Hills Like White Elephants

We´ve been on the move since my last post, but we have cheated our way further south in Guatemala. Our plans are to stop in Antigua for a week of Spanish lessons and a home stay with a Guatemalan family starting Monday, so we´ve had to take a few buses to get closer to town. We cut out the huge (and boring) road between Flores and Coban, resuming our biking from there. The landscape is definitely the most interesting it has been so far, and the towns are great too. We have passed through Tactic, Salama, and Rabinal in the past few days and currently find ourselves in El Chol. We´ve entered hilly/mountainous country which makes for great views and tough climbs. Today we worked our way up a 1600 ft. hill and promptly flew back down the other side. Since this took us several hours we decided to take another bus this afternoon in order to make it to a hotel before dark. (Plus the hill between Rabinal and El Chol is twice as big as the one we climbed this morning, but on gravel.)

Here´s a list of some highlights from the past few days:

We had ourselves a "chicken bus" experience not unlike Deb and Dan´s from the sound of it (they´re traveling in Kenya, for those of you who didn´t know). Our minibus to El Chol had a total of 16 seats, but managed to fit a whopping 27 people + a chicken + our two bikes and other cargo items. Granted most of the cargo was on the roof with one of the passengers and another passenger was clinging to the ladder on the side of the minibus, but I still thought it was a good haul.

When we arrived in Salama the other day we practically collided with a parade. From the looks of it all the "Miss Salama" contestants were showcasing their phenomenal waves for the crowds. To think, we may have caught a glimpse of the future Miss Guatemala!



Miss Guatemala?



Another contestant.

We´ve been traveling through a few of the more traditional Mayan villages lately, so there´s an interesting mix of modern dress and traditional garb. The traditional garb is fun. The men dress like cowboys with jeans and hats and belt buckles and all. The only difference is that you´re more likely to see them in galoshes than cowboy boots. The women wear ankle length pleated skirts of colorful woven fabric and lacey shawl-like tops. I´ll try to put some pics up later. For now, here are a few other photos:



Some pretty blankets -- it´s a bit cooler up in the mountains.



A nice view of the valley containing Salama.



The sunrise in Flores.



Any more guesses? I´ll be revealing the answer soon....

Tikal

Our digs in El Remate were quite creative. This is a pic of the Hotel Sak Luk from the road. Our quarters were up about a half a billion stairs. The whole place looked like something out of a Dr. Seuss book.



The hotel had an outstanding view of the lake too.

On Monday we took a side trip from El Remate to Tikal, one of Guatemala's most celebrated ancient Mayan cities. We had an excellent guide and learned a lot about the Mayan culture. Unlike Chichen Itza, these ruins are located deep in the forest/jungle with paths connecting the major buildings. The site is more remote and not quite as touristy as CI. I liked the atmosphere much better, in part because of the fantastic wildlife. Here are a bunch of pics of the animals and ruins (great photo day!).



View of Tikal from the top of pyramid IV. Apparently this shot was used in the end of the original Star Wars movie (now Episode 4).



The stairs we had to climb to get that view. And, no, I didn't give Mike a piggy-back ride despite his desperate pleas. (They don't let people climb the pyramid stairs on this tower because a) they're currently restoring the structure and b) a couple people die every year climbing something in Tikal. In fact some girl died just last week. Slippery stones and high heels are not a good idea. I'm surprised more people don't bite it on the stairs though...)



Here's Mike on that same pyramid. A woman mistook him for a lion when we were down in the jungle and nearly crapped her pants.



A pic of me wandering between some structures. My tan looks much more drastic when you can see my white bum, but I'll spare you that photo.



Here's a nice photo of the two of us.



We finally saw some monkeys in Tikal. This is a howler monkey; he tried to throw poop at Mike but missed. Maybe next time. There were a bunch of them, babies and all. We also saw some spider monkeys but didn't catch them with the camera.



I swear this hasn't been Photoshopped!



A Tikal turkey, actually named the ocellated turkey. Prettier feathers than your typical turkey, but I'm worried about the growths on its head.



Woody Woodpecker!

We don't have pics, but we also saw a grey fox, a toucan, coatimundis (like cute raccoons with long tails), and gibnuts (These are large rodents, roughly the size of your average house cat. They don't have tails like rats though, just stubby nubs, and their bodies have a shape more similar to those of small pigs. Our tour guide referred to the gibnuts as "romantic rats" because they mate for life. They also have a cute nickname in Belize. There they're called the "royal rat" because the Queen of England ate one on a previous trip to the country.)

Since our visit to Tikal we have biked to Flores, which is a nice little island town on the other side of the large lake that borders El Remate. We are staying at a pleasant hostel with cheap Internet and interesting beds. Tomorrow we will head south.

Before I leave you with this new post, however, I have a challenge for you. I am posting one more picture, and I would like your guesses as to what is featured in the photo. Some magazine I used to get as a kid had a similar game. C'mon, it'll be fun! Just reply to this post with your guesses, and I'll post the answer in a week or so. Okay, here's the picture:



TTFN!

Dis Da Fi Wi Chicken!

It´s been a few days. Allow me to fill you in on recent developments.

After San Ignacio we biked a whole 3 miles to Bullet Tree Falls. Although this was our shortest biking day, it was my least favorite due to the steep hills and loose gravel. I felt like I had riden a jackhammer for those 3 miles. The reason for our short detour was that we had a free place to stay for a couple of days (Yay Couch Surfers!). Our hosts at the Parrot Nest were quite generous and hospitable. Their guest rooms resemble tree houses and are perched on a lovely bit of land right next to the river. One of the first things we did there was go tubing with our host Marcus. Some highlights of that trip include,

1. The fantastic rope swing we used to launch ourselves into the river (it broke a few minutes after we used it as a kid half my size tried to swing out over the river -- luckily he wasn´t hurt!),
2. Learning that the gunshots we often hear at night are more than likely locals shooting iguanas out of trees (I think the bullets would be better used on the dogs), and
3. Hearing our favortie tortilla salesman honking up a storm as he drove past. Actually, Mike and I had encountered him earlier and were much annoyed. When we heard him honking again, we asked Marcus what the hell he was up to. Clearly Marcus isn´t a fan either, because he responded that the man was selling tortillas and "There´s no way in Hell I´d ever buy anything from him." We agreed.

We stayed on at the Parrot Nest for another day so that we could take a tour to see the Actun Tunichil Muknal (ATM) cave. It was a pretty sweet tour since we got to swim and hike about 800 meters back into this large cave formerly frequented by ancient Mayans. We saw waterfalls, bats, loads of ancient pottery, and 5 sets of human remains -- sacrificial victims. One of the skeletons was almost completely intact. Sadly, we didn´t bring the camera because of all the swimming and hiking required.

Today we biked back to San Ignacio and then cheated by taking a bus to El Remate, Guatemala. We had heard that the road into Guatemala was a) loose gravel for approx. 30 miles and b) heavily trafficked. We decided to avoid that mess. Tomorrow we are going to see more ruins, and then we´ll start working our way through Guatemala. It´s very pretty so far, as we are staying next to a beautiful lake surrounded by hills.

Here are some pics that have been a while in coming...



Nice plumbing on Caye Caulker.



Photogenic boat. Our SCUBA transport looked a little more reliable, but with less character.



Talk about character...



Lobster traps.



Say what?!? A lovely example of Kriol on a street sign in Caye Caulker. I think I understand most of it, but still...

The new poll is your chance to guess at the meaning of a popular Kriol slogan selling a brand of chicken. We had to ask our hosts at the Parrot Nest what it meant. It might be easier for you with choices; then again, it might not.

The answer to the last poll: Subway is the only American fast-food chain in all of Belize, and we think there´s only one store. Guess it´s not so much a chain here.

I haven´t found a Harry Potter book yet, but I haven´t given up hope. If I haven´t located one soon, however, I may have to rely on Ma to send me a copy (love you!). Hope everyone else is up to their eyeballs in magic!

Go West!

After a lovely couple of days on the island of Caye Caulker, Mike and I started heading west across Belize. We stopped the first night at the Monkey Bay Wildlife Sanctuary and camped out. It was a lovely little educational sanctuary currently hosting a couple groups of high school students from the States. Alas, no cheeky monkeys.

Today we biked to San Ignacio, the last "city" before Guatemala. The terrain has become less flat, and we encountered a few hills today -- some nice long slow ones and some quick steep ones. Nothing to worry about yet, though I'm afraid our flat terrain will be something strictly of the past now. Also, it's a bit hot -- esp. without the nice breeze coming off the ocean. By the end of the day today I had sweated out so much salt that you could have scraped it off my skin and filled an entire shaker. Which makes me want corn on the cob for some reason.

At any rate, San Ignacio is nice. It's a touristy town since it's on the backpacker route to Guatemala, but there are many interesting things to do in the area. We might go caving if we get a chance and it's not too pricey. Some of the caves were used for Mayan rituals and still have bones and pottery shards in them.

On a side note: Apparently, biking Central America is not such an unusual way to spend a vacation. We keep stopping places where people say things like "All the bikers seem to come through here," and "Did you start in Arizona? No? You're coming from Cancun? Well, that's a respectable distance," and "I just met a guy last week who started in Alaska and is going to the southernmost tip of South America." I can't imagine! Some of the other guests at a hostel we stayed at a while back expanded on the theme and told story after story about crazy physical stunts. Like people rolling eggs along the ground with their noses for entire marathons. Or a man who swam across the entire pacific ocean with a dermatologist in the support boat (whose job it was to keep the man's skin mostly attached to his body). So, if you thought we were crazy to set off on this trip, it's all relative.

Sorry, but I don't have any pictures this time. Blame the crappy Internet service. Mike's having trouble uploading pics today. I'll post some more next chance I get (which incidentally may be a while -- I don't know when we'll be in a major town overnight again). Hope everyone is well. I want you to know that I'm jealous of all of you who will be picking up a copy of Harry Potter at midnight tomorrow. Happy reading, nonetheless. I'm satisfied for now with the fact that I've finally convinced Mike to try the series. He's picked up book 1 and begun to read it. I've already finished a David Sedaris book I found along the way, so hopefully I'll be able to trade it for something else soon. Take care, and may Harry prevail!

Good Ganja

There are a few things I forgot to mention in my last post that I wanted to share with you.

Caye Caulker is a relaxed sort of island of the type frequently visited by backpackers. The locals try to cater to this young tourist culture. Maybe that explains their standard greeting. Not "good morning," "good afternoon," or "good evening," the standard greeting here is "good ganja". Indeed. "And good ganja to you too, mon." Incidentally, this greeting is about the only Kriol I can understand, because the locals talk fast and incomprehensibly.

Another curiosity that's new to me is the variety of garden pests found in Belize. I see holes in a lawn, I think small rodents or maybe even snakes. Here, they have crabs. Not just on the beach, they're in the grass too. Weird.

Today we went snorkeling and saw a small octopus, some rather large stingrays (roughly tire sized), barracuda, and nurse sharks, among various types of fish and coral. I think we might go SCUBA diving tomorrow. We'll see. After that, we may start making our way to Guatemala, but I'm not sure yet. We'll keep you updated. Take care, everyone!

Deja-vu

Sorry about the time between posts. Internet is more expensive here, so we were trying to hold out for a better deal. Alas, we are weak and attached to our computers, so here I am paying $5 an hour for internet!! Outrageous, I know, but at least we got it cheap in Mexico ($.80 an hour).

Anywho, since Orange Walk we haven't gotten too far on our bikes. Just a little way the first day to Crooked Tree Wildlife Sanctuary. It was a lovely little town, famous for its cashews and birding. The lagoon hosts loads of birds, which is probably more exciting for people who like birds. They were nice though. Pretty, I guess. Except for the freaky vulture things that looked as though they were wearing powdered wigs of the type more commonly seen on English judges. Here's a pic, but you can't really see the wigs. Maybe I can get Mike to upload a close-up later.



We camped out near the lagoon, which turned out to be a less-than-fantastic experience. Although we weren't attacked by the jaguars or the crocodiles, we did battle it out with a rather fierce downpour. It won. Our tent got a bit wet. Made it rather difficult to wheel our bikes through the mud in the morning, too. Ah well -- no real harm done.

We made our way to Belize City next and stayed at the Seaside Guest House for two nights. There were lots of interesting travelers there; the owners were a bit kooky, but it was a decent enough place. While in Belize City (the biggest in Belize with a whopping 70,000 people. The whole country has only about a quarter million) we ran some errands, visited the only movie theater in the country to see Harry Potter 5 (decent, but I'm really anxious for the book), and took it easy. There were also some pretty wicked storms. Very neat, but I hope I don't see a hurricane!

Today we headed to Caye Caulker by water taxi and suffered a bit of deja-vu. We ran into a man we had seen in both Chetumal, Mexico and Orange Walk, Belize. He was the captain of our boat, so our bikes got on for free! Excellent! We're planning on hanging out here for a few days because it seems nice. Maybe we'll do some diving or snorkeling -- who knows. Anyway, here are some pics for now.



Nice sunrise at Crooked Tree



Ditto. Isn't this a great pic?!?!



Butterfly just coming out of its cocoon.

Don't forget to participate in my new poll. Our guide book claims there is only one American fast-food joint in all of Belize. It left us hanging by failing to divulge the company, but then we found it. Guess which dining experience has been imported. I'll reveal the answer in about a week. Also, don't forget to check the travel map linked to the left.

Biking in Belize

We finished up our Mexico travels on July 10th. We got up earlier than we usually do when we have a comfy bed to sleep on and left Hotel Ucum (teehee) to explore the Museo de la Cultura Maya in Chetumal. Lucky for us the exhibits were labeled in English as well as Spanish, so we didn't have to do much guess work. It was a nice little museum with a few interesting facts about Mayan culture. My favorite tid-bits of info: 1) the men often pierced their penises with stingray bones and 2) Mayans purposefully deformed their children for aesthetic purposes. It was cool to be cross-eyed in Mayan culture, so they hung a ball between the kids' eyes until they stayed that way. Also, they strapped elaborate wooden presses around the kids' heads shortly after birth to flatten and elongate them. Ouch!



Hotel Ucum

After checking out the museum we biked to the border and beyond into Belize. It was a very easy border crossing -- especially since most people speak some English in Belize, and it is many people's first language. This makes traveling a little easier on us. We only biked a short distance and stayed in a town called Corozal. There was a nice guest house and we talked to some fellow travelers for a bit. We also ran into an ex-pat pot-luck party on our way into town, and they invited us to fill up a couple of plates. Also, there are a lot of interesting characters talking Kriol in Belize, and a bit more Sean Paul playing on the "Riddim" radio station than we heard in Mexico.

Today we biked to Orange Walk, with only a few notable occurrences:
1. This route is apparently the sugarcane highway. Lots of trucks full to the brim passed us between the fields and the factories.
2. We were almost hit by a tire running away from the truck it had formerly been attached to. Just fell right off as it was driving down the road. Oops.
3. Mike opened a much anticipated cup-o-noodles (he really likes eating cold ramen on the road for some reason) only to find it filled with bugs. Naturally, he squealed like a girl and threw the cup at me. He tried to get another, but the same thing happened. No noodles for Mike.

In the next couple of days we will head to a wildlife preserve and then on to Belize City and Caye Caulker . . . or something like that. Here are some pics for now.



Lake Bacalar -- the site of our fantastic pit stop on the way to Chetumal



It's also called the lake of seven colors. Can you see them all?



The house on the lake...



...and the gazebo where we quenched our thirst.



Crazy grasshopper



Mrs. Papa. Sexy, eh?



Baby parrots. The guest house in Corozal had them.

News Flash!

Chichen Itza Declared One of the New Seven Wonders of the World!!

So, I´m not sure if you´re aware, but on 7/7/07 "they" announced the New Seven Wonders of the World. Who are "they"? Well, I don´t know who set up this whole thing, but apparently people all over the world voted online for the wonders bestowed this precious honor. Chichen Itza, the Mayan ruins we visted on the 4th of July, is one of the New 7 Wonders. Machu Picuhu in Peru is another that we hope to visit on this trip. For more info and to learn what the other 5 new wonders are, check out this web site: http://www.new7wonders.com/ To learn more about the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, check out this web site that I found: http://ce.eng.usf.edu/pharos/wonders/

Also, take a gander at these pics from Chichen Itza that I´m finally posting!



El Castillo, the impressive pyramid at the center of the site. Too bad nobody´s allowed to climb to the top anymore.



See the hook that looks like a great place to hang a towel? It´s a nose. Can you see the face now? This is the Mayan rain god.



The hoop in the center of this picture is about 20ft. from the ground. It is part of a game the Mayans used to play. The object of the game was to get a hard rubber ball through this hoop. The first team to score won; the losers of important games were often beheaded. Doesn´t sound too hard, right? Sounds like a quick game? Well, players were only allowed to "shoot" the ball through the hoop using their hips, their shoulders, or their elbows. Crazy.



Mike, in a doorway of one of the structures at Chichen Itza. Maybe this is why they don´t let people climb the pyramid anymore. Fun pic though. See why he´s called Mr. Whiskers?

C'mon!

Let´s see . . . after my last post we continued heading south. Our first day was rather uneventful, but we camped for free for the night. We found a place that seems as though it will make a lovely eco-tourism spot if it´s ever finished. There were a couple of really nice half-constructed buildings in the forest/jungle(?). We camped near one of them. Mike slept like a baby. I didn´t. Oh well.

We got an early start the next day, which turned out to be a great decision (I´ll get to why in just a bit). This day turned out to contain both my favorite and least favorite moments of the trip so far. Bad news first, I guess.

I am developing a healthy dislike for dogs. Not your cute, fluffy, tail-wagging, house-trained, happy, American pet variety. No, no. It´s the mangy, starving, freely-roaming, barking, bike-chasing variety I hate. Mike seems to have no trouble warding them off when they take off after him, but I´m not so talented. Yesterday when a small pack of dogs charged me, I swerved to avoid them and ended up falling of my bike. Total lack of coordination. Of course, they immediately lost interest and left me alone, but I earned myself a lovely scrape on my elbow as a result. Damn dogs.

Luckily, the day wasn´t all bad. We actually had a fantastic stroke of luck about midday. Just as we are pulling off the road to explore a cenote (very deep pools of water from underground rivers exposed years ago by falling meteors or something), a car pulls up next to us. A guy leans out the back window and exclaims, "Fucking c´mon! I saw you guys biking yesterday around Carillo Puerto. And now you´re here. That´s fucking cool," or something to that effect. Anyhow, he proceeds to invite us to a party house next to Lago Bacalar for some cerveza and swimming. How could we resist?

So we follow the car to a house very close by, an adorable house with a beautiful lawn right on this gorgeous lake. Ruben (the one who saw us the day before) introduces himself and his friend Wadí (whose birthday they are celebrating). They are some of the few people we have met who can speak more than a couple words in English, so we have some great conversations. They are animated storytellers and very funny. Several other friends are there, or show up later, but they graciously welcome us for the birhtday festivities. Mike and I each have several beers and swim in the lake (which is several shades of pretty blue and quite shallow for a long way off shore).

I think we stayed for a few hours, enjoying the company, the beer, and the lake. If you read this, Ruben, muchas gracias. I mean, c´mon! We had a great time! We´ll post some pics later.

Last night and tonight we are staying in Chetumal before we head to Belize. Mostly we´re taking it easy, recuperating from 4 straight days of biking in this humidity. Today it is 93 degrees with 66% humidity -- pretty typical. We hear there´s hotter weather in AZ these days, but the humidity here is a real bitch.

Anywho, here are a few more pics from our travels so far.



One of those "crocodiles" I mentioned earlier. Actually, this one´s a bit small.



Nifty green tree snake at Chichen Itza.



Pretty bowls being sold at Chichen Itza.



Sombreros!

Pedaling South

After my last post we decided to take a collectivo (shared van) over to Chichen Itza for the day on the 4th. It was a little hot to be walking around in the sun, but we managed okay. I went to Chichen Itza once about eight years ago. You wouldn´t think ruins would change much, and they haven´t, but I was a bit bummed to discover that tourists are no longer allowed to climb the 91 stairs on the "El Castillo" pyramid. That´s a view I would have liked to see once again. Nonetheless, Mike took some great photos; sadly, you´ll have to take my word for it for now since it´s taking a while to upload them. Maybe by next entry I´ll have something for you.

We went back to Valladolid for the night and started heading south on Thursday. The ride itself wasn´t particularly noteworthy (hot, humid, repetitive scenery), but our digs for the night were interesting. Once again no hotels, but we were more prepared this time. We pulled into Tihosuco and headed straight for the police station to ask if there were any guest houses or if we could camp somewhere. They kept nodding and saying something about "el museo". After quite a bit of sitting around and chatting we were directed to "El Museo de la Guerra de las Castes". We checked it out in turn, and as Mike puts it, "it seems as if there was some kinda war between the blancos, mestizos, mayans, etc.". Anywho, we were introduced to the museum director who happened to have a spare house he let us use for the night for free. It had a fridge, a hammock, a fan, a backyard instead of a toilet, and not much else. They brought us a bucket of water though, and Mike and I were introduced to the "bucket bath" Deb raved about earlier.

We settled in, then left to explore the town at night. We had some great food including hotdogs wrapped in ham wrapped in bacon and smothered with onions, salsa, etc. and some churros. We watched some kids playing soccer and just walked around for a bit before turning in. It turned out to be very difficult to sleep in a hammock and we gave up around 1:00am. Instead we pitched our tent on the floor and crawled inside for a rather hot night of restless sleep. No matter. The people in this town were very nice to us and quite helpful.

Today we biked through more monotonous scenery with the only highlight being an interesting well we saw. We stopped for lunch next to a house with a 15ft. well inches from the front door. It had no sides; it just dropped off precipitously. Quite the playground for the kiddies though. That and the cement they were playing with kept them quite entertained.

Tonight we´re in Felipe Carillo Puerto which is a transit town. Pretty big, with a selection of fine hotels. Yay showers and beds. Tomorrow we continue south. I´ll leave you with a few pics (though sadly no Mayan ruins yet).



Cart-bike of the variety commonly found in Mexico. These things haul almost as much as our bikes!



This house would fit right in in Iowa City (home of flamboyantly painted houses). We liked this one that we found while walking around Playa del Carmen.



Manuel, our first (excellent) host in Cancun and Playa del Carmen.

P.S. Don´t forget to check out the "Travel Map" link to the left. It shows on Google Earth where we´ve been!

Mr. Whiskers

So, since my last post we´ve been busy. We spent one more day on the beach in Playa del Carmen, which was nice. It´s a gorgeous beach with soft white sand and clear water. You can walk out into the ocean a good 100 ft. and still touch bottom. Playa is turning into a 2nd Cancun, so it´s pretty tourist-y but not quite as crazy. We walked along the avenue with the shops (5th Ave.), which brings me to the title for this post: Mr. Whiskers. This is Mike´s new nickname. The Mexicans seem to think his abundant facial hair is comment-worthy. :)

Manuel took us back to Cancun Sunday night, and we set out on the road on Monday morning. Our plan is to head west to visit Chichen Itza (Mayan ruins) and then bike south towards the Belize border. Monday saw about 70 miles on the road, and our butts are regretting it. The terrain is nice and flat here, but it is quite hot and humid. We didn´t do enough training ahead of time. Anyhow, the biking was easy enough compared to finding a place to stay.

¿Donde esta un hotel? Ha! No hotel. No place to camp either since the brush is very very thick everywhere and any side roads lead directly to someone´s hut. We were eventually forced to stop in a town called Catzin once it got dark. Lacking a valid place to stay we pulled up to a large casa/tienda (house/convenience store) and asked for a place to stay. The clerk (a teenage boy) told us to wait until his papa got back -- he thought we could stay at their house. It ended up working out, but hopefully we will be able to find campsites or hotels in the future.

Worn out from our long Monday, we biked a short 20 miles-ish to the ciudad (city) Valladolid. We have a nice hotel for tonight and are debating our itinerary for the next few days. We might bus-it to Chichen Itza since we pretty much want to head south from here.

Some side notes:
1. The lizards here are HUGE. The first one we saw, we thought it was a small crocodile.
2. I love Mexican food. Tacos al pastor are my favorite so far. Spicy is good!
3. The street signs in Cancun are for the next street, not the street the sign is on.
4. Playa del Carmen has a Johnny Rockets -- I was tempted.

Well, gotta run. TTFN!

P.S. Thanks for all the responses! Writing the blog will be easier knowing people are reading it!
P.P.S Mike would like to say hello to all his fans out there.
P.P.P.S. We will have some more pics up soon. Hopefully some nice ones of Chichen Itza.