I don´t really feel like writing right now, lots of cool stuff has happened which i will fill you all in on. I decided i needed to learn spanish before going diving for a few reasons, i got a head cold, i want to see guatemala, and it costs money to go back and forth, so its cheaper to just see it while i´m here, and ahnna was happy i decided to stay with her. anyway, here is the link to our photobucket page with some pics of the things we´ve seen i´ll fill in the story later. miss you all.
http://s277.photobucket.com/albums/kk52/kidd4life/
Friday, March 28, 2008
Friday, March 21, 2008
guatemalan misadventures
so... i'm hungry, i'm hungover and i'm woozy, but i'm posting. last night was pretty awsome, but i got a bit carried away, i think im done drinking for a while. We are currently staying at Los Amigos hostel in flores guatemala. last night I was down by the water with a group from the hostel because they dont alow us to play music late in the hostel due to complaints from the neighbors in the past. these two english kids, i call them the producers because one is studying music production and the other film production, were playing songs on guitar and singing. a few people had bongo drums, and there was lots of rum and gallo(guatemalan beer)involved. the producers names are Dominic and Phil. also present were two sweeds named rasmus and frida, alex and sara who we have been traveling with since barton creek, a kid from quibek canada, and maybe even a frenchman. It was a wonderful night, but Ahnna was not amused when i stumbled in drunk and wet from stepping into what looked just like sand and turned out to be muck about hip deep. so yea, exnay on the locohola-ay for a while.
to back up a bit, after the last post we crossed the border of belize into guatemala and took a minibus strait to tikal. Tikal is one of the biggest ruins in guatemala i'm told, and it did not disapoint. unfortunately Ahnna's memory card for her camera broke so we may have lost our pictures, i'll try and find out later today. I made the major mistake of not taking out enough money in belize and the ATM's this side of the border are always a gamble so we got to tikal with just enough money to pay the minibus driver and then we were flat broke. this is not a mistake i ever recomend anyone making. it ended up costing me maybe 50 us dollars over all because the only way to get money was to eat at the most expensive restaruant and then pay with the card and get cash back(when they were willing to give it too you, which was never at the times I needed it) at a charge of 10% of whatever they give you back and 5% added to your food bill for using a card. we almost couldn't afford to get into the ruins, but Jane, one of our travel mates from barton creek, had a $40 US emergency fund that she loaned us. so things worked out, but barely. Learn from my mistake, when traveling into a new country, do not assume you will have access to your bank account.
In tikal we stayed in hamocks in the camping area for a little less than 10 us a night. the first day we went and did a canopy tour on zip lines. it was fun, but rushed. i expected alot more info about the jungle and maybe a moment at a high point to enjoy the view. instead it was a speed relay of gringos by our guatemalan "guides". We decided to pay for the sunrise tour. We got up at 4.30 am and hiked into the ruins up to the top of temple 4 and watched the sun fill in the vista to the sound of exotic birds and howler monkeys. it was an excelent experience. that being said, i really expected that we would be some of the only people up there that early. as we were waiting with our guide for the last person to join our tour a group of 20 passed us on the way into the park. i thought, 'whatever, its not that many people', and just then a convoy of caravans pulled up and unloaded maybe 100 tourists. On the way into the park i felt the overwhelming ugre to bleet. i was pleasantly suprised however because we got there before the majority of people and got a seat up front and once everyone filled in this mean looking dude with a peice of mohogany through his nose between his eyes gave a very concise speach informing everyone that they essentially needed to shut the F*#$ up so people could enjoy the experience. i almost managed to forget all the people as the sun came up. we ate papaya and doritos while we watched. there was no real sunrise in the traditional sense of seeing the sun itself. but watching the jungle and temples materialize out of the fog and darkness was really quite enjoyable. our guide proved very knowledgeable and told some excelently funny stupid gringo storries.
we left tikal for Flores as soon as we left the ruins. all of us were out of money at this point, but we figured we could just tell the busdriver to take us to the atm when we got here. guess what, it wasn't working. i don't think he had understood that we were depending on it for his payment, but it provided him excelent inscentive to find us one that did work. we walked across the bridge to flores and had a nice siesta(nap) at our hostel Los Amigos. It was alex's birthday so we went in search of good times that night. a couple from humboldt county had heard about an after party on another island, we wandered until we found a boat, it was windy and the water was a beautiful dark turquoise. When we found a boat and told him which island he said it was too windy to go that far. so instead we walked all the way around the island and ended up on the main drag. we went all the way down the main drag to the end of the street where we found a cool looking club. we were frisked on the way in which made me feel safe, i don't mind getting punched by a local, but stabbed i'm not ok with. As it turned out i was in for something far less violent and far more distrubing.
we were dancing and drinking, having a good time. myself and sara went to the bathroom. there was a line. the guy in front of me went in and locked the door. another guy came up at the end of the line and said something like "es para dos" and knocked on the door. dude unlocked the door and the guy from the back of the line went in and turned imediately to the right. i figured he had to go really bad and that there was a urinal on the right hand side. dude from the back of the line came out again and motioned me in. i go in and turn to the right. no urinal. instead, theres a hole in the wall and an exposed virtical pipe. i'm puzzled to say the least, but whatever, i can piss into a pipe if the locals can. I unzip and just as it starts to flow i feel a tap on my shoulder. the guy who was using the actual toilet is seeming to motion me to it. i ignore his first tap, but the second sufficiently stemed my flowage. whatever, i think, i don't want to be rude, not a single alarm bell is ringing in my head yet. as i turn to use the actual toilet the guy reaches for my crotch. now alarms are blaring... "NO" i say and turn away, the man was very unimposing as he again attempted to grab my junk saying "es bien, es bien" or something like that. "No es bien!!! no es para mi, no es para mi!!!" i replied, and as politely as i could i shoved him out the door and locked it. I finished my buisness and left the bathroom. sara told me that outside the guy who had motioned me in had been laughing and making thrusting motions with his hips.
so yea, that was one of the most bizarre experiences of my life. I hope you all get as much of a laugh out of that story as i did.
yesturday was beatifully relaxed and unproductive until our late night jam session. and now i'm recovering and seriously contemplating going to utila honduras with jane to get my advanced open water certification for scuba diving. ahnna would go off with sara since she wants to see more of Guatemala and then we would meet up at lake atitlan in a week or two and head back to belize before returning to utilla where i think i have decided i'm going to go for my dive master certification which will allow me to get a job taking people on dives. but who knows what the future holds. to find out stay tuned, same bat time, same bat channel.
to back up a bit, after the last post we crossed the border of belize into guatemala and took a minibus strait to tikal. Tikal is one of the biggest ruins in guatemala i'm told, and it did not disapoint. unfortunately Ahnna's memory card for her camera broke so we may have lost our pictures, i'll try and find out later today. I made the major mistake of not taking out enough money in belize and the ATM's this side of the border are always a gamble so we got to tikal with just enough money to pay the minibus driver and then we were flat broke. this is not a mistake i ever recomend anyone making. it ended up costing me maybe 50 us dollars over all because the only way to get money was to eat at the most expensive restaruant and then pay with the card and get cash back(when they were willing to give it too you, which was never at the times I needed it) at a charge of 10% of whatever they give you back and 5% added to your food bill for using a card. we almost couldn't afford to get into the ruins, but Jane, one of our travel mates from barton creek, had a $40 US emergency fund that she loaned us. so things worked out, but barely. Learn from my mistake, when traveling into a new country, do not assume you will have access to your bank account.
In tikal we stayed in hamocks in the camping area for a little less than 10 us a night. the first day we went and did a canopy tour on zip lines. it was fun, but rushed. i expected alot more info about the jungle and maybe a moment at a high point to enjoy the view. instead it was a speed relay of gringos by our guatemalan "guides". We decided to pay for the sunrise tour. We got up at 4.30 am and hiked into the ruins up to the top of temple 4 and watched the sun fill in the vista to the sound of exotic birds and howler monkeys. it was an excelent experience. that being said, i really expected that we would be some of the only people up there that early. as we were waiting with our guide for the last person to join our tour a group of 20 passed us on the way into the park. i thought, 'whatever, its not that many people', and just then a convoy of caravans pulled up and unloaded maybe 100 tourists. On the way into the park i felt the overwhelming ugre to bleet. i was pleasantly suprised however because we got there before the majority of people and got a seat up front and once everyone filled in this mean looking dude with a peice of mohogany through his nose between his eyes gave a very concise speach informing everyone that they essentially needed to shut the F*#$ up so people could enjoy the experience. i almost managed to forget all the people as the sun came up. we ate papaya and doritos while we watched. there was no real sunrise in the traditional sense of seeing the sun itself. but watching the jungle and temples materialize out of the fog and darkness was really quite enjoyable. our guide proved very knowledgeable and told some excelently funny stupid gringo storries.
we left tikal for Flores as soon as we left the ruins. all of us were out of money at this point, but we figured we could just tell the busdriver to take us to the atm when we got here. guess what, it wasn't working. i don't think he had understood that we were depending on it for his payment, but it provided him excelent inscentive to find us one that did work. we walked across the bridge to flores and had a nice siesta(nap) at our hostel Los Amigos. It was alex's birthday so we went in search of good times that night. a couple from humboldt county had heard about an after party on another island, we wandered until we found a boat, it was windy and the water was a beautiful dark turquoise. When we found a boat and told him which island he said it was too windy to go that far. so instead we walked all the way around the island and ended up on the main drag. we went all the way down the main drag to the end of the street where we found a cool looking club. we were frisked on the way in which made me feel safe, i don't mind getting punched by a local, but stabbed i'm not ok with. As it turned out i was in for something far less violent and far more distrubing.
we were dancing and drinking, having a good time. myself and sara went to the bathroom. there was a line. the guy in front of me went in and locked the door. another guy came up at the end of the line and said something like "es para dos" and knocked on the door. dude unlocked the door and the guy from the back of the line went in and turned imediately to the right. i figured he had to go really bad and that there was a urinal on the right hand side. dude from the back of the line came out again and motioned me in. i go in and turn to the right. no urinal. instead, theres a hole in the wall and an exposed virtical pipe. i'm puzzled to say the least, but whatever, i can piss into a pipe if the locals can. I unzip and just as it starts to flow i feel a tap on my shoulder. the guy who was using the actual toilet is seeming to motion me to it. i ignore his first tap, but the second sufficiently stemed my flowage. whatever, i think, i don't want to be rude, not a single alarm bell is ringing in my head yet. as i turn to use the actual toilet the guy reaches for my crotch. now alarms are blaring... "NO" i say and turn away, the man was very unimposing as he again attempted to grab my junk saying "es bien, es bien" or something like that. "No es bien!!! no es para mi, no es para mi!!!" i replied, and as politely as i could i shoved him out the door and locked it. I finished my buisness and left the bathroom. sara told me that outside the guy who had motioned me in had been laughing and making thrusting motions with his hips.
so yea, that was one of the most bizarre experiences of my life. I hope you all get as much of a laugh out of that story as i did.
yesturday was beatifully relaxed and unproductive until our late night jam session. and now i'm recovering and seriously contemplating going to utila honduras with jane to get my advanced open water certification for scuba diving. ahnna would go off with sara since she wants to see more of Guatemala and then we would meet up at lake atitlan in a week or two and head back to belize before returning to utilla where i think i have decided i'm going to go for my dive master certification which will allow me to get a job taking people on dives. but who knows what the future holds. to find out stay tuned, same bat time, same bat channel.
Monday, March 17, 2008
Barton Creek Outpost
Apologies to my faithful blog checkers for the duration of time with no posts. Every time i sat down to write i either had to leave because someone was waiting on me, or i just really didn't feel like writing. I'm not in the most writiest (shut up, i can make up words if i want to) of moods at the moment either, but i feel an obligation to fill you in because i really appreciate you all reading and commenting. I just finished the La Ruta Maya post that got interrupted earlier, so read that if it interests you.
This post is about the place that we found to stay down here in lue of MET. Barton Creek Outpost is a little slice of rustic heaven that is owned and operated by a friendly navy couple named Jim and Jacky Britt. They have a beautiful wood built Restaurant right on the water at Barton creek about 150 yards from the Barton Creek Caves, which i have not seen yet, but i hear are worth the trip. They offer Fresh squeezed orange juice, tuna sandwiches, beer, water, and a daily special. There is an awesome rope swing not more than 30 feet from the deck of the restaurant that has been my shower while i am staying there. There is also another rope swing across the creek which is up higher, but requires a treacherous climb to get to. There is camping that is free if you bring your own equipment, and they have some equipment to rent if you do not. Or you can stay on a mattress in the loft or on the deck of the restaurant for 10 Belize a night. They are currently setting up a program for runaway college students to come and volunteer as long as they don't have too many at once. The work includes picking oranges, squeezing juice, sweeping/cleaning the restaurant, lawn mowing with a machete, tending a nursery of tropical plants that Jacky has been gathering from the property, and any other project they need done while you are there. They also like to have help with the kids. Katelyn is about 9, Logan is about 7, and Cyan is 10 months. The work is hard, but you get a place to sleep, 3 meals a day, and all the orange juice you can squeeze and drink for free, and you get money off your beer and liqueur. If you want to just come and stay, we calculated something like $80 belize (40 US) a day for meals and OJ and perhaps a beer. There are plenty of hammocks, and i cant explain the overall relaxing feel of the place. i think i might have to start coming down every winter when it gets grey and nasty in Belingham.
The Mennonites are right up the road and we get our eggs and vegetables from them. for those of you that don't know, Mennonites are like the Amish, but a different denomination. In fact I'm not sure there is any real connection except that both groups don't use technology and look like they are strait out of the 1800's.
One thing that made me very happy when i arrived is that Texas Hold'em has become a major past time here in the Cayo district of Belize. I think overall i am up 15 dollars Belize from when i got here. Mostly we play 5 dollar tournaments. Winner take all.
Last Friday we went on a trip of some of the major sights in Belize with Jim, the owner of the Outpost. It was Myself, Ahnna, Alex, Sara, Jane and Johan. Alex, Sara and Jane are fellow volunteers, and Johan is just a camper. Alex is Greek but lives in Amsterdam, Sara and Jane are from the UK, and Johan is from Sweden. The sights were stunning, but i will not waste words trying to describe them here, i will just post some pics as soon as i am able.
Ok, my blood sugar is getting low. Time to go get some food. Ahnna and i are taking off for Guatemala today, so there should be more posts soon to follow seeing as how we will be doing interesting things and not out at the Outpost where there is no phone or internet.
This post is about the place that we found to stay down here in lue of MET. Barton Creek Outpost is a little slice of rustic heaven that is owned and operated by a friendly navy couple named Jim and Jacky Britt. They have a beautiful wood built Restaurant right on the water at Barton creek about 150 yards from the Barton Creek Caves, which i have not seen yet, but i hear are worth the trip. They offer Fresh squeezed orange juice, tuna sandwiches, beer, water, and a daily special. There is an awesome rope swing not more than 30 feet from the deck of the restaurant that has been my shower while i am staying there. There is also another rope swing across the creek which is up higher, but requires a treacherous climb to get to. There is camping that is free if you bring your own equipment, and they have some equipment to rent if you do not. Or you can stay on a mattress in the loft or on the deck of the restaurant for 10 Belize a night. They are currently setting up a program for runaway college students to come and volunteer as long as they don't have too many at once. The work includes picking oranges, squeezing juice, sweeping/cleaning the restaurant, lawn mowing with a machete, tending a nursery of tropical plants that Jacky has been gathering from the property, and any other project they need done while you are there. They also like to have help with the kids. Katelyn is about 9, Logan is about 7, and Cyan is 10 months. The work is hard, but you get a place to sleep, 3 meals a day, and all the orange juice you can squeeze and drink for free, and you get money off your beer and liqueur. If you want to just come and stay, we calculated something like $80 belize (40 US) a day for meals and OJ and perhaps a beer. There are plenty of hammocks, and i cant explain the overall relaxing feel of the place. i think i might have to start coming down every winter when it gets grey and nasty in Belingham.
The Mennonites are right up the road and we get our eggs and vegetables from them. for those of you that don't know, Mennonites are like the Amish, but a different denomination. In fact I'm not sure there is any real connection except that both groups don't use technology and look like they are strait out of the 1800's.
One thing that made me very happy when i arrived is that Texas Hold'em has become a major past time here in the Cayo district of Belize. I think overall i am up 15 dollars Belize from when i got here. Mostly we play 5 dollar tournaments. Winner take all.
Last Friday we went on a trip of some of the major sights in Belize with Jim, the owner of the Outpost. It was Myself, Ahnna, Alex, Sara, Jane and Johan. Alex, Sara and Jane are fellow volunteers, and Johan is just a camper. Alex is Greek but lives in Amsterdam, Sara and Jane are from the UK, and Johan is from Sweden. The sights were stunning, but i will not waste words trying to describe them here, i will just post some pics as soon as i am able.
Ok, my blood sugar is getting low. Time to go get some food. Ahnna and i are taking off for Guatemala today, so there should be more posts soon to follow seeing as how we will be doing interesting things and not out at the Outpost where there is no phone or internet.
Monday, March 10, 2008
Good Times and Great Eats
So we have successfully completed being support staff for paddlers on La Ruta Maya... I'm glad i didn't get to be that stupid. Maybe with a year of training and alot of pain killers i will be foolish enough to come paddle next year. Jim, the guy who owns and runs The Outpost at barton creek introduced us to his friends: Al and Mary Lee, Tony, Ed, Kieran, and Paula. oh wait, don't forget Sebastian.
Al is referred to by Kieran as the big pumba, he smokes cigars like cigarettes, and drinks rum and coke like no one i have ever known before. Al was the one who decided we were going to be necessary for the support crew which he was heading up. Mary Lee was one of the cooks for the support team, and has earned the nickname Howler Monkey for her voice and willingness to screech and make horrid noises if anyone thinks she shouldn't. Al and Marie lee are from near Winnipeg Canada so they have that Midwest accent that i find so nostalgic.
Tony was one of the paddlers. He is a carpenter and owns his own shop, and seems to be one of the big wigs in town, he wears aviator sunglasses and also drinks rum and coke like no ones business.
Ed was the primary cook, and the food was AMAZING. Ed is an amazing guy from Canada originally, he worked as an ER nurse before comeing to belize to retire. He would get hired to go to an ER that was doing really badly, and bring the crew together and apparently he was really good at it, he had 10 successes out of 12, and some of his crews went from worst in the country to some of the best.
Kieran is Paula's husband. Paula was a paddler. Kieran was the barbecuer. They are snowbirds, which means that they live in Maine during the summer and fishing months, since that is what kieran does(drive a fish truck) and then migrate down to Belize where they live off the grid(no electricity) for the winter months. Paula works in the restaurant industry and is one bad ass chica. She paddled with Tony and Sebastian. She has a beautiful adventurous, indomitable spirit. she and kieran are definitely some of my favorite people i have met so far.
Sebastien is in his early 20's. He lives with Al and Mary lee. He was best described by Kieran as Righteous. He seems to be a true gentleman. He speaks with a slight German accent because his parents were from Germany, but he grew up here in Belize. he works for tony as a furniture maker/ all around carpenter. I hope to have more chances to hang out with him in the future.
The trip itself was amazing. We got to see all the country we had simply bussed through on our way down; with the added bonus of people who have lived here for a while pointing out the major sights and stories.
La Ruta Maya is the largest event in Belize. There were scores of Belizians dancing and partying at every stop along the way. Ahnna and I mostly stayed at to our camp with the people we were support crew for. I don't think it is considered rude for people to stare in Belize, or at least not at the loud obnoxious gringos. I went around shirtless as i am oft inclined to do, and after the second day when some locals made comments or commentary gestures as to how white i was i started to realize that i was truly the whitest thing there; and not by any small margin either. It actually started to make me a bit paranoid. Especially the day that it rained and everyone was in their tents. The people at the next campsite over just sat in their tents and stared out the windows/doors at us under out tarp for maybe an hour strait, perhaps longer(until the rain stopped). Like they were watching TV, though they seemed less amused than your average TV goer.
Anyway, i did manage to gain one massage client. Though i have no idea if i will ever see her again because i only know where she lives and its not like i have my own transportation. anyway... i'm going to start another blog, for more stories about La Ruta Maya, you will just have to ask me when i get back.
Al is referred to by Kieran as the big pumba, he smokes cigars like cigarettes, and drinks rum and coke like no one i have ever known before. Al was the one who decided we were going to be necessary for the support crew which he was heading up. Mary Lee was one of the cooks for the support team, and has earned the nickname Howler Monkey for her voice and willingness to screech and make horrid noises if anyone thinks she shouldn't. Al and Marie lee are from near Winnipeg Canada so they have that Midwest accent that i find so nostalgic.
Tony was one of the paddlers. He is a carpenter and owns his own shop, and seems to be one of the big wigs in town, he wears aviator sunglasses and also drinks rum and coke like no ones business.
Ed was the primary cook, and the food was AMAZING. Ed is an amazing guy from Canada originally, he worked as an ER nurse before comeing to belize to retire. He would get hired to go to an ER that was doing really badly, and bring the crew together and apparently he was really good at it, he had 10 successes out of 12, and some of his crews went from worst in the country to some of the best.
Kieran is Paula's husband. Paula was a paddler. Kieran was the barbecuer. They are snowbirds, which means that they live in Maine during the summer and fishing months, since that is what kieran does(drive a fish truck) and then migrate down to Belize where they live off the grid(no electricity) for the winter months. Paula works in the restaurant industry and is one bad ass chica. She paddled with Tony and Sebastian. She has a beautiful adventurous, indomitable spirit. she and kieran are definitely some of my favorite people i have met so far.
Sebastien is in his early 20's. He lives with Al and Mary lee. He was best described by Kieran as Righteous. He seems to be a true gentleman. He speaks with a slight German accent because his parents were from Germany, but he grew up here in Belize. he works for tony as a furniture maker/ all around carpenter. I hope to have more chances to hang out with him in the future.
The trip itself was amazing. We got to see all the country we had simply bussed through on our way down; with the added bonus of people who have lived here for a while pointing out the major sights and stories.
La Ruta Maya is the largest event in Belize. There were scores of Belizians dancing and partying at every stop along the way. Ahnna and I mostly stayed at to our camp with the people we were support crew for. I don't think it is considered rude for people to stare in Belize, or at least not at the loud obnoxious gringos. I went around shirtless as i am oft inclined to do, and after the second day when some locals made comments or commentary gestures as to how white i was i started to realize that i was truly the whitest thing there; and not by any small margin either. It actually started to make me a bit paranoid. Especially the day that it rained and everyone was in their tents. The people at the next campsite over just sat in their tents and stared out the windows/doors at us under out tarp for maybe an hour strait, perhaps longer(until the rain stopped). Like they were watching TV, though they seemed less amused than your average TV goer.
Anyway, i did manage to gain one massage client. Though i have no idea if i will ever see her again because i only know where she lives and its not like i have my own transportation. anyway... i'm going to start another blog, for more stories about La Ruta Maya, you will just have to ask me when i get back.
Thursday, March 6, 2008
La Ruta Maya
Ahnna typing: ok, I'm tired, it's been a long day, so I appologize ahead of time for the short blog :o).
So as it turns out Chris will not be paddeling in La Ruta Maya. His other team members were not up to tip top condition and therefore decided to bail out till next year. Which personally I think was a blessing even though I'm sure it would have been an amazing expirience for Chris. It will at least save him some money that he would have had to pay to enter the race (which wasn't information given to him before he agreed to do it...:op). So instead we joined the support crew for another team (friends of the people we are staying with at Barton Creek) and will be following along, land side, to set up tents, help cook, cheer them on etc. Which I think will be fun as well. So right now we are at an amazing house in San Ignacio staying the night and tomorrow we head out to camp till Monday. Chris also hopes to gain some money as being the camp massage therapist to all the sore people rowing canoes all day.
So, as said earlier, the whole MET thing didn't work out as planned, but luckily we've got a spot helping out at their friend's place down the road called Barton Creek. It's a really pretty little spot right next to the creek with a swimming hole, a rope swing and some (I hear) beautiful caves up the way a bit. We haven't gone to check them out yet. We are staying in their loft above the restraunt while we volunteer our services as 'landscapers', 'cooks', 'dishwashers', and at times 'sign painters' :o). There is deffinately a lot of work for us to do there as it's pretty much just the family and a couple locals to run the place. We are going to be taking it a day at a time to see if it really works out, and it would be nice if it does. Though personally I'm really kinda dissapointed that I don't get to work with horses and have to substitute it for kitchen work :op. so we'll see. Apparently MET usually needs more help in the summer time when there is less guests and more room for people to be there to help with fixing the place up. And then the 'help' gets to ride more ofton as well because the horses aren't being ridden by guests...so i might be able to wait a couple months for that :o). Ok, that's pretty much what is new for now and I'm sure in about a week or so when we have computer access again (there isn't any out at Barton Creek) Chris will leave a wonderful, detailed post. He's much better at that than I :o). Off to bed soon for me, loves!
Ahnna
So as it turns out Chris will not be paddeling in La Ruta Maya. His other team members were not up to tip top condition and therefore decided to bail out till next year. Which personally I think was a blessing even though I'm sure it would have been an amazing expirience for Chris. It will at least save him some money that he would have had to pay to enter the race (which wasn't information given to him before he agreed to do it...:op). So instead we joined the support crew for another team (friends of the people we are staying with at Barton Creek) and will be following along, land side, to set up tents, help cook, cheer them on etc. Which I think will be fun as well. So right now we are at an amazing house in San Ignacio staying the night and tomorrow we head out to camp till Monday. Chris also hopes to gain some money as being the camp massage therapist to all the sore people rowing canoes all day.
So, as said earlier, the whole MET thing didn't work out as planned, but luckily we've got a spot helping out at their friend's place down the road called Barton Creek. It's a really pretty little spot right next to the creek with a swimming hole, a rope swing and some (I hear) beautiful caves up the way a bit. We haven't gone to check them out yet. We are staying in their loft above the restraunt while we volunteer our services as 'landscapers', 'cooks', 'dishwashers', and at times 'sign painters' :o). There is deffinately a lot of work for us to do there as it's pretty much just the family and a couple locals to run the place. We are going to be taking it a day at a time to see if it really works out, and it would be nice if it does. Though personally I'm really kinda dissapointed that I don't get to work with horses and have to substitute it for kitchen work :op. so we'll see. Apparently MET usually needs more help in the summer time when there is less guests and more room for people to be there to help with fixing the place up. And then the 'help' gets to ride more ofton as well because the horses aren't being ridden by guests...so i might be able to wait a couple months for that :o). Ok, that's pretty much what is new for now and I'm sure in about a week or so when we have computer access again (there isn't any out at Barton Creek) Chris will leave a wonderful, detailed post. He's much better at that than I :o). Off to bed soon for me, loves!
Ahnna
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Picture Post
Txepo and chris & ahnna at villa anna maria.
Ahnna at ruins of Tulum
Chris at Ruins of Tulum
Chris and Ahnna at ruins of tulum 1
Chris and Ahnna at Ruins of Tulum
Chris playing in foliage near Tulum Ruins
Ahnna and Iguana
This one's for you Ben
Chris writing the post at the Lobo Inn in Tulum
Death Game Court at ruins of Coba
Friends from Lobo Inn, from right to left in photo: Lisa, Chris, Tara, Ahnna, Matt... Laura is taking the picture.
Entrance to Cave 1 near Coba Ruins
Chris & Ahnna in 2nd cave near Coba ruins
Chris in the caves near Coba Ruins
Ahnna in the Caves near Coba Ruins.
The Cactus Plaza, Corozal, Belize. They open at 6pm. This is where i met my Belizian love.I'll post some older pics again later... people are waiting on us. Love you all... I'll be out of contact for a while... no internet where i'm going.
Monday, March 3, 2008
Adventures Abound, And there's STOUT!!!!!
Ok, for those of you that know me, you will know that i have a love affair with good dark beers. Like most love affairs its an intense relationship that usually leaves me in pain. After a week of drinking Mexican piss water i crossed the boarder into Belize and was at a restaurant in Corozal and 'Belikin Stout' caught my eye. I ordered one and was soon reveling in the sensation of a dark sweetness rolling over my tongue and down my throat to warm me at the very core of my being.
Anyway, I'll go back a bit and catch you all up. The last installment ended with me sitting at Lobo Inn. Ahnna made our first contact with MET belize (our destination) and the results were not as encouraging as we could have hoped. Arran, the manager and brother of my friend heather, had left town a few days ago to drive up to the states and pick up his parents in texas to bring them back down. The guest Ahnna talked to said she didn't know if there was room for us and told us to call back the next night at 6 when someone who knew what they were talking about would be around. This ment yet another night in Tulum, which while not an entirely unpleasant prospect was bad news for our dwindleing bank accounts. But hey, whats an adventure without a little adversity.
That afternoon Ahnna and I headed to the beach south of the ruins at Tulum. I didn't enjoy that beach as much as I enjoyed the beaches of Cancun because there was a lot more seaweed and ocean debris (Probably because there isn't a multi million dollar hotel industry paying someone to keep the beaches clean) The surf was not quite as fun either, most of the bigger waves taunted me as they broke on the reef at the edge of my view out to sea. I played in the surf for a half hour or so while ahnna attempted to sun herself on the beach. It was a somewhat cloudy day though so we headed back to the Inn pretty quickly. We met a lovely british couple named Matt and Lisa who had just arrived from Belize and swapped travel stories and good locations while they ate dinner. We spent that night polishing off 1 liter of vodka and 3 liters of juice with them and a couple of british girls whome we had met the night before named Laura and Tara. We solidified plans to catch a bus the next morning to the ruins at Coba. One of the germans had told the girls that there were some amazing caves near the ruins where you could snorkle and swim. We were not to be dissapointed.
The next morning we caught a bus in tulum town at 11 and spent the 40 minute ride to coba watching the thuroughly depressing movie 'a map of the world'. It may be a good movie, but we got nowhere near the uplifting finish and so it left me in a bit of a funky mood as we exited the bus into the ghost town that is near the ruins at coba. Mangy dogs wriggled for our attention. The dusty streets with rubble pilled up along the sides put me in the mind of africa. Parts of mexico definitly still count as the third world. On the walk to the ruins there was a lake on our right and we saw a few crocodiles. There was a litte boy throwing a peice of meat on a string to one of them to get it to move for the tourists. We paid 48 pessos to get into the ruins. This seems to be the going rate for zonas arquiologicas. The ruins were quite a bit more impressive than those in tulum, though ofcourse they lacked the attraction of being right on the ocean. There were a few of the rings still in tact from the game that they used to play in mayan times. There is alot of speculation about the rules. There is general agreement that it was played by slaves and conquered people and some think that if you didn't put the ball through the hoop in exactly the way the sun gods would you were disembouled and had your heart removed. Others beleive that if you won you were beheaded because winning proved you blood was better and therefore a more befitting sacrafice to the gods. Either way, sounds like fun. We didn't go all the way throught the ruins since we were there for the caves and you can only see so many piles of rocks before they all start looking the same.
It cost 300 pessos for us to get a taxi to the caves from the ruins since there were 6 of us and the driver had to make two trips, but that price included the return trip, so we felt 5 dollars a peice was a fair rate. The caves were everything we expected and more. We started with the last cave which was a mistake since it far outshone the first. The entrance to both was just a hole in the ground with a relatively steep set of stairs leading down into the darkness. The 10 foot wide entrances then widened into round caverns with lights illuminating stalagtites, limestone columns and beautifully blue water. The water was not that deep in the first cave but when people got into it, the light reflecting off the ripples on the surface caused similar ripples of light on the cave walls and gave a nice ambiance. The Second Cave was almost completely round and had a pizza slice of rock to stand on, the rest was beautiful blue, deep water. There were a few little fish, but the cave waters were otherwise devoid of life. Two platforms on the way down the spiral staircase that allowed us to jump into the water from heights of maybe 25 and 35 feet. Ahnna thinks i'm exagerating the height, but hey, whats a good story without a little exageration. I ofcourse was the only one to jump off of both.
We slept on the way back to Tulum and then walked the 1 or 2 miles back to Lobo Inn, stopping along the way to pick up supplies for dinner. Matt cooked. In addition to being a wakeboarding instructor and construction site supervisor he is also an excelent cook. That night I contacted MET again and talked to Allison, Arran's wife, also not an encouraging conversation, but she said to go ahead and come on down. Needless to say, i was starting to feel a bit shaky about our immediate future, but with nothing else to do.... The next day we caught a bus to Chetumal and then from there a bus across the boarder to Corozal which is where i met my new belizian love, Belikin Stout, which is locally brewed. The boarder crossing was very easy.
One little detail that i didn't mention before because i didn't understand the significance was that when we came into mexico, on our way through customs we had to press a button, at the time it didn't make any sense to me, but whatever, i pressed it. Apparently there is a light that either turns red or green when you press the button and if it had turned red they would have searched our bags. That makes so much more sense than the USA's "random" searches. There was no button for Belize, just some rosta like guards who asked us what we were bringing into their country.
Anyway, We stayed in Las Palmas, a hotel recomended by Matt and Lisa and aquired express tickets to San Ignacio from another hotel a short walk away called The Hotel Maya. If we stay in Corozal again we'll try them instead of Las Palmas for reasons i will get into in a minute. On the way back from aquiring our ticket we stopped at a great little restaurant called Cactus Plaza which is where i found my stout... did i mention there is stout in belize??? I tried two new mexican foods, tostadas and salbutes. I had unknowingly had a breakfast tostada that morning at Lobo Inn Which was an interesting affair. a flat crisp taco shell with beans, a sliced hardboiled egg, and onions topped by a red sauce that reminded me a bit of BBQ sauce only more spicy. Salbutes are a taco shell fried untill it puffs up and then stuffed with the taco stuffing... reminded me of Chalupas from Taco Bell, only MUCH better... and greasier if that is possible. We also met some more people, a retired couple who had been ministers in the church of christ. They had sold their house and most everything they owned and come down through mexico in their car. They are going to retire here in belize and they introduced us to the saying "TIB", This Is Belize, which i originally associate with "TIA" from the movie Blood Diamond, though as we would soon find out, works just as well here.
We slept that night on a matress that made the Lobo Inn seem like luxurious accomodation. I could feel each spring, and any time i rolled over, the bounce would bottom the matress out and my hip would hit the bedframe. I awoke the next morning to what i thought was a distressed belizian woman at the gates screeching HOLA... HOLA... HOLA... It turned out to be a parrot, and i then remembered Matt and Lisa warning us about it, and saying it was a good alarm to make sure we didn't miss our bus which left from The Hotel Maya at 7am. We left the Hotel and caught the bus. On the bus I noticed that I had recieved more bedbug bites in that one night than all my nights in mexico combined. I'm sure that Matt and Lisa meant well by recomending it. If anyone else decides to brave that location, just don't let them give you room 9.
We rode the bus down the coast to belize city and then inland. I got some more reading done on the bus, i've almost finished Alan Greenspans book 'The Age of Turbulence' which i highly reccomend to anyone even remotely interested in economics or the state of the world. We had the bus driver drop us off in Georgeville, which is just before San Ignacio and is the location of the Turnoff to MET Belize. As we exited the bus we noticed a convoy of british army troops were stopped there as well. Apparently they come here for jungle training. After some trouble opperating the payphone we managed to get ahold of the people at MET and a guy named Jake came down to pick us up an hour later. When we got here our reception was less than enthusiastic. Alison repeated what she had said before, she really didn't know where they would put us. So here we sat, in limbo, in the cantina of MET Belize... ... ... no return tickets... ... ... no other real prospects... ... ... Alison mentioned that MAYBE one of their neighboring resourts called Barton Creek might have need of a few volunteers... ... ... after a few hours of floating around feeling useless the guys from Barton creek happened to come by and we met the owner who's name is Jim. He seemed much more enthusiastic about some free help. So it seems we will be staying in Belize after all. Then one of the people with him, I think his name was Sebastian, asked if I had any experience canoeing. I unwittingly said yes, and before you know it I was being talked into being the third member of his team to do "La Ruta Maya" which is "a grueling multi-day canoe race traveling a perilous river route across the country of Belize" 170 miles in 4 days... ummm.... I'm going to die. For more information on my future stupidity visit the following web site. http://www.larutamayabelize.com/main/Default.aspx?tabid=54
So it seems we will have a place here after all, and i will start my stay with quite the adventure. We are staying here at MET tonight, and Jim will pick us up sometime tomarrow pre-noonish. Its been Quite the experience, but hey, TIB!
Anyway, I'll go back a bit and catch you all up. The last installment ended with me sitting at Lobo Inn. Ahnna made our first contact with MET belize (our destination) and the results were not as encouraging as we could have hoped. Arran, the manager and brother of my friend heather, had left town a few days ago to drive up to the states and pick up his parents in texas to bring them back down. The guest Ahnna talked to said she didn't know if there was room for us and told us to call back the next night at 6 when someone who knew what they were talking about would be around. This ment yet another night in Tulum, which while not an entirely unpleasant prospect was bad news for our dwindleing bank accounts. But hey, whats an adventure without a little adversity.
That afternoon Ahnna and I headed to the beach south of the ruins at Tulum. I didn't enjoy that beach as much as I enjoyed the beaches of Cancun because there was a lot more seaweed and ocean debris (Probably because there isn't a multi million dollar hotel industry paying someone to keep the beaches clean) The surf was not quite as fun either, most of the bigger waves taunted me as they broke on the reef at the edge of my view out to sea. I played in the surf for a half hour or so while ahnna attempted to sun herself on the beach. It was a somewhat cloudy day though so we headed back to the Inn pretty quickly. We met a lovely british couple named Matt and Lisa who had just arrived from Belize and swapped travel stories and good locations while they ate dinner. We spent that night polishing off 1 liter of vodka and 3 liters of juice with them and a couple of british girls whome we had met the night before named Laura and Tara. We solidified plans to catch a bus the next morning to the ruins at Coba. One of the germans had told the girls that there were some amazing caves near the ruins where you could snorkle and swim. We were not to be dissapointed.
The next morning we caught a bus in tulum town at 11 and spent the 40 minute ride to coba watching the thuroughly depressing movie 'a map of the world'. It may be a good movie, but we got nowhere near the uplifting finish and so it left me in a bit of a funky mood as we exited the bus into the ghost town that is near the ruins at coba. Mangy dogs wriggled for our attention. The dusty streets with rubble pilled up along the sides put me in the mind of africa. Parts of mexico definitly still count as the third world. On the walk to the ruins there was a lake on our right and we saw a few crocodiles. There was a litte boy throwing a peice of meat on a string to one of them to get it to move for the tourists. We paid 48 pessos to get into the ruins. This seems to be the going rate for zonas arquiologicas. The ruins were quite a bit more impressive than those in tulum, though ofcourse they lacked the attraction of being right on the ocean. There were a few of the rings still in tact from the game that they used to play in mayan times. There is alot of speculation about the rules. There is general agreement that it was played by slaves and conquered people and some think that if you didn't put the ball through the hoop in exactly the way the sun gods would you were disembouled and had your heart removed. Others beleive that if you won you were beheaded because winning proved you blood was better and therefore a more befitting sacrafice to the gods. Either way, sounds like fun. We didn't go all the way throught the ruins since we were there for the caves and you can only see so many piles of rocks before they all start looking the same.
It cost 300 pessos for us to get a taxi to the caves from the ruins since there were 6 of us and the driver had to make two trips, but that price included the return trip, so we felt 5 dollars a peice was a fair rate. The caves were everything we expected and more. We started with the last cave which was a mistake since it far outshone the first. The entrance to both was just a hole in the ground with a relatively steep set of stairs leading down into the darkness. The 10 foot wide entrances then widened into round caverns with lights illuminating stalagtites, limestone columns and beautifully blue water. The water was not that deep in the first cave but when people got into it, the light reflecting off the ripples on the surface caused similar ripples of light on the cave walls and gave a nice ambiance. The Second Cave was almost completely round and had a pizza slice of rock to stand on, the rest was beautiful blue, deep water. There were a few little fish, but the cave waters were otherwise devoid of life. Two platforms on the way down the spiral staircase that allowed us to jump into the water from heights of maybe 25 and 35 feet. Ahnna thinks i'm exagerating the height, but hey, whats a good story without a little exageration. I ofcourse was the only one to jump off of both.
We slept on the way back to Tulum and then walked the 1 or 2 miles back to Lobo Inn, stopping along the way to pick up supplies for dinner. Matt cooked. In addition to being a wakeboarding instructor and construction site supervisor he is also an excelent cook. That night I contacted MET again and talked to Allison, Arran's wife, also not an encouraging conversation, but she said to go ahead and come on down. Needless to say, i was starting to feel a bit shaky about our immediate future, but with nothing else to do.... The next day we caught a bus to Chetumal and then from there a bus across the boarder to Corozal which is where i met my new belizian love, Belikin Stout, which is locally brewed. The boarder crossing was very easy.
One little detail that i didn't mention before because i didn't understand the significance was that when we came into mexico, on our way through customs we had to press a button, at the time it didn't make any sense to me, but whatever, i pressed it. Apparently there is a light that either turns red or green when you press the button and if it had turned red they would have searched our bags. That makes so much more sense than the USA's "random" searches. There was no button for Belize, just some rosta like guards who asked us what we were bringing into their country.
Anyway, We stayed in Las Palmas, a hotel recomended by Matt and Lisa and aquired express tickets to San Ignacio from another hotel a short walk away called The Hotel Maya. If we stay in Corozal again we'll try them instead of Las Palmas for reasons i will get into in a minute. On the way back from aquiring our ticket we stopped at a great little restaurant called Cactus Plaza which is where i found my stout... did i mention there is stout in belize??? I tried two new mexican foods, tostadas and salbutes. I had unknowingly had a breakfast tostada that morning at Lobo Inn Which was an interesting affair. a flat crisp taco shell with beans, a sliced hardboiled egg, and onions topped by a red sauce that reminded me a bit of BBQ sauce only more spicy. Salbutes are a taco shell fried untill it puffs up and then stuffed with the taco stuffing... reminded me of Chalupas from Taco Bell, only MUCH better... and greasier if that is possible. We also met some more people, a retired couple who had been ministers in the church of christ. They had sold their house and most everything they owned and come down through mexico in their car. They are going to retire here in belize and they introduced us to the saying "TIB", This Is Belize, which i originally associate with "TIA" from the movie Blood Diamond, though as we would soon find out, works just as well here.
We slept that night on a matress that made the Lobo Inn seem like luxurious accomodation. I could feel each spring, and any time i rolled over, the bounce would bottom the matress out and my hip would hit the bedframe. I awoke the next morning to what i thought was a distressed belizian woman at the gates screeching HOLA... HOLA... HOLA... It turned out to be a parrot, and i then remembered Matt and Lisa warning us about it, and saying it was a good alarm to make sure we didn't miss our bus which left from The Hotel Maya at 7am. We left the Hotel and caught the bus. On the bus I noticed that I had recieved more bedbug bites in that one night than all my nights in mexico combined. I'm sure that Matt and Lisa meant well by recomending it. If anyone else decides to brave that location, just don't let them give you room 9.
We rode the bus down the coast to belize city and then inland. I got some more reading done on the bus, i've almost finished Alan Greenspans book 'The Age of Turbulence' which i highly reccomend to anyone even remotely interested in economics or the state of the world. We had the bus driver drop us off in Georgeville, which is just before San Ignacio and is the location of the Turnoff to MET Belize. As we exited the bus we noticed a convoy of british army troops were stopped there as well. Apparently they come here for jungle training. After some trouble opperating the payphone we managed to get ahold of the people at MET and a guy named Jake came down to pick us up an hour later. When we got here our reception was less than enthusiastic. Alison repeated what she had said before, she really didn't know where they would put us. So here we sat, in limbo, in the cantina of MET Belize... ... ... no return tickets... ... ... no other real prospects... ... ... Alison mentioned that MAYBE one of their neighboring resourts called Barton Creek might have need of a few volunteers... ... ... after a few hours of floating around feeling useless the guys from Barton creek happened to come by and we met the owner who's name is Jim. He seemed much more enthusiastic about some free help. So it seems we will be staying in Belize after all. Then one of the people with him, I think his name was Sebastian, asked if I had any experience canoeing. I unwittingly said yes, and before you know it I was being talked into being the third member of his team to do "La Ruta Maya" which is "a grueling multi-day canoe race traveling a perilous river route across the country of Belize" 170 miles in 4 days... ummm.... I'm going to die. For more information on my future stupidity visit the following web site. http://www.larutamayabelize.com/main/Default.aspx?tabid=54
So it seems we will have a place here after all, and i will start my stay with quite the adventure. We are staying here at MET tonight, and Jim will pick us up sometime tomarrow pre-noonish. Its been Quite the experience, but hey, TIB!
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