Is it Possible? Did I really make it Belize?!!!

For the past ten days, I had been imagining the last few days of this trip chilling in Belize. And getting there was an absolute dream come true. I LOVE THIS PLACE. We chose to stay on Caye Caulker, which luckily missed having a hurricane hit them the day before we arrived. Instead, it hit 200 miles south, so we just had a little storminess.

We drove into Belize City, which is not cool and is kind of scary, but does have $3 fried chicken and a very interesting mix of cultures. Like Asian and Creole and Jamaican. Fun times. And they speak English, which was a welcome relief. From Belize City, it's about 40 minutes on a "water taxi" to Caye Caulker (which was also like $5). It was so fun watching the water turn from brownish to kind of green to incredible turquoise. 

Caye Caulker is known for being extremely laid back. It's motto is "go slow." And I was so grateful for that. The streets are all sand, and going barefoot is encouraged. But I did, and I cut my toes, so I put my flip-flops back on. 

Out hostel here was totally different and 1000 times better than our one in Flores. And it was definitely owned by a woman. So, for $12 a night, we stayed here:, where we laid on hammocks and looked at the ocean and swam in the ocean and played sand volleyball and had electricity. And while I still didn't have hot water, I did actually enjoy the cool showers here, because they were refreshing and not freezing. Taking one was the first thing I did when we arrived, and it was glorious. 

Here I went snorkeling with sharks and sting rays and absolutely beautiful fish. 
 I completely ruined my little tan I was so proud of by getting completely completely fried. 

I got proposed to by a local.

I had the best limeade EVER. 

I did my laundry at a laundromat at 7am and hung it out to dry. 

I bought rubberbands for 25 cents at the Chinatown Supermarket

I had banana pancakes and watermelon juice for breakfast and was convinced I was in heaven. 

Yes, my feet were dirty. Of course they were.
But this was the water taxi ride. 

You can tell it was a little overcast on our way in.

Khaiah and Eryn

Clean Bathroom!!!

Our room

Land and real estate are incredibly cheap here, and there's a good chance that in the next few years, I might just have a vacation home for you all to stay in with me :-) I hope. really. 

Alone and Dirty in Flores

Following the ruins, Kristin and Melissa flew home out of the town of Flores. Which meant, that for the first time ever, I was completely alone in a foreign country trying to get along with my sad little broken Spanish. Immediately, I needed to call a taxi. I knew I had seen a lot of little red taxis around, but I had no idea how to call one. I asked the security guard. Like this:
"Taxi?"
"ok." He looked around but did nothing.
"Poquito rojo?" (That means little red.)
He laughed and whistled at one for me. Whew!!!
I got in the tut-tut. I was charged about $3 to get to the hostel I was hoping to stay at. They were full. So I called ANOTHER tut-tut who drove me 2 blocks to "Los Amigos," where we had originally planned to stay. I was meeting two other girls from our group here, who had taken the bus from Guatemala City. He charged me $3, too. I was mad, but I don't know how to argue well in Spanish. Dang it all. t
Los Amigos Hostel is hands-down the scariest place I have ever stayed in my life. It cost about $7 a night to stay there. I'm pretty sure it had never seen bleach in it's life. Prior to this stay, I liked to think about myself as kind of a hippie. Here I realized that is a flat-out joke. I may dress comfy and be laid back, but I shower far too often, talk too clean, and do not smoke nearly enough pot to be a good hippie. They had hammocks here, that I was excited about from the website, but I wouldn't touch these. At all. At all, at all. My room was basically in the lobby and I shared it with 9 other people. yep. nine. Well, at least I got a top bunk. And I told myself the sheets were cleaned and hunkered down. I am so grateful I can sleep anywhere.
So- the reason I stayed here was that the two girls I was meeting here were extremely cost-conscious. But they were nice, and we actually had a blast, so here we were. And, luckily, for only one night.
We did eat dinner across the street at a place that was absolutely phenomenol. Best $3 taco ever and the strawberry smoothie was the best I've ever had. We also went to a movie theater (not my idea!) and watched Batman in English with Spanish subtitles. It left me thinking that's not such a bad way to learn Spanish.
Breakfast also was incredible. For less than $10, I had granola and yogurt with papaya, mango, and pineapple and scrambled eggs. One girl was a little upset that I had ordered it because our bus was scheduled to leave in 15 minutes, but, um, I was starving, and I had been in Guatemala long enough to know I had plenty of time. Plus, I would have been all kinds of irritable on a five hour bus ride with no breakfast. But I got it to go and we all shared and it was all good :-)

Eryn enjoying her taco. mmmmm......

The place had a cool vibe if it wasn't just so dirty-feeling

Every sheet you see is an entrance to a room......

The incredible breakfast!

Eryn and the cool street outside the hostel

Our LIttle Hotel and Morning Sunrise Tour

So in the Tikal jungle are only 2 hotels and 1 hostel. Apparently it was only legal to build hotels there for 7 years. There is no air conditioning. You get electricity for four hours a day- from 6-10pm. At first, you think, "That's fine. Who needs lights at night?" And you would be right, you don't need lights at night. What would be nice is a fan that spins throughout the night and the ability to charge your phones.  Oh, and hot water. But, no, none of that. The lack of electricity was starting to get to me. My phone was at 10% for DAYS! No A/C, and I was going on 8 days with no hot shower. But we were staying there in the middle of the jungle for the authenticity of it all, and really, it was adorable. Next time, I bring a battery-powered fan!

At 4:30 in the morning, we woke up to go on our sunrise tour. In case I didn't mention it before, I woke up THREE DAYS IN A ROW before 6am. Not my typical vacation. Apparently, waking up this early is necessary to experience all the sounds of the jungle. I wouldn't really know, because I climbed up to the top, found the largest platform possible, and fell asleep. I had been so excited to see a toucan, and I did see one from a distance, but I was so tired I was afraid I would fall off the ruins. The monkey sounds and the view, however, were, in fact, incredible. When you listen to this video, the things that sound like lions are actually howler monkeys. They are completely loud and probably crazy and, well, awesome. Kristin should be e-mailing me a photo of the toucan soon.

Ziplining!!

Overall, their English was not so good in this area. :-)

So I've always wanted to Zipline, but I've never really had the chance. In case you're wondering, Guatemalan ziplining is Cheap. And also maybe not the safest you'll ever do. But it's cool, and it's  through the jungle with monkeys! So cool! Luckily, the girls I was with were also very excited. The guys were very fun and even slowed down on our drive to help me take pictures of the Jaguar signs. And helped us Zipline like "superwoman." There were 8 different platforms, and basically, it was just so much fun!

Off to the Jungle

WARNING: Turkeys ahead!

After all the adventures and hard work in the Polochic, it was off to the jungle to see the Mayan ruins in Tikal. Kristin Shuman lives in Florida, and she, Melissa (from California), and I flew out early from Guatemala City in a tiny plane to get there. (Otherwise it was another 13 hour bus ride.)

MUSHROOMS!

 

The flight was quick, and we instantly drove to our little hotel and were off to tour the ruins. The crazy thing about these was that not-that-many-people go there. Like, there really aren't a lot of rules. Like you can walk up almost everything. And you can touch the hieroglyphics. If you go through the effort to climb up the temple to see them, which almost no one did. It was all so crazy, but just incredible to see.