The long version part 2
Day 6 (Halfway done!): Mar 13 Altun Tunickh Machal Cave
Some of us got up real early this morning to watch the sunrise and do a morning hike through the jungle. The sunrise wasn’t spectacular and we didn’t see anything on the hike but a tree frog on our door. Breakfast was at 7am (Tortillas, a veggie mix and some sausage) and the 8 of us loaded into the van for the trip to the cave. We weren’t told much about the cave which was probably a good thing because I probably wouldn’t have gone. It was a short trip to the cave and we picked up our guide and lunches. AT the van we were told to leave everything valuable except our cameras and we had to carry our lunches, water and helmet (first clue that maybe this wasn’t going to be what I expected.) It was about a 45 min jungle hike (good thing I had my tennis shoes on today) but we had 3 river crossings (now my tennis shoes and socks are wet). On the trip out we saw lots of flowers and birds and a little turtle. We also learned about the trees, a lemon tree and some plant for parasites. Oh yah, and we ate termites (they taste like carrots!). When we got to the cave area we hung up our backpacks and went to check out the entrance to the cave. It was very pretty!! The water, like most of the water in Belize, was very blue and clear! You could see the fishes swimming in it. We took pictures and then went back to meet with our guide. We turned in our cameras so he could put them into a waterproof bag and then we got our helmets and went back to the cave. First thing we had to do was SWIM into the entrance of the cave (by now I should be realizing that this is not going to be like any other cave tour I’ve ever done). We swim across climb onto the slippery rocks and turn on our head lights and then start traveling away from the entrance. Now we are told that we will be spending 3-4 hours in the cave (!!!) Going through this cave was like nothing I’d ever done before. We had to walk single file because the safe areas were very small. We also had to play telephone…the guide would say something like “Don’t step on that rock because you might fall and kill yourself” *not really like that but you know… and you had to hope that by the time you got the message that it was the right one! We climbed through tiny crevices, and tiny crevices with waterfalls running through them, swam, waded and walked through water-some very deep some not so deep. Had to watch out for sharp rocks and loose rocks, climbed up walls and walked along narrow slippery edges. All of this with only the light from your head lamp and the other 8 people’s headlamps. It was very dark and there were bats and cave crickets and cave scorpions. The caves symbolized the underworld for the Maya and the caves in Belize are filled with Maya artifacts…and that’s what we were hiking to. Deep into the cave we climb up a wall and are told to take our (wet) shoes off. In order to preserve the cave we can’t walk around in our shoes, only our socks. So off come the shoes and we collect our cameras and start the climb up. The guide takes his flashlight out and shines it around for us and everywhere you can see pools (dry ones with no water) that are filled with Maya pottery artifacts! Most are broken due to the Mayan ritual of releasing the bad spirits but some, the ones used to collect the holy cave water, are still intact. It was so neat to see these things that have been there for so long!!! The Mayas used the cave because, as I said, it symbolized the underworld; but also because it was thought to be where Chak the rain god lived. During the end of the Maya empire it is hypothesized that there was a drought occurring. So the elite and rulers were entering the caves and performing ceremonies to appease the god and ask for rain. It started with smoke and water ceremonies, proceeded to blood letting ceremonies and when those didn’t work…they sacrificed humans. There are 14 human remains in this cave alone, we were allowed to see 5 of them. The youngest remains in the cave belong to an 8 month old baby, then a 2 year old baby, a 12 year old boy up to a 40 year old man. All of them except the young ones were volunteers because it was an honor to be sacrificed to the gods and to help your people. All except one suffered blunt force trauma to the head. National Geographic was invited to come through this cave several years ago and do a documentary. One of the skulls that we saw was featured on the cover of a national Geographic. It was very neat to see these things but also kind of scary/creepy…not sure what the word is I’m looking for. We got to see some amazing things on this part of the tour but it was not any easier than the first part. We were in our socks and there were sharp rocks and slippery surfaces and also we had to watch where we were stepping so we didn’t ruin anything and there was some ladder climbing involved. It was still so neat and I’ve got some good pictures. We spent about an hour here and then it was time to head back out. The trip back out was a little easier since we didn’t go the same way. On the way out we saw the rest of our group since they got here way later than we did. They all seemed to be going an easier way and it was not fair! It was nice to see daylight again and we hiked up and had lunch. The lunch was ham sandwiches with mayo (and these had been sitting out in the sun for about 3 hours…yum), pineapple and watermelon, some chips and some cookies. It was ok. On the hike back to the vans we saw a little green snake. He was kind of cute! AT the vans we changed and began the trip home. Since we had gotten there so early we got back really early and it was kind of nice to sit around and not have to deal with the big group. I did laundry, checked my email, found out there were 28 inches of snow in River falls, briefly felt bad for everyone in River Falls including Mat who had to shovel all of that snow…then went to hang out in the warm sun. The big group got back about 4 hours after we did and we went to eat dinner, which was spaghetti and salad again with a banana bread for desert. Since this was the last night at Crystal Paradise we all sat around for quite awhile and then it was time to pack. Today was an amazing day and I appreciated it more once we were out of the cave and I wasn’t afraid I was going to die anymore. Not sure I’d ever do that again…but it was great to do once!
Day 7: Mar 14 Leave Crystal Paradise, Belize Zoo, Ambergris Caye, Sunset Sail
Today was sad. It was our last day at Crystal Paradise and our last morning of a “free” good breakfast. Breakfast was scrambled eggs, Papaya, and biscuits. Some of the people were going to the local school to deliver the books and soccer balls that we were donating. I didn’t go, even though I wanted to, because there were so many people going and it was such a small school. I stayed back and finished packing and taking pictures. We hiked up to the bird watching tower and took some pictures. The vans came and picked up all our stuff and then it was time for us to go (about 9am). It was about 1.5 hours to the Belize zoo where we were stopping for a quick visit. The zoo is really nice!!! They had some signs I wish I could have stolen for us (basically about not harassing the animals and not sticking fingers in cages). The zoo consisted of all native animals that were either injured or orphaned in the wild, born in the zoo or confiscated from people illegally owning them as pets. It started when some animals were left over from a documentary and they needed some place to put them…so they put up some fences in the jungle and that was the start of the zoo. We only had an hour and I would have liked a little bit longer (but that was just me). We saw the jaguars, tapirs, crocodiles, ocelot, Margay and a lot of other cool animals. I loved their zoo! It was another hour drive to the airport where we would be boarding a puddle jumper to fly us to our next destination of Ambergris Caye (pronounced key) the city of San Pedro. The puddle jumpers only seated 12 people so we had to be divided into 3 groups and I was in the last group. I had a window seat which was great since the view was amazing. The Cayes are situated in the Caribbean sea and is bordered by the second largest barrier reef in the world. The water was so blue and all the islands looked so cool! It was only a 15 min flight to San Pedro and we walked off our plane right to the front door of our hotel, Sun Breeze. We had to meet with the hotel manager so she could tell us the rules of the hotel (don’t lose your towel/key etc. don’t bring locals back to your room, be quiet be respectful). The hotel was nice and a normal hotel with a TV and large bathroom. The hotel was horseshoe shaped with the rooms opening into a sandy courtyard with a pool and a short walk from the ocean/beach. The beach was lined with tour organizations, boats and docks. Me and a couple girls went right away to go eat lunch. We ate at a restaurant called Mongos. It was pretty decent. I had some chicken quesadillas and a Sprite. I was still really hungry afterwards though. The first thing we did as a group in San Pedro was a sunset sail. There were two boats, a large and small so we got divided. I went on the big boat which is good since the small boat was late and everyone was mad. We got free rum punch on the boat. The rum punch on our boat was really, really weak and pretty much just punch. It was entertaining to watch all the people who thought they were drunk though. The sunset was beautiful and we did some swimming in the ocean and then it was back to shore. It was a pretty short trip. I got my hair braided since our professor said it was probably a good idea to get it from getting all nasty. It took forever for her to finish my hair and there were a bunch of shady guys hanging out there so my friends Jeff and Liz waited for me. I felt bad though because by the time she finished, all the restaurants were closed/not serving food so we had to eat at some street vendors. It was kind of scary but I watched her cook my burger and I’m still alive so I guess it was ok. The burger wasn’t very good though I fed most of it to the stray dogs that were hanging out by us. After that we walked around town a little bit but then we were pretty tired so we went to bed. It was nice to spend a night finally not having to worry about waking up with bug bites all over!! I think we were getting bit at night at the other place in our beds!! My legs looked/look like I had some strange jungle disease they were so bit up and itchy!! It was awful!
Day 8: Mar 15 All day at Sea
Today we spent all day at sea on some motor boats. We had to be fitted for and collect some snorkeling gear before 8:30 am. Afterwards we had to find breakfast. I got a delicious fruit bowl and Fresh OJ from a place called Ruby’s Café. It only cost me $7 Belize which is $3.50 U.S. There is no way that in the US I’d be able to get a fruit bowl for $2.50. It had pineapple and papaya and oranges and watermelon and cantaloupe in it. I had it every morning because it was so good! We had to be on the docks by the boats by 930 am. We were going on two boats again but this time they were both leaving at the same time so there would be no upset people. It was a pretty fun ride since the boats went pretty fast and when we’d hit the waves we’d bounce and get wet. Our first trip/stop of the day was out at a protected manatee area. We were searching for manatees. They had to turn the motors off and use a pole to push the boats around. In the groves/close to shore we did see a few manatees supposedly. I couldn’t see them and all they were was a small gray snout above the water. Everyone had to be real quiet and we had to sit up on the seat cushions since the manatees were sensitive to sound vibrations. We left the “burro” shore area after a few minutes and went out to a more open area and there we saw several more manatees and I finally saw them too! Some actually came quite close to the boat and you could make out their shape. We spent about 30 minutes playing with Manatees and then it was time to go onto our next destination. The next destination was out to Hol Chan for some snorkeling. It was just a small sandy island with some picnic pavilions. This was my first time ever snorkeling so I was a little nervous. We got all our stuff ready and walked into the water a ways before putting on our flippers. Snorkeling was pretty cool! I saw lots of colorful fish and all sorts of different kinds of coral. This wasn’t really the best snorkeling we did though because, aside from our group, there were a lot of people. Cruise ship groups come out here to snorkel and it was so crowded I kept getting kicked and you couldn’t really see much because of all the people. We spent about an hour in the water snorkeling and when we got back the captains of the boat had lunch ready for us. Lunch was a spicy chicken, spicy veggies, spicy pasta salad, Spicy potatoes and a chocolate chip brownie. It was ok. The seasoning on some of it I didn’t really like, but I was really hungry. We hung out on the beach for awhile before heading out to our next destination. Our next destination was another snorkeling stop and on the way we saw some dolphins. Only two of them and they were kind far away but it was still really amazing!!! We had to stop to catch “bait” before our next destination and we stopped to catch fish next to another high class resort. It was neat because every time the captain would throw the net into the water to get fish, pelicans would come seemingly out of nowhere to dive bomb after the net. It was really cool and kind of funny to watch. Our next stop was at a place called shark and ray alley. Basically a shallow part near the reef that is a well known snorkeling spot because of the high population of sting rays and nurse sharks. It was really, really neat. You may have gotten to pet smallish sting rays but I got to swim with biggish sting rays :-P they were everywhere!!! You couldn’t set your feet down because they might have been buried under the sand and they were pretty big. You could swim down and pet them too which was really neat. Unfortunately I got cold kind of fast (our second snorkel stop and it was getting late in the day) so I didn’t swim out to where the sharks were. I wish I had seen some sharks though. We spent about 45 minutes here and then it was time to leave for our next destination. Nope we weren’t done yet J On our way to the next destination we had some fresh pineapple slices and some watermelon. It was so good. I’m suffering fresh fruit withdrawal now that I’m back home. Our next stop was Caye Caulker which is a smallish island that is becoming a popular spring break spot, but before we went ashore we went hunting for sea horses. The captains put the boat in kind of a murky shallow grassy area and they got to look while we stayed in the boats. Before they found a sea horse they found a bat fish. What an ugly fish!! We all got to hold the bat fish before he went back in the water. There were a couple sea cucumbers in the water and our captains captured one for us to hold. It was the grossest thing I’ve ever felt in my life!! It was almost a foot long and very, very slimy but you could feel the muscles move and …I don’t even know how to describe it, it was so gross!!! The captains did find some sea horses for us to look at and that was kind of neat. Once the sea horse expedition was over we were allowed to go on shore of Caye Caulker for about an hour. There were lots of nice shops and I should have bought more there because it was cheaper…but oh well there wasn’t enough time anyway J
The boat ride back to shore was pretty short and that’s a good thing because I’m pretty sure I was boated out for the day. After getting back and waiting forever for everyone to finish showering and changing me and my friends Gina, Kindy, Liz, Janet, Katie and Jeff along with our professor Ed went out to the supposedly best pizza place in the world for dinner. We were so hungry we ordered 4 pizzas and some breadsticks and cheesy bread. The poor chefs! The pizza was really good but I wouldn’t call it the best ever…it might have been the best ever though because, like I said, we were really hungry. After we finished eating and boxed up the rest of the pizza we walked around to do some shopping and then some of us went to get ice cream. It was the some of the best ice cream ever!! I got a scoop of chunky monkey-basically banana and chocolate chips. YUM!! We hung out for awhile and then went to bed. The next day was a free day so we would get to sleep in. Today was an phenomenal day though!
Day 9: Mar 16 Free day
Today was pretty much a free day and because of that this day will be a short description. Half of our group was out on the sail boat for an all day sail and another quarter of our group was out diving. Those that were left got to sit around and find our own entertainment for the day. I couldn’t sleep in for some reason my body was conditioned to waking up at 6. So I lay in bed until 7 and then got up to get ready for the day. I found a big huge nasty tick burrowed in my hip. I was so freaked out and pretty convinced I’m going to die from some strange jungle tick disease. I don’t know how I could have missed it or why my clothes didn’t rub against it but it was pretty gross. I was informed that the ticks don’t carry disease but I don’t know how true that is. My friend Gina stopped by about 8am to ask if I wanted to rent bikes with her so, since I didn’t want to be sitting around doing nothing, we rented bikes. We rode to one end of the island and then they wanted to charge us money to cross the bridge so we turned around and rode to the other end to get coffee. I just want to say that this was the scariest bike ride I’ve ever been on in my life. We had to dodge cars and golf carts and the roads were all cobblestone or unpaved and it is nearly impossible to ride in sand and I almost fell into the ocean when we were riding on a narrow concrete wall, but it was fun! We stopped at a little coffee shop to get coffee and I got something called an Iced “Caye”ppuccino. It was basically a cappuccino with chocolate ice-cream. I’m not a coffee drinker usually but this was delicious!! In order to get the bikes back in time not to get charged an extra hour we had to bike fast while carrying our coffees. It was quite the adventure. We got the bikes back and paid for our 2 hours and I sat around and read awhile while people got ready to go eat lunch. We went to a place call Celia’s for lunch and it was really good!! I had some fresh squeezed pineapple juice and the best shrimp fajitas that I’ve ever had in my life! (never mind that they were the first shrimp fajitas I’ve ever had in my life, they were still the best!) Eating in restaurants in Belize takes some patience. It usually takes at least 15 minutes for them to come take your drink order and then another 20 minutes for them to bring you your drink and take your food order and probably about 30-45 minutes until you get your food. The food was always so good though that it was worth the wait. After getting stuffed at lunch we walked around town some and did some shopping, I didn’t buy anything though because I was planning to go out shopping with Jeff later. Did see lots of stuff I was going to buy though. We got back probably around 1 or 2 o’clock and I did some swimming and lying on the chairs by the pools. Jeff got back around 3 and we went out to do our shopping. I think we hit every gift store in San Pedro and I spent entirely too much money! It was fun though I got some neat stuff. For dinner a couple of us went to place called Cannibals for dinner. The food wasn’t spectacular but I wasn’t really hungry so it doesn’t matter. We went out for a little bit to a couple bars and then I went back and went to bed.
Day 10: Mar 17 All day sail and snorkel trip
We picked up our snorkel gear around 830 and I got my normal fruit bowl and OJ breakfast and the sail boat left about 9am. It was the same boat as the sunset sail but it was a very small group which was nice because we all had a place to lie down then. There were free rum punches on the boat again only this time they were a little stronger and people started drinking at 930 am. That’s way too early for me. We did some tanning (or burning in my case because sun screen is useless in Belize) and I did some not catching anything fishing. We saw the place Temptation Island was filmed. We stopped at a place called Mexico rocks for snorkeling. I thought this was a better snorkel site than the first one. There was a lot more coral and a lot more fish! It was pretty amazing. We snorkeled for about an hour and then did some more fishing. Only one guy caught anything and it wasn’t anything big enough to keep. Pretty cool fish though. The captains were going to be cooking lunch for us on the beach of a $700/night resort that Dr. Phil and other celebrities are often seen at. The resort was pretty nice. We sat around in red cushy chairs while we waited for lunch. There were also hammocks, about 3 out of place Husky dogs, and a parrot. It was nice to sit and relax for awhile. The divers met up with us for lunch and the ride back. Lunch was delicious! It was grouper (a fish) with some veggies and rice…all seasoned kind of spicy but it was so good! I ate so much!!! After lunch it was back to sea. Our group was a little larger now and I began to think I shouldn’t maybe have eaten so much. I was feeling a little sea sick. Because of feeling sea sick, I decided not to do the second snorkel stop. I just wanted to sleep. We got back to shore about 5 pm and it could not have been any sooner for me. I was still feeling a little sick but also I was really burnt! Despite my best efforts at sunscreen I was very red. I rested for awhile while people got ready for the night. Some of us went to get ice-cream (not as good today no chunky monkey) and then went to eat at Jerry’s sea food shack. They stayed open late for us, which we felt bad about, so they didn’t have much food left. I got some sea food fritters and they weren’t very good. I didn’t eat all of them. I went to bed after dinner because I still was not feeling 100%.
Day 11: Our last full day in Belize-snorkeling at Baclar Chico and beach barbeque
Most people had a free day today but I, again, didn’t want to be left behind to sit around and do nothing so I opted to go with the small group that was heading out to the research site Baclar Chico for snorkeling. This site is run and owned by the founder of Green Reef Belize which is a non profit org dedicated to the protection of the reef but also to helping the locals that have been put out because of the conservation efforts. It was about an hour motor boat ride out there in an itty bitty motor boat. The place was pretty small and very close to the Mexico/Belize border. There were a couple buildings, a dorm and a kitchen pretty much. We rested for a bit and then it was time to snorkel. I was a little worried about the snorkeling since this would be my first time without a life jacket and we were swimming about a mile off shore towards a channel in the reefs edge but I did just fine! The snorkeling was pretty amazing, not as good as we were led to believe, but still very good! Lots of healthy coral, lots of colorful fish I hadn’t seen before and some areas were pretty deep. We saw some crab, a lobster and even some squid on the way back! The squid were probably the coolest. There were 3 of them and they were kind of silvery and just kind of looking at us, it was really amazing. There was a slight current I wasn’t prepared for but I managed just fine, I didn’t even feel tired until we got back. I was so proud of myself. They cooked us lunch which was pretty good: Chicken, rice and veggies. After lunch some of us went for a hike down the beach. It was pretty hot and the beach was very dirty with litter that washed in with the tide. We did see some kids (one naked little boy) playing on the beach and the girl informed us she sees 25 people walk down the beach a day. After about an hour walking down we turned around and headed back. We stopped at a little bar on the beach placed in the middle of nowhere and had some sodas. My sprite smelled like fish and that weirded me out so I gave it to Jeff. On the motorboat trip back we all slept, or tried to sleep as best as one can sitting up. When we got back I hurried and finished up my shopping and then laid in one of the chairs to read for awhile. It was pretty relaxing. We were having a beach barbeque at 7pm to eat and be together for our last night in Belize. It was so much food!! We had Chicken (again), sausage, Tilapia with white sauce, potato salad, some spicy salad, and a coconut pastry and a free rum punch which I traded someone for a sprite (I’m a loser I know). Somehow I managed to save room for ice cream afterwards. They still didn’t have chunky monkey though so I had chocolate chip, which was alright. Most of us went back to the hotel to hang out for awhile. We played card games and did some card tricks and sat around talking until about midnight…then it was decided we should pack and head to bed.
Day 12: Leaving for home
You don’t need to know every detail of going home only that we had to vacate our rooms by noon and our puddle jumpers departed for Belize international at 130. We ate our last lunch in Belize at Celia’s again. I had a cheeseburger with fries. Our flight left Belize international at 430 pm so we sat around for quite awhile. Clearing customs in Houston was no problem and we all ate mc Donald’s for dinner. We arrived at Minneapolis at 1155pm and I think I got home around 1am. Mat helped me take my braids out, which took forever! I think I got to bed around 330 am. Poor Mat had an 8am class, I was skipping my classes.
It was such an Amazing trip I didn’t want to come home at all! I liked the first half (the jungle) more than the second half. I’m not much for sitting around and riding boats and drinking rum punch all the time. I much prefer to be hiking and moving but the second half was still a lot of fun. I experienced so many things I normally wouldn’t have done and really lived outside my comfort zone for almost 2 weeks. It felt so good! I made some new friends and met some amazing people. The weather was beautiful every day although on the island it was a little cooler especially at night when I could be seen sporting a nice skirt and sweatshirt. I got really bit up and burned and now I’m peeling and the bites are scabbing so I do look like I have some strange disease. There were lots of dogs (free roaming) all over the country but the dogs on the island seemed to be better cared for (I saw an ad for a humane society benefit that included a pet costume contest). Didn’t see many cats though. Most the dogs looked the same and all were un-nuetered. I really liked the food but wish I had had more of an opportunity to sample some more of the local cuisine (such as cow foot soup and iguana). I probably wouldn’t have liked it but I still would have liked to try it. The locals that we interacted with were very nice. All of our guides and most of the people we did business with were men. Women assume a much more traditional role in the country and are often in stores, teachers or waitresses. The men…the best way to describe them is outgoing in a construction worker type of way. They hit on all the girls and most the girls were given free drinks or discounted prices by the bar tenders. The guys all got quoted different prices for drinks. I didn’t really go out that much at night in San Pedro because it’s not really my scene. I much preferred to stay back at the hotel or walk the beach. It was quieter, plus I didn’t have that much money to be spending on drinks (even if I had gotten them free it’s still too much :P ) Plus, I’m not really a big fan of alcohol lately. There were quite a few people on the trip who thought this trip was all about drinking and partying and completely missed the point. It was a study tour not a “vacation” and they could have “vacationed” for much cheaper. It was a little annoying. Mat says he missed me but he only emailed me once so I don’t buy that J My kitties missed me though. When I got home Tora jumped off the bed and started rubbing on my legs and when I sat down she started clawing my legs like I was a scratching post…not sure what that was about but I’ll take it as she missed me. Willows been sleeping in my bags since I got home. Poor kitties. Well that’s everything I can remember! This took me 3 days to type and is about 12 pages long on my word processor. I hope you didn’t get bored!