Chichicastenango / Nebaj

Getting to the market in Chichi was interesting. We took chicken buses, and had to make 4 transfers. The second bus was so crowded that we had to shove ourselves down the aisle in order to get out of the way of the front door. These are old school buses we're riding in and the adults sit 3 to a sit! The 3rd person in each row is lucky to have all of one buttcheek on the seat. After about 15 minutes of standing, we finally got seats which really wasn't much better than standing. I thought my arms were gonna give out trying to hold myself in the seat as the driver whipped around the mountain curves. I'm so glad it wasn't hot or it would've been miserable, instead it was amusing. :)

The market wasn't quite what I thought it would be. The main streets of the town were closed down and for several blocks vendors were set up in te streets. This sounds simple enough, but it was so easy to get lost. We couldn't tell which roads we'd been down and which we had not. And it was so incredibly crowded it was hard to even walk. People walked in train formation and if you got off the train to look at something, it was hard to get back on. It was colorful everywhere and I was tempted to buy a Mayan outfit, but I don't really have room for that sort of thing on my bike. We were never able to find the food stalls, so we settled for rice and beans on the outskirts of the market. We also got ice cream from Sarita which is my second favorite ice cream shop in central America. And I got guanabana, which is my favorite flavor. We were only at the market about 2 hours before we left for the even higher up mountain town of Nebaj.



When we arrived to Nebaj it was raining and none the streets were marked so we had no idea where we were. We wandered about in the rain until we found a random hospedaje to stay in. During the wandering I was disgusted to find that Nebaj is the dirtiest city I've been to in central america, and that's saying a lot! There was trash absolutely everywhere. Should have know this would be the case when we saw people throwing bags of trash out the bus window on the way. It made me very sad to see this. It is a beautiful area of foggy cloud forest. The place we stayed in was also the crappiest place I've ever stayed in but it was way cheap so it didn't matter. The next morning we walked down a muddy dirt road through fields to some waterfalls. The country side was really petty, as were the waterfalls and rivers, but this area too was polluted. Lots of clothes, tires and styrofoam in the river, it was sickening. I'm glad we did the walk though so Nebaj wasn't a complete waste, but it definitely won't be a place I have fond memories of. How do they expect to have sustainable tourism here amongst such filth?

We made it to Coban last night. It was a long ride in windy mountainous dirt roads from Nebaj. Found a McDonalds in town and had to partake of the Snickers mcFlurry. This type of mcFlurry was limited edition in the US when I was about 18 and reminds we of good times with Shannon so there was no way I could resist, even though I'd already has a large dinner of beans, eggs and tortillas.

I woke up at 3 am feeling over stuffed and somewhat nauseated. I proceeded to puke up my spicy egg and bean dinner which was rather nasty tasting, thankfully no hint on McFlurry flavor in there. I slept the rest of the night. But vomited again upon waking up. There was no notice this time and I jumped out of bed with my mouth full of bile only to find that both bathrooms were occupied by shower takers. And the balcony was still locked from the night, so I paced around not knowing what to do. Then I went back to our room and paced some more. Then Craig suggested I puke in the trash can. It was pitch dark in our room, and I kept flipping the switch and the light wasn't working. Finally it came on and I ran to the trash can to spit out the bile and puke out some more. Not pleasant. Shortly there after we were on a 2 1/2 hour bus ride to Lanquin. It was a gorgeous ride mostly through mountain coffee farms it was foggy and damp out. But the roads were curvy and I felt pretty crummy the whole way. I was very grateful when we arrived. I slept for about 2 hours. All I've had to eat today is some toast and coke. I think I am better, but still kinda afraid to eat.

The place we are staying is called El Retiro and is a really cool place on the Rio Cahabon. We are staying in a loft above a palapa style hut. There is river tubing here and cave explorations, and tommorrow we will visit Semuc Champey, the most beautiful place in all of Guatemala. It is best explained as a limestone bridge over the river and on top of the bridge runs small amounts of water from the river. The result is a series of blue and turquoise pools for swimming in and they are right in the middle of gorgeous rain forest. We are only about 10 km away and will be taking a bus there in the morning instead of paying the $20 to go with a tour operator. I'm very excited, it will be my second time visiting this place.

In 2 hours Guatemalan dinner buffet starts here and it is the only dinner option, hope I am up for it!

Antigua

View from Cerro de La Cruz

Volcan Agua

Best ice cream in the whole world, nieve de guanabana at Pops!

View from the patio at McDonalds, its very upscale!

Today we took a bus from Rio Dulce to the highland town of Antigua. It cost us a good bit of money with the cargo charges for our bikes but it was nice to make it here in one day. We plan on storing our bikes at our hotel here for a few days and exploring some of the higher up in the mountain towns. The roads in this area are far too steep and in very poor condition for bicycle touring.

Tomorrow will we be up bright and early to catch the bus to Chichicastenango where tomorrow (Sunday) is market day, and it is one of the biggest markets in Central America. I'm excited to see the mass chaos. I'm also excited to eat food from the vendors and perhaps find some non spandex clothing, something particularly cool, like a skirt made from Mayan textiles.

Thought for sure I'd find peanut butter here because there are so many foreigners in this town, but still no luck. Guess its avocado sandwiches for breakfast.

Surprise destination

Yesterday we did a good job of doing nothing. Slept in, ate lots of god food, rode in hammocks and swam in the natural spring. Late in the afternoon we decided to ride the few miles from the finca into town in search of peanut butter and shampoo. We did not ask for directions before leaving cause we figured someone in town would be able to tell us where the supermarket was. But we were wrong, we were led on a wild goose chase around the crowded town cause no one seemed to be able to pin point just where the store was. It didn't help that every person I spoke to didn't seem to understand spanish! The streets were crowded with little golf cart like cars and lots of motorcycles and people, and I was worried about getting hit or abruptly having to stop and falling off my bike. Plus there was a nasty looking storm rolling in and we didn't feel like being rained on so we gave up after about 15 minutes and high tailed it back to the finca.

We had hoped the storm would pass over night, but no such like, at 4:30am we awoke to pouring rain complete with thunder and lighting and deemed it a bad idea to bike in those conditions. We slept in and decided when we woke up we'd take a bus so that we could continue on to our planned destination of Fray Bartolome de Las Casas. We rode into town around 10:30 and actually encounter a nice guy on a bike that rode with us to the bus stop so that we could find it. At the bus station we learned that there was no bus going to Fray but we could get part way there and switch buses. So we went with that. 3 hours later we had arrived to a small town called San Pedro Cardenas, and all of the transfer buses were mini vans with no room for our bikes. So we decided we'd bike to the turn off to Fray and try to get a ride in the back of the truck. The junction was only a few miles down the road so it seemed like a logical idea. Except that we never found the junction. About an hour into the ride I asked at a mechanic shop if we were going the right way and we indeed were already well past the junction. At this point we were only about 25 km from Rio Dulce and had already gone down a lot of hills and weren't about to go back. So here we are in Rio Dulce at Bruno's Hotel and Restuarant. Not a planned stop, but I had a good day regardless. We biked just under 30 miles and except for the first hour when it was really hot, it was a pleasant ride. We are right on the water which is nice and I bought lots of lovely fruits in the market. And we found the grocery store (owned by Walmart) and I finally got some shampoo. I'm so excited! But no peanut butter, apparently it's not a staple food product here like it it at home.

Tomorrow we plan to head in the direction of Antigua. The reason we we going to Fray was ultimately to get to Semuc Champey. I've already been there but Craig has not and it's very beautiful, so we may try to get there at some other point in the trip. There's just no good way to get there from here so for now we'll bypass it.

Ooh and one last bit of exciting news. I have begun using my pee funnel. It is a glorious thing to pee out of my tree house at night in the pouring rain and on the side of the road and not have to take my spandex pants off or worry about pee splatter all over my legs!! :) :) :) hehe

View from bridge over Rio Dulce

Poptun

Scenery on the way to Poptun, strange pyramid like hills

Craig found plantains on the side of the raod!!!

Treehouse

Not actually in a tree

Today was by far the hardest yet, steady hills just about the whole way. Not big hills but lots of them. We left El Remate at 6 am and didn't arrive to Finca Ixobel (pronounced ee-show-bell) until almost 5. I'm sore all over and sunburned. Had an awesome shower, all the debris from the road likes to stick to me. I arrived with black legs! I'm now waiting one hour til the all you can eat dinner buffet that starts. Didn't get to eat much today cause nothing was open when we left. Had a nasty bubblegum soda towards the end cause I needed fuel. I was was lead to believe it was strawberry flavor, but definitely not. We got a tree house room here that I am very excited about! I will likely spend the day resting tomorrow, cause I'm sure I'll feel even more disabled tomorrow. Since we are staying two nights, I get to sleep in!

San Ignacio (Caracol, Caves) and Tikal

Sunrise from water taxi leaving Caye Caulker

Lots of updates.  Haven´t had much internet the last few days.  Had been using wifi with my iphone, but there has not been wifi in my hotels the last few days.  I´m limited on time, so there´ll probably be a lot of typos.

Left on the first water taxi out of Caye Caulker on Friday morning.  Got into Belize City around 8 am and spent all day, til about 5 biking to San Ignacio in the heat and humidity.  It was 70 miles, lots of hills for the last 30 miles, but for the most part was good road. Mostly through farm land.  Still getting used to the steering and balance of the bike, with the weight of the bags, it´s hard to go straight.  Not really harder to peddle though, doesn´t seem to make a whole lot of difference.  I for some reason thought it a good idea to bring only spandex exercise clothes.  I´m definitely regretting that now, it sticks to my skin like saran wrap in this heat.  I Will probably end up buying some more clothes at some point, or I will lose weight and the spandez will fit better I hope!  Also been putting on sunscreen everyday even though its a pain, still getting some sunburns.  Have about 4 layers of ridiculous looking tan lines.

On the road to San Ignacio

Pretty farms close to San Ignacio

Entrance to Actun Tunichil Muknal (Cave)

Mayan pottery in ATM cave

Dry area of the cave, had to walk in socks only for this this part!

crystals in the cave

skeleton of a 17 year old deep in the cave

me inside the cave!

Tiny door ways for tiny people at Caracol

Plaza at Caracol

Caracol

Entrance to Rio Frio Cave

Inside Rio Frio Cave

Exit out of Rio Frio Cave

We stayed 3 nights in San Ignacio.  It was nice to have the break from biking and we got to go on 2 tours.  One of a cave full of Mayan artifacts.  It had pretty turquoise water running through it and was very long and intricate.  Still has skeletons, pottery and  sacrificial blood letting plate, etc. inside!  Second day was a tour to Caracol Mayan ruins.  Was a hour and a half drive on awful bumpy road, can compare it to riding a mechanical bull.  Pyramids and structures were very impressive.  On the way back we stopped at another cave, Rio Frio Cave, this one was short and wide, we could see both openings from inside.  It was really cool.  Then we made one more stop at Rio On Pools, which are a series of cascading pools in a river with a few small water falls.  Was very pretty and a refreshing swim.

We attempted to do laundry in bucket in our hotel room, didn´t really come too clean.  Lots of sunscreen on my clothes still.  And in this humidity stuff takes forever to dry so my clothes now small rather moldy.  I think we will have to pay someone to do our laundry in the future.  Also haven´t bought shampoo yet and have been washing my hair with castile soap, so it is in a constant state on greasy nastiness from sunscreen.  Can´t wait for the luxury of buying shampoo sometime in the next few days!

Yesterday morning we left San Ignacio for the Guatemalan border at about 6 am.  Border crossing was easy and we were through by 8am.  For the first two hour after crossing into Guatemala we had the nicest road yet, super smooth with a shoulder!  And it was cool and foggy with pretty scenery of tropical looking cow fields.  By about 10 it the sun came out and it got super hot and the road got really hilly.  We also encountered some sections of the road that were dirt and very bumpy and difficult to ride on.  We got chased by dogs which was extremely scary for me and we also saw lots of pigs crossing the road.  The total mileage for the day was about 50 miles, but took almost as long as the 70 mile ride.  The hills were really tough on me.  We got to El Remate at half past one.  We are in a nice hotel with hammocks right on the Lago de Peten Itza.  We´ve had the best rice and bean meal of our lives since arriving.  And today we visited the Mayan site of Tikal.  Was a very nice day.

Rio On Pools

Waterfall at Rio On Pools

Tikal, grand plaza

Saw a lot of these at Tikal, we think they are Coati

(Red) gumbo limbo tree!

Me and the Grand Plaza at Tikal

View from Temple 4 at Tikal

Tomorrow the journey continues to Poptun where my favorite hostel is located, Finca Ixobel.  It´s gonna be a long day, 70 miles, but lots of downhill and we are starting super early to avoid some of the heat.

Caye Caulker

Snorkel area outside the lazy lizard

So it turns out there isn't another blue hole dive scheduled anywhere on the island until Friday, and we had planned to leave on Friday morning. Rather than have to stay an extra night we are probably just going to leave and forgot it. Which kinda sucks but at the same time I don't really want to spend an extra day here. Guess I am already starting with reasons to come back to Central America again. Craig and I both thought there'd be dives out to the Blue Hole everyday, it's one of the main reasons people come to Caye Caulker. We are considering doing some other tour tomorrow, like snorkeling, manatee watching or stand up paddle boarding.

We had fun today. Went snorkeling and canoeing. Saw some fish and starfish, and the water itself is a pretty sight to see. I picked up a starfish bigger than my head to take pictures of and a ton of water drained out of it while I was holding it. It was rather strange. As a result of the drainage, the starfish floated on the surface when I tried to put it back. Spent awhile trying to get it to refill with water and sink, finally I swam to the bottom and buried it in the sand. Craig got annoyed by my desire to stop the canoe and dive in and capture every starfish we passed. :)

We've got a 50 mile bike day coming up on Friday. We're riding from Belize City to Belmopan. Don't know if my butt or hands will have recovered by then. They are both still quite sore.

First bike ride

A random house we saw just outside of Belize City, apparently they like bikes!

Yesterday was my first day bike riding and it was 55 miles. We road from Orange Walk to Belize City to get the water taxi to Caye Caulker. It was flat and fairly cool because it was somewhat cloudy and sprinkling at times. Physically the bike ride was fine, but my butt hurt really bad and my palms went numb from leaning on the handle bars. Once I get used to those things I'll be fine. We left just before 7 and arrived just after 2. We took quite a few breaks and there was a lot of stopping because my bike seat kept moving. It would tilt up and down. And it was really annoying because we probably stopped at least 5 times to deal with the seat.

We were able to get on a boat to Caye Caulker with 15 minutes of arriving in Belize City. (We got to bring our bikes on for free.) And today we shall snorkel, go beach walking and perhaps kayak. And tommorrow we will dive in the blue hole.

Getting to Orange Walk

I arrived to Belize City two days ago with my 100 lb box in tow. It had been searched by the airline and as a result it came off the conveyor belt half ripped open and bulging at the top. Then I went through customs and they completely unpacked the box looking for the serial number on the bike. Don't really understand why they needed it, something to do with customs declarations and duty. I didn't end up having to pay anything but they wrote down the bike number in my passport next to the Belize entrance stamp. I then proceeded outside with my box in shambles and learned that buses don't run regular schedules on Sunday (which happened to be the day I arrived). My plan had been to take a taxi to the bus station and take the bus to Orange Walk. It was already almost 5, so I was unlikely to get a bus and it was raining and my box was falling apart, so I let a taxi driver convince me to get a ride with him to Orange Walk. It was a large Sedan and somehow my box fit in the trunk! It was about an hour ride, and it cost me $80 which sucks but at least I got there. I was a bit early and surprised Craig. We spent the evening unpacking and assembling my bike and repacking my bike bags.

Grandpa balls!

Yesterday we took a lovely river boat tour to the Lamanai Mayan ruins. Generally I'm not too impressed with ruins, but it was actually a really fun day. The boat ride reminded me of Michigan, as most boat rides do. We rode up a jungle lined river and saw birds, crocodiles, neat bugs monkeys and turtles. We climbed to the top of one of the pyramids, and it was so steep we used a rappel rope. But I think the highlight of the day was discovering a plant called grandpa balls, which are basically a fruit shaped like balls and when you score it with a knife, it secretes a white liquid. And the white liquid is glue!! The local kids take these things to school with them. We also saw cactus that grow on trees!! :)

This is the one with the rappel rope

A Change of Plans

So it had been my intention to stay and work in Mammoth until at least mid March, and then I met Craig.  As soon as I heard about his plans for biking all of Central America, I knew I wanted to go, but I didn't know him well enough and didn't feel comfortable just inviting myself.  I have now known him for a month at most, and some how during that time I got up the nerve to invite myself.  And to my surprise he is actually excited to have me along (I speak Spanish and he doesn't!!).  :)  I am the kind of person who can change plans in an instant if there are better options out there, this is by far the most sudden decision I have made.  But an opportunity like this doesn't come around every day.  I am sooo excited to be leaving Mammoth and the lack of snow (There are some people I will miss ten tons, such as Anne!).  I can't wait to start this trip and get back to Central America, where I have been dying to go since the last time I left there three years ago.  I have two days of work left here, then five days at home then I'm off to Belize on the 15th!  Craig already started his trip today, he flew to Cancun.  So I hope that all goes well and he is there to meet me in Orange Walk Town, Belize the night of the 15th!


Wish me luck! :)