Tikal with Ames! (I'm still trying to catch up!)

Soooo right after the Belize trip with the family, I flew back to Guatemala and met up with Amy (my bff from Virginia) The day after she flew in we got up suuuuuper early and were picked up and taken to the little airport where we boarded a tiny plane and flew to Flores on the other side of Guatemala. From the airport there, we hopped in a shuttle bus to our hotel in Tikal!

The hotel (Hotel Tikal Inn) we were in did not impress me much. It only had power some of the time and the food was good, but nothing special. There were also some pretty vicious biting flies who weren't deterred  by jeans (they could bite straight through them!).

The first day we settled in and then went on an afternoon tour of Tikal. Let me just say that Tikal is utterly amazing! The size of the site and the height and intricate-ness of these structures is astounding. We walked all over, looking at the temples, the areas where nobility  lived, we even climbed up some of the structures! It was crazy hot up until it started to downpour. Our tour took refuge under a grass hut protecting a stele. At the end of the tour, they set you free to wander and Amy and I walked a loooong way out to two of the far away temples. While walking we spotted some coati families (so cute!).  

That afternoon we wandered around the hotel area some, spotted more coatis and walked out to a crocodile pond (though we didn't see any crocodiles).

We went to sleep early that night because we were waking up at some ridiculous hour (3am, i think) in order to watch the sun rise over the tallest temple in Tikal, Temple IV. To do this we had to hike through the jungle in the pitch dark. At one point we were trekking through the underbrush, led by the guide of course, when the guy in front of me stops and goes, "Is that a snake?!" Turns out, directly by the side of the trail we were on was this tiny, baby fer-de-lance (think ultra-venomous and painful, kills quickly). He was curled up into a tiny ball with his head up and looking directly at our ankles. (Fer-de-lance babies are the most dangerous because when they bite, they empty all their venom into the victim, once the snake get older it learns to control the venom and keep some in case it runs into more trouble later.) He scared the shit out of me. After that heartattack, we didn't run into more trouble. We climbed Temple IV and tried to watch the sun come up; a difficult thing to do when it's as cloudy as t was that morning. We really just watched the clouds get lighter.

After that, we headed back to the hotel and hung around until our flight that afternoon. The flight back to Guatemala City was one of the worst flights I have ever been on. The pilot was either battling hurricane winds, drunk or incompetent. At one point the plane was bouncing up and down while simultaneously swinging from side to side. I was never so happy to be in a plane on the ground after the pilot finally thumped us on the runway.

We spent two nights in Antigua after that. I love Antigua! All we did was walk around, shop, and eat. We took some beautiful pics and it felt good to be clean, cool and well rested after the hot, dirty trekking about in Tikal. The hotel we stayed in, is one of my favorites, Las Camelias. After our time in Antigua, we shuttled back to Guatemala City before catching the same flight into Richmond. Mom picked us up at the airport.

Family Trip to Belize Continued

One day Chris and I spent all day out on a SCUBA trip with Hopkins Underwater Adventures. We went out to Turneffe's Atoll on the SCUBA boat, which took about 2 hours. All along the sides of the boat flying fish would burst out of the water in packs and glide above the surface. I had never seen so many of them before.

We went on 3 different dives. The last on was the best because a 5 foot long nurse shark that went gliding beneath us for about 10 minutes. We also saw lots of coral, bright colored fish, shrimps, triggerfish, sea turtles and (of course) the nurse shark.

I didn't get any pictures because my underwater camera can't go underwater as deep as I can dive. We came back and were utterly exhausted.

 The next day everybody went on the cave tubing excursion. We hopped on a shuttle for a few hours and then boarded some old painted school busses jam packed full of rubber innner tubes in the back. We parked in the middle of a field and then walked, with our inner tubes, down into a stream. We then had to paddle ourselves upstream into the cave entrance. From there we turned on out head lamps and paddled deeper in the pitch black cave. The tour guide helped us spot bunches of bats on the ceiling. and eel and little fishes in the water and a horrifyingly terrifying cave spider creature that he actually held in his hands.

Our guide also took us climbing up some rocks in the cave to where they had found ancient Mayan pottery. Mayan shamans used to come into the cave to perform blood sacrifices by cutting parts of the body (genatalia or tongue, etc) and dripping the blood into bowls for ceremonies. They considered caves entrances to the underworld.

 When we climbed up there were a few cliffs and Mom was terrified. He she is peeking over the edge while clinging to our guide.

 Heres our creepy group photo. Taken with our head lamps on.








We went further into the cave and hopped off our inner tubes to walk over to a face carved in the wall. It is believed that this cave was the site for fertility ceremonies. According to our guide, couple who wanted children but couldn't concieve would come into the cave and pray to the gods and then have sex under the carved face in the wall. After doing this the gods would casue the woman to become pregnant. After having the baby the couple would have to come back and abandon the baby in a cave above as a sacrifice and payment for giving the woman a baby. All children after the first, the couple could keep.

 There is also a stalagmite formation that stuck up from the floor and when you put a light behind it, it makes a dirty shadow of a couple engaged in some fertility ceremony.

We sat down for a photo op and got our butts all dirty.

The guide had brought us all lunch into the cave and laed it out as we wandered around. It was giant tortillas with some kind of sliced meat and piles of veggies. Super delicious. We ate by the light of our headlamps.

On our way out of the cave, we were asked to make an inner tube chain and turn off our headlamps to ride the river back out of the cave. Mom managed to smack into a rock and pop her inner tube which popped pretty spectacularly. The guide laughed and said that had never happened before.

We then did some jumping off of the riverbed into the river and Courtney scrambled up a tree trunk to jump into the river.

The next day we went on a morning horseback trail ride. We went all through some orchards and a forest and down to a river. We actually saw some jaguar footprints! Down at the river we skipped some stones while the horses rested. Later, after heading back to the lodge, we went back to relaxing and drinking and eating delicious food. At one of these dinners a tribal drumming group was invited to perform. It reminded me sooo much of Tanzania. Brenna even got up and danced with them for a bit.

The next day we putzed around before hopping into the shuttle and heading back to the airport. We got on the little plane which flew us to Belize City airport. I hugged everyone goodbye and we went our separate ways. My family back to the US and me to catch my (very bumpy) flight back to Guatemala via San Salvador.

Family Trip to Belize!

Right after school ended,  I flew to Belize to spend a week on vacation with my family. Mom decided she didn't want to visit Guatemala and Belize has a much better reputation for safety and beaches. Becasue Mom planned it, this was an all out trip. I met up with everyone (Mom, Chris, Courtney, Adam, Brenna, Aunt Debbie, Aunt Terry, and Uncle David and Mom's little friend Monica) at the Belize City airport and we hopped an itty bitty plane south towards Hopkins.

We stayed at the beautiful Jaguar Reef Lodge in Hopkins. Top-notch lodge. The beach was raked every morning so it was pristine. Loungers and umbrellas were scattered amongst the sand and there were two pools, one with a swim up bar (which we utilized liberally). In the restaurant area they put together a whole bunch of tables to make one big enough for all of us. I was quite happy with the food (and dessert everynight). They even moved all the tables out to the beach one night so we could eat outside. We also took out kayaks everynow and then (the jellyfish couldn't get us there). It was also quite amusing to watch people try and take the kayaks out. A few didn't know what they were doing and would get quite impressively flipped trying to get them out of the breaking waves.

 

Me and Mom

We made good friends with the swim up bartender, Gilbert. He even asked about us on a few days when we were out on excursions and not at our usual spots in the pool.












The beach wasn't particularly good for swimming. There were Portuguese man-of-war jellyfish all over. Mom actually got stung by one and it left a big red welt over her wrist, that, to my knowledge still hasn't entirely gone away.

Courtney kayaking!













On most days we went on excursions to fun or interesting places nearby. First we all went to an ancient Mayan temple called Xunantunich. The tallest temple was pretty high and Mom and Terry could not handle it. That same day, we went to a different temple complex called Cahal Pech.

Sisters!

Mom and Monica

 

                                                 They were still excavating in Cahal Pech.

1,500 year old paint

 














Another day we went zip lining through the Belizean jungle canopy. It was exhilerating and verrrrry fast.

Adam

Monica about to go!

Safety first.

At one point they dropped you off a platform. Here is poor Mom. 

Second half of the trip coming up next!!