Warrie Head Ranch and Lodge San Ignacio

... br>I went to bed at 8h. Which is the earliest I've ever been to bed ever.

In the morning, we hiked a mountain. Belize is so hot, we all had troubles to climb it.

Then we left for Guatemala.

Again the customs. It's just a great experience. You have to pay to pay 37$ Belize to get out (18$ US). Then 20 Quetzals to get in. (3$ US). Then 40 Quetzal for the car. Then 50 Quetzal to cross the bridge. Oh yeah, and the photocopies of passport ...

... in the breeze, facing the sea on
one side of the island. As we continued, we faced the other way,
looking into the sunset and the sea on the other side of the island.
It was an amazing experience, well worth the long journey back to the
Caye just for that class. I realized though, that the day at the
beach, combined with the lack of sunscreen had predictably turned me
into a tomato. A painful red had started replacing my tan and I
regretted not ...

... but we don't care, the wat** is glorious!

On the way home, we see Heidi and Justin who are putting up fly**s around town for Friday nights talent show. I buy some snacks from a street vendor (cassava chips and little orange pinwheel crack**-type things that no one knows what they are called, and a mango). Th**e is a showing of "Planet Earth" at the little theatre tonight and Becky and Heidi and I head th**e. The theatre hold about 30 people and the ...

Day 3 So my orientation to Cornerstone programs was short. It consisted of about 5 minutes of showing me where the office supplies are. I didn't get a walking tour of the city but hope to tomorrow. Justin, who is a local that works for Cornerstone took a few of us to Santa Elena which is a small town across the river from San Ignacio. I dropped off a bag of supplies to Eden Primary. Unfortunately, the principal and vice principal were not ...

... 100te Gaenge laufen, durch Baeche durch usw bis man bei einer grossen Hoehle ankommt, in der eine Maya Begraebnisstaette liegt. Dann darf man nur noch in Socken laufen und darf ueberall ganz nah ran! In die Hoehle darf man nur in Begleitung eines vom Staat linzensierten Fuehrers, weil sie geschuetzt werden soll. Hoert sich sehr beeindrucken an, oder? Dort wo wir die Tour gebucht haben, hatten sie ein kleines Baby ...

After all of that time on the beach, I headed inland to explore some more ruins, and to see a bit of the Belizean countryside. San Ignacio is a small town near the border of Guatemala. The town itself is ok, but the real attractions are the hikes in nearby forests, canoe trips down rivers, and cave explorations. I decided it was time to head underground, so I signed up for a tour of the Actun Tunichil Muknal (ATM) cave, where ...

... I refer to our current society as the ADD society. For Our attention is everywhere except on God. Satan has distracted us so much that when we sit down to pray, three minutes seem like an eternity or we fall asleep before we get to amen. Yet three minutes into a conversation with a girlfriend or boyfriend and were hooked. Reading Gods word everyday is scheduled at hours of the day when sleep has just passed or is coming. Which for those of you that get up in ...

... smoothly and with ease - honestly the buses run more efficiently here than they do in London and are a damn sight cheaper! The journey took only four hours and we arrived in San Ignacio well before lunchtime. Our first priority, or I should say my first priority, was to relieve my pack of about 6kgs (Mexican bowls and a rug) and send these back to London. We'd been told that the postal service was efficient and cheap so fingers crossed our ...

... more litter than we were used to in other spots around Belize, but nothing quite like this. It was a real shame considering how idyllic the place was. After a few jumps in the pool and plenty of pictures, we mounted the horses and headed back up the road away from the waterfall. Instead of going back the way we came, we headed out to the main Cristo Rey road to ride back through the village on the return trip ...

... which roughly translates to "Place of Fear." It was considered an entrance to the underworld which was ruled by spirits of death. Royalty and other well-placed Mayans would travel through the cave by torch-light and bring prisoners and volunteers to sacrifice to the gods. It must have been very frightening to the well-placed Mayans who made the journey in as deep as they would dare, much less the people who ...