Waking up that day was a BITCH. I'd fallen into our room around 3:30am, a smile on my face and my tights full of sand, and was woken up around 7:30am by the alarm clock going off - we had to catch the 10am water taxi if we wanted to get moving that day, and we couldn't leave the island without hitting up the cat sanctuary! Unfortunately that part was a little disappointing. As all three of us are Crazy Cat Ladies (well, Ashley is crazy about ALL animals, it's Sarah and I who are obsessed with les mews), this was part of the attraction of the island. The place stunk like cat piss and most of the kitties were kept indoors. Not great. Oh well!
Although earlier in the week, I'd made the decision to leave the island early, and join Sarah and Robin for San Ignacio, when the morning to leave came I felt like maybe I'd made the wrong decision - could I leave this island paradise? What the FUCK was I thinking?
Am I ever glad we did though. The whole ride out to San Ignacio (about two and a half hours), I just stared out the window and soaked up every second. We were no longer in a tropical heaven, we were now heading into real life. And I loved it. San Ignacio is a pretty small little town (about 20,000 people), and there isn't much that sticks out about it to be honest, except that it was all beautiful, and once I got off the bus with my backpack on I knew I had to keep going. Our first day there we trekked up the hill to check out Cahal Pech, the 'Little Ruins'. It's nothing compared to what we saw in the following days, but as our first Mayan artifact experience it was pretty incredible. It's what made me start to think I couldn't fly home in two days, without tagging along with Sarah and Robin when they headed to Guatemala.
So I knew I had to continue, but I could see Ashley was dying to get home. I know she had an amazing time on the island, but the hiking around in the sun, and staying in places with communal bathrooms, wasn't really her thing. As I mentioned in my first post, it's weird to see that someone you share so much with can differ from you in these big ways. But to each his own! We'll have to stick to hot beaches and blended drinks from now on when we travel together - mmmmm daquiris.
Anyway! The Cahal Pech trek was Saturday, December 11, and that evening while having drinks at Greedys, we met E, a dude from Seattle who was on a two-week trip, and it turns out he'd just arrived there from Caye Caulker as well. He was there for a couple of days before heading to Guatemala for Tikal. Tikal, Tikal Tikal. Not being one for Mayan history, I'd never even heard of this before the trip. I first heard about it from J, (of the drunken sandy beach adventure), who'd gone there before Caye Caulker. I remembered him saying that watching the sun rise there was fucking amazing. The night we arrived in San Ignacio, a travelling couple were saying it was the best part of their trip. And SArah and Robin were going there once Ashley and I left on Monday. And now I'd met another person going there! FUCK! Soooooo, a bottle of Caribbean rum later, I pulled out my cell phone (I don't even want to think about how much that call cost), and called my airline. A $215 change fee later, I had changed my ticket from Monday the 13th to Friday the 17th. FUCK YES!!!!
That night I had a bit of a panic attack, thinking what the fuck had I done??!!! Extending my trip meant I had to send Ashley home by herself, then travel back from Guatemala to Belize by myself, and either spend the night there alone (NOT a good idea, not a safe city), or decide on another place to stay by myself. Having never travelled alone before, and realizing these weren't the safest areas, I kinda freaked out. Once I woke up though the panic was gone and I was so fucking excited.
Our second day in San Ignacio, Sarah, Robin and I caught a bus to San Jose Succotz to see the Xunantunich ruins. This place blew my fucking mind. We climbed to the top of El Castillo, about 130 feet in the air, with a gorgeous sky behind us and a beautiful landscape surrounding us. Sarah discovered she was kinda scared of heights and kept getting mad at Robin and I for wanting to climb all over everything and sit near the edge, hahah.
These two days of walking and climbing all day in the sun were making me so fucking excited to do the same in Tikal! Monday morning Ashley said goodbye to Sarah and Robin, and she and I bussed back to Belize City so she could catch her plane. We stopped in to pee at the water taxi office and ran into J and his friend T. As I've mentioned before, that water taxi office is fucking popular! Only once was I in there and didn't run into someone I know, and since I only knew about five people there in total (including the three I was travelling with), it's pretty random! Anyway, got Ashley on her place and, after cabbing back to the water taxi (and once again running into J & T), I hopped on a bus back to San Ignacio. Well actually it was San Jose Succotz, we'd decided we'd done all we could in San Ignacio so Sarah and Robin had moved up a little closer to the Guatemalan border and I met up with them there. Found them at a totally beautiful spot called the Trek Stop, with individual cabins and a butterfly exhibit. Didn't have time for the butterflies, but it was a very pretty, relaxed spot. Definitely a perfect spot for traveling hippies, but for one night we enjoyed ourselves.
In the morning, we threw on our packs and walked up to Benque, Belize, and then some dude with Jesus stickers all over his truck offered us a ride and he brought us up to the Guatemalan border. That's it for my Belizean adventure, next stop: Guatemala!
No comments:
Post a Comment