tikal to caye caulker return
took the 5am bus to tikal so that we could have a look around in the morning cool and get back to avoid the afternoon heat. very good call. our guide was great-possibly one of the best tour guides i have ever had anywhere and i learnt a lot of interesting stuff.
is really cool walking through the jungle from temple to temple with the monkeys screaming at you. berkeley was very into taking photos of different animals using the `spiderŽ mode on his camera whataever the hell that is, but he seemed a lot less keen after a nasty run in with a very aggressive grasshopper which also meant he had to excuse himself for a change of underwear. i guess that can happen when you come from a place where the most dangerous animal is a house cat.
tikal was awesome. it didnt seem to crowded as the main areas are all separated by jungle with people walking from one to another. many structures were still covered under dirt and jungle as it preserves them better and we saw a lot of `restoration` going on but it looked suspiciously like they were building new temples to me. good to see the spanish are feeling a little bit guilty about ruining the place back in the day and are helping foot the bill.
the staircases up to the tops of some of the pyramids were pretty cool too; steep and not particularly solid looking. which could worry you when you are 50-60m up and not real fond of heights.
would have been awesome back in the day when you could actually walk up the original stairs and the temple was all red. crazy at sunset i reckon.
the view from temple IV was particualrly good as it is the highest and you are above the canopy and can see a long long way.
had a pizza and beers with berkeley, jo and matt.
bus to belize city was pretty good. after he had stamped our passports the official at the border wanted 10 quetzals for his trouble. so i says `what for` and he says `for the stamp` and i says `there is no exit tax for guatemala` and he looks at me very disapprovingly and waves us on at the same time as one of his mates is grabbing the money he has got off not-so-smart tourists and stuffing it into a paper bag; no doubt for dividing later. 1-1.
got a local guesthouse and then up to hospital to get ezzas sore foot checked out. got some painkillers and she promised to rest it for a week (dreamin.) then i went for a stroll around belize city (not much to recommend) and george the bricklayer tagged along and told me some stuff. he wanted some money at the end of his `tour` but he was alright so he got some.
got the water taxi over to caye caulker the next morning, settled into bellas family guesthouse and spent the next 2 days doing not much. caught some rays, read, took a canoe out, swam in the carribean, drank a few pina coladas and ate some fish. and ezza did actually rest her foot. a bit.
would definetly recommend caye caulker for some r&r. very chilled atmosphere. go slow signs everywhere, not crowded, very unaggressive sales pitches; just a cool place.
caught the water taxi back to belize city then the bus back to flores. guatemalan border official looked very much like the bloke sitting next to the guy i shot down on the way over and he didnt even ask me for anything, even after the money changes told me the fee was 25 quetzals. few of the others on the bus got stung though. 2-1 to tasmania
belize is obviously very poor from what i saw but just has that relaxed caribbean vibe which makes it cool. and they speak english too, although sometimes-actually most of the time you canna understand a word they saying in a belizean-belizean conversation. but they do slow it down for the tourists
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