Where we are now (an internet cafe in David, Panama)

After visiting Tikal and spending a few days in Flores, we got bored of our lovely little island and took a bus to Rio Dulce. The ride was long and uneventful, apart from the constant kicking and hair-pulling courtesy of the 2 kids sitting behind us. (New rule that we propose: When traveling with children, please notice what their hands and feet are doing to other passengers). We hopped off and made our way across the bridge to Hotel Backpackers, a decent place with a great idea: They donate their procedes to their partner, Casa Guatemala (an orphanage and school). We got a private room with a shower, although the privacy is questionable, as the walls were made of mesh wire and we could see the people in the yard from our room and the kitchen from our bathroom. Plus, we ended up bunking with quite a couple mosquitoes. Gotta love spring in the jungle. :-) Aside from the bugs, we enjoyed the few days we spent in Rio Dulce - gorgeous views from the bridge and a generally relaxing few days.

We'd decided that we were both feeling tired and travel weary so, instead of traveling slowly through Central America as we'd planned, we instead booked a bus to San Pedro Sula (Honduras, just across the border) to catch another bus direct to Panama City. When we arrived in SPS, we were pleasantly surprised to discover that the bus stations that apparently were once scattered around the not-terribly-safe city were now consolidated into a single, huge terminal that doubled as a mall (food court included). We headed to the Tica Bus counter to buy tickets for the 5:00 bus in the morning but, because it was Saturday afternoon, the attendants had already left.

Asking around, we discovered that they wouldn't be back until 4:00 AM. We contemplated going to a hostel, but since the terminal never technically closed, we instead decided to spend the night in the station. We had lunch, used the computers in the internet cafe, and crashed on a bench in front of the TicaBus counter, taking turns sleeping (okay, I drifted in and out of sleep and Jay stayed up all night), occasionally glanced at by the security guards that prowled at night.

In the morning, people started arriving to check in for their already-reserved tickets around 4:00. The attendents told us that there was no room on the bus and we'd have to wait to see if someone didn't show up, so we sat, desperately hoping that someone had changed their plans, until the bus driver came in, told us that there were in fact tons of seats, and helped us with our bags. Relieved, we climbed in for the ride. The bus left SPS at 5:00 AM and arrived in Managua, Nicaragua in the late afternoon. For the duration of the bus, this was the only overnight pause and, as Managua is considered a rather dangerous city (especially near the TicaBus station), the company had a hotel in the station itself. We gladly booked a room, as they were very cheap and the next leg of our trip left at 6:00 AM.

Hungry and reassured by the Ticabus attendents that it was pretty safe to walk a block over for food while it was light, we went out in search of food. After getting our menus, the 2 tables of teens near us seemed to have some sort of disagreement that resulted in two of the boys beating the crap out of each other, scattering chairs, customers and tables in the process. We picked up our menus and stepped aside for a couple moments while they figured out their issues, and then returned for our meal. Lovely. We ate pretty quickly before heading back to our hotel for the night and a early start to the South.

The rest of our trip was uneventful - we stopped in San Jose, Costa Rica for a few hours before continuing on to the border with Panama. This one was the only difficult crossing, as we arrived before 5:00 am (despite the San Jose pause) and the Costa Rican exit border crossing didn't open until 6:00. Once across, we had to jump from window to window on the Panama side to buy a tourist card, get a sticker, and get our stamps before lining up in a room to have our luggage hand checked. Luckily, the Ticabus attendant basically held our hands and led us through the whole process.

Once we were approved for entrance to Panama, we headed on towards the capital. Here again, the bus terminal was amazing. I've read that the Panama City bus terminal is the most modern in Latin America and I believe it - it's the best I've seen in the Western Hemisphere! Similar to the terminal in San Pedro Sula, it's large, clean and modern and attached to a mall. Additionally, this one has left-luggage services, great restaurants, and a movie theater. We were ready to move in, but we checked our luggage for the rest of the day, bought tickets to Almirante, and had a nice walk and an amazing lunch of gormet salads and crepes with (as always in Central America), amazing fresh fruit juice (passion fruit and pineapple).

At night, we picked up our luggage and boarded our overnight bus (the last for a while) to Almirante in the Northwest along the Atlantic coast. From there, we caught a taxi to the water taxi service, which took us to Bocas del Toro, on a nearby island. We spent almost a week there, enjoying the sunny beach (for the first and last days), delicious cheap food, and general relaxation. We did not bother to walk to the internet cafes, so that's why we've been out of contact for the past week.

When we finally tired of island life this morning, we retraced our steps to Almirante, and then took a short bus (another mini-van, similar to the one in Guatemala) to David, where we are sitting right now in an internet cafe. Tonight we'll take our last forseeable overnight bus back to Panama City in preparation for our flight to Bogotá and then back to the States. Photos from Rio Dulce and Bocas del Toro are on their way. In the meantime, enjoy the recently uploaded photos and updates and take care!

-JJ

Tikal, Guatemala

On Wednesday we took a shuttle bus from Flores to the Maya ruins of Tikal. Before our tickets were even checked, we were held up by a huge group of monkey-like creatures walking across the path. Nice way to start the day!

When the spectacle of the monkeys had passed, we walked for about 30 minutes through lush jungle foliage and small remains of an old empire before arriving at the gran plaza, the location of the majority of the temples (and tourists).

After exploring the area and climbing a number of exessively-tall steps (I refuse to belive the Mayans were any taller than us, so they must have had some incredible thighs), we continued north towards Templo V through a quieter path, occasionally egged on by howler monkeys, until we reached the temple.

While almost all of the verticle temples in the gran plaza had been off-limits to climbers, this one had a wooden ladder allowing people to climb to the top (as many of the original stone steps had eroded). Flipping the bird to his fear of heights, Jay made his way up the ladder to see the view from the top.

I stayed safely on the ground for documentation purposes.

Tikal, Guatemala

Arriving in Flores, Guatemala

We took a taxi to the border and passed through, paying the official departure fee from Belize and the questionable 20Q to enter Guatemala. We ignored the border taximen, offering overpriced transport to a nearby city, and found a little restaurant nearby where we sat down, had a couple sodas, and enjoyed a bit of shade. We then asked for advice on how to get a collectivo to Flores, went around the corner to the station they told us about, and waited. What came was neither a bus nor a taxi, but a tiny mini-bus no bigger than a VW bus packed full of peopl e. My “seat” was a 4-inch wide stool shoved in the space between 2 other seats, and Jay shuffled in next to the other people in his row.

We drove for a couple hours, letting off some and picking up others. Although there was never an empty seat, the driver didn’t turn anyone down – at times the assistant hung out the sliding side door to allow more standing (crouching) room for new passengers. In this manner, we sardines made our way to Santa Elena, disengaged our limbs from the pile with the other passengers, collected our luggage from where it had been tied on the roof of the van, and hopped straignt onto a tiny tuk-tuk taxi that took us across the bridge to our destination: the tiny island of Flores, Guatemala.

Having no idea of the available accommodations, we asked theh driver for a hostal in the center. He took us to “Los Amigos Hostal” – an amazing place with lots of animals, hammocks, flowers and a restaurant that served incredible custom-made fresh smoothies. We got a private little cabin and a hammock outside, where we sat and enjoyed the late-afternoon sun, birds, and flowers before venturing out for some late dinner.

Flores, Guatemala

Horseback riding through the jungle: San Ignacio, Belize

Our horseback ride was amazing and yet, at the same time, rather surreal. Natalie, Trip, Jay and I mounted our loyal steeds of the day and followed Charlie, a blond, exuberant Swedish woman in her 50s or 60s who’d been living in Belize for decades. She led us out of the town and into the jungle, where she occasionally had to pause to hack a path with the machete she carried at her side.

Natalie and Trip had relatively normal horses... but ours had personality! My horse, Niño, enjoyed lagging behind and swiping mouthfuls of whatever plant he could find. When we fell too far behind, he cantered smoothly to catch up and then proceeded at a snails pace again to enjoy the scenery and scope out the culinary options. I loved it! Time to take pictures, plus the opportunity to canter? All right!

Jay was not quite as pleased. His horse, Niña (strangely, Niño’s mother) sensed from the start that he was inexperienced, and she also tended to lag behind. Everytime she had anyone but Niño behind her, she threw a fit and anytime Jay tried to speed her up, she turned and gave him a withering glare before continuing to go at whatever pace she damn well pleased (I thought she was great!). So we stuck together in the back of the group, with one exception: water.

We had to follow the other horses closely when crossing water because, despite the sun and heat, both Niño and Niña were incredibly hydrophobic. If not directly following another horse, they would not cross. Even when they could see the other horses, and even when it was just a trickle or a muddy patch, they would balk, pace, try to find an alternative and finally either trudge bitterly through (Niña) or, far more exciting and yet rather whiplash enducing, jump (Niño).

In total, we spent about 8 hours, taking a break near a river for lunch and another by an old Mayan arch and steps to admire the ruins. The day was amazing and, although we were sore for days afterwards, completely worth it.

Horseback riding near San Ignacio, Belize

Santa Elena and San Ignacio, Belize

We spent the next day wandering around San Ignacio and its neighbor city, Santa Elena before scouting out a good restaurant to eat pupusas. We’d planned to rent bikes, but, although all the hostels and travel agencies used to offer bike rentals, one had problems with “destructive tourists” so they all stopped. Instead, we washed our clothes in the hotel’s backyard (with a washboard! Very exciting!) and hung them up to dry while 2 wide-eyed parrots chirped happily at us. We then booked a full-day horseback riding trip for the next day and bought food for the ride before crashing.

San Ignacio and Santa Elena, Belize

American School Buses in Belize: The ride from the Palenque to San Ignacio

Alternating between shade and sun at every turn in the road, we coast by broken-down houses and auto-body graveyards with our bags between our legs. We pick up more passengers, we move on... and then our tiny bus (that we picked up before crossing the border into Belize) breaks down and we shuffle our belongings - followed by Belizians, Mexicans, and a few random Dutch – onto the Belizian form of public transit: An old US public school bus, painted white. The seats are cracking at the edges and from our spot midway towards the back (between the tough kids and the nerds), we can read 3 signs in the front: “no smoking”, “All American”, and “Your Children’s SAFETY is our Business” and I can’t help but wonder: At what point exa ctly do U.S. public school districts give away their buses? And, to distract myself from the worries brought on by THAT question, why to Belize?

The ride to Belize City takes a couple hours, then we hop off and head away from the bus station to find an ATM, as we still have only Mexican Pesos (apparently useless as far as neighboring Belize is concerned). On our way, drivers stop to roll down their windows and state that the bus station is the other direction. We stand out a bit, being the only white people in the area, and the bright backpacks probably don’t help either.

We get out money (with more helpful directions from locals) and head back to the bus station to find not schedules or ticket counters, but a few rickety school buses with drivers mumbling their destinations before leaving. We search around and wait for the magic mumble “San Ignacio” before boarding. The bus drives for a couple hours, picking up some people and dropping off others until we reach the capital city of Belmopan, where the bus loads up with so many passengers that some have to stand to fit. This is apparently illeagal (though clearly noly enforced at official stations), as the driver and assistant tell everyone to sit down until we leave the station.

Many of the school bus seats (made to seat 2 children) are holding 2-3 adults, some with luggage. We have our backpacks between our knees and our side bags on our laps, and yet are joined by another passenger as we try to nonchalantly edge our way out of the station. Apparently, we are not altogether convincing. The security guard boards the bus, glances down the aisle, and tells everyone who doesn’t fit in the seats to get off the bus. This in turn leasds to a yelling match between the driver and the guard, some departures, some furtive last-minute squeezes, and one woman pretending to not understand any English. The guard repeats the request in Spanish (the woman, clearly Hispanic, continues to feign ignorance), then he directs her towards the door, barking orders at the other standers and still in a yelling match with the driver.

To add more entertainment, every time he turns his attention to the driver, a cacophany of inslulsts, hises, complaints and curses bursts out from the safely-seated passengers. He yells some more at everyone (“I am a police officer!”), turns purple, and finally writes a ticket for the driver before getting off the bus. The driver exits the parking lot, the assistant yells an obscenity at the guard, and we pick up the standing passengers a block or so down the road.

Another couple hours of lush grasslands and trees, colorful and ramshacle houses and road, and we arrive in San Ignacio. We will never look at a school bus the same way again.

P.S. Here are late photos from Palenque and Oaxaca, Mexico:

Palenque, Mexico

Oaxaca, Mexico

Moving on: Our last week in Mexico.

After finishing our classes and leaving wonderful Tlaquepaque, we took an overnight bus back to Mexico City (D.F.), spent the day there, and took another overnight bus to Oaxaca. We drank unreasonable amounts of chocolate, took dawn photos of the city, and generally wandered before hopping on yet another overnight bus to get to Huatulco.

Huatulco was meant to be a short stop to change buses and head on for another hour or so to Mazunte (aka calm beach) but, as soon as we boarded our second bus (at about 7:00 AM), we were informed that the main road was blocked no buses could leave. We went to eat breakfast, then came back and waited a few hours in the station, hoping that the road would clear and we'd be able to continue to the water (about which I'd been fantasizing for weeks). No dice. Additionally, I was getting impatient from having gone on 3 overnight buses with no shower in between. So, around noon, we gave up and headed off to find a hotel.

We were lucky to find an available, clean and cheap room nearby. Additionally, the owner was extremely friendly and happy to practice his English on Jay (who in turn used the hotel owner as his own Spanish practice). We unloaded our bags, took much-needed showers, and washed our clothes before heading into town to wander, eat, and find an internet cafe to study in.

We spent the next day in Huatulco as well, and took the night bus back to Oaxaca when the roads cleared up. Another day in Oaxaca, another night bus - this time to Palenque, the city, from which we visited the amazingly beautiful ruins of the same name. Lush, jungle surroundings, beautiful buildings, pretty waterfalls, and really sunny weather. Plus, there weren't actually that many people. Way better than Machu Picchu on my oh-so-objective-ruins-scale. Photos to come.

Currently, we're back in the city of Palenque, having just returned from the ruins. Tonight we have another night bus (hopefully the last for a while) to Chetumal at the border of Belize. From there we'll take a series of short buses into San Ignacio and enjoy the jungle of Belize. Internet availability might be more scarce, so if you're wondering where we are, we're probably having wildly amazing jungle adventures or being intimidated and held in custody by border patrol. You never really know. :-)

All the best, and stay tuned! -JJ

For now, we only have updated photos from Tlaquepaque uploaded. Photos from Oaxaca, Palenque and (soon) Belize will be up as soon as we get the chance.

Tlaquepaque, Mexico