11:46am
For the second time since being in Miami, this morning I found myself the only person on a shuttle bus that could speak English. I find this especially strange as I just came from a foreign country, and never experienced this (and I'm not counting Adam either). Last night it was a large tour group of folks that were on our plane from Belize that appeared to be speaking German. This morning on the way back to the airport, there was a group speaking French and another speaking Spanish, but once again, no English.
When taking my carry-on through the X-ray machine to get to the terminal, I forgot there was a bottle of water in my bag from yesterday's flight. When questioned about it, I said I was completely unaware it was in there. Reflecting on this, that was possibly the stupidest thing in the world I could have said. Luckily they didn't think anything of it, took the water, and simply sent me on my way.
It's noon now, and we're scheduled to land at about 1:45. This is 35 minutes earlier than my reservation stated. I'[m wondering if this might work to my advantage ride-wise. I guess I'll find out when I get back into town though.
That's about it for now. Actually, now would be a good time to finally write a little bit about the day we went cave-tubing. I will make a separate entry though.
Ryan
Sunday, September 6, 2009
9-14-08 afternoon and evening entries (from hand-written journal)
3:05pm (Eastern)
We are on our flight to Miami now, with about 1 hour to go until landing. We definitely made the right choice booking the American flight, as both our Continental flights and connecting flights through Houston have been canceled. I need to talk to someone at Continental about canceling re-scheduled flights as well as getting the refund I am now entitled to. I think I'll try to take care of that tomorrow when I get to the airport for my flight home. I still don't have a ride home from the airport due to the change in arrival times, but I will call people when we land in Miami. Speaking (well, writing) of the hotel, I would like to formally thank my Dad for looking into, booking, and offering to pay for my hotel room in Miami. I had limited internet access, and could not have easily done this on my own. On a similar note, I would also like to thank Mr. Flacks (Adam's Dad if you're not aware) for looking into the alternative flight options for us. Once again, doing this on our own would not have been easy with the limited internet access, and it was greatly appreciated. I think I'll wrap this us for now, but I'm sure I'll have more to write about tonight after going through my first experience with American Customs when re-entering the country.
Until later,
Ryan
10:02pm
I can't believe how exhausted I am. It's 10pm here, but after a week on Belize time, it "should" only feel like it's 8pm. Regardless of the time, bed sounds great right now.
I was amazed at how quick and easy it was to get through customs today. I had been talking with Adam, who has traveled internationally a few times previously, and he told me I would be asked a lot of questions, and they would rummage through my luggage. None of this happened. At passport control, the man at the counter lectured me about taking better care of my passport (it got a bit beat up on the Tikal trip) but that was really it. I handed customs my filled out form, they stamped it, and sent me on my way.
This was the point Adam and I parted ways. His plane to LAX left at 6:30pm, and I wanted to get to my hotel room.
Once settled into the hotel, I called my parents and chatted with them a bit. Then I went to find dinner. The only place within walking distance was the restaurant in the Embassy Suites. I had a really good bacon-wrapped sirloin and two ridiculously over-priced pints of Killians (I wrote how much they were in my journal, but honestly can't read what it says). After this, I came back to the hotel and worked on canceling my re-scheduled flights through Continental. I was surprised it only took 15 minutes on hold to talk to someone. This morning, people at Belizian Shores were telling me they gave up after 25-30 minutes. I let Rebecca on the other end know I had made different arrangements for travel after these flights had been canceled, and wanted to completely cancel the re-scheduled flights and be refunded for them like Continental states is their policy. She informed me she put in the request, and the refund should be processed within 3-5 business days.
On that note, I'm calling it a night. It will be so nice to sleep in my own bed tomorrow!!!
Later,
Ryan
We are on our flight to Miami now, with about 1 hour to go until landing. We definitely made the right choice booking the American flight, as both our Continental flights and connecting flights through Houston have been canceled. I need to talk to someone at Continental about canceling re-scheduled flights as well as getting the refund I am now entitled to. I think I'll try to take care of that tomorrow when I get to the airport for my flight home. I still don't have a ride home from the airport due to the change in arrival times, but I will call people when we land in Miami. Speaking (well, writing) of the hotel, I would like to formally thank my Dad for looking into, booking, and offering to pay for my hotel room in Miami. I had limited internet access, and could not have easily done this on my own. On a similar note, I would also like to thank Mr. Flacks (Adam's Dad if you're not aware) for looking into the alternative flight options for us. Once again, doing this on our own would not have been easy with the limited internet access, and it was greatly appreciated. I think I'll wrap this us for now, but I'm sure I'll have more to write about tonight after going through my first experience with American Customs when re-entering the country.
Until later,
Ryan
10:02pm
I can't believe how exhausted I am. It's 10pm here, but after a week on Belize time, it "should" only feel like it's 8pm. Regardless of the time, bed sounds great right now.
I was amazed at how quick and easy it was to get through customs today. I had been talking with Adam, who has traveled internationally a few times previously, and he told me I would be asked a lot of questions, and they would rummage through my luggage. None of this happened. At passport control, the man at the counter lectured me about taking better care of my passport (it got a bit beat up on the Tikal trip) but that was really it. I handed customs my filled out form, they stamped it, and sent me on my way.
This was the point Adam and I parted ways. His plane to LAX left at 6:30pm, and I wanted to get to my hotel room.
Once settled into the hotel, I called my parents and chatted with them a bit. Then I went to find dinner. The only place within walking distance was the restaurant in the Embassy Suites. I had a really good bacon-wrapped sirloin and two ridiculously over-priced pints of Killians (I wrote how much they were in my journal, but honestly can't read what it says). After this, I came back to the hotel and worked on canceling my re-scheduled flights through Continental. I was surprised it only took 15 minutes on hold to talk to someone. This morning, people at Belizian Shores were telling me they gave up after 25-30 minutes. I let Rebecca on the other end know I had made different arrangements for travel after these flights had been canceled, and wanted to completely cancel the re-scheduled flights and be refunded for them like Continental states is their policy. She informed me she put in the request, and the refund should be processed within 3-5 business days.
On that note, I'm calling it a night. It will be so nice to sleep in my own bed tomorrow!!!
Later,
Ryan
9-13-08 (from hand-written journal)
It's getting close to the one year anniversary of the amazing Belize trip I took last year. I've been re-reading this blog, and realized I never finished transcribing my handwritten journal onto the wonderful world of the blog-o-sphere. I figure now is as good a time as any to finish up this project, so here we go!!!
9-14-08
12:15am
I can't believe we're leaving today. I have a long journey ahead of me, but will go into that in a little bit.
Saturday we were supposed to go on a snorkeling tour at 9am. A little after 8, we were informed the water was too choppy, and we would try to go out at 2pm. So, instead of snorkeling, we hopped into the pool for a bit.
A little after 10am, we decided to into town for breakfast. We grabbed a private tax with Laruen, McCloud, their son Kian, and a new couple we briefly met in the pool the previous day, Chris and Jocelyn. When we got back into town, we all went our separate ways. I don't recall the name of the place we ate, but it was good. I had a ham and cheese omlette, fry-jacks (basically funnel cakes without the sugar topping), and fresh-squeezed orange juice. After breakfast, we walked around for a bit. We ran into Chris and Jocelyn and chatted with them for a bit. Jocelyn noticed my IU shirt, and told me she was an alum as well (1991 believe she said). Then we started talking about where we're from. Crazily enough, Jocelyn grew up in Chagrin Falls!!! For those of you not from Cleveland, this is about a 10 minute drive from where Adam and I grew up. It truly is a very small world.
At 1pm, we headed back to Belizian Shores. I check with Continental and our flight still hasn't been canceled. I'm worried about not being eligible for a refund on the flight, which would make the new flight we booked through Miami with American extremely expensive.
We head out on our snorkeling our, which included two locations in a reservation area. They were both filled with tons of fish, coral annd other underwater wildlife. I forgot to mention, we went on the tour with Ping and Star. The highlight of area one were two sea turtles we were lucky enough to see. Area two was known as shark ray alley. We see three or four sharks in the area, and right before getting back in the boat, two rays showed up. Apparently a ray and a shart went for the same fish, and the shark bit the ray. I unfortunately missed this. Oh, I forgot to mention, the engiine on our boat broke when we got to shark ray alley, and we sat there for about 15 minutes while our guide fixed it (he was changing fuses, but it ended up being a loose wire).
After getting back, we immediately went to the pool. I was hoping for happy hour, but Marva had already closed the bar, so we just hung out for a bit.
Soon we got hungry, so got out of the pool and headed to our room to clean up. When walking up front to order (an electrical storm blew out all their phones some time before we arrived), Ping and Star were walking back from ordering food as well, and invited us to come eat dinner with them on their porch. We said we'd be over when our food was delivered. While waiting for our food, Adam and Amy stopped by to inform us they heard our Continental flight had been officially canceled. I was thrilled, knowing that I am now eligible for their refund policy.
When our food arrived, we went over to Ping and star's. I had a shrimp-filled grouper, and it was delicious. Adam had bought a dragon fruit while in town and we cut it open for dessert. It taste kind of like kiwi, and was pretty good.
After hanging out with them for a couple hours, we headed back to our room to pack for the flight in the morning. I turned in a little after midnight to write this entry in bed, and it's now almost 1am. The next entry will likely come when I get to my hotel in Miami tomorrow afternoon.
Until then,
Ryan
9-14-08
12:15am
I can't believe we're leaving today. I have a long journey ahead of me, but will go into that in a little bit.
Saturday we were supposed to go on a snorkeling tour at 9am. A little after 8, we were informed the water was too choppy, and we would try to go out at 2pm. So, instead of snorkeling, we hopped into the pool for a bit.
A little after 10am, we decided to into town for breakfast. We grabbed a private tax with Laruen, McCloud, their son Kian, and a new couple we briefly met in the pool the previous day, Chris and Jocelyn. When we got back into town, we all went our separate ways. I don't recall the name of the place we ate, but it was good. I had a ham and cheese omlette, fry-jacks (basically funnel cakes without the sugar topping), and fresh-squeezed orange juice. After breakfast, we walked around for a bit. We ran into Chris and Jocelyn and chatted with them for a bit. Jocelyn noticed my IU shirt, and told me she was an alum as well (1991 believe she said). Then we started talking about where we're from. Crazily enough, Jocelyn grew up in Chagrin Falls!!! For those of you not from Cleveland, this is about a 10 minute drive from where Adam and I grew up. It truly is a very small world.
At 1pm, we headed back to Belizian Shores. I check with Continental and our flight still hasn't been canceled. I'm worried about not being eligible for a refund on the flight, which would make the new flight we booked through Miami with American extremely expensive.
We head out on our snorkeling our, which included two locations in a reservation area. They were both filled with tons of fish, coral annd other underwater wildlife. I forgot to mention, we went on the tour with Ping and Star. The highlight of area one were two sea turtles we were lucky enough to see. Area two was known as shark ray alley. We see three or four sharks in the area, and right before getting back in the boat, two rays showed up. Apparently a ray and a shart went for the same fish, and the shark bit the ray. I unfortunately missed this. Oh, I forgot to mention, the engiine on our boat broke when we got to shark ray alley, and we sat there for about 15 minutes while our guide fixed it (he was changing fuses, but it ended up being a loose wire).
After getting back, we immediately went to the pool. I was hoping for happy hour, but Marva had already closed the bar, so we just hung out for a bit.
Soon we got hungry, so got out of the pool and headed to our room to clean up. When walking up front to order (an electrical storm blew out all their phones some time before we arrived), Ping and Star were walking back from ordering food as well, and invited us to come eat dinner with them on their porch. We said we'd be over when our food was delivered. While waiting for our food, Adam and Amy stopped by to inform us they heard our Continental flight had been officially canceled. I was thrilled, knowing that I am now eligible for their refund policy.
When our food arrived, we went over to Ping and star's. I had a shrimp-filled grouper, and it was delicious. Adam had bought a dragon fruit while in town and we cut it open for dessert. It taste kind of like kiwi, and was pretty good.
After hanging out with them for a couple hours, we headed back to our room to pack for the flight in the morning. I turned in a little after midnight to write this entry in bed, and it's now almost 1am. The next entry will likely come when I get to my hotel in Miami tomorrow afternoon.
Until then,
Ryan
Sunday, September 21, 2008
9-12-08 (from hand-written journal)
9-12-08
Today was interesting to say the least. Yesterday I got an email from Continental advising to change travel plans because all flights to Houston 9-12 through 9-14 are likely to be canceled due to Hurricane Ike. Adam called his dad, who travels quite a bit, and offered to look into options for us.
This morning, Amy and Adam told us their Saturday flight had been canceled. The next flight available through Continental (at least with seats available) is Tuesday, so they're staying another three nights.
Mr. Flacks called Adam and told us Continental will reimburse you the price of your ticket if you have to change to another airline. When we looked at the fine print, this is strictly for when a flight is canceled. As of now, our Sunday flight has not been canceled. It likely will be though, so we booked flights on American Airlines that go through Miami instead of Houston. The flight to Miami is earlier, and the connecting flight back to Indianapolis is even later on Monday than the
original one through Continental, so my 12 hour layover over night has just turned into an 18 hour layover over night. I will need to get a hotel room for sure now. With all the travel issues, Adam is no longer staying the layover with me (as originally planned when we were going through Houston), and will be back home Sunday night. Honestly, I can't blame him for wanting to get the traveling over with as soon as possible.
Enough negative stuff for now though. Well, not really. In the off season, water taxis only seem to run every 3 hours or so during the day. While in the pool this morning, the bartender Marva suggested we rent bikes and ride them into town. We went for it, and WOW, was it a mistake. The bikes themselves were old and rusted, and the path we took was partially on the beach, partially on a back-road in bad condition. When we made it into town, we were exhausted. We locked our bikes up (though my lock could be pulled open without the key) and looked for lunch. We ended up eating at The Blue Moon Cafe, which was delicious. I had a bbq brisket sandwich, which Adam originally ordered one as well. However, they only had enough for one of us, and Adam switched his order to a burger while I ran downstairs to see if the water taxi folks would let us take the bikes on the taxi. After lunch, we did some souvenier shopping. We both got some cool stuff, but Adam is definitely better at bartering than me, and liketly got better deals. Having no desire to ride the bikes back, especially with souvenirs, we put out the extra cash to get a private water taxi to take us (and the bikes) back to Belizian Shores. This is the point in the day we made our travel arrangements to go through Miami official.
After the arrangements were made, I needed a drink, so back to the pool bar!!! A majority of our friends from yesterday were there, as well as a new couple, Ping and Star, who had just arrived that afternoon. As it turns out, Ping and Star had just come from St. Ignacio, and had done some of the same stuff we did out there (the ATM cave and I think cave tubing), so we had plenty to talk about with them.
At 7:30, we (me, Adam, Ping and Star) got a private water taxi back into town for dinner. Since we didn't actually eat a meal there yesterday, we suggested going back to El Patio. I ordered a Carribean Lobster, and it was freaking delicious (it was served in a tomato basil sauce, and the lobster itself had been cooked in Belizian rum). After the meal, we stuck around and watched Hurricane Ike coverage on the Weather Channel. The storm looked devastating, but seeing a weatherman on-location get so mad that he appeared to quit his job on-air, then walk off camera was absolutely hysterical. After this, we took a water taxi back to the resort, and pretty much called it a night.
Signing off,
Ryan
Today was interesting to say the least. Yesterday I got an email from Continental advising to change travel plans because all flights to Houston 9-12 through 9-14 are likely to be canceled due to Hurricane Ike. Adam called his dad, who travels quite a bit, and offered to look into options for us.
This morning, Amy and Adam told us their Saturday flight had been canceled. The next flight available through Continental (at least with seats available) is Tuesday, so they're staying another three nights.
Mr. Flacks called Adam and told us Continental will reimburse you the price of your ticket if you have to change to another airline. When we looked at the fine print, this is strictly for when a flight is canceled. As of now, our Sunday flight has not been canceled. It likely will be though, so we booked flights on American Airlines that go through Miami instead of Houston. The flight to Miami is earlier, and the connecting flight back to Indianapolis is even later on Monday than the
original one through Continental, so my 12 hour layover over night has just turned into an 18 hour layover over night. I will need to get a hotel room for sure now. With all the travel issues, Adam is no longer staying the layover with me (as originally planned when we were going through Houston), and will be back home Sunday night. Honestly, I can't blame him for wanting to get the traveling over with as soon as possible.
Enough negative stuff for now though. Well, not really. In the off season, water taxis only seem to run every 3 hours or so during the day. While in the pool this morning, the bartender Marva suggested we rent bikes and ride them into town. We went for it, and WOW, was it a mistake. The bikes themselves were old and rusted, and the path we took was partially on the beach, partially on a back-road in bad condition. When we made it into town, we were exhausted. We locked our bikes up (though my lock could be pulled open without the key) and looked for lunch. We ended up eating at The Blue Moon Cafe, which was delicious. I had a bbq brisket sandwich, which Adam originally ordered one as well. However, they only had enough for one of us, and Adam switched his order to a burger while I ran downstairs to see if the water taxi folks would let us take the bikes on the taxi. After lunch, we did some souvenier shopping. We both got some cool stuff, but Adam is definitely better at bartering than me, and liketly got better deals. Having no desire to ride the bikes back, especially with souvenirs, we put out the extra cash to get a private water taxi to take us (and the bikes) back to Belizian Shores. This is the point in the day we made our travel arrangements to go through Miami official.
After the arrangements were made, I needed a drink, so back to the pool bar!!! A majority of our friends from yesterday were there, as well as a new couple, Ping and Star, who had just arrived that afternoon. As it turns out, Ping and Star had just come from St. Ignacio, and had done some of the same stuff we did out there (the ATM cave and I think cave tubing), so we had plenty to talk about with them.
At 7:30, we (me, Adam, Ping and Star) got a private water taxi back into town for dinner. Since we didn't actually eat a meal there yesterday, we suggested going back to El Patio. I ordered a Carribean Lobster, and it was freaking delicious (it was served in a tomato basil sauce, and the lobster itself had been cooked in Belizian rum). After the meal, we stuck around and watched Hurricane Ike coverage on the Weather Channel. The storm looked devastating, but seeing a weatherman on-location get so mad that he appeared to quit his job on-air, then walk off camera was absolutely hysterical. After this, we took a water taxi back to the resort, and pretty much called it a night.
Signing off,
Ryan
9-11-08 (from hand-written journal)
9-12-08
1:11am
Today (well, Thursday) was awesome in ways I could have never imagined/anticipated. We left the Trek Stop at 7am, and hired William to shuttle us back to Belize City. Just like when arriving last Sunday, William was a trip, and very entertaining.
William being entertaining:
William being helpful:
(The following portion is being written from memory on 9-20-08)
When we had arrived in Belize on 9-07, William had recommended that on our way back to Belize City before we head to San Pedro, that we might want to check out the Belize Zoo. I thought it was kind of odd to come all this way and spend time at a zoo, but it was only $8 to get in, so I agreed to it. The zoo ended up being pretty cool. There were some pretty exotic animals there, and I took some of my favorite pictures here at the zoo as well. I'm still amazed at the vibrant color and detail my camera captures.
The jaguar above has been raised since birth in the zoo. In the video below, a zoo employee next to the cage can be heard trying to convince us to pay $100 BZ to get into the cage with the jaguar (we declined said offer):
These little guys are leafcutter ants. We saw numerous colonies of them in the jungle, chopping leaves off plants and carrying them off to other locations. I saw a colony of them on a gravel path at the zoo, which was the first time I had my good camera with me when seeing them, so I snapped some shots and video of them:
(9-20-08 portion ends here)
After spending a little more than an hour at the zoo, we got back on the road, arrived in Belize City at about 11am, and took the noon water taxi to San Pedro.
Me, William and Adam at the water taxi station in Belize City:
On the water taxi:
Insane water taxi employees sitting and laying on the front of the boat as it zips across the ocean:
Upon arrival at about 1:15pm, Adam called Belizian Shores, and they sent a water taxi to bring us to the resort. Our room here is a palace compared to Trek Stop. It's pretty much a fully stocked 1-bedroom condo. Since Adam won the coin toss at the Trek Stop and got the good bed there, he offered me the bedroom, which is where I write this entry from. There is a pull-out couch in the living room, which he is sleeping on.
Some time around 2:45-3pmish, we head out to the pool with walk-up bar(fully equiped with bar stools in the water) to cool off, get some lunch, and have some beers. This is where we met Traci, who has been here by herself since last Sunday. Though here by herself, Traci has met the 20 or so other guests at the resort. She tells us a group are going into the city for dinner and karaoke, and invites us to joing them, which we do. We meet out on the dock, and are introduced to Amy and Adam. Though going to town for different reasons, we also meet MacCleod and Laura as well, who end up joining us for drinks later. When the taxi got to town, they went off to do their Christmas shopping, and we headed to a restaurant called El Patio. It was about 6:30pm, and Adam and I had only eaten a few hours ago, so we didn't order dinner. Instead, we both ordered some fresh fruit to snack on. I got a side order, which was very small. Luckily, Adam ordered the plate, which ended up being more than enough for all five of us at the table. The other Adam, Amy and Traci all ordered various seafood dishes, which all looked excellent. I'd like to go back there and actually eat dinner tomorrow (Saturday). After dinner, we headed over to Club Jaguar for the karaoke. It was about 8:40pm, and the back room they were doing the karaoke at didn't open until 10pm. So, we took some seats on the patio and enjoyed some drinks out there. MacCleod and Laura joined us here for a couple of rounds, but had two small children back at the resort (being watched by the kids grandparents, who were also there on the vacation), so did not stay for karaoke.
Outside of Club Jaguar, waiting for karaoke night to start:
At 10pm, we head over to the other room, pay our $10 BZ cover charge to get in, and go inside. As it turns out, it wasn't open karaoke, but the Belizian equivelent of American Idol, full out with three judges and all. To make it even better, the entire thing was being broadcast on both TV and radio. To bump it up yet another notch, about halfway through the night, during one of the performers, the emcee came over to us and asked where we were all from. When the performer was done, the emcee made a point to introduce our table as very special guests from America, and the camera man zoomed in on us for about 20 seconds.
Inside Club Jaguar:
Videos I found on youtube from the tv broadcast:
The next morning, Laura told me she saw the contest being broadcast on tv (but did not see the part with us). In conclusion, we arrived at Belizian Shores with no plans at all, and ended up on local access television by the end of the night, having some of the most fun of the entire trip.
Funny side story: Shortly after meeting Traci, she asked me "Your name is Gary, right???" I told her that wasn't even close, and reminded her my name was Ryan. Without hesitation, she came back with one of the most brilliant responses I've ever heard, arguing that Gary shares 3 out of the 4 same letters as Ryan, so technically she was close. I was floored at how quick she came up with such a witty response on the spot, and just cracked up.
Side story complete, and it's time to wrap this one up.
Until next time,
Ryan
1:11am
Today (well, Thursday) was awesome in ways I could have never imagined/anticipated. We left the Trek Stop at 7am, and hired William to shuttle us back to Belize City. Just like when arriving last Sunday, William was a trip, and very entertaining.
William being entertaining:
William being helpful:
(The following portion is being written from memory on 9-20-08)
When we had arrived in Belize on 9-07, William had recommended that on our way back to Belize City before we head to San Pedro, that we might want to check out the Belize Zoo. I thought it was kind of odd to come all this way and spend time at a zoo, but it was only $8 to get in, so I agreed to it. The zoo ended up being pretty cool. There were some pretty exotic animals there, and I took some of my favorite pictures here at the zoo as well. I'm still amazed at the vibrant color and detail my camera captures.
The jaguar above has been raised since birth in the zoo. In the video below, a zoo employee next to the cage can be heard trying to convince us to pay $100 BZ to get into the cage with the jaguar (we declined said offer):
These little guys are leafcutter ants. We saw numerous colonies of them in the jungle, chopping leaves off plants and carrying them off to other locations. I saw a colony of them on a gravel path at the zoo, which was the first time I had my good camera with me when seeing them, so I snapped some shots and video of them:
(9-20-08 portion ends here)
After spending a little more than an hour at the zoo, we got back on the road, arrived in Belize City at about 11am, and took the noon water taxi to San Pedro.
Me, William and Adam at the water taxi station in Belize City:
On the water taxi:
Insane water taxi employees sitting and laying on the front of the boat as it zips across the ocean:
Upon arrival at about 1:15pm, Adam called Belizian Shores, and they sent a water taxi to bring us to the resort. Our room here is a palace compared to Trek Stop. It's pretty much a fully stocked 1-bedroom condo. Since Adam won the coin toss at the Trek Stop and got the good bed there, he offered me the bedroom, which is where I write this entry from. There is a pull-out couch in the living room, which he is sleeping on.
Some time around 2:45-3pmish, we head out to the pool with walk-up bar(fully equiped with bar stools in the water) to cool off, get some lunch, and have some beers. This is where we met Traci, who has been here by herself since last Sunday. Though here by herself, Traci has met the 20 or so other guests at the resort. She tells us a group are going into the city for dinner and karaoke, and invites us to joing them, which we do. We meet out on the dock, and are introduced to Amy and Adam. Though going to town for different reasons, we also meet MacCleod and Laura as well, who end up joining us for drinks later. When the taxi got to town, they went off to do their Christmas shopping, and we headed to a restaurant called El Patio. It was about 6:30pm, and Adam and I had only eaten a few hours ago, so we didn't order dinner. Instead, we both ordered some fresh fruit to snack on. I got a side order, which was very small. Luckily, Adam ordered the plate, which ended up being more than enough for all five of us at the table. The other Adam, Amy and Traci all ordered various seafood dishes, which all looked excellent. I'd like to go back there and actually eat dinner tomorrow (Saturday). After dinner, we headed over to Club Jaguar for the karaoke. It was about 8:40pm, and the back room they were doing the karaoke at didn't open until 10pm. So, we took some seats on the patio and enjoyed some drinks out there. MacCleod and Laura joined us here for a couple of rounds, but had two small children back at the resort (being watched by the kids grandparents, who were also there on the vacation), so did not stay for karaoke.
Outside of Club Jaguar, waiting for karaoke night to start:
At 10pm, we head over to the other room, pay our $10 BZ cover charge to get in, and go inside. As it turns out, it wasn't open karaoke, but the Belizian equivelent of American Idol, full out with three judges and all. To make it even better, the entire thing was being broadcast on both TV and radio. To bump it up yet another notch, about halfway through the night, during one of the performers, the emcee came over to us and asked where we were all from. When the performer was done, the emcee made a point to introduce our table as very special guests from America, and the camera man zoomed in on us for about 20 seconds.
Inside Club Jaguar:
Videos I found on youtube from the tv broadcast:
The next morning, Laura told me she saw the contest being broadcast on tv (but did not see the part with us). In conclusion, we arrived at Belizian Shores with no plans at all, and ended up on local access television by the end of the night, having some of the most fun of the entire trip.
Funny side story: Shortly after meeting Traci, she asked me "Your name is Gary, right???" I told her that wasn't even close, and reminded her my name was Ryan. Without hesitation, she came back with one of the most brilliant responses I've ever heard, arguing that Gary shares 3 out of the 4 same letters as Ryan, so technically she was close. I was floored at how quick she came up with such a witty response on the spot, and just cracked up.
Side story complete, and it's time to wrap this one up.
Until next time,
Ryan
Saturday, September 20, 2008
9-10-08 (Written from memory on 9-20-08)
9-10-08
(Written from memory on 9-20-08)
Originally, we had asked the manager of the Trek Stop, Tino, about putting together a trip to Tikal. The package he put together with us was pretty expensive, and didn't seem to offer much either. From what he described, he would pretty much be dropping us off at the border, and once we got across, we'd be hooking up with a Guatemalan guide that he trusted to take us the rest of the way on show us Tikal. The prospect of being abandoned at the border to just figure things out for ourselves didn't really sit well with us. When we were doing the Actun Tunichil Muknal cave tour on 9-09, we talked to the Hun Chi’ik guys about if they offered Tikal tours, which they said they did. Since we had been happy with the two tours we had already done through Hun Chi’ik, it was an easy decision to go with them for Tikal also.
We left Trek Stop at about 7am the morning of 9-10, and were happy to find that Rudy was our Hun Chi’ik guide for the day again. He had been an awesome guide for cave tubing, so we knew a fun day was in store. I hadn't realized before that we were only 3 miles away from the border of Guatemala at the Trek Stop. So, after a 5 minute drive to the border, we experienced how different it is to cross a border other than in the United States. It was kind of scary how easy it was to do this. The worst part about the experience was that the country of Belize charges you $37.50 (American) to leave the country (we would have to pay this again at the airport when heading back to the US on 9-14). To actually get across the border, Rudy asked Adam and I for our passports, and took them to the counter necessary to get them stamped at. The security there didn't even need to see us, but just wanted to make sure our passports were stamped. It's crazy how different this is handled than in the US.
After getting across the border, we exchanged about $10 each into Guatemalan currency ($7 Guatemalan for every $1 US), and I stopped at a tiny convenience store to get a bottle of water. The girl working the cash register couldn't have been more than 10 years old, which was a bit of a shock.
At this point we get on the road and drive for about an hour or so to a gas station/gift shop that has the cleanest bathrooms I've ever seen at a gas station.
Rudy once again teaching us about nature while driving through Guatemala:
This gas station/gift shop appears to be the place where you find a guide that actually works at Tikal to take us on a tour. We let Rudy handle this and look at the local crafts the store has to offer. A few minutes later, we meet Pinky, who is our guide for our tour through Tikal. After talking with Pinky for a few minutes, I discover something a bit disturbing. Though he has been a guide at Tikal for over 2 years, this is only the second time he's ever given the tour in English.
As the day progresses, it becomes clearer and clearer that Pinky is a horrible guide. I know that language was definitely a factor in the difficulty of giving us a tour, but I think he was pretty lazy as well. The temples of Tikal are spread over a very large area, so there was a lot of hiking done throughout the day. We would constantly pass other groups with other guides who seemed to have interesting stories about things we were passing, yet Pinky had almost no stories, and we would just walk from place to place. There were a couple temples we saw people climbing up that Pinky was attempting to just walk by. Fortunately Adam asked if we could go up these temples, which Pinky said if we wanted to we could, but he wasn't joining us.
A rare instance of Pinky pointing something out to Adam:
The one temple he actually did join us as we scaled it was the biggest one at Tikal.
For these large temples, you don't actually climb up the stone stairs that make up the building. In the past they allowed people to, but there were too many instances of people tripping, falling, and unfortunately dying, that they no longer allow it. To still allow people to go up these massive structures, they have built wooden stair cases to take you from the bottom to the top. At the foot of this staircase, we saw one of the coolest things we did all day, which were two small tribes of howler monkeys in different trees screaming at each other. I snapped a number of pictures, and even got some video of this.
View from the highest ruin in Tikal:
Though Pinky was a terrible guide, we were lucky to have Rudy with us. Even though he did not work at Tikal, he seemed very knowledgeable about the place, and Mayan culture in general (possibly because there is another set of Mayan ruins, Xunantunich, very close to St. Ignasio that Hun Chi’ik also does tours of). He told us interesting facts about how Mayans constructed their villages of temples in a circle formation for acoustical reasons. In this formation, a member of royalty at the top of a 200 foot tall temple could address the village on the ground, as well as the village folks talk back to the royalty at the top of the temple, and both parties could hear each other perfectly. He also told us about a sporting event that sounded like an early version of soccer (or football, if you will) where you could only use your knees and elbows to hit the ball, and the goal was more like a goal you would find in a whirleyball court, almost like a basketball backboard with a hole cut into the center that you had to get the ball through to score. What was interesting about the game is that originally, it was a religious thing, and the winning team would get sacrificed (they believe in reincarnation, so being sacrificed was actually an honor for them). As time passed, the game became more for entertainment value, and eventually it switched so that the losing team were the ones sacrificed for entertainment value. Yet another fascinating thing Rudy shared with us was that a number of the paths we were walking on to get from temple to temple, though now covered in plant growth, used to be made out of a specific type of rock (the type, I cannot recall) that was capable of reflecting light. This was done so that even when the sun went down, the light from the moon reflected off the path, lighting it up and helping visibility. I couldn't believe that for such an early civilization, the Mayans were very clever in how they lived and constructed their society.
Rudy telling us a story while sitting on a ruin Pinky didn't feel like climbing with us:
More Tikal photos and video I like:
You can actually walk in and out of the structures in this picture below:
And we did!!!
Resting on a Mayan bed in a temple we could go in:
Near a concession stand, someone who I'm not sure actually worked at Tikal was passing around a tarantula for people to hold. Adam jumped at this opportunity:
The picture I took:
After the tour, we went to the restaurant they had on site, and enjoyed an authentic Guatemalan meal (which was pretty similar to the style of food in Belize honestly). After that, we headed back to Belize, getting back to the Trek Stop at about 2:30 in the afternoon I think (or maybe it was 3:30). Since we had spare time on our hands, we walked down the road to Succotz, and planned on checking out Xunantunich. Unfortunately, the little crank-boat ferry that gets you across the river to get to the ruins had closed early for the day due to a holiday (which I can't remember what it was). So we head back to Trek Stop, and check out the butterfly garden they have on site there, which ended up being very cool. I took a number of pictures in the enclosure, as well as a little video tour of the place.
Eventually we got hungry, and walked into Succotz for dinner, only to find that they were only serving Nachos, and rice and beans. I'm not sure if this was because they were out of everything else, or if this was possibly for the holiday that was going on. We ordered one of each, and it ended up being a pretty decent meal. Rice and beans apparently includes chicken, which definitely helped. After the meal, we were told there was live music going on in town, so we followed the noise until we found where things were setup in a cool little open-aired shelter/gazebo type place. Unfortunately, in Belize the definition of live music is having a DJ spin music, which neither of us were particularly interested in. So, at this point, we went back to Trek Stop, and packed our stuff up for the move to San Pedro the next morning before calling it a night.
(Written from memory on 9-20-08)
Originally, we had asked the manager of the Trek Stop, Tino, about putting together a trip to Tikal. The package he put together with us was pretty expensive, and didn't seem to offer much either. From what he described, he would pretty much be dropping us off at the border, and once we got across, we'd be hooking up with a Guatemalan guide that he trusted to take us the rest of the way on show us Tikal. The prospect of being abandoned at the border to just figure things out for ourselves didn't really sit well with us. When we were doing the Actun Tunichil Muknal cave tour on 9-09, we talked to the Hun Chi’ik guys about if they offered Tikal tours, which they said they did. Since we had been happy with the two tours we had already done through Hun Chi’ik, it was an easy decision to go with them for Tikal also.
We left Trek Stop at about 7am the morning of 9-10, and were happy to find that Rudy was our Hun Chi’ik guide for the day again. He had been an awesome guide for cave tubing, so we knew a fun day was in store. I hadn't realized before that we were only 3 miles away from the border of Guatemala at the Trek Stop. So, after a 5 minute drive to the border, we experienced how different it is to cross a border other than in the United States. It was kind of scary how easy it was to do this. The worst part about the experience was that the country of Belize charges you $37.50 (American) to leave the country (we would have to pay this again at the airport when heading back to the US on 9-14). To actually get across the border, Rudy asked Adam and I for our passports, and took them to the counter necessary to get them stamped at. The security there didn't even need to see us, but just wanted to make sure our passports were stamped. It's crazy how different this is handled than in the US.
After getting across the border, we exchanged about $10 each into Guatemalan currency ($7 Guatemalan for every $1 US), and I stopped at a tiny convenience store to get a bottle of water. The girl working the cash register couldn't have been more than 10 years old, which was a bit of a shock.
At this point we get on the road and drive for about an hour or so to a gas station/gift shop that has the cleanest bathrooms I've ever seen at a gas station.
Rudy once again teaching us about nature while driving through Guatemala:
This gas station/gift shop appears to be the place where you find a guide that actually works at Tikal to take us on a tour. We let Rudy handle this and look at the local crafts the store has to offer. A few minutes later, we meet Pinky, who is our guide for our tour through Tikal. After talking with Pinky for a few minutes, I discover something a bit disturbing. Though he has been a guide at Tikal for over 2 years, this is only the second time he's ever given the tour in English.
As the day progresses, it becomes clearer and clearer that Pinky is a horrible guide. I know that language was definitely a factor in the difficulty of giving us a tour, but I think he was pretty lazy as well. The temples of Tikal are spread over a very large area, so there was a lot of hiking done throughout the day. We would constantly pass other groups with other guides who seemed to have interesting stories about things we were passing, yet Pinky had almost no stories, and we would just walk from place to place. There were a couple temples we saw people climbing up that Pinky was attempting to just walk by. Fortunately Adam asked if we could go up these temples, which Pinky said if we wanted to we could, but he wasn't joining us.
A rare instance of Pinky pointing something out to Adam:
The one temple he actually did join us as we scaled it was the biggest one at Tikal.
For these large temples, you don't actually climb up the stone stairs that make up the building. In the past they allowed people to, but there were too many instances of people tripping, falling, and unfortunately dying, that they no longer allow it. To still allow people to go up these massive structures, they have built wooden stair cases to take you from the bottom to the top. At the foot of this staircase, we saw one of the coolest things we did all day, which were two small tribes of howler monkeys in different trees screaming at each other. I snapped a number of pictures, and even got some video of this.
View from the highest ruin in Tikal:
Though Pinky was a terrible guide, we were lucky to have Rudy with us. Even though he did not work at Tikal, he seemed very knowledgeable about the place, and Mayan culture in general (possibly because there is another set of Mayan ruins, Xunantunich, very close to St. Ignasio that Hun Chi’ik also does tours of). He told us interesting facts about how Mayans constructed their villages of temples in a circle formation for acoustical reasons. In this formation, a member of royalty at the top of a 200 foot tall temple could address the village on the ground, as well as the village folks talk back to the royalty at the top of the temple, and both parties could hear each other perfectly. He also told us about a sporting event that sounded like an early version of soccer (or football, if you will) where you could only use your knees and elbows to hit the ball, and the goal was more like a goal you would find in a whirleyball court, almost like a basketball backboard with a hole cut into the center that you had to get the ball through to score. What was interesting about the game is that originally, it was a religious thing, and the winning team would get sacrificed (they believe in reincarnation, so being sacrificed was actually an honor for them). As time passed, the game became more for entertainment value, and eventually it switched so that the losing team were the ones sacrificed for entertainment value. Yet another fascinating thing Rudy shared with us was that a number of the paths we were walking on to get from temple to temple, though now covered in plant growth, used to be made out of a specific type of rock (the type, I cannot recall) that was capable of reflecting light. This was done so that even when the sun went down, the light from the moon reflected off the path, lighting it up and helping visibility. I couldn't believe that for such an early civilization, the Mayans were very clever in how they lived and constructed their society.
Rudy telling us a story while sitting on a ruin Pinky didn't feel like climbing with us:
More Tikal photos and video I like:
You can actually walk in and out of the structures in this picture below:
And we did!!!
Resting on a Mayan bed in a temple we could go in:
Near a concession stand, someone who I'm not sure actually worked at Tikal was passing around a tarantula for people to hold. Adam jumped at this opportunity:
The picture I took:
After the tour, we went to the restaurant they had on site, and enjoyed an authentic Guatemalan meal (which was pretty similar to the style of food in Belize honestly). After that, we headed back to Belize, getting back to the Trek Stop at about 2:30 in the afternoon I think (or maybe it was 3:30). Since we had spare time on our hands, we walked down the road to Succotz, and planned on checking out Xunantunich. Unfortunately, the little crank-boat ferry that gets you across the river to get to the ruins had closed early for the day due to a holiday (which I can't remember what it was). So we head back to Trek Stop, and check out the butterfly garden they have on site there, which ended up being very cool. I took a number of pictures in the enclosure, as well as a little video tour of the place.
Eventually we got hungry, and walked into Succotz for dinner, only to find that they were only serving Nachos, and rice and beans. I'm not sure if this was because they were out of everything else, or if this was possibly for the holiday that was going on. We ordered one of each, and it ended up being a pretty decent meal. Rice and beans apparently includes chicken, which definitely helped. After the meal, we were told there was live music going on in town, so we followed the noise until we found where things were setup in a cool little open-aired shelter/gazebo type place. Unfortunately, in Belize the definition of live music is having a DJ spin music, which neither of us were particularly interested in. So, at this point, we went back to Trek Stop, and packed our stuff up for the move to San Pedro the next morning before calling it a night.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
9-09-08 (from hand-written journal)
9-09-08
5:56pm
Today we went on the Actun Tunichil Muknal cave tour, and it was nothing short of incredible. We went through the Hun Chi’ik Tours company, who we were impressed with from cave tubing yesterday. Unlike yesterday, today we were not the only people on our tour. An adveturous couple from Hawaii in their late 50's named Kellie and Liz joined us. When we got back from cave tubing yesterday, they were actually there in the park enjoying a bottle of wine, chatting with our driver. They travel all over the world, and had some very interesting stories to tell. However, this story is about caving, and not them.
The requirements for this tour were as follows:
1. Bring a spare dry sent of clothes to change into afterwards.
2. Bring socks.
The drive to our destination was about an hour, and included driving 7 miles on a rugged gravel "road." On this "road," we had to drive over a river twice, which reminded me of the Unviersal Studios tour where you go through the parting of the red sea on a train.
When we got there, we started on a 45 minute hike to the cave entrance, which included wading through the Roaring Creek river three separate times, one of them being up about halfway to our knees.
When we got to the mouth of the cave, we put on our helmets and lights, got into the pool, and swam into the mouth of the cave.
(Note, this isn't us swimming into the cave. We didn't get any good shots of the cave entrance, so I snagged this from a google search)
Inside was absolutely stunning. There were tons of natural rock formations everywhere. The entire cave system is always flooded with water, but most of the time it was just up to our ankles. There were a few places it was up to our waists, and a couple of spots deep enough that we had to swim across. The goal of the hike is that when we got deep enough into the cave, we did some light climbing up some rock walls, tour our shoes off, and entered a set of chambers almost completely preserved in calcification, fillwed with Mayan artifacts, from pottery to bones (from human sacrifices likely), and finally one completely in tact (preserved female skeleton known as the Crystal Maiden (who was erie, yet beautiful at the same time). This is the point where it was necessary to have socks. I got two different explanations as to why we needed socks, and I'm not sure which was true. One was simple, which was that since we had to take our shoes off, having socks on would give us a small amount of protection against walking on bare rocks. The other was that they wanted to protect the cave as much as possible from the oils in our skin which could have an effect on the rocks we were walking on.
The Crystal Maiden (Once again, taken from google because none of ours turned out)
At this point, we back-tracked out of the cave (I think taking some shortcuts because going back only took about 20 minutes). We entered the cave around 10:30am, and got back to the mouth of the cave around 1pm, spending close to 2.5 hours underground. At this point we had some bagged lunches we brought with us (some people's got invaded by ants, but mine seemed to be fine), then hit the 45 minute hike back to t our van. When we got there, our driver was waiting for us with freshly cut watermelon, pineapple (I think, I didn't actually have any), chips and salsa. After the refreshing snack, we changed into our spare dry cloths, got in the van, and headed back to Trek Stop. Having left at about 7:45am, we got back at 4:30pm. I can't stress enough how incredible this experience was!!! With two positive esperiences with the company, we are hiring Hun Chi’ik Tours again tomorrow to be our guides for our tour of Tikal in Guatemala. I can't wait!!! Well, I'm wrapping this up at about 10:53pm, and I think I might be calling it a night. 6am will get here too soon, and I want to be well rested for tomorrow. After Tikal, we spend one last night at Trek Stop, then head to San Pedro for some much-needed (after 4 days of compost toilets and rain-water showers) touristy resort-style relaxation.
Goodnight me,
Ryan
5:56pm
Today we went on the Actun Tunichil Muknal cave tour, and it was nothing short of incredible. We went through the Hun Chi’ik Tours company, who we were impressed with from cave tubing yesterday. Unlike yesterday, today we were not the only people on our tour. An adveturous couple from Hawaii in their late 50's named Kellie and Liz joined us. When we got back from cave tubing yesterday, they were actually there in the park enjoying a bottle of wine, chatting with our driver. They travel all over the world, and had some very interesting stories to tell. However, this story is about caving, and not them.
The requirements for this tour were as follows:
1. Bring a spare dry sent of clothes to change into afterwards.
2. Bring socks.
The drive to our destination was about an hour, and included driving 7 miles on a rugged gravel "road." On this "road," we had to drive over a river twice, which reminded me of the Unviersal Studios tour where you go through the parting of the red sea on a train.
When we got there, we started on a 45 minute hike to the cave entrance, which included wading through the Roaring Creek river three separate times, one of them being up about halfway to our knees.
When we got to the mouth of the cave, we put on our helmets and lights, got into the pool, and swam into the mouth of the cave.
(Note, this isn't us swimming into the cave. We didn't get any good shots of the cave entrance, so I snagged this from a google search)
Inside was absolutely stunning. There were tons of natural rock formations everywhere. The entire cave system is always flooded with water, but most of the time it was just up to our ankles. There were a few places it was up to our waists, and a couple of spots deep enough that we had to swim across. The goal of the hike is that when we got deep enough into the cave, we did some light climbing up some rock walls, tour our shoes off, and entered a set of chambers almost completely preserved in calcification, fillwed with Mayan artifacts, from pottery to bones (from human sacrifices likely), and finally one completely in tact (preserved female skeleton known as the Crystal Maiden (who was erie, yet beautiful at the same time). This is the point where it was necessary to have socks. I got two different explanations as to why we needed socks, and I'm not sure which was true. One was simple, which was that since we had to take our shoes off, having socks on would give us a small amount of protection against walking on bare rocks. The other was that they wanted to protect the cave as much as possible from the oils in our skin which could have an effect on the rocks we were walking on.
The Crystal Maiden (Once again, taken from google because none of ours turned out)
At this point, we back-tracked out of the cave (I think taking some shortcuts because going back only took about 20 minutes). We entered the cave around 10:30am, and got back to the mouth of the cave around 1pm, spending close to 2.5 hours underground. At this point we had some bagged lunches we brought with us (some people's got invaded by ants, but mine seemed to be fine), then hit the 45 minute hike back to t our van. When we got there, our driver was waiting for us with freshly cut watermelon, pineapple (I think, I didn't actually have any), chips and salsa. After the refreshing snack, we changed into our spare dry cloths, got in the van, and headed back to Trek Stop. Having left at about 7:45am, we got back at 4:30pm. I can't stress enough how incredible this experience was!!! With two positive esperiences with the company, we are hiring Hun Chi’ik Tours again tomorrow to be our guides for our tour of Tikal in Guatemala. I can't wait!!! Well, I'm wrapping this up at about 10:53pm, and I think I might be calling it a night. 6am will get here too soon, and I want to be well rested for tomorrow. After Tikal, we spend one last night at Trek Stop, then head to San Pedro for some much-needed (after 4 days of compost toilets and rain-water showers) touristy resort-style relaxation.
Goodnight me,
Ryan
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