of it. Allie saw its shadow disappearing, and I saw nothing.  Once again I was easily able to get back in the boat without getting sick!

After the dives, we headed back to the SCUBA School office, where they had a shower we could use and towels.  We logged everything in our dive books, and they called us a cab to take us back to our hotel.  I had hoped we could take an earlier boat back to the mainland, as there was a long drive ahead of us once we got to Belize City.  However, the water taxi that we used had only 2 options, 1:00 or 4:00.  It was 1:00 when we left the SCUBA office, so we couldn't make that one.  The downside was that the 4:00 water taxi would get us to Belize City at 5:30.  It was then a 2 hour drive to San Ignacio (near the border with Guatemala), where we were staying tonight, and it gets dark about 6:30/7:00 here currently.  This meant driving in the dark which is ill-advised due to lack of streetlights, poorly maintained and lighted vehicles on the road, poor road conditions, and of course the multiple surprise speed bumps all throughout the country on the main highways.  Looked like this was our only option. 

We made the best of the extra time in San Pedro however, and grabbed a quick lunch and then we all took a nap on the beach under some palm trees in front of the Inn that we had stayed in the prior night.

Nap Time

Eventually it came time to board the boat and say goodbye to the Island that Madonna made famous in her song La Isla Bonita. Once we made it to Belize City, we still had to get in a cab to take us the one mile to our car.  As has been common place, the cab already had a bunch of people in it.  A guy holding a carton of about 3 dozen brown eggs in one hand, and a Belikin in his other (riding in the middle of the front seat) and a woman next to him, which may or may not have been his wife.  We had good conversation though for the 5 minute drive.

We then jumped in our car, and headed towards San Ignacio.  It was definitely dark, and there were a few speed bumps that snuck up on me that I was only able to drop my speed to about 25-30 mph after seeing them at the last second, but otherwise the drive was uneventful.  When we finally got to the address 2 hours later, we saw a sign for our lodge, Casa del Caballo Blanco, but couldn't find the entrance.  We ended up going down a very long bumpy dirt path, before we decided that was not it.  We went around to the other side of the property, and ended up on a gravel road that still didn't look right either, so I called the manager.  He directed me inside, and we were finally home for the evening.  This guest house, from what we could tell in the dark was absolutely beautiful.  It was on many acres of land that are landscaped very nicely, and our room is the largest we've had since we've been here. The roof was a thatched ceiling that had a peak that rose about 25 feet above our room.  Everything was spotless clean and very new looking.  I think we'll enjoy our next several days here.

 

Feeding the Fish, part Dieux

Monday morning, my alarm was set for 5:45.  We had an incredibly hectic morning, leading up to our boarding of a boat to take us to Ambergris Caye (prononuced "key") at 8:00am.  Since we were once again moving to another hotel, we had packed our bags the night before, so there was a limited amount of pick up we needed to do before hitting the road.  As we were doing that final packing, Kalyssa made the comment that it felt like we were some fugitive family that had to keep picking up and moving because someone was after us.  Yes, that is pretty true to what it felt like.

Richard had said he'd have breakfast for us at 6:30.  He indicated this would be enough time to get us into Belize City and catch our boat, though in retrospect, I'm not sure he understood the extent of the logistics that we needed to go through to accomplish this. As we were packing up the bags, I could hear him downstairs slicing up fresh pineapple and papaya, and some toast.  He also had coffee waiting for us.  We chatted a bit about his history on the island, and how the coral has been diminishing greatly since he's lived here.  We also discussed the impact of politicians, gangs, and drugs on the quality of life in Belize.  Richard had moved here from the UK back in the 70s.  I hated to cut the conversation short.  Geez, how often does one get to sit in the home of a National Geograpic Videographer and discuss World Travel. Alas, we had to get to our boat to get out to Ambergris. 

I apologized for our rushing, but we bid farewell, and jumped in the car.  I pulled up Google maps.  For some reason here in Belize, I can use this app to route out a journey between two places, and it will tell me the route, distance, and time to travel, but it won't give me the step by step guided directions.  I entered the address and started driving.  With minimal people in Belize, and a very low average income, there was very little traffic on the road besides us.   We made good time geting to Belize city.  As I zoomed in closer on the map for the final couple miles or so, I saw that it had us cutting through the South Side of Belize City, right along side some of the areas the government deemed as "crime ridden areas." 

I now had to choose between safety or possibly missing my boat.  Safety won out, and I took another route that avoided the bad areas, but knew it would put us in more traffic.  We finally reached the hotel where we were told we could park the car, and we had 14 minutes left until the boat left.  As I pulled in I rattled off something to a security guard about leaving my car here while I got on a boat.  He opened a large gate, and told us to go park inside.  I probably could have done this and left, no questinos asked.  Nonetheless, I had contacted the hotel earlier this week, and they said I could leave the car there if I paid the equivalent of about $17.50.  I asked the guard where I pay, and he said inside.

Inside of course was a mess of people checking in and checking out.  I ran up to the counter and explained myself to the woman behind, who clearly didn't share my sense of urgency.  She slowly gave me forms to fill out, and entered stuff in the computer.  To try and hurry her along, I asked if the water taxi leaves exactly at 8:00 or if there was some wiggle room.  She started telling me about the competing water taxi, and offered to provide me schedules.  No! I'm on my way there now, I need to know if it leaves right at 8, or if it will be gone if I'm a couple minutes late.  She told me "yes, they have a boat that leaves at 8."  Uggh, nevermind.  After printing off, carefully cutting in half, and handing me a document to sign, she said, "Oh wait, let me give you one with the date.   Took it back, ripped it up and started over.  The moment the second one was in my hands, I ran out the door like there was no tomorrow.

Inside the Water Taxi

I thrust the document into the security guards hands, and went over to a cab that I had hailed on the way in, that the girls had already helped load our luggage.  We now had about 6 minutes until the boat was supposed to leave.  The taxi driver also was keen on telling us his life story, and everything he loved about Belize as he leisurely drove us to the water taxi.  That's great!  I love conversations like that...but not today.  We're in a hurry people!



View from Water Taxi of Belize City

We finally arrived at Caye Caulker Water Taxi at 7:59am.  A man out front greeted us, took our bags and directed me to get my tickets.  Both he and the ticket taker urged that I hurry, and they finally helped us get through fast.  We walked through the gate and boarded the boat at 8:01...and left no more than 2 minutes later.

The boat ride was an hour and a half inside a cramped crowded boat.  Fortunately, about 50 minutes into it, there was a stop at Caye Caulker where half the passengers disembarked, and the remainder of the trip had much more room to spread out. The manager of the guest house had told us they were 100 feet from the dock for this boating company.  I was pleasantly surprised when we got there, that the guest house was literally at the foot of the dock. Nice!  We walked in, and they told us our room was ready!  Awesome!! It was only 9:30 in the morning, and I had known they had a wedding party here over the entire weekend, so this was definitely not expected.  We carried our luggage up to the second floor, dropped it off, and then I went to the office to fill out the paperwork.  In the office the woman said, you are the Abramsons, right?  Well no, we're the Ziemanns.  "Oh," she said, "My manager said the Abrahamsons were coming early, so I assumed you were then.  You will actually be on the first floor.  So we start our stay by carrying all of our stuff back down the stairs.

View From Front Door of our Unit

At this point we had some time to kill before the SCUBA company was to come pick us up.  We walked around the town a bit, found a smoothie stand (we each got one) and then found a place that looked good for lunch called Caramba.  I had a very good curry chicken with rice and beans (of course).  This was later discovered that it was probably not the best decision of the day.

Lunch at Caramba

Allie's anxiety of her first dive in the open ocean was clearly getting the better of her, as she was getting quieter and grumpier.  As we got back to the hotel, she was repeating "I don't want to go, I don't want to go."  To add to the tension our ride was more than 10 minutes late picking us up.  Both girls were convinced I had the wrong time, the wrong place, something was wrong.  I pulled up my email correspondence with the company and showed them where it told me where and when to wait for the ride.  I also sent them a follow up email to make sure somehow I hadn't been forgotten.  Fairly quickly though I got a response saying my ride was en route, and would be there soon.

Eventually a cab driver arrived, and said he was there to pick us up for Scuba School Belize.  The cab driver was also extremely friendly, and when I told him we had gone to Lamanai the day before, he said, "Oh, you stayed in the town where I grew up: Orange Walk."  Well, yes, we certainly did. Once again, a reminder of how small the country is. 

When we got to the Scuba office, we went through the various paperwork, picked out and tried on equipment, and began getting our briefing, which then finished a couple blocks away at their dock. The instructors were great for working with newly certified students, and every step they took, they tried to turn it into a teachable moment for the new divers.  I though this was great, though Allie and Kalyssa had a different opinion.  Quite some time later, we finally boarded the boat and drove the 2-5 minutes out to the dive site.  We suited up and jumped in the water. 

The first thing I saw when I hit the water was several nurse sharks about 15-20 feet below me.  Allie had been all excited to see sharks (perhaps the only thing she was still excited for pertaining to SCUBA diving.)  I on the other hand was more concerned with how not to be eaten if I ran across sharks.  This did excite Allie a bit, however she had quite a bit of trouble sinking when she first got in, and ended up remaining at the surface for several minutes while Kalyssa and her guide descended.  seemed pretty After Allie descended in the water, it appeared she was doing much better in the ocean than she had in the quarry.  In fact she may actually be enjoying it. 

After our first dive we ascended back to the boat.  As we got back towards the surface, I felt my stomach suddenly lurch in response to the changing pressure and rolling waves.  I was pretty sure I would be sick, as images of last year's Hawaii trip ran through my head.  I struggled to get on the boat, and told the dive master that I'd likely throw up.   Once we got up, I follow through on my promise, and was sick most of the way back to the dock for our surface interval.  I spoke with the divemaster, and he recommended I pickup some adhesive patches that provide a slow delivery of a drug to prevent nausea.  He said they were availble at drugstores and showed me some he kept in his box for emergencies where people have several dives, or dive training they need to finish, but are affliceted with sea sickness.  I knew once I got down for the second dive, I'd be better... or so I thought. 

 

We rested for about 45 minutes and then went back out to do dive number 2.  I hurried to get in the water, but my stomach was doing jumping jacks.  I began descending to get out of the waves, but too little too late.  While 5 feet under, I felt it coming.  Fortunately, last year I did a lot of research of what to do if one gets sick under water.  The answer is simply keep your regulator in your mouth through the whole episode.  Not pleasant, but I followed that advice.  I had a vew fits while descending, but continued to go down.  After about 20 feet and 3-4 times of very productive stomach convulsions, things began to feel better.  I finished the dive with the girls, (who were all doing much better than me), and we all began our final ascent.  Once again, when I got to about 15 fee of depth, I felt my stomach go at it again.  The good news was, that all the articles I read about getting sick underwater were right.  Keep your cool, keep your regulator in your mouth, and its not too big of a deal.

However, at this point, my body was exhausted after two dives, and a total of 14-16 sessions of vomiting (half above and half below the water) that I could barely move to swim to the boat.  I had signaled to the divemaster underwater that my stomach was not doing well, and he grabbed me and guided me to the boat, and helped me remove my gear (actually he pretty much removed it all for me.)  Once we finally got back to the dock, I was fairly recovered, though still extremely fatigued.  He reached into his box and gave me the adhesive patch, with no uncertain instructions but to use it tonight in advance of tomorrow's dives. I told him I certainly would.

We made the walk back to the office slowly, and Scuba School Belize called a cab for us.  On the way back, we passed "Casa Picasso" and Allie exclaimed that she had seen reviews for this online, and its supposed to be really cool.  We figured we'd go back to the room, shower and head back out there for dinner.

When we got to the house,  a guy was feeding some stingrays off the dock right in front of it.  Kallyssa went over to him, and he encouraged her to pet them.  The stingrays started gathering at her feet like puppies!

 We walked out to the street and found a cab.  The cab was an extremely old van of some sort.  Seats were disgustingly worn beyond recognition, the windshield was mostly shattered, and that which wasn't shattered was in desperate need of Windex, as it was almost impossible to see out of the glass.

We asked his price to take us to Casa Picasso.  BZ$8. Seemed reasonable to me. We got in the car, and I had tried to pull it up on Google Maps.  However, for some reason my internet has been very glitchy on this island.  My app dropped a pin roughly where I thought Casa Picasso had been, but it seemedto be another restaurant.  I had guessed that perhaps this was next door.   As the cab was driving, it seemed like he had gone well further than where I remembered seeing the restaurant, and certainly my map app showed him way beyond it.  At this point it was dark outside. 

The cab driver turns down another road, which was gravel.  The ambience is getting much less touristy, and more slummy.  The gravel road starts getting worse and worse.  I pull out my GPS which shows that we have passed the restaurant by far.  Meanwhile our driver, takes another turn and I see a giant warehouse with a line of trailer loading docks.  At this point, my heart started racing, and I convinced myself, I am about to get robbed.  I started considering escape routes and how to indicate to the girls that we all should bolt from the car.  First, I told the driver I believe he missed it somewhere behind us.  He seemed to think it really was in the direction he was headed but obliged us, and took us back towards where we had come from.  We went back to where my map dropped the pin when I searched on Casa Picasso (though Google maps changed it to something entirely different that WAS there.  After wandering for quite a bit, I was offering anyway to simply get out the cab, as I was still very uncomfortable.  He stopped to ask another cabbie about the location, and came back with the news that Casa Picasso was closed today, but that it was back in the direction he thought it was.  I asked if he could just drop us somewhere that had something.  He brought us to a nearby resort.  At first it looked deserted.  However, he said if we walked to the beach side we'd find some restaurants.  I paid him (a little extra, because at least part of his running around was my fault. 

When we checked out the restaurant, it was very empty, and someone came over and informed us the kitchen was closed.  He suggested if we walk another 5 minutes down the road, there was a hotel that would still be serving food.  We walked in that direction.  We didn't see a restaurant yet, but at one of the resorts there was a group of people at a small outdoor bar.  We asked if there was a restaurant.  They said, "Yes, down by the lights".  One of the woman at the restaurant spoke up and said they had eaten there the night before, and it was not that great.  Uggh.  The 3 of us at this point were just hungry and tired.  I relayed the brief version of our story, and one of the people said:  "Well, we just went fishing today and caught a barracuda. You are more than welcome to eat some of it, as we were just going to give it away to someone.  So we pulled up a chair, and enjoyed steaks of fresh grilled barracuda only hours old, and made a handful of new friends.  Unfortunately, the 3 of us were exhausted, and didn't have the energy to sit and chat all evening, and instead headed back to the room and fell asleep early.  But of course before we left, I did ask for a picture that I could use for this little blog I keep. 

 

Ruins of Lamanai

Sunday morning, we awoke to the sound of congregations singing in churches in the distance.  Either the Belizeans really have some pipes, or the churches actually amplify and broadcast the singing.  We once again had only one night booked at this guesthouse, so we needed to pack up our stuff, and do it quickly before we were picked up by boat at 9:00am at the river alongside our lodging.  Additionally, I had to run to an ATM to get more cash.

The owners had told me the night before that there were several banks just outside our complex that were easy walking distance.  So while the girls were getting ready, I went for a quick walk.  The town of Orange Walk is one of Belize's larger cities, but with half of the 350,000 people living in the country located in Belize City, even the other largest cities are still tiny by any American standards.  The city is much cleaner and nicer looking than Belize City, though there is still occasionally some graffiti.

Just outside our complex, and right up against the riverside was what looked like a very old American treehouse or club house.  It was all wood, about 8 feet by 8 feet, and up on stilts about 6 feet high.  As I walked past I saw someone in the back room (it appeared to have 2 rooms) stand up and stretch.  Apparently just waking up.  It is incredible the difference in poor housing in a country such as Belize vs. America. 

Small House Next to River

Orange Walk

Orange Walk

As I got out of the complex, I walked past many people either on their way into or out from church.  I would have liked adding attendance of a Belizean church to our itinerary, but wasn't able to do that with the timing of our other scheduled activities.  I found a Scotia Bank, only a short block away from the alley that leads to our guest house, and grabbed some cash, and headed back.

The girls were ready for breakfast, and we went over to the bar/restaurant.  However when we got there, the large French family and the owner all went walking quickly over to the river.  Apparently there was another crocodile sighting.  The owner explained that the crocodile's were fairly docile to humans.  He used to dive in the river, tag the crocodiles, and track their movement.  He said he had tagged over 1000 of them.  Asked if they were at all dangerous, he said "No.  I swim in the river, everyone swims in the river.  They are not very aggressive. Sure enough, through out the day, we saw dozens of people swimming in the river, and a handful of crocodiles.  I, however, decided I would not be swimming in the river this week.

We all headed back to the restaurant (though now we were a bit behind schedule). We had egg and cheese omelets, toast, bacon, and some frozen horchata made with coconut milk.  The horchata was awesome.  The eggs I again forced down.  I've now eaten more eggs this week than the last 20 years combined.  And hopefully more than the next 20 as well.  The owner came over and said the boat was going to be here soon for our New River and Lamanai Ruins tour, so the girls ran back to the room to get all our bags packed and loaded in the car (we were checking out, but leaving our car there while on the boat) while I settled our tab for the visit and meals.  The owner then told me the boat operator had called and was almost there. I ran quickly back to the room, and as I started going a boat could be heard in the distance.  The owner said "That's him coming".  I moved as fast as I could to brush my teeth and get everything out to the car, but as I was doing that the owner said he told the boat operator to pass by and pick up the next group and come back for us, so fortunately we had an extra 10 minutes to finish packing up.

We got on the small motor boat with a few other tourists.  We continued down the river and stopped to pick up some more.  All in all there were 12 tourists that seemed to be made up of Germans, French, and Americans, and our Belizean tour guide. For the first 30 minutes, our guide stopped frequently to point out wildlife along the shore.  We saw more crocodile, he pointed out different types of trees, and talked a bit about the river that we were on: the creatively named "New River."  At one point we pulled up to some weeds floating on the surface of the water, and there were 2 similar looking birds about 15 feet apart from each other.  One slightly larger one, was standing fairly still, staring at the slightly smaller one, that was stomping his feet up and down as if crushing grapes for wine.  Our guide explained that the smaller one was the male, and that his job was to incubate the eggs, and the female's job was to supervise.  Hmph.  Typical.

As we continued further, a spider monkey started following our boat.  We pulled over to the trees by where it was, and our guide pulled out bananas for people to hand to the monkey.  Clearly the monkey had done this many times before, as he eagerly came over and waited patiently for someone to step up and give him a banana.  He would then bite the center, break it in two halves, eat one and then the other, and then toss the peel into the river.  Kalyssa also got a chance to give him a banana.

After the first 30 minutes or so, we picked up the pace and continued travelling the 37 miles down river to the Lamanai ruins.  At one point, there was a complex of very clean and new looking homes up on stilts. Our guide told us these were, until recently, John McAfee's--yes, the founder of the anti-virus software.  If you've not read the recent history of this eccentric millionaire, I definitely recommend that here.

Former McAfee Compound

About 90 minutes or so after boarding the boat, we finally arrived at a doc with a small thatched roof hut with a sign that said: Lamanai - Submerged Crocodile.  As we were pulling up, our guide explained that it is believed that the Mayan word Lamanai means "City of the Submerged Crocodile". 

We disembarked, and our guide gave us a moment to visit the restrooms, and asked if we wanted lunch now or later.  We all voted for later.  We began our hike to several temples within the complex.  While in the shade and when the breeze was blowing it was comfortable.  However, a good portion of the hike was in the sun.  It was in the lower 90s today, and as is the whole country, extremely humid.  Moments after stepping in the sun, one could feel the sweat running down your body almost in sheets.  Since we were hiking in the rural jungle, we all wore long pants to protect against bugs and scratches, but that of course makes it even warmer. 

Jaguar Temple

The ruins were absolutely magnificent.  The first one, Kalyssa and I climbed (Allie decided she
 climbed enough the day before).  The second one, the "High Temple" was the tallest of the complex, and the 3rd tallest in Belize.  Both Allie and Kalyssa decided they'd watch me have the fun, and they sat in the shade.  Climbing the steps on the face were not allowed for most of the height, but wooden stairs had been built around the back to make the ascent.  Reaching the top, provided an amazing view, of what seemed like the entire country.  I could definitely see or many many miles.  This temple was 33 meters high, and was built in 100BC.  The amount of solid rock that this contained, and the idea of people building this in the oppressive weather, and carrying the blocks to these heights was just unfathomable. 

View from atop High Temple

Later in the complex we came upon a very small ball court.  (Apparently it is unknown why this one is so small.)  The guide went over in brief the rules of the game as we know them.  Interestingly, this game was taken extremely seriously, and was considered a test to see if one could enter directly into heaven without having to go through the levels of hell first.  Therefore, the champion of the tournament would be killed, so that he could take his direct flight to heaven.  Wow what a deal!

Mini Ball Court

Stela Temple

At one point while we were finishing up the high temple, Allie and Kalyssa started talking with the German family (they spoke fairly good English).  Mom and Dad were here with there son who was probably around Kalyssa's age.  They took the opposite approach of us, in coming into Belize (and Mexico City and the areas near Cancun.) with virtually no preorganized plan.  They flew into Mexico City, and were flying out from Mexico City in another week, and were planning each day on the fly, and using the public buses in Belize for transportation.  Note, the public buses are all old decommissioned US school buses.  Small seats, and no air conditioning, packed full of people.  They said it was definitely uncomfortable, but a neat experience, and only cost at most US$3 per person for trips that took as long as 5 hours (crossing half the country).  This made me very glad I had my rental car.

Mask Temple and Burial Ground

By the time we were done with the ruins tour it was shortly after noon and the entire group was exhausted.  We went over to a picnic area and our guide brought out a couple of coolers with Tupperware containers full of Belizean dishes.  More seasoned chicken, rice and beans, salad, and what was perhaps potato salad.   Additionally, they had a large bottle of rum punch.  A couple glasses of this REALLY hit the spot after the long day. 

We eventually all got back in the boat, and took an "express" trip back to Lamanai Riverside Retreat.  On the way back, we did get the opportunity to see what I believe were 3 Mennonite women (queue song from yesterday: "Mennemonite doo doo, da dah dum....")The were all very fair skinned and appeared blonde, with floor length purple dresses and either large hats or bonnets and were sitting on a dock.  We all waved, and they waved back.  It certainly was a bit of an unexpected site to see in Belize, even though I knew it was likely in this region.

Once we arrived back at the guesthouse, Kalyssa asked if we could get some more frozen horchata

Local Kids Playing in New River

before we left.  This honestly sounded fantastic after 7 hours in the 90+ degree heat and humidity, so we ordered 3.  An American couple that was on the tour with us also got off with us, simply to relax at our bar for a bit before walking down to their own resort. 

We began talking to them, and asked where they were from, and they said: "Tennessee." 
"Hah! So are we!" I replied. Turns out they are from Knoxville.  I started remembering the French fellow the night before saying that there were some other people at the resort from Tennessee.  I asked them if they had stayed here last night.  They said no, but said they did stop by the bar for a drink last night.  "Ahh, you must have talked to the French family then?"  Confirmed.  As we talked more about activities that we've done or plan to do, they mentioned they were at Altun Ha they day before and it was empty, but that as they were leaving they had seen the French family there also.  I had said we also ran into them before checking into the resort at Altun Ha, and then Allie's eyes lit up and she said "Wait a minute, you guys parked next to us, I remember there was a dog under your car when you were leaving and we had just gotten there."  Also confirmed. We are learning that Belize is DEFINITELY one giant 'small town'.

While we were sitting there, another man who had been there the night before,  (and I believe is also part of the family that owns the guest houses) pointed to our Nissan X-Trail, and asked if it was ours.  I knew something bad was coming... Apprehensively, I said "Yes....?"  He said there was a light on in it all night.  Oh no.  I remembered when I went out to it this morning one door looked like it wasn't closed all the way.  The dome light must have been on all night.  I asked the woman behind the bar if anyone here had jumper cables.  She apologetically said she really didn't know.  I went over to give it a try and see what happened.  As I approached it, I used the remote entry without even thinking, but then heard the doors unlock.  Well, that's a good first step.  Lets see if there's enough juice to start it. I turned the key, and the engine roared to life.  Phew! Crisis averted.  I walked back to the bar and left the car running to ensure the battery recharged a bit before turning it off again.  I paid our bill, and we all went back to the car, and hopped in for the 90 minute ride to our 3rd lodging in 3 days.

On our way back south, I once again saw several "Tapir X-ing" signs.  I've been very eager to see a Tapir cross my path this week... still waiting :-(.  I also continued my bad luck at seeing the sneaky Belize speed bumps.  These sit in the highway (where the speed limit is 55 mph) and are fairly high, with a platform about 4 feet wide before falling back to street level.  Apparently they use these as opposed to police to prevent speeding.  And of course, one should slow to about 5-10 mph to go over them.  Sometimes they have a sign, often they do not.  I quite often see them at the last minute, slam on the breaks, and still end up flying over them at 25 miles an hour, causing everything in the car to go airborne, with a very loud crash.  I hit about 3 or 4 of these this way on today's drive.  They are only near intersections (which there are very few of) or populated areas with a lot of pedestrians crossing.  However, if you don't know the area, you obviously don't know these are coming up, and there far enough apart, that you forget to keep an eye open for them.  Fortunately, I've not destroyed the shocks and suspension on the car yet. 

We finally made it to the Savannah Guest House.  This was to be an interesting stay, as the owner's (Richard and Carol Foster) of the guest house have a huge nature reserve, that I believe they own.  They are videographers for National Geographic and have an impressive resume of work they've done.  The house is "off the grid" which I assumed would mean no air conditioning.  We pulled in a bit earlier than Richard  (or I) had anticipated but he quickly showed us around the house.  It is powered by solar power, the kitchen sink has filtered rain water fed to it for cooking with water (or there is bottled water that is potable) and as expected there is no air conditioning. And of course in the common area, there was a TV where we could watch much of his Nat Geo work.  Unfortunately, I knew we'd likely have no time for that.

As he showed us to our room however, it was absolutely beautiful a bedroom with 2 beds, and a screened in porch with a hammock and a third bed.  Nice!  I asked him about the walking trail that I had seen coming in, and he said it was about a mile and a half, and while not likely if I went, he did once see a jaguar. I asked the girls if they wanted to walk the trail.  They said absolutely not.  They wanted to get ready for dinner.  I told them I'd go for a walk, and when I got back we'd leave to eat.

The trail went alongside a huge open field that I can't even attempt to estimate its size.  It seemed to go on forever.  The trail then went into an area that had more brush.  I didn't see a jaguar, but I did see a vulture, and could smell its meal.  After a 30 minute walk or so, I returned to the room, we jumped in the car and went a couple miles down the road and had some comfort food at a restaurant that Richard suggested called Cheers. We ordered hamburgers, and ribs. The meal was very good, and filled us up, however the mosquitos were starting to get annoying so we finished quickly and went back to the guest house for some much needed rest, before an extremely busy morning.

View from Walking Trail

Vulture

Dinner at 'Cheers'

Beneath the Jungle

Saturday morning, the alarms were set for fairly early, as we needed to meet up with our guide that was going to take us on our Nohoch Che'en Caves Branch river tubing experience.  I did not sleep well, and woke often throughout the night for no particular reason, so 6:15 came earlier than I would have liked.  Nonetheless, an exciting day was lined up for us, and it didn't take long for the adrenaline to kick in.  We had told the guest house owner and manager Oti (short for Otilia, Gaby's wife) that we'd be leaving early the next morning, and that we'd be down for breakfast right at 7:00am. 

After waking up, we quickly got our bags in order, so that after breakfast we could jump in the car and leave.  I wasn't entirely sure how long it would take to get to the Caves Branch, so I had hoped to eat quickly and leave.  However, I forgot something I've learned and has been reinforced on all of my previous trips.  The best travel experiences come from the people you meet.

We descended the stairs and went into the main house, where Oti came out and greeted us and escorted us into the dining room.  It was a very elegant dining room with a large dining room table that could seat 10. Coming from the US it seemed very strange for some reason to be in such a formal dining room when it was in the 80s and extremely humid.  Oti, began bringing us out all sorts of breakfast items, fresh banana, cantaloupe, and papaya.  Coffee.  Cantaloupe smoothie for Kalyssa.  Meanwhile we could hear and smell bacon frying in the kitchen.  Finally she came out with plates of pancakes, eggs, and bacon. (Though I really don't like eggs, I usually expand my taste quite a bit when I'm in the midst of a cultural immersion such as this, and I ate almost all of them.)  As we ate

the main course we talked quite a bit.  She told us about Gaby's issues which had been caused by Rheumatoid arthritis.  He's since had both knees and his hips replaced, which has allowed him to live out of a wheel chair, and walk on his own again.  We had had no idea when we had met him the day before the extent of his medical issues.   Oti then shared a story about how she had once seen a man up in Corozal Belize that was homeless living in a wheelchair because of similar medical issues whose wife had left him and whose family refused to take care of him.  How sad to have such tragedy befall one that not only do you lose your physical abilities, but the loved ones that you would depend on to care for you as well, decide that you are too much trouble for them.  A modern day Job.

We talked a bit about family.  I made a reference to my girlfriend Aimee, and she responded clearly thinking that Allie was Aimee.  I clarified and explained that Allie was my daughter, and that my girlfriend was still back home in Nashville.  She talked about her family and how she had 3 sons and her husband had 2 daughters, the same situation as Aimee and I. 

As we talked further I asked if we were the only family staying today.  She said yes, that there was another family that had just left, and that the man's name was also Ryan.  She then said that after we checked out her and Gaby were leaving for a 2 week trip to California and Washington DC.  I then became the recipient of something that almost caused me to break down on the spot, and certainly did not expect on day one of my trip.  She said, "I told you I had three sons.  Well I had a fourth son that died.  His name, was Ryan.  We were not planning on having guests this week, but when I saw your name, I had to.  When a Ryan stays at my house, they are always treated very special, and I had two Ryan's this week."  Wow.  This was certainly not the type of connection that I had anticipated making less than 24 hours of being in the country. 

She went on to apologize for how bad that she felt that given this, that she was not able to be here when we arrived, and that she had forgotten sheets on the smaller bed in our room.  I assured her it was not a big deal at all, and that I was honored that she shared that story with me.  I asked if she would please join us for a picture, and she of course obliged.

At this point, breakfast had taken much longer than I had anticipated, and I ran upstairs to quickly brush my teeth, throw the bags in the car and leave.  I turned on the water, rinsed my brush and put toothpaste on it.  Immediately Kalyssa sticks her head in the bathroom, and scolds "Did you just rinse your brush in the sink."  Uggh...yes I did...  When we were in Cambodia, Allie did the same thing and ended up with a bad stomach infection later while we were en route to India.  Belize isn't as much of a concern for Americans, but it is still a place where the local bacteria can play havoc on a visiting American's stomach.  I tried to rinse my brush thoroughly with bottled water, and finished my teeth, embarrassed to have been the one to make the mistake after reminding the girls over and over to treat the water the same way we did on our last big trip.

As we were pulling our bags together, I mentioned that we'd be heading to Orange Walk, and that there is a Mennonite colony there, and we might see a bunch of Danish folks in horse and buggies along the road.  We talked more about it, and Allie was a little confused about the schedule, and asked when we were going to see the "Mennemonites."  This made me laugh, and I had to burst into a rendtion on the Sesame Street song "Mennemonites. Dah dah, da-da-dum.   Mennemonites.  Dah dah, da-da-dum."   We all cracked up and dubbed that the song of the day.

We left our guest house, and to get to Western Highway, we took Chetumal Road south, over the creek.  This took us along the very edge of the southern part of Belize City, and I pointed out to the girls, that only half a mile East of us, were some of the parts of Belize that the government had declared "Crime-ridden areas" where certain blocks were under essentially martial law.  Even from the edge we were in, you could see the dramatic difference in the style of housing, it was clearly slum housing in this section.  (though I think the housing stock actually improves a bit in the crime-ridden areas.)

We were only along side this area however for the equivalent of a block or two, and then we were out of Belize City completely.  Our instructions were to drive to mile marker 37, look for someone holding our name on a sign along the highway, and be aware that other tubing companies would have people trying to recruit me to use their companies instead.

We eventually found our name, and stopped.  The young man in his mid 20s introduced himself as "Walter" and said he would be our tour guide and to follow him on his motorcycle to the office.  We followed him for a short drive, to the headquarters of Vitalino's Cave Tubing where he gave us some

water, we took care of payment, and then he asked if he could get in our car for the 7 mile drive to the national park entrance.  On the drive he shared that we were driving through the village that he grew up, and still lives. Similar to most villages in Belize it was all very meager looking dwellings by American standards, but similar to what you'd find in rural areas of countries like Mexico.   He said as a kid he would go down to the caves, and now it is his living.  After parking, we had a 30 minute hike through the jungle, starting at the end of the tubing route, we crossed the river several times, and went through dense jungle paths.  Walter stopped to point out all the foliage such as mahogany trees, cashew trees, and cohune trees.  At the cohune tree, he stopped to show us the fruit which looked like wooden kiwis.  He picked one up and smashed it several times with a rock, and inside was an almond sized and shaped section of fruit that looked just like coconut.  He said it is very similar to coconut but the oil is used for cooking and massage oils. He gave us each a piece of the inside to try.  It definitely tasted like coconut, but was much more oily.  Allie made the good observation that it made for good lip balm...It definitely did, as suddenly my lips felt very moisturized.

Walter, our Guide

We continued hiking and finally reached the mouth of one cave with a river coming out of it, and going into another cave.  Inside the source cave was a rock high over the water.  He asked if any of us wanted to go jump off the rock into the water.  Kalyssa of course immediately exclaimed "Oohh!!! I want to!!!" So her and Walter climbed the wall of the cave and over to the rock about 6 feet over the water, and she jumped in.  Walter followed shortly behind her. 

 

We all got onto our intertubes, and Walter got on a much smaller one so he could navigate and guide

us in the water.  We then floated into the mouth of the cave.  We had been given helmets with lights on them, and very soon we needed to turn them on to see.  The water was crystal clear beneath us (he had said it came from a spring further up the mountain) and the cave was huge 20-30 feet wide and even wider in some parts, and 15-20 feet high above the water.  The tubing lasted 90 minutes or so, most of it slowly floating along inside the caves looking at various formations, and a couple places where the ceiling opened up and had a little bit of light.  For the first 20 minutes we heard the sound of a water fall getting closer and closer and louder and louder.  I was begining to get nervous about what we were going to have to navigate over, however when we got up to it, it was only a small stream that ended in the cave at a water fall.... there were not any falls for us to go over.

Eventually we finally made it out the mouth of the cave, and continued tubing for another 20 or 30 minutes through the open air in the jungle, giving us new sites to see as we floated over the crystalline

water that was anywhere from 6 inches to 12 feet deep or so depending on the moment.  Finally we arrived at the place our hike started, and we walked over to change and get in our car.  The company we used had lunch waiting for us back at their lodge which was some sort of a spiced chicken on bone with rice and beans and cole slaw (very similar to the meal we had the night before) along with Cokes in the glass bottles I remember from when I was a kid.  We finished our food, checked out the gift shop, and then jumped in the car to head up to our next stop, the Mayan ruins of Altun Ha. 

 

Lunch Provided by Vitalino's Cave Tubing

 

Altun Ha required heading back towards Belize City, but turning Northward before getting there onto the "Old Northern Highway."  This road started out paved, then was half paved and half dirt, then was all dirt, then was gravel with many potholes, and occasional sections of old pavement peaking out under the gravel.  When there was pavement, it was only one car width, so if other cars were coming in the oncoming direction on the "highway, we would need to pull onto the shoulders to go around each other.  After 45 minutes of this, we were approaching the turn into the ruins when I realized I had just missed the turn.  As I went to pull off the road in a smooth patch and turn, a group of 6 or so girls around the ages of 14-18 were about to walk directly where I was going to turn around.  I knew I'd probably be looking a little odd, pulling right in front of them by only a few feet blocking there path, so I tried to self consiously make a sign to them that I was turning around.  Allie gave them a wave, and the whole group smiled very friendily and waved at us.  As we were turning around, I noticed one, maybe two of them were looking at their smartphones while walking.

I had to laugh, as the village of Lucky Strike that we were in, is typical of any Belize village in that the houses were very tiny and looked more like a kids clubhouse in the US.  But yet, even out here in the remote jungles of Belize, kids have their smartphones.  This is the world we live in, and this culture seems to traverse all borders.

We pulled into the parking lot for Altun Ha.  Although the complex was not tremendously huge, the Angkor Wat.  We climbed the Temple of the Sun God, and made it to the top, which did allow you to walk up to the edge of the building which had a dizzying drop off of about 30-40 feet down the front of the structure.  As I'm afraid of heights, the girls were willing to get much closer to the edge than I could (which only made my discomfort worse)  I was happy to suggest we go back down and walk around the rest of the complex. After the complex, we walked through the gift shop and ended up walking away with some pretty cool handmade items including a chess set, mask, and backpack, which were easy to carry since now my wallet wasn't weighing me down anymore.
buildings themselves were still impressive.  It was built around 500 AD, making it 500-700 years older than the structures we looked at 3 years ago at Angkor Wat.

Temple of the Sun God

When we had gotten back to the car, we had two choices.  Continue on Old Northern Highway up to about 45 miles to Orange Walk Belize, or backtrack 25 miles or so, and take the new Northern Highway to Orange Walk.  I had asked Oti about this this morning, as our guidebook (written 4 years ago) suggested the Old Northern Highway was not a good choice due to the terrible road condition and limited resources for help along that route.  Oti agreed, and said it is just not safe to go that route, so we heeded her word, and took the longer, but quicker and safer route.  The new Northern Highway was paved and wide enough for 2 cars the entire way (though "paved" in the same way as the other parts of the major highway which appears to be large gravel packed down and sprayed with tar, and still makes for a noisy though fairly smooth drive.

We ended up coming upon Orange Walk much quicker than I had expected.  It was also a bit more dense of a town than I expected, but definitely nicer looking than Belize City.  With the assistance of my iPhone, I turned down a tiny side street off the main road towards the bank of the river a half a mile to the east.  Not far from the river was another tiny street where I turned.  Then I kept my eyes open for "Lamanai Alley".  My iPhone was telling me it was just ahead of me.  However I just saw two buildings fairly close together and what looked like a gravel driveway between them about 10 feet wide.  Yep, that was it. This gravel driveway led us behind the buildings and towards the river where it led to a gated resort.  The first thing visible was a big outdoor bar, and several thatched roof tables along the river, and a few very small cabins.  As soon as we got out of the car, we were met by a woman who welcomed us to Lamanai Riverside Retreat and asked, "Are you Ryan?"  She then showed us our room, and said dinner would be available by the bar. 

Lamanai River Side Retreat

We brought our stuff into the room, and returned for dinner. I had hoped to try conch as they had

several dishes on the menu, but unfortunately our waitress told us they were out of conch.  :-(  However, that did convince me to order the lobster dinner, since it was only BZ$30...which is US$15.  Sweet.  It was nummy.

Allie once again wanted to enjoy a vacation drink and asked for a recommendation.  The waitress suggested something saying its got a bit of everything in it, and you pour a beer of your choice into it.  I figured this would probably not be received well whatever it was but sure why not.  When they brought the drink over, it was in a small mason jar with about 3 or 4 ounces of brown liquid in it, that had all sorts of black and brown specks floating in it.  It came along with a beer to be poured into it.  I decided to give the base a taste before the beer was added.  It reminded me of a bloody mary, but less tomatoey.  Lots of pepper, and other spices.  Some liquor base, but I couldn't quite tell what.  Allie took it, added the beer and took a sip, and her immediate response was pretty dead on:  "It tastes like drinking chicken."  Yep, nailed it.  It tasted like chicken with all sorts of seasoning all over it.  Needless to say I inherited the drink and she switched to soda pretty quick.  It was tasty, but I still could only drink half of it.

Once again we all finished up the evening pretty early.  The girls headed to the room, and I sat at the bar and worked on the blog for the day, taking a brief break to talk with some of the other people staying here tonight: a family from France whom we had seen this afternoon at the ruins of Altun Ha, but were embarking on their own two and a half week adventure here, after flying in this morning.  Around 11:00pm I wandered back in the dark to my room.  When I got to the door, I found the girls had latched the screen door.  I was locked out.  The very loud AC unit, which was right over there head was running full force.  I tried knocking discreetly and calling their names.  Nothing. The building is 3 units all wooden with a wooden deck, so every noise was reverberating through the other guests rooms, I was certain.  I knocked a little louder.  Nothing. After 10 minutes I was sure I'd end up sleeping on the porch.  I started walking in the dark through the weeds to the back of the cabin to try and call through the window by their head.  On this side I was as far as I could be from the other guests, so I knocked quite a bit louder.  Finally, I heard Allie stirring, and she came and opened the door for me, and I was able to get in and finally get some sleep.