Crossing borders

So since I last got on here, we´ve done quite a bit, seen many different places, pretty quickly, and crossed a couple of borders. While we were still on Lago Peten in Flores, we went to Tikal, the super site of the mayan world. It was so big, and the temples were so spread out we had so much fun just hiking in the jungle, on much clearer, less jungly paths than palenque. We saw a Pizote, a racoon monkey type creature that sort of resembles an opossum. We got there around 6 in the morening because that is when you can witness most of the wildlife. We saw a ton of wild spider monkeys, oscellated (almost irradescent) turkeys, many parrots, but our search for the colorful toucan failed, even with our tips of where to find them. Tikal was sooo expensive, though, they wanted twenty dollars enterance (which we could have said screw it to and just walked past the unmaned ticket control booth!!! So 40 bucks to enter for us two and their guide services were one of the most expensive I have ever seen. But none the less we spent about 8 hours there and then took off back for Flores, tired and satidfied from our maybe 8 mile walk around the magnificent super city of the mayans.
On our next day in Flores we took a little boat tour to a couple of sites around the lake. The first was this zoo type reserve where they had all the animals and birds that were from the jungle region that we were in. They had all sorts of birds, jungle pigs, reptiles, a whole lot of spider monkeys especially the cute babies, and a bunch of jungle cats, incluiding the well respected and worshiped jaguar that could rip your head of in a second!!! if it wanted to.

So after a very relaxing lakeside stay in flores, we trecked on a tour to Belize City, from where we would take a water taxi to Caye Ambergris to meet my mom for a little more than a week. There was another illegal attempt at a border fee, which we firmly denounced, explaining that other immigration officials told us that we didnt have to pay.. I only had 3 quetzales (about 50 cents) on me and we barely had anyfood or water until I got some cash in Belize. So when we arrived to the water taxi 15 minutes before departure, I had to run through hastling pan-handlers to the nearest cash machine. The second we arrived in Belize everyone was really friendly and really lively, speaking their really Caribbean accents which are hard to get used to, but you eventually catch on and comprehend most things. It is the spanish that i cant understand, and then when they start speaking Creole, its out the window, not to mention the Mayan, and Garifuna languages they throw in there to. Where we stayed on the island was secluded from town, and even though we were in Belize, it could have been anywhere on the earth (besides the giant barrier reef that was a quarter mile away.) But when we went into town we had to stay for 5 hours because of the boat service to our hotel, we got a good feel for Belizian culture and the people. The general greeting if you see someone on the street is Arright??, and you usually get a Caribbean toned ¨Ya Man.¨ While we were there we rented golfcarts to get around and transport groceries, which was always provided entertainment. Because its an island everything is very expensive; food, water, tours, especially fresh food are the most expensive commodities. While we were on our vacation from our vacation, we hung out in our room alot because it was almost a terrential down pour for our first half of the stay. It was ok though because we had a large condo rented and it was very comfy, with two bedrooms (which the place upgraded for free). After the sun came out we went on a fishing trip for a half day where we jumped the reef ( a tough task, going out to sea), going to do some deep sea fishing. Sonya caught a couple of nice ocean Triggers, where as all I caught was an ugly pitiful toadfish which wasnt even good enough to keep for bait. Despite the cost (10 times more than a Mexican fishing trip) we enjoyed getting out on the water and just kickin back and fishin for a few hours. The next day we took the sea kayaks out to the reef and all three of us had a lovely sunset kayaking trip on the Azure Caribbean.
On our last day we had to leave early to make it down south to Punta Gorda, a seven hour trip from Belize City. When we got to the bus station in B.C. everyone kept on asking where are you going, what time, and usually uncomfortable with this seemingly unnmotivated kindness, we realized it was exactly that, everyone just extremely happy to help us find our way. On that day when we were travelling, it was Obama´s inaguration so everyone was talking about it and when we pulled up to the statyion in Belmopan, I could here him giving his speech on the radio. Everybody was all Obama crazy in Belize, a huge contrast from the standoffish Mexico.. I even bought a CD in the B.C. bus station with songs all about Obama (there are alot).
So whenwe got on the the bus (James Bus Line) we realized why we couldnt reserve tickets... you just get on and somebody will come take your money eventually. So we get on the exotically painted schoolbus where the only storage is that in the back where they have taken out a couple of seats for room. Despite the lack of luxury on the bus, everyone was seeming to have a great time, relaxing, bullshiting with other passengers and what not. After the long bus ride we arrived in Punta Gorda, a town that has deep roots in the Garifuna culture, whom are descendants of shipwrecked slaves mixed with other indegenous races. The place is so relaxed that they just call it P.G. and its so small that you can walk around it in about a half an hour. Our first night being in the real Belize, we went for some traditional belizian food, which is always cheap, and for me, stew chicken with rice and beans is ALWAYS delicious. As soon as we got out of the north, we realized that the island was very expensive, yet still cheaper that the states, and the rest of the coutry could offer financial relief.
After one night in Punta Gorda (which I would like to return to) we took off on boat for Livingston, Guatemala, where we are now. The immigration office in PG was so relaxed, it was a wooden shack, where everyone gave times that all varied: such as how long you need to leave the country until you can come back (officially 72 hours but when we inquired, most seemed absent of any knowledge on this time frame). That was the reason for coming to Guatemala, to renew our free 30 day visa when we come back to Belize, which is our plan: volunteering near Barton Creek, and then celebrating Sonyas birthday somewhere on the Caribbean (maybe back north Caye Caulker). Here in Livingston it is only accesible by boat and right on the Caribbean, it is a purely Garifuna town, where telephone poles are painted in the famous red, yellow, green, rasta stripes. Back in Guatemala, things are as cheap as they should be, but the Belizian vibes of the coast are still here. Dating back to the Mayans, Belizians have always wanted to keep a distinct culture away from the north, the Mayans digging a channel (that widend over many hurricane seasons and storms) to seperate its land from the Yucatan peninsula, creating a truly and physically seperated land. And it shows... Belizians are different that any other people, speaking with Caribbean accents but using english (britain) terms like when I got this guys phone number in PG hey described it as ¨six-hundred, eight-TRee, ot four¨... distinct. So we are still on the Caribbean, 2 weeks straight now, but we will trek across Belize again soon, on Saturday ( you can span the country the long way in about a day!!!)