new year's eve

we woke up to rain, rain, rain and after breakfast at the bar i choose to skip yoga since there's no instructor in sight.  we flag down a taxi and head to the airport to pick up a golf cart.  i don't want to be reliant on a taxi to get us home after midnight.  also, we can avoid a taxi to the airport tomorrow by taking the golf cart.  we didn't make a cart reservation and the first couple of golf cart rentals we go to are out of carts.  i ask some random girls on the street where we might get a cart and they point across the corner.  sure enough, that rental agency has one left.  it's the crappiest golf cart i've ever seen but it'll work.  we cruise around checking out the island and i think the northern part is the nicest.  we stop in at Aji and make a dinner reservation.  i huddle with some other travelers to see what's exciting for the night.  seems like everyone is heading downtown which is where we eventually end up.

mexico rocks

another beautiful day on the island.  i roll out of bed, into some yoga clothes and head over to the bar.  the regularly scheduled time for the yoga class comes and goes without anyone commenting on it.  we can see the yoga retreat is using the dock platform and there's no Kirsten and no one seems to know what is going on.  a few deep breaths later, or however many breaths you take in 30 minutes, a guy named Scott shows up and says he'll be leading the class.  it's immediately evident that he has a very different style.  his mechanics are good but there is no flow into or out of postures and it makes for an awkward class.  

we'd signed up for an afternoon snorkel to Mexico Rocks and that too was running late.  so late that i was reluctant to go, soon it would be dusk and the water would be too flat to see much, but i went.  the highlight on that short trip was seeing spotted eagle rays and a lionfish.  it reaffirms for me that i'm just not the guided tour type of person.  i hope tomorrow to find someone who would like to kayak out to the reef and snorkel freestyle.

back at our room i chat up another neighbor who i ask for some dining recommendations.  she sends us down the beach to Aji which ends up being our favorite dining spot on the island.  the tables are on sand and scattered over the property providing an intimate dining experience. twinkling lights are wound through the trees and tables are placed in natural looking nooks created by the trees. the food, the wine selection and the staff are the best we found on the island. also, we aren't consumed by flies that covered the bar and table at Akbol. sometimes it's just the little things.....  

there are also casitas on the property which are small one bedroom houses but have kitchen, bath, a/c and rates similar to Akbol.  this is where i would recommend staying for the best value on Ambergis Caye.

we walk back along the beach and pop over to the Palapa Bar which is a bar at the end of a dock just a few properties down from where we are staying.  it's impossible to miss the Palapa Bar as it has a large, garish sign on the roof.  the bar itself seemed skanky but it was here i saw my first shark of the trip.  it was circling the end of the dock in quick circles and it was big.  at least six feet.  i watched for five minutes until it moved away from the dock.

yoga bliss

it's up and over to the dock for yoga.  i've been really looking forward to this and the yoga class is great - the location perfect.  Kirsten is a wonderful yoga instructor and easily leads a class of varying levels.  

just breathing the clean air is bliss but watching the fish and rays off the edge of the dock make it a extraordinary class.  next up, breakfast, then snorkeling!  Akbol gets good reviews for the breakfast food but they are out of some of the basics like orange juice.  i drove through orange groves two hours away so it's surprising they

don't have oranges for juice.  they have 4 - 6 staff working the breakfast bar and preparing food but it can take up to an hour to get food.  the beach bar serves as restaurant, bar and office.  my impression this morning is that the owners and staff seem overwhelmed by having guests.

it feels so good to have my naked feet in the sand and i snorkel around the dock where there are plenty of fish and I spot two large starfish.  i could spend hours in the water but i need to get my laundry into town.  i usually have easy to wash clothes with me so rinsing out in a sink is doable but the jungle clothes have a thick layer of clay in them and it will take a proper washing to get them clean.  

off to San Pedro we go, it's a two mile walk but we hitch a ride from a passing golf cart.  i find the laundry spot and they are quite busy so it'll be two days before i can pick them up.  being in town in daylight gives me a chance to see how much has changed in the 16 years since i was last here.  it's built up quite a bit but the biggest change seems to be the road that runs tip to tip on the island.  the golf carts make zipping about easier but the town is less pedestrian friendly and i spend most of my energy avoiding golf carts.  we stop in at Fido's for a snack and it feels more like a sports bar in the US then a beach bar in the tropics.  the food is good and after a few more errands around town we head back to Akbol.  

we hang out at our room which is clean and comfortable with great ventilation and beautiful folding doors across the front and semi private front porch area.  although small it's very charming but the proximity to the road makes it very noisy and i never sleep really well.  the golf carts run on the road all day and into the night when the bars close.  when we get back, i notice our towels are gone, thinking that odd i ask a passing staff member for clean towels.  the towels never showed up.  it took me several days to figure out they probably didn't have enough towels for all the rooms so it was hit or miss if you got one. 

i chat up the travelers in the next room over and find them delightful.  they give me tons of information about what they've done and where they've been on the island.  there was a yoga retreat arriving so the entire resort was booked out and the staff was over stressed.  they commiserate about the towel situation and give one of their towels to me.  :)  one guest commented that she was disappointed to find out there wasn't a hammock garden as advertised on the website.  


another way the maintenance and management fails is in keeping the shared bath clean.  every time i went to take a shower the soap caked shelf grossed me out.  the space needed to be cleaned more than once a day as the trash bins including the ones in the toilet stalls with used toilet tissue were always overflowing with rubbish.  just grossed me out.


last night as i was sleeping i felt a bite on my foot which i ignored.  when i woke up today my foot was quite swollen although there wasn't a visible bite mark.  i'm covered with quite a few bites at this point so it's just another addition to the jungle bites.

on the trail of mayan ritual sacrifice

we arrived in the dark and left in the dark which ended up being a pattern on this trip. we were up way to early for me but i did not want to miss the early tour of the cave. there was no remote unlock button for the car so when i unlocked the car manually the alarm would sound until i put the key into the ignition. this happened the whole trip and it drove me crazy that i couldn't figure it out. the car alarm wakes up the security guard as well as a huge shepard that comes bounding toward me. i'd parked the car in the gated area of the hotel because crime is such an issue everywhere in Belize. on my second trip to the car it started to downpour so i started running and the shepard now thinking i'm stealing stuff is nipping roughly on my heels.  great way to start the day.

it takes an hour to drive to Pooks Hill in the dark on a rocky, muddy side road and it's hard to spot the signs because they aren't lighted. Pooks Hill was fully booked the night before so we weren't able to stay there but they accommodated my request to join them for their early tour of the cave. at Pooks Hill we meet up with the rest of the group going to the ATM Cave and meet Vickie who is our host while staying at Pooks Hill. Vickie is everything a resort owner/host should be – she stands about 5 feet tall and clearly enjoys talking with the guests – which I am sure involves answering the same questions over and over. we were greeted by name and hustled into the van for the last bit to the trail head. i slide into the front and Vickie jumps into the driver seat. for the next twenty minutes we chat nonstop about all things Pooks Hill and Belize as she expertly navigates the large van through puddles, rivers and muddy hills. she is absolutely delightful. 

at the forest entrance we meet our guide, cover ourselves in bug spray and start the trek into the cave. it takes about 45 minutes and we are moving slowly.  there are three river crossings, the first is chest high in slow moving water with a sandy bottom, the next two crossings are thigh high but faster moving with rocky bottoms. there's an eight year old with our group and she does as good or better than the adults. at the entrance to the cave there's open sided thatched hut where you can leave anything restricted from the cave.

the entrance is a spectacular lagoon with clear water and as i face the cave there's a tingling that's excitement and anticipation and foreboding that i will be walking where for hundreds of years the Maya went for their sacrificial rituals.

there's a very short swim [about 30 feet] through the entrance to reach a ledge inside the cave where we check lights and little one scrambles after the guide fearlessly. as i watch her i know if she can make it so will i.

from the entrance it's ¾ of a mile walking, swimming and spider crawling though all size caverns that are incredibly beautiful. we are the first ones into the cave and our guide, Patrick, takes time to acclimate us to the dark and talk about the Mayan history and geology of the cave. we scramble up one last set of boulders and are inside the main sacrificial chamber. the chamber is as big as a football field and filled with artifacts. 

what makes this an amazing experience is to see the artifacts in the context of which they were used rather than sitting on a shelf in a museum. Patrick, who has some Mayan blood, brings a solemnity to the chamber that respects the artifacts that remain here.  up a ladder and into the farthest part of the chamber is the crystal maiden which is so well preserved by the calcification that it is spooky. 


for me the chamber felt like a reverential and holy place and the journey in was amazing.  for hundreds of years this was a journey made by the maya for their rituals and to see it the way they left it is an exceptional experience.  for days afterwards i had dreams about the monkey pot.

on the way out we passed group after group of incoming tours that lit up the cave and were noisy. i was glad to have taken the advice and spent the time to find the early tour as it added another layer to the experience.

back at the trail head Vicki is waiting for us and instead of riding the long way back she points out a trail that is the back way to Pooks Hill. with directions that in their entirety included, cross the river – go left – walk up through the meadow, we were sure to get lost and we did. not actually lost but we wandered on multiple trails through the jungle until we located the meadow. Vicki had radioed the resort that we were walking so one of the staff met us in the meadow to show us the last trail in and make sure there was a cup of coffee for us.

when i loaded the car in the morning i didn't realize the top of the rum bottle was left unsecured so we ended up with an empty bottle of rum and reeking car. i opened the windows to air the car out, went to explore around the resort and ended up in main lodge where there are hammocks, hummingbird feeders and the bar.  
there is also an excavated archaeological site in the middle of the resort which was once the home for a Mayan family. it has a great lawn and Vicki has a croquet set put up for the guests to use the afternoon we are there but a big tropical rain plowed through and sent us all running for the main lodge.  it was only after the rain i remembered the open windows on the car. ooops

the evening was fantastic with a social hour, where we met loads of fantastic travelers and had a wonderful time swapping adventure stories. dinner was served buffet style in a dinning hall and the food was okay – just not spectacular. the cabana we stayed in was spectacular - a round, traditional thatched roof building with solid screens to keep the bugs out and plenty of windows for ventilation - absolutely delightful. 

this was our first full day in Belize and already i had an incredible experience. there's really no way to be fully prepared to visit this cave and for me the adventure was so much more intense because of the unknown.  this is not a shabbily run tour, the guides were capable, well trained and certified to take tours into the cave.  i left feeling the country of Belize has done an excellent job of immaculately preserving and maintaining the integrity of this holy site for generations of visitors to come.

belize - a proper adventure

mostly a travel day. i woke up at 3AM to standby for an earlier flight since my layover was less than an hour and I didn't want to miss the last flight of the day to Belize.  i checked in and popped over to the gate of the earlier flight. they had a digital sign with standbys listed and there was my name next to 1]. i love United Airlines. i got on which turned out to be fortuitous because my original flight arrived in Texas after my Belize connection was gone. i connected with my friend from London who I had not seen for years.

we celebrated the beginning of the adventure with a glass of wine while we waited for our Belize flight.  as i passed through customs the officer asked how many bags i had and how long i was staying.  i indicated i was in for 10 days and motioned to my one backpack i had with me.  she asked if i'd brought enough clothes for 10 days.  i thought i'd packed alot, a bikini, mask & snorkel.  we picked up the rental which was an two wheel drive SUV. a patriot circa 2011 – i was to develop a hate-hate relationship with that SUV.

immediately we leave for the cayo district with the last half of the drive in the dark. i stop at a supermarket and get a few basics to get us through a few days but there's nothing fresh so it's chips and such.  there are however, fresh limes being hawked outside by some men.  i ask how much and at 10/1$BZ it's hard to resit that's US five cents each.  the men insist i should buy more and start listing all the ways limes can be used including in Belize the women use the then on their lady parts.  i didn't ask  them to elaborate.

it's hard to explain the road conditions in Belize. the major roads are two lane with no center line and no shoulder and lots of potholes. they use speed bumps and roundabouts but no stoplights outside of Belize City. several locals advised that accidents are common and alcohol is usually involved. toss all that together and i'm driving on highest alert.

we find our 'room' for the night. the orange guesthouse which i choose because it was close to the location we needed to be at 6:30AM the next morning. it was also a lonely planet pick which was a surprise because the room was really dingy. it is known for it's food so we waited to eat when we arrived around 7:30. seems like a reasonable hour to eat and we were hungry so we found a table only to be told they were done cooking even though there were two large tables of Mennonites who had not yet been served. we begged and used every bit of charm to convince the server to feed us and finally got cheese quesadillas and some salad. 


we paid high season rates everywhere and so while this room at $50 would have been appropriate the $90 was just too high. we fix a rum cocktail in the room and get ready for the early start tomorrow.