Guatemala- Tikal

Guatemala- Tikal

We left the awesome Midas hotel and headed for the Guatemalan border- the agent made a comment on how full my passport is  😀 and just got it in 2013. 

It's Christmas Eve day and we spent it at Tikal- one of the great archeological sites of the world. It was pretty empty which gave us lots of room to explore. Our guide, Juan was really knowledgeable and there were several of us that tried to soak up everything he was saying.

very cool vines

We watched a great sunset from one of the pyramids.   Lots of people were up there watching it, but we were quiet and it was I thought about how fortunate I am that God has let me live another day and that I am spending Christmas Eve in a place I have always wanted to visit - I am blessed!

The following three pictures were taken by Martina.  Martina, Daniel, and James were awesome buddies during the trip and I am fortunate that we got to experience a lot of things together. 

Martina and Daniel - Martina's pic

James and Martina - Martina's pic

All of us watching the sunset over Tikal - pic by Martina

We had dinner at a restaurant near our campsite and we camped for Christmas Eve. We had bought snacks and alcohol earlier so the others drank while I turned in. We each had our own tent and there were three tents under each thatched roof. Martina, Nicole and I were grouped together. The alcohol cooler and water dispenser were stored at our tents so it was a busy place.

I told people I was an excellent eaves dropper because I have to be aware of all conversations happening in my classroom all day. I was in the tent and people forgot I was there when they came over to get more alcohol and start up conversations. Or tents were completely see through mesh so sometimes they would say "is someone in there?" And some one would say "Bobbi no - she's gathering info!" I could hear the other groups that were camping and some useful travel info from them. We could see a lot of stars that night and it was a good temperature and it was cool to be doing something special on Christmas Eve. Not as cool as when I was in Bethlehem, but still cool. 

The tents were fine- the bathrooms were a problem. No lights, no warm water, barely a trickle of water out of the sinks....

The howler monkeys woke us up at 4 am! We had seen spiders and other creepy crawlies the night before. Martina has a lot of things she is afraid of spiders, snakes, scorpions, crocodiles, flesh eating bacteria, Pirates. It's pretty entertaining, but we wonder how she travels by herself all the time. At least we know we are safe around her!  We found a huge scorpion under Nicole's tent when we were packing up- good thing we didn't know about it before we went to bed!

The evening was cool enough that we could sleep ok and the morning was beautiful and warm and a perfect Christmas day!

Belize- San Ignacio

Belize-San Ignacio

We took the 9 am water taxi from Caye Caulker to Belize City. Then we got onto a chicken bus which is a popular mode of transportation in Central America. It is local transport through the country side and people often bring their livestock. It is an old school bus with no AC so it wasn't super comfortable but with the windows open it wasn't too hot. I sat with Nicole who is a teacher from Australia and we chatted - we have a lot in common though she teaches high school. We both can read people really well due to being teachers so we like to analyse personalities. We also share an affinity for peanut m&ms.

Don't we all look so happy to be on the chicken bus?!

Nicole and I had to change seats to get out of the sun and this was my window.

Standing room only on the chicken bus

Nicole and I with Cameron and James behind us on the chicken bus.

We got to San Ignacio and dragged our suitcases quite far to our hotel - Midas. It was so much better than the one in Caye caulker. This one has hot water and good pressure! Our guide gave us an orientation tour and then we had lunch. In the evening we heard a presentation on the tour opportunities for the next day. We also had a cake and birthday party for Daniel- who turned 27. He'll become a good buddy to me on this trip too.

Dan with his birthday cake. That is our guide, Adrian, in the background.

 It is nice that we have a mix of nationalities and ages- from Cameron and Sage in their early twenties to two people in their 50s. All our rooms are on the same hall and it feels dorm like in a good way :) people are starting to bond and form friendships. 

The next morning, a lot of our group went to the ATM cave - which is a unique archeological site here.  It seemed pretty physically taxing and I would have to spend most of the day wet so I opted out.  Again, many of my decisions are based on "How do not have a Lupus episode?"  I hate that those decisions rule a big part of my life, but that is the reality.  I spent the day with Nicole, Martina, and Marilyn. We went to the market with Ryan and James and had yummy burritos and fresh orange juice - and a cupcake! for breakfast.  This is why Martina and get along so well!

Martina's selfie stick comes in handy! 

James enjoying his burrito

yum!

Martina with her breakfast cupcake.

The boys left for the caves and we went to see some ruins and then went to the Iguana project. Green iguanas are endangered because people hunt them so this organisation takes care of them and releases them back into the wild. We got to hold them and feed them.

This is Iggy - she has a bone disease and they are going to have to put her down 😧

Marilyn

Martina

Nicole

One of the males was being super aggressive to the others - this guy has blood on him and the purple stuff is medicine for other cuts.

We went back into town to look for a secret Santa gift then went to hang at the pool. Some of us walked back into town for dinner. I had an awesome quesadilla and brought half of it back for breakfast the next day. 

I called Bri and the girls, my cousin, and my aunt. Christmas Eve is tomorrow and I am missing our big family gathering.  Traveling is awesome and rewarding but there are sacrifices and I get a little homesick around Christmas. Thankfully, we had wifi strong enough to Skype (only time on this trip!) so I got to talk to them while they were baking cookies.

Natalie  and Charlie

I miss live Christmas trees and I told the girl's to smell my dad's tree

These were super cool Christmas trees at the hotel that the Iguanas were at.  Pine Cones were are attached together - some from this area and some from Australia.

Belize- Caye Caulker

Belize- Caye Caulker 

We left Tulum at 7:30 and drove for a couple of hours to Barcala and had breakfast with an amazing view.

We drove another half hour to the Belize border, went through immigration and customs and then drove another couple hours to the water taxi. 45 minutes in the water taxi and we were finally there! The new van we got in Belize wasn't nearly as nice as the one in Mexico. On one of the driving stints I sat next to Nicole who is also a teacher so we swapped stories.  We all went to dinner and I got some good creole food. Everyone else went out drinking afterwards, but I have a pretty strict 9:30 bedtime. I'm fortunate that my Lupus is in remission, but I still have to take really good care of myself so I don't become incapacitated. I pray that I don't have a major episode while on this trip. 

The next morning, all but two of us went on a 6 hour snorkelling tour. We saw turtles, sharks, stingrays, eagle rays, eels, and tons of fish. We went to 5 different places. I only went twice and on the second one, the water was rough and I felt woozy. They served food on the boat- it was yummy and I thought it might settle my stomach. When the others went in for the 4th snorkelling jump, I puked over the side! I didn't feel too bad once another woman did too! I found out later that the Dramamine I took was "natural" not proper medicine infused Dramamine. I threw it out and got new pills. Forget homeopathic- I need actual drugs!! We were staying at a hotel called China Town and it had a store attached.  It is super easy to buy things here because the speak English and many of the products are American.  I got Cheez It crackers!!

Can you tell who has Lupus and need to keep covered up from the sun as much as possible??  😆

Pedro, me, Marilyn, Nicole, Mia, James, Ryan, Martina, Cameron, Daniel, Tim

We saw this handsome guy. 

The second day in Caye Caulker was a true free day. I went for a walk in the tiny town and had breakfast at this place on the water.

I rested in the afternoon and worked on my Portuguese lessons. They had American tv channels and I watched some Supernatural! About 5 of us went out that night for fish and chips. Caye caulker is a nice, laid back place and most of us enjoyed it there.

Mexico- Tulum

Mexico- Tulum

Most people know I have a goal to see 100 countries in my lifetime. Since Brazil is in the Southern Hemisphere, we get 5 weeks off at Christmas for summer break and I thought this would be a good time to go on a big trip - 32 days through 7 countries in Central America! I had never traveled that long at one time before and wasn't sure how it was going to go. I have been on 3 other guided group trip where we all did the same things everyday and those worked out ok. This trip was with Intrepid and there were a lot of free days where I could rest if I needed. I'm always scared that I'm going to have a Lupus "episode" which is super embarrassing, but I figured if I took really good care of myself, I'd be ok.

School got out Friday and I had a 2:30 am flight to cancun.  I got a shared taxi to take me to the hotel in playa del Carmen where I was meeting my group. There are 13 of us plus our guide Adrian.

Australians - Daniel, Nicole, Cameron

Brits - James

Canadians- Jesse, Ryan, Marilyn

Americans- me, Pedro, Tim, Sage

Greek- Mia

Slovakian- Martina

We took a very nice bus about an hour long to Tulum. I sat with Martina who is from Slovakia and traveling alone. We got to our new hotel and Adrian explained our touring options. I started walking to the ruins and ran into Jesse and a mother son pair Marilyn and Ryan - all three are Canadian.  We saw some wildlife while at the ruins -two snakes all twisted around each other mating,  Coaties, and lizards. We all had a nice lunch of tacos together then went our separate ways.

I was never able to get a good pic of a coatie - this is Martina's picture. We have these guys in Brazil too. 

The others went for dinner later and Martina and I stayed behind and talked to the local staff. She has been traveling through Mexico by herself for a few weeks and will be traveling long after I'm done. Martina and I will become friends on this trip and I will be impressed with her amazingly frugal bargain shopping and excellent minimalist packing skills. Although she has a greater fear of snakes, scorpions, crocodiles, and pirates than I do, She and I are pretty good at risk assessment and identifying possible dangers everywhere and we always wear our seat belts (if we have them). We love praise and worship music and are also big Dolly Parton fans and joyfully sang along to Jolene when it was our turn to pick a song.

There weren't enough people signed up for the tour I wanted to do the next day so I walked about an hour to the other Amansara  hotel and hung out at the beach and read. It was secluded, quiet, and perfect.

We meet every night around 7 to go over plans for the next day and go to dinner together if we want. I had a super yummy bean and chicken burrito. Everyone seems pretty cool so far :)

I took pictures of different Christmas trees on the trip and saw lots of variety.

this one was made of sticks laid horizontally.