NOVEMBER 2016 BELIZE AND GUATEMALA TRIP

Here are some photos from our November 2016 trip to Belize and Guatemala.  We traveled all over Belize, even heading inland and then spent a couple of days in Guatemala visiting Tikal which was amazing!

Here is a picture of Belize International Airport.  It is very, very small.

 

We headed directly to San Pedro via boat taxi where we stayed at Mata Rocks Hotel.  The beach was right outside of our hotel room.  It was a nice quaint hotel.  The bar was also right next to our room so it was a little loud at night but I would stay there again.

 

 

This is San Pedro Belize.  The main mode of transportation is the golf cart.

 

This is The Bar Over the Water.  Our Golf cart broke down here.  It couldn’t have picked a better spot to break down.

 

 

We moved on from San Pedro to Caye Caulker.  This is me lounging on the deck of our AirBnB.  We found a very nice guest house with wonderful hosts for a reasonable price.

 

While we were on Caye Caulker we decided to go snorkeling,                    actually Stanley ended up snorkeling while I stayed in the boat.                          I thought I would be able to handle snorkeling but once we                             got out on the water I was afraid and decided to stay in the boat.  It was still fun though.  The two men at the head of the boat were our snorkeling guilds.

 

 

 

Next we headed inland to Santa Elena and San Igancio to visit our friends                    from the United States.  They showed us around and helped pick out souvenirs. 

This is the bridge that we walked across every day to get from Santa Elena to San Ignacio and back.

This is the view of Santa Elena and San Ignacio from our friends house in Santa Elena.  While we were in Santa Elena/San Ignacio we decided to go on a tour/hike of the Actun Tunichil Muknal Cave. This is a cave far back in the jungle where the Maya used to perform their sacrifices.  It is being excavated now and you can hike in and see the actual sacrifices.  I definitely recommend taking this tour if you are visiting Belize.  I think that at some point they will probably shut down the cave to the public to preserve the artifacts but right now there are many tours that go there daily.  I don’t have pictures to show you, I wish I did but cameras are not allowed in the cave.  There are many tour companies that can take you there.  Just walk down the main street in San Ignacio and you will find many of them.  This is the company that we decided to go with.  https://www.mayawalk.com/belize-atm-cave-tour

We headed across the Belize/Guatemala border at San Ignacio and headed about and hour and a half into Guatemala to Tikal.  It was a wonderful and interesting trip.  The above photo is from the top of the highest temple in Tikal at sunrise.  The morning we were there the Howler monkeys were going crazy yowling.  It was pretty neat.  We stayed at the Jungle Lodge and had a great tour guide named Tony.  I recommend staying there if you get to visit Tikal.

This is crossing through immigration from Guatemala back into Belize.

When we got back into Belize we headed south down the Hummingbird Highway to Dangriga to be there for the Settlement Day Festival.  This is a celebration of the arrival of the Garifuna people to Dangriga.  Dangriga has the largest population of Garifuna people in all of Belize.  We got up really early and headed from our resort in Hopkins to Dangriga to be there in time for the arrival of the procession of boats in the morning.  Stanley and I ended up going to mass at the local church and dancing down the street with the procession of Garifuna people who were heading to the local park for more festivities.  It was a lot of fun.

While we were in Hopkins we also decided to go horse back riding in the jungle and visit the Marie Sharps factory.  This picture is only one of a few where I am actually smiling while horse back riding.  I guess I didn’t care for horse back riding very much.  Stanley loved it, that’s him gesturing towards the river.  As far as the Marie Sharps factory goes, if you get the chance to try her hot sauce, do.  It’s really good but hard to find in the United States.  We brought back several bottles.  We had to head home soon after this but we had a great time in Belize.  When you go be sure to try out their rum, their honey, Marie Sharps hot sauce and eat lots and lots of fresh fish and fruit.  The food was delicious!

And, of course we had to stop at Black Pearl Harley Davidson on our way to the airport.  This is my handsome husband, Stanley standing outside their store.