Cave of the Stone Tomb

Adrienne, Carol, Eric, Whitney, Leslie and I shared a taxi from Dangriga where the boat dropped us off to San Ignacio near the boarder of Guatemala($35pp).

San Ignacio is cramped hilly town. It is low tourist season so we got hassled quite a bit but we found a get place to sign up for a cave tour. Mayawalk was so great. Owned by locals that have been doing tours for a long time. Many of the other places are owned my foreigners. Our guide, Martin was incredible.

Martin

The tour starts with a 45min walk through the jungle with a few river crossings. Once we entered the cave and got away from the light he had us hold on to the person in front of us walk in complete darkness. Creepy.



There were all sorts of stalactites/mites and crystals in the rocks that made them sparkle in the light of your headlamp.









Martin had a spotlight and would shine it on things so we could take photos and sometimes the flash worked just fine too. There were entire pots and shards everywhere. Nothing was roped off so you had to be careful in the dark of where you stepped.


We eventually came to the end of the cave tour (the actual cave kept going). We had walked a half mile into a mountain and were under 600ft of earth.

The cave was used for human sacrifices to the gods. The remains of several individuals are strewn about, again with no barriers. You can plainly see the bashed in areas of the sculls and lots of excavation has gone on so there is quite a bit of knowledge.

Change of Plans

We took a 20ft skiff for 2.5 hours out to the atoll. We were smushed in with all the supplies for the island. I absolutely enjoyed the boat ride. The one home was even better due to choppy seas. Adrienne disagrees...she does not have a water horoscope sign.

Adrienne and I ended up on a Caribbean island with 6 other people...oops. We signed up for an entire week at Glover's Atoll. It is a tiny island very far from the main land that a family owns. It is not a resort. We brought all our own food for the week. We can sign up for snorkeling, scuba, fishing, kayaking, meals....the works.

Adrienne scuba diving

They use rain water and have composting toilets. We cook with butane.

Conch Shell faucet

We have been snorkeling 3 times a day, everyday. Adrienne had been scuba diving. She is currently on a night dive. We have been hanging out with Carol and Erik (our surrogate parents from Alaska). Carol, Erik and I went deep sea fishing and caught dinner. It took both Carol and I to reel up 700ft of line with a few fish on it.

The shallow waters inside the atoll with our stormy skies.

While Fishing we saw a water spout (very far away) which is a tornado on the water...very neat.

This Eric and Carol (Warren the 17yr old son of the family who owns the island in the back) and some of the Snapper we caught for dinner. Eric and Carol whipped up some delicious curry & rice dish for us.

It got rainy and cloudy the last 2 days of our stay so we found other ways to entertain ourselves. That is as high up the tree I got, Moguli makes it looks so easy.

It was a Sunday to Sunday adventure on the island and then we are headed west towards the boarder of Guatemala.

Settlement Day Festivities:

Wednesday night the drumming started at dusk. Since the 19th was a national holiday and no one had to work, they got started partying early. Dangriga had a great vibe - since everyone was on holiday- not just us! Everyone says hello and smiles and we end up sitting on the curb watching people dance in the street before we wander on. It gets dark at 5:30pm here too! It seems unfair to have so little light in the tropics, but it is keeping me (Adrienne) from burning into a crisp. (Jessie has year-round Chaco tan-lines and a Vitamin D deficiency, so she's loving the sun.)

The locals kept insisting that we wouldn't be needing our beds that night because the party goes on until sunrise. Jessie, Abby, Janelle (our new friends from Bend, Or) and I took a taxi out to Malibu beach and waited for the band to get started...at 11:30pm- no wonder the party goes until dawn. We played cards on the beach (Abby wins!) watched 'Diamond' drum, then headed back into town. The streets were still busy with drunken festivities as Jessie and I headed back to Val's. We'd had enough Punta Rock (rap/reggae mix music and or lifestyle) for the night and the drumming outside our hostel would signal the beginning of Settlement day at sunrise.

HAPPY 19!!!

We woke up at 8am and realized that the first great thing about Settlement day was that they don't start the boat-landing ceremony right outside our hostel! Nice. We got some yummy scrambled eggs and Journey Cakes and stumbled across our new friend CJ who works at a stock photo/ web design company. He was the only float in line for the 10:00 parade... it was 10:30. We wandered down to the closed and possibly abandoned Garifuna museum then back to the parade. On the way we discovered that a bike race occured.


At around 11:30 the 10 o'clock parade was under way. We made our way to the beginning of the parade so we did not miss anything.


Jessie's favorite part was the Chinese float. They had firecrackers, gongs and these fancy dancing dragons.


The parade concluded with a Punta Rock float sponsored by Western Union. The entire town followed this last float in a huge loop dancing all the way. We did our best to keep up but they teach these kids young how to shake their money maker.

Viva Belize - Day 1.5

Adrienne and I Reached Belize City @ 4pm yesterday and found a ride to the bus station. We took the 5:15pm bus to Dangriga on an old USA school bus for 2 hours. Upon arrival in Dangriga we found Val's and signed up for bunk beds for 2 nights ($44us).


Garifuna Settlement Day is the 19th and the celebration is really just a 3 day party. We made it just in time.

Next stop after this is Tobacco Caye for some snorkeling and ocean time while we recover from the Settlement Day festivities.


We have eaten some good seafood already and expect more to come. -Red Snapper

Sisterly Soiree

My big sister Adrienne and I have a 3 week trip planned to Belize and Guatemala. We leave in a week!

Blue Hole - Belize

Belize is first. Beach, snorkel, swim, sand and maybe some rum. Belize is known for it's caves and jaguars, both of which are on our "to do" list.

Belize

Guatemala is known for it's volcanoes and brightly colored woven textiles.

Guatemala

Tikal in northern Guatemala is famous for the mayan ruins.

Tikal - Guatemala

We are still working out an itinerary. We are starting in Belize and working our way to Antigua, Gua where we fly home from. We plan to do the budget tourist trail of things : ruins, snorkel, volcano, cave tubing, jaguar reserve....

If anyone has any suggestions please share.

Adrienne and I will update the blog as we go when we get the chance.