Guatemala and beyond...

Since so much has happened in the past few weeks, it´s hard to start knowing that I will likely leave out so many details. Hopefully, this blog will provide some justice to the experiences we have been having.



We had planned to spend a few weeks in the Peten area of Guatemala taking Spanish classes, but unfortunately after one week we decided to hele-on out of there because our teachers weren´t quite seeing eye to eye with us. We did advance our Spanish a little and David´s teacher actually let him take the Spanish manual and copy it, so we have our own "Learn to Speak Spanish" book with us now that we´ll hopefully have the discipline to flip through once in a while. We each stayed with separate familes in San Jose, Guatemala (a homestay is part of the Spanish school program) and enjoyed the company of our families. San Jose is across Lago Peten Itza from the big cities of Santa Elena and San Benito and has a population of only 800 or so. Although our families were very nice, it was apparent that we were "paying customers" because they didn´t really go out of their way to get to know us or give us much time to get to know them. We still had a great time in San Jose swimming in the crystal clear lake and enjoying the feria which just so happened to be going on while we were there. Before leaving the Peten area we of course had to go see the famous Tikal ruins. So we signed up for a "sunrise tour" of Tikal where they picked us up at 3:15 am. Brought back memories of doing the night shift. Well, we were lucky that morning (or shall I say no so lucky) and it rained all morning. So, we sat atop temple 4 listening to the jungle sounds and staring at...fog. No sunrise. We had fun nonetheless and David of course took some pictures.



After multiple days without any good sleep (see previous blog) and tromping around in the rain at Tikal, we were both feeling a little under the weather, so we decided to take our first bus ride back into Belize from Santa Elena. The Belize Cross-Country bicycle race was happening the next day and we wanted to be in San Ignacio for the event. We met back up with our friend Waldemar who very graciously let us again sleep in a classroom at Sacred Hearts College and enjoyed the hours of conversation about family, Belize, and life in general. The bicycle race also was quite the spectacle. Almost more fun to watch was the whole town anticipating the arrival of the bikers and the streets lined with folks waiting to catch a glimpse. All for only about 80 bikers. The race was roughly 150 miles from Belize City to San Ignacio and back and an American won. The man we were standing next to was so happy that a "white boy" wasn´t in the lead when they passed through San Ignacio. He says that an American or Canadian usually wins and he was hoping a Belizean would win this year. Darn.



After restocking our "pantry" (a.k.a. blue pannier) and enjoying some heavenly mennonite cheese and homemade whole wheat bread at the local market, we left San Ignacio and headed down the Hummingbird highway. (Note--we had heard time and time again that the mennonites in Belize made good cheese, but we had yet to find some, so when we did we were STOKED, if simply to break up the monotony of rice and beans). The ride down the Hummingbird highway proved to be one of the most scenic yet. We rode alongside the base of the Maya mountain range and enjoyed views of lush green valleys the whole time. As we got further South, orange plantations became more frequent and we of course poached a few oranges which we savored in the hot sun. About half way down the highway, we came across a river lined with tons of people swimming and BBQing for Easter Sunday. We joined in the fun and hopped in the river for some refreshment and also met a couple of guys who gave us some beers which multiplied our refreshment ten-fold. Down at the river we also saw lots of kids eating a fruit that kind of looked like a squash, so we asked them what it was and they said "cacao." We tried it (by sucking off the sweet mucus-like layer from the seeds) and it tasted kind of like lychee. It was only 30 mins later or so that we realized cacao is the Spanish AND English word for the plant, and that we were sucking on the same fruit that chocolate is made of. How that made me want chocolate so bad. So close, yet so far.



We pulled in to Saint Margaret Village and decided we would try and find a place to stay the night as evening was fast approaching. Saint Margaret Village is one of those towns that you drive through and say, "Was that it?" five miles later, so of course, there were no hotels. We asked a nice man who we met down at the river if we could camp in his yard and he happily agreed. Although we were only looking for a place to camp, we ended up with five-star treatment. The Borlan family immediately treated us to cold watermelon and all the fresh fruits we could eat from their fruit trees in the back of their house, besides a nice hot dinner and breakfast. Anthony Borlan, his wife Ingrid, and their five children, TJ, Jamie, Tracy, Chelsea, and Clifton again reminded us of the inherent goodness of humanity and how lucky we are to be able to share these moments with them. They also educated us on the music and lyrics to a number of Celine Dion songs which they LOVED and listened to over and over.

After St. Margaret Village, we spent an afternoon and night in Hopkins on the coast. Hopkins is a Garifuna village where the people (Garifuna) are descendents from Africa and speak a different language than others in Belize. We sampled some Garifuna cuisine (a coconut milk stew with fish and plantains) and watched some drumming and singing. However, the experience wasn´t as genuine as we had hoped it would be as we were prodded for tips throughout our stay.

On we went to the Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary, where we camped for a couple of nights and hiked up to some stunning waterfalls, one of which we had to ourselves almost the whole day. We were also reunited with our friends the ¨black flies¨ and had dozens of bites to prove it when we left. We rode out on our rainiest day yet following an entire night of pouring rain, so the dirt road out was plenty muddy. At least we were already experienced with all sorts of muds and this just so happened to be an ¨easy mud,¨more sandy and less sticky. Off to the coast again. The ride to Independence, Belize was pretty monotonous and uneventful, although we did pass through countless banana plantations with depressing dilapidated living quarters for the workers. Unfortunately, the haciendas of the Yucatan are still alive in a modern form in Southern Belize. We took the Hokey Pokey water taxi over to Placencia from Independence, after discovering there was no ATM in Independence, and lived like true American tourists for two hours before returning to Independence-- we drank fruity drinks from the bar on the water and ate delicious gelato from a non-locally owned shop. I have to admit it was highly enjoyable though. The next day we boarded the ¨D-Express,¨the boat that was to take us to Honduras and experienced a little queasiness on the 2.5 hour ride to Puerto Cortes. And here we are in Honduras, loving life. Stay tuned for another episode.