9-08-08 evening (from hand-written journal)

9-08-08
7:39pm: Rewind - William
When we arrived in Belize yesterday, Adam had made arrangements with Trek Stop to have a shuttle take us from the airport in Belize City to the Trek Stop, which is in between St. Ignasio and Succotz. They did not offer this service themselves, but recommended us to a guy named William. Adam called this guy, made the arrangements, and we were told he would be the guy in the bright yellow tweety bird colored shirt. When we stepped out of the airport, there he was in his yellow shirt. We bought some refreshments (it was HOT!!!), and got on the road for a 2.5 hour trip to Trek Stop. Right off the bat, William starts talking, telling us stories, and pointing out random things to us. As it turns out, William is freaking hysterical. The slogan on his business card is "Wow, we are there already?" I agree with it 100%. The 2.5 hour trip took about 3 hours, and he kept us entertained the entire way, setting the mood for the entire trip. We'll be using William's shuttle service again when we leave Trek Stop on the 11th to leave for San Pedro, and look forward to it!!!

9-08-08
(written from memory later on 9-15-08)
When we arrived the night before, the G*A*P group informed us they were doing the Actun Tunichil Muknal caving tour in the morning. We originally planned on joining them, but were a bit beat after a day of traveling. Also, the Hun Chi’ik Tours folks had come by earlier in the day and gave them a small presentation on what to expect on the tour, as well as what you needed to bring along. I actually got that presentation from Edward after the G*A*P group left for their tour (when Adam was still asleep this morning). In retrospect after seeing the presentation, there's no reason we couldn't have gone on the tour with the G*A*P group, but it was very cool the next day when we did it with a group of only four, as opposed to joining their group of about 12. I'm very happy with what we ended up doing that day anyways, which was cave tubing.

Adam wasn't 100% on board with the idea of cave tubing, but I kind of pushed for it, as everything I had read about, and people I had talked to said that cave tubing was "the thing" to do in Belize. After we had finished, Adam was very happy that he agreed to do this.

Rudy was our guide for cave tubing, and this is when we found out how cool he was (and were also happy he was our guide for Tikal later on the 10th). Rudy was very relaxed, and was an endless pool of knowledge about nature. He had information about every plant, tree, insect and animal we came across. The thing that sticks out the most to me is when he picked up a plant, told us it was a species of begonia, then started peeling the stalk. He broke off pieces for us, and told us to take a taste. Oddly enough, it tasted just like sour apple, and was very good.

After about an hour or so of hiking and learning about nature, we arrived at where we started tubing. We strapped our lights to our heads, put our innertubes in the water, laid down in them, and started down the river. We floated through two different caves while heading down the river. Throughout the trip down stream, Rudy continued to point out things in the caves like bats and other animals and insects. Since we did this trip an entire week ago, and I'm just writing about it now, the details aren't the freshest in my mind.

















When we got to the end of the caves and hiked back to the van, there was fresh watermelon and chips and salsa waiting for us. This is also where we met Kellie and Liz, who ended up doing the Actun Tunichil Muknal cave tour with us the next day.

Something cool about this tour was that we were literally the only people in the caves that day. We had originally wanted to do this on Thursday, but were warned against this, as Thursdays are generally cruise ship days, and both the nature trails and caves are so congested trying to get people in and out before their ship takes off again, that it takes a lot of the fun away from the experience.

When we got back to Trek Stop, we changed, then took a cab to St. Ignasio to check out a place called Hanna's for dinner that William recommended. Just like with his suggestion to avoid cave tubing on Thursdays, he was spot on about Hanna's as well. I got a lamb meat burrito there, and it was excellent.

William was trying to explain to us that certain cabs were cheaper than others, but we couldn't really figure out how to tell the difference between the cheap and expensives ones. As a result, our cab to St. Ignasio was $6 Belizian, and the cab back was $20 Belizian. Both were still pretty cheap, so we didn't care.

When we got back to Trek Stop, the G*A*P kids were in the kitchen/library hut playing a card game called Mafia. This game was very similar to a game I used to play a lot at the Indiana Trip Factory house my sophomore year in college. The premise of the game is that everyone is dealt a single card, used to assign them a role. If it's a number card, you're a citizen. If it's an ace, you're a member of the mafia (depending on the number of people playing, there can be more than one mafia member). If you get the queen, you're the detective (since they were mostly European, they called the detective the queen, which I thought was kind pretty funny). After roles are assigned, there's a narrator that tells everyone to put their heads down. The narrator then tells the mafia to raise their head(s) and choose someone to murder (done with hand gestures silently to keep the mafia members identities secret). This is the point in the game it gets different from how I played in college. After the mafia members choose their victim and put their heads down, the narrator then asks the doctor (who was dealt a king) to raise his head and choose someone to heal. If he chooses the same person to heal that the mafia chose to murder, that person is saved, and there is no murder victim that round. When the doctor puts his head back down, the narrator asks the prostitute (who was dealt a jack) to raise his head and choose a client for the evening. If the prostitute chooses a member of the mafia, the mafia was "occupied" that night, and there was no murder victim. I found the doctor and prostitute characters to be pretty pointless to the game, but I wasn't in charge, so it was out of my hands. After the prostitute puts his head down, the narrator tells everyone to put their heads up, and reveals the murder victim (if there is one), who flips their card over to reveal their role. If the detective/queen was the victim, the mafia wins the game. If anyone other than the detective/queen was murdered (or if no one was murdered), the round continues. At this point, you start going around the circle, and everyone makes an accusation on who they think is in the mafia, and it turns into a game of paranoia, manipulation, and lies. If accused, you have the opportunity to plead your case as to why you are not in the mafia. When the group comes to a consensus on who they think is in the mafia, that person is asked to flip their card. If it is the detective that gets accused, once again, the mafia wins. If it is a mafia member, everyone else wins (unless there is more than one mafia member, in which case, another round is started). You continue doing these rounds until either all the mafia members are found, or the detective/queen is murdered/found. We played this game for probably a couple of hours, but people s tarted to fade and turn in for the night. The G*A*P kids were leaving at 7am for their next destination, and Adam and I had to be in the kitchen/library at 7:45am for the Actun Tunichil Muknal cave tour. All in all, it was a very fun night.

Playing Mafia with the G*A*P kids:


More Mafia with the G*A*P kids: