Inland Trips

We are now back from our inland trips. After Punta Gorda, we stayed in San Ignacio, Belize. We had to be split into two groups because for one excursion, there could only be 8 people in the group. On Thursday I was in the Caracol group. The ride there was very bumpy and very long. Before we got there, we stopped at Rio Frio, a small cave. We stopped to take some pictures, touched the sand in the cave and just looked around for a little bit before heading off to the entrance of the park where Caracol was located.

We had to be at the entrance of the park by 9:30 in order to be escorted by the military. Caracol is located about 3 miles from the border of Guatemala and Belize. The really poor people live on the other side of the boarder and would illegally come over and steal a plant that is worth a lot and started to rob tourist. Now that the military travel with the pack of tour groups, this has not happened. We had to leave by 2 in order to get out with the military as well.

Once there, we explored the ruins. They are only 10% excavated on the grounds. We saw lots of mounds that underneath were more of the structures. The first one was a residential area. The second part was the best. We went to a temple. It was really high, the tallest structure in Belize, and we got to climb it. That was definatly a workout. A little boy said it was 97 steps all the way to the top. We enjoyed the view for a while before heading  down.

Once we climbed down, we spent some time looking at the howler monkies in the trees. There was a baby and a mom. We had seen them the previous day at the zoo, but it was cool seeing them in the real trees rather than the zoo. Then we explored more ruins and climbed up some of them. We also saw the battle field, which has many different interpretations of how it was played. After we got to enjoy lunch.

 Then we got to go to a waterfall! It was a lot of fun. We first jumped off the little rock, then Tori, Lauren, Jordan and I went for the higher rock. I was really scared but glad I did it. Some guys had to show us how to get up the rocks. I still had trouble and Jordan was pulling me on my stomach up the rock and I ended up sliding on my stomach to get up the rest of the way. Very entertaining to watch I bet. Then it was scary to jump because the guys kept teling us to jump out but eventually I just jumped and it was a lot of fun! Then, we tried to get inside the waterfall. The current was really strong so it was really hard but we made our way to the side of it and held the rocks the whole time and got in it. We hung out there for a while hoping for a picture but never got one. Everyone else was kind of far. After that we left and went back to our hotel and got dinner. Then we just hung out.

The next day we went to the ATM tour. This tour you could not bring a camera with you. It is a wet cave where the Mayans used to burry people and have religious rituals. Inside it we saw all their pottery and broken pottery. We also saw skulls and bones of the people. There was only one full skeleton. The reason you cannot bring cameras inside now is because someone dropped a camera on a skull and now he has a big hole in his head. It was a really interesting tour and we learned a lot. 

We walked through the cave and climbed through it. At one point you would be in ankle deep water then you could we be water all the way to your neck. We had to climb over rocks and through rocks in the cave. We also had to climb a rock to get to the level with the pottery, which was kind of scary because our feet were wet. Then we had to take our shoes off and only wear socks just in case there was pottery in the ground, we did not want to break it. That was kind of uncomfortable walking around in a cave without shoes. 

After this, we ate lunch again and headed back to the hotel in San Ignacio. It was still pretty early so we walked around the town doing a little shopping and just looking around and staying away from the hotel because we had no AC. We also got dinner together and just hung out.

Sunday was Easter, but we left Belize and went to Guatemala! It was only about a 15 minute ride to the border. Then we waited in a long time to pay the exit fee. Then we got our Belize exit stamp. Next, we were in no man's land as our guide collected our passports to get our Guatemala stamp. We got in the van and then got our stamps, THEN we were finally on our way to zip lining. I have never crossed a border on feet before so that was kind of cool.

There were 8 lines for ziplining. The first one, I was going pretty fast and kept spinning and almost went onto the platform backwards, so it kind of scared me fore the rest of the lines, but it was still really fun! Some people tried the superman where you put the harness on backwards and go head first. I was too scared to try it and I am perfectly fine with that. That took about an hour and then we got back in the car to go to Flores.

Flores is a very cute little town in Guatemala. It is an island that is surrounded by a lake. Our guide told us a little bit about the town, and then we were set free for lunch and shopping. We all went to Capitan Tortuga. The waiter did not really speak English, which is common. Their first language is Spanish. A lot of people will send their children to school in Belize though so that they can learn English. Luckily, Kelcey is fluent and helped us all out. After lunch we only had about 45 minutes left for shopping. It was a bad dash, but we all got it done. I think we all could have used about 30 more minutes but that is ok! Then it was time to leave Guatemala.

Catholic Church in Flores that the Spaniards built on top of a Mayan Temple to show that their church and beliefs were more important and better.

Once we got back to the border, we had to get our Guatemala exit stamp and our re-entering stamp for Belize. We got really lucky. The past students have had to go to get their Visa renewed and pay $25 since we are here longer than 30 days. The lady at immigration was really nice and gave us another visa until May 10, so we all saved a trip and money! 

Then we drove back and had our bus driver drop us off at Fuego for dinner. It was Molly's birthday so we wanted to surprise here for dinner. It was delicious and we had a lot of fun. 

After we all went back and packed up our stuff to head back to San Pedro. We were on our own to get back so we got up and took the bus back to Belize City. Then took the water taxi back to San Pedro. Easy trip and now we are back here for the next 12 days until we come home!