5th Belize City - Caye Caulker
Dogs barking all night last night
Cornflakes for breakfast from the local shop. Then we got a cab to the ferry port (a customer in the coffee shop called it for us - we are not in a tourist rich area, and there are zero taxis)
First mission of the day was get cash. We tried 2 different ATMs and 3 banks (all of them) but mission complete in the end.
2nd mission was to get to Caye Calker. 2 ferry companies. ocean ferry and San pedro in fierce competition for customers. Went with the the former, the original, apparently. 90bz dollars for us all, return. With the other company Hannah (11) would have been full price. That's was the clincher. And then we were off to the Caye's (as in Circular quay)
There are no pokastops on Caye Calker
Snorkelling trip tomorrow. Picked an eco friendly outfit.
Walked up to the spit in the day.
Sunset and Margherita at the iguana reef Inn. Seahorse(s)
Fried chicken for dinner.
FFX USD card not working!
6th Caye Caulker
Woke up early and breakfasted. The room we are in at the plaza ?? Hotel has very good a/c (gets very cold) and smells of cabbage.
Very chilled place.
Met captain Amado at his shop. Paid him 3x65us and out to the hol Chan marine reserve. We passed through the split, a passage between the 2 islands - created by a hurricane in 1961
We saw
green turtles (one with a big sucker fish on its back)
Spotted eagle ray babies
Shark ray alley
Grey nurse sharks and southern rays
Place where fishermen used to clean their catch. Sharks attracted by boat motors, and baiting
Coral gardens, ship wreck
back around 1.30.
Sunburnt. Mum looks a tomato.
Rice and beans and fish for lunch
Chilled out afternoon drinking rum based drinks.
Back to iguana for sunset
Kyle and beth brassica wedding. Got b&k sunglasses matching pair
Found pause hostel. Booking in for tomorrow :)
Celebrated by having a blue pussycat drink with my dindins. It was green.
Eva says;
Hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi and hi I'm EVA AKA DA E again hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi la loo le la loo le la loo le la loo le la loo le I'm EVA DA E
7th Pause Hostel
Lie in. Kerry and I in pain sunburn.
Checked out and moved our bags to the cat place
Free kayaks. 30+ cats. Kids love it
We decided to go out snorkelling again so took an afternoon trip with the same outfit as yesterday (almost fully clothed!)
2-5 half day
35us x3
At the place we had breakfast, we saw Antony Hopkins and Robert breakfasting together.
We went out for another half day of snorkelling, on the local reef this time. 3 stops;
South channel
Shark alley
Coral garden
Honeycomb cow fish
Trunk fish
Sergeant majors
Good, but not as diverse as the gbr. The diving there was amazing
All the sites we visited were very shallow
Final sunset and cocktails at the iguana bar. We treated ourselves to falafel pitas for dinner (more expensive than the same in London)
8th Monday San Ignacio
A lie in would have been almost impossible today as we were on uncomfortable bunk beds in a tin roofed shed - not the greatest of rooms.
Couple that with our sunburn and the multiple coconuts that fell on the roof in the night, waking everyone up.
I did have a very strange dream that I can only put down to the strawberry daiquiri I have last night. Must have more of them!
after a homemade breakdfast of cereal, and applying sudacream to our sunburn, we said goodbye to the cats (the owner is trying to sell the place and move the cats to their other hostel in Chetemal) and the beaches and caught the 8.30am boat back to Belize city.
Mission Belize zoo started! Passed the taxi touts (80us to the zoo) and walked to the bus station where we caught a Chicken bus (no chickens today though, only on a Friday) along the western highway (12$bz=6us). 40 minutes later it dropped us off outside said zoo. Just out of Belize city we went past a large fire right by the road. Looked like it was spreading, fast!
Zoo founded by a documentary maker to house the animals after the shoot.
When we had finished we walked back to highway and flagged down another BENQUE bus to San Ignacio (4x6bz)
I would describe San Ignacio as 'ethnic' - probably because we are close to the Guatemalan border. The hotel Majorca had a room matching our requirements (2 beds, a/c) for under 100bz, which was the best price we could find. Rude staff, though.
https://www.cave-tubing.com
9th
Caved in and paid for another night at the Majorca (it's too hot to pack up and move the bags for the sake of a tenner)
We went to 'pops' for breakfast where we had waffles (Hannah had beef burrito) I have upped my opinion of this place from a shit-hole to 'pretty average'.
FFX card not accepted in pops.
Started using revolut. Looking forward to the new ffx discovery card!
We walked to the local market, which consisted mainly of fruit and tourist tat. Bought some tat - carved slate and bead hummingbird, to match Hannah's bead hummingbird from Acumal.
sampled a strange new fruit - Malay apple. Mix between a wooly apple and a mango
Walked up hill to Ajaw chocolate place and took a tour. Was really good. Git to know, and sample original Mayan preparation method of cacao
Cacao pods - 3 types
Ate a fresh bean
8-10 million cacao trees in Belize
Majority of world choc overcomes from Africa
Other areas - chocolate belt
Natural Fermentation 7-14 days
White flesh juice can be turned into cacoa wine
Ate dried fermented bean
Then roasted
Cocoa nibs
Then ground on volcanic Stone - natural oils come out. Looks like chocolate now!
Then mixed with boiling water
Then honey
Then chilli
Mayan drink for religious events
Ajaw mean Lord/ruler
Cinnamon and allspice
Bowls same as maraccas
Calabash hecara I. Spanish
Post chocolate we headed to the iguana conservation project at the swanky San ignacio resort hotel and got up close and personal with some green iguanas.
There was Gnome (leader), Cassius clay
Cassandra
Lilly
Ziggy
'Kinda like dogs' Eva
Whip
dewlap is the flap. Orange in makes during mating season
3 month incubation
chocolate for lunch.
We joined the cool kids and got bubble teas (pomegranate and lychee, passion fruit and lychee) and then planned and paid for our day for tomorrow
Dinner at same place as last night 'Authentic flavours'. Fried red snapper, plantain fries, fish tacos, coconut chicken (seasoned chicken fillet, flour and grated coconut, deep fried) and mango jerk chicken burrito for Hannah. Delicious. Apparently Eva has 2 stomaches. One for coke and one for food.
Tomorrow's plan is to go to the ruins, do some cave tubing and cross the border. we shopped around to find the best/cheapest way to do this and ended up with Belize adventure trails. Paid them about 200 quid
10th into Guatamalla
Early breakfast of waffles at pops. Decided to get us a circular waffle maker 15cm
Met our guide/driver at the agency 8am
Xunantunich (tuna sandwich) ruins
Almost had the place to ourselves.
Saw and heard some howler monkeys
More old rocks. Have to use your imagination, as with all the Mayan sites we have seen
Cruise ship buses arrive as we were leaving around 10am
Has a habit of Driving 3m behind car in front. Had to close my eyes at times
Icj referendum. Guatemala trying to take some of Belize. Meant to be today. Gov blocked it
Same school system as UK
Girl guides
Hour or so drive back to near the Belize zoo. Early lunch of chicken rice and beans
Spent an hour floating through a fantastic limestone cave system and down a jungle river in a rubber tube.
Back into our guides 4x4 and an hour ride to the Guatemalan border.
We went through the passport formalities pretty painlessly. Cost us 40bzx2 to leave Belize.
On the bridge between the 2 countries a guy appeared and told us he would take us to Flores for 20us on his empty ac coach, which he had parked behind us. It's a 2 hour drive, and there is 4 of us. W boarded and then remembered the classic switch and bait that we had experienced in India.. ten minutes later we were cold, but still there.. but then 2 hours later we were in Flores. No switch and bait! Well there was a switch into a minivan, but no extra cost. We checked I to the Mirador del Lago, a hostel right on the lake front.
70us x3.5=245
285 =570bz
Why are all supermarkets Chinese owned?
4pm
Ac tourist bus 150q total = 20us to flores
Met a 'movie director' talking at a million miles an hour
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