slight mishap

We met a Taxi drive/tour guide yesterday that seemed pretty helpful. He arranged to take us up the river from San Ignacio, where we are staying, to Medicinal Rainforest Trail. He also arranged inner tubes for us so we could float down the river back to San Ignacio. He told us it would take about 2 hrs to float down the river.
3 and a half hours after getting on the river it was getting dark with no sign of town. We got off the river and tried walking. The problem was there is absolutely no bank to walk on and jungle around us. We figured it was better to be cold on a river that was flowing the right direction than lost in the jungle at night. So we got back on the river and luckily found someone on the river bank. They pointed us to a path off the river (which we would have never seen).
Then we hitchhiked back to town (its safe).
When we returned the tubes back to the taxi driver he asked if we wanted his help the next day as well. We declined.



We didn't shoot this, but it's the same river.

Travel Day

Caye Caulker to Belize City by Water Taxi - $10 per person
Belize City to San Ignacio by bus - $3.50 per person


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Updated Trip Map (click on locations for text)

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Happy Thanksgiving

Spearfishing for thanksgiving. Who needs turkey when you can catch your own snapper and lobster. A local took us out to his fishing spots. He caught a small baracuda as well.

breakfast of champs

 
 
 

there are a lot of pastries classified as breakfast on this island. carrot cake, key lime pie, frozen custard, johnnycakes, fry jacks, hamburgers. =)

Caye Caulker cat

Feeding the local cats our unused fishing bait.
We also almost adopted 4 more cats from the humane society.

 

Caye Caulker Island motto

We left San Pedro for Caye Caulker on Nov 23rd

Self Serve Coconuts

We bought a Machete and now have daily coconut juice. Even dogs like coconut meat here in Caye Caulker, Belize. Plus now Banditos won't rob us (one guide book actually recommended carrying a machete around for deterrence purposes)

San Pedro Chicken Drop

 

this was the only gambling we engaged in. you buy a number and if the chicken poops on it, you win $100 BZ = $50 USD. we didn't win.

Diving in San Pedro

David says: Our Dive Master wrangled a 5 foot nurse shark and let Teresa pet it.
I'm pretty sure that goes against all the rules in the Marine Park we were in, but it was pretty cool regardless.

http://ambergriscaye.com/tides/dive.html

Garifuna Settlement Day in San Pedro, Belize

 

http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Garifuna

Nov 19th was Garifuna Settlement Day, a holiday celebrated all throughout Belize. It is to celebrate the Garifuna people who originally on a slave trading ship from Nigeria crashed into St. Vincent and then emigrated to Belize and Honduras. The Garifuna people are very proud to never had been enslaved and cook really yummy dishes such as stew chicken and boil up.

teresa fitting in

 

this is me trying to fit in. real hard.

kissing fish in Corozal. Belize

 
 

we are embracing the local marinelife.

Hostelito in Cozumel Mexico.

$27 a night for private rooms.

 
 

cozumel stormy weather - days of self sufficiency

you might have wondered, where the heck did david and teresa get all this money to take 6mo off work and travel? the answer is we don't have it. we are on a budget of $100/ day and this is how we try to cut corners apart from the regular 1-2 week vacation in an all inclusive resort.

the hostels - we stayed in a hostel with bed bugs and no blankets and an open window that was freezing our butts off for 250pesos/ night. [20 bucks US]

the coconut incident- one day, walking along the embarcadero, david sees a coconut tree and grabs a coconut. We don't carry a machete in our pockets, obviously, so david smashes the darned thing into a block of cement with a piece of metal sticking out. voila~ instant refreshingly sweet coconut juice.

the chicken - food prices range from 1USD a taco to 150USD dinners at nice
restaurants, so we've been hunting down bargains to fit into our budget. one
medium sized roast chicken with all the fixins [spaghetti, rice, tortillas,
chiles] is 65pesos. That's about five bucks for an excellent meal for 2. =)
woohoo!

the many sting rays - we walked by this place called "sting ray discovery" which for $60USD/ person you could swim with sting rays! so 60 x 2 = 120USD = over budget. we decided to bring our snorkel gear which we already owned to the beach, and swim over to the sting ray containment area which was only blocked off by metal wires which to our luck, had big holes! [think metal gate 2x2 inch holes] we saw about 30 sting rays of all sizes, and had a blast with all the hundreds of fish of the warm cozumel waters.

More Photos of Tulum because its so damn cool.

More Photos of Tulum because its so damn cool.

Updated Trip Map (click on locations for text)

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Our Friends in Tulum

Both these dogs lived at our our hotel in Tulum. The brown one is Shadow. He likes to chase sticks. We don't know the white one's name. He had a broken leg, but still would limp after us.


















Fred is the Iguana that lived in front of our hut. He came to visit us each day wanting food. I gave him some bread one day.

There was also a cat and many Geckos we forgot to take photos of.

Central American Transportation

Buses are the cars of mexico. Many many people uses busses to get around.
They are great. There are 5 different classes.
1. In Town Buses - Not the best. Slightly below US standards, but cheap. 50 cents to ride.
2. Second Class buses. Equivalent to Greyhound in the US. Vendors get on and try to sell you fruit or sing songs for donations.
3. First Class buses (in the photo). This is what we've taken on most long rides. Better seats than our flight to Cancun. 4 hr ride - $17
4. First class Deluxe - Haven't tried yet
5. First class Executive - Haven't tried yet. Looks like the equivalent to Airline first class leather seats.

Tulum

Tulum!! It's a seculuded beach town.
We slept in huts with no electricity. Just a bed, 2 chairs a table and a mosquito net.
The walls are wooden sticks that you can see in between.



Our hut is on the right.


View from our hut