I'm thinking back a couple of weeks now, but hopefully I won't miss anything important.
Back in Belize we extended our stay in Jose (Belizean) and Carmen's (Mexican) cabana to just over a week. The village of San Antonio quickly became very familiar. Our host family were lovely people and they made us so welcome. It was nice to know that what we spent on food and lodgings were paying for their for kids to go to school.
One of the highlights was swimming in the huge crater-like cenote near the village. It was tricky getting down the steep, jungle covered sides to the waters edge, and I had unnerving imaginings about what lurked beneath the surface. Especially as little was know about the remote circular lake, except that it was supposedly very, very deep. If there was a mystical Jurassic Park type creature still alive today, I felt certain it lived here. Once I'd negotiated the underwater obstacles to get into open water, it became worth the angst. The water felt clean and refreshing, and after swimming away from the waters edge, the 360 degree view of untouched jungle slopes was amazing. We sadly lost the war against the mosquitoes that day. And against the Doctor Flies, Sand Flies, and pretty much everything else that bites and/or looks horrible; but it was worth it. Especially when we collected a fragment of pre-classic Mayan pottery on the way back to the village. Taking it home may technically be archaeological theft, but the stuff was absolutely everywhere. Littering the roadside at an uncovered site we passed. There are more of these sites than it's possible excavate it seems. Discovering just how established the Maya civilisation were in the region has been a real eye opener.
Another excursion worth mentioning was our 3 hour round trip in the back of a truck along unpaved roads to some better known ruins at Lamanai. The ruins themselves were impressive. While being well excavated the majority of the jungle around the temples had been left intact, giving the place a mysterious, authentic feel. Especially as we'd arrived early enough to have the place to ourselves. Here we saw, and definitely heard, a family of howler monkey's. What sticks in the mind perhaps even more however, was the Mennonite community we passed through on the way there and back. They are basically a Caucasian group of ultra conservative Christians. Think Amish without beards, and you are 95% there. I don't know their history exactly, but it seems that some are English speaking, but more so they speak a Dutch/German mish-mash, and all seem to have come from, or via, North America: particularly Canada. Now I've seen Silent Witness (or whatever the film was called), but actually seeing these guys in real life is hard to describe. The men and boys all wearing dungarees and cowboy hats, and the women and girls in long, all-concealing dresses with bonnets, pinnies etc. Their homes and land were spacious and orderly in relation to the rest of the country. Apparently they do not pay tax. Something the Belize government tried to remedy in recent years. However their demands soon subsided when the Mennonites threatened to leave en-mass, seeing as their discipline and hard work has made them the bread basket of lazy, corrupt Belize. We felt like we had been transported in a time machine as we rolled by row after row of pristine horse and carts, outside a large, but simple wooden church. Ghostly faces peered from the windows, seemingly condemning us for daring to drive, in a motorised vehicle no less, through their community on the sabbath. Incredible. Needless to say the set-up looks favourable for the men, who apparently keep the prostitutes of nearby Orange Walk in business, while the women are basically baby, and homemaking machines.
...ok. More weeks have rolled by, and I'm going to have to admit that I'm going to have to be more selective with how much detail I'm able to include. Probably a good thing anyway.
One last thing in Belize worth a mention was riding a rickety bike back into Mexico to visit Carmen's family. What was interesting was that on the way back night fell and Jose told me that we better not use the torch I had brought in case the Belizean border patrol see us and take our 'limes'. I do honestly think it was only limes we were smuggling. Either way, the treacherous starlit cycle through remote tropical countryside, trying to evade customs was quite surreal.
So to Guatemala. Going to really speed things along here. Bus journey long, lots of changing, scary man, beautiful countryside, tuk tuk, arrive island of Flores, Lyndsey motion sickness for several days, my filling out, trip to dentist, visit to Tikal (cradle of the Maya civilisation), amazing, more monkeys, miss bus, lots of rain, tourist bus to village of Lanquin in Central Highlands, crazy driving, breathtaking scenery, beautiful hostel by fast river in picturesque valley, tubing down river with beers, Lyndsey crashing and needing escort, hot sun, make nice friends, visit incredible local waterfall, swim in pools like tropical fish tank, out of this world, bedbugs, new hostel, great views, bus to Antigua, crumbling colonial town, lots of tourists,upgraded digs, lovely Valentines meal, bus to Lake Atitlan.
It's a shame to blast through it like that, but the whole process was threatening to derail, you see?
