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Trip Start Oct 11, 2006 Previous
Entry Trip End Apr 25, 2007 Next
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  Utila, Bay Islands, Honduras
Monday, November 20, 2006

The morning following our last entry, we left Lanquin at 5:30 AM for a long day of travel. Ten hours and three bus rides later we arrived in Tikal National Park, mother of all Mayan ruins. In this remote area of Northern Guatemala they raise prices drastically so we decided to set up our tent for a small fee. We awoke at 4:30 AM for a 5:00 Am tour of the ruins. After a short hike in the dark we climbed temple IV, the tallest temple at Tikal. As day broke, we sat atop the temple in silence listening to howler monkeys and the other animals making their morning calls. No one spoke for over an hour - Thus we had our unexpected moment of silence, as this was Rememberance Day. Following sunrise our guide led us through the ruins, explaining various Mayan traditions and beliefs. After eating lunch at our new favorite comedor, we returned to the ruins to explore on our own. Many of the tourists had already left on early afternoon buses, so we were able to get great pictures and video footage with the ruins all to ourselves

01 Kyle and Fran - Mayan Ruins

.
We left on the last bus and spent one night in Flores before leaving to Belize. Early the next morning we caught a bus to Belmopan, the Capital. Both of us were surprised at how easy the border crossing was. Along the way however, we saw a dead motorcyclist on the side of the road, partially covered by a sheet - A harsh reality of the poorly paved roads. While we waited for our connecting bus to Dangriga, a few locals stopped to offer us a ride. It was nice to hear English from strangers again, and we were amused by their Jamaican-like accents.
Arriving in Dangriga we realized just how much more expensive Belize is than Guatemala. We paid over 6X as much for a hotel room as we were used to paying. The next day we went on a strenuous hike with some German fellows through a jaguar reserve. We didn't see any jaguars (it's very rare!) but we got to swim in beautiful pools under 60 foot tall waterfalls. We waited for the 4:30 bus home until 5:30, when we decided it wasn't going to come. Our only other option was hitchhiking - luckily we made it back to Dangriga with a lady from Vancouver for the first half of the trip, and a truck full of Black men returning from work for the second leg.
We carried on South to the beach town of Placencia located at the tip of a long narrow peninsula. To save money we camped on someone's property, our tent barely 20 feet from the ocean. The family was a little strange (resembling a Jerry Springer episode), but they were welcoming and let us use their pots to cook over an open fire. Before we even had our tent set up, no less than three beach thugs had tried to sell us weed and local wine, they made their living hustling tourists. We went for a little snorkeling adventure and Fran totally freaked out when we saw a stingray. That night we wandered down the beach and met some nice people who included us in their fresh lobster feast, a first for Kyle

02 Main Square - Tikal Ruins

. Among the group were two Swedes and we had a great time discussing hockey, the Sedins, and Naslund. We went with them for a fun night of drinking and karaoke, where we all embarrassed ourselves singing. The highlight of Placencia was a place called 'The Shak' where we enjoyed fresh smoothies everyday, twice a day.
We left the smoothies behind, and boarded the weekly boat to Puerto Cortez, Honduras. After a bumpy and wet ride, we arrived and were told the immigration officer would come in five minutes to give us our entrance stamp. Over an hour passed before someone told us the officer wasn't coming, and we would have to go downtown. We lined up at the immigration office, filled out the forms, and discovered they didn't have the stamp.ĦHow could they not have an entrance stamp! The officer with the ONE stamp was at a cruise ship stamping thousands of passports. After waiting a few more hours for her return, we barely made a 4:00 bus to San Pedro Sula, where we again barely made a bus to La Ceiba. This was a long day...
From La Ceiba we took an early boat ride from hell to the island of Utila. The ride was extremely rough, people were fainting and throwing up all around us. Needless to say we were very happy to arrive on Utila. Today we are starting our advanced open water dive course, with a dive this afternoon, and later a night dive. We will stay on Utila for at least a couple of weeks, living with the fish, the rain, and the mosquitoes.

We love you, and really enjoy reading your comments. Keep 'em comin' Please!
Kyle and Fran.

P.S. We have been playing Crib almost daily, and have kept a running tally of wins since the beginning of our trip.

SCORE TO DATE: Kyle 18 wins; 2 skunks Fran 14 wins; 2 skunks

Post your own travel photos for friends and family More Pictures

03 Temple V	04 View from Cockscomb Jaguar Reserve	05 Fran at Waterfalls in Belize	06 Our Campsite - Placencia, Belize
07 The Sting Ray that Scared Fran	08 Kyle Snorkeling!	09 Fran with Ingryne and Our Swedish Friends	10 A Frog Kyle Found in his Backpack
11 Kyle Cutting Onions in Our Apartment on Utila	12 A Small Island Off Utila	13 Thursday BBQ at Utila Dive Centre	14 Justin Doing His Snorkel Test
15 Rainy Utila!

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