Vacation: Part II (Border to Blue Skies)

If we had known this is what awaited us, would we have made the trip to Guatemala?? :)



Well, let me back up. So due to the storms, with all of Belize, including the western border, being flooded, our only option to get out was to fly. We decided to take a Tropic Air flight (nevermind the mentioned swamp-crashes in Lonely Planet!) across the border to Flores, Guatemala.

This was our plane.


Shomir enjoyed the broadcasted announcing, from the pilot seated three feet in front of us, to buckle our seatbelts, etc. Did you think, on a plane like that, we were NOT going to buckle those??!


We arrived (sans crash) late morning in Flores, which is a pretty town on this little peninsula into a lake in the Peten area of northeastern Guatemala. We were able to get transportation to the Mayan ruins of Tikal, which are perhaps some the most impressive in all of Central America.

Temple which we climbed in the rain, inducing severe acrophobia on my part (and its canopy view on the right).

Doesn't it look like I'm having a great time?! ("These are the same raindrops that fell on us yesterday!" exclaimed Shomir. "I recognize them!")

Shomir climbed this one solo.

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We did get a brief reprieve from the rain where we enjoyed some of the temples with a touch of sunlight! This was quite amazing.

Wild turkeys!

Strange animal (I forget the name, again-- will have to look it up unless JB helps) we watched while having tea and soup at a cafe at the bottom. No, it is not a mini-dinosaur. That is the tail.

We stayed overnight in Flores (perhaps the most welcome hot shower I'd ever had!) and then, the following day, tried to get a bus to Coban to visit the Grutas (caves) of Lanquin and Semuc Champey, a place of lagoons and waterfalls deemed the most beautiful site in ALL of Guatemala. However, we were thwarted by the floods (which, at this point, had moved west) where transport couldn't navigate the roads and thus had to take a major highway to Rio Dulce east of there....

.... but this is what greeted us on our arrival 6 hours later.....

BLUE SKY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I had to take a picture of it :) We seriously take California weather for granted.

In any case, we took a river boat through the Lago De Izabal all the way to the town of Livingston on the coast, only accessible via vessel. Very neat!

Sunny picture by some thermal waters (aguas calientes) and a bat-infested cave which Shom explored.

Livingston harbor


We finally felt like we were on vacation!!

Despite no hot water in our $5 hotel, a million itchy bug bites at this point, and a rather uncomfortable 4-hour walk along beach trash to the Siete Altares, we had a nice time in Livingston, enjoying some good food and other tropical treats.

The Siete Altares, a series of lagoons and pools on the coast.

Spider we saw along the way. In case you were wondering, I did NOT take this picture but instead ran very quickly in the other direction.

We also saw a ton of crabs and other sea creatures along the way.

Pelicans

Mangy dog which followed us on the street (this is Shom's favorite picture from this trip!). Guatemala has a TON of street dogs, almost as many as there are guys with guns on the streetcorners (not sure if that made us feel more or less safe!)


Anyway, away from the ugly to:

Relaxation time, Carribean seaside.

Breakfast of plantains, coconut juice, and limonada. Mmmm.

Fantastic seafood dinner. The Tapado, or seafood soup, is famous in this area. The licuados, or shakes, were also to die for! Livingston is the center for "Garifuna" culture (blacks descended from slaves) and we enjoyed some reggae-like music over dinner.


We were LOVING Guatemala (and the food :)).

Next post: A Antigua.... (onto Antigua)...