The road chose me

We’re up early and excited for our day to come and we know things are happening as they should when we have perfect blue sky for the first time in over a week. We team up with some other backpackers and climb into the back of a pickup truck that has a makeshift roll cage welded in. We proceed to drive 7km on an extremely steep, narrow, windy road, hanging on to the roll cage and loving every minute.

Our first stop for the day is the Kan’Ba Cave system, which quite literally goes straight into the side of a mountain. Our guide ties our flip-flops to our feet with string(!), hands us a candle each, and leads the way into the cave.
Note the lack of hard hats, lights or safety harnesses.
Only twenty steps in the Goonies jokes are flying, with Ben letting out a huge “Hey, you guys!” that has us all in hysterics distracting us from the increasing darkness and shin deep water we are walking through. I can’t believe how quickly the light disappears until we are completely enveloped in inky blackness, the only light coming from out flickering candles. We continue in this fashion for a hundred meters or so, passing cool cave formations and walking through a few places where the cave is only two meters wide and the water is up to my waist.

Yep, it's pretty dark

In these early stages we use a series of ladders to navigate around a tunnel where water is ripping through, and I climb a few vertical meters up a waterfall using a rope (most people go around). We get to a spot where our guide climbs up the wall and jumps a couple of meters down into a deep pool, and a few of us copy suit. He shows us a place where you can swim down about a meter and a half, slide between some very tight, sharp rocks and come up on the other side of a rock formation, staying underwater for at least 15 or 20 seconds. I wedge myself in the space  with my head above water to see what it feels like and immediately feel uncomfortable and scared.

No. Way.

The roof is pretty low... (imagine no flash)

We continue further and further and come to a series of sections that are too deep to walk. One at a time we plunge in, half swimming and half treading water with one hand while trying to keep our candles out of the water with the other. The stakes go up a little when out guide loses his lighter, meaning we’ll be in the dark if all our candles go out. We go in about 450 meters, which is as far as tourists are allowed – the cave system continues for 11 kilometers. For the finale we get to a section where the stalactites are literally touching the water and we have to go under for just a second to get through. It’s pretty funny two minutes later when we find out we could have just walked around that section

And now we swim... (imagine no flash)

The highlight on the way out is going down the tunnel with rushing water we avoided on the way in. I go first and the guide carefully shows me where to sit and put my hands and feet. When I pop out at the bottom I’m in complete darkness, my candle having been underwater during the trip. It feels really strange to be in a room with no idea what is around me, and I blindly feel around and guess where to sit to help the next person down.

At times we held our breath to get under the roof

Everyone is pretty happy when we see daylight and step out into the warm sun.

Next up is a huge rope swing into the fast flowing Rio Cahabón. It’s a little different than what I’m used to because it has two ropes with a plank of wood in between forming a seat. Getting out of the seat when you are about five meters about the river is a little strange and one of our group lands on her side, making a huge red welt.

The beautiful Rio Cahabón we played on for the day

We walk upstream a few hundred meters to a raging waterfall, and the guide and I swim over to check it out. The very vast majority of the river water is flowing underground, under the waterfall and the guide and I walk into the massive caverns with seriously raging water down below. We climb around to the top of the waterfall and I have such a great time jumping off the 8 meters (25 ft.) I climb up and do it again

Jumping off about 8 meters (25 ft.)

We float back downstream on inner-tubes through some rapids, trying to have a water fight the entire time. We load back into the truck and drive around to Semuc Champy itself for the main attraction. A 35 minute hike gives us an amazing view of the pools below, which we swim in for about an hour. These pools are on the top of the waterfall I jumped off earlier – the pool water goes over the falls and we go and have a look upstream where the majority of water goes underground. Wow.

The amazing pools at Semuc Champy

The water is amazingly clear

Hanging out of the truck on the way back is immensely fun again, this time everyone is laughing and enjoying themselves, not just me. Again I put in a strong showing at the buffet dinner after such a huge day.

Swimming/lazing in the sunshine is amazing

The beautiful pools are everywhere

Guatemala is awesome.

-Dan

We continue to explore Guatemala, staying a night in a tree house at the Finca Ixobel, a working farm that provides accommodation, great meals and a bar. My eyes light up like a child when I hear the food is an all you can eat buffet and when told the uneaten food will go to waste, I make certain to do my part. A group of young dentists are staying here, they have volunteered to work in the local communities for a few weeks providing much needed dental care. At night we wander down to the great little bar hidden in the jungle next to a great swimming pond.

The tree house at Finca Ixobel

In the morning the drizzling rain continues and we move along and find El Paraiso, a hot spring waterfall close to the shores of Lago de Izabal. After checking out the area we find great camping at Finca El Paraiso, with the tent about five meters from the water and then head back for a soak.

The road to El Paraiso

I’m told the water is around 70 °C, which flows down a narrow little stream and cascades over a waterfall about five meters high. The spring water is obviously high in dissolved minerals, as the falls are coated in orange and yellow deposits, forming textured surfaces and even little stalactites. At the base of the waterfall is a beautiful clear river, with a couple of really deep pools ideal for swimming.
There is a lot more hot water here than any spring I have ever seen, and I go crazy exploring the whole area while normal people soak.

The hotspring waterfall at El Paraiso

Looking downstream into the jungle

We soak for an hour and a half in the evening and again first thing in the morning when we have the entire place to ourselves for a while. The guys working here do a really good job of keeping the place safe and spotless and we’re more than happy to pay just over $1 USD each for entry.

Kate at El Paraiso

Dan & Kate in the hot waterfall

On the way out we make a brief stop in the market lining the main street of Rio Dulce, which has the claim to fame of having the longest bridge in Central America. The market is bustling and we buy enough extremely fresh fruit and vegetables to last many meals for $3 USD. Unreal.

Enjoying the spray

We had the place all to ourselves in the morning

Kate brought two travel guides along and somehow the maps in those books and the road map I have from Mexico all disagree with each other more often than not. We choose our route and quickly find ourselves on one of the worst gravel roads I have ever driven on, rarely getting out of first gear. This road is actually marked as a major highway on my road map so we wonder if this is what Guatemalans call a major road, or if a map printed in Mexico in useless for Guatemala. Locals drive up and down and when I stop to ask what conditions are like ahead I’m told “It’s fine, just like this”. The mud and potholes continue for hour after hour, to the point where it’s really not funny anymore. In six hours we cover 90 km for an average of 15km/h. Ouch.

We make it out to civilization and find ourselves on an extremely good sealed highway leading right up into the heart of the breathtaking mountains. Before long we are once again bouncing our way along a tiny dirt track, this time stuck to the side of mountains. Dusk comes and goes, as does Kate’s patience for the day of horrible roads. Hours later when we expect to be at our destination we pass a sign saying it’s another 12km, and it turns out to be so steep I use low-range 4×4 on the downhill sections to control my speed.

Driving through the Guatemalan mountains

When we finally make it into town we’re both too tired to navigate and a very kind local man shows us the way by having us follow him on his moped. I’m not sure I’ve ever been more thankful. We fall out of the Jeep at the hostel El Retiro in Lanquin, right in the heart of the mountains. We’re just in time for the buffet dinner and are both stunned to find about 50 backpackers milling around the dining area. I once again do my best to make sure no food is wasted before putting myself to bed early after an exhausting day of driving.

I smile while thinking about the adventures to come tomorrow for about 10 seconds before falling sound asleep.

-Dan

The Mayan ruins in Tikal have been on my radar for a long time and Rupert & Amy confirmed we need to make a stop. The Jaguar Inn has cheap camping, so we throw up the tent and wander into the ruins hoping to catch the sunset over The Grand Plaza. We really have no idea where we are going and by some fluke chance end up in ‘the perfect sunset viewing spot’ at exactly the right time. Amazing.

Sunset over the temples was spectacular

The city here began around 700 BC and peaked in around 550 AD with a population estimated at 100,000. The city collapsed quite quickly around 900 AD, which our guide thought was from a food shortage caused by over-farming the land. It remained ‘undiscovered’ until 1848 and scientists first worked on the site in 1881. Amazingly most of the exploration and restoration was carried out by The University of Pennsylvania, where quite a few of the original artifacts remain today.

Waiting for the sunrise over the jungle

Another grand temple

The ruins are so immense one could wander for an entire day and not see everything, let alone understand half of it so for the first time we splash out and set up a guided tour for the morning. We’re up at 5:30am and catch a bus-like thing to the far side of the ruins, to the tallest temple (61 meters) which is the best for watching sunrises. We sit quietly in the chill morning air and while the cloud cover hides the actual sun itself, a couple of monkeys come over really close to us and we can hear numerous howler monkeys nearby. To imagine what they sound like, think of cross between a dog howling and barking, but with the raspiest, sore through imaginable and make it loud. Really loud. The noise is so loud and unexpected I did not believe it was coming from a monkey until I saw it with my own eyes.

The houses of importatnt people

Views like this presented themselves in all directions

Our tour guide is excellent and was clearly very proud of his native heritage, and of being Guatemalan. We walk around the ruins for three hours, stopping at all the major temples and carvings which are too beautiful and numerous for words.

Perched on a hillside in dense jungle

Many of the ruins have been left un restored

Our guide coaxes a female tarantula from it’s burrow and I eagerly volunteer to hold it in my hand. For it’s size it is surprisingly light (essentially nothing) and it didn’t bother me until it started walking up my arm, at which time I was happy to be rid of it.

What a friendly little tarantula!

One of the big temples in the Grand Plaza

Walking around we see quite a few spider monkeys in the trees and the highlight comes when our guide pauses and says “Hey, watch this.” He knows which way they like to go, and the only way across is to leap from one tree to another, clearing a gap of about 2-3 meters about 5 meters off the ground. The little baby goes first and then mum follows, both with no difficulty at all.

We climbed to the top for an amazing view

The Grand Plaza at Tikal

We move on from Tikal in the early afternoon, passing through the touristy island of Flores, which appears to be one giant unsigned one way street. I drive for quite a while in the wrong direction and nobody seems to care. We poke into all the little tourist shops which Kate loves and sit down for lunch where I have my first Guatemalan coffee. It’s so good I’ll have to be careful not to drink too much.

Looking across The Grand Plaza

-Dan

We stop for supplies in San Ignacio and run into Rupert & Amy, an Australian couple driving an ‘89 Range Rover around the world. They have just come north through every country in South America and so we have tons to talk about on both sides. I don’t stop grinning for the rest of the day thinking about the stories and places Rupert tells me about. You can checkout their website www.heartofdarkness.com.au to see what they are up to.

At the Guatemalan border we pay a $BZ 37.50 ($USD 18.75) departure tax and I have to walk around to customs to have the special stamp in my passport canceled without a problem. On the Guatemalan side I once again pay for fumigation of the Jeep, and make sure I get a receipt for my $3 USD. We stand in line and get our CA-4 stamp that allows free travel between Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua for 90 days. The border official says we must pay 20 Quetzales (about $USD 2.50) each for our entrance, which we know is not true. I smile and politely ask for a receipt, which amazingly he can not give us. This stand off goes on for a few minutes while the line grows longer and longer behind us, with me all the while asking politely for a receipt. He finally hands out passports to his supervisor who scowls sternly at us before giving them back and sending us on our way.
I’m learning.

Kate and the Jeep in Guatemala!

I move to another line to deal with the Jeep paperwork, and 20 minutes and 40 Quetzales ($USD 5) later we are on our way with a new shiny sticker on the windscreen. We haggle with the money exchangers for quite a while until we get a rate we are happy with and dump all of our Belize dollars and some Pesos I am still holding. Immediately away from the border we drive over a bridge and a young lady comes out demanding payment for our passage. Watching all the other cars drive over un-molested I feel like we’re being scammed, but she is wearing a uniform and we do get a receipt for our money.

Towards the border from the Guatemalan side

As I drive into Guatemala, country number five, I feel an excitement I have not felt before – I feel like I’m really into this adventure and loving every minute!

Random lake we stopped at just into Guatemala

-Dan

We stay a night in Dangriga, which is really a non-event. Val’s Place is a nice Hostel, but there is really nothing to do here. In the morning we move on and decide we want to get off the beaten path and find some real jungle in Belize. We stop to get a tank of gas and pay $BZ 9 / gallon or $USD 4.50 / gallon – the fill-up costs $USD 75! We turn off the main highway and drive on pretty good gravel for the first 10km or so, then turn off onto a very windy track. Before long it’s pouring huge raindrops as we make our way through extremely dense jungle down a track steep enough to require low range 4×4. Kate is pretty nervous wondering how we could ever get back up, having not seen what the Jeep is capable of.

The road in through the dense jungle

This palm tree looked a thousand years old

We find Barton Creek Outpost without much trouble and can’t believe the paradise we have stumbled into. About five years ago an American couple built this cabin on steroids out in the jungle to get away from it all. They now host backpackers and volunteers for the company it provides. It continues to pour rain long into the night and thankfully we pitch our tent on the covered veranda. As the sun recedes the temperature drops fast and soon I find myself shivering uncontrollably so I dig out all my thermals and -7°C sleeping bag that I put away long ago. It turns out to be by far the coldest night I’ve had since I was snowed on in Yellowstone months ago.

Barton Creek Outpost, right on the water

The river looked ancient

In the morning the rain has stopped and we set out in the Jeep with Mike and Laura, a couple of british backpackers to find a couple of remote waterfalls in the area. We spend most of the day on reasonable gravel roads, with the occasional mud hole or rock scramble to keep things interesting. We pop out at the view point to Thousand-Foot Falls and realize we are literally on top of a beautiful mountain range, with stunning views in all directions. The falls themselves are awesome due to the recent heavy rain and are actually over 1600ft (480m), making them the highest in Central America. After a ton of bushwhacking and aimless wandering and almost-giving-up we find Big Rock Falls, which are less spectacular but fun because we can get so close.

Big Rock Falls

Barton Creek Outpost is so great we spend another night camped on the deck, soaking in the serenity.

Trying to be friendly & I lost a chunk of my finger

The "cabin" at Barton Creek Outpost

-Dan

I’m normally not much of a zoo person, though the story behind The Belize Zoo is pretty cool. None of the animals has been taken from the wild, they have all been rescued from people trying to keep them as pets, or bred in captivity. The zoo only has animals native to Belize, and there are plenty of exotic things I’ve never seen before. It receives no funding of any kind and is run entirely from donations and entrance fees. The entire place has a really laid back feel, all the signs are hand painted and often have rhyming slang and other funny things to keep it interesting.

We spend a couple of hours wandering around taking it all in, sharing the entire zoo with maybe ten other visitors. It’s a really special place so I’ll let the photos do the talking.

Spider Monkey swinging through the trees

I'm happy about the fence keeping the Puma at bay

I've never seen anything like a Tapir

These parrots are amazingly bright

The Ocelot was taking a nap

The tucans were really cool

That would be a jaguar asleep in a tree

By far the biggest bird I have ever seen

A great quote

-Dan