That was a strange and tiny little town. We got a cool (but blazingly hot) little cabin to stay in behind a hotel. Went on a spelunking tour of the Actun Tunak(?) Mical caves (or something like that). Meant to go cave tubing, but couldn't get a tour that day, so we took this one instead. A bit more intense... Involving swimming and hiking through a cave and seeing Mayan artifacts that were offerings to the gods of the underworld and skeletons of people who were sacrificed. I was a bit claustrophobic and not too happy about having to squeeze between and under boulders in and around underground rivers. But we made it in and out safely. Of course, this tour, like everyone we've been on, would never be allowed in the US, because any one of us could've slipped and fallen 30 or 100 feet with any single step. And yet, we all were fine despite the mud and water and sharp rocks.
I think I already explained the Belize border annoyances before. I'm including a picture of us from there, as well as that picture of Rob (the Belgian from Antigua)... And a picture of Heather and Amy and Merco, people we met while caving and spent our last night in San Ignacio with. Heather is a therapist from Baltimore and shares an interest with me in indigenous medicines and spirituality. She was off to meet a Belizean shaman the next day, but I couldn't go with her. She's meant to write me to tell me about it. Marcus and I spent a good while that day discussing the European perception of Americans with Merco (an inevitable conversation while traveling).
That night, we woke up from the silence of 3am in a town that was no more than 0.25 miles square to the clamor of a car full of guys riding around in a car yelling in Spanish through a megaphone. Then crashes and people running away up the streets... And the they'd moce to another street and do it again. It was really scary-- sounded like a rebellion, and the police (if there were any) didn't do a thing. Occasionally, amongst the yelling and crashing, they'd say "Happy Mother's Day, San Ignacio" and the "Happy Mother's Day, Santa Elana" (the neighboring town). Of course, I was convinced that we were going to all be killed, but Marcus was a bit more calm about things. Again, in the end, we made it out alive. Haha. I guess it was just a bunch of jerks playing around.
The next day, we headed to Caye Caulker, off the coast of Belize. No pictures from there, but we spent the entire day yesterday snorkeling in the Blue Hole and 2 other reefs way out in the ocean. My first snorkeling trip... And my first boat ride way out into the sea. Also nervous, but again, we came out alive... Even after our guide let us float way way way too far away from the boat out into the sea.
In other words, we've done a lot of cool but scary things, woken up way too early every day, got sunburnt badly despite tons of sunscreen, and have quite run out of money.
Now we're on our way to Playa del Carmen in Mexico, having crossed our last border until we go home. Thank goodness. Hopefully we'll get some rest and relaxation, finally :). And, best of all, we're meeting up with friends at last. More later.
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