Islands..to inland...and back again :D

Hey All!

Oker it's been a super long time since I've blogged so hang in there...but tons of awesome stuff has been going down!!

Well Ellen, Eric, and I showed up in San Pedro and went to Ruby's Hotel....not the classiest place in the world but it worked. After we checked in we went to look for food right away! We were starving! After that we lounged around on the beach for a bit and hung around in our room. I was hoping for a hot shower but low and behold....NO HOT WATER! After two solid months of cold showers, and then one hot shower in San Ignacio...I was ticked....I was teased by that one shower! We also didn't have a TV like in San Ignacio so we found up writing short stories to read to one another (wow we are nerdy English teachers) and told each other our favorite legends, etc. It was a nerd evening to be sure but we kept ourselves entertained. That day was election day and at 2 am that morning we heard a huge parade going through town declaring and celebrating the winner....GAH! Those of you that know me know that I hate politics and it was ironic that I escaped the US stuff just to land in it in Belize...2 am parade...not cool. The next day was a laze around day and we just explored the island and did a little bit of shopping. I walked around the island and made friends with some locals that I met, Ellen and Eric chilled on the beach. We met up for burgers and then signed up for snorkeling. The rest of the day basically just involved chilling on the beach and drinking at this awesome place called La Playa....super sweet bar right on the beach with big couches to hang around on. We had dinner at the Reef Restaurant and had another nerd night by contemplating the new Star Wars movies to the older ones....WOW!

OK the best day happened on Friday. We woke up and it was pretty crappy looking outside and we were supposed to go snorkeling at 2....eeekkk!! Well we went to breakfast and hung around town for a bit hoping for sunshine....and it came! We set out for snorkeling as planned. We went to Hol Chan and Shark and Ray alley! I can't even desribe what we saw...it was sooo awesome! At Hol Chan we saw three eagle rays....so beautiful! Two sea turtles...CRUSH! and tons of other awesome fish! At the end we get to just float around and explore by ourselves. Ellen and I were looking at some coral when I look down and there is a 5 ft. moray eel just sitting right below me....GAH! It was sooo cool! After that we went to Shark and Ray alley. We got there and as soon as the boat was parked we saw a big nurse shark come up to the surface....Eric wasn't too excited to get into the water. The guide chummed the water and we had 3 nurse sharks swimming around and about 5 southern sting rays chilling too. One sting ray was over 5 ft. wide...it was HUGE! The guide brought it right up to us with some fish he had and we got to touch it. Ellen was doing some pretty sweet matrix moves to avoid the stingrays's tail...teheh :D

The rest of the day was spent relaxing and we spent the rest of the night hanging out, reading, and just recaping the experience so far. On Saturday Eric left to go home and Ellen and I headed out for Caye Caulker. Caye Caulker is very different from San Pedro....way more relaxed and I think has a friendlier vibe. We checked into Tina's Backpackers Hostel and if you're looking for a cheap place to stay in Caye Caulker....this is it! $10 US a night!! Super funky place too! When we got there, there were mostly people from Germany and Sweden hanging out. It's a great place to meet people. Ellen and I spent the next two days literally sitting on the dock or hammock, reading and talking about our teaching experience and what it will be like to go back to America....we're not looking forward to it...

After a couple of days we were feeling isolated and were not used to just doing basically nothing. We both realized pretty fast that we are not made to be beach bums. So we planned out a trip back to the mainland, specifically Belmopan. So on Monday we headed back to the mainland and after a boat ride and bus ride we wound up in Belmopan, the capitol of Belize. It was a holiday so we had a little difficulty finding a hotel. We wound up at this Chinese hotel and it was....special. We had a room that looked like a prison cell and Ellen and I were both convinced we wouldn't live to see tomorrow...it was so shady... Our taxi driver was the nicest guy and he drove us to the hotel and then drove us to the internet cafe and to a pizza place....such a sweetie! That night we washed our clothes in the sink....super ghetto! It was so funny...Ellen washed hers in the shower...I do believe that it was not really doing that much in the clean area but I didn't argue with her. We got our first hot shower since San Ignacio so for that I loved the hotel. It was so funny staying there and the owners wife yelled all day....just was yelling...in mandarin so Lord knows what she was saying....it was definitely an experience.

Ellen and I called our trusty tour guide, Jiovan, so take us to the ATM cave (Actun Tunichil Muknal) It looked super cool and we wanted to do it. So on Tuesday we got up early and met Jiovan. While eating breakfast he mentioned that we may be taking the tour with some other tourist...no problem for Ellen and I. The night before I was freaking out because Ellen was leaving on Wednesday and I was supposed to meet up with Sam and Lana (two other teachers) but they hadn't emailed me to let me know where they were at....so I could be by myself in Belize for almost a week....NOT good things. So we drive to the half way point to meet up with the other tourists. We walk to the other van and when we opened the door there were Sam and Lana!!!! How crazy is that!!! Fate is a funny fellow! We also met Sam's friend Mike and Lana's boyfriend Eric. The ATM cave was insane! We hiked for an hour, crossing three rivers...intense! Then we got to the cave and hiked, swam through this cave. I mean it was climbing through cracks in the walls and all these rock formations around us. At a certain point we had to put socks on and we saw actual pottery and human remains from thousands of years ago.....TOO COOL! There was a perfect skeleton on the top of this ridge, perfectly preserved, of an 18 yr. old girl. This is by far the coolest thing I've experienced while traveling!! On the way back our guide poked at a termite nest and we ate some termites...they taste exactly like carrots!! Too weird!

That experience took almost all day, we left at 8 and came back to Belmopan at 5. Then Ellen and I packed up and took another bus to San Ignacio. Sam and Lana were staying there and I needed to go there to meet up with them so off we went. That night Ellen and I checked into another special hotel and ate a great Italian dinner, Sam and Lana recommended the place. We were supposed to meet up with the girls later on in the evening but we couldn't find them. Turns out that they fell asleep...LOL. The next day we were heading out to Tikal, in Guatemala. That morning we all got up and had a farewell breakfast with Ellen at Pops. The two best places to eat in San Ignacio are Helens and Pops!

After saying goodbye to Ellen we drove off to the Guatemala border. After getting across we found a guy to drive us to Tikal and back. The drive to Tikal was two hours of very bumpy road but we were in a super comfortable van so it wasn't too bad. We found a tour guide and off we went. Tikal is an AMAZING maya temple in Guatemala! So beautiful and big!! We only saw about 20% of the city and only 70% is actually excavated! So cool! We climbed up one of the temples and when you looked out you could see jungle and the tallest temples peeking out of the jungle :D We also saw toucans and howler monkeys!! :D :D Lots of climbing up and down temples. After that we had lunch and our guide took us Flores Guatemala, that is like an island and the capital of that department. Flores we beautiful and we did some fun shopping! It kinda reminded me of Italy in a way...though they speak Spanish which was different for me coming from Belize. Highly recommend going to Flores Guatemala. We got back to San Ignacio pretty late, like 8:30 - 9, and we found food and then went directly to bed...it was a LONG day :D

The next day we headed out for Caye Caulker. We took a bus first to the Belize Zoo. It is a super funky zoo and if you have little ones I would recommend it. You see a lot of popular animals from Belize and it's in a fun jungle setting. We saw a Harpy Eagle and that bird is BIG!! Crazy looking but very beautiful. There are only 6 or so left in Belize, very endangered. After the zoo we headed to Belize City and caught a water taxi to Caye Caulker.

This is were the fun begins. We had a lot of difficulty finding a room for 5 people....everything was super expensive and none of the hostels could hold us. So after a bit we just checked in at the Rainbow hotel. Throughout all of our looking we had this guy, Bobby, offering us this house for $25 bz per person. We thought he was full of crap and told him no but he is a very persistant guy. After following us for like an hour and a half we finally told him "OK Bobby, we'll look at the house after dinner." Turns out the house is amazing and we rented it for two nights, after our first night. After dinner and looking at the house we went to sing Kareokee...and it was fun. I had to end the night early because my knee was killing me.

The next day we hung around the island and swam at the wedge, which is the local hang out. We also moved into our house, too cool. We ran into another teacher, Eddie! The world is so weird, and hung out with him as well. The island life is pretty fun when you have a group of people. We have just been relaxing and taking it easy. :D It's a tough life all around.

I think that's enough for one blog. I hope everyone is doing well back home and I'll be home in about a week....Yay....and boo all at the same time. Love and hugz to everyone and I'll write again soon!