I just got back from a 15 day trip through Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, which I began and ended in Belize City.
I had the pleasure to spend a couple of days at the end in Placencia. It's not so touristy that fellow travelers don't talk to each other. In fact, if you don't talk, you will be seen as odd.
The snorkeling is wonderful. All hotels are near the beach, if not right on it. The beer is cold. What else is there for resting up after a grueling trip?
http://www.placencia.com/ http://www.mostlymaya.com/Lydias.html Following is my initial report on the trip:
Maya Trip 2001
or
(What I Did After the Millennium Really Began)
It was an interesting journey, though not usually in the sense of the ancient Chinese curse. When I arrived at the Belize City airport on January 4th, I found that the cost of a taxi into town about 11 miles away is $17.50 US. I wasn't about to pay this and did not feel like dawdling for the people waiting around the carousel for their mounds of luggage to see if I could share a ride with some of them.
I headed out and hiked to the highway about 2 miles away. There I got on a bus for $1.25 and made it into town. Once in town, I walked a couple blocks to the bus station where I could get a ride to Cayo to the west.
The choices in buses there were regular and Executive. Although I knew in my heart that this was just another way of showing second and first class, I couldn't bring myself to wait for a deluxe bus when a regular one was about to leave. Of course, the one I got on was just a standard second class one with many stops for anyone along the way.
Eventually I got to my first night's destination, Cayo, which is a small city in western Belize and which is popular with tourists for river trips mostly.
Despite the proximity to ruins at Caracol, El Pilar and Pacbitun, most visitors planning to see actual ruins opt to take tours to Tikal, which is in Guatemala and which has better roads.
My plan was to see Caracol, but it was not to be. Eva's restaurant there is touted as THE place to go for information and arranging trips in Cayo, so I had corresponded with the fellow there by e-mail. However, it turns out that he is not very good with English and that with me arriving on the evening of January 4th and wanting to go the next day, he thought I actually wanted to go on the 4th. He had convinced others to go on the 4th, they had gone and it had not been an easy trip. Although I offered to pay the cost of the minimum two passengers for myself on the 5th, he would do nothing for me then.
I did get to the ruins at El Pilar instead. However, I did not deal with Eva's to do this and will not in the future. I dickered with a cabbie to get there. El Pilar is a smaller ruin site to the north of Cayo. It has very few reconstructed buildings and would not impress someone not interested in the Maya, although it does have a certain "lost in the jungle" feel to it. It also has a commanding view toward the border where one can see Guatemalan farmers encroaching on and taking over Belizean lands.
From there, I arranged for my cabdriver to take me to the border. I knew that there were some stelae in one or the other of the border towns. Based on assurance from my driver, I knew that they were not on the Belize side.
I walked across the border and into Benque Viejo, the border town and, passing up a ride in an empty tour bus, hiked to its park to see the stelae. It was one of those places where tourists do not usually wander.
I got back to the border in time for all the cabs to be gone and most of the minibuses to be missing also. The lack of other travelers also made the idea of sharing expenses with others moot. Fortunately, there was one fellow with a minibus there who wanted a fare and was willing to take me to Flores for $30.
In Guatemala I stayed in Flores for a little over $8. Despite what my guide book said, I was in time for the annual city festival. This involves foosball tables, a lot of ancient and dilapidated kiddy rides, lots of beer and food, and plenty of singing. It's rather fun.One of my favorite activities in Flores is sitting on a lounge chair behind a particular hotel there and watching the sun go down over the lake. I have felt that it was an almost religious experience but it wasn't quite the same due to loud music from a restaurant toward the south. There are, however, other places to watch the sunset and after that, I went to another place for meditation.
I got to Tikal and it was nice, as usual. It is a large and magnificant site in the Petén resion of Guatemala. This time, I was looking for lesser used paths, but most of them had signs warning people not to use the. I did find a lesser used one without such a sign between the Acropolis and Temple IV that is more scenic than the normal causeway and takes a person past a Ceiba tree that is even larger than the one that people walking into the park see. I also saw a rain ceremony, which the people were doing for real, and burning a large brazier of copal incense in the Acropolis between Temples I and II.
Owing to recent reports of robberies of buses and minibuses near Flores, I decided to take a plane to Guatemala City. It wasn't far from the airport to where I could catch a bus toward the hotel right next to the bus station to El Salvador, so I walked and avoided a taxi. Staying overnight was necessary, but I got up for the very first bus toward San Salvador.In El Salvador the next day I got off in Santa Ana and was pleased to find a hotel and Internet access somewhat nearby. There I rented a car for the next day.
The next day, I saw Tazumal, San Andrés and Joya de Cerén. These are minor Maya ruin sites, and there is even a possibility that they weren't Maya, but were influenced culturally by those in the Guatemalan highlands. Joya de Cerén is only interesting because it was completely covered by volcanic ash and it preserved evidence about how ordinary people lived in the Classis Maya era from 300-900 C.E. I did find them all interesting.
I wasn't entirely enthralled with an occasional anti-American yell or comment in Santa Ana, though. I was practicin my smile and response in Russian and worked on a Russian accent in Spanish, but the feeling of unwelcome was great and I left town after one night to return toward the border. I didn't feel like trying for Guatemala that day, so I opted for Metapán.
There was another reason I left too. In the morning when I was going to see the ruins, I noticed that any key would open my door at the Hotel Livingston. I tossed the bag into the trunk, saw the ruins and when I dropped it off at the rental office, a helper there gladly drove me to where the bus to Metapán passes by instead of to a hotel.
Being tired makes even energetic people seem lazy and at Metapán I went to the only hotel I was aware of there, which cost $24. I just didn't feel like walking around any more and I agreed to pay this large sum. Fortunately, they took MasterCard and I put it on plastic. Throughout my trip, aside from Placencia, where I paid around $14 and Guatemala City, where I paid around $11, the room rate I was paying varied between around $6 and $8.
Next, I headed to Honduras to see Copan in Honduras, then to Chiquimula and then Puerto Barrios in Guatemala. After taking the ferry the next day to Punta Gorda in Belize, I stayed there for the night so I would be in position to see the ruins at Lubaantun and Nim Li Punit.
Southern Belize has especially poor transportation and fortunately, but the next day I did not walk as much as might have been the case. In order to get to both I must have hiked 8 miles, not counting walking while in the ruins. These are small sites, but they are pleasant nd are in park-like settings, once a person gets to them. Logistically it was best to go to Lubaantun first.
While at Nim Li Punit, I bumped into a tour group of four. While talking, we realized that one of the couples lives in Wilmington, Delaware, and the wife of the other couple and I both used to live in Delaware.
Although they had come in a van and I had been dropped off from the back of a Ministry of Health pickup truck, they invited me along for their guided tour of that ruin. Afterward they went off for lunch and were to see Lubaantun in the afternoon.
After seeing these sites, I continued on to Placencia and by the time I got there, I was ready for a rest, a beer and a late lunch. I was especially ready for the latter, because it was to be my first meal of the day, unless one counts a small package of cookies.
This resort area is a small village on a peninsula in southern Belize, where no hotel is far from the beach and most are right by it. Although prices are apparently up quite a bit in the last few years, I managed to find a nice place for $14. I must have timed it well, because I got the last room there and a number of others came looking for rooms shortly thereafter.
I like Placencia. When walking down the sidewalk, people are likely to say "hello," and a person would be hard pressed to find a hotel that isn't at least close to the beach. Despite my plans to rest up, the next day I was pleased to find that my feet didn't hurt at all when I walked in the wet sand by the sea. I took off toward a fishing village called Seine Bight, but when I stopped for a beer at a resort � miles from there, I decided to return and take it easier.
The next day, I went with a group to Laughing Bird Caye. This cost $30, but it was for the day and included lunch and drinks. This is a small, narrow island, which is a national park and is surrounded by wonderful coral. It is a delight to spend time there.
On the final day of my trip, I got up early to head out on the 6 a.m. bus, which is the only one bound for Belize City. Even taking it involves transferring in Dandriga, a predominantly Garifuna town to the north.
Fortunately, this allowed me the time to get to a rest room and to order a hamburger to go at a nearby eatery. Back on the bus, I opened the wrapper to find a ham and cheese, but I didn't care; it was food.
In Belize City, I headed to one bus station to find that their last one for the day had left and they recommended another. There I got a 75 cent bus ticket to the airport turn off. Following another � hour walk, I finally got to the desk to check in for my flight. It turned out that my connective flight at Dallas-Fort Worth was canceled, but I got to go on an earlier flight through Miami and to arrive home earlier. No complaints there.
Although I had watched my Belizean money carefully, after lunch and a beer, I still had too many of those dollars. My Miami flight was too soon to stand in line at the airport bank, and no one else would exchange them so I bought a couple bottles of Belikin beer to take home.
The next time I go somewhere, my plan is to spend a couple days at the end really resting. Although that is a resolution I normally make at the end of a trip, next time I really plan to do it.