On the banks of Lago Petén Itza

We have successfully crossed the Belizean border into Guatemala. But let's begin at the beginning...

Belize seems to be a poor country, something that rather surprised both of us upon arrival. San Pedro was quite small and a bit dirty, but brightly painted and with constantly-playing, colorful music, so it seems more charming than not at first glance. Perhaps I put us in the more rundown part of town with my choice of budget hotel? Everyone got around on golf carts or by foot, but mostly golf carts. Cabbies on every corner, petitioning you with "taxi? taxi?" One guy said that our hotel, Ruby's was far away, when he knew quite well it was only a block! He then laughed when I called him on it. There were also mongrel dogs running around everywhere.

Every place we ate had GREAT food though. Last night we forwent a nicer restaurant and ate pupusas at a tiny hole-in-the-wall too. Pupusas are like cornmeal tortillas stuffed with an endless variety of meats, cheeses and vegetables, then fried on a griddle right in front of you. Incredibly filling, cheap and delicious! The place was called Waruguma, meaning "star" in Garifuna, which is another dialect further to the south. We enjoyed chatted with Estela, the daughter of the proprietor and maker of our pupusas. We also met a newlywed couple from Philadelphia there, Thaddeus and Stephanie, with whom we spent the rest of our evening talking and drinking.

But befoooore all that, we went snorkeling at the Hol Chan Marine Reserve and Shark Ray Alley! It was pretty surreal for both of us. The reserve was beautiful, with huge brain coral and delicate purple sea fans, brightly colored fishes whose names I sadly don't know, darting between gaily waving anemones. One of the things I liked best was seeing how small schools of fish would gently sway back and forth to match the rhythm of the sea grass and anemones. It was a little hard to believe we were there.

At Shark Ray Alley, the guides dropped food over the sides of our boats to attract grey nurse sharks and blue manta rays, then encouraged us all to leap overboard...so we did! One guide fed a ray by hand, played with it, then gathered it up in his arms so we could touch it. Eric saw a guide feed an eel a conch out of its shell! I'm a hypocrite here because I know you shouldn't touch the wildlife, but I touched the ray anyway and I liked it. It felt like firm, velvety slime; it doesn't sound appealing but it was great! There were clouds of yellowtails beneath our boat, and beautiful black fish with deep indigo fins nibbled algae off the bottom.

Our fellow snorkelers were a father with daughter and son from Toronto, and a family from San Diego. Their younger son spent the whole time declaring he would not get in the water, not because he was scared, but because he knew aaaalllll about sharks and knew better. He wanted to a shark biologist...but wouldn't get anywhere near a peaceful nurse shark? HA. He kept repeating "Bull sharks kill with a smile on their face!" I actually thought he was very amusing and chatted with him a bit, tried to persuade him into the water, but he stood firm. Oh also, I saw our guide plug a hole in the corner of our boat with his foot, which was a bit disconcerting! Of course I didn't notice this until we were already underway.

Today we took a five hour bus ride into Guatemala. During the three hour ride to the border, we saw many shacks of scrap wood and corrugated steel, more mongrel dogs and countless barefoot children (albeit well-fed). There were also at least a dozen houses abandoned mid-construction. Foundations laid, walls built up, but sans doors or rooves. They looked like they'd been there a long time. Very strange.

Across the border, the vegetation thickened and it was clear we were headed into the jungle region. There are many cleared areas by the Macal River, with cows, field of corn, and brightly colored house. It's very hilly and when we are high enough to see over a series of valleys, the view of forested hilltops is almost too perfect. Our bus driver dropped us off right in front of La Casa de Don David and we have loved every minute of this place. It's huge, with a variety of fruiting trees, hedges trimmed into whimsical toucan shapes, beautiful bright flowers and an amazing low-lying shrub that responds to touch! We met the owner of this place, David, and he showed us that if you bent down and just brushed the shrub, it snapped its leaves closed and tightened against the ground.

Off to look at tarantulas now.....pictures another time. Hasta pronto!