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Day 9--All-Day Snorkel Tour

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Yesterday most of our tour wanted the All Day Snorkel Tour. The weather held—the trip was a GO, so we had to book at 8 am to get fitted with fins and masks. (For the 10 am sail). I discovered that they had prescription masks. I tried one and LIKED it. (Deposit required). We were in a big sail boat which held the 14 snorklers and 5 crew. Sun came out—sunscreen came out as motored along toward the reef and against the wind for about 45 minutes. At the first stop, we geared up and went over the side (some of us much less gracefully than others, I’m afraid) and once I got the knack of breathing through my mouth, I was ok. The sea was rough though, so waves sometimes got into my tube/mouth, and I had to remind myself that I probably wouldn’t drown. We saw big nurse sharks, stingrays, and sea turtles feeding on the bottom. WOW. One turtle came up for a gulp of air right under Marina and she petted it. Back on the boat, we moved on to the second stop—a channel right at the
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Day 8--Cay Caulker

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We're winging our way home now, so I’d better fill you in on the last 2 days. I haven’t really said much about Cay Caulker. We took a water taxi to Cay Caulker from Belize city on our return from Tikal. It was a really beautiful 45-minute ride through bright blue water, not at all close to shore. When you could see shore, it was mangroves and sandy beaches. NOT developed. On arrival, the crew offloaded our luggage and an oversized golf cart taxi took it up the street to our hotel. We walked. 2 blocks! Cay Caulker Hotel No cars on this island. There are golf carts which you could own but the tourists can rent, and most have bicycles. Cay transportation The roadways, if you can call them that, are limestone with an incredible number of potholes (due to the rain, no doubt). Drivers and bikers weave down the road SLOWLY, avoiding first this pothole and then that one in a sort of serpentine fashion. These potholes are full of limestony water, as rain comes and
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Day 7--Tikal National Park, Guatamala

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When we arrived at the Guatemalan border, we trooped out of our Belizean van and into the Customs office. Ernesto gave us back our passports (he had gone ahead with all of them, and we waited in line to get into Guatemala. Then we jumped on a new bus with a new Guatemalan driver. Two hours later we pulled into Tikal National Park and met the guide (Juan) who would lead us through the forest to the Tikal Mayan monuments. I should back up a bit. There had been relentless, epic rain the day before, and the trip to Tikal was no exception. It was still raining hard when we got to the Park, where we had our first glimpse of the tents we were to sleep in that night. But in the meantime, we were to stash our suitcases at the restaurant/hotel lobby (picture a little forest hotel) and take only what needed in our backpacks for the long hike through the jungle. Including flashlight for the walk back after dark! Pouring rain—off we all set.  Since the rain had been falling for day
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Day 5--Xunantunich & Belizean Birthday (reported on Day 7)

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Right now, it is Day 7, and we have just crossed the Guatemalan border on our way to Tikal. On a bumpy bus and without my keyboard, I will attempt to thumb the events of Day 5. Our group, lead by Ernesto, walked into the centre of San Ignacio to have lunch at a little hut barbecuing chicken. Very inexpensive, very delicious and served with the usual suspects - beans, rice or tortillas. Then we waited quite a while at a bus stop for a “chicken bus” to a Mayan Ruin called Xunantunich about 40 minutes out. The bus let us out at a ferry dock where a teensy hand-cranked ferry took us and about two cars across a teensy river—five minutes at most Then we set off on foot UP HILL and more uphill and even more uphill, (les pouffes les pants) . Oh good! Downhill! Oh damn! More uphill.   But finally we dragged ourselves  Rob and I—as the youngsters didn’t seem to be puffing) to the site of Xunantunich. It is so amazing to see one of these Mayan structures in person after reading ab
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Day 6-- Walk Through Town

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I will get back to Day 5, but first I want to offload some pictures of our walk through town today on Day 6. We are having a relaxing, non-tour day after our exhausting jaunt yesterday.  We had a late-ish brekkie in our hotel and then set off for downtown with camera and binos. Right away, we spotted a pair of woodpeckers on a pole - yet to be identified - but after that, it was primarily beautiful flowering plants, people and places. This house was clearly under construction and not nearly done, but this fellow was lovingly cleaning the glass of this china cupboard. This  was an “everything” store AND hotel.  How handy! Convenient shoe repair around the corner from the hotel. Hansi This is the woodpecker I mentioned earlier. He is Velasquez’s Woodpecker. Velasquez’s Woodpecker. From where we bought an apple turnover - yet to be eaten. From where we bought a slice of pizza. Eaten! Do I hear you saying, “Oh brothe
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