Flores

We left the comfort of our nice little Outpost and went straight to the Guatemalan border. It was a little bit nerve racking because Guatemala is more dangerous than Belize and nobody speaks English. But we managed to get on the local minibus to Flores, where we had planned to stay the night. It was an interesting ride because the bus was full (or so we thought...) when we got on so we ended up in the front with the bus driver. There were about 8

 seats on the bus- all of them were full, but the bus driver kept stopping to pick people up! At one point there were about 18 people on board, but we were comfortable because we were in the front with the driver. We were practicing our Spanish with the driver, dodging the horses and cows crossing and just standing in the middle of the road. An hour and a half later, we arrived at Flores. It is a little island that looks very European; cobblestone roads, mopeds and motorcycles, colorful buildings, narrow roads, strings of clothes hanging out to dry from high above... Absolutely beautiful!

We got to our hostel, Los Amigos, and got settled into our 8 person dorm room. The hostel has a very backpacker vibe with hammocks, shared bathrooms, and travelers from all over the world. It is really neat, but the island is just so gorgeous that we put our stuff away and headed outside to explore the island. We were looking for a place to have happy hour at a restaurant on the lake when we saw a single, 2 person table on the sidewalk across the street. It was too cute to pass up, so we sat down and immediatly a server from a restaurant about a block away came to bring us menus. We ordered some Guatemalan beer and soaked up the beauty of the island and the sunset. Then we found an internet cafe and Skyped our parents to let them know that we are alive and well. ;) It was the first time that we had talked to them because Skype is banned in Belize because phone communciation is so expensive and they were losing buisness to Skype. And we are able to update our blog because using the internet is MUCH cheaper here, about $1.20/hr compared to $5/hr in Belize. We then found the only restaurant that was open at 10:30 at night and split a delicious plate of spaghetti and called it a night.



This morning, we woke up early and went to a little restaurant on the water for breakfast and coffee. The meals are really cheap here, we got one of the most expensive dishes; a green pepper omlette, black beans, and toast, and it only cost $4. We needed a big meal because we will be spending the next two nights in Tikal, a Mayan ruin, which we will be camping at. There are no restaurants up there so we bought a loaf of bread, some peanut butter and jelly, a gallon of water, and that will be our meals for the next couple of days...  We will let you know how it goes!


Love,

Rachel and Darren

5 nights later...

Well, the guide book was absolutely correct; it said that you would come to Barton Creek Outpost for a day and stay a week. We ended up staying for 5 nights and it would have been longer if we didn´t need to get to Panama by April... Neither of us can say enough about this place, it was just magical! We both feel that everybody who makes it down to Belize MUST stay at Barton Creek Outpost. The first couple of days were relaxing; we just hung out with the great staff, swam in the river, walked through the orange grove (and picked oranges to make unlimited, fresh squeezed orange juice), took the canoe up the creek, went on our jungle walks, etc.












The last full day we decided to do the Rio on Pools and waterfall tour. It was a full day tour with lunch included for 40 USD per person, totally worth it!! We rode in the back of the truck for an hour up a very bumpy, rocky, dirt road for about an hour and a half until we reached Rio on Pools. It was a series of natural pools and waterfalls that we rock climbed up and back down in about an hour and a half. The picture does no justice as to how big this formation of boulders and pools was! We ate lunch there and then headed to the big waterfall, 5 Sisters.

It was quite a hike to get there, but once we got down to the waterfall it was amazing! We had to swim to a small, 15 ft rock jump and then swim some more to the bigger ones. Rachel only did the small jump because the big jumps required you to rock climb wet walls of rocks, there was no way! Darren on the other hand saw our guide do it, therefore it was possible, therefore he would try it... He made it up to the 50 ft jump which was quite the accomplishment because of how slick and physically demanding the climb was. After a few seconds of psyching himself up, he made the plunge, making sure to clear the rocks below. It was exhilerating!! We stayed a  while and admired the beautiful waterfalls and then made it back to the Outpost.

That night was crazy because the 9 from the previous night were staying at the Outpost again (all British medical students who had just finished there semester abroad in Belmopan, Belize), a Canadian couple, 4 young travelers, the writer of the Belize section of the Lonely Planet and his assistant, a British couple, Darren and I, all the volunteers, the owners, their 3 children and theri grandparents. It definitely was a full house, but it was a lot of fun meeting everybody and exchanging travel stories.

Sadly, we left the next morning along with 15 other people, all in the back of the owners pickup truck. Yes, everybody had their backpacks so it was a VERY tight squeeze. We tied the record of how many people had ever rode in the truck at once, 17!

Barton Creek Outpost

We left Orange Creek a couple of days ago and headed to San Ignacio, the city near the boarder of Guatemala. We were planning on just staying a night or two, so we set up our tent at the Midas Resort, a cute little hotel with cabanas and cheap camping. It was nice and we were there on a Saturday night so we decided to go out. We went to the Blue Angel club at about 9 and were the only two people in a club blaring music like it was jam packed. We found out that nobody goes out until about 11 so we walked around town until then. When we got back there were definitely more people and we were the only tourists there all night! We just danced and had some drinks, the music was not great so we left at about 1 or so and went to bed.

The next day we were reading in one of our travel books about a place called Barton Creek Outpost. It was just a little blip that said that you could plan on coming for a day and end up staying for a week and what really got us was camping was free! So we asked around town and got a ride in the back of a pickup truck 13 miles outside of town through the jungle and unkept road to the Outpost. We had no idea what to expect, but we were blown away at how beautiful this place is! We were thinking it was like a hotel and there would be little shops and stuff to buy, but we are literally in the middle of the jungle! The Barton Creek Outpost  hosts campers so people are in and out of here all the time. There are 6 volunteers working here, cooking and keeping the place up. Everybody is around our age and really, really nice!

This morning when we woke up, we hung out on the hammocks for a bit and then went for a dip in the beautiful river right on the property. There is a really cool rope swing from some rocks into the water, Darren did it twice but Rachel is going to wait until tomorrow to attempt it... :)  Then we went for a hike through the jungle. One of the volunteers was sure to give us 2 machetes that he had just sharpened for the trek. So far, we will be relaxing here for the next couple of days, it is free for us to stay and endless hikes, swimming, waterfalls, kayaking, and even some caving to be done. We will update pictures and more information later, we are just not allowed to use the computers as guests but since we are the only ones here, they said that we can use the computers for today until the group of 9 arrives!
Love you all,

Rachel and Darren

Lamanai 1/21/11

Today we went to Lamanai. We took an hour and a half boat ride 33 miles up the New River to the ruins. The boat ride was awesome, we saw tons of birds, crocodiles, iguanas, and some monkeys that actually came into our boat to eat some food!! Our tour guide was amazing; while boating down the river he would stop periodically and point out a small bird in the trees, a lizard size iguana on a tree branch, or a submerged Croc. I guess 16 years of working on the river helps...


Once we arrived at Lamanai, we ate a prepared lunch of rice 'n' beans, chicken, potato salad, salad, and fried bananas. Then, on to the ruins... The first site we saw was called Mask Temple, because of the huge excavated masks at the bottom of the temple. Then we moved on the High Temple, which was an enormous temple that they allowed us to climb all the way to the top. The hike up was hard work but well worth it; we were above the canopy and we could see above all of the trees in the jungle! We continued on to ball court and Stella 9. The Stellas are carvings into stone that tell the archaeologists when they were done and what purpose they served, which help us to know the history of the site. Lastly, we went to the Plaza which housed the royal Mayans and the Jaguar Temple which got it's name from the Jaguar carvings at the bottom.

When the tour was over we made our way back to the Cristina, our boat, and our tour guide made us all some rum punch for the ride back. We drove a lot faster on the way back and we were able to see some iguanas, crocodiles, and neat birds on our own.

Just made it to Orange Walk, Belize

Check out our exact location: Click Here

Well, for the past 2 night we have stayed in Caye Calker, an Island in Belize, but we didn't have to stay in tents.  We stayed in an awesome, huge, hotel room with our new friend Kristen.  We met Kristen at the beach bar.  She is a police officer from Toronto Canada and was nice as can be.  She was traveling for a week by herself and we had and extra futon that she insisted we sleep on.  We agreed and couldn't be happier.  Her hotel was the only one with a pool.. not that we used it (there is an ocean near by) but it was spectacular. We just kicked it on Wednesday at the beach.  Dinner was lobster as usual with rice, beans, and cake. This morning we caught the Water Taxi from the Caye back to Belize city at 8:30am and made our way to the bus station.  The ride to Orange Walk was only 2.50$ US.  The place we are staying at tonight is a definite step up from tent camping but four steps down from the free room and board provided by Kristen... Thanks again Kristen, we love you!  We are staying at the Akihito Hotel-  Private room, 10' by10' with a small tv, shared common room and shower 15$US.  Not bad, but we cant wait to make our way to Guatemala were prices are half of what they are in Belize.  We will update as soon as possible.. Love ya!

Our hotel room in Orange Walk

internet prices are a little pricey too, so I'm writing in a frenzy.. ignore mistakes! : )

Belize

Sunday17th

We left Albuquerque at 7:05am and were able to fly first class from ABQ to Dallas and then again from Dallas to Belize. Yup, endless Mimosas, drinks, even a four course Indian Dish!! Fabulous way to start our trip! Rachel and I arrived in Belize City around 3:30 PM, and apparently the city is a little dangerous.  We tried to walk around and find a cheap place before it got dark, but were unsuccessful.  We ended up having a cab driver take us to the 'Bachelor Inn." It was 30$ us dollars, more then we were expecting, but the nice part was that we were the only ones in the Hotel and there was a rooftop that we could hang out on.  We drank some beer on the roof and called it an early night.

Monday 18th

The next day, we wanted to get out of the city and move onto the Island of Caye Calker.  It was 17$ round trip and took and hour and fifteen.  We found a hostel that allowed us to tent camp on their property for 5$.  By the end of the night there were five other campers.  There is a public swimming beach that we went to later.  The water was crazy warm and clear as glass.

 

Tuesday 19th,Rachel and I started the day off perfect with a lobster omelet. toast, fruit, coffee for 5$, not bad at all.  Later we decided that we wanted to go on a half day snorkeling tour, we were willing to pay up to 40$ for the tour, but it turns out that 20$ was just enough.  Belize is home to the worlds 2nd largest array of coral reef and we witnessed this first hand.  There were three stops on the trip.  the first: Sting ray alley-  four feet of water, 1.5 miles from the coast, blue/clear water, and 70 or so huge (3 feet) stingrays and 15+ sharks.  The guide were chumming the water and the rays and sharks loved it...so did we.  The rays didn't even care that we were there.  They would brush past our legs and the guides let us pet them.  It was unreal!  At first is was a little daunting because we thought we were going to step on a ray or shark and get bit, but after 20 mins or so it was all second nature.  The next two stops were to see the coral reef.  We were in open water and at some points the water was 60+ feet deep. The reef was beautiful and full of life. There were fish of all different colors and shapes and we even saw a more eel.  We didn't want to leave, but our 3 hour tour was over and we headed back to land.    Also, the place that we are camping at has some sea canoes that we can take out for free.  Naturally Rachel and I had never canoed in the open ocean before, but free is far too good of a deal to pass up.  We had a go at it, and after 30 minutes we got the hang of it.  The ride was very peaceful but tiring.  We were probably out on the ocean for an hour and a half, and that was plenty.  That was thirty minutes ago.