Catch up on the past few days.

Right now I am writing from my hammock and I will update you on the last few days. After leaving Cockscomb Park we went north to visit the ruins at Laminai. The best way to see it, as we read in the guidebooks, was to take and hour and half boat ride to get there, so we went to the town of Orange Walk to do this. The town of Orange Walk seemed a bit sketchy, and nothing after 9:00 is open except fast food Chinese walk-up windows....So we made reservations through our hotel and the tour started at 9:30. We got in the boat, and were to cruise down the New River to get there. Along the way the guide pointed out various birds. There was also a lady in the boat who really knew her birds, so between her and the guide it was a birding paradise. The boat ride was very nice, and we took our time getting there. We got a good look at the Jabiru bird-the largest bird in the Western Hemishere! It nested along the river, so that was cool. We also passed by a large Mennonite settlement from the river banks (they have a big population here in Belize, and supply Belize with 60% of the country's rice and meat!). After cruising we neared the dock, and from the water you could see a big temple peeking over the tops of the jungle trees. It looked pretty cool! So we had lunch and then entered the area with the temples, our first time with a guide-so I was intrigued to find out what more info we would pick up from him. Good news- you can climb the temples here! So far every ruin we have seen has been roped off. This site was pretty cool. Amazingly, the site of Lamanai has about 700 structures there, but only 5 are excavated! You could see mounds off to the side with jungle growing on them that would be small temples but were not excavated...That is petty crazy. The Mayan city of Lamanai was also the longest functioning city, lasting substantially longer then any of the other bigger Mayan cities. The best part was that we got to climb the biggest temple on the grounds. 112 feet to the top, on some steep stairs! We were so excited to climb it we practically ran up the steps. What an insane view from the top-you were above the jungle, looking out over the river we just came down and the rest of the jungle. It was beautiful...There was one husband and wife that climbed the temple, and they stuck in my mind for two reasons...First, the husband looked so much like Horns (Jess's dad!) that it cracked me up, and second, the wife was very scared of heights but still climbed all the way to the top, slow and steady. We took pics for them at the top to prove she did it... overall it was a great tour, so worth it to see Lamanai.

From there we headed back to Belize City to do a couple other things. We went to the Belize Zoo which was little but pretty good. They had a few jaguars, which was nice to see, since we didn't run into any in the wild. They even had a baby jaguar! He really looked just like a kitten, he was so little. We walked by a pen with a few deer in it, and it was dinner time so they were all eating. Suddenly, one of the deer started choking! You could see piece of fruit lodged in its' mouth-it started gagging and it even fell over! I really thought it was going to choke to death-I was going to run to get zoo help! After a couple of minutes he was able to get it out, but it was a close call. Very glad I didn't witness an animal choking death! Saw some cool monkeys, and of course some strange other animals...Like the tapir.

That night we stayed in Belize City. After dinner, we were sitting on the porch talking to a few people staying there, and the guy that works at the hotel. Then the power went out. We weren't too alarmed, but then a minute later someone told us there was a fire in the city. We ran up to the second floor, and could see a huge blaze, about 3 blocks away! It was crazy, the flames were shooting up higher then the buildings! We watched it for awhile, and I was nervous t would spread-but it didn't! And luckily, no one was hurt.

The next day we left to go to the Community Baboon Sanctuary, a very cool tiny little village about one hour from Belize City. First of all, let me point out that there weren't really baboons there, but rather the Creole word for monkey is baboon. This was a great place, about 10 years ago, a scientist studying the population of Black Howler Monkeys noticed their numbers were declining. The land that the monkeys lived in was all private property, belonging to local farmers and village people. They would cut down forests in order to farm and destroy the howler monkey habitats. This scientist, Robert Horwich, approached the villagers with the idea of teaching them more sustainable farming techniques that would allow them to keep the monkey habitat intact, and that by doing so, they could also use their land to show visitors the howler monkeys, creating a little tourist spot for this tiny village. It was so successful, most of the villagers participated, and the program spread to other villages nearby. The Black Howler population thrived, and is now at 4,000, and the villagers get to take people on tours of their land. So we got there and took a tour in the afternoon. During the evening the monkeys cross from their daytime hangout back to where they sleep, swinging and jumping from tree to tree to get there. The guy whose land it was had one particular monkey family of 7, including a little baby, that would cross the tree tops right in his yard, and we got there at the exact time they started this little journey. We watched them from just about 10-15 feet at times! I forgot to mention what makes these monkeys special is that they really HOWL, I mean, very loudly! You can hear there noises from a mile away, and that is no exaggeration! As they crossed, the male did his crazy howl-and it is so funny! I have never heard such an animal noise....And then you could hear monkeys in the distance responding with their calls! They were really close to us, and we were the only people around, so we go to hang out, and follow them for awhile. We took some videos of the monkeys, and you should be able to hear the crazy howls, so be on the lookout (if I can figure it out maybe I will post it here). It was so enjoyable to see them in the wild, but pretty close.

Sidebar: did you know that there is such a thing as a cashew fruit? We didn't! The nut grows off the fruit, but you can eat the fruit as well-and the season for cashew ripening is just starting. We tasted one, well, a couple-they are delicious! This village had cashew trees everywhere, so I'm sure they enjoy that....After the tour we just chilled in our cabana with no running water (it happened to break that day), and later, the electricity went out! A quick bucket shower rinse and reading by candlelight. From that village of Bermudian Landing where the Howler monkeys were we came to our last wildlife park of Belize, a place called Monkey Bay Sanctuary.....But-they have no monkeys here!

It's the Jungle, Baby!

We have just come back to civilization here in Belize. Over the weekend we stayed in Cockscomb Wildlife Sanctuary in some rustic cabins there. We were in the middle of nowhere, twice removed. You know, the park is not really near anything, and then you go 8 miles into the park where there is no electricity and jungle everywhere! It was great! What a beautiful park...

We went on a couple of hikes. The best: a hike to a double waterfall that you could swim in! It was so beautiful, and even better that we got to cool off in the pools after sweating so much to get to it. The hike was pretty steep, but not very long, so that was good. The even better thing-there was not a soul around us on this hike. We enjoyed the waterfall and swimming around, all by ourselves! The jungle was so interesting to hike through, so many unknown plants and birds...and leafcutter ants!! I had never seen these ants before, but they are pretty fascinating. Millions of ants marching on a path with little pieces of leaves on their backs-and they literally make a trail all by themselves! You can watch them and see that they wear out a path in the middle of the jungle-now that must be hard to do...We spotted toucans, parrots, and a few other crazy looking ones that I have to look up.

I loved that park....We could've stayed longer, only if we brought more food...

More to see of Belize

So we finally left Caye Caulker yesterday morning. We had a great time in Caye Caulker, we really loved that island. It was so relaxing, and the water was amazing. A crazy windstorm sort of pushed us out of there. We were going to stay another night, but when we woke up to piles of sand in the room that had blown in under the door and through the window, we figured we would head out. We even had to use earplugs to fall asleep the night before, the wind gusts were so strong and loud!! It was pretty amazing, and even weirder that it didn't come with a rainstorm, just wind. So our plan yesterday was to get to Placencia, a beach town in the south of Belize. As we started on the buses yesterday, we got tired of the ride about half way there, so we stopped in this town called Dangriga, which is where we are now. The scenery was pretty, we drove through some hilly, green terrrain through tons of orange groves. You wouldn't believe how many people get on these school buses! Everyone is really packed in.

The information about this town of Dangriga made us think it was a pretty good size town with things to do, but we are finding that not so accurate. Now we have to regroup and decide where to go next. Our plan to head to Placencia may change, as we hear that lodgings will be tough to find this weekend because it is Easter, and tourists, as well as all the Belizeans will go there...I will let you know where we end up.

Holy crap, I've been under water for 10 minutes!

That's what I thought when I first went into the water with all my scuba gear on and was breathing through me regulator!!! Adrian and I are now official certified scuba divers!!! It's been great, and that's what I have doing the past few days (sorry if I didn't blog, but I was in the ocean!). It's been a little tiring, but amazing!! Today was our last two dives to become certified...The cool thing is, on all four of our dives we were out in the ocean, diving along Belize's famous reef...It's not like we were ever in a pool, so I think that was pretty cool. We had a great instructor, Pablo, from Belize Diving Services (go to them if you ever want to come here and dive), who taught us very well, and now I feel comfortable diving.

Just going along the reef here is so amazing...There are so many types of little fish, sea fans, anenomes, brain coral...It's so much to take in. Adrian and I have started inventing under water sign language to tell each other things. So far, we've only made signs for "fish", and for "pee", but we are just devising the system...It's great to dive with Adrian and see all the same things. Today we saw a few nurse sharks!!! I will try to find a picture of my favorite fish so far...He is blue, with a yellow tail, but he has florescent blue dots all over him-he's so bright!

About where we are: we are in Caye Caulker, another island off the coast of Belize. It's chill and relaxing here, and about 100x better than San Pedro on Amergris Caye. We've been here for 5 days already! We will try to do another dive on Sunday or Monday and then maybe we will move onto the rest of Belize. Time to go take a nap and recover from all the diving...More to come later.

Rain, Rain, go away...

Come again another day...Preferably when we are in a big city where not everything revolves around being outside!! Or at least a place where there is more to keep you busy on a rainy day...

La Isla Bonita?

It's Saturday here in Belize, and it's a petty crappy day! Our plan to go snorkeling has gone out the window...Last night there was a huge thunderstorm that came with a beautiful lightening show but torrential downpours. The rain only lasted for about 40 minutes, so then we sat on our porch playing cards drinking wine. But later that night the wind picked up again and made it a little hard to sleep. The wind as blowing so hard that our building was shaking! Maybe our building is not that sturdily built, it seems to be made of plywood, but when my bed is swaying with the wind, it is enough to keep me awake and scared we would be blown away. We weren't !

But, it's nice to have the time to wait out the weather! Yesterday afternoon we rented bikes to explore more of the island. We rode our bikes to the North side of the island, and we extremely surprised to see how undeveloped things still are here. The road is dirt, but it is horrible-with huge rocks and a ton of pot holes....Difficult riding on a bike, and now we understand why so many people spend $12,000 on a golfcart (Yes, that's right-$12,000! Insanity!)! We can see why the water taxi may be the way to go. There are small resorts along the way, but they are pretty far away from town. We found that we could ride along the beach instead of the road and that was much nicer. That side of the island had a ton of docks for boats, straddling small sections of swimmable beaches. I know Madonna has called this island "La Isla Bonita", but I'm not sure that I agree with her on that...Maybe that is based on the underwater scene. Scuba diving seems to be so much more than we expected, so we're not sure if we should do it or not. On one hand, Belize is supposed to be one of the greatest places in the world to dive, so maybe we should suck it up...

One country down, ? to go!

We are now in Belize!!! That's right, we have finally left Mexico to further explore. I'm am excited to be in Belize...More specifically, we are in San Pedro, on the island of Amergris Caye (pronounced "key"). Just as I got used to speaking Spanish, they speak English here! As we got in last night, we haven't seen much but are planning on renting bikes this afternoon to see a bit more of the island. It's tiny here but does have a lot of tourists. The roads are all dirt, with the exception of the main road in town, which was paved last year, making it easier for everyone...I will let you know more of the island after we explore today, but so far it seems lovely.

I was thinking on the way over here that it was a shame I had just gotten into the groove of finding some great Mexican food that I liked, like a torta (imagine a Mexican steak and cheese, with a twist), or licuados (smoothies), we are going into a new country with a whole new set of food to get used to. I have become obsessed with smoothies....They are so delicious, and are absolutely everywhere in Mexico. Hopefully I can still get smoothies wherever I go. I did crack up at myself last night. We stopped for one night in a bigger city called Chetumal, on the way to Belize. Right near our posada there was Domino's Pizza!! I knew that I had to have pizza for dinner....As much as I was enjoying most of the Mexican food, sometimes you just want a taste for something that you would get at home. It was delicious!!

That's all for now folks, I'm off to go explore the island. Oh, this is very important- HAPPY BIRTHDAY Trev & Tris!!! I hope you have a great birthday :)

Finally, a cenote!

So we are now in Tulum, Mexico. We came here quickly on our first loop of the Yucatan to see the ruins, but we wanted to come back to stay in the town. Today we took a tour of a cenote, well, three cenotes. It was called Dos Ojos. It was very cool, we got to swim around and snorkle in them (still using our snorkles!). A cenote is an underground cave that is filled with freshwater, and many of the cenotes are a mile or so deep and have a system of interconnected caves. We were able to snorkle from one cenote to another, with stalactites just above our heads. In some areas there was only a few inches of clearance so you had to be careful not to lift your head up and smash it into one of those crazy stalactites. We were given flashlights to use underwater to check out all the scenery, it was very cool. Weirdly enough, there was only one type of fish in the cenotes...We were wondering how it got there, and why weren't there any other fish in there? I must investigate this...Anyways, I will show some pictures soon.
After the cenotes, we went to the beach for a little while. It was amazing that you could see the Tulum ruins from miles down the beach! We should've just swam there last time, instead of paying an entrance fee ;(
And for dinner, BBQ at the hostel, called The Weary Traveller...It's such a good system, you buy a burger patty, or chicken, or fish, and then everyone grills their food however they would like it on this big communal grill. It comes with all these great veggies, salad, mashed potatoes, and 2 beers...All for 50 pesos (about $5). You can really load up on the food here! Which was perfect, since we didn't have lunch.
I just spent an hour or so chatting with an older lady from Italy who went on the cenote tour with us. She doesn't speak English, so it was encouraging that I was able to understand her and speak in Spanish with her, as she only knew Italian and Spanish, very little English. We had a nice chat and went for ice cream together...I'm learning!

Glad we got those snorkels!

We are in Cozumel, we got here Friday afternoon. On Saturday, we met up with Karl and Teresa, (Adrian knew Karl from his previous travels) who were docking in Cozumel from a cruise. We walked around the main boardwalk a little, and then went snorkeling!! Our first of the trip so we were excited...We got to use our new snorkels! So we set off in the boat and the guide goes over just a couple of things, mainly-the sign of frantically waving your hands over your head=help...
Since I´ve snorkled before I didn´t think too much of it so we all hop off the boat and start swimming around. And you know that your snorkle never fits right until after a few adjustments, so after a few minutes I stopped to readjust my mask. Just as I am putting in back on my head I feel the snorkel fall off and start sinking in the water!! I see it just about 6 feet below the surface so I try to swim down and grab it...I missed. So I get a little nervous and pissed at the same time-I mean, that´s my new snorkle! So I start the HELP wave, but I notice the whole group has kinda ditched me...But they noticed pretty quickly. They guide comes swimming back over, and I´m expecting just to swim back to the boat to borrow a new snorkle. Instead he asks where I dropped it, and before I know it, the guide just dove down 25 ft. to the bottom and scooped it up for me!!! I was amazed!!! That was only the first time he did this, as the day went on he proceeded to swim down to disrupt schools of fish, swim through a hole in the coral...Basically crazy things I did not attempt.
Anyways, we saw some cool fish...It´s just so fun to see what goes on underwater...
Cozumel is a nice island with gorgeous beaches, but you do have to rent a car or moped to get to them. We did that this afternoon and will go back tomorrow morning for some more swimming and snorkeling before we head out of Cozumel.