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From Tulum in the Yucatan we drove 136 miles to a RV park called Cenote Azul (N 18:39 W 88:25) across the
street from the cenote near Chetumal in preparation for crossing into Belize. A cenote is a fresh water pond that is
fed by an underground water source. Some of them are in caves, but this one was like a small lake. The water felt
very soft and the temperature was cool but not cold. We went swimming there several times during the 2 days we
were there. Most of the group went into Chetumal to visit the museum and wander around town, but I stayed
behind and enjoyed the time alone.
On March 4th we left Mexico to cross into Belize. The first order of business was to turn in our tourist cards for
Mexico since we would not be returning before they expired (they are good for 6 months). Our passport was
stamped and the cards collected. There was no exit tax. If we would have been returning to Mexico before the
expiration, we could have paid 205 pesos for the privilege of exiting and then entering again. I am not too clear on
this part as we weren’t returning before expiration. The next stop was to customs to turn in our vehicle import
holograms because we wouldn’t return before they expired. We got a receipt for the hologram so when we return
to Mexico in several months there won’t be any problems getting back in again. All of the paperwork for the
vehicles is necessary because Mexico doesn’t want people taking vehicles into Mexico and selling them without
paying the appropriate import duties.
Now that we had exited Mexico we needed to enter Belize. First we went to a counter where we all submitted our
passports and the drivers had to present a driver’s license. Then we went and waited in our vehicles until they
sent an agricultural inspector to each rig. We were asked if we had any meat and the answer was no. They then
wanted to inspect our canned goods. We had some tuna that they looked like they wanted to confiscate until I
protested. That was the end of it and we went on our way. The entire process took about 3 hours for all of us. To
this point we had driven 4100 miles over 2 months averaging 68 miles per day. It will be interesting to see if we do
indeed slow down as we proceed south through Central America.
We continued south to Orange Walk Town, Belize…we drove 59 miles total that day. For the first 2 days 4 rigs
parked on the soccer field right in the center of town where we all had fun talking and playing with the kids – Larry
& Joyce and Ken & Carolyn opted for an RV park a couple of miles out of town. We all spent an entire day on a
boat trip up the New River to the ruins at Lamanai. It was 35 miles up the river to the ruins and we had a very long
day – 9:00 to 5:30 – watching wildlife and visiting the ruins. On the return trip down the river we saw the members
of the group from which we split off parked alongside the river at a boat landing. We waved and hollered but didn’t
stop.
The kids were fun for the two days we were there on the soccer field, but we were glad when we moved down to
the edge of the New River at the Lamanai Riverside Restaurant and Retreat (N 18:05 W 88:33) which we found
when we took the boat trip. What an incredible spot to camp for the 4 rigs that moved there from the town square.
We were 4 feet from the river bank and could watch herons and other birds, tugs pulling barges full of partially
processed sugar cane, tour boats and tarpon as they ‘porpoised’ up and down the river. The owners were very
friendly and staying there was free and there was access to a hose to fill up with water. The owner would like to
put in some more spots for RVs and doesn’t intend to charge for them. We encouraged him to consider installing
a dump for the holding tanks and I suspect he will eventually do that. The food in his restaurant was very good
and offered several inexpensive options; we all ate some meals there at the restaurant.
While there we got our kayaks out and spent 4 days kayaking up and down river morning, noon and also at night
when the full moon came up. The night kayaking was a little scary as we were concerned about the crocodiles that
might have been lurking along the bank as we got in and out and also, we had to be careful we weren’t in a bad
spot if the tug and barges came along.
We also went to a town just south of Orange Walk to what would be the equivalent of a county fair in the states.
They had horse races, carnival rides, a soccer match, food for sale, beer booths and the Prime Minister made a
speech about the future economic development of Belize. Sugar cane and citrus fruit are the major crops in
Belize. Mennonite farmers produce 80% or more of the crops consumed by Belizeans and we saw them in town at
the markets and on the streets. The men were all dressed in black overalls with straw hats and the women
dressed in long dresses also with straw hats.
We all loved Orange Walk and enjoyed the six days we spent there. The day before we were to leave Larry
discovered that his trailer brakes had come apart and the calipers were broken and the bracket to hold them was
worn out too. He spent a couple of days tracking down parts in the states and had them shipped to Belize City
where the daughter of the Lamanai Retreat works. They got there in two days and we left Larry and Joyce’s rig in
Orange Walk while waiting for the parts and we all headed south to Crooked Tree. Larry and Joyce spent one
night in our rig with us at Crooked Tree.
While making some repairs to Ken’s CB radio, Larry cut his thumb down to the bone in the webbing part of his
hand. Ken took him to a clinic for stitches where the doctor’s assistant injected his hand with Dextrose instead of
Lidocaine and wondered why Larry could feel him stitching it up. Larry figured out why when he read the label on
the bottle and finally got the hand numbed up to finish the stitching. His hand swelled up like a surgical glove that
someone inflated; it was fine in a couple of days.
Crooked Tree is a nature preserve that is managed by the Audubon Society and we camped right next to the
visitor’s center for free (N 17:47 W 88:32). Admission to the preserve – the whole town is the preserve – was
$8US/person. While there we walked, birdwatched and ate Tilapia that we bought from a local fisherman. Larry
and Joyce returned to Orange Walk to make the repairs on the brakes and we continued on toward Belmopan.
They will be catching up with us today.
We are currently camped behind a bar and restaurant called Amigos (N 17:19 W 88:34) on the Western Highway
just west of the Belize Zoo and 20 miles east of Belmopan. The place is owned by an American from Ohio named
Sue who has been here for 21 years. When she arrived 21 years ago she bought 1500 acres of beautiful land
and now has hundreds of acres of orange, grapefruit and lime trees along the Sibun River. She has the
restaurant and bar for social interaction and there was lots of it going on last night. Thank goodness for earplugs.
The food in the restaurant is good and relatively inexpensive. Sue has plans to make some better RV spots as
time goes on.
Side Bar: Parking and Camping Conditions
Because we are not parking in RV parks, we sometimes find ourselves driving on roads that are not really
designed for big rigs and parking in some interesting and tight spots. When we arrived at Crooked Tree, for
example, Ken drove his rig too close to the lagoon and got it stuck; Larry pulled him out. While we were in San
Blas, Kirk drove into some deep sand on the beach with his trailer and we had to dig him out. We have all been
hoping that our 30,000# monster will manage to stay unstuck as getting us out would be a major project.
Yesterday, as we were parking behind Amigos, we came pretty darn close to getting stuck in the gooiest clay mud
you have ever seen. I drove through it getting to a parking spot and the wheels dug in almost up to the
hubs…thank goodness I didn’t stop or we would have had a mess. Our engine just worked like a champ and we
powered through it. We left ruts about 12 inches deep that we then went back and shoveled to fill them. We then
opted for a spot on an access road that is higher ground. It’s a good thing too as it rained most of the night. Hope
everyone else can get out in a couple of days.
Today some members of the group are going to the Belize Zoo, Joe and Kirk are headed for Ambergris Caye and
Colleen and I are headed for Guanacaste National Park and the town of Belmopan; we will all take public buses to
get to our destinations. I imagine we will be here for 2 or 3 more days. The date is March 13th.
We stayed at Amigos east of Belmopan for 3 nights total while we waited for it to dry out somewhat after the
pouring rain. There was plenty to do in the area with visiting the zoo, Guanacaste National Park, the produce
market in Belmopan and picking grapefruit, oranges and cacao at the farm of a man we met at Amigos. Cacao is a
fruit that grows in pods that contain beans from which chocolate is made. We have some of the beans fermenting
in a bucket now and then we will figure out how to dry, roast and grind them to finish making the chocolate.
Leaving Amigos we headed back to the Caribbean coast along the Hummingbird Highway to Dangriga. We wanted
to spend some time in an area from where we could go snorkeling on the cays without having to be based near
Belize City which has a bad reputation. In Dangriga we found two places to stay and part of the group stayed at a
town park where the folks we split off from were staying and the rest of us stayed in a grassy area near a bar
called the Malibu Beach Club by the Pelican Bay Resort (N 16:59, W 88:14). Both spots were free, grassy and
right on the beach.
One day we took a drive down the coast to Placencia, an area where many Americans have built beach homes.
Two years ago Colleen and I were there one month after it was devastated by Hurricane Iris. They have rebuilt the
whole area and it looks great. We visited with Geri and Avril, friends from the states who were at home…it was fun
to see their place.
Another day we took a boat out to the keys to snorkel and had a great time. We stopped to eat our lunch on
South Water Cay. The trip cost $300 for the boat for the day and 9 of us divided up the cost. Snorkeling in the
Caribbean waters is an amazing thing to do. The water is warm and incredible shades of blue from the palest
turquoise over a white sand bottom to a cobalt blue in deeper areas. The fish are every color imaginable from
white to pink to blue to red to green to black with neon highlights and stripes and spots in every conceivable
combination. The corals are lacy purple waving in the current to yellow to white from the tiniest delicate branchlets
to huge brain corals. There is no way to accurately describe this underwater garden and has to be experienced to
be appreciated.
Dangriga was welcoming and we appreciated it as a jumping off spot to go snorkeling, but the town itself didn’t
have much to offer. We left there after 3 nights and headed inland to the western border of Belize and the town of
San Ignacio. We arrived there late after stopping at the Blue Hole cave and cenote so spent the night on the
soccer field of a Mennonite school just east of town. The next morning before leaving lots of the kids toured some
of our rigs. Then we stayed for a week at the Inglewood RV Park (N 17:08 W 89:05) on the western edge of town.
The RV park is owned by Greg Carrillo who lived for 30 years in Southern California and has now retired to his
home country. The park is the nicest one we have stayed in our entire trip so far. He charges $7.50/night with
electricity extra if you need it.
We hung up our hammocks under the palapas and settled in for a week. It rained off and on during the week, but
that didn’t keep us from enjoying the area. One day we took a hand-cranked ferry across the Belize River to the
area called Spanish Lookout where the Mennonites settled in 1960 and have cattle ranches and farms. Another
day we hauled the kayaks to the Macal River and paddled more than 12 miles down it. On the way we had a
couple of mishaps…Joe got sideways in a little rapid and hit a tree broadside, broke his paddle and ended up in
the drink (it was actually Larry’s kayak and paddle) …I stepped out of our kayak to use the ‘facilities’ on shore
and ended up to my waist in mud…thought I was a goner there for a while but managed to lay across our kayak
and pull myself out of the muck. Sure glad there weren’t any crocodiles nearby!!!! Another day we visited a
butterfly farm and took a guided walk to learn about all the medicinal trees in the forest. Another day some folks
went for a drive and hike to a waterfall and cave. There is lots to do in the area. It finally quit raining and we
figured out that the nasty dirt road we had to take across the border into Guatemala would be dry enough to be
passable.
Off we went with a bit of trepidation as we knew this section of road is sometimes impassable. We had been
advised that because of the rain they had closed it for a while and trucks were getting stuck on it. If we couldn’t
get through we would have to go all the way back to the Yucatan in Mexico and then way west to get to another
border crossing into Guatemala…perhaps as much as a 4 day trip. The road was just as bad as we had
imagined!!!! It was dried out enough to make it not slippery, but there were potholes big enough to hide a
Volkswagen in and so many of them that we snaked down the road wiggling our way among them. Picking a path
through them was an interesting challenge. Sometimes there was no way to avoid them all and we had to just
crawl over them. We had books falling off of shelves, trash cans and chairs tipping over; fortunately nothing was
damaged. That stretch of road was 14 miles long!!!! The reason it is in such bad shape is because the Belizeans
and the Guatemalans are in a dispute over the border and, though it is technically in Guatemala right now, they
are going to give the area back to the Belizeans and don’t want to spend the money to repair the road. This
section of road is one of two iffy parts of the trip. The other one is the border crossing from Costa Rica into
Panama at Sixaola. We’ll tackle that one in a few weeks.
On March 26th we got to Tikal in Guatemala where we are camped right next to the entrance (N 17:14 W 89:37)
for 25 Quetzales a night (about $3 US). There is a little restaurant here and meals are 25 to 40 Quetzales each
($3.00 to $5.00). On the 27th we celebrated Ken’s 67th birthday with a meal out at the restaurant (Ken and
Carolyn bought dinner for all of us). Carolyn baked him a cake and we had a great time. The waitress brought
Ken a sesame seed hamburger bun with candles in it as a cake.
Tikal is another Mayan ruin site…one of the most important…there is only one more to see in Copan, Honduras.
We all spent the day at the ruins. Some of us climbed to the top of Temple IV and some of us spent more time
looking at all of the wildlife. I got some great pictures of monkeys, coatimundis, oropendulas and keel-billed
toucans. Oropendulas are these really large birds (raven sized) with bright yellow tail feathers that build long,
fluffy nests that hang from the tree branches. Their call sounds like a cross between a turkey and water flowing
over large pebbles…it is unmistakable!!! When they make this noise they fling themselves headfirst off the branch
while continuing to grasp it with their feet and swing upside down before finally righting themselves. You would
have to see it to believe it!!! Mother nature really outdid herself with this design…must have been one of her
more whimsical days.
The keel-billed Toucan is the bird made famous as the Fruit Loops cereal bird and is quite extraordinary too. I
was so lucky to have gotten some good pictures of it and the oropendula. I will post them on the website.
Today, the 28th, we are headed south to Rio Dulce with a visit on the way to the island town of Flores. Flores is
an island in the middle of Lake Peten Itza…we are not near the coast.
We headed for Rio Dulce with a stop along the way at Finca Ixobel. The finca is very large and was purchased in
the late 1960s by an American woman, Carole Devine, and her husband. Her husband, Mike, was killed by
soldiers in 1990 during the height of the civil war in Guatemala. They killed him because he had thrown them out
of his restaurant for harassing his customers. In 1995 justice of a sort was meted out as a result of President
George Bush Sr. withdrawing foreign aid until something was done about the killing. One soldier took the fall for
the incident and is now in prison.
The finca is a working restaurant with a wonderful buffet each night, a bakery, dorm style rooms for backpackers,
small houses on stilts for guests, beautiful grounds, a boondock spot for RVs, and activities that you can sign up
to do including hikes to caves, horseback riding, and river rafting. We stayed there for 4 nights at a cost of 22
Quetzales/person/night – about $3US/person/night plus the cost of meals and activities.
While we were there we met a computer geek named Terry who was able to help us fix a problem we were having
with the wireless access to the internet for the satellite. He was great and we appreciated his expertise and
generosity. He is riding a motorcycle from New York City to the tip of South America over a period of 6 months.
We wish him a safe journey.
This takes us to the end of March as we left Finca Ixobel for Rio Dulce on April Fool’s Day. I have put dozens of
additional pictures up on the Yahoo Group KirkbrideReganSaga because I can only put a few on the website
because of size contraints. Join the group if you aren’t already a member.
street from the cenote near Chetumal in preparation for crossing into Belize. A cenote is a fresh water pond that is
fed by an underground water source. Some of them are in caves, but this one was like a small lake. The water felt
very soft and the temperature was cool but not cold. We went swimming there several times during the 2 days we
were there. Most of the group went into Chetumal to visit the museum and wander around town, but I stayed
behind and enjoyed the time alone.
On March 4th we left Mexico to cross into Belize. The first order of business was to turn in our tourist cards for
Mexico since we would not be returning before they expired (they are good for 6 months). Our passport was
stamped and the cards collected. There was no exit tax. If we would have been returning to Mexico before the
expiration, we could have paid 205 pesos for the privilege of exiting and then entering again. I am not too clear on
this part as we weren’t returning before expiration. The next stop was to customs to turn in our vehicle import
holograms because we wouldn’t return before they expired. We got a receipt for the hologram so when we return
to Mexico in several months there won’t be any problems getting back in again. All of the paperwork for the
vehicles is necessary because Mexico doesn’t want people taking vehicles into Mexico and selling them without
paying the appropriate import duties.
Now that we had exited Mexico we needed to enter Belize. First we went to a counter where we all submitted our
passports and the drivers had to present a driver’s license. Then we went and waited in our vehicles until they
sent an agricultural inspector to each rig. We were asked if we had any meat and the answer was no. They then
wanted to inspect our canned goods. We had some tuna that they looked like they wanted to confiscate until I
protested. That was the end of it and we went on our way. The entire process took about 3 hours for all of us. To
this point we had driven 4100 miles over 2 months averaging 68 miles per day. It will be interesting to see if we do
indeed slow down as we proceed south through Central America.
We continued south to Orange Walk Town, Belize…we drove 59 miles total that day. For the first 2 days 4 rigs
parked on the soccer field right in the center of town where we all had fun talking and playing with the kids – Larry
& Joyce and Ken & Carolyn opted for an RV park a couple of miles out of town. We all spent an entire day on a
boat trip up the New River to the ruins at Lamanai. It was 35 miles up the river to the ruins and we had a very long
day – 9:00 to 5:30 – watching wildlife and visiting the ruins. On the return trip down the river we saw the members
of the group from which we split off parked alongside the river at a boat landing. We waved and hollered but didn’t
stop.
The kids were fun for the two days we were there on the soccer field, but we were glad when we moved down to
the edge of the New River at the Lamanai Riverside Restaurant and Retreat (N 18:05 W 88:33) which we found
when we took the boat trip. What an incredible spot to camp for the 4 rigs that moved there from the town square.
We were 4 feet from the river bank and could watch herons and other birds, tugs pulling barges full of partially
processed sugar cane, tour boats and tarpon as they ‘porpoised’ up and down the river. The owners were very
friendly and staying there was free and there was access to a hose to fill up with water. The owner would like to
put in some more spots for RVs and doesn’t intend to charge for them. We encouraged him to consider installing
a dump for the holding tanks and I suspect he will eventually do that. The food in his restaurant was very good
and offered several inexpensive options; we all ate some meals there at the restaurant.
While there we got our kayaks out and spent 4 days kayaking up and down river morning, noon and also at night
when the full moon came up. The night kayaking was a little scary as we were concerned about the crocodiles that
might have been lurking along the bank as we got in and out and also, we had to be careful we weren’t in a bad
spot if the tug and barges came along.
We also went to a town just south of Orange Walk to what would be the equivalent of a county fair in the states.
They had horse races, carnival rides, a soccer match, food for sale, beer booths and the Prime Minister made a
speech about the future economic development of Belize. Sugar cane and citrus fruit are the major crops in
Belize. Mennonite farmers produce 80% or more of the crops consumed by Belizeans and we saw them in town at
the markets and on the streets. The men were all dressed in black overalls with straw hats and the women
dressed in long dresses also with straw hats.
We all loved Orange Walk and enjoyed the six days we spent there. The day before we were to leave Larry
discovered that his trailer brakes had come apart and the calipers were broken and the bracket to hold them was
worn out too. He spent a couple of days tracking down parts in the states and had them shipped to Belize City
where the daughter of the Lamanai Retreat works. They got there in two days and we left Larry and Joyce’s rig in
Orange Walk while waiting for the parts and we all headed south to Crooked Tree. Larry and Joyce spent one
night in our rig with us at Crooked Tree.
While making some repairs to Ken’s CB radio, Larry cut his thumb down to the bone in the webbing part of his
hand. Ken took him to a clinic for stitches where the doctor’s assistant injected his hand with Dextrose instead of
Lidocaine and wondered why Larry could feel him stitching it up. Larry figured out why when he read the label on
the bottle and finally got the hand numbed up to finish the stitching. His hand swelled up like a surgical glove that
someone inflated; it was fine in a couple of days.
Crooked Tree is a nature preserve that is managed by the Audubon Society and we camped right next to the
visitor’s center for free (N 17:47 W 88:32). Admission to the preserve – the whole town is the preserve – was
$8US/person. While there we walked, birdwatched and ate Tilapia that we bought from a local fisherman. Larry
and Joyce returned to Orange Walk to make the repairs on the brakes and we continued on toward Belmopan.
They will be catching up with us today.
We are currently camped behind a bar and restaurant called Amigos (N 17:19 W 88:34) on the Western Highway
just west of the Belize Zoo and 20 miles east of Belmopan. The place is owned by an American from Ohio named
Sue who has been here for 21 years. When she arrived 21 years ago she bought 1500 acres of beautiful land
and now has hundreds of acres of orange, grapefruit and lime trees along the Sibun River. She has the
restaurant and bar for social interaction and there was lots of it going on last night. Thank goodness for earplugs.
The food in the restaurant is good and relatively inexpensive. Sue has plans to make some better RV spots as
time goes on.
Side Bar: Parking and Camping Conditions
Because we are not parking in RV parks, we sometimes find ourselves driving on roads that are not really
designed for big rigs and parking in some interesting and tight spots. When we arrived at Crooked Tree, for
example, Ken drove his rig too close to the lagoon and got it stuck; Larry pulled him out. While we were in San
Blas, Kirk drove into some deep sand on the beach with his trailer and we had to dig him out. We have all been
hoping that our 30,000# monster will manage to stay unstuck as getting us out would be a major project.
Yesterday, as we were parking behind Amigos, we came pretty darn close to getting stuck in the gooiest clay mud
you have ever seen. I drove through it getting to a parking spot and the wheels dug in almost up to the
hubs…thank goodness I didn’t stop or we would have had a mess. Our engine just worked like a champ and we
powered through it. We left ruts about 12 inches deep that we then went back and shoveled to fill them. We then
opted for a spot on an access road that is higher ground. It’s a good thing too as it rained most of the night. Hope
everyone else can get out in a couple of days.
Today some members of the group are going to the Belize Zoo, Joe and Kirk are headed for Ambergris Caye and
Colleen and I are headed for Guanacaste National Park and the town of Belmopan; we will all take public buses to
get to our destinations. I imagine we will be here for 2 or 3 more days. The date is March 13th.
We stayed at Amigos east of Belmopan for 3 nights total while we waited for it to dry out somewhat after the
pouring rain. There was plenty to do in the area with visiting the zoo, Guanacaste National Park, the produce
market in Belmopan and picking grapefruit, oranges and cacao at the farm of a man we met at Amigos. Cacao is a
fruit that grows in pods that contain beans from which chocolate is made. We have some of the beans fermenting
in a bucket now and then we will figure out how to dry, roast and grind them to finish making the chocolate.
Leaving Amigos we headed back to the Caribbean coast along the Hummingbird Highway to Dangriga. We wanted
to spend some time in an area from where we could go snorkeling on the cays without having to be based near
Belize City which has a bad reputation. In Dangriga we found two places to stay and part of the group stayed at a
town park where the folks we split off from were staying and the rest of us stayed in a grassy area near a bar
called the Malibu Beach Club by the Pelican Bay Resort (N 16:59, W 88:14). Both spots were free, grassy and
right on the beach.
One day we took a drive down the coast to Placencia, an area where many Americans have built beach homes.
Two years ago Colleen and I were there one month after it was devastated by Hurricane Iris. They have rebuilt the
whole area and it looks great. We visited with Geri and Avril, friends from the states who were at home…it was fun
to see their place.
Another day we took a boat out to the keys to snorkel and had a great time. We stopped to eat our lunch on
South Water Cay. The trip cost $300 for the boat for the day and 9 of us divided up the cost. Snorkeling in the
Caribbean waters is an amazing thing to do. The water is warm and incredible shades of blue from the palest
turquoise over a white sand bottom to a cobalt blue in deeper areas. The fish are every color imaginable from
white to pink to blue to red to green to black with neon highlights and stripes and spots in every conceivable
combination. The corals are lacy purple waving in the current to yellow to white from the tiniest delicate branchlets
to huge brain corals. There is no way to accurately describe this underwater garden and has to be experienced to
be appreciated.
Dangriga was welcoming and we appreciated it as a jumping off spot to go snorkeling, but the town itself didn’t
have much to offer. We left there after 3 nights and headed inland to the western border of Belize and the town of
San Ignacio. We arrived there late after stopping at the Blue Hole cave and cenote so spent the night on the
soccer field of a Mennonite school just east of town. The next morning before leaving lots of the kids toured some
of our rigs. Then we stayed for a week at the Inglewood RV Park (N 17:08 W 89:05) on the western edge of town.
The RV park is owned by Greg Carrillo who lived for 30 years in Southern California and has now retired to his
home country. The park is the nicest one we have stayed in our entire trip so far. He charges $7.50/night with
electricity extra if you need it.
We hung up our hammocks under the palapas and settled in for a week. It rained off and on during the week, but
that didn’t keep us from enjoying the area. One day we took a hand-cranked ferry across the Belize River to the
area called Spanish Lookout where the Mennonites settled in 1960 and have cattle ranches and farms. Another
day we hauled the kayaks to the Macal River and paddled more than 12 miles down it. On the way we had a
couple of mishaps…Joe got sideways in a little rapid and hit a tree broadside, broke his paddle and ended up in
the drink (it was actually Larry’s kayak and paddle) …I stepped out of our kayak to use the ‘facilities’ on shore
and ended up to my waist in mud…thought I was a goner there for a while but managed to lay across our kayak
and pull myself out of the muck. Sure glad there weren’t any crocodiles nearby!!!! Another day we visited a
butterfly farm and took a guided walk to learn about all the medicinal trees in the forest. Another day some folks
went for a drive and hike to a waterfall and cave. There is lots to do in the area. It finally quit raining and we
figured out that the nasty dirt road we had to take across the border into Guatemala would be dry enough to be
passable.
Off we went with a bit of trepidation as we knew this section of road is sometimes impassable. We had been
advised that because of the rain they had closed it for a while and trucks were getting stuck on it. If we couldn’t
get through we would have to go all the way back to the Yucatan in Mexico and then way west to get to another
border crossing into Guatemala…perhaps as much as a 4 day trip. The road was just as bad as we had
imagined!!!! It was dried out enough to make it not slippery, but there were potholes big enough to hide a
Volkswagen in and so many of them that we snaked down the road wiggling our way among them. Picking a path
through them was an interesting challenge. Sometimes there was no way to avoid them all and we had to just
crawl over them. We had books falling off of shelves, trash cans and chairs tipping over; fortunately nothing was
damaged. That stretch of road was 14 miles long!!!! The reason it is in such bad shape is because the Belizeans
and the Guatemalans are in a dispute over the border and, though it is technically in Guatemala right now, they
are going to give the area back to the Belizeans and don’t want to spend the money to repair the road. This
section of road is one of two iffy parts of the trip. The other one is the border crossing from Costa Rica into
Panama at Sixaola. We’ll tackle that one in a few weeks.
On March 26th we got to Tikal in Guatemala where we are camped right next to the entrance (N 17:14 W 89:37)
for 25 Quetzales a night (about $3 US). There is a little restaurant here and meals are 25 to 40 Quetzales each
($3.00 to $5.00). On the 27th we celebrated Ken’s 67th birthday with a meal out at the restaurant (Ken and
Carolyn bought dinner for all of us). Carolyn baked him a cake and we had a great time. The waitress brought
Ken a sesame seed hamburger bun with candles in it as a cake.
Tikal is another Mayan ruin site…one of the most important…there is only one more to see in Copan, Honduras.
We all spent the day at the ruins. Some of us climbed to the top of Temple IV and some of us spent more time
looking at all of the wildlife. I got some great pictures of monkeys, coatimundis, oropendulas and keel-billed
toucans. Oropendulas are these really large birds (raven sized) with bright yellow tail feathers that build long,
fluffy nests that hang from the tree branches. Their call sounds like a cross between a turkey and water flowing
over large pebbles…it is unmistakable!!! When they make this noise they fling themselves headfirst off the branch
while continuing to grasp it with their feet and swing upside down before finally righting themselves. You would
have to see it to believe it!!! Mother nature really outdid herself with this design…must have been one of her
more whimsical days.
The keel-billed Toucan is the bird made famous as the Fruit Loops cereal bird and is quite extraordinary too. I
was so lucky to have gotten some good pictures of it and the oropendula. I will post them on the website.
Today, the 28th, we are headed south to Rio Dulce with a visit on the way to the island town of Flores. Flores is
an island in the middle of Lake Peten Itza…we are not near the coast.
We headed for Rio Dulce with a stop along the way at Finca Ixobel. The finca is very large and was purchased in
the late 1960s by an American woman, Carole Devine, and her husband. Her husband, Mike, was killed by
soldiers in 1990 during the height of the civil war in Guatemala. They killed him because he had thrown them out
of his restaurant for harassing his customers. In 1995 justice of a sort was meted out as a result of President
George Bush Sr. withdrawing foreign aid until something was done about the killing. One soldier took the fall for
the incident and is now in prison.
The finca is a working restaurant with a wonderful buffet each night, a bakery, dorm style rooms for backpackers,
small houses on stilts for guests, beautiful grounds, a boondock spot for RVs, and activities that you can sign up
to do including hikes to caves, horseback riding, and river rafting. We stayed there for 4 nights at a cost of 22
Quetzales/person/night – about $3US/person/night plus the cost of meals and activities.
While we were there we met a computer geek named Terry who was able to help us fix a problem we were having
with the wireless access to the internet for the satellite. He was great and we appreciated his expertise and
generosity. He is riding a motorcycle from New York City to the tip of South America over a period of 6 months.
We wish him a safe journey.
This takes us to the end of March as we left Finca Ixobel for Rio Dulce on April Fool’s Day. I have put dozens of
additional pictures up on the Yahoo Group KirkbrideReganSaga because I can only put a few on the website
because of size contraints. Join the group if you aren’t already a member.
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2005
2005
March 2004
Around the World with Kathe and Colleen