Our Adventures in Belize and Guatemala

So this is it, we are on vacation at last!  Saturday turned out to be incredibly crazy.  Without going into all the details, let me just say this: Fuck Delta.  Basically they delayed my sister's Boston-Atlanta flight so that she would miss the Atlanta-Belize City connection, and therefore miss Belize City-Flores, Guatemala connection (only 1 flight per day).  And the delays were never explained.  There were several hours of negotiations on Friday night to find a different route to get her there, but nothing came up except for 'hope for the best.' So here is what has happened thus far on our trip.

Day 1 (Saturday)

We had to get to the airport quite early for our flight, but the real problem was whether or not Madeline would make it at all.  It turns out that on top of the "expected" 30 minute delay, there was an additional 30 minute delay due to mechanical issues, meaning that her flight was set to arrive a mere 18 minutes before the Atlanta-Belize flight would depart.  For those of you unfamiliar with the Atlanta airport, it is HUGE.  18 minutes is not enough.  And after hours of negotiations the night before on alternate flight routes, things weren't looking good.  Luckily, we were finally able to make contact with a helpful Delta supervisor--Michael H.  He was as unhappy about the delays as we were, and told us that he would hold the plane for her if she ran to it (he was also holding another plane for 10 people from her flight).  So lo and behold, Madeline manages to make our flight and the family is off to Central America!

We then had a 4 hour layover in Belize city, during which we had lunch, filed a missing baggage report for Madeline, and shopped for some cooler clothing for her--wearing jeans in 100 F weather is a bit of an issue.  We then had a flight on a single-propeller plane to Flores, Guatemala.  Quite a trip!  It was a bit smokey (they were clearing land for farming), but really fun to look over the land during the flight.

Our plane--open seating, only 4 other passengers

We were then driven to La Lancha Lodge.  It was a lovely drive since the sun was setting, and we were given a view of how people here live.  Let me just say I am thankful for my standard of living.  While everyone here is very kind and appears to be rather happy, living in a shack near the lake doesn't quite seem ideal to me.  As for the Lodge, it was heavenly.  We were greeted with fresh juices and a nice view, and just had some time to relax.  We then had a lovely dinner overlooking the lake and off to bed after a long day of travel.  Needless to say, it was a jam packed day that ended significantly better than it began.

La Loncha Lodge

Day 2 (Sunday)

Super early morning since we needed to leave around 6 a.m. to go to the Mayan ruins of Tikal.  This was a two-pronged approach: beat the crowds and beat the heat.  Just for reference, Sunday's high was 103 F.  So yeah.  We needed the early start so as not to die in that weather.  So we hopped in the van and had a nice picnic breakfast on the way to the site.  Nothing is nicer than corn cakes, fruit salad, and toast if you have to get up at the crack of dawn!  And let me just say, the papaya was to die for.  I am not an early morning person, but I would get up if that were waiting for me every time!

Madeline helping to serve our breakfast--yum!

We got to the park a bit after 7 a.m. so it was still "cool."  For those of you who don't know about Tikal (which I would assume is most of you considering I had never heard of it before this trip), it is one of the largest Mayan archaeological sites in the world.  It was a very powerful capital city and active between 4th century B.C. and the 9th century A.D.  Population estimates vary, but they think that there were about 80,000 inhabitants during the height of the city's influence.  Needless to say, this is a pretty impressive city.  While only a small part of the ruins have been excavated, what you can see is awe-inspiring.  In particular, there are a few large temples that you can climb--these give you a spectacular view both of the Tikal site and the surrounding jungle.  It was really amazing to be around that sort of history. (Information about Tikal)  Below I have included a few of the pictures from the day.

Temple 1

Living Quarters for Aristocracy

Main Plaza

In addition to the amazing architecture, we also saw some pretty amusing fauna.  If I told you about all of them we would be here forever, but some highlights were monkeys (howler and spider), crocodiles, parrots, a grey fox, oropendola, and coati.  These last two were endlessly fascinating, so they deserve special mention.

Now the oropendola is a thoroughly bizarre bird in just about every way.  They are quite pretty: black with a bright yellow tail and red beak.  One bizarre thing about them is they make odd hanging basket nests.  It is quite odd to see a tree filled with them.  Now, that would be enough to attract my attention,  but the really strange thing is their call.  Part of it sounds like a radio or tv cracking, then they do an odd singing as they sort of throw their head forward and look like they are going to fall out of the tree. It is the most unusual thing I have ever seen!  Here is a video I took, and sorry for the quality, but YouTube really didn't have any better examples.

Our next stop in the tour of interesting creatures is the coati.  Some of you will probably laugh at me for liking them so much, since they are kind of like the raccoons of Central America, but I think they are adorable.  The variety found here is the white-nosed coati, and when we first encountered them they were spread out in an almost herd-like configuration.  It was quite a sight!  We also managed to witness two coati fighting, which was rather amusing.  Here are some of my favorite shots.

Coati...so cute

Coati fight--a lot of noise, not much followup

The herd!

Anyway, we had a wonderful morning at Tikal.  By the time we finished our tour at 12:00, it was definitely over 100 F.  We were overjoyed to get back in the air conditioned van and head back to the lodge.  The idea at this point was to have a nice lunch and relax a bit (pool/shower) before taking a van ride across the border to our next resort in Belize.  Unfortunately, this plan was sped up significantly when my dad went to ask what time we needed to leave: 30 minutes ago.  So we threw our stuff into our bags and ran to the van.  Don't really know why they didn't tell us that we needed to head out, but whatever.  So we got in the van and began our journey to the border where we were to be picked up by guides from Hidden Valley Inn.  Several hours and a very bumpy ride later we managed to arrive at Hidden Valley.  Once again we were greeted with fresh juices, and this time a hand massage too--talk about a nice welcome! We had dinner and finally collapsed after yet another hectic day.  And so ended our first 2 days in Central America.