Sunday, September 12, 2010 – Day 05

I got up late, as expected and nonetheless I spent over an hour working on the netbook. When I went out, everything was closed for Sunday. It looked like a morgue. The only place open was the water taxi where I went to buy tickets for Key Caulker. Before actually making the move I looked at the schedule and found out that the last boat from there to Belize was at 16:00 and it was already 12:50. It wouldn’t be worth it. I returned to the guest house and regrouped. The decision made was to go the zoo. I found out how to get to the bus terminal and on the way I passed from the town center where a bicycle race was on.


I did take money out from an ATM and proceeded to the terminal. When I arrived there what I saw was chaos. There were not employees working and nobody to ask for info. I assumed it was so because it was Sunday and the schedule on the wall was do abstruse that Touring himself wouldn’t have been able to decipher it. Fortunately a young man told me that I could take the bus that had just arrived. Fortunately, he was right.




I asked the conductor who collected the fare and never gave me a ticket to let me know when to get off. The bus proceeded on West highway, already familiar to me and on the 27th or so mile the conductor announced that this was the stop for the zoo. I got off and proceeded to the zoo.









It appears that I was the only person visiting. The zoo was really quiet, from people at least, and one could concentrate on the animals. The zoo is absolutely beautiful. The animals are in their natural tropical environment and even though they are in captivity, they appeared to be at ease.

Spider monkey


Tapir


Toucan


Puma


Local pigs (as filthy as the ones I know)


Jaguar


Stork


Leopard




Owl




Eagle


The zoo was closing at 17:00 and by 16:45 I was out on the highway to wait for the bus. There was a bus due at 17:00, nonetheless I tried my luck in hitchhiking. I admit defeat. When the bus came I boarded


And made it to the depot by 18:00


The bus depot from far


I walked back to the guest house, but on the way I decided to stop for a beer at the place I usually buy my food.

I bought some food and walked to the guest house.

Saturday, September 11, 2010 – Day 04

I got up late and then worked on the netbook for about two hours. The plan was to go to Caye Caulker, which is an island accessible from Belize city by boat. At the same time, however, this was the carnival day and it only made sense that I make the move only after I took a glimpse at the carnival. So, I went out and by asking people, I understood it the carnival procession was going through town from one end to the other. The question was where it was at this point. I followed instructions and ended up at Central American Avenue. This is the avenue w/ the traffic light.

When I arrived, the crowd was jubilant and the chariots w/ the parade following them were already in motion. Almost all the chariots were trucks converted for the occasion.






The chubby group






The star of the day




More


Some have taken up the habit of walking on their heads




Some should have been in the procession but were not


The steel band chariot. In my opinion the best one.




The marching band


The kids


The star



The steel band





As I was walking along the park Shakira, who was standing there recognized me in the crowd and called me. I stopped there and after she introduced me to her friends and relatives that were w/ her all sitting at a table at the park we had a couple of beers to celebrate the occasion.

Photo w/ Shakira



Shakira told me that she unfortunately had to report to work at 18:00. So when the time came I walked her for a couple of blocks in the direction of the hotel and then veered off to watch the last throes of the carnival. I was a bit lost and walked up and down the Baymen av. a couple of times till I got my bearings straight. Many of the parading crowd had already abandoned the effort and were returning home dressed in the carnival clothes.


When I found that park again, there was no parade left. I walked back and on my way stopped at the Shakira’s hotel. Michelle, her friend that she had introduced to me was there and after chatting a little we decided to all go out to a Karioki club later tonight. I left for the guest house to take a shower and get dressed and then returned to Shakira’s hotel. I was a bit early so I had to wait for an hour and a half till Shakira was off. After she had finished her shift we put her two kids as well as Michelle’s daughter that were all sound asleep on a cab that was waiting for us and drove to their house. They left the kids and returned to the cab and we headed for a club. The disappointing thing is that everything was either closed or dead. We ended up at the casino hotel where we had a couple of drinks and then took another cab to a karioki place. We stayed till 2:00 in the morning. Shakira sung two songs and I must say that she has a very beautiful voice, she is talented. She needs to work on it. Even I sung a song. It was the birthday song for Michelle. A little before 2:00 we left and drove home.

Friday, September 10, 2010 – Day 03

I was up by 7:00. Greg the tour guide was here a little before 9:00. Once more the hotel people failed to wake me up. Greg seemed to be a nice guy. We made a short stop to get fuel, to visit an ATM, and to get a snack for the way.

This time we went on the West highway. It looked different and was much better than north highway.


The highway


Photo from the car


House on road side


The country side


Finca


Xunanich is 90 miles from the city. That gave me the opportunity to get a better idea of how the countryside looks like. I liked it much more today than yesterday. This side seems neat and tidy, in combination w/ the tropical scenery we got an unbeatable ride. Finally, we arrived at the part we had to veer off for the Mayan site. First, however, we had to cross a river and the only way to do that was by hand operated ferry. Dino (from Secundino,) the guide for the site was there waiting for us.




We boarded the ferry and Greg offered to do the work




Road to Xunanich


Xunanich site


El Castillo




On the castle


View form the Castillo




Other side of Castillo


View from Castillo top






Panoramic view of the Castillo


The palace


View form the castle


Dino’s tour was very good. This guide knew a lot about the site and the Maya civilization and did not hesitate to go into the details.

After for more than an hour we went back to the base boarded the car and drove to the ferry. This time I was the one to put in the muscle work




We drove on for the second part of our mission which was to go to the caves at Jaguar. We took a little different route back and went through San Ignacio and Santa Helena. San Ignacio was a very up to date small town and it reminded me of an American town. We drove on.




Finally we got on the West highway and took the return route.



Like I said, the scenery along West highway is really beautiful




Will you ever believe that? We ran into Amish people









Some houses were not standing really well, they therefore deserved a picture




When we had covered four fifths of the distance to Belize city we veered off to the right into a small and badly maintained road that would lead us to Jaguar cave resort.


Observatory on stilts


Jaguar cave resort


Greg and I had a little lunch and then Carlos, the guide for the caves took over. I had to put my swimming suit on and was issued a tube and a flashlight. The only one of my things I took w/ me was the camera that, according to the guide, was water proof. We walked down to the river


we crossed it and after a 15 minute walk we entered a cave
Stalagmite


In the cave


Bat


We then got out in the open and walked for another half an hour


Spider


Termites


Carlos scratched the termite nest a little so that some termites were left on his hand. He then tasted them and said they were delicious. He insisted that I did the same thing. This is where I drew the line.

Finally we arrived at the cave


We both floated the tubes and sat into them and allowed the water takes us w/ it.

Entering the cave




The entrance seen form inside


Carlos navigating


It was pitch dark in the cave and w/o the flash lights we wouldn’t be able to see anything.

Inside the cave




Rapids


Inside the cave


Floating


The exit


After exiting the subterraneous river we started floating on the terraneous river.






Almost there




Finally we got out of the water and started walking back



When we arrived at out base I got into my clothes and we drove back to the city.

The remainder of the day went by fast.