Rio Dulce

After Tikal we went down to Rio Dulce in the south east of Guatemala. We stayed at a very nice jungle eco lodge (again) although this one was really cool because you could only get to it by boat, as it was down a pretty little waterway coming off the main river. The cabins were all connected by boardwalks over the water.

On our first day we met a few other people from the hostel and we all went to the Finca Paraiso, which is a really beautiful spot in the jungle where a hot thermal waterfall flows into a cold lagoon. It´s so surreal standing in the forest having a hot shower, with your feet in a cold river. Was really gorgeous. Only problem was that the little fish kept trying to eat Jenny because her back was peeling from the sunburn!



The day after we took a trip along the river to Livingston. It was a very picturesque trip because the jungle rises in huge cliffs on either side of the river. It´s very Lord of the Rings. We stopped at a cute little place along the way where the water is covered in lily pads, and there are green parrots in the trees.

Tikal

In Guatemala now and today we went to Tikal. If you havn´t heard of it, it´s one of the most impressive and intact Mayan ruins in the world. We set off from our hostel at about 4:45am to get there by about 6:30. Because we weren´t on a guided tour we were able to walk straight to the grand plaza before most people got there so we had it practically to ourselves for about 20 minutes before the groups started arriving. The grand plaza is very impressive, it´s two big pyramids facing each other with a alter thing in the middle, and to the sides are smaller pyramids and carved stones and buildings.



We spent quite a while wandering round the enormous site going up the biggest pyramids and having amazing views. The site is very deep in the jungle so when you´re at the top of the pyramids you can see nothing but jungle in every direction except for the tops of a few pyramids pointing out the top!



The jungle is pretty impressive and we saw a howler monkey on the way in as well as some toucans and parrots. Throughout the day you can hear the howler monkeys in the jungle which adds to the atmosphere though they sound more like a dinosaur (I´d imagine) than a monkey.

Caye Caulker

We took a flight from San Jose to Belize City, and somehow we managed to accidentally end up with first class seats! We felt so out of place sitting there in our walking boots and shorts, people kept walking past us into the econmomy section (which we now call the commoners section) giving us puzzled looks. When the stewardess came over to us I was so ready to brandish my ticket because I was convinced she was going to ask us to move - but she just wanted to offer us free drinks! Anyway, enough about our first class experience...



Got to the airport and met Jenny about half an hour later. Took a water taxi straight out to an island called Caye Caulker, which is a very tiny, very sweet little caribbean island surrounded by a beautiful barrier reef. On our first afternoon we didn´t do too much other than organising our snorkelling trip for the next day. We opted for a full day on a sailboat stopping at three different sites to snorkel. We hired an underwater digital camera but sadly it wasn´t working properly so no photos! The trip was amazing though. We swam with manta rays, stingrays, nurse sharks, reef sharks, moray eels, barracudas, and lots of fish from Finding Nemo! The best bits though were the manatees and the turtles! Both so cool to see them swimming about in the wild. We saw them so close up too, which was really lucky. On the boat trip back we sat out on the deck and drank (slightly weird) rum punch, and listened to reggae whilst dolphin spotting. All in all a pretty cool day!



Had one more day to relax here (see hammock photos!)whilst Jen got over her sunburn from the day before, before heading to Guatemala via a stop in the Belize Jungle near San Ignacio. Stayed in a very lovely little eco-lodge with very cool jungle cabins, complete with composting toilets and rainwater showers!

Catching up

The last post was a posted a bit late due to lack of decent internet so thought I'd do a bit of a catch up. After Tortugero we went to a town called Monteverde in the mountains in central Costa Rica, it's famous for having some of the best cloud forests in the world and also lots of zip lines through them. We did one of the zip line canopy tours which was a bit of a disappointment for me tho Becky enjoyed it a bit more. I think working with zip lines in Llangors took most of the thrill away although they were very good as far as zip lines go - you get to 450ft high and the zip lines are up to a kilometer long.



We then decided to head north to an island in Nicaragua. Unfortunately this isn't very easy as Monteverde is quite out of the way so the journey included 5 separate buses, one ferry and one taxi ride! It went about as smoothly as possible although it was slightly chaotic in places (especially the border crossing!). The island we went to was called Isla Ometepe and is in the enormous Lago Nicaragua. It's formed from two volcanoes which have risen out of the water and joined together. We had a really nice time just relaxing at a nice hostel with hammocks right by the water and didn't really do anything else. Next we went to a nice colonial city called Granada and had a look around there for a few days.





Due to the political problems in Honduras we had to cancel our plans to meet Becky's friend Jenny in San Pedro Sula and instead we got a flight to Belize city to meet Jen there. It was cheapest from San Jose so from Granada we had to get all the way back to San Jose and then flew very early the next morning to Belize! We're planning to head into Guatamala from Belize and then eventually up to Mexico before Jen flies from Cancun in mid August!

More cute animals!

So very unfortunately, just after that last post, Pete's beautiful camera that takes all the good photos was stolen by a very sneaky very horrible person who ran out of the jungle behind our bags when we were on a lovely beach. He took the bag and ran off again before we could get anywhere near him (we were in the shallow water at the time). So we spent a long time with the police, including a trip back to the 'scene of the crime' so they could take photos of footprints (and the odd animal we passed as well). Anyway so it's just my normal camera from now on unfortunately!



On our last evening in Panama we ended up at the house of a very lovely Dutch couple who moved there about 5 years ago. The idea was to go turtle spotting on the beach by their house, but unfortunately the weather wasn't right for the turtles in the end and we didn't see any that day. We did however see a load of amazing things that live in their garden, like poison dart frogs and green tree frogs and sloths. They actually have a baby sloth which they found abandoned in the garden. They are looking after it until it's big enough to release, and it has a cuddly toy duck which it clings onto because it thinks that it's its mum. Look at the cute picture at the bottom, where I am also pulling a fairly manic face.



After Panama we headed back to Costa Rica to go turtle spotting at Tortuguero. It was really amazing, we saw about 7 huge green turtles hauling themselves up onto the beach and digging holes and laying eggs. It was really cool to see, although unfortunately I have no photos of this because it was really dark and the flash scares them.



Heading in the vague direction of Nicaragua after this, will update again soon!

Pete and Becky are in the Caribbean...lying in hammocks...with cocktails...listening to reggae...

We're in the Bocas del Toro, Panama, which are very pretty Caribbean islands right near the Costa Rican border. I will admit that when we first got here it was raining, which did not make me happy at all. I mean of all the places it isn't meant to rain! Today though we decided to chance it and get on a boat tour anyway, and it turned out to be totally worth it.

First we went to Dolphin Bay, where there are loads of bottle nosed dolphins swimming about and leaping in and out of the water. Then we headed to the Islas Zapatillas, which are two uninhabited islands with white sand, palm trees, and tropical reef waters all the way round. They're so beautiful, just like a postcard.



Went snorkeling in a few places after that, and saw lots of really cool brightly coloured fish and coral. I've been practising diving with my snorkel too, and i'm getting better, but I still manage to end up with a mouthful of sea water most times. Pete's been showing off though!



Anyway, here for a few more days then back to Costa Rica, for more sun, sea and sand...and cocktails!

Ecuador to Panama

After seeing the whales in Puerto Lopez we made our way over to Quito on an exciting and sleepless night bus which arrived two hours early due to the very fast and erratic driving. So we luckily managed to get into a hostel at 5 in the morning and found a sofa to sleep on til we check in at 12. We spent nearly a week in Quito as Becky and the other 2 girls we were with wanted to go to huge and famous market so i didn't have much choice there!

Anyway we had a pretty good time in Quito, was nice to stay in one place for a little while and relax a bit, did a few other little trips like visiting the equator line where there is a monument and museum.



On Thursday we left on a flight to San Jose in Costa Rica, the flight was fine tho the airport charges you $40 to leave it! San Jose seemed pretty nasty really - has very high crime and is not pretty at all so we didn't stay long. Unfortunately the hostel we'd booked wouldn't let us stay so we had to find another hostel in the dark and then the bus we needed in the morning was full (which we found out after getting to it at 5:45am. Anyway we found another route which involved a few more buses and eventually got to the rusted rickety footbridge which is the border crossing from Costa Rica to Panama and have got ourselves to the Bocas del Toro islands in the Caribbean!