Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize 2018
Saturday, 15 June 2019 20:10![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
iguana
I spent November and the start of December in Mesoamerica; a nearly-round trip from Tabasco, Mexico, to Yucatan, Mexico, via Guatemala and Belize. I compressed the write-up of this into a Twitter thread in the interest of getting it written quickly (look at the posting date of this Dreamwidth entry!) and I've reproduced that thread here. You might prefer to look at it in its original context here.
Mexico Part I
11 Nov: Arrived in Villahermosa, having flown over a snowy mountain range en route from Mexico City, and caught the bus (a minivan playing a Spanish dub of Pacific Rim) to Palenque in Chiapas. Everything was warm and green. In town we had banana fritters and rambutan bubble tea!
12 Nov: Palenque ruins! We saw toucans! Monkeys! A bat! Lots of little lizards! We also went on short walk through jungle to some less uncovered/reconstructed ruins.
After getting back we took a 'colectivo' bus through pretty hills to Roberto Barrios waterfalls (also very pretty). No photos though because the colectivo ("Hell bus" in my original notes!) was just wooden seats on the back of a truck, not great for me and my travel sickness ;)
13 Nov: We took a tour to Bonampak and Yaxchilan ruins, staying near the Mexico/Guatemala border ready for the next day. Bomampak is built on a hillside and has amazingly well preserved 1200-year-old murals in three chambers half-way up, along with a massive stele out front.
On the way to Yaxchilan, which is accessible only by boat along the river that demarcates the Mexican/Guatemalan border, the pilot spotted a crocodile sunbathing on the bank. When we got closer to photo it, it slid into the water and we motored away quickly when it disappeared.
Every ruins had a different personality! Yaxchilan itself is beautiful with lots of grassy shade, and overlooked the river we'd arrived by. More spider monkeys and the howls of many howler monkeys (you can take this as read pretty much every day until after San Ignacio in Belize)
11 Nov: Arrived in Villahermosa, having flown over a snowy mountain range en route from Mexico City, and caught the bus (a minivan playing a Spanish dub of Pacific Rim) to Palenque in Chiapas. Everything was warm and green. In town we had banana fritters and rambutan bubble tea!
12 Nov: Palenque ruins! We saw toucans! Monkeys! A bat! Lots of little lizards! We also went on short walk through jungle to some less uncovered/reconstructed ruins.
After getting back we took a 'colectivo' bus through pretty hills to Roberto Barrios waterfalls (also very pretty). No photos though because the colectivo ("Hell bus" in my original notes!) was just wooden seats on the back of a truck, not great for me and my travel sickness ;)
13 Nov: We took a tour to Bonampak and Yaxchilan ruins, staying near the Mexico/Guatemala border ready for the next day. Bomampak is built on a hillside and has amazingly well preserved 1200-year-old murals in three chambers half-way up, along with a massive stele out front.
On the way to Yaxchilan, which is accessible only by boat along the river that demarcates the Mexican/Guatemalan border, the pilot spotted a crocodile sunbathing on the bank. When we got closer to photo it, it slid into the water and we motored away quickly when it disappeared.
Every ruins had a different personality! Yaxchilan itself is beautiful with lots of grassy shade, and overlooked the river we'd arrived by. More spider monkeys and the howls of many howler monkeys (you can take this as read pretty much every day until after San Ignacio in Belize)
Guatemala
14 Nov: Achievement unlocked: crossed a water border! Same tiny boat as yesterday, this time with passports checks near(ish) each bank. Modern SUV with AC drove us down to the river, then crammed into a dusty old Chevy Spark with no second gear for 60km of dirt road on the other!
After the "free butt massage" we arrived in Flores, a pretty colonial town on a small island. Alas! There'd been a storm: island electricity out; ring road flooded. Ems found us a café on the mainland with amazing hot choc that let us charge our cameras until power was restored.
15 Nov: Early morning: no hotel breakfast. Time for pre-bought Mexican cinnamon buns!
This was Day 1 of our 5-day trek to and from the El Mirador ruins in the middle of Guatemalan jungle! (We went with http://expedicionelmirador.com ) The first day ended with a well-earned view of the jungle from the top of the not-yet-excavated hill under which hid the El Tintal pyramid.
16 Nov: dawn at El Tintal, then 22km to the El Mirador site. Ate a wild fruit and a wild almond from the forest. Paths still muddy – the guide cut us walking poles with his machete – but got to El Mirador in time to visit the El Tigre pyramid for sunset. Also: ocellated turkeys.
17 Nov: a mosquito munched on my eyelid overnight, but my magic cream got the swelling down in time for sunrise. We climbed La Danta, the largest Mayan pyramid discovered, early enough to be treated to a wonderful clear starscape, with two satellites passing overhead before dawn.
It was a long climb up the partially-uncovered ruins, but the view from La Danta was really special: a sea of flat forest canopies, unspoiled as far as the horizon in all directions. We were the only people there.
During the day we toured the rest of El Mirador; some structures were in the process of having stucco friezes excavated. Also, at sunset: a toucan (makes a noise like a frog) and a spider monkey (will shake branches at you; the howler monkeys make a noise like Tusken Raiders)
Pitch black walk back to camp, torches in hand, thousands of spider eyes reflecting back at us. One of them a tarantula! The guide let it walk onto his hand and, uh, jump onto ours. If that wasn't enough, we also saw an extremely venomous red/yellow coral snake slithering off!
18 & 19 Nov: Aside from two pretty sunrises from El Tigre and El Tintal respectively, and a monkey throwing a fruit at (and hitting) Tim's arm, nothing much happened on the two-day hike back to Carmelita.
OH WAIT.
The bite of an infant fer-de-lance snake contains enough venom to kill you twice over within 15 minutes, or two hours if you tourniquet the leg.
We're four hours away from the fridge containing the antivenom. Single file, the guide up front, followed by Ems. All wearing shorts.
Ems spots it literally as she is lowering her foot down onto it.
"Snake!" she squeaks, jerking her foot back and freezing. Our translator pulls her away.
The guide turns around, sees it, machete out in a flash. The snake dispatched, each half flicked into the bushes. No bites.
We got back to Carmelita intact, and from there back to Flores. (A highlight: seeing a re-purposed US schoolbus, now a public bus, successfully trying to slip and slide its way up a wet dirt road hill towards us.)
Celebratory sunset liquados for all!
20, 21, 22 Nov: Two full(ish) days and one morning at Tikal! There were coatis running around everywhere and often a wonderful atmospheric mist. Temple II was the first ruin we came across that made the odd echo that some staircased temples do, said to resemble a quetzal.
And yes, from the top of Temple IV at Tikal is where the establishing shot of Yavin IV in Star Wars was taken!
22 Nov: Yaxha, with temples that looked like they're made of voxels and wouldn't be out of place in C&C Tiberian Sun. Great views of a lake too, on which there is a Mayan observatory, however we didn't have time to visit it because we were en route to Belize!
14 Nov: Achievement unlocked: crossed a water border! Same tiny boat as yesterday, this time with passports checks near(ish) each bank. Modern SUV with AC drove us down to the river, then crammed into a dusty old Chevy Spark with no second gear for 60km of dirt road on the other!
After the "free butt massage" we arrived in Flores, a pretty colonial town on a small island. Alas! There'd been a storm: island electricity out; ring road flooded. Ems found us a café on the mainland with amazing hot choc that let us charge our cameras until power was restored.
15 Nov: Early morning: no hotel breakfast. Time for pre-bought Mexican cinnamon buns!
This was Day 1 of our 5-day trek to and from the El Mirador ruins in the middle of Guatemalan jungle! (We went with http://expedicionelmirador.com ) The first day ended with a well-earned view of the jungle from the top of the not-yet-excavated hill under which hid the El Tintal pyramid.
16 Nov: dawn at El Tintal, then 22km to the El Mirador site. Ate a wild fruit and a wild almond from the forest. Paths still muddy – the guide cut us walking poles with his machete – but got to El Mirador in time to visit the El Tigre pyramid for sunset. Also: ocellated turkeys.
17 Nov: a mosquito munched on my eyelid overnight, but my magic cream got the swelling down in time for sunrise. We climbed La Danta, the largest Mayan pyramid discovered, early enough to be treated to a wonderful clear starscape, with two satellites passing overhead before dawn.
It was a long climb up the partially-uncovered ruins, but the view from La Danta was really special: a sea of flat forest canopies, unspoiled as far as the horizon in all directions. We were the only people there.
During the day we toured the rest of El Mirador; some structures were in the process of having stucco friezes excavated. Also, at sunset: a toucan (makes a noise like a frog) and a spider monkey (will shake branches at you; the howler monkeys make a noise like Tusken Raiders)
Pitch black walk back to camp, torches in hand, thousands of spider eyes reflecting back at us. One of them a tarantula! The guide let it walk onto his hand and, uh, jump onto ours. If that wasn't enough, we also saw an extremely venomous red/yellow coral snake slithering off!
18 & 19 Nov: Aside from two pretty sunrises from El Tigre and El Tintal respectively, and a monkey throwing a fruit at (and hitting) Tim's arm, nothing much happened on the two-day hike back to Carmelita.
OH WAIT.
The bite of an infant fer-de-lance snake contains enough venom to kill you twice over within 15 minutes, or two hours if you tourniquet the leg.
We're four hours away from the fridge containing the antivenom. Single file, the guide up front, followed by Ems. All wearing shorts.
Ems spots it literally as she is lowering her foot down onto it.
"Snake!" she squeaks, jerking her foot back and freezing. Our translator pulls her away.
The guide turns around, sees it, machete out in a flash. The snake dispatched, each half flicked into the bushes. No bites.
We got back to Carmelita intact, and from there back to Flores. (A highlight: seeing a re-purposed US schoolbus, now a public bus, successfully trying to slip and slide its way up a wet dirt road hill towards us.)
Celebratory sunset liquados for all!
20, 21, 22 Nov: Two full(ish) days and one morning at Tikal! There were coatis running around everywhere and often a wonderful atmospheric mist. Temple II was the first ruin we came across that made the odd echo that some staircased temples do, said to resemble a quetzal.
And yes, from the top of Temple IV at Tikal is where the establishing shot of Yavin IV in Star Wars was taken!
22 Nov: Yaxha, with temples that looked like they're made of voxels and wouldn't be out of place in C&C Tiberian Sun. Great views of a lake too, on which there is a Mayan observatory, however we didn't have time to visit it because we were en route to Belize!
Belize
Belize instantly felt super friendly, even at the border! I got absolutely trolled by the immigration officer who had a massive grin by the time he actually stamped my passport:
Immigration Officer: UK, eh? So what's the Queen's surname?
Me: Oh, er, Windsor?
IO: That's the name of the castle, but what's her actual surname?
Me: I'm not sure; I have to admit I'm not much of a royalist.
IO: Okay, you find out and you can let me know next time you're here!
We got a taxi to San Ignacio which is just a wonderful place. Friendly people, great food, and even a place that sold bubble tea! The hotel we were staying in (Maya Bella) was also top notch which really made a difference after five days of camping and two disappointing hotels.
23 Nov: Belize is good for public transport: repainted US school buses; the driver has choice of music; that choice is usually a reggaefied versions of chart songs (so: the best versions). We caught one to Xunantunich, and hand-cranked the boat across the river to get there.
We went to San Ignacio's green iguana sanctuary, which rescues iguanas at risk from hunting and poaching.
The guide said we were welcome to pick them up, but another tourist got blood drawn for his efforts (claws!) so I didn't try; just petted one that was on the handrail. My other hand must have been holding the rail because…
THIS HAPPENED
Genuinely the highlight of the whole trip! I was grinning for the rest of the day (and several afterwards) and it still brings a smile thinking back to it. (Editor: 06/06/19 and it still does, and you may have noticed I renamed this dreamwidth account to 'iguana'…)
Cahal Pech ruins in the afternoon, last ruins for a few days. Good food and salted caramel ice cream in San Ignacio in the evening.
24 Nov: Kayaking into Barton Creek caves, which Mayans once used for rituals. There were a few bits of broken crockery and even a skull, but most of the cave had been looted empty. We tried to go further at the end but the water was high so we couldn't get the kayaks through!
Big Rock Falls where we had a nice swim under the waterfall! We had the whole place to ourselves, conveniently leaving just as a couple were heading down. No big cats here but some tiger ferns instead.
25 Nov: No photos allowed in the ATM Caves, where a whole host of Mayan pots and remains were on display, untouched in their discovered positions, including the so-called Crystal Maiden. Seeing the pottery almost in working order was the highlight for me.
26 Nov: Caves Branch river tubing! We floated (fairly) serenely through some amazing caves, then had some fun in the rapids. Or, as I put at the time: which person with two wrinkled thumbs and an inner tube is having a great time?
27 Nov: We didn't have time for the full tour of Ajaw Chocolate Factory but we did get to see the demonstration of how they made traditional spiced chocolate with a giant pestle and mortar -- had a go ourselves and tried the resulting chocolate drink. Tasty!
28 Nov: We'd arrived at Orange Walk in north Belize the previous night, and also bought mystery crocodile loaf from a bakery. It had cheese in it, of course?
On the way to the river, today's tour operator asked us out of the blue, "so, you guys like birding?" They'd misbooked us! The bird-watcher, fortunately, also knew how to do a tour of Lamanai ruins, but it was cool having the wildlife pointed out to us on the river ride there!
29 Nov: Time to leave Belize and cross the border back into Mexico…
Belize instantly felt super friendly, even at the border! I got absolutely trolled by the immigration officer who had a massive grin by the time he actually stamped my passport:
Immigration Officer: UK, eh? So what's the Queen's surname?
Me: Oh, er, Windsor?
IO: That's the name of the castle, but what's her actual surname?
Me: I'm not sure; I have to admit I'm not much of a royalist.
IO: Okay, you find out and you can let me know next time you're here!
We got a taxi to San Ignacio which is just a wonderful place. Friendly people, great food, and even a place that sold bubble tea! The hotel we were staying in (Maya Bella) was also top notch which really made a difference after five days of camping and two disappointing hotels.
23 Nov: Belize is good for public transport: repainted US school buses; the driver has choice of music; that choice is usually a reggaefied versions of chart songs (so: the best versions). We caught one to Xunantunich, and hand-cranked the boat across the river to get there.
We went to San Ignacio's green iguana sanctuary, which rescues iguanas at risk from hunting and poaching.
The guide said we were welcome to pick them up, but another tourist got blood drawn for his efforts (claws!) so I didn't try; just petted one that was on the handrail. My other hand must have been holding the rail because…
THIS HAPPENED
Genuinely the highlight of the whole trip! I was grinning for the rest of the day (and several afterwards) and it still brings a smile thinking back to it. (Editor: 06/06/19 and it still does, and you may have noticed I renamed this dreamwidth account to 'iguana'…)
Cahal Pech ruins in the afternoon, last ruins for a few days. Good food and salted caramel ice cream in San Ignacio in the evening.
24 Nov: Kayaking into Barton Creek caves, which Mayans once used for rituals. There were a few bits of broken crockery and even a skull, but most of the cave had been looted empty. We tried to go further at the end but the water was high so we couldn't get the kayaks through!
Big Rock Falls where we had a nice swim under the waterfall! We had the whole place to ourselves, conveniently leaving just as a couple were heading down. No big cats here but some tiger ferns instead.
25 Nov: No photos allowed in the ATM Caves, where a whole host of Mayan pots and remains were on display, untouched in their discovered positions, including the so-called Crystal Maiden. Seeing the pottery almost in working order was the highlight for me.
26 Nov: Caves Branch river tubing! We floated (fairly) serenely through some amazing caves, then had some fun in the rapids. Or, as I put at the time: which person with two wrinkled thumbs and an inner tube is having a great time?
27 Nov: We didn't have time for the full tour of Ajaw Chocolate Factory but we did get to see the demonstration of how they made traditional spiced chocolate with a giant pestle and mortar -- had a go ourselves and tried the resulting chocolate drink. Tasty!
28 Nov: We'd arrived at Orange Walk in north Belize the previous night, and also bought mystery crocodile loaf from a bakery. It had cheese in it, of course?
On the way to the river, today's tour operator asked us out of the blue, "so, you guys like birding?" They'd misbooked us! The bird-watcher, fortunately, also knew how to do a tour of Lamanai ruins, but it was cool having the wildlife pointed out to us on the river ride there!
29 Nov: Time to leave Belize and cross the border back into Mexico…
Mexico Part II
This border crossing left me quite stressed out but we still found time to visit Dzibanche and Kinich Na after picking up the hire car for the rest of the trip.
30 Nov: Balamku and Calakmul ruins - we saw La Danta (from our El Mirador hike in Guatemala two weeks ago) on the horizon!
Then on the way back…
JAGUAR SIGHTING! The guides were as excited to see it as we were; they'd last seen one 18 months ago! It was crossing the road ahead of us; saw us, took a few steps towards the car, then, with a flick of its tail, sidled off into the bushes. We were on a high for some time after!
In the evening: Baaaaaaaaaaats!
1 Dec:PyCon Mesoamerica Chicanna (translation: House of the Mouth of the Snake)
It was a three-temple day, with Becan and Kohunlich after Chicanna and on the way to Lake Bacalar in Quintana Roo.
2 Dec: The Great Dry-Bag Disaster of 2018 meant three wet DSLRs, but we had a lovely 4-hour kayak trip across the beautiful cerulean lake, seeing a pirate ship sculpture, stromatolites, and paddling across a deep dark sinkhole. Spanish sea fort after that!
3 Dec: The first properly stunning sunrise of the holiday from the shores of Lake Bacalar. Muyil ruins and then we floated along a Mayan canal at Sian Ka'an in the afternoon (wearing our lifejackets like nappies!)
We arrived at Tulum and had another round of much-needed laundry. Tim and I tracked down a Walmart-like department store hidden in the middle of a forest and I bought the best camera money could buy there. Which was a Sony DSC-H300; we called it the party cam for the jingle it played on startup... it was probably an okay bridge camera in 2014 when it first came out. Mexico is not the place to go camera shopping.)
4 Dec: Sunrise paddle in the Caribbean sea at Tulum, a rather lovely touristy town right next to its namesake ruins.
Coba ruins: we're near Cancun and Chichen Itza now; can't climb Chichen Itza so people come here; suddenly for us there's step-crowds! Good view, though. Chilled at our hotel, Zenti'k Project, which had a candlelit swimming pool in an underground limestone cave and was wonderful.
5 Dec: Chichen Itza! The most recently built and best preserved ruin we visited. Arrived early enough for all the other tourists to be holding back for the main photo too! It's a larger site than just the main pyramid and actually had various styles of structures, which was neat.
6 Dec: We passed on the ruins of Ek Balam in order to get the beautiful X'Canche cenote to ourselves, and swam amongst tree roots with a shard of sunlight illuminating one side, and a torrent of water from above falling into the centre of the pool, cave swallows circling around.
Check you out Uxmal, with your rounded pyramid corners breaking the Mayan mould and your stone tortoises.
In the evening, arriving in Mérida, we beat the well-themed Pirate Cove escape room at Cryptorama (#24 for me), setting a new record for the room too!
7 Dec: We had a great tour of the lakes at Celestun where flamingos frequent. Having thrown a strop just before a rainbow sunset at Uxmal, the party cam redeemed itself a little with its zoom lens here.
Flamingo pics: http://photos.nevira.net/2018-mesoamerica/curated/flamingos/
8 Dec: We visited Kankirixché cenote in the morning (also got it to ourselves!) and then the last stop before Mérida Airport was Mayapán ruins, which was peaceful and had iguanas basking *everywhere*. What a great end to a wonderful holiday.
This border crossing left me quite stressed out but we still found time to visit Dzibanche and Kinich Na after picking up the hire car for the rest of the trip.
30 Nov: Balamku and Calakmul ruins - we saw La Danta (from our El Mirador hike in Guatemala two weeks ago) on the horizon!
Then on the way back…
JAGUAR SIGHTING! The guides were as excited to see it as we were; they'd last seen one 18 months ago! It was crossing the road ahead of us; saw us, took a few steps towards the car, then, with a flick of its tail, sidled off into the bushes. We were on a high for some time after!
In the evening: Baaaaaaaaaaats!
1 Dec:
It was a three-temple day, with Becan and Kohunlich after Chicanna and on the way to Lake Bacalar in Quintana Roo.
2 Dec: The Great Dry-Bag Disaster of 2018 meant three wet DSLRs, but we had a lovely 4-hour kayak trip across the beautiful cerulean lake, seeing a pirate ship sculpture, stromatolites, and paddling across a deep dark sinkhole. Spanish sea fort after that!
3 Dec: The first properly stunning sunrise of the holiday from the shores of Lake Bacalar. Muyil ruins and then we floated along a Mayan canal at Sian Ka'an in the afternoon (wearing our lifejackets like nappies!)
We arrived at Tulum and had another round of much-needed laundry. Tim and I tracked down a Walmart-like department store hidden in the middle of a forest and I bought the best camera money could buy there. Which was a Sony DSC-H300; we called it the party cam for the jingle it played on startup... it was probably an okay bridge camera in 2014 when it first came out. Mexico is not the place to go camera shopping.)
4 Dec: Sunrise paddle in the Caribbean sea at Tulum, a rather lovely touristy town right next to its namesake ruins.
Coba ruins: we're near Cancun and Chichen Itza now; can't climb Chichen Itza so people come here; suddenly for us there's step-crowds! Good view, though. Chilled at our hotel, Zenti'k Project, which had a candlelit swimming pool in an underground limestone cave and was wonderful.
5 Dec: Chichen Itza! The most recently built and best preserved ruin we visited. Arrived early enough for all the other tourists to be holding back for the main photo too! It's a larger site than just the main pyramid and actually had various styles of structures, which was neat.
6 Dec: We passed on the ruins of Ek Balam in order to get the beautiful X'Canche cenote to ourselves, and swam amongst tree roots with a shard of sunlight illuminating one side, and a torrent of water from above falling into the centre of the pool, cave swallows circling around.
Check you out Uxmal, with your rounded pyramid corners breaking the Mayan mould and your stone tortoises.
In the evening, arriving in Mérida, we beat the well-themed Pirate Cove escape room at Cryptorama (#24 for me), setting a new record for the room too!
7 Dec: We had a great tour of the lakes at Celestun where flamingos frequent. Having thrown a strop just before a rainbow sunset at Uxmal, the party cam redeemed itself a little with its zoom lens here.
Flamingo pics: http://photos.nevira.net/2018-mesoamerica/curated/flamingos/
8 Dec: We visited Kankirixché cenote in the morning (also got it to ourselves!) and then the last stop before Mérida Airport was Mayapán ruins, which was peaceful and had iguanas basking *everywhere*. What a great end to a wonderful holiday.
