I woke up and made the trek to the nearby mayan ruins, Cahal Pech. I trekked really hard around the ruins and was literally the only person there so I felt much more comfortable taking selfies, but I still don’t feel comfortable sharing them.
After the ruins I hiked to the “Iguana Project” to meet up with Josh and check out some green iguanas. Turns out it’s the only place that is allowed to keep iguanas in Belize. Iguanas are in danger here due to how delicious they are. People like to catch the green iguanas and grill them. Their eggs are also considered a delicacy. The sanctuary helps by finding eggs and hatching them, breeding them, and then releasing them back into the wild on the hotel’s 10 acres of land.
I’ve always thought Iguanas were cool, but now I think they’re even cooler. There were a few that actually enjoyed being pet. I always thought lizards were cold-hearted but the alpha male Gomez would close his eyes in enjoyment while being pet.
After the iguanas we packed our bags, said goodbye to the hostel owner Aldo and headed for the border. After a taxiride and getting ripped off with a shitty exchange rate we crossed into Guatamala.
Now we’re on the bus waiting to get to Flores where we’ll hopefully stay at a hostel that has a sauna and 2 bars. UPDATE made it to the hostel! This is Chris, Taron, Josh, and me at Los Amigos in Flores, Guatamala.
It’s rare for life to throw some truly amazing people at you, and so far on my trip I have already met quite a few. While in Caye Caulker I stayed at the Go Slow hostel and then the Palm Travelers Backpackers hostel. While at Go Slow hostel I met a guy named Jacob who was turning 30 the night I met him so of course I had to help him celebrate. We went with a few other hostel-goers to one of the local restaurants and splurged on all you can drink rum punches and Baracuda. The night went on and the only way to adequately celebrate on Caye Caulker is to go to Sports Bar followed by Raggae Bar. They both are just frat parties gone wrong. We got to see a local fight break out at Sports Bar where one girl smashed the other with a bottle. The girl that got smashed leaned forward causing her head to bleed on the ground, grabbed a bottle which I then took from her, proceeded to grab another bottle and rushed out of the bar. I proceeded to drink my rum and feel like I was in Pirates of the Caribbean.
After sports bar Jacob, Mandy, Tome and I went to the hostel and ran into one of the greatest humans I’ve yet had the pleasure to meet, Josh. I learned he lived in Boulder CO, where I used to live and my brother still lives. We headed to Raggae bar where we ordered rum and pulled out our white-boy dance moves. We danced with locals, watched Mandy hit the stripper pole in the middle and took proper birthday shots at midnight. The night quickly turned into a blur that then turned into the next morning.
On the island everything is painted in crazy bright colors. Lots of bright pink, yellow, orange, blue and the likes.
In the morning we went on a Kayaking trip from Caye Caulker to Coco King. A beach/bar/resort across “the split.” What should have taken about 20 minutes ended up taking well over 2 hours. Josh and Maggie were sharing a kayak, then Tal, Paroma, and I were in our own kayaks. We learned very quickly that Paroma didn’t have a clue how to kayak so we went through the process of switching her to a better kayak. She very quickly sunk that kayak and she was floating hanging onto her kayak. tied her sunken kayak to mine and our brilliant plan was for me to tow her kayak and her all the way to Coco King. However, the kayak sunk more and more and soon I couldn’t even fight the current.
While we were struggling to stay afloat a boat came at the perfect time to save us. They picked up our sunken kayak and drained it off the side of the boat. I retied it to my kayak and Paroma hung onto Josh and Maggie’s kayak while focusing on floating.
We finally got to Coco King, began drinking rum on the beach and all was good again. I met some kids who were trying to steal my kayak so I gave them a free ride along the beach. They helped by paddling with their hands.
My last day on Caye Caulker I went on a bike ride around the island, then it was time to jump on the ferry. On checking the weather it “felt like 105 degrees.” What a miserable heat.
I took the ferry to San Pedro where I spent one night exploring the island and stayed at Sandbar hostel. Then it was off to San Ignacio to see some Mayan ruins. I took the ferry and was searching for the chicken bus when I met some travelers I had met in Caye. Maggie and two english boys. They were going the same place so we looked for the bus together. We walked across the quite run-down Belize city and spent about 2.5 hours sweating on an old converted schoolbus on our way to San Ignacio.
We checked into Old House Hostel together, met up with Josh, and went to get some chicken with rice and beans(the staple food here).
After our first night here we went to the ATM caves(Actun Tunichil Muknal). By far my coolest experience here so far. A guide took us 1 km through neck-high water, stalactites, and stalagmites to an old Mayan chamber where they used to perform human sacrifices. It’s unreal seeing the human remains that have calcified there. There were also endless amounts of pots and tools that the old Mayan people left there. We weren’t allowed to bring cameras so no photos there.
After the long day of Indiana Jones style cave exploration we had our daily ration of chicken with rice and beans and began to crush some beers.
Maggie and Chris. Two beautiful human beingsJosh. Another beautiful human being.
We decided we needed rum too so we went to get some and then headed for the bar that’s literally right below the hostel. It was an open mic night and we were all feeling like jamming at the moment. There was a guitar, drums, and piano that some people were crushing some reggae beats on when we got there. Their drummer up and left to get some more rum or something so I took over the drums. Josh came in on some guitar as well and we had a hell of a night drinking rum and slaying beats.
In the morning Maggie said she, “needed to spread her little wings” or something so we had coffee, explored the market and then had a sad goodbye. She then spread her little wings off to Mexico or something.
Josh, the english boys Taron and Chris, and I were feeling a road trip so we went and rented a car. We drove deep into the jungle where we found this enormous cave and then an amazing spot to splash around and buttslide down some rivers for the day. We also broke out the local applewine that I bought at the market that morning. Mixed reviews.
Road trip! Only one flat tire.
Local wine. Taste like shit and makes it hard to see anything.Creepy swing near the caves
I’ve been in Belize now for a week. I started this trip in Caye Caulker, a small strip of an island with the motto, “go slow” painted and heard everywhere. And the motto really holds true. There isn’t a car on the island. The people of the island move around by golf cart, bike, and sandal. I tried to get by wearing my shoes or being barefoot but after a night at the bar dancing in bare feet I submitted to the sandal life.
By far my favorite part of Caye Caulker is the water. Its so warm and there’s no shortage of gorgeous marine life out there. I have never had a better snorkeling experience
Boat fish with a ray in the backgroundTailless ray!
I went on an all-day snorkeling tour in which we went to the marine preserve first. Around there we fed some little colorful fish some little less colorful sardines. For being pretty small fish they were surprisingly aggressive. We held the sardine in our hand and the colorful fish would dive at it and would pounce it really hard to take a bite. The spot where we fed the fish was just a blanket of conch shells on the ground. Some of them alive and moving around, most of them dead and eroding.
Little cannibalsFeeding the fishies
After we fed the small fish we got back in the boat and took of for the bigger fish. We stopped along a coral reef, threw some dead sardines in the water and waited. The sharks showed up almost instantly and the whole group stood hesitantly in the boat waiting to jump in. We jumped in and got an amazing view in the water next to a group of nurse sharks swarming to try to eat the sardines.
Being in the water you could feel the intensity coming off the sharks. It was such a frenzy I could see how if you cut yourself they could tear you apart in a minute as a group.
Look at those cuties!
One of those fish that connects to sharks, super cool looking fish
After the sharks we went on a long snorkel and got to see my favorite thing on this earth behind monkeys. Turts!! We ran into one that was just chilling on the bottom eating some sea grass. I dove down and hung out with him as long as my lungs would allow, then he surfaced with me. Definitely the most magical part of the day for me.
Turt spotted!Ascending cause turts need to breath too
After the turtle we headed towards land to check out some of the local birds and look for some seahorses from the dock. We got to sea seagulls, pelicans, and frigatebirds. I didn’t know frigatebirds existed before but these pilots have absolutely enormous wingspans that allow them to roll on wind currents for weeks at a time. They also have the largest wing surface area to weight of any bird and can live up to 44 years!
Bird divebombing my sardinePelicans downing some sardines
There are also lots of manatee in the area and I even got to see a little shy pufferfish hiding under some coral.
Sea cow!Little shy puffer
By the time we saw all of this the whole crew was sunburnt and the sun was about to set. We pulled out the rum and it was one of the guys 25th birthday so we helped him celebrate by downing some warm rum.
