Un Cachito

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I recently spent a week in North Central America; specifically Belize and Guatemala. I got back some 8 days ago, but have delayed posting until I can get pictures up. I now admit to myself however that it may be years before I get the pictures up, so I might as well post something now and then some day in the future, I can post some pics. I say years, because if you've been to my home page, you've seen that the photo gallery has been indefinitely under construction.Anyway, the quicky version of the itinerary is this:

• Day 1: Fly to Belize, get picked up and travel to Orange Walk with Lamanai Riverside Retreat.
  
• Day 2: Take river tour on boat down the New River to Mayan ruins of Lamanai, spotting two crocodiles. Walk around Lamanai.
  
• Day 3: Drive to Tikal in Guatemala, stopping at the Belize Zoo and at Xunantunich Mayan Ruins. Get stopped by a Guatemalan policeman who demands $50US to get past road block. Swim in the big and warm Lake Peten Itza, possibly picking up a few parasites. Flirt with the cute Guatemalan girls in Spanish while the non-Spanish-speaking companions watch with envy.
  
• Day 4: Tour Tikal, one of the largest of the Mayan sites. For the LDS/Mormon crowd, some say this was Zarahemla.
  
• Day 5: Take a long and bumpy bus ride to Belize City and the water taxi to Caye Caulker. Meet a couple of very cute British girls. Go swimming alone with the British girls and have a long and interesting conversation.
  
• Day 6: Go on a fun snorkeling trip with Ragamuffin Tours, sharks, tuna, and groupers and get my back crispy-fried. Go back to hotel and very grudgingly ask a guy to apply aloe-vera to the back, then try to not move.
  
• Day 7: Go scuba diving to the Blue Hole, painfully putting the scuba gear on a burning back, proudly going deeper - at 140' - than you're really supposed to go, and having a cool 340' of nothing below you as you're being circled by about a dozen reef sharks; oh - and briefly, but quietly shiver when you hit some big thermoclines because you repeatedly refused a wetsuit.
  
• Day 8: Take the water taxi back to Belize City, go to church in street clothes, get some tasty street food before heading to the airport, probably getting some strange disease in the process, then fly back to SLC, getting home about 1:00 am, exhausted.
  

Overall it was pretty fun, though tiring.Some observations about the countries:

• Belize is levels above Guatemala as far as economy and infrastructure, but still has a long ways to go.
  
• Airport service when we arrived wasn't too friendly, but was ok when we left.
  
• It appears that someone from the first hotel in Belize went on a website spree with my credit card and I had to cancel it and get a new one. Thankfully, my Credit Union caught the fraud and I didn't get charged a cent.
  
• Many, if not most, people in Belize are tri-lingual: English, Spanish and Creole. In Guatemala, most only speak Spanish.
  
• People in Belize are pretty laid back. Don't expect punctuality.
  

Update:

You will see up above that I had some credit card problems while down in Belize. I ended up having a new card/number issued and thought that was the end of that. However, thanks to the global nature of the Internet, this blog entry was recently discovered by those who took care of me in Belize and naturally had some concern. We're currently working to see what may have happened, but in case I misled someone to believe that the Lamanai Riverside Resort was at all to blame, I'll mention that they were great to work with. They were personable and accommodating and I would recommend them to others. Plus, as my experience today shows, they are concerned for the welfare of their clients as well.

Posted by charr at 3:53 PM

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