Xela.....Xela.....Xela!!!

Super cool chicken bus

Yes, I did, I returned to Xela....for the third time.  I have no idea what draws me to this chilly mountain town.  It can´t be the friendly volunteers at Quetzeltrekkers or the treking, no that can´t be it!!  I made my return with Simone and the plan was to climb the highest peak in all of Central America - Tajumulco 4,220 meters (13,845 ft.).  I was welcomed with open arms and waffles to Casa Argentina.  Arriving on a Thursday, we had two days to prepare for the summit, which involved good cheap meals and wine.

Chicken bus on the run!

Our guides were Sarah, Brent and Erin, couldn´t ask for a better group!  We were 11 clients in total, all of the fun loving variety so that made things even better.  The day starts early, beginning with several hours on a chicken bus to arrive at the volcano.  We finally get there and the hike begins.  It starts innocently through some easy climbs along a road leading to the volcano.  Once off the road, the climb gets steaper, the problem with this climb is that it does not involve switchbacks, it is a straight climb.   Some of it being rather steep!!  The views made it all worth while.  We were above the cloud line and below us was a solid sea of clouds and above us beautiful blue skies.

The climb above the clouds

On top of Central America

After 5 hours of hiking we arrived at camp.  The camp is nestled in between Tajumulco and the adjacent mountain - Cerro Concepcion, the second tallest peak in Central America.  Camp was set up, wine was poured and things were going great!!  It was time for sunset, so up Cerro Conception we went.  I have seen a lot of sunsets in my life, from all over the place, on beaches, on mountains, in the woods, even from the roof of my house.  This one was like no other I have seen!!  On top of the Central American world, with a sea of clouds below us, the sun slowly made it´s way below the clouds.  I was in awe, although that awe ended when the sunset as the cool mountain winds took over.  We scrabbled down the mountain and back to camp.  Camp was beautiful, it was surrounded by trees, sheltering us from the wind.  We ate, had a fire and went to sleep for an early rise to summit Tajumulco.

Three tirty in the morning came with thick clouds and a heavy mist.  Sarah decided it would be best to hold off the sunrise hike as it could prove to be dangerous in those conditions.  At 5 AM, still under the cover of clouds and mist, Sarah decided to take those who wanted to make the summit.  Fatal mistake, I decided not to summit because the weather was absolute shit and my sleeping bag was soooo warm!!!  Well, turns out that when they reached the summit, the weather cleared and the view was amazing.  Lesson learned, always attempt the summit, regardless of weather or how warm the sleeping bag is!!!!!

Wine and sunset, perfect together!!

All in all, this was an amazing hike, with incredible views.  I didn´t reach the summit,  but I can´t do everything.  The folks on the hike were great, as well as the guides!  Our return to Xela was long on crowded chicken buses.  Most of the ride I was fortunate to have a rather large woman´s ass in my face with her huge purse hitting me in the head with every curve.  There were alot of curves!!

On our return to Xela, Simone and I decided to stay for a week.  Why not, great friends and trekking.  We did one more trek, the Fuentes trek I had done previously.  Once again, a great day ending with hot springs.  I took pictures this time!!

I finally got the dreaded stomach bug.  I became best friend with the lovely toilet at Casa Argentina for several days, it was a continous march to the bathroom.  Over and over again.  It ended and I decided that I needed a good meal.  I actually pulled off Lomo Saltado in a hostel kitchen, and it was delicious.  I love Peru!!

It was a wonderful week in Xela.  Drinks, friends, food, laughter, mountain biking and toilets.  I have finally left Xela, sadly.  I will miss my friends at Quetzaltrekkers, they have become family at this point.  I wish them all the best and thank them for all the laughter.  I left and have finally made my way to Honduras.  Thank you Guatemala, you were amazing.  I meant to spend a month with you, you kept me for two months.  Guatemala is amazing and beautiful.  The people are wonderful and the landscape awe inspiring!

Santa Maria in clouds

Fuentes hot springs!!

Mountain biking

Lomo Saltado!!

Fuentes trek

Sarah and Ian on Fuentes

Last night in Xela

Bajo y mas Baja go to Tikal

Mayan Camper

I was back in Guatemala, Flores to be exact.  Flores is an island town, clean, quaint and quiet.  Flores is the jumping off point to Tikal, some of the largest ruins in all the Mayan world.  The plan was to meet up with Nicole in Flores and hit Tikal the next day.  The problem, Nicole arrived two days late, shocker!!  It was not the worst thing that happened to me, it actually gave me some much needed me time.  I enjoyed the island and the serenity that it granted me.  A swim in the lake, followed by some hammock time with my book was just what I needed.

Sunrise....right!!

True Mayan activity

Nicole arrived, a few hours earlier than I expected and scared the shit out of me during one of my hammock/book/sleep sessions.  After almost having a heart attack, it was time to plan on our take over of Tikal.  This was done over a margarita on the lake and sunset.  The plan was to camp at the site the next night and enter the ruins for sunrise and than we would had the place to ourselves.  First we had to figure out how to get there without being sucked into a tour, our savour - Pablo a local tour operator with an honest streak.  Pablo told us that we could take the last tour shuttle at 11 AM, too early for us.  Our other option, public transport at 1 PM arriving at 3 PM.  Perfect, we could arrange our transport at the bus station.  Next, necessities for camping.  There were comidors there at a relatively cheap price, so food was taken care of.  Now all we needed was water, snack food and three bottles of wine, normal camping fare.  We counted our money, working out the amount we would need for the public tansport, camping, dinner/breakfast and park fee.  We packed the things we did not need and left them at the hostel.  We grabbed a tok-tok and off we went to the terminal, got there in time for the combi and we were off, things were looking good!!

Climbing one of the temples

Amazed by the ruins of Tikal

The combi ride was great, a thirty minute stop in this crazy market/bus terminal eating mangoes and enjoying the madness around us.  The driver was amazingly friendly, as are most Guatemalans.  We arrived at the park on time, but they were not willing to admit us until 5 PM for fear of us entering the park before that.  I assured the guard that there was no way that we would have set the tent up, opened a bottle of wine and eaten in an hour and a half.  I payed our fee and in we went, straight to the campsite.  As we walked in, the camp guard hit us up for his share of our funds.  We set up camp, pryed a bottle of wine open with no cork screw and set off for food.  We ate, and the comidor took his share of our pot.  We then began to investigate our entry to the park in the morning.  Turns out our rather expensive day pass did not include the sunrise entry to the park.  In addition to the sunrise fee, we were told that we needed to be on a guided tour.  We protested this, and told them that if they took their share of our funds, we would no longer have any funds.  After going back and forth with this man, we convinced him that the two of us on a guided tour of Tikal would be a complete disaster.  So, all we had to pay was the extra sunrise entry fee and additional fee to follow a guide to Temple 4 for the sunrise....I am pretty sure we got gringo´d.  Here we were, sun had set, two bottles of wine left and just enough money to get us back to Flores and the heaps of cash we had stored there....IDIOTS!!

Alien telephone booth

Oh well, make the best of things, which was not hard for the two of us.  We went back to the tent, and it turned out we were the people there, campsite to ourselves!!  We luckily set the tent up in the grass, not on the concrete slab that they offered.  While I had set up the tent, Nicole widdled her way through the cork of the first bottle.  In doing so, she had spilled a bit of wine on the concrete slab.  When we returned, a million ants had invaded the slab at the discovery of the wine.  They were everywhere, but not in the tent or near it!!  (Do ants get drunk? A question that needs to be asked at this point.)  We moved to the adjacent slab, played some tunes and onto the second bottle of wine.  It was an amazing evening, warm jungle air and fire flies.  We decided to chase fire flies and catch them.  Thinking that they were hiding in the grass, we searched them out.  Turns out they were spiders eyes that were shining at us, not fire flies.  There were spiders in every inch of the grass...welcome to the jungle!!  At this point, the third bottle of wine now open, any remnants of the sun were gone.  Above us was an amazing view of the milky way!  I have never seen anything like a star filled night sky in the jungle.  We witnessed every star in the sky and all the glory they had to offer us.  Of course Orion stood out the most, particularly when a shooting star flew right across the tip of his sword!!  I finally found Scorpio and the bottle was dry.  Time for bed and an early rise at 4 AM.

Four came early and she hurt, but we rose and went to find our way into the park with huge smiles on our faces.  I think we were the only smiling people that morning.  An Argentinian couple was unhappy because we did not leave right at 4 AM...really we were in Guatemala, get over it.  Two other obnoxious Americans showed up and were lost.  They could speak zero Spanish and judging by the loud obnoxious accents they were from Jersey.  Finally after a grueling 10 minutes filled with idiots babbling about unimportant things we were off.  One problem, well it did not bother us, the guide was still drunk from the night before.

Central plaza

Dock time in Flores

We made it to the temple, found a quite spot away from the others and waited for the sunrise.  The jungle was completely clouded over, so no sunrise.  But, what we heard was the most amazing howler monkey symphony one could ever hear.  For at least an hour howler monkeys were howling at each other across the jungle, some as close as a few hundred feet, others miles away.  This symphony made the extra cost worth it.  Once they had died down, about the time that the sun was supposed to rise, we headed out, while the tour groups waited on top of the temple.  We had all of Tikal to ourselves for the next few hours.  We explored, took pictures and listened to the sounds of the jungle.  Tikal is a huge Mayan complex nestled in the Guatemalan jungle.  There are huge pyramids scattered all over the site, with smaller ruins around them.  Dawn was upon us, and it gave the ruins a mystical feel.  Being alone there added to the feeling of the ancient Mayans.  Finally, we found people gathering around the site, so we made our exit.  We packed up, took our last 59 Q to the combi driver and headed back to Flores.

Nicole in a classic Latin American pose

Local schools have incredibly colorful festival

Nicole and the English

In Flores we had breakfast and began plotting our next stop.  We spoke with several people about going to a remote national park, but found the Nicole's timeline was not going to allow for this.  Plan B, head to Antigua the same day on the night bus and hang with friends until she was to head back to California.  We went and spoke with our friend Pablo, and all was set for a night time departure.  Only one problem, as we were relaxing on the dock, the English walked by.  The English are there delightful English ladies that I met in Caye Caulker...Anna, Helen and Sophie.  Turns out they are staying at Los Amigos and invited us for a drink before we got on the bus.  Of course, we obliged and headed over there after a delicious street food meal.  Well, one drink turned into two, etc.  Bus tickets were changed for the next night and we stayed....three more days!!  We were happy with this decision, as we really enjoyed Flores laid back and happy atmosphere.  We also enjoyed the company of the English and many others that we met, some of which I had already met in other places.

We finally made it to Antigua and stayed at Luke's house.  We only had one day before Nicole was to fly home.  We decided to take the afternoon tour of Pacaya, an active volcano.  The hike was great, and the views incredible.  The landscape was straight from Mars, no vegetation, just volcanic ash and rock.  We watched the sunset and headed back down.  When we arrived back in Antigua, our friend Simone had arrived.  We picked her up from her hostel and headed back to Luke's.  We cleaned up and headed out for Nicole's last night of her travels.  Food was eaten, bars were visited and the morning came.  We bid Nicole farewell and Simone and myself headed back to Xela for some much needed trekking.

Bajo y Mas Baja on Pacaya

The Family is Born

Caye Caulker = Paradise!!

Belize, was not even on the radar when I left on this trip.  Katherine was planning on going to Mexico to meet friends and I was to be going to Honduras.  Her plans fell through and we decided that Caye Caulker would be the place to be.  We knew of two people that would be there, Cheyney and Rachel so why not us!!  We arrived on the boat and realized that the right decision was made!!  Crystal blue waters, white sands and no need to wear shoes.  It took us all of five minutes to find Cheyney walking down the main road, followed by Rachael a few minutes later.

Silk Snapper caught by me

The island is beautiful and has a relaxed atmosphere like no other place I have ever been.  During the day most people go do an activity, i.e. snorkeling.  The other choices are pretty much limited to going to the split.  The split is the north end of the island where a hurricane split the entire island in half.  It is the only area to sun bath and swim, as they have hauled sand onto the area for this purpose.  The evenings are spent eating and relaxing over a few beers.  There are only two night spots on the island, the I & I Reggae Club and The Oceanside. I was excited about the reggae club, but soon realized that it was far from a reggae club.  False advertisement!!  They played crap club music.  The good thing about this club is that the bar stools were actually swings.  Best idea ever, swinging at a bar!!  The Oceanside was not much better, same crap music, different setting.  Since this was the only two options, one deals with it and makes the best of things.

Cheyney´s fishing style

That is pretty much how the two weeks I spent on the island went.  But of course there were highlights.  On the third day, Tim arrived.  On the fifth day the Great Danes arrived, Linda and Bella.  Our family was born, seven of us from all over the planet.

Captain Dice

Katherine´s catch...WOW!!!

Jordi´s sting ray friend

Cheyney getting sting rayed

Day four was magical, we went snorkeling with the man they call The Fish Whisperer.  His name is Jordi, he is about 70 years old and has been taking people snorkeling since the early fifties.  He is the captain of a small sailboat that he built himself.  He only allows a maximum of seven people on the boat and requires that no smoking or drinking take place on his boat.  He also requires that there be no talking while in the water so that the reef can be absorbed and seen for it´s beauty.  We made three stops, while Jordi was in the water he would make snapping noises and the fish would come to him.  The whole time he was in the water, a school of fish would follow him.  He didn´t bait them, they just knew him and came to him.  A large sting ray also followed him.  He would call to it and it would come to him.  He would then grab it and have it swim across our bodies, coolest thing ever.  At one point he called a huge moray eel out of it´s cave.  There were sea turtles, nurse sharks and amazing coral structures.  Thousands of different kinds of fish littered the corals in dazzling colors.  This man was legendary and the trip has become one of the greatest things I have ever done.

We also went fishing, Belize style.  No rods, just fishing line, hooks and hands.  Dice was a local resident at the hostel we stayed at and one of his scams was to take visitors at the hostel fishing.  The scam is that he owns a restaurant, so we were paying him to go fishing so that he could sell the fish at his restaurant, clever little fellow!!  It was a great day on the water.  Most of us caught a few fish, Dice caught many and Kathrine, well Kathrine caught a baby fish with Dice´s help at the end of the day.  She was a broken woman!!  We caught red snappers and silk snappers, in total about thirty fish.  We did this twice, once during the day and once at night.

Sea turtle!!

Nurse shark

All these things took place on my first trip to Caye Caulker.  You see, the family actually left Caye Caulker on day seven and went caving, sadly without Cheyney who had to return to Canada.  About eleven miles south of Belmopan is a resort known as Caves Branch.  They offer amazing caving opportunities.  We grabbed the bus and we were off.  We were dropped off on the highway at the entrance of the resort.  We walked up the mile long road with our packs, through the jungle and howler monkeys in the background doing what they do best.  We knew it was spendy, so we also packed our own food.  We knew it was a resort, but we did not know the it was a RESORT!!!  We approached the guard house and our packs were swiftly put into a cart and carted to the front desk.  By the front desk were two pools and a hot tub.  There were seven of us, so we had two cabanas.  The cabanas had clean sheets, nice pillows and oil lamps for lighting.  There were hot water showers and locks on the bathroom doors.  We were in heaven and instantly decided that we were staying two nights not one.  First a swim, than hot tub, then a plunge and back to the hot tub.  This went on for hours, we didn´t know what to do with ourselves!!

Kathrine swimming under me

This is how Canadians burn

Naturally formed pools

The Family

alot of swimming and heavy mist in the cave.  The first waterfall was the tallest and we had to climb it like a rock wall.  Another waterfall was climbed by going behind the water to the top.  We were all wide eyed and our adrenaline was pumping.  We got over the fifth and final fall and it was time to turn back.  This is where it got a little scary, particularly for me.  You see I think that jumping off of things into water is rather stupid, therefore I steer clear of these activities.  Kathrine is the queen of jumping, so she was pumped, the first to take the first leap, about 20 feet.  I got up there, received my landing instructions and did not hesitate.  There were two more leaps, the last was the tallest, about 30 feet.  I did it without pissing myself and it felt great!!  We than had a burrito lunch in the cave with fresh veggies.  This may have been one of the coolest things I have ever done.  Imagine following a river in a cave and then jumping off the waterfalls in the cave, insane!!

Family hot tub time!!

We got back to the resort and guess what...hot tub for the rest of the night!!!  The next day it was time for the family to part ways.  We all got the same bus to Belmopan.  Kathrine, Rachael and Tim got off and headed for San Ignacio.  I had been traveling with Kathrine for three weeks, and it was sad that we had to breakup, I miss her with her funny Australian ways.  I do hope to see her again one day, I am sure that I will!!  The Great Danes and myself headed back to Caye Caulker.  You see I needed to kill a few days because I was meeting my friend Nicole in Flores in a few days.  Why not kill that time in paradise?  It was an easy choice.  Got back to Bella´s, Dice could not believe it and the owner Jeff said that he knew I would be back.

Manatee hunting

Hostel fun - Fiona on a kid´s bike

I am going to tell a story, a story that became legend on the island and no fault of my own.  I had already made a name for myself, you know that whole friendly thing, so most of the locals knew me by name.  But the first night back on the island, I became a legend.  I in no way wanted this, but it happened.  One of the greatest scam artists on the island are the island police.  The scam is to hassle drunken male tourists, shake them down and arrest them.  They then extort them for all the money they have.  We figure one out of every five male tourists gets arrested and pays a ¨fine¨.  Unfortunately this happened to Tim on my first stay at the island, a story for him to tell.  I was leaving The Oceanside, fist bumping and shaking hands with the locals that were in there.  I made the friendly mistake of fist bumping an officer of the false law on the shoulder and was arrested for assaulting a police officer.  Really, me assaulting a police officer?!?!?!  I was taken to the police station and thrown in the cell, a very, very dark cell.  This is when they start in on the scam.  ¨Where is your ATM card, you are gonna need alot of money to get out of this.¨  I was well versed on the scam, so I told them that I had not done anything wrong, they didn´t like that and back in the cell I went.  After about an hour, Jeff showed up at the police station to spring another tourist.  The officer told him that he was staying and going to Belize City to court for a real violation - possession.  Then the officer told him that the Grampa looking guy at his hostel was in the other cell.  ¨Hobbit?  why would you arrest Hobbit?¨ ¨¨Assaulting a police officer.¨ ¨Hobbit?¨ They let me out of the cell, I saw Jeff and gave him a big hug.  The officer I ¨hit¨told Jeff that I hit him so hard that his chest still hurt.  I began to chime in and Jeff told me to shut up and sit down.  Jeff bailed me out for $150.00 and we went back to the hostel, had a beer and went to bed.  The next day on the island locals were waving at me and giving me high fives.  Being infamous is much worse than being famous!!

This is where you don´t want to be on Caye Caulker

After the incident, the next morning the Great Danes and myself joined Dice on a boat trip to the manatee island.  While we were preparing, Fiona walked by on her way to the split, I invited her to join and she did.  So the four of us went manatee hunting in the mangrove islands.  It was a beautiful day, clear skies, hot and we were on a boat.  Great way to forget how crooked the police are in this paradise!!  We saw manatees, a special tour through the mangroves.  They are rather large, like big swimming cows, really cool.

Well, that was pretty much it.  After my little run in with the police, I played it cool, well until Tim showed up again!!  No more arrests.  I had taken part in most of the activities offered.  My last few days on the island were spent in this manner....fry jacks for breakfast with fresh fruit juices, then off to the split, long swims and mermaiding, lunch, back to the split, sunset, dinner, a few beers at the hostel, maybe a check on the bar and to sleep.  This exhausting schedule of activities was spent with Fiona, as the Great Danes left and Tim was generally not awake till after twelve.  It was great, loved every minute of doing absolutely nothing.  But all good things come to an end and Fiona and I returned to Guatemala and left Tim with a beer in his hand in paradise.