You betta Belize it!

We left Antigua (again) for a 90-minute shuttle into Guatemala City.  Heavy rains with some awesome lightning sent people running for cover, giving the streets a very deserted feel as we drove around.  We did see what looked like a room in a building one story up where the outside wall to the street had been removed, and in the room was a statue of a man with some office furniture around him (also possibly made of stone, although it was hard to tell in the dark).  David swears he saw the beginnings of a gang fight there, but I was too busy staring at the weird statue to notice.  lol
We then got on a bus up to Flores.  I'm never a fan of night busses, but this one wasn't bad as far as they go.  We arrived 12 1/2 hours after we left Antigua, and quickly hopped on a colectivo minibus to the Belizean border, about two hours away.  Big sections of this road are still unpaved (although not as much as the guidebooks warned us about), and the rain made the road muddy and slick.  But that was probably better than the dust storm it would have been on a dry day, so we didn't complain.  The border crossing was rather uneventful, although the Guatemalan agent must have somehow realized that we had been spared the usual 10Q "fee" when we came back from Honduras, because he charged us each 20Q.  Very obnoxious.  It is so lame when you know you are being, basically, robbed, and the guy knows you know he is robbing you, but for the sake of just getting across the border without hassle you fork it over anyway.  20Q is still only $2.50US, which isn't worth a fuss, but the principle!  The principle!

A half hour and a short cab ride later, we were in the city of San Ignacio, our stop for the night.  Although it is one of the largest cities in Belize, it feels very small, just a few crisscrossed streets with lots of shops and banks, although there are what seem like homes stretching off in every direction.  What we noticed right off was the heat.  It is maybe 90F, with a humidity to match.  We've felt the heat in other places, but without an ocean breeze we are really feeling it here.  I've done my share of complaining about cold water showers, but here even the cold water is only "cold".  I can't believe I'm pining for a real cold shower, but it sure would help relieve the heat.

The other weird thing is that people speak English here.  I've gotten so used to speaking in Spanish that I am having a hard time not saying "buenos dias" and "gracias" all the time.  I'm sure many of the people also speak Spanish anyway.  They also speak Creole, which I think comes in both English and Spanish varieties.  Whatever it is, through in that Rasta accent and I can't understand a word of it.  Another oddity are the large numbers of Chinese living here.  The Chinese restaurants far outnumber any other kind of food in town, which was great for me, as the Guatemalan´s best attempt at asian food was my plate of "Chow Mein" which was actually angel hair pasta dressed with butter.  So I had some chicken fried rice one night, and some Sesame Chicken the next, it was awesomely unexpected.

Our first adventure was to a place called Cave´s Branch.  Basically you get in the river (the water was cool and delicious) on an innertube, and you float down the river, which winds its way through a series of caves.  Cave tubing is a popular tourist attraction here, and hoards of cruise ship passengers arrive on busses from the coast.  While there were a lot of them, they were in full cattle mode, and were easy to get around.  Must be all that buffet or something.  Since David and I were coming from San Ignacio, instead of arriving with a busload of 30 people, it was just the two of us with our guide.  He snaked us around the masses and farther up the river so we got to go through an extra cave, which we fully appreciated.  The last cave was the best though, I´m talking caves that are the length of several football fields, and the river just eases you down and through.  The last cave has a little waterfall coming over one side, and a partially collapsed celing in on part with the sunlight and jungle plants reaching down into the cavern.  It totally felt like the beginning part of the "Pirates Of The Caribbean" ride at Disneyland, minus the gloom and smell of mildew.  After the cave we went through some minor rapids, which was fun too.  A totally great day.

The next day was even better.  We went to the ATM cave, which doesn´t stand for Automated Teller Machine, but I´ll have to look up the Maya to remember the full name.  We went with Nick from England and a married couple from Utah.  After driving for an hour or so, we then hiked through the jungle for another hour, crossing three times through a small river.  We saw herons and owls and what are called "Jesus Christ" lizards, which are so named because they can stand and run so fast on their hind legs that they can literally run across water.  Our guide pointed out different plants all along the way, telling us which ones would cure upset stomach and which ones would give you an itchy rash, helpfully called Poisonwood, and which ones were an antidote for Poisonwood.  He showed us one vine covered in sharp needles, which he said can grow up to three miles long!

Unlike any tour I´ve ever been on before, the guide was totally relaxed and kept encouraging us to take our time and not to rush.  We took full advantage of this, and what was supposed to be a seven or eight hour tour stretched into almost 12!  It was great, and we tipped appropriately.

Eventually we came to the mouth of the cave, from which the river pours out.  After putting on helmets with headlamps, we jumped in the river and swam into the cave.  From there we followed the river deeper and deeper into the ground.  Sometimes the water was ankle deep, sometimes chest deep, sometimes we had to swim, twisting through crevices and over boulders and underneath huge stalagtites and gorgeous curtains of rock.  We saw huge crawfish, a few bats and a totally creepy cave spider.  As if cave spider wasn´t a creepy enough name, this one is called a Scorpion Spider.

At some point we left the river and climbed up into an overhead passageway that we never would have found on our own.  (The cave follows the river for over two more miles from the point we veered away).  The passageway was tight at first, but soon opened up into a series of large caverns, and this is where the ancient Maya would come to bring offerings to the Gods.  There were pots all over the place, many well preserved thanks to the calcium sediment dripping from the celing which coated and protected everything.  We had to take off our shoes and walk around in our socks here to help preserve the site.  Farther back we started coming across the bodies, 1000 year old preserved skeletons lying where they fell.  The cave is named after the most perfect of these, a skeleton of a young girl laying on her back, limbs askew.  Talk about "Pirates of the Caribbean".  It was creepy and awesome and humbling all at once.

After a third night that was too hot to sleep through, we were ready to head to the beach.  Note to any travelers coming to San Ignacio, do yourself a favor and get a room with AC!