There and back again…

This was to be my last day in Belize City and would be very hetic. I got up early and packed my bag and then checked out of the hostel to be at the kite school for 8:30. The intention was to try and get standing on the board today by extending the lessons from the previous days. The wind was a little low but seemed strong enough. We started of with a 13m2 kite. This was much bigger than the training kites we had been using which was probably a 9m2. We launched the kite from the beach and then Jay had a go with the board to check that the wind was OK. The ease with which he gets on the board and makes it move was amazing. I had much more difficulty, though I could control the kite Ok with one hand and get in the position for the board it was not easy. Jay then decided that we should really have been using the 15m2 kite instead of the 13m2. Though the 13m2 was OK for Jay I was a bit bigger and heavier. This was really annoying though because it took us about half an hour to 45mins to collapse the 13m2 and set up the 15m2, so I lost about a reasonable part of the lesson. Towards the end of the lesson I was able to drag myself partly out the water but the control of the kite at the same time wasn’t quite there. I can’t help thinking that if we had started with the 15m2 I would have been able to get out the water at least for a few seconds. I really enjoyed it though, and I think I will have more lessons at some point in the future. It looks great fun and it is far more portable that windsurfing. We’ll have to see what happens when I get back to the UK and whether I can successfully get more “me time” to do these activities.

I grabbed a shower at the kite school and then walked down the beach to get the noon water taxi to Belize City. The water taxi was quick and direct back to Belize City and it only took just over an hour. When I got back to the water port terminal I popped into a pharmacy to buy some foot powder and asked them whether there was a bus going to the airport as the taxis are 25USD. I was told that I could go to the bus station, about 10min walk an get a bus to Ladyville for about 2BZD and then get a taxi at the junction for about 10BZD. It was easy to find the Bus Station but when I got to the main terminal which I had arrived at from San Ignacio a few days earlier the bus drivers told me that their buses that didn’t stop near the airport and that I should get a taxi. After a while of telling than I wasn’t getting a taxi and I wanted to get a bus they eventually said I could get the local bus from down the street. I don’t understand why everyone things that Tourists are a meal ticket. OK, I have more money than them when I am back in my normal life, but actually when I am travelling I’m probably living on less than they are. That extra 20 USD gets me a bed for a night and some food. I walked a block from the terminal and saw the bus to Ladyville. The bus was pretty direct and though it stopped a few times it made good time to the junction to the airport where I got off and grabbed a taxi up to the airport.

I checked in with TACA. Though I had business class this is one of those airports with no business lounge. It would have been nice to get some free food and drink on my ticket. There was a restaurant on the top level of the building and I ordered a grilled chicken burger. I started counting out some money and the lady at the counter said “I think you’ll need some more money” to which I replied “Well that’s Belize all over!”

Everything was going according to plan. I had managed to get an extra day kite surfing, caught the ferry and made it to the airport. The plan was that I would fly to San Pedro Sula and stay there for a night. I would then get an early coach to Copan to see the ruins and return to San Pedro for the international football game between Honduras and El Salvador 10th June and then head out to the Bay Islands for some diving. It was almost too easy. So when TACA announced that the flight was going to be cancelled due to technical difficulties I could start to see things unravelling. All the people on the flight had to go back through to the check in area, where we told that we would be put up in a hotel for the night. When I got to the check in desk I explained that waiting 24 hours would be unacceptable and that I would be happy if they put me on an overnight coach to Guatemala City I would be happy. The couldn’t do that but they said that there was an flight leaving Belize at 8:00am which would get into SPS at 11:00am, but the flight would leave from the municipal airport, not the international. I said that this would be acceptable as I could get in SPS, drop my big back with Marco and then get a bus to Copan. TACA gave me the alternative flight for free and vouchers for the hotel and for breakfast and dinner, together with 100 BZD to pay for the taxi and the departure taxi. In addition they also said that I could claim the business class ticket to SPS back. I wasn’t sure I was hearing this correct, but on the surface it looked as though I was getting a free flight to SPS and a free night and meal in a hotel! Maybe my luck was changing!

The hotel that TACA sent us to was the Radison in Belize City. I’ve been told by other people that this is the only really nice hotel in Belize City. Some events on this journey have been quite sureal. To think that I had left a hostel in the morning where I was paying 20 USD a night and ending up in a place like this is one of those.

Bella’s Hostel….

The Radison, Belize City…

I grabbed a quick shower and then headed to the restaurant. I had a really nice meal of fillet steak with peppercorn sauce. I had to put 20BZD to the 40BZD voucher but it was a great meal for only 10USD. After the meal I logged onto Wi-Fi connection at the hotel reception and picked up my emails. One was from Opodo stating that one of my flights for the 15th June from SPS to Miami had been refused payment. Phoning my credit card I was told that because I had made two payments to American Airlines on the same day it had blocked one. However because I was phoning out of office hours in the UK I would have to phone back the following day. Why oh why are credit cards not set up to allow you to do this at whatever time you need. Don’t they appreciate that people do travel the world and office hours in the UK is only 1/3 of the day so if you are in a different country the odds are that you will not fall into this timeslot! I would have to do this first thing tomorrow morning. When I was in the lobby I got talking to two guys from FIFA who were travelling to Guatemala for some grass roots programmes. It was interesting to talk to these guys and they mentioned that they had spoken to some people who were involved in 2018. I’m sure someone is on the case with this back home.

This was a really early start. We had to meet at the Dive Shop, Frenchies, at 5:30am so I was up at 4:45am. Normally an early start like this would through out my normal rhythm, but I think travelling I’m just used to getting by on less sleep and waking at crazy times.

I wandered over to the shop and met some of the others divers who would be with us. Nick from the kite surfing was there and his girlfriend and there were 4 Canadian girls, one girl from Cyprus and another guy from Canada, Trevor. We got suited up and set up the SCUBA equipment and then we got underway around 6:15. The Blue Hole is on Lighthouse Reef and is about 2hours by speed boat. The sea was fairly flat but because of the speed and the size of the boat we were skimming across the waves. It was a very bumpy journey to say the least and I feel as though I had whiplash and a bruised arse by the end of it.

We arrived at the Blue Hole and it was great to see that there were no other boats in the area. The plan for the dive was to descend as quickly as possible to 40m to experience the stalactites and ledges. This is where I was not really happy about the dive or dive plan. The lead group just descended so quickly whereas I need time a few minutes in the first 10m to equalise. Trevor was also having problems equalising so we got left behind and had to descend on our own. By the time we got to the thermacline the lead group was on its way back up. In the end I looked at my gauge and bottomed out at just over 30m. I didn’t manage to see that stalactites but because we spent longer above the thermacline we actually got to spend longer with the Reef Sharks.

There were about 4 Reef Sharks, each around 3m length. They were absolutely amazing creatures, so graceful. They swam fairly close to us and I was able to get some good shots. For me the highlight of the Blue Hole was by far and away the Sharks. It would have been nice to see the rock formations and if the dive leaders had just taken a bit more time at the beginning I’m sure both Trevor and I would have managed it. Since doing this dive I spoke to a few other people who’ve done the Blue Hole. One guy did it with Frenchies and he said that they were at 40m after 3mins. Another couple said that there dive leader waited at 10m to group together before making the descent and therefore none of their group had any problems.

The second dive of the day was my favourite of the 3 dives. This was called Half Moon Wall, just off the coast of Half Moon Cay. It was a drift dive so we got in the water and drifted with the current along the wall. The great thing about this dive was the rays.

We saw both Eagle Rays and Sting Rays. Sting Rays are the ones that bury into the sand and Eagle Rays are the spotted ones. This area was so interesting with small canyons linking the top with the wall with amazing sponges growing on them. The wall itself descends to a great depth, as a result we were only hovering around 20m.

We then returned to the boat and had some lunch consisting of rice, chicken curry and fried bananas. There was also a homemade hot sauce made from onions and chillies. It was really nice. By the time we finished lunch we had arrived at XXX island.

This could have been straight out of a Bounty advert and it was a real tropical paradise. The island is a breading ground for Blue Footed Boodies and Frigate Birds. We could see both nesting in the trees from an observation platform. After a short break on the island we headed back to the boat and onto the third dive site.

The third site was called Long Cay Aquarium and it was another drift dive. Though it wasn’t as spectacular as Half Moon Wall it was still interesting with lots of fish. One of the interesting creatures we saw was a star fish that had branched limbs. It almost looked like a piece of coral at first but it was a distinctive star fish and you could see the mouth at the centre. Trevor also spotted a huge lobster hiding under a rock. Unfortunately it was soon time to surface and get back into the boat.

Learning from the journey out, I grabbed a lifejacket so I could sit on it for the way back. This at least gave some cushioning for my poor derrière. The way back was no were near as bumpy as the way out as the wind was at our back but there were several times I was glad of the cushioning.

We arrived back just before 3pm and Nick and I headed to the Kite Surfing school to see if we could get some more time in. Finally we were able to launch the kites and with the board I was able to do some of the drills using the kite and the board. I was getting the hand of moving the board in the water and controlling the site and successfully completely several body drags using the kite and the board. This wasn’t standing up yet, hopefully that would come later. Just as I was getting more practise I lost control and didn’t manage to let go of the bar until the last minute. This keeps the kite at full power and it crashed into the water. As it hit the water it forces out the deflate valve and the kite collapsed. I was really worried at first in case I had caused some serious damage to the kite like bursting the air bladder. Luckily we were able to drag the kite out the water and check it out but it ended my lesson for the day. I had a chat with Jay about the remaining time for my lesson and we agreed that I could probably fit it in first thing. We would start at 8:30am and aim to finish at 11:15am to give me time to get the 12:00 water taxi and get to the airport in time for my flight to San Pedro Sula, Honduras.

In the evening I sorted out my flight to San Pedro Sula for the following day. I had to leave it late because I did not know how my ears would have reacted to the diving. As a result there was only a business class flight for SPS available with Taca. This was fair more than I wan’t to pay for a flight at $400 USD but it was the only way I could get to SPS to have any meaningful time in Roatan.

After sorting out the flights I went for my final meal on Caye Caulker. I had walked past a restaurant a few times and it looked good so I treated myself. It was more up marlet than I usually ate, but what the hell! I had a great meal of chicken and pork faitas in a tropical spicy sauce. I also had perhaps the best cocktail I’ve had so far; a Baileys Colada. I wrote a few postcards at the restaurant and then made my way back to the hostel.

After the problems with the wind last night I was really hoping that the wind would pick up today. It had felt stronger last night at the bar, but unfortunately this wasn’t the case and if anything there seemed less wind today than yesterday.

I could tell that Jay was feeling very frustrated with this, after all this was his business and at this point I thought we may have to abandon the course completely. The weather forecast was predicting the wind would pick up substantially in the afternoon. Again if I had known earlier I could have got a morning dive in. So I headed back to the hostel, sorted out the backups for my laptop and watched a bit more TV. I ended up watching Kung Fu Panda which is such a great film/cartoon. I remember watching this for the first time when I was flying back from Abu Dhabi. It made me laugh just as much the second time!

The wind certainly seemed to pick up in the afternoon and I was hoping to get some more time with the kite and even get to use the board. Jay had another student starting; Nick who was a banker/actuary originally from South Africa but working in London so the idea was that Jay would spend time with the both of us. Jay spent time with Nick going through the theory and then I came back at 3pm to get the kites. We rigged the kites and got then into the water but then the wind just seemed to disappear. Jay wasn’t happy but then neither was I; I had just wasted another day. In fact in theory this was my last available day. However there was an outside chance that I would be able to continue the lessons after doing the Blue Hole diving trip tomorrow.

In the late afternoon the crabs start to come out of their holes, tentatively at first and then then move more the darker it gets. Some of these crabs are huge and they have an amazing blue colour to the top of their shell.

In the evening Tara didn’t fancy eating so Miranda and I wandered though town to find something. In the end we ate at a sports bar. I had “tropical chicken” which was basically grilled chicken with a tropical fruit sauce and a baked potato. We then made our way back to the hostel to meet up with Tara. We then went for a final drink back at the Reggae Bar. On the top level of the bar there is a bench on a wooden platform that you can climb up to. From here you can see from one side of Caye Caulker to the other.

The wind started to pick up and which was a good sign for the kite surfing tomorrow but the thing that was really playing on my mind was the Blue Hole trip tomorrow. It’s not that I was nervous about the actual dive or diving deep, but with having the ear infection a few weeks ago I was worried in case either the dive triggered another infection or that I wouldn’t be able to complete the dive. In the end I don’t think I had a great night sleep as this must have been playing on my mind.

Today was a bit of a disaster as far as the kite surfing went. The wind completely died down, so there was only the smallest of breezes. This meant that kite surfing was out of the question. Jay believed that the wind would pick up through the day so I spent most of the day watching the wind and popping back to the kite surfing shop. In hindsight we should have agreed to drop the course till tomorrow. I could have then done a few of the other things I wanted to do should as canoe around the island and do a local shallow dive or even the half day snorkel. Instead I got the blog complete to the end of Guatemala, watched a bi of TV and generally chilled out. It would have been nice to go down the beach, but as my back was still recovering from the snorkel trip I didn’t see the point of getting sunburnt again.

In the evening Miranda, Tara and I went to a restaurant called Wish Willys close to the northern end of the island. Like many of the smaller local restaurants there is not much of a choice; usually fish, chicken or shrimp. I went for the fish with a honey and brandy glaze. The food took a long time to prepare as they only fired the BBQ when we arrived. In hindsight perhaps it would have been better to come along later, but then we would not have seen the sunset. The fish was nice but was a bit bony. The only problem with the restaurant was the mosquitoes. Because there wasn’t much wind and the restaurant was set back in some trees they were very annoying. The guy who managed the place though was passing around mosy spray which helped. He was also almost passing out himself though having obviously smoked copious amounts of dope.

After our meal we headed back to the hostel and then Miranda and I wandered into town back to the Reggae bar. Unlike last night the bar was empty. There was a definite feeling that many people were leaving the island and certainly from our small crowd in the hostel about 6 people had left this morning. We didn’t stay too late, but even when we left at around 11pm there couldn’t have been more than 10 people in the bar.

I’ve always fancied having a go at Kite Surfing. Well actually there are not many watersports I can think of that I don’t want to try. I had wanted to try it initially when we ere in Xpu Ha and I had originally baulked at the price of 250 USD for 5 hours. Here they charge 370 USD for 9 hours which was slightly better value but only just. My theory though was that I could do 3 morning lessons of 3 hrs, then do something else in the afternoon and this would give me an extra 3 days to let the ear infection completely heal up before doing the Blue Hole dive.

Unfortunately nature never takes kindly to being finely planned and had other ideas in store for me. The morning started well enough. I met Jay at the kite school and we went over basic theory and then had a practise with a small kite to get the feel of the kite and how to make the kite turn the figure eights moving through the different clock positions. It’s been a long time since I used a kite but I managed to get the feel of it pretty quickly. From here we rigged up a small kite and went through the lines and how to set up and wrap the lines. However the wind the dropped to such a level that it was not worth launching the kites. So we planned to return to it in the afternoon.

I returned back to the hostel, and started the painful process of catching up with my blog which I had neglected since falling ill at Lake Atitlan. The wind started picking up in the afternoon and by the time I returned at 2:00pm we could launch the kite and get into the water. The kite and the rigging is a much bigger version of the small stunt kite I had been playing with in the morning. However you are physically attached to the kite by a harness so every so often you get dragged off your feet. It took a while to get used to the actions of the bigger kite and there was a slight communication barrier as, although Jay spoke pretty good English his first tongue is French. Eventually though I was able to handle the kite and get used to a few of the drills such as the downwind body drag, and the doing a feet first body drag which is necessary for getting up onto the board.

We finished around 4:30 and packed up the kite. I then had an early meal cooking up the remaining veggies from yesterday with some more pasta. Three of us decided to take the canoes that the hostel has for a sunset trip. Tara at the front, Miranda in the middle and me at the back. From the canoing I’ve done before its much easier to steer the canoe from the back as you can drag the paddle after the stroke to behave like a rudder. This is the main secret to canoeing in a straight line. We paddled up Caya Caulker, past the split and onto the North Island. Sunset was great but it meant we were paddling back in the dark. It was fairly easy to make our way back but much more difficult to spot the correct jetty. We found it in the end though.

Miranda and Tara went for something to eat and then a few of the others decided to eat at one of the shacks on the beach called Jolly Roger’s. He was offering chicken, fish or shrimp with rice, 3 glasses of rum punch and chocolate cake for 25 BZD. I wasn’t going to eat again but joined them for some rum punch. This was pretty lethal stuff as it was cheap rum and fruit juice but they didn’t mix it so you had an inch of pure rum floating on top of the fruit juice. After realising this and stirring it up it wasn’t too bad. They only charged me 6BZD for the 3 rum punches so it wasn’t too bad. During the meal we got talking to a guy from Tasmania who is travelling for around 2 years. He had started of travelling with a big pack but reckoned that he had got his essentials down to 12 items (excluding the clothes on his back). After the meal we headed to the only bar in town; the I and I Reggae Bar. The last Reggae bar I’d been to was in San Cristobal. This was much more expensive and a lot less dancing but it was still fun.

I bumped into a few of those who had been of the ATM Cave tour in San Ignacio from the GAP tour. They had said that they would be in Caye Caulker and it was fun to bump into them again. The Banana Colada was pretty nice here and they also put some chocolate sauce in it which tasted great. Not sure at 5 USD a cocktail I would have many more though. The bar closed at midnight and a few of us wandered back to the hostel whilst some of the others made a night of it at the Ocean Scene night club. By all accounts though it was a bit of a loss and the name night club is a bit lost as it was really only a late bar with around 20 hard core drinkers left in it.

I woke reasonably early as there are no curtains or blinds and its too hot with the shutters closed as the fan doesn’t work. As a result I tend to wake with the sun. I had some breakfast at a beach front restaurant and then booked myself on the all day snorkel tour with Ragamuffin tours. The cost was 80 BZD which seemed good value for all day on the boat. The reason I chose ragamuffin was that the boat they use is a sailboat rather than a motor boat which I thought would be a nice additional experience to the snorkelling.

The others on the tour arrived and we set of around 10:30. On the way the tour guide provided fresh orange juice and fruit. It was great sailing along with the wind in the sails though it took a while to get used to the motion of the boat. It took around 1½ hours to get to the first site.

This site isn’t in the marine reserve so we could spend an hour here; usually you are restricted to 45mins. Also because it’s not in the reserve you can snorkel without a guide. One of the main reasons for coming to this site was the hope that we would see Manatees, also called sea cows I think! These elusive creatures are very shy so once they get spooked they head for deeper water. One of the reasons for them coming here though is that there is a good supply of turtle grass which is one of their main food sources. Just as we were arriving we saw a Manatee surface off the side of the boat, but this unfortunately was the last we saw of this animal. The reef itself was nice enough and there was plenty of fish. It was around 5m deep off the side of the reef so it was a good opportunity for me to dive down and see if I could feel any pain. Happily there was no sharp pain, only the discomfort you usually get from squeeze. I didn’t really see a great deal of life except for a barracuda and what may have been a shark in the distance. Some of the others saw a turtle but this was about it. That said it was good to swim around and relax. The main downside, apart from not seeing a Manatee, was that the batteries in my camera gave out as soon as I got in the water. I had spares back on the boat, but I couldn’t take any pictures of this site.

From here we moved onto the next site which is one of the most famous here – Shark Ray Ally. As soon as we arrived we could see Nurse Sharks from the side of the boat and fish. We were told that as soon as we got in the sharks would swim away as they are shy. A few of the others were a bit nervous of getting in with the sharks but I had no problem being first in. True to form though as soon as I got it the sharks headed away. We split the group into two with Charlie being the guide taking our group. This was a really nice site. It wasn’t too deep and we saw lots of marine life from Nurse Sharks, Sting Rays, Green Moray Eels and lots and lots of fish.

Charlie managed to get hold of a ray and hold it gently, but after what happened to the Steve Irwin, the Ausy croc hunter, there was no way I would try something like this. He was pretty informative though and would point out the names of the fish and other marine life. This is one of the few advantages of snorkelling over diving as communication is much easier. As we were reaching the end of our time Charlie spotted a nurse shark hiding in a rock crevasse and managed to get it out. With Charlie holding the shark we were able to touch it. I’ve never felt the skin of a shark and it was not what I was expecting at all. It was really rough, like coarse sandpaper. After a minute he let it go and the shark swam off to sulk somewhere else.

I’ve no idea why it slipped my mind not to put sun tan cream on. I had brought it with me and intended to put it on before starting the trip but stupidly forgot. By the end of the second snorkel I needed no reminding and I could feel that I had sunburn on my back.

We returned to the boat and set sail for the final site at Ho San. Actually this was the only leg of the journey we didn’t sail as I was into the wind so it was easier to use the motor. We had lunch on this leg which was a fish burger with fruit juice and some more fruit. I got some suntan cream on but I could feel that it was too late.

The final site, Ho San, was interesting but not as good as Shark Ray ally. It consisted of a valley with two walls with coral onto of either side of this valley. There were a few groups of divers here in the deeper parts of the valley. Again we saw a few nurse sharks, corals and sponges and even a green turtle. Though the corals on the top of this site are great for snorkellers than majority of the canyons walls are a little too deep and I think that this site would be better for divers. We saw a few groups down there, most of them probably doing the PADI openwater.

The journey back to Caye Caulker was fun as it was all downwind so the sails were out and it was very relaxing drinking rum punch and listening to Bob Marley. Talking to a few of the group I realised that there was a few staying at Bella’s. A Norwegian who with his mate was driving in a beaten up VW Beetle from Canada down to Central America and a Canadian who was riding a motorbike down to Chile. The Canadian and Norwegians had met up on the road and were travelling together for a while. There was also a medial student from Glasgow, studying at Norwich, who was doing a spot of travelling before making her way to a clinic south in Punta Gorda at the southern end of Belize to do her elective. I’ve never been on a large sail boat before. I’ve sailed smaller boats like toppers, lasers and even wayfairers at outward bound centers but I’ve never been sailing on the sea. I can see what the attraction is and it reminds me of a friend from school who used to say that his dad had said “son, when I retire I’m going to divorce your mother, buy a boat and sail around the world”. I’m not sure he ever did but it seems like a pretty good way to spend retirement, sailing round the world that is, not necessarily divorcing your wife!

It took us about an hour to get back and I was pretty hungry so I wandered into town, bought some veggies and pasta and got back and cooked it up. It’s a pretty good way of trying to keep the cost down. It was fairly late when I eventually ate and then I just watched a bit of TV and went to bed.

The buses to Belize city start at 6:30am and are on the half hour. I had originally had planned to get up for a bus around 7am but was feeling a bit offside, probably due to the Magnum icecream! Eventually went for the 9:30am bus. As I was leaving Finca Ixobel I managed to shatter the cheap part of sunglasses I had bought in the UK before leaving so I bought another cheap part of fake oakleys (foakleys) from one of the street shops. Also had the last of the antibiotics with some fruit for breakfast.

The bus arrived and it was another of the old American school buses. I didn’t realise that they had the chicken buses in Belize also. Unfortunately the ones in Belize don’t have roof racks so they just put my bag in the back. Because people get on and off through the backdoor I actually chose to sit at the very back of the bus so I could keep an eye on it. However there was no need to worry really. I guess the more nefarious characters probably don’t get the early morning buses. The only interesting thing with the journey was that the radiator of the bus must have been leaking because every half hour we’d stop and the conductor would run to some nearby body of water with a container and come back with it full. So either the radiator was bust of the driver was very thirsty.

We eventually arrived in Belize City at 12:30 and it only cost 7 BZD. I’ve not heard great reports about Belize City and I had no real intention of spending any time here, preferring instead to make my way straight to the island of Caye Caulker. I got a taxi from the bus station to the water taxi station, which in hindsight I could have walked. But at the time I had no idea how many water taxis went to Caye Caulker. I just missed the 12:30 water taxi, but the next was only at 13:30.

The water taxi is a big motor yacht fitted out with basic seats and luggage holds. The journey was a little bumpy so I would hate to see it in a swell as it was fairly calm. I arrived at Caye Caulker just after 3 and initially tried Tina’s backpacker hostel. Unfortunately this was full, though actually it worked out for the best in the end. They directed my to another backpacker hostel about 10 minute walk away called Bella’s. I managed to get the last bed in a small dorm of 5 people costing 25 BZD. The larger dorm with 9 people and no lock cost 20 BZD so I actually think the extra 5 BZD made good value.

In one of those bizarre traveller coincidences the couple who had been staying upstairs in the hostel in Flores and who did the Tikal trip with me were also staying here. They had arrived on the earlier water taxi having come straight from Flores that morning. Rich and Laura had both graduated this year and were travelling before starting work. I found out later that they weren’t actually a couple but old school friends travelling together. They were staying in Caye Caulker for a few days before heading up to mexico and then Rich was going home whilst Laura was travelling through London to travel in Africa for a few weeks.

After settling in I went for a walk around the island for a bit. Its not big at all, or rather the southern part where all the accommodation is only around 5 km in perimeter. The original island was much bigger but in the 1960’s a hurricane ripped through and destroyed most of the mangroves in the about ¼ of the way up the island. Take advantage some of the inhabitants gave nature a hand and created a small chanel. Nature did the rest with the currents and tides and the island is now split by a reasonable chanel, deep enough to be navigable by the small pleasure boats. During my walk round I found out where the snorkel tours left and some info about diving and kite surfing.

In the evening I went for a walk around town. I ate at a small restaurant that was grilling the fish on a huge BBW outside. I had Barracuda fillet which was really nice. Rich and Laura also wandered past so we ate together and then headed back to play some cards before turning in.

As soon as I got in bed I could here and feel mosquitoes so I got up and got my small travel mosy net out. This net is probably slightly too small but it was all I could fit in my bag and it’s much better than nothing. I would say that this is the only downside to this hostel as there really should be nets on the beds with so many mosys around.

Another early start as we were being picked up by the tour company at 6:30am. There was six of us in the tour group, in two 4×4 cars. The rest of the group were travelling together as part of a GAP tour. I’ve come across GAP before when travelling in Mexico. It seems to be a similar set up to the travelling I did with Travelbag in China. Unlike Trek and Dragoman, Gap tends to use public transport for getting around. The group seemed pretty cool, mostly Brits and a Swiss and Ausy. The rest of their group had done other tours. I was in the same car as Nat (from Brisbane) and Ashton (from Kent, UK).

We drove for over an hour to get to the cave. The last portion of the journey was a dusty jungle track. At the park office our guide (Abraham) got out to stamp the park tickets. There was a parrot who had been trained to shout out boleto (tickets). From here the dusty road continued until we reached the end of the track. From here it was about 45min walk to the entrance of the cave. We waded across the river three times and eventually arrived at a collection of wooden shelters where we could grab a bite to eat and get the helmets and lamps sorted out.

The cave itself was fun experience. We were mostly wading through the underground streams though there was an occasion where we had to swim. At one point we arrived at the entrance which the Mayans used to enter the cave system. Further upstream we climbed up from the river to a series of galleries where there was human remains and Mayan pottery.

There is good evidence to suggest that the human remains here were victims of torture. Most had suffered some sort of blunt force trauma and some had forcibly removed sections of spine or jaw bones. The theory is that these were members of other tribes who had been captured in battle and then dragged down to the cave for sacrifice. It is believed that they were tortured but kept alive as long as possible as the more pain they felt the better the gods would be appeased. The age at which the victims were sacrificed seemed to range from small children up to adults. Though I had been to a few Mayan sites which talked about torture, this was the most barbaric I had seen. I wonder just how much we really know about this culture and race. The most impressive and well preserved of the human remains is that of a female. She is placed at the highest point of the cave leading to spectulation that she was a princess, actually giving the ATM cave its name.

We had a bite to eat after leaving the caves before walking back through the jungle to the cars and then back to San Ignacio. It was mid afternoon when we got back and I spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing, posting my postcards and catching up with the blog.

In the evening I wandered back down the main street, had a pizza and then as a special treat a magnum icecream. It was really expensive, but worth it! I also finished the book “The Immortals” which was a really good read and would recommend this. I’ve been pretty lucky with the books I’ve been able to pick up on the road so far.