Last day in San Marcos

So, today is our last day in San Marcos. It was also our last Spanish lesson. I'm afraid that the in-depth metaphysical discussions will be firmly in English for the forseeable future.

As we are going to do more 'proper' travelling soon, we may be dropping off the grid for a bit. We are planning a night in Pana tomorrow, then a long trip to Rio Dulce (changing buses in the big city!). We will be there for two nights, then we get on the catamaran for six nights. We have been promised that there will be no Internet once we get on the boat.

A little bird has told me that my friends Gary and MC have got engaged. We are waiting to be told all the details. Congratulations to you both.

Trudi is currently having a(nother) treatment. She hadn't decide what she was going to have - but I bet it's a head massage. I'll be going swimming soon.

Feliz CumpleañosTrudi

OK, a quick catch up appears to be in order. The last few days have been pretty quiet, Wed, Thu and Fri mornings have been taken up with our Spanish lessons and the afternoons have been spent recovering from our Spanish lessons. In the evenings we have been eating in the restaurant at the hotel, partially because of the excellent food and partially because of the fact that it means we don't have to walk around the dark paths at night.

Friday was, of course, a special day; Trudi had her twenty-eleventh birthday (again) and we celebrated by moving into a new room with an even more spectacular view.

View of the 'infinity bed'	View of the outside shower

The bathroom (which has a bath!) is outside and is amazing to relax in the tub, reading a book and looking at the astounding view.

On the down side, Trudi took a while to get used to the concept of the 'infinity bed' and spent the first night worried that she was about to fall out. Having a bathroom (and toilet) outside also takes some getting used to.

T had loads of birthday wishes via email (thanks all) and had a lovely card and present from her Mum. She hasn't yet seen anything expensive enough that she wants as a her present from me ... watch this space.

On Saturday we decided to go and visit San Pedro (across the lake from us) and we took the lancha (boat) over there. San Pedro was dirty and T was most pleased that we were not staying there!

Saturday night was a quiet night in, watching 'Peep Show' series 3 episodes. Nice and relaxing.

Our next task is to work out how to get to the boat for Friday lunch-time. Oh, the pressure.

Trudi Quotes (an occasional series) (i)

I'll really appreciate being able to cook when I get home (in reference to having access to a kitchen. I suppose we should be glad that the delusions of becoming a Cordon Bleu cook have diminshed)

It (the Church droning in San Marcos) Just proves that I couldn't be a hippy - I'd have killed him by now.

Spanish day one

Awoke to a magnificent view from our bed

After last night, the floor was covered with dead ants. Even worse, there was no water! We had to go to our Spanish lesson dirty (sucio)!

Four hours of Spanish later, with the amusing Maydeni, we know a bit more. But the important thing is that we were forced to speak Spanish for (most of) the four hours. Four more days to go, then, I'm sure, we'll be having in-depth metaphysical discussions in Spanish.

After a light lunch, T went off to her therapy session, which was great by all accounts and then we wandered down to 'the beach'. Which resembled a small, sandy garbage dump. P came back to type this blog up and, just now, a hummingbird came to look at the plants about 5 feet away - awesome.

We dined in the most popular restaurant in Guatemala by our observation, anyway. It was OK, but nothing to write home about. Luckily, when we returned to the room, there were only three or four ants - easily dealt with. Trudi has decided that the mosquito net feels like a four poster - so we have it up now.

Ant-gate

We got the boat back from Pana to San Marcos, the driver seemed to not care that it was overcrowded and most of his passengers were getting wet, especially me.

On the way back to the hotel, we booked Spanish lessons - start 8am tomorrow and Trudi booked an EFT therapy

We went back to the room, settled down to observe sunset and then left for dinner.

Lovely vegetarian dinner, accompanied by more church noise and barking dogs. The businesses (about 80% of San Marcos' business) don't like the church, it's illegal but the mayor does nothing about it. I forsee some kind of hippy-led confrontation in the none too distant future.

Returned to room to find it crawling with large ants. Worked out that the 'knock-down' spray for mosquitoes is just as effective at knocking down ants that are crawling around quite happily outside on the roof and then come tumling through the gaps in the ceiling. After a while of trying to work out what to do, decided to erect the mossie net over the bed. T was very good and didn't freak out at all. Had an ant-free, but poor, night's sleep. Won't make that mistake again!

The Cash run

We were up early, packed and on the boat to Panajachel. (Trudi got a little wet). Lago de Atitlan is quite spectacular!

Task one was to try to get cash out (you won't believe how hard this can be!) . There are all sorts of rumours about why cash is hard to come by in Guatemala. The most common one seems to be that they ordered new cash but burned the old money before realising that the new money was rubbish (bad ink, easily forged,...). Bottom line is that there is only about a 50% chance that an ATM will actually have cash.

We had to get some books, as we passed a shop that had over 4,000! I bought a new hat, Trudi haggled.

We decided to have lunch in Pana (yep, that's what us locals call it, none of your Panajachel rubbish that marks out those tourists), we had a very nice lunch with a view.

San Marcos on Sunday

We had a lovely breakfast at Aaculaax, lovely. The rooms look amazing and have fantastic views - we move on Monday.

All day, there was continuous noise, mainly from the band in the square, practising for their fiesta. It wasn't all that pleasing to the ear and there was no escaping it.

Another lousy night as all night long the local dogs were getting their revenge on the village band by barking, all night. Really, all bloody night.

Antigua to San Marcos

Just to set the reord straight, I forgot to mention the pretty real fire that was burning in our room as we returned from dinner. It was very pretty and was actually neededto keep us warm, it's nice to be not baking hot all the time.

After getting cash in Antigua, we caught our pre-booked minibus from Antigua to Panajachel, there were only four passengers (which must seem an incredible waste of space to a Guatemalan (mini)bus driver, who seem to take it as some kind of personal pride in driving around with horrendously full vehicles. Panajachel was busy, but it was Saturday afternoon.

We were dropped off at the Tourist info in Panajachel, which booked a room for us at the Posada Bosque Encantado.

We marched the length of Panajachel to get to our boat (lancha) to San Marcos and then a march to the hotel with three local lads carrying our baggage. Bargaining with them for their services was an interesting experience, I got the feeling that they were better at it than we were:-)

We went out for food and had a beer at the Blind Lemon, where there was live music, then back to our room for a (not very good) sleep.

Pretty

Last night, we had the 'tasting menu' at the hotel restaurant which was lovely. The piece de resistance was the dessert, where the chef came out with the plates and poured the sauce into a small pot that, he told us, contained dry ice. Very pretty.

It's a pretty place, Antigua.

Off to the lake now.

Things I forgot to mention at the time (i)

During all the excitement of the trip etc... there are a few reasonably interesting things that happened that I forgot to mention. Here is my chance to catch up.

• On our 45 minute march through the blackness of the jungle of Tikal to the temple for sunrise, we saw a huge spider. It was the size of a small dog. (O.K. about 8 inches across including legs). One of the girls in our group screamed very loudly. The spider ran away, very fightened.
  
• As we wandered over the border from Belize into Guatemala, there were a large number (about 30) of low-loader trucks lining the streets with US style (i.e. Jeeps and not Land-Rovers) army vehicles on board. None of them seemed to be tanks or cannons or anything - just people movers. The also had no military identification on them at all except the word 'Belize' written in white paint on the front of each. There were no army people in sight - it was all a bit strange really.
  
• Rather than bore you all with the current state of our insect bites, suffice it to say that the little bastards are pretty much everywhere - it is quite comforting to take Malaria pills each morning. A little less comforting is reading about the other things you can catch from such bites in the Death Book as we have come to call it. Trudi is forbidden from reading unvetted pages, lest she starts worrying too much.
  
• It appears that Trudi's best friend (I am only her best, straight, male friend - apparently) David; has been moonlighting in San Ignacio - taking all that confidential Sainsbury's knowledge and putting it to use in his own Superstore.
  
  

Luxury

Another early start to get to the airport to fly down to Guatemala City (either a 30 min flight or a 10 hour bus ride - we chose the former). As we arrived at the airport we were told that the flight would be late as it was misty. That pleased Trudi, who seems to believe that Central American Airlines are just happy-go-lucky scared-of-nothing death traps. So, demonstrating some restraint by not taking off in thick mist reassured her (a bit) that they might care about their (and our) lives.

Upon arrival in Guat. (see, we are going native) we took a ten dollar shuttle to Antigua (no, not that Antigua, Antigua Guatemala).

Trudi had her beady little eyes on the most posh hotel in the guide book (a 5 star converted monastary), I suggested that there might be nice places to stay other than there. So we trundled off to the INGUAT Tourist Information centre. (Who were only marginally useful - I must say.)

As it turned out, the only place left that had a double room for two nights (that was acceptable to her ladyship) was, you guessed it, Casa Santa Domingo. I bet you are all shocked about that revalation. You can tell that it is nice because it has rose petals in water everywhere - apparently.

After a beautiful night's sleep (although interrupted by lorry/bus horn honking at five thirty am) and a wonderful evening meal, we are fully refreshed. Trudi has her sense of humour back in full effect - which is, I must confess, a mixed blessing.

The place is stunning, and very relaxing as you can see

Also, at 5,000 feet it is pleasantly cool and there are no nasty insects to spoil our days. Very nice.

Tomorrow we head off to Lago de Atitlan fow a few days. Apparently it's cold there.

Valentine's day in Flores

After our early rise to see sunrise in Tikal, we decided to have a mellow day in Flores. In the morning we wandered around the small town and had a nice lunch, then we chartered a boat for a tour. (O.K. we wandered to the local jetty to ask a bloke to take us for an hour trip around the lake.) We had a bit of a Spanish lesson thrown in for free as he explained to us about the lake, the towns and the crocodiles.

At one point he told us that the bit of the lake we were in was very good for swimming. I required no second bidding.

After some more lazing, reading and swimming, we wandered through town looking for a nice meal. Eventually we returned to the lovely 'La Luna' (where we had eaten the night before) for a nice meal. Flores was pleasantly thin on the "Valentine's Day" promotional stuff, it was very nice.

Tikal

After sunrise, we were taken on a guided tour of the site (amazingly, the war with Caracol was not mentioned once). Trudi did a great job getting up and down this monument.

The buildings and the views are just stunning, and, with the heat down and the 'other people' factor low - it was a great place to enjoy.

As we were leaving the park at 11.00 am - the throngs were arriving. Back to the hotel for a well earned siesta.

Spectacular sunrise

We were picked up from our hotel a little after three and taken the one and a bit hour trip to the park at Tikal. At the stroke of five we started our march through the pitch black towards Temple IV. The walk took the best part of 45 minutes and then there was a steep climb up some wooden staris to the top. We were rewarded with a magnificent sunrise.

Guatemela Bound

We arrived at the bus station just as the 8am bus to the border was leaving, we were ushered on and found some seats, the short trip to the last town (Benque Viejo) was uneventful and we alighted into the arms of a throng of wating taxi drivers. We were whisked to the border (2 miles away) and deposited into the arms of waiting money changers. After paying out exit fees, we changed all our Belize dollars for Guatemalan Quetzales and left Belize into the arms of a throng of (Ok, two) taxi drivers.

After working out that we were actually in no-mans land, we got our entry stamps into Guatemala and continued haggling with the Taxi drivers (we had gone from 45 USD to 40USD by this point). Trudi wasn't keen on a taxi (most people wouldn't be if you look at them), so we decided to stop for a drink whilst consulting the guide book. The quote dropped to USD35 and then Q250 (about USD32). Meanwhile, we'd decide to walk across the bridge and try to get a minivan to Flores. We stopped a taxi, and for Q10 he said he'd take us to the town (uphill about a mile) to get a minivan. After about 200yds he spotted a minivan going the other way, asked if there was space and, before we could blink, our luggage was strapped to the roof and we were hurting towards Flores. He still charged us Q10 (but, very kindly told us that the fare for the minivan was Q30 - judging by what the others were paying - that was the tourist rate).

Our minivan driver dropped us (for USD9) outside a nice looking hotel that we'd spotted in the guide book and we went to the bar for a beer overlooking the lake.

Trudi did a bit of a scout around and decided we would stay there. We are here for 3 nights. The room looks out over the lake and the sunset views are astounding.

We decided that we needed one day for Tikal and one day for the town/relaxation/shopping/laundry. There are hundred of ways to 'do' Tikal from Flores and every third shop seems to offer tours. Eventually we decided that the sunrise trip (leaving the hotel at 3am) looked to be pretty astounding. Striking whilst the iron was hot, we booked for the following day (Tuesday). After booking flights to Guatemala city on Thursday We had an early night.

Caracol

Caracol was pretty interesting and the guide was knowledgable, as he had worked on some of the excavations himself. We learned a few things about Guatemala (from a Belizean)

• All Belizean Mayan ruins have been and are being looted from Guatemala
  
• Guatemala people are responsible for cutting down a certain type of palm, to make shampoo, the have cut all of them down in Guatemala, so now they are coming into Belize to steal them.
  
• Caracol had a war with Tikal and won (repeat a few times an hour)
  
• Tikal has been rebuilt, Caracol is in it`s original (i.e. as they found it) state.
  

Here is a picture of me in front of the main temple I am about to climb.

And here is the view of a smaller temple from the top

The really stunning views from the top were of 360 degrees of jungle canopy - all the way to the horizon - the view was quite spectacular, but a camera could not do it justice.

We returned in a different minivan, with different, marginally friendlier tourists, via their amazing looking resort at Five Sisters. As we descended into the valley of San Ignacio the heavens opened. We had an early night, ready for our trip to Guatemala.

Caracol Kings

Got up early to get breakfast at Annie's before our Caracol adventure. When we arrived, Trudi commented that something smelled nice, Annie quipped "That is because you are English and this is bacon". We had bacon in tortillas and a cup of tea.

David said that his rather sorry looking pickup truck was broken and so he had arranged alternative transport. Sure enough, at eight o'clock, a rather battered minivan arrived with "Caracol King" emblazoned across the top. David introduced us to David and we rattled off.

After an hour and a half of bone-shaking travel on sandy 'roads' (heaven only knows what happens to them when it rains) we arrived at a military checkpoint where there were policemen with guns and barracks for the British army. We stopped here awhile to allow all the vehicles (7 vans and two 4x4s) to congregate. Then we we led down another 'road' by a pickup with 4 armed men in it. We didn't demand too many details as to why that might be necessary, allowing ourselves to be told - it's for safety.

Meanwhile, the Caracol King minivan was becoming increasingly difficult for David to get into gear, after about 40 minutes, we go onto some paved road (wierd but true) and the police truck slowed in front of us on a steep hill, David had to change down and, with an almighty BANG, we were stopped. Everyone just passed us, no wanting to stop on the hill, I guess.

The police came back, as did one of the guides from another bus (who, we found out, owned Caracol King). After berating David for having the temerity to change gear on a hill, we were told to walk up the hill to the awaiting (much nicer) bus. Where we were sort-of welcomed by the tour group inside. They were from some wildlife society and I think were expecting to have no interlopers.

Tomb Raider

After a quiet morning in San Ignacio - we wandered up to the local Mayan site at Cahal Pech. Trudi did her Lara Croft impression - without the guns.

A wander back through a less nice part of town and a brief rest before attacking the internet.

Drinking is FUN - try this

On the bus

A fairly uneventful journey to Belize City (the boat captain's antics notwithstanding) and then a taxi to the bus station followed by a ride on a Belize bus.

The bus trip was resonably uneventful as we passed through some amazing scenery with our bus and another bus playing tag with each other (which seemed to involve some pretty serious swerving). We arrived in San Ignacio and checked into our new home. I don't think it gets 10/10 from the Trudi Tourist Board :-(.

And farewell

So, the sunset sail didn't happen, so we went to the split to watch sunset. I did alot of diving and swimming and we some some hermit crabs.

Goodbye Caye Caulker

Hello all

Just a quick update before be head off into the sunset (our last night here so we're making the most of it and going on a boat in a min.)

Last night in Caulker... so that's the holiday bit over - I'm told we're then on an adventure which as far as I can tell mean we have to stick to a budget (yuk!) and we can only drink 6 out of 7 days.
Off we go to San Ignacio on the bus tomorrow. We had to send some stuff home today as we're a bit overloaded - lucky I can't fit into most of my clothes so a few of them went back !! Oh yes and the proper diet begins tomorrow.......

We may not be able to get to internet cafe's as regularly as we like from now on - so if we don't post for a week or two - assume that we are having fun and not that anything dramatic has happened (but if it has, you have nice pictures of us to sed to the BBC now anyway :-))


TTFN xx

Mug Shots

Trudi	Paul

As I need a passport photo for my Scuba ticket, we took some nice pictures. If we make it onto the news (like joining the local guerrillas or something) these are the pictures that are to be sent to the BBC :-)

scuba and stuff

I'm not sure I'm really cut out for scuba diving. I seem to have worse problems than most with painful ears and then they stay full of water (or some other liquid) for days afterwards. The dives were O.K. but I wasn't 'blown away'. I think I'd either like a focus (something to do, other than just swimming around looking at stuff) or just to play around in the water enjoying the sensation of 3 dimensional movement. Oh well. And the jellyfish at the surface (which did look reasonably cute, for jellyfish) didn't help much either.

Dinner at Don Corleone's - which is trying to be a 'proper' restaurant - was O.K. But we were both knackered.

Tuesday morning brought more rain. We are still doing some planning. We bought cheap rain ponchos just in case we get caught out in the rain somewhere.

At the split

After our return from San Pedro, lazed about a bit and read books. Booked scuba trip to Spanish Bay for Monday. Then wandered up to the split for sunset, where we met Dennis. Evening meal was another tasty treat at Wish Willy's. This time I didn't get bitten to death.

A trip to the metropolis

We decided to have a day trip to San Pedro (on Ambergris Caye - La Isla Bonita of the Madonna song fame).

It was hot, busy and not very welcoming (all the beachfront places had signs saying 'guests only' or 'no visitors' or 'why don't you just .....' (o.k. I made the last one up).

Plus there were people pestering you to buy stuff.

We retreated back to the tranquility of Caye Caulker and took a well deserved nap.

School sports day ...

Caye Caulker style ...

Diverse tales (geddit?)

So, a quick catch up on the last few days ...

Wed

PADI dive day one, too rough for T. Who sat in the boat and got wet - twice.

Thu

PADI dive day two - P got very sunburned, but the bites are subsiding a bit. Stayed in room 6 - which was lovely.

Fri

PADI dive day three - all passed. Managed to stay up until 10pm! Stayed in room 2, right by the sea, also v. nice.

Sat

Yummy breakfast and the start of some planning. Looks like San Ignacio, then Flores, then Lago de Atitlan. A day of staying out of the sun for Paul.
Trudi made friends with a couple of iguanas.