Caye Caulker 1/2

We're crashed at the D'Nest Inn outside Belize City. Audrey is flipping through the cable channels (Mad Max III, telenovelas, astrologist commercials, Bermuda Triangle documentary, etc) while she and Bobby try to put the last few days down on paper. It's been a total blast!!

1. Best breakfast of the trip at Red Hut - eggs, sausage in a sort of chutney sauce, pineapple, papaya, mmmmm...
2. Dropped off the rental car and got a very friendly driver to take us to the Belize City Marine Terminal next to the Swing Bridge
   
3. Rode to Caye Caulker; Audrey very accurately described the water as "teal with patches of indigo"
   
4. Arrived at the island to find our hotel - Seaside Cabanas - just at the end of the pier (means a lot when you don't know your way around)!
5. Our room was perfect: thatched palm roof, comfy bed, balcony with view of the pool and ocean, and no loud guests anywhere around
6. Swam and sunned next to "the Split", a natural cut through Caye Caulker caused by a hurricane
   
7. Early dinner at Sobre Las Olas ("On the Waves"); Audrey had fried snapper, Bobby had coconut curry shrimp, and we split some excellent shrimp ceviche
8. Bobby, fearing that we wouldn't get to snorkel again, rented gear from a dive shack and explored the sea wall around the Split, while Audrey read; Audrey was generally unimpressed with the sea treasures Bobby retrieved for her, but to be fair, they were just grimy shells
9. To finish the evening, we chilled out on our balcony with a couple of froo-froo drinks (Audrey: piña colada, Bobby: rum punch, a pirate drink!)
10. Caye Caulker is a wonderful place, although we would have appreciated a larger beach area; the Split is the only beach with a sandy seabed; Audrey has decided to come back, if not to just move to the caye and stay forever!

OK, that's it for Friday's activities. We're almost up-to-date on the blog, except for the photos. Our internet connection at D'Nest is still quite slow, so we'll have to wait until maybe Monday to upload them. We are going to the Belize City church tomorrow morning and have been asked to share the communion message (!) so we'll be working on that for the rest of the evening. It feels good to be back on the mainland, but Caye Caulker was soooo nice.

Altun Ha & Belize City

Again, an abbreviated post.  We're headed out to Caye Caulker in less than an hour but we wanted to get yesterday's activities written down.

We woke up in the Belize Zoo Lodge to furious bird chirping.  There is so much nature here it's ridiculous.  Everything is green, brown and moving.  We had another great breakfast, but no donuts.  We may have mentioned this earlier, but the Lodge serves wonderful little donuts for lunch and dinner, but not breakfast.  Eggs, ham, thick flour tortillas, and Marie Sharp's hot sauce, which seems to have replaced Melinda's as the hot sauce of choice all over the country.

Then we hit the road for Altun Ha, one of the ancient Mayan ruins in Belize.  On the way, we saw something so amazing that we had to turn around to take a closer look.  Behold, the Belize Prison and Gift Shop.  The guard wasn't amused by these photos for some reason, and there was much strife between Bobby and Audrey regarding whether they should have beeen taken or not.  The important thing is, we got out alive and unemprisoned by driving away quickly.

 

Above: Here it is!!!

We drove on the semi-paved Old Northern Highway for about thirty minutes.  Basically a really long rural driveway.  We were briefly stuck behind a road crew of five or six old guys who were shoveling steaming tar into some of the holes on the road, creating bumps in the road, probably on the assumption that if you have enough bumps, they even out the remaining holes.

1. Reached Altun Ha; lots of memories came back; clean restrooms
   
2. Self-guided tour of the site; climbed up everything, took photos from every angle, photo uploads pending
3. Arrived in Belize City; visited old house, now painted bright green with bright blue roof; Bobby had a crazy dream about it last night; confirmed that Big Ugly Warehouse is still obscuring view between old house and Caribbean Sea
4. Threw caution to the wind, drove downtown across Swing Bridge (now seldom seen swinging), ate curry chicken and fried chicken at Macy's cafe during local blackout; saw photo of Harrison Ford eating at Macy's during filming of Mosquito Coast
5. Drove through worst parts of Belize City as sun was setting; white knuckles and prayer
6. Reached Red Hut Inn in a nice neighborhood on the outskirts of town at twilight; much rejoicing; kicked selves for not renting car from Red Hut at inexpensive rate

The Zoo!!

1. Flew into Belize; much anxiety regarding the return of rental car in Guatemala
2. Went to the new Belize Zoo
   
   
3. Slept
4. Pond House cabin on stilts overlooking bird-filled pond; baby crocodiles!
    
   
5. Delicious stew chicken for dinner
   
6. Took the nocturnal tour; saw April the Tapir again (26 years old next month!)
    
   
7. Howler monkeys, Junior the Jaguar, ocelot, puma, coatamundi, marguay, parrots, "honey bears", wild jungle pigs; held boa constrictor and anteater; really liked the harpy eagles and spectacled owls
   
   
   
    
   
   Above: a dessicated bat impaled on a jungle spike,
   and Audrey's impersonation thereof
   

Round 2: In Which We Learned Nothing From Yesterday and Tried Again to Drive Around

In our first full day in Guatemala City, we threw caution to the wind and ventured out into Zone 14, Bobby's old 'hood.  SO much new development has sprung up in the area that parts of it were unrecognizable.  Boutique shops were all over the place, in between glass-paneled high-rise apartment buildings and sleepy men with shotguns.  We had an excellent breakfast of meat tamales and French-press coffee, then talked our way past the armed guards at the entrance to colonia Las Conchas.  We walked the loop around Las Conchas to see Bobby's old house and the (current? previous?) home of Presidente Álvaro Arzú.  Not much has changed within Las Conchas except the guarded gate at the entrance.  You can feel that the elites of Guatemala are getting more security-conscious, though, with the rising crime rate.  We met an older American-educated Guatemalan lady at one of the boutique shops who asked Bobby why he would bring Audrey to such a dangerous place.  Awkward silence.

We then tried to navigate our way to the carretera (highway to) El Salvador in order to get to Colegio Maya.  Again, Audrey's skills with the map were invaluable and Bobby's fast twitch reflexes were put to the test.  Time after time, roads would be closed for construction and Audrey would chart an alternate route while Bobby avoided the kamikaze pickup truck death squads bearing down on our so far unscathed rental car.

  

We eventually ascended the mountain to Colegio Maya then overshot it because the area around it is so built-up that Bobby didn't recognize where he was.  Maya itself has undergone a great many changes, too.  There has been a lot of faculty and administration turnover in the last ten years, although there were still a few familiar faces.  Ms Kayayan graciously gave us the grand tour and Bobby was excited to see Mr Fifield, Ms Bond, Ms Ramirez, Ms Maldonado, Ms Tsuji and his old classmate Vanessa.  Other than that, everyone was new.  The major architectural change is a beautiful new theater and multipurpose building on the left side of the lowest level of the school.  It even has a new couple of parking decks!  Maya is in the money and has apparently made good use of it.  It was also cool to hear how the Knowledge Bowl has really taken off in student participation.  Just like an American high school, Maya has posted its athletic and academic championship banners in the gym.  Knowledge Bowl 99 - Ben, Jamie, Jane and Mike - we are remembered.

Just as we were about to leave, we ran into Ricardo Cortés in the parking lot!  He had just moved back to Guate and happened to visit Maya on that day.  Ricardo was an accomplished actor during his time at Maya, with memorable turns as Lysander in Midsummer Night's Dream and Jack in Into the Woods.  He also nailed "Day By Day" in Godspell the following year.  We reminisced for a while and agreed to get together Sunday night when we get back from Belize.

 

Then we went down the mountain to La Pradera mall in search of more nostalgia.  Bobby has fond memories of watching mindless action movies at Pradera with Javier, Gus, Mike, Ryan and Stubbs, then eating a late-night Burger King combo with onion rings at the food court.  Minus the movie, that's exactly what we did.  Audrey had Pollo Campero and gave it positive reviews.  The seasoning reminded her of Old Bay.  We walked around the mall for a while but didn't see anything else of cultural or nostalgic value.  The old gang never went shopping for designer purses, after all.

The last event of the day was perhaps the best.  We met up with Mr and Mrs Bond (he was Bobby's junior year AP chemistry teacher) at the hotel and went to La Hacienda steakhouse for a wonderful dinner.  Despite Mr Bond's dissatisfaction with Guatemalan restaurant prices, Bobby was in heaven.  Ten dollar lamb shishkabobs!  Twelve dollar steaks!  Seventeen dollar steak-sausage-chicken-and-lamb combo platters!  Audrey had the Churrasco Chapín (Guatemalan grill) and Bobby had the lamb.  Dessert was similarly amazing.  We talked about all sorts of things with the Bonds - marriage, Guatemalan current events, Maya, and Serpinski kites.  Audrey and Ms Bond tuned out and talked about family when things got mathematical.  We also learned that Mr Bond's band is opening for Carlos Santana in Guatemala City next Tuesday!  There's an outside chance we can make it, but only just outside.

This was a wonderful day.  It's great to see that Maya is going strong and it's always special to catch up with old friends.  Early bedtime tonight - we have to wake up to catch our 7:10am flight to Belize!

Round 1: In Which We Survive Guatemala City Traffic

Our flights went off without a hitch, and we arrived in Guatemala's La Aurora airport on time, at 1pm local.  Bobby forgot if our car reservation was with Budget or Hertz, so a helpful Budget handler matched the deal I got online (probably from Hertz after all) and we snagged ourselves a nice Nissan sedan.  After careful study of the promotional map - which shows every TiGo cell phone tower in the city, but is short on other details, we found that the Holiday Inn was just six short blocks away.  The first block went OK, but as we tried to proceed to the next block, some dude two lanes to our left swung clear across traffic and forced us to make a right turn onto a major midtown artery.  Bobby thinks it was Avenida La Reforma.  The Guatemala City traffic grid is based on the assumption that no one will ever have to turn left, so we proceeded for several miles back towards the airport in an attempt to find a spot to turn.  All the while, little white microbuses were cutting us off from all directions until Bobby found the right balance between survival and assertiveness.  He is feeling pretty good about not getting any nicks on the Nissan.  Audrey did a masterful job with the map, picking up our position no matter what wrong turns were taken.  We finally pulled into the Holiday Inn, weeping bitter tears.

Holiday Inn charges for Internet access, so this won't be uploaded until later.  On the plus side, we're way up on the 16th floor with a great view of Zona 9 and the Agua volcano, and our room is just what we needed.  Audrey is going to sleep forever (not an airplane sleeper) and Bobby is going to get the real map that Mom and Dad gave him but he didn't use because he doesn't know what's best for him.

  

Above: The view from our balcony.  Agua volcano obscured by clouds.

Sunday Before Leaving

We hit the Borders and used up our handful of gift cards on beach reading.  Audrey got The Other Boleyn Girl and Bobby got Raiders and Rebels: A History of the Golden Age of Piracy.  Belize has pirates like Charlottesville has Mr Jefferson; you can't help but breathe them in the air.  Bobby remembers one time in Belize - maybe Caye Chapel or St George's Caye? - building a sand fort on the beach as a storm rolled in.  He had a very strong vision (imaginative, not mystical) of a pirate ship coming over the horizon and under the clouds.

We're very excited to get underway, and it'll be hard to go to sleep tonight, for all four hours we expect to get.  Pirates pirates pirates!

Above: The Beach Reading Selections

Friday Before Leaving

This is it - the big trip!  We'll be flying out on Monday morning from Dulles, connecting through Panama City, and getting into Guatemala around 1pm, local time.  Our plan for this blog is to upload our photos and post at least every other day.  Most everywhere we're staying has internet connectivity, hopefully for free.

Audrey has been great with handling most of the packing and asking our great friends Brian & Charlotta and John & Angela to watch Sabine while we're away.  If it were just Bobby, he'd be scrambling around on travelocity.com right now trying to find a plane ticket and stressing out because he couldn't find his passport.