Belize Day #9

The arrangement made with Pacz Tours was that we were to be at the Teakettle Village junction at the A.T.M. sign at 9am sharp. Having only a vague idea of how long it would take to get there (sources told us about a 1/2 hour), we got up early to hit the Tuesday market for breakfast before catching the 8:00 bus westward.

I scored a tasty ham and egg breakfast burrito and Jes sourced out some fresh-sliced papaya, watermelon and pineapple. We both had banana smoothies and the whole meal cost a pittance, not even worth remembering. Jes also picked up a couple bananas for a Belizean quarter (6 US cents a piece) and we bought some banana bread, apples and nectarines for the trip.

We hopped on the bus and were under that A.T.M. sign with time to spare, which was spent marvelling at the locals parading around on the street as we cowered from the sun in the shade of the sign. 

We had packed some closed-toed shoes and a change of clothes, as recommended on the phone by the tour guide operator the previous night. Beyond that, I went into this with no clue what to expect. A tour guide from one of the other companies doing the A.T.M. tour was also waiting by the sign and was happy to answer some of our questions. We found out that our closed-toed shoes would be getting wet as there would be numerous river crossings. He also mentioned that we would have to give our camera to the guide until we were inside the chamber about a mile into the cave, at which point, we'd get it back and continue through the cave in our sock-feet. I was confused.

Regardless, our guide showed up and whisked us off to the site after a quick stop to wait for the rest of the crew. After some confusing directions about what to bring, we brought our packs, stuffed with lunches provided by the tour group, dry socks, drinking water and one helmet each. After a mild amount of hiking including three river crossings in my brand new running shoes (the only closed-toed shoes I had brought on the trip), we reached a staging area where we'd leave our bags and later return to for lunch. We marched onward with nothing but the clothes on our backs, the shoes on our feet and the head-lamp-adorned helmets on our heads (and shorts on our bums), having given my camera to the guide to stow away into his dry-bag inside a dry-bag inside a dry-bag. It wasn't long before it was made patently clear why the triple water-tight seal was needed. We entered the cave and started our descent into the darkness with a short swim across which even my lengthy frame couldn't touch bottom; I was neck-deep, doggie-paddling to the next rock ledge. 

The next two hours were spent meandering through a network of caves as grand as cathedrals to body-contortingly tight with water levels varying from neck-deep swim-throughs to shoe-top-high cricks. Eventually we came to the chamber and had to remove our shoes and continue in our socks. Jes and I were smart enough to have stored our socks in dry location: under her helmet, so we had the added luxury of carrying forward with dry feet. The descent was not yet complete however as the was still some walking, climbing around and even ladder climbing to get to the end of the chamber. 

Along the way, the guide regaled us with theories of these underground Mayan customs while pointing out many pieces of broken pottery and skeletal remains, all said to be authentic archaeological discoveries, in place just as they were discovered. Carbon dating placed some of the artifacts back to 730 AD. The piece de resistance was a full-skeleton of a woman at the end of the cave. 

 We headed back from whence we came, passing all the same artifacts, stalactites and stalagmites we had on the way in. The one big difference on the way out was passing all the other tour groups on their way into the cave. We were fortunate enough (or fast enough) to have been the first group in that morning, and once we heard the first echoes of the second group as we left, we were grateful to have had such a peacefully quiet experience inside. 

I'm not sure if it was for the scare-factor or to prove that he knows these caves like the back of his hand, but at a certain point, our guide had the six of us line up in a row, hold hands, take one last, looong look in the direction we were headed.....and turn off our lights. I will never be in a literally darker spot. I may as well have not had eyes, as there was no difference between opening or closing them. Our guide then marched our human-chain forward, describing to the next person in line the obstacles in front of him, would relay the descriptions to the next person, and on down the line. We turned a corner, felt the water get deeper, up to our chest (well, my chest...I had to help the short girl behind me from going completely under), over some rocks and suddenly after what felt like 100, maybe 200 meters, maybe more, I saw a sliver of daylight and things started coming into focus. It was pretty fun experience and an impressive display by our guide, who, no doubt, was not leading this tour for the first time. 

We exited the cave, had our pre-made chicken sandwich lunches, headed back to the van, changed clothes and were outta there. 

The guide dropped us off at a gas station a little closer to town than we'd been picked up, and recommended we grab a beverage at the attached convenience store to sip on while we waited at the bus stop. We partook in his brilliant recommendation and engaged in a relaxing beer/cooler sipping session at the bus stop, which was on the wrong side of the road for the direction we wanted and behind a parked truck, impeding our view of any oncoming traffic. It didn't take me long to lose myself in the frosty bliss of my suds, so I was fortunate that Jes was paying mild attention to the road. I wasn't a quarter into my beer when she shouted "BUS!!". I looked but could scarcely see the road for the parked truck in the way, but I couldn't see one so I assumed she was joking. I thought she might not be joking when she started scrambling her bags together and running out to the road, during which time I stood up and saw our bus barreling down on us. Jes managed to flag the bus down in time and, for a brief moment, I thought of some way to get my alcohol onto this public vessel but took the high road and left the poor thing there, undranken. Meanwhile, Jes was running ahead of me to an impatiently-waiting, and very full, high-school-style bus. I managed to catch up with her and noticed that her thought process regarding her beverage had taken a different branch. She was running full-tilt, pack on her back and open alcohol bottle in hand. As I passed her I was thinking "we're screwed, we're not getting on this bus and it'll be an hour till the next one". She, however, had something more crafty in mind. As I raced past her, and to my dismay, she slyly stowed her open drink in the water-bottle pocket on the outside of my day-pack. I was too rushed to do anything but go along with this sneakery, and needless to say I deeply regretted having left my beer to swelter alone in the Belizean heat by that bus stop once I had successfully smuggled Jes's drink aboard. As retribution, I drank a good portion of what remained of that drink, but losing that beer is a sorrow I won't soon forget. 

We had supper at our hotel restaurant, which wound up being a bit of a lengthy affair as we were back fairly early, being the first group in and thus, the first group out of the caves. We racked up a BZ$100 bill of appies, supper and booze while we internetted and texted on the wifi and called it a night shortly thereafter.

Belize Day #8

An early rise in Placencia, we packed our gear, minus a US$6 bottle of rum that Jes stubbornly packed with her from the northern cayes, and headed out to catch the bus to Belmopan. We caught breakfast at a local shack open early and selling bean-and-chicken-filled flour tacos with a cup of hot water that I combined with instant coffee and a lot of sugar. 

We caught the bus a short while later and began our return to Dangriga, the city from which we had flown to Placencia the afteroon previous. After about an hour's wait in Dangriga we jumped another bus to Belmopan, arriving by about 11am. We had previously researched accommodation and had decided on the Hibiscus Hotel based solely on its proximity to the bus station. To our delight, when we showed up asking about accommodation, there was vacancy in a private room with a king size bed for US$60 per night. 

After dropping our bags in the room we had a quick lunch in the attached restaurant, Corker's. We asked the British hotel/restaurant owners about cave-tubing (or "tube-caving" as it's known in some circles, ie Jes's circle) and tours to the A.T.M. site. Impressively, they were able to arrange a tube-caving tour for that afternoon and they'd be by to pick us up in about an hour and a half. The tour dude obviously wasn't too busy because he knocked on our hotel room door half an hour ahead of schedule. We took off a short time later and before we knew it we were hiking through the Belizean jungle donning bright yellow inner tubes on our shoulders! 

We were offered helmets and life jackets, but politely declined, however, the headlamps were not optional as we were about to disappear into complete darkness inside these Mayan caves. 

As we were hiking, our knowledgeable tour guide, Luis, presented us with an option to hike an additional half hour in order to tube the fifth of the five caves, as the normal route only took you to the entrance to the fourth of five. I was skeptical, especially hiking through the obviously more rugged terrain (than the tourist trail) in flip flops with mangled toes from the escapades of a couple nights prior. Nonetheless, we decided to go for it and we were glad to do it. As it turns out, our guide only gets asked to do this "more adventurous route" once every month or less. We were happy to be considered "more adventurous" and also happy to get the additional exercise after so much inactivity and gluttony on the trip and two straight travel days.  

Along the way, Luis pointed out a termite nest and informed us that these little critters would be a good source of protein if we somehow found ourselves lost and rationless in this dense jungle. He added also that you would be pleasantly surprised by their minty flavour and carroty aftertaste, a notion at which I scoffed. Naturally, he challenged us to disprove his claim, a notion at which I balked. Jes however, probably grouchy with jungle-hiking-hunger was ready to chomp down on anything put in front of her, including live insects. She didn't hesitate, and plunged our guide's termite-covered finger into her mouth to feed on the crawly goodness, which she then declared as "minty!" followed by "carroty!". I felt my manhood was in jeopardy if I could not repeat the task. After some self- and hiking-party persuasion, I took a pair of the tiny bugs onto my finger and gingerly placed them into my mouth, gnawing at them at the behest of our guide who implored that they be chewed in order to achieve the full minty-carroty effect. I never did quite experience the minty flavor, but the carrot taste was in full effect; that is, if you consider that it tasted like a carrot freshly pulled from the Earth and consisting of more dirt than carrot. 

We spent the next few hours lightly paddling ourselves upstream through the cave system, using flip flops  as oars. We picked an extraordinary day and time for it as there was virtually no one around. We had heard,  and it was confirmed by our guide, that the next three days (Tues-Thurs) would bring hoards of cruise-ship travellers through the tube-caving site, so we were more than please at how our day had worked out.  

We finished up the tour and immediately continued our negotiations for touring the A.T.M. site the next day. We were more than skeptical about the "US$130, minimum US$110" quote from our guide, so we arranged for his boss to call us later to discuss the pricing. When we arrived at the hotel, we immediately looked up the pricing in our Lonely Planet book to find that we were right. They were trying to con us into some astronomical tourist price, as the quoted price in the book was US$80. Our hotel folk helped us arrange a tour through another company for a more reasonable US$85 which we were more than happy to accept and make arrangements for. Somewhat to our shegrin, we found out later that "the boss" of the tour company had called the hotel to talk to us as arranged and the hotel owner told them we'd found another company to take us out for US$65 (she had gotten confused with the price we told her we'd paid for the 5-cave-tube-caving). "The boss" said he'd match the price of US$65 (which was never offered by anyone), so who knows how low he'd go after their initial quote of twice that (US$130). The principle of it bothered me anyway, so I was glad to go with the company that offered regular rates off the hop. 

We ate upstairs again for supper, despite the elevated cost. I was still feeling the effects of my Caye Caulker escapades two nights earlier, so I was still off booze for the time being. I had a simple chicken and potato dinner with veggies and a variety of hot sauces while Jes had the veggie-stuffed peppers, which were also delicious, chased with more Coco Locos than she could handle without me noticing her sudden intoxication.

We went to bed happy that the day had come together so nicely after somewhat of a lost day previous to that.

Belize Day #7

We woke up later than usual, somewhere around 8am and I was feeling the pain. Jes was starving as usual and had to go for breakfast immediately. I was having no part of it, so she went out on her own and was kind enough to bring me back a breakfast burrito and sweet coffee from our favorite joint. 

We scrambled our packs together as we were getting shooed out of our room at 10am sharp, no messing around with checkout times here I guess. We wanted to catch the 11:00 flight to Dangriga but it turned out it was booked. We settled for the 1pm departure.

We left our big packs at the hotel and went for a walk to find lunch before our flight. I wanted either A/C or an ocean breeze to help my hangover and our favorite spot had neither of the above. We found a spot on the beach just up from our hotel and had a pair of pina coladas, a bacon cheese burger and fries for me and veggie wrap and coleslaw for Jes. 

Our golf cart taxi showed up on time and 5 minutes later we were at the airstrip. I was delighted to find Sunday afteroon NBA action on TV in the waiting room. A hotly-contested battle between East contenders Chicago and Orlando. 
In stark contrast to the airport standard we're used to in Canada, bags were taken and thrown straight on the plane, carry-ons not bothered to be searched and I'm not sure we even gave them our names! It was nice to not have all the extra travel time going through security. 
We had about a 1 hour layover in Belize City and then were off to Dangriga. On arrival, in our minds we'd just hop the next boat out to Glover's Reef for a relaxing few days on the atoll. It was already 3:00 and there was no chance of getting out there that night and as we found out, this little side trip was turning out to be cost-prohibitive. The options for getting out to the hotel we're pretty limited, the one seeming to be the best was a US$400 one-way water taxi that wouldn't even be able to get us there that night as it was too close to nightfall. Not a good mix with boating over a reef. We needed a new plan and I was in no mental or physical state to be participating in such high-brain-demand activities.

After much deliberation, we finally agreed...we're going to scout out some whale sharks! I approached the desk and asked when the next flight to Placencia left. She told me "7 minutes". Perfect! We booked it instantly, but there was a problem. There was a sudden an unexpected rumble from the nether regions of my bowels. I rushed to the men's room of the tiny airport and proceeded to diarrhea for the next 15 mins, during which time our plane landed, Jes grabbed my gear, got on the plane and the airstrip staff banged on the bathroom door for a solid 5 minutes. I apologized profusely for the delay and ran out to the plane, feeling each and every glare of contempt from through the airplane windows, including Jes's. How dare I delay these people's vacay by 8 minutes for my own selfish diarrhea! 

 We landed in Placencia and, after trying to be persuaded by some Hollywood chick into renting out her cabana a couple miles out of town, found a cabbie to take us to a hotel in town for cheap. After no deliberation, we settled on the Sea Spray which, despite its lack of A/C, was right on the beach and very central. We went immediately for a walk to talk to the dive shoppies. We found a stereotypical 60s hippie at a dive shop down the sidewalk from us. He informed us that he "could just take us out to look for whale sharks" but that they would be hard to find as they don't congregate at Gladden Split until the caviar banquet produced by the spawning zoo plankton on or around the full moon. The full moon wasn't scheduled until our departure day, a week to the day later, so we decide to make a new plan and try our luck with the whale sharks a couple days before the full moon.

We spent the evening dining seaside at the dock at the end of the sidewalk. I was sold enough by the pineapple-slice-topping to order the teryiaki chicken burger while Jes settled for a Thai veggie dish. We crushed delicious fruit smoothies with the meals as we schemed a new plan for our trip. We eventually reasoned that whale sharks weren't happening for at least a few days, so into the interior we'd go to explore some caves. A bit of a waste of a travel day, but them's the breaks of travelling by the seat of your pants.   We sourced out some info on the bus schedule and crashed early ahead of an early departure to Belmopan, near the Jaguar Paw cave tubing and A.T.M. archaeological site.

Belize Day #6

We woke up around 7 and spent the first part of the morning reading; Jes her kindle, I my iPod, National Post app. When we started to feel the grumblings of hunger we went for a walk to source out some sustinence. We found a tiny, nameless cafe that served us ham and eggs with beans and fry jacks. Jes got hers in burrito form, and we split a super sweet-tasting coffee. I was so stuffed that I needed help finishing my fry jacks, and astoundingly, the whole meal cost us BZ$12, tip included! We wandered back to the hotel for more reading-in-the-hammock time before our 10:15 meeting time with the snorkel company.

The company we signed up with didn't have anyone else sign up for the trip, so we were scuttled over to their sister company, Tsunami, who had 6 going already. We jumped in the boat for a 45-minute, spine-jarring ride out the reef. The first stop was a bonus stop on top of the 3 we registered for; the captain spotted a fisherman and knew that there would be tons of ocean creatures beneath him. He was right. We donned our gear, rolled overboard and swam over to find hoards of fish, several great big rays and a huge turtle. I spent half the time at this stop madly fumbling through pictures from last summer's Manitoba trip as I had run out of digital memory on the card in my underwater camera. I managed to remove enough that I got some quality pictures and videos and I quickly changed out the card before we sped over to the next stop, Shark Ray Alley.

Despite it's name, there was a disappointing amount sharks and rays. I had signed up for this trip thinking there would be a frenzy of them swimming around wildly, flipping over onto my lap and waiting for belly rubs. There were so few in fact that I have zero pictures of sharks, forgoing the 3 or 4 photo ops I had in order to save memory space for the images I was expecting to capture. It didn't pan out that way and I had to settle for more boring fish and coral.

The next two stops were more of the same, with one noteworthy addition: an amputee sea turtle with a 3" stub where his front right flipper should have been. No sharks, no dolphins, no manatees, but lots of one thing: massive disappointment.

We went back to our breakfast place for a mid-afternoon snack. We ordered some panades, garnaches and salbutes (BZ$5.50) with some crazy spicy sauce and washed it all down with 4 beers and a couple coolers from a nearby store. Little did I know this was the beginning of gooning. We grabbed some more beer and ice for our rum and headed back to the hotel. I proceeded to polish off the remaining half bottle of One Barrel and by the end of the night I was plastered. At some point we went out for a bite at a little restaurant with a young guy singing and playing guitar. I liked the Red Hot Chili Peppers covers a lot. 

Towards the end of the night Jes's backside was looking like the Austrian flag after spending the day face-down in the water (and bum-up in the sun) and she was starting to feel the pain. I immediately embarked on an aloe vera hunt. After my successful venture I returned to the hotel and played nerf football on the shared patio with the neighbors and their 7-year-old boy, Emelio. The game was suspended when we realized I had ripped the ends of my big toes off and was bleeding profusely all over the concrete patio. It looked like a blood-splattered war zone but fortunately my altered state was devoid of pain. I was so wrapped up in the nerf game I had kind of forgotten about Jes and her pink skin. I went inside to tend to the red menace and pass out.

Belize Day #5

Stayed our last night in Caye Caulker at Lily's.  We ate breakfast at Lily's Treasure Chest....fruit plate, meat lover's omelet, johnny cakes, thick cut banana bread.  Stopped for an internet break at Pelican internet shop and headed to the beach for drinks out front of Cholo's Sports Bar. Nice place minus the annoying american woman and her million dogs.  We had a burger from The Butcher and watched as the made a "Monster Burger"...bigger than my appetite at the time and maybe ever. Jumped on the Caye Caulker Water Taxi to the next destination.
Stopped in at "Roses's" Grill and Bar to eat and read about where we might stay for the night. Stopped there mostly due to it's immediate proximity from the water taxi dock. Jes had the chicken burrito and rum & coke, I had chicken quesidilla and beliken. We hated the music but enjoyed the food. Had a Rainforest blended drink while Jes went to look for accommodation. We had decided on Leeside on the west side of the caye after reading the book. This didn't work however, and we wound up staying at Popeye's beach resort right on the water. Our sliding glass door opened (or closed) to an aqua-marine view with cresting white waves crashing over the reef where the sea met the sky. 

I immediately jumped into our patio hammock and crashed for a while, swimming from the effects of the previous meal and drinks.  I got up a short while later, Jes was still passed out in the room, so I took it upon myself to acquire some supplies. 

We had paid for a couple nights already, so we knew where we'd be, plus we had an unreal patio with hammock, perfect for enjoying some tasty beverages while reading or whatever your pleasure is. I picked up a bottle of 1 barrel rum, some coke and some ice from a local convenience store. Scored some home-made tortilla chips and salsa to go with our liquid concoction as well. We hung out on the patio for some time before venturing out to find a snorkel tour for the next day. We were undecided whether to dive or snorkel the Hol Chan and Shark Ray Alley, but were actually persuaded by a dive shop that snorkeling was the way to go for what we wanted. We popped into a few places offering trips and later decided on Hicaco Tours. I got a good vibe from the shop guy.  

 I figured out the wifi on my blackberry later in the evening and spent some time BBM'ing with Paul, my uncle, while Jes crushed her eBook. We were chatting about the coming days, sketching out a semi-sorta-plan in our minds when I spotted in my peripheral a canteloupe-sized crab who decided to join us on our patio. After some pictures, videos and laughter, I showed him the way out. We both sipped rum and coke until we were hungry again, at which point we mosied over to the Havana Nights restaurant in front of our pad for a buffet dinner replete with a whole roast pig (BZ$48). The meal was excellent despite Jes being perturbed with the chef apparently trying to force rice and dinner rolls on her. I needed no such convincing, indulging in seconds of my own accord. Jes did, however, enjoy the caulker plums forced upon her by the chef. I wasn't as big a fan, having to spit out the inedible, crunchy insides. We ate our meal on a dockside boat-table completely open to the sea air. The garlic-habanero sauce was leaving a sting on the tongue that could only be soothed with more rum, so back to the hotel we went spend more time on the patio, me in the hammock, drink at my side for some more chill out time.

Belize Day #4

Today, we are heading to the Blue Hole.  This is a 1000 ft circular sink hold in the middle of the ocean.  It is approximately  400 ft deep, with silt covering the last 200 ft.  We waited at 5:30 on Ruby's dock to go to Blue Hole with Amigos del Mar dive shop.  Coffee, OJ, fruit and cakes for breakfast on the boat.  2.5 hrs to dive site...feeling queasy, there were a couple pukers, but I held tough.    Dolphins swimming and playing alongside boat on the way out  Blue hole.  Upon descent into the Blue Hole Jes had trouble with clearing her ears, but toughed it out.  We saw stalactites at 130-140 ft and reef sharks on ascent.  We Boated over to Half Moon Caye for dive #2....big ol' turtle was the highlight. 

Over to the Caye for lunch and red-footed boobie spotting. Chicken, rice, coconut pie and fruit was served. Off to 'Aquarium' dive site for dive #3. Jes was bored, hungry and her ankles hurt so she surfaced early. Not enough turtles and dolphins for her liking. The ride back included coconut rum, pineapple juice, fresh fruit and coconut and more nausea. We stayed at the back in the fresh air and got soaked. We landed, did our logs, got our bags from Ruby's, checked into Lily's. Ruby's only had vacancy the first 2 nights we were in San Pedro.  Went to a bit of a touristy restaurant (Caramba) for supper and drinks. We had the sopa de lima soup as a starter (delicious), jerk chicken with rice and beans for me, chicken fajitas with a side of veggies for Jes. One Barrel rum and cokes for Jes, Beliken for me...we got smashed. Followed that up with cookies, water, 2 Red Stripes and 1 Smirnoff cooler from a local convenience (that started over the pricing mid-stroke to change the prices to tourist prices...3.50 for cookies, 7.50 for the cooler became 4.00 and 8.00). We paid it anyway, drank them on our seaside balcony and went to bed early. 

Belize Day #3

Woke up at Ruby's, our hostel for our first two nights in San Pedro.  Went for breakfast at International Cafe on Front St.  I had an omelet, fry jacks, coffee and OJ, Jes had fruit plate and OJ.  Satisfying breakfast.  Hopped aboard our dive boat at 9:30 to do 2 local dives: Tres Cocos and Esmeralda. Saw a great big turtle on the first one, pod of dolphins on the 2nd. First dives since Mexico about 14 months prior...all went well.  Got back around 1pm, went for sandwiches and a slice of Coconut pie at the bakery on Front St. I thought the chicken in the smoked chicken sandwich looked gross so I switched with Jes for her smoked ham. We were both happy with the arrangement. Larry from Poor and Famous, a charity fund for kids' sports pitched us on his cause. We donated BZ$10.