Belize zoo pics

we are finally home AND we have a good internet connection so I can finally post some pictures and stories!

The Belize Zoo was quite the experience.  None of the animals except for 1 were taken from the wild just to be in the zoo.  They were either injured and cant be released or the we once pets.  The only exception was a jaguar who was killing cattle for several years and was finally caught.  Jaguars are so rare he wasn't killed for being a nuisance, instead he is in a very secure enclosure and is used for education purposes.  They do their best to release any injured animals that can be returned to the wild.

I was nervous about going to this zoo.  I didn't know what to expect.  Would there be animals suffering in small cages or would they be obviously neglected?  I as so relieved to say that these animals are very well treated, have adequate amounts of space, and were very well respected.  There were signs everywhere about NOT harassing, heckling, tormenting, teasing, molesting, bothering, or in anyway disturbing the animals.

If you want to donate to the zoo here is the link.... they receive no government funding at all.

moutain deer

Tapir or Mountain cow

Iguana that was just hanging out...not part of the zoo

Crocodile

A hawk laying on the ground to cool off

Mountain lion

Howler monkey

evil bird that was staring at my toes!

Jaguar sleeping durring the day

owls

oscelot

When looking at the pics you may notice the animals are often sleeping or on the ground, some even appear to be panting.  The reason for this....it was damn hot and at noon.  all the animals had plenty of shade, food and water. 

Belize zoo, lost credit card, water taxi

I thought the internet was bad in the jungle, it absolutely sucks on the island. It worked for one whole evening (wednesday) and nothing  till tonight (Saturday).  Pictures take a month and a half to upload so I may just do it when get home.

Wednesday we headed out from Lower Dover to Caye Caulker.  The plan...the zoo, drive to Belize City, return the rental car, and catch a water taxi to the island.

The reality... head out...realize Chris left his credit card at an ATM in Guatemala two days ago!!!! , cancel said lost credit card after a long hold time with the bank at $2 a minute...get to the zoo late so most of the animals are hiding in the shade (but it was still very amazing), see the jungle on fire at least 6 different times, drive to Belize City, and then catch a water taxi!  All and all a smooth day and here are some photos of the Belize Zoo.  

THURSDAY

Pure recovery day after traveling pretty much straight since Monday.  We explored Caye Caulker, slept in, swam at the Lazy Iguana bar and planned our snorkeling adventure for friday!!!

Life in Mainland Belize

Life over on the mainland  was very slow  and a little crazy and I kinda like it.  Nothing moved fast except for the buses.  People walked everywhere there and there were hitchhikers everywhere.  Every speed bump is a hitchhiker stop.  Locals get very upset when you dont stop and pick them up(hand gestures, yelling, evil eye looks).  If we had a truck we might, but we have a 2 door Izuzu Jimny...basically the 4wd version of the chevy aveo of Belize.  NO Space whatsoever even though it has a back seat which has to be folded down just to put our 2 carry on bags in the storage area.

Driving at night is freaky...no street lights and most people here are very dark skinned.  As a result you don’t see them till you almost hit them. They seem to blend into the surroundings. Horses and cattle are tied on long ropes on the side of the road to function as lawn mowers.  Well most of them are tied, some are wandering. Then there’s the iguanas, gibnuts(think giant guinea pig with spots), and other assorted wildlife just waiting to jump in front of you car.

“Bars” are everywhere. Belekin the national beer(only beer) must give anyone who wants one of their signs a free Belekin beer sign with the “bar’s” name on it.  I’ve seen the “Vietnam” bar, “Happy” bar, “Dis is d place” bar, the “Stop hea” bar, “dis de col one”  bar.  Getting the idea, everyone has a bar with very strange names.

The thing is these are not bars as we know it.  They make most bars in Mexico look glamourous!  Personally I am afraid to go into these bars.  They are nothing more that a shack about a 10x10 room with a single light bulb on and some chairs.  They look more like vendor stalls in Mexico. There are no women in these places, just a few scary characters that I think I will pass on meeting.

There are real bars in the larger towns that were much safer and well, bar like.  Not at all like the “bars” that are around us in the jungle.  I think I will just buy beer at the convenience store and bring it back to the house and drink.  

Mennonites are very common and they come in 2 varieties, the horse and buggy type (also full beards and apparent lack of hygiene...you DO NOT want to be down wind of them) and the driving a truck and ok with some technology varieties. Picture the Amish, now picture a jungle, now picture the Amish in a jungle!  They make AMAZING ice cream!  

All cattle are crossed with Brama cattle, they are the only cattle that will thrive in the heat and nutrient poor grasses of Belize.

All the towns have speedbumps from hell! 

The road back to Belize or how many ways can you try (sometimes succeed) and rip off the gringos!

The road back to Belize or how many ways can you try and rip off the gringos!

To leave Tikal we took a colectivo bus (microbus).  We paid our money to the tourist booth that arranges transportation for people and we were told the bus would be here in about 30 minutes. The booth even gave us a receipt to show the bus driver when we loaded onto the bus. It was cheap and easy or so we thought. We took a little walk and were gone about 5 minute.  When we returned some random man asked us (in Spanish) if we were taking the colectivo.  When we said yes, he told us in Spanish that it was leaving in 2 hours.  Confused, I responded in Spanish that the tourist booth said 30 minutes.  He said no, and then the guy from the tourist booth walked over and said again 30 minutes till the bus left.  We were then directed to wait at a bench in the shade.

30 minutes later the same guy who tried to change our departure time came over and told us that the bus was here and pointed to a van that had been there the whole damn time.  We walked over to the bus and waited.  No one was on the bus and there was no driver.  Slightly confused we looked around until the same jerk walked over to us and asked if we had bought a ticket yet.  We realized this was our bus driver! We told him we had but he insisted that we hadn’t.  He wanted to see out tickets. We showed him our receipt and he said that it was not a ticket.  Mind you this is all in Spanish.  I know my Spanish is not that great but its not that bad either.

Typical colective microbus in Guatemala

Finally the guy from the tourist booth realized there was a problem and walked over to us and straightened  out “Mr. Lets Extort the Gringos”.  Thank you random tourist booth man! What it came down to was he didn’t want to drive just 2 people back to town and waste his gas.  He was hoping to put us off until he had a whole bus full.

After that is was relatively smooth sailing.  We had to change buses 2 more times.  The first time was problem free except for charging us slightly more($.70) that than the stated price and a language barrier that finally got worked out.

The second transfer...well it was well... loco!  After finding the waiting area we waited for the next colectivo.  After 10 minutes a OLD toyota corolla comes to a screeching stop The door said Taxi and had the register numbers in the front window.  There were 3 adults including the driver and 2 small kids in the car.  He told us “Taxi, taxi”.  I replied we were waiting for the collectivo (“esperamos para el colectivo”).  He said “es colectivo”(this is the colectivo).  We told him there wasn’t enough room for us. Then he said something about when the next one would be here and I caught enough that it would be a long wait.  I asked the price for each person and it was sesenta quetzales (60 Guatemalan dollars roughly $9.) It was about a dollar higher than the going rate but whatever at this point it was hot (96 degrees) and humid. The people moved over, kids sat on the adult’s laps, I jumped in the back and Chris jumped in the front. Now there are 7 bodies in a toyota corolla. It was slightly uncomfortable and there was no A/C but everyone was all smiles, very polite and friendly.

not this one but pretty close in condition

Like I said this was an OLD corolla and its very mountainous where we were and the corolla kept starting to overheat every time we started to summit the mountains.  As soon as we would get to the top of the mountain or hill the driver would exclaim “caliente!!! Agua agua!!" and pull over to the side of the road and open the hood.  If there was a market around he would grab a bucket and fill it with water and dump it on some part of the engine...if there was no one he grabbed a bottle of water from the back of the car and poured it on the engine area.  This repeated 4-5 times and the other passengers did not seem bothered at the least.

Apparently this is a pretty common happening in these parts.  I noticed that every market at the top of the hill or mountain had a 55 gallon drum full of water and a bucket to cool the engines of overheating cars!  

By this time the kids in the car had warmed up to us and were practicing their English on us.  Out of nowhere I hear “rojo es red.”  I responded “si.”  After that they were showing off all of their English words.  I even taught them a few words like horse, cow, and cat.  It was really cute!  They would laugh when we would mispronounce words.

When we reached the border the price of out trip skyrocketed to quarenta quetzales (100 Guatemalan dollars or $17 US) per person.  We tried to argue but at this point we were pretty worn out, over heated, dripping with sweat and only 500 feet from Belize. I explained to him we must of misunderstood his prices, paid him him 200 quetzales and headed to the border. We also gave the kids 2 packs of cookies that were left over from our lunch.

Then there were the money changers.  We were approached by some guy who offered us half the price (4:1) of what we paid for the quetzales to begin with(7:1). We passed and then another guy approached and offered us 6:1 and we said okay.  He whipped out a calculator, punched in a bunch of numbers and showed us what he would give us.  Chris immediately realized his fancy calculations still equalled 4:1.Chris told him that’s still 4:1 he smiled and laughed at us.  Chris told him he’s rather give them to our niece as a souvenir than trade with him.

After than we went through customs and headed to belize to catch a bus back to Lower Dover and a much needed shower.  It was smooth sailing the rest of the way. We ate an amazing dinner at Rosa’s Restaurant, grabbed some beers, and headed to bed!

It was a real adventure!

Tikal...a dream realized

Words will mostly fail me on this one.  Its something you will have to see in order to really understand.

Here are the basics.  Our bus picked us up at 5 am in front of our hotel.  The hotel even packed us a lunch which we ate for breakfast.  We got to the park about 10 minutes before the park even opened at 6am.

Once we got into the park we got a private tour guide for just the 2 of us.  We explained to him that we wanted a tour that would let us see wildlife and the ruins.  Carlos took us on a different route than most tour guides and it was incredible.  The wildlife we saw on this less traveled trail was astounding...toucans, spider monkeys, woodpeckers, parrots hawks, lizards, naked indian and horse balls trees, we even heard howler monkeys!  This was all in the first 30 minutes of the tour.

parrots at Tikal

Look its Toucan Sam

Then we got to Pyramid IV.  Pyramid IV is 150 meters high and has incredible views!!!  Because of the alternate path that Carlos took us on we were up on the pyramid with only 2 other people.  It was a perfect zen moment, I felt totally at peace.  Silent except for howler monkey and birds. Mist was covering the tree tops and the sun was hidden from view.  We ate a light snack and climbed down the pyramid.

Pyramid IV from the base of the pyramid

view from the top

We say Many more pyramids but one other sticks out because is was almost a vertical climb to get to the top.  At the top we were all alone again, no other tourists at all!

view from the 2nd pyramid we climbed

We went up and down this almost vertical stairway 

There were many more pyramids, temples and buildings.  Each one was impressive and it was so hard to believe these people were considered primitive.  In my view, they were very advanced and technologically savvy just different than what we think of when we think advanced.

After seeing all the best Tikal had to offer it was time to head home.  It was hotter than I expected and the tourist buses from belize were arriving.  It was time to head out and get on the road.

Thanks Grandpa...I love you!

What Tori (Vickie), Bill, Monica, and Tom were up to or Drunk Story Telling

I thought it would be nice to catch everyone up on what Tori (Vickie), Bill, Monica, and Tom were up to while we were on different adventures.  They didn't take any photos of their adventures so its all dialogue. Feel free if you are some of their firends to comment away...they would love to hear from you!

Disclaimer:
Ok so forgive me if these stories are not accurate.  We just got to the Caye and I am hearing their stories of their adventures.  Also, I wont name names but there are a few intoxicated people here!  Everyone is having fun! I am trying to type s fast as the stories are flowing.  There are multiple stories all at once from 4 people all talking about the same thing.  Its very disjointed and very entertaining.

(As told by everyone at the same time and typed as fast as I could)
On monday they went cave tubing and it was "AWESOME and AMAZING!!!... they had such a great time...  We saw sandy beaches..oh... this is the new cave tubing place...we were the only ones there...you have to lift your butt though and make like a board and scoot....Alot colder than ATM....we disturbed the bats...   So what we actually did was cruise through one of the 9 levels of Chilbalba...we have passed the test...we are that much closer to heaven....  We even did a blood sacrifice.... Me and tommy were in the hole... we would play the game again together....the grand champion team had a lottery and someone got sacrificed."


(After tubing with slightly more sober people telling the story)

We changed our clothes behind the building and then we tried to go eat.  There was no food at the orange pickers.  We found a building at a resort and ate with out guides.  No one was there but us.   The guides were mestizo.  He was a cop in Belize city.  Oh hey Monica...yes baby...that was bad very very bad.     They were speaking creole.  

(After food)

back to the blood sacrifice. " There was a giant mosquito on my head that the guide squished.  There was blood all over his hand.... Bot flies.... use nicotine to get rid of it, just dab it on.... You have to squish out the bot larvae when it dies"


"Then we went to the ferry... you have to be the first one ons.  There were prisoners on the boat, they were handcuffed to the boat.  They didn't get off on Caulker.  There were two uniformed officers, the prisoners were flirting with 2 teenage girls and the girls were teasing them.  It was a nice trip though.  It wasn't as long as I thought....Tiger woods lives on Caye chapel...oh no he doesn't since the divorce".



Q: what happened once you got the the island

ya man huh??  Tell em about getting ripped of at Rosas...everyhting was 5 dollars more than they said the service sucked... the food sucked... the service didn't suck...it sucked....there hasn't been any insect bites on the island...just on the lower extremeties...yeah baby.... I'm drinking booze....I don't have any water. Tori Tori, I need to tell you something **smooches**  she looks really HOOOT in that blue shirt.


We met him and his 2 rotweillers they are sweet.

Q what did you do yesterday(tuesday)?

monica your jewish???


we did a little snorkeling...we did do some snorkeling....we did some planning for today we had Sids, oh my goodness they have the best fried chicken, it was the best we ever had.  The fried conch was AMAZING....When we went snorkeling we saw all kinds of pretty fishes, a barracuda, and a starfish...the water is so clear and so warm AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME...in fact I would say in was un-BELIZE-able.....  Oh and we say that weird little...and we took its picture....its in the raccoon family, it a squash, oh I have a picture.


Hey babe I am going to go and brush my teeth and pass out....  I am going to drink that much more and then pass out.....  I've been nursing on this.


Q: How about today?
WE WENT DEEP SEA FISHING AND CAUGHT A BARRACUDA AND THEN I GRILLED IT DRUNK...IT WAS AMAZING!!!!!!!  I GOT DRUNK.  We caught 2 barracuda and a yellow snapper.... You just got to get used to island time. Island time is REAALLLY slow. Its very strange for Americans used to begin on a time crunch......


Can I run around naked in the front yard??...NO!!!...how about Chris and Colleen's room its not outside??.... really I can't run to Colleen's side of the bed and say  "COLLEEN look what I can do!!!!".....we saw a squash at the humane society...we are going to bring it fruit....they had to sit through picture of out grand baby....   Give me a 22 point cut!


C.R.I.B.B.A.G.E. at least tell people we're playing Cribbage....cribbage is a great game...put in there we are happy chris and colleen have joined us on the island....



Ok, as the author of this blog I am done typing! a house full of inebriated people telling me what they have done over the last 3 days was very very entertaining.  Sorry this hasn't made much sense, it didn't to me either...


And now back to our regularly scheduled programing

Nights in El Remate or Never seen that before moment

El Remate is a sleepy little town about 15 miles from Tikal.  It is situated on the crystal blue Lago.  The hotel manager told us where to eat.  He said the best restaurants in town are the french restaurant and a local place that overlooks the lake and known for their lake fish.  He also said if we go to the local place the fish takes a long time to get the food.

Our view from the restaurant and our hotel.
Can you see the crocodile?

We decided not to have French food in a village in Guatemala, seemed like a bad idea to us.  The local place called Chaui was about 2 minutes by foot from the hotel. The menu was completely in Spanish and had a few helpful pictures(thank god!). After translating the menu to the best of our ability we ordered the grande pescado and carne de palanchador (grilled beef) and 2 of the local beers.

Chickens right off the stairs of the restaurant

Chris and I settled into our chairs and started to watch the sunset.  It was the perfect evening!  Birds and insects were singing, geckos were barking, children playing soccer and laughing below the restaurant, horses were grazing on the banks of the lake, families were together on a pier. Add to this the sun was setting behind the mist and fog covered mountain on the other side of the lake. It so many ways it was a perfect evening.  We had the restaurant to ourselves, and cold beers in hand.  It was a slice of heaven made for just me and chris.

horses at the edge of the lake

Halfway through a meals some Aussies showed up and then two Americans by way of India joined us.  Everyone  was chatting and having a great time.  Then 4 more people showed up. The other Americans tried to talk to them and they barked out NO HABLE ENGLES....with a french accent and promptly turned away from everyone.  It was so perfectly stereotypical I was laughing.  It was as if they were hell bent on pretending they were the first foreigners to find this land and our presence was screwing with their reality.  Oh well, these people were not messing with my perfect night.

After some amazing fried lake fish and grilled beef, and some good conversation we grabbed some beers from the mini mart and headed back to our hotel to get some sleep.  5 am comes pretty early in the morning and we were off to Tikal. The hotel offered a wakeup call and we took advantage of it.  The night watchman comes by at 5 am and bangs on your door to wake you up.

Beer in Guatemala

Oh yeah...the never seen that before moment.  

Yes...we saw this

Motorcycles and dirt bikes are the preferred transportation in El Remate.  As we were walking back to our hotel a  motorcycle stops to make a turn and we notice two young women riding the bike.  The woman in the back is holding an infant all swaddled in a green blanket. No helmets, no car seat, do doors, no problem!

The other never seen that moment....three people on a motorcycle, apparently it was the express bus for the evening.

Guatemala, taxis, and very bad roads

Belize speaks English, Guatemala Spanish ONLY, no habla engles!  Our first order of business is going through immigration but before we get there we are approached by James the taxi driver/immigration helper/translator/can even import your car if you want to guy.  We didn’t need help at the border but he was hell bent on helping us in an attempt to use him as a taxi.  After much negotiation we settled on a reasonable (still overpriced but hey aren't ALL gringos are loaded) price to go the 2 hours to El Remate for the night.

James who was really Jaime loaded us into his Toyota Corolla,  that’s the only vehicle on the road here I swear!  It was pretty well maintained and even had A/C (if A/C on low for 2 hours in 96 degree weather with an obscene amount of humidity counts).

Jame's Corolla was much nicer than this one!

His english was very decent and he liked to talk. He was educated in Belize when he was younger, has 1 daughter, had is car for 2 years, toyotas are best in guatemala because they are easy to repair, etc etc.

The road to El Remate is great and then VERY bad.  All of the sudden a nasty dirt road appears and our taxi practically comes to a standstill. My first thought... Oh Shit we are getting mugged, murdered, or dropped in the middle of nowhere without our money or id.  My mom was right guatemala was a BAD idea!!  

Nope just a bad bad bad road, just slowing down to avoid the wear and tear on his Corolla.

Then a police checkpoint(AK's and all but they did have duck tape on them).... repeat of the bad thoughts, crap I’m gonna die.  Nope just a standard guatemalan checkpoint.

So not my picture, no way would I photograph a guatemalan chechpoint!

Slowly the villages start to pop up here and there and every time we slowed down for a speed bump I was a little nervous and scared, thought we might die and then we were through the village.

Soon lakes started to appear and then we arrived at El Remate.  We had told James we were staying at Don David’s but we really had no idea or any reservations.  We were just winging it in El Remate.

view from El Remate

Up next... Nights in El Remate  or never saw that before!

Backpacking to Guatemala

Yesterday(Monday) Chris and I split ways with the rest of the group for a couple of days.   They headed to Caye Caulker to enjoy the beach, sun and sand. We decided to backpack to Guatemala to see Tikal.  The group tours were short, expensive, and in the heat of the day. So we decided to go it alone!

First thing we did was only take what we absolutely had to have and would fit into our backpacks.  Translation not much, passports, a change of clothes, toothpaste sunscreen, bug repellent, and a camera.  We parked our rental car at Lower Dover and hoofed it a kilometer to the main road and waited.

Here we go!

Twenty minutes later the chicken bus came by and we jumped inside.  Total cost $6US to get to the border.  The bus was well an experience.  Jam packed with locals and we were the only non locals on the bus.  We stuck out like sore thumbs!  Garifuna and Spanish music blaring above our head. We rode the bus for over an hour to get to Benque where we departed to grab a taxi for the 2 mile trek to the border. The taxi driver was very helpful and told us what would be good prices for the exchange rates and how much it was to cross the border as well as what to expect on the other side.

Exiting Belize was a breeze and then onto immigration in Guatemala, taxi’s, finding a hotel,  and Tikal.

TERMITES TASTE LIKE CARROTS!!!!!!

Yes they really do and I will get to that in a minute!!!

Today we went to Xunantunich (pronounced kinda like shoes don't itch) A Mayan ruin complex about 20 miles from Lower Dover.  We got there just as it opened to beat all the crowds so we would have the whole thing to ourselves!!  Getting there is a little strange.  First you have to cross the Mopan River the only problem is there is no bridge but there is a ferry.  A ferry that is operated with a hand crank.  Some guy has the job of hand cranking a ferry back and cross this river for each car ONE AT A TIME!

While waiting for the ferry you can pick up a guide if you like for the ruins.  WE chose not to but in retrospect we wish we would of.

Crank away ferry man!

To take the ferry everyone except the driver must exit the vehicle and ride the ferry standing next to the car. This way when the ferry sinks they only have to rescue the driver.  I'm serious about that, the guy who runs the crank said so!  Then the guy starts cranking and cranking and cranking.  Then you drive off and up a steep hill. 

Xunantunich was pretty amazing.  Three main pyramids (we summited 2 of 3, not allowed on the smallest one)  The largest one was so high you could see Guatemala from it.  It was only 1 mile away, but hey its Guatemala.  

Main Pyramid the Castillo

 The main pyramid has several reliefs carved into the side that have survived to modern day. It was just breathtaking to be on the top of the pyramid and see all the buildings around the main temple.  Something we have learned is that if you see a hill in the middle of nowhere and its not attached to a mountain its a ruin and they are everywhere!!!  As we are on top of the pyramid with no one else but the 6 of us you can see hills all around.  Each one is a Mayan site.  

Bill having his Zen moment on top the the Castillo

It really hard to put into words these ruins, they are just incredible and overwhelming!

After Xunantunich we went to a medicine walk trail.  Lots of plants, iguanas, 1 snake, butterflies, birds, and a river.  

We went to lunch at Benny's  I had the "black dinner with chicken."  It was so so so good.  It was a soup and it was black, really black.

Look its Guatemala! 

Then back to the house we went only to encounter a forest fire threatening our jungle abode.  There was even a Belezian firefighter bravely fighting the wild fire.   His tool to control the roaring flames.... 2 water bottles.  A sprinkle here and a sprinkle there makes everything ok.

Belezian Firefighter armed with 2 water bottles to combat forest fires!

After we were assured by hostess that all was ok we headed into the compound and took "Madeline's Jungle Tour."

Lower Dover is not legally allowed to advertise the fact that they are sitting smack dab in the middle of a HUGE Mayan ruin system.  The Dept of Archeology is just beginning to explore the ruins and only in the summer when the student labor pays the archeology dept to dig.  So they labor pays them.  The main pyramid here is shorter than Xunantunich but there were more people living here than in Xu.  The other reason they can't advertise in to cut down on looters.  So if you ever want to see ruins on the raw stay at Lower Dover!

So on to the termites!  Madeline our hostess gave us a medical/ruins tour and pointed out everything.  All of the sudden we came up to this 3 foot round pile of dried mud sticking to a small tree.   Madeline who always carries a machete with her starts wacking away at this pile of dried mud, sticks her hand into it and retrieves a mass of dirt clods and termites.  She proceeds to pop a termite in her mouth and says try 'em they taste like carrots.  Personally I'm thinking she's off her rocker then Chris grabs ones and munches away! "Holy shit, they do taste like carrots" says my deranged husband.  Bill grabs a termite and crunches it in his front teeth and laughs as he agrees.

Now I am stuck, everyone else ate a termite and I sure as hell don't feel like eating a termite to see if it tastes like carrots. I know where this termite has been and I don't approve of its lifestyle.  Everyone is looking at me like I am the crazy person for not eating the termite. Its an insect, a despised wood eating insect that probably crawled in god only knows what.  Everything I learned in nursing school is telling me not to eat this.

Well time to man up and grab the termite by the thorax. Guess what it tasted like a carrot. A very small small crunchy carrot.