Central America (Part IV)
My time in Central America is now over. South America and more adventure beckons but first I need to tell you about my last 2 weeks....

Copan, Honduras
The shuttle to Copan arrived to pick me up at exactly 4am which was a good start I thought. There were only 2 other people catching it so we picked them up and headed out of Antigua for the open road. The driving was a hair-raising experience in some parts and the music left alot to be desired (ever heard the best of Billy Ray Cyrus in Spanish? I have now) but we got there. There's a one hour time difference between Guatemala and Honduras so it was only 9am when I arrived. Found a place to stay, - En la Mandana Verde - grabbed food then napped since I'd only been able to sleep half the night. When I got up it was only noon so decided to go see what I could see.

Butterfly Farm
I ended up at a butterfly farm which was brilliant. The woman was so friendly and knowledgable. They breed the butterflies there too so you get to see them in each stage of life. Really interesting and I learned quite a bit. I was grumpy at myself for forgetting to get my camera out of my locker though as it would have been great to have there. They had swallowtails, zebras, clearwings, morphos and my favourites the common and giant owlwing butterflies. These have huge wings (about the size of my hand) that are patterned to look like an owls eyes. Very cool.

Ruins

One of the stellae at Copan

The main reason for visiting Copan is of course the Mayan ruins here. They aren't nearly as big as Tikal in Guatemala but I liked them better. Certainly they're more accessible and there's a lot more carvings. Three of us went for our hostel and joined with two others at the entrance so we coulkd split the cost of hiring a guide. Hiring a guide is definitely worth it as otherwise it just looks like more carved rocks. the guide tells you the whole story behind everything. It took us 3 and a half hours to go around the ruins themselves and the sculpture museum (a lot of carvings are stored here now to protect them from the elements). The two most famous parts of the ruins complex are the ballcourt and the heiroglyphic stairway. Both very impressive.

Bird Park

Me and my favourite yellow-crowned Amazons

After the ruins and lunch I headed to the Macaw Mountain Bird Park. You have to catch a taxi to get there but it's worth it. A guide shows you round all the avairies telling you about the birds, how they came to get them and where they're native to. As the name implies there are lots of macaws of different varieties but also toucans, amazons, eagles, aracaris, toucanets and owls. They let you hold some of the tamer birds too. I was a perch for 2 yellow-crowned amazons (one of whom wanted to nip my ear) and a scarlet macaw. It was very cool.

To Rio Dulce, Guatemala...
I nick-named this day the day of rip-offs and lies. Getting from Copan, Honduras to Rio Dulce in Guatemala turned out to be a bit of a mission. First, the only option is to pay the full fare back to Antigua even though you have to get out to change buses less than half way there (rip-off 1). There is no other choice but to do this so I swallowed it. All the bus operators had assured me that there are buses from Rio Hondo (where you change) to Rio Dulce every hour at least (lie 1), it takes about 2 hours (lie 2) and cost US$6 for a pullman bus (lie 3). I arrive in Rio Hondo at 2pm to discover there wouldn't even be a local minibus until 4pm which takes 4hours to get to Rio Hondo and costs Q50 (US$6-7 roughly). The pullman would come at 4:30pm, takes 2 hours and costs Q150! I elected for the pullman because I didn't want to get in when it was dark since i still had to find a place to stay. Turns out it's so expensive because the bus runs from Guatemala City to Santa Elena and no matter what part of the trip you do you have to pay full fare!!!! I though I was being charged gringo-rates until I chatted with a local man who had been waiting since noon! The pullman was really nice though. More like a plane than a bus - they fed you, had films and had the most comfortable chairs I've ever sat in. Worth the extra money after the waiting for 3hrs (it was late) by the side of the road.

Casa Perico

The dog at Casa Perico

Arrived safely in Rio Dulce at 7pm and was instantly approached by a lancha (boat) driver wanting to know where I was going to stay. I'd been told by heaps of people how nice Casa Perico was and really didn't have time to check out a number of places so said there. He took me straight there. Rio Dulce sits on Lago Izabal and all the accommodation there has to be reached by boat. Casa Perico sits tucked away about a 20min boat ride from the town in a jungle setting. The whole thing is built on stilts. It is very cool. They have great food and it's good for relaxing. No good for doing anything though. I wanted a rest day anyway so that suited me fine. The most energetic I got that day was to book the boat trip to Livingston for the next day (Wed 20 Sep) and to chat to other travellers.

Livingston, Guatemala

Lilies on the Rio Dulce river trip

I'd like to say that the boat ride went off without a hitch but I can't. The boat came 45mins late (no big deal) and our captains were 2 12 year old boys (no joke). One took my pack to put on board and promptly slipped and fell in the water with my entire pack! Thank goodness it wasn't my daypack with my camera etc in. Needless to say he didn't get tipped though. I helped him back onto the boat, tried to forget about the fact that most my stuff would be wet now (hoping the Moutain Designs raincover had helped a bit at least) and enjoy the boat ride. The trip really was nice once the boys stopped messing around running personal errands and got us underway. We went past the old fort on the lake - Castillo de San Felipe, through a lilypad area and finally throguh some really nice gorges. It took 2 and a half hours to get to Livingston in the end.
Opportunists hover at the Livingston dock hoping you'll let them show you round (which they then demand payment for). Me and the 3 others from Casa Perico said we were fine and could walk up the one street looking at the hotels/hostels by ourselves. They followed us nonetheless and sure enough asked for money for "guiding" us to the hotel. I refused and ended up staying elsewhere anyway. You get hassled alot there especially if you're a smoker - say goodbye to your cigarettes as the locals will take them. Livingston is a Garifuna place. The Garifunas are politely referred to as being laid back and mellow. In reality they are drugged up free loaders. I didn't like Livingston much but I had to stay a day to catch the boat to Punta Gorda, Belize. Even the beach here is grotty with syringes and rubbish everywhere. I didn't take any photos even because I didn't want to take my camera out. Livingston rates as the worst place I went in Guatemala but at least I found a great place to eat!

Back in Belize!!!
I was so happy to catch the boat back to Belize. We had great weather for the crossing with the water totally flat. We even got to see flying fish on the crossing. I hadn't realised how stressed and wary I'd become travelling in Guatemala until I arrived back in Punta Gorda and felt myself completely relax. I caught the bus straight up to Placencia (only a 2 hour ride) and set about doing some serious relaxing.

Placencia

Laughing Bird Caye

I stayed at a place called Omar's Guest House here. It was the best - right on the beach, private room with shared bathroom only $16BZE. And Omar himself was really friendly and laid back. He gave me half my breakfast free one day just because he wanted me to try the local specialty. Placencia is REALLY laid back and quiet. The beach is beautiful, the water is clear and the main road is a footpath. I liked it instantly. I had planned to just relax on the beach but decided I'd see about diving too. As it's low season here only one dive shop was still open and they weren't sure when they'd be heading out. No worries I said, I'm in no rush. So I had a few days relaxing on the beach and walking round "town" getting a few keepsakes before I went diving on my last day there. One of the locals I met on my shopping expedition was a Kiwi who'd come to Placencia for 2 weeks holiday and ended up staying 12 years! It's that kind of place. Also met a really nice American girl called Anna who was there doing her dive masters. She reminded me a bit of my good friend Talia so then I started missing her! Consoled myself with a dive trip though :-)
The diving was reasonable but a bit of a disappointment. We'd had high winds the last few days thougha nd that silted up the water and made the fish move to more protected areas. The snorkel during out surface interval was brilliant thoguh. I think we should have just done a shallow little dive at the snorkel spot as we would have seen more - better visibility and way more fish. Our divemaster spent most of the dive apparently tryign to catch dinner - he was constantly pointing out and picking up lobster! Too funny. Laughingbird Caye itself was very beautiful. It's a protected area because it's a hatchery/nursery for a lot of fish. Hence you see more juveniles here than full grown fish. All in all, a great stay in Placencia. Would return again

Caye Caulker
Caught the bus from Placencia to Belize City and had the most bone-jarring ride ever! 23miles from Placencia to the main road is unpaved and is really very rutted. We all got airborne several times. Arrived safely and without hassle in Belize City. No one at the bus station would tell me where the marine terminal was though. I think they're a bit scared of the taxi drivers. The taxis hang around and harrass you to catch a taxi. I knew the terminal was close though so I just walked out and asked in a shop a block away. It took about 10mins to walk there if that. Certainly no need for a taxi. Caught the next boat out to Caye Caulker then searched for a place to sleep. The accommodation here is really dingy. I settled on a place called Tina's for $15BZE a night but will stay somewhere with a private bathroom for the last night as I won't get an opportunity to shower for 2 days after that and I would have been in the salt water alot. I went in search of dive options but being low season not much is going out and it's pretty damn expensive. Decided to just snorkel the Hol Chan Marine reserve and dive the Blue Hole. Might do another half day of snorkelling too depending on the weather and my level of boredom.

Hol Chan snorkelling

Manatees in Belize

This was a really fantastic trip. We ended up having 5 snorkelling stops instead of just the 3 and saw some much stuff. 2 manatees, a manta ray, eagle ray, southern stingrays, nurse sharks, loggerhead turtle, black groper, horse-eye jacks, yellow-tail snapper, barracuda, yellow tail damsels, rainbow parrots etc etc. Really excellent trip. We had a stop at Ambergris Caye also which is the expensive island here. Nice to see how the other half live :-) Again there were heaps of juvenile fish here rather than fully grown fish. I loved the juvenile yellowtail damsels - they are black with electric blue spots. Very cool. Got a tiny bit burned but avoided the worst - there's only so much sunscreen will do in the water.

Rest Day
There really isn't anything to do here unless you're in the water. The gift shops and walking all the way around the island keeps you going for about an hour at most. Some good stuff here and I managed to get another bag so I can relieve the pressure on the zips in my pack. It fits my sleeping bag inside easily also so it's not like I have any additional bags which is good.

Caye Caulker snorkelling
Since I was going stir crazy on my rest day and had to wait another day to go to the blue hole (the frustration of low-season travel) I did a half day snorkel in the Caye Caulker Marine Reserve. Just to be confusing all the sites at the Caye Caulker reserve have the same names as the ones at the Hol Chan reserve. This snorkel trip was just as good as the one to Hol Chan only the weather was a bit chillier and there were no manatees or turtles to see. Shark-ray alley was better here though. The water is only 4 foot deep so no fins allowed and you have to be super careful not to kick the stingrays. There are heaps!!! If the light had been better I would have got some wicked photos but being so overcast and rainy I hadn't even brought my camera on board the boat. The third snorkel was really cool too because it was self-guided. I waited til the others had swum away a bit then jumped in and came face to face with a stingray and barracuda - very cool.

Blue Hole

Red-footed Booby on Half Moon Caye

Finally got to go to the blue hole on Saturday! Initially I had ruled out today as a dive day because of flying on Sunday (recommended 18-24 hours between diving and flying). Waiting at the pier for the dive boat to come I had a really cool sighting - a stingray breaching! I heard the splash and thought it must be a fish then this stingray comes flying out the water! Awesome. Wasn't impressed with the dive company really but I won't dwell on that as the diving itself was really great. The blue hole is a former land cave and is a perfect circle fringed by coral. We did a deep dive here going down to 39 metres and swam between stalictites and stalicmites. It was very surreal. There are the hugest fish there too. Gropers I think. They hung around us and then on the ascent to the surface we were circled by about 15 Grey Carribbean Reef Sharks. They were pretty big and I got a bit nervous when one got curious toward the end and started swimming toward me. All good though. Our second dive was ok but nothing really noteworthy. After that one we went to Half Moon Caye for lunch. Half Moon Caye is also a red-footed booby sanctury so i went for a walk to go see those and also spotted an iguana hanging out on a tree branch. Moved to Long Caye for the third dive. It was the best in my opinion. So much life!! And because of the shallowness all the colours showed properly. I had judged it too overcast to take the camera and was wrong I think. Nevermind! There'll be more dives in Samoa. On the trip back there was a stowawy on board! A tiny little wren i think. He hopped around landing on everyone and sat with me whgile I filled out my log book. He was so sweet and little, came all the way back to Caye Caulker with us.

Next stop, Iguassu Falls.