Into the Jungle

Shortly after my parents arrived for their visit, we took the water taxi to Belize City  where we caught a transfer* to San Ignacio. San Ignacio is a pretty little city in the far west of Belize. It is the capital of Cayo District, and lies just east of the border with Guatemala.

We stayed at Cahal Pech, a nice resort in the hills above town with commanding views of the Belize River valley and Guatemala to the west. They also have an awesome three-tiered pool with a pterodactyl (!) where the boys spent many joyful hours swimming.

Mom with Amy and the boys, we had a great view from the balcony

The pools

The pterodactyl

On the morning of our first full day, we headed west to Guatemala to see the ancient Mayan ruins at Tikal. We piled into a bus and got to the border in good time. Amy and I were feeling a bit nervous about our immigration status--you see, in Belize, you have to live in the country for 12 months before you can even qualify for residency, otherwise you have to get your "tourist card" renewed at Immigration every month. We had planned on doing this at the border, but forgot that Immigration subtracts one day every time you get your card renewed (for example, if you get your card renewed on the 20th, it must be renewed on the 19th of the following month, and so on). I realized this after we had arrived in San Ignacio, about 15 minutes before the Immigration office closed. Unfortunately, the Immigration office is about a 20 minute drive from San Ignacio, so I called them. They assured me we'd have no trouble and could just renew our card at the border.

However, as we have discovered through multiple interactions with various branches of the Belizean government, what you hear from one person isn't always what you will hear from the next, so it was with some trepidation that I made my way to the little window at Immigration on our way out of Belize. The man behind the glass looked at my passport and Amy's passport, looked at me, looked at the passport, looked at me again with a very disapproving look on his face, then asked me to explain myself. I did so as calmly as possible. He called out to someone over his shoulder, and I was led away to a back room off the main hall of the building.

It is never a good thing when a serious government official takes you into a back room in a small Central American country, especially when you are (technically) in that country illegally. Fortunately, I was able to keep smiling and stay patient, and after about 20-30 minutes featuring a severe scolding from a different official and multiple apologies from me, I managed to get both of our tourist cards renewed and we were on our way.

We piled into an ancient, beat-to-hell Toyota minivan with no seat belts or air conditioning that sounded like it was powered by an electric meat grinder, and we continued west. The transition into Guatemala is quite striking. The roads are significantly better, but there are soldiers and/or police officers with assault rifles everywhere. There are multiple checkpoints, numerous military bases, and the whole place just feels a lot more militarized than Belize. The countryside is pretty enough, and after about an hour and a half, we entered Tikal National Park.

Although we had been to Tikal once before (during our first trip to Belize/Guatemala in April), I was very excited to be visiting again with my parents. The ruins are so impressive, and the surrounding jungle so enveloping, it feels quite otherworldly. I was also really looking forward to seeing more wildlife, particularly the birds.

For my parents, this was their first experience with Mayan ruins, and I think Tikal made a very strong impression on them. We climbed to the top of several pyramids, temples, and dwellings, took lots of pictures, and learned a lot from our guide. We saw spider monkeys, ocellated turkeys, red-lored parrots, aracari toucans, and an orange-breasted falcon. The toucan and the falcon were particularly exciting--it was our first time seeing the aracari in the wild, and the orange-breasted falcon is rarely seen. Amy spotted the falcon perched in a hole at the top of Temple IV. At first I thought it was an aplomado falcon, but after we climbed to the top of the temple, we got a much better look and confirmed that was in fact an orange-breasted.

Mom with stelae in front of one of the 7 pyramid complexes

On top of the pyramid, with one of the temples behind us (Temple 1, I believe)

Temple 1

Temple 1, viewed from the royals' housing area

Temple 2

On our walk to Temple IV, someone found a tarantula, so naturally Liam picked it up

Ocellated turkey

Coatimundi

Ararcari toucan

View from atop Temple IV

Mom and Dad on top of Temple IV

The whole gang in the central courtyard

After completing our tour of the ruins, we had a delicious lunch at a restaurant in the park, then switched drivers and headed to the city of Flores. Flores is a beautiful little town on an island in the middle of Peten Itza, a huge freshwater lake southwest of Tikal. Unfortunately we arrived in Flores quite late, but were able to view the sunset from the Catholic Church at the highest point of the island. It was beautiful! The town is really charming, with narrow cobble stone streets, brightly painted buildings, and street vendors everywhere. After sunset we explored the town, bought some souvenirs, and purchased a bunch of garnaches from the street vendors.

Sunset from the top of Flores

One of the many narrow streets on the island

The folks on top of the island

Amy and the boys enjoying the evening along the lakeshore

The drive back to Belize was very long. We had to slow almost to a complete stop several times to avoid hitting groups of people parading down the highway, holding candles and carrying a representation of baby Jesus in the air. We asked our driver what this was all about, and he explained that the locals do this every night for the entire month of December leading up to Christmas. We also stopped to see a (nearly) dead Fer de Lance snake, one of the deadliest venomous snakes in the world. It was pretty cool to finally see one up close, but even near death, it was pretty intimidating.

The super-duper deadly Fer de Lance. Liam was NOT allowed to pick this one up.

It was a long, long day, but full of amazing sites, tasty food, and beautiful wildlife.

*A "transfer" just means a private vehicle that picks you up and takes you from point A to point B, sort of like a private bus. They are very common here, but I had not encountered them prior to moving to Central America.