Gods and Weavers

After the excitement that was tubing, I have certainly been taking things easy. Stayed for four nights in Antigua which used to be the capital and is a beautiful old colonial town. Had the chance to climb an active volcano but alas my bruises would not allow it. Hopefully will get the chance of more active volcanoes in the months to come. After Antigua we moved into the cold mountains to a little Indian town of Totonicopan. There we got to spend the night with a local family. I stayed with Miguel and Raquel and their two young boys. Miguel is a weaver and tried to teach us how to weave. The weavers of the world have nothing to worry about - I was that bad. It was a great evening and Raquel was the most wonderful cook. We taught Zak (the 10 year old boy) how to play snap and he then taught us a different version of poker! He was a card shark in the making. We could only stay the one night unfortunately, so we packed up and headed off. We moved to Lake Atitlan, which as you can see from the photo is an ugly place. Its surrounded by three volcanoes and takes close to two hours to cross by boat. We crossed the lake to visit Santiago and pay homage to MozzieMan. MozzieMan is a local diety who moves around the island staying one month at a time in a different home. He is a god of drinking, smoking and womanising which the locals really do pray to. When we arrived to make an offering a local couple were praying at his feet. He is a lifesize creation, dressed in local costume with a lit cigarrette in his mouth. The cigarette is not allowed to go out and a man attends to it continually, relacing the spent cigarette with a new one. What with the burning incense MozzieMan can only be descibed as a surreal sight. 15 of us made an offering and he was obviously listening as that evening we all went out, partook in a number of drinks and had a very good night. Whats more we were all able to get up the following morning! My time in Guatamala has now come to an end and tomorrow morning we head off to the border and Honduras.

Independance Day

Guatamala is a large country who until 1996 was in civil war. It is still very danagerous in many areas and nearly everyone in the country carries a gun as a matter of course. To answer you Paul, Guat still desputes Belize. In fact on some maps Belize doesn´t even exsist, it is all Guatamala. Whenever domestic political isssues become heated the Government raises the Belize issue to divert attention from their unpopularity. We got into the country in time for independence day - 15th September. The day before we passed loads of brightly coloured chicken buses full of teams of teenage school children. They all had someone running in front of them carrying what looked like an olympic torch. They run 2K´s each before swapping over. It is also customary to throw water over the runners as they passed through your village. Our truck got stuck in a small village along with around 50 of these buses - we also got covered with water. Very good natured fun. On independance day itself, there was alot of processions and drumming. Each school had a parade with marching bands and majorettes. Every local came out to the main square to watch the handing over of the flag. Again it was a wonderful party atmosphere but I resisted the urge to buy a hat made out of bendy balloons. Wonder how many more national celebrations we came stumble into?

Frights, left right and centre

On the 9th September the border into Guatamala was crossed and we headed off to Tikal National Park. Some argue this is the most impressive ancient Mayan site in the world. This is the view from atop temple 4, the eagled eyed sci fi fans will recognise this as a scene from Star Wars. It was also the location of Endor the Forrest Moon. On Sat Night I climbed temple 4 to watch the full moon and see the moonlight light up the temples. The following morning I arose at 4am (yes I got up at that time) to climb temple 4 again, this time to see the sunrise. Alas due to low cloud there was no sunrise but I did get to listen to the jungle awakening. The noises were very eerie, as if giant beasts lived there but thankfully they don´t. Did see some racoon type animals up close and saw the monkeys swinging through the treetops. Not content with climbing temple 4 twice, temples 1 and 2 and the temple of the lost world I approached temple 5. This has only recently been excavated and is only open at weekends due to the archeologists still working on it during the week. Didn´t look too steep from the front but it is unsafe to climb so they have built open wooden steps up it, around the corner. From below they looked liked normal steps. Pretty soon it became apparant that they were ridiculously steep and extremely scary. They were practically vertical. After willing myself to the top I inched very slowly along the narrow ledge at the top. The view was impressive but I then had to descend. Almost scared myself to death during the descent. I went down backwards as if I was on a ladder and I went very very slowly. This is temple 1 - the easy small one!

Felt very pleased with myself none the less and was with a proud heart I arrived at the next camp site. This was a lovely place to relax, watch the world go by from the hammock house and enjoy the homemade banana bread. Why wasn´t I content with his? Feeling very brave I signed up to go river tubing (exactly as it sounds - float down the river is a giant inner tube). The poster said not for wimps - that should have warned me. The first hour was very relaxing, bobbing along even though we did go down a couple of minor rapids. The second part is where it got adventurous (bloody scary). The last two nights had seen extreme thunderstorms and as a result the river was not only high but incredibly fast. We were warned that people come back with bumps and bruises. The rocks were extremely sharp and ragged and the current beyond strong. As you have probably guessed, I was the one who came out of the tube and flung headfirst through two rapids (was wearing a safety helmet). It made temple 5 look like a picnic. After being severly battered I had to climb back into the tube to continue the course to the end. The boys had to lift me in and out of the truck to get me home, as my bruises my this point had swollen so much I was unable to move. Bruised and battered but not broken I returned to the hammock. Thats two scary things done in less than a week. Think I will take it easy for the forseeable future!

Bye bye Belize, Hola Guatemala

We leave Belize just as it begins to celebrate its 25th anniversary of independence. Britain declared British Honduras independent in 1981 and it became Belize. The British did keep a large forces regimented over here for a number of years afterwards (thinking of you here Paul), in fact the SAS still come here to do their jungle training. Anyway starting on the 10th September (The Battle of St George's Caye - when Britain beat the Spaniards in the 18th century) and ending on the 20th September (the declaration of independence in 1981) all of Belize is going to be one giant party. The celebrations have already started in many towns and the locals are even more relaxed than they are normally. You have gotta love a country who's national motto's are "Go Slow" and " No pressure, no problems, no worries". We are leaving this carnival atmosphere and crossing the border into Guatemala. Its going to be Spanish all the way now until March!

An Underground Adventure

Thursday 7th September found me trying my hand at another completely new experience. This time it was caving. The Actun Tunichil Muknal Cave (or ATM cave as it more commonly known) is located at the edge of the Belizean Rainforest. The name translates as the cave of the Stone Sepulcher and was a cave used by the Ancient Mayans for religious rituals mainly contacting the spirits, and in the times of extreme drought, human sacrifices to appease the gods of rain and harvests.

We reached the cave entrance after a 45 minute trek through the jungle. Then it was time to don hardhats and headlamps as we plunged neckdeep into the icy cold waters to swim into the cave. Swimming whilst wearing hiking boots is an interesting experience. Once into the main body of the cave we spent the next three hours exploring. Often waist deep in water we were scrambling over rocks, climbing through small jagged opening between rocks, generally getting bumped and scraped. Without the lights on it was bitch black and quite frightening. We encountered some wildlife, alot of bats and a very large variety of spider called the scorpion spider. You wouldn't want to wake up with that monster climbing on you.

The views within the cave were amazing. The formations of limestones over the millions of years were astounding with stalagmites and stalactite's every were you look. What makes this cave truly unique though and the reason National Geographic did a 16 page spread on it is the fact that some Mayan pots and skeletons remain in situ. The reason being that over the hundreds of years since it was last used, limestone has formed around the objects effectively sealing them into the rock floor. The pots were filled with food and drink and left as offerings to the gods. A small piece of the rim of the pot would be broken and this would let the spirit of the pot loose so the Gods and the ancestor's would be able to enjoy the offerings. A similar custom is still going today in Spain and Latin American countries when offerings are left out on the day of the dead (October 31st going into November 1st) We only celebrate Halloween.

To get into the sacrificial part of the cave involved climbing up 5 metres vertically, hauling ourselves up the rockface. This is not easy for those of us with little legs. Once up we had to make the rest of the journey in socks only to avoid damaging the cave any more. Again this was not without pain. The cave floor is not smooth but extremely rugged and sharp. It was well worth it though and to see a complete skeleton in situ is remarkable. It won't be long before this cave is either closed to tourists (It has open been open a couple of years - and only rediscovered and mapped in the early nineties) or more likely it won't be long before unscrupulous operators go in and the artifacts are destroyed. Again this has been a remarkable adventure - that's two in a week. What will I be doing next I wonder...

Borders, boggy spots and beaches

On Saturday 2nd September, we bade farewell to Mexico and Billy our Mexican driver and crossed the boarder into Belize. Belize is a little country the size of Wales that until 1981 was a British Colony, the result of which is that English is the national language. We were greeted at the Boarder by the Dragoman truck which will be our home for the next 6 weeks. It is here that I also got my first experience of bush camping. That is to say we camped in a field with alot of long grass and therefore biting insects with no facilities. The next day we prepared to get going. We all sat on the truck... and the truck refused to move. It turned out the ground was a giant ant nest and the truck simply sank into it. Well after three hours of the boys digging the truck out, it was clear we were going nowhere. We eventually had to be towed out by a JCB digger. Alas the damage had been done. Everyone had been eaten alive by the ants but those who had been under the truck were covered head to foot with ant bites. They resembled a group of decaying diseased people. The next couple of nights were incredibly painful.

We drove to Belize City and caught a water taxi across to Caye Caulker. This is a little island in the Caribbean Sea. It is truly a beautiful place. The Bounty adverts could have been filmed here. The place is tiny, there is one main street which takes 10 mins to walk down and no cars are allowed. The locals drive golf buggies and the taxi service are tricycles with seats for two at the back. After a couple of days doing nothing but relaxing and eating fresh lobster, I decided to be a little more adventurous and went snorkeling. I have never snorkeled before but the barrier reef here is supposed to rival the Great Barrier Reef in terms of wildlife. I was not disappointed.

On our first jump into the sea we came across a herd of manatees. These mammals are a cross between a seal and a sea cow. They are slow, heavy and very docile. They were just milling about around us. One was asleep on the ocean floor underneath us, automatically rising to the surface to breathe every 5 minutes or so. Our second snorkel was in a Marine park were I saw all kinds of brightly coloured fish as well as coral, stingrays, barracuda's and nurse sharks.
Swimming with the sharks and stingrays was not in the least bit scary (and yes I do know what happened to Steve Irwin). After saying that we did keep a bit more distance to the stingrays than we did to the sharks. These sharks were only 1min length and alot more interested in the sardines that the local fishermen feed to them.

The highlight of the trip though had to be the turtle. We had ben searching for a turtle for around an hour and had given up when we spotted one. The turtle is a endangered species and our guide on average only finds one for every 7 trips he does. Once spotted we jumped into the ocean and spent the next 20 minutes swimming along side him. He was an incredible creature and I feel so fortunate to have been able to do it.

With much regret we left Caye Caulker and returned to the truck. The area on which the truck had been parked was rather wet when we arrived due to a recent and long lasting thunderstorm. Unbelievably the truck was bogged again and yes there were alot more ants around. After some rather strong language the JCB digger was called immediately and we were towed out. We have a three day stop over at San Ignacio now. We will all be checking the ground before we park up.

Temples, temples, temples ...ballet

After three days we left San Christobel but not before going to the Sumerido Canyon. The Canyon was amazing, cliffs up to 700 metres towered above us whilst we took a motor boat along the river at the bottom, at stages going through waterfalls. It was a truely breathtaking place plus I got my first glimpse of a crocodile sunbathing in the distance. Our next stop was Palenque. The temple ruins in Palenque are in a jungle setting and the surrounding vegetation is home to howler monkeys. The sounds they made were impressive. In reality they are quite tiny monkeys but to hear them you would assume a monster of preditor proportions was coming towards you. Very eerie. Climbing to the top of the temple in the midday jungle heat was not the easiest thing to do. This was my first real taste of tropical weather. Up until this point Mexico had been a bit chilly - from now on in it only gets hotter!
From Palenque we moved to Merida, the capital of the Yucatan Penisular. Our group decided it was time to do something cultural (instead of the usual of sampling all the local beers). We bought tickets to see the Mexican Folkloric ballet. This as it turns out has nothing at all to do with ballet as we know it. It was a show of all the different regional dances. At one point the dancers in fantastic flamenco-equse costumes were dancing with bottles of tequilla on their head. Don't know how traditional that particular dance was!
Chitchen Itza was the next destination. This is home to some of the worlds most impressive ruins. It always features in top destinations to see. The main pyramid (picture above) is magnificant. The site did live up to my expectations and like the other sites I was looking forward to climbing to the top. Unfortunately this is no longer possible as around 10 months ago an American woman fell off and ended up killing herself, because of the law suits that followed no one else is allowed up. As we are very close to Cancun and the big American cruise ships Chitchen Itza was literally overrun with tourists. It was the first time we have encountered other tourists and we had got used to having the sites to ourselves. We will be back off the beaten track before long though.
We did stop at another Mayan site at Tulum. Here the ruins are situated on the beach head overlooking the Carribbean sea. I got very excited at my first glimpse of the Carribbean but more was to come. Our hotel was literally on the beach front. I strung my newly accquired hammock up outside my beach hut and walked the 2 metres through the palm trees into the sea. This place is paradise. I am thinking of you all returning to school whilst I'm lying here watching the world go by.