Welcome to the Jungle

After Chichen Itza, we went to the gulf side for a night in Campeche then on to Palenque for some of the most impressive ruins we saw. For the structures themselves, but also for the surroundings. The rolling hills of the highland jungles were breathtaking. It was also about the hottest we've ever felt in the jungle of Palenque. We walked from our campsite at the Mayabell along the road that climbed a few miles to the top of the hill and the ruins. It was just before 9 am in the morning, but it felt like it was about 120 deg. with 110% humidity. So, no, I haven't been for a swim in this picture.

The carvings on some of the buildings were quite impressive and meaningful. Still don't know what the T was for tho.

Nick, off in the distance, had some great time to "zone out" at this site. We all had to take some time to let the significance of where we were standing soak in. Just like in Tikal, we could almost hear the pulse of the old Mayan culture in and around the ruins.
Ahhh, the day in the jungle made the next day all the sweeter. On our way to San Cristobal de las Casas, a mountain town over 5,000 feet, we stopped at two sets of falls. The first place we had all to ourselves. A perfect swimming hole and a place to walk behind the falls.

The view from behind the falls...

Bringing the tradition of the cairn to Mexico.

The next place we stopped for the day was packed with tourists and local families and was a series of beautiful turqoise blue falls that stretched far up the hillsides. There were countless pools and a couple rope swings to monkey on along the way.

Lost in translation?? This was by the set of falls in the picture above that was roped off for swimming...

More pics back in Mex

From the border crossing from Belize into Mexico, we only had a couple days to make our way to Tulum to pick up Nick Walker...a friend living in Denver now who jumped in the van for a month. After a quick overnight in Tulum (since it felt like an extension of Cancun craziness) we moved inland through the Yucutan. We stopped at a wonderfully refreshing cenote (swimming hole), especially so since it was over 110 degrees in the Mexican jungle. This cenote was a little built up and more commercial than some of the others we stopped in, but no less beautiful. Set a few hundred feet down in a cave with vines hanging down and through the opening...
The water itself was amazingly clear and filled with hundreds of black catfish. They also had a diving platform that we couldn't get enough of.

From there we saw our first set of Mexican Mayan ruins...CHICHEN ITZA. Saw a light show the night before recreating how this temple was made in accordance with the calendar the Maya are so famous for. With exactly 365 steps and a light and shadow event that takes place on the spring and fall equinox showing a snake coming up and down the stairs. The ancients really did their research before building anything.
This was in the ball court, where evidently the Mayan taste for blood even extended to their sports. They were known to slaughter the captain of the losing team and sometimes the entire team at the end of a game. That had to bring on some friendly competition.
This is believed to be one of the sacrificial platforms. Hard to tell why! If you didn't lose your head here, you might have been pushed into the cenote of death a short distance from the main plaza, where among bones of the poor souls pushed in they have also found countless amounts of gold, silver and jewels given up as offerings to the gods.

Back to the States

We are officially back in the good old USA. We crossed the border into Arizona a couple weeks ago now. The first few days back were blazing hot until we met Angie's parents in a Scotsdale resort to soak up some pool time and A/C. Walt and Sharon then jumped in the van to camp for a few days through the Grand Canyon and Mesa Verde Nat'l Parks. We stopped in Durango along the way to ride the Narrow Gauge Train along the river up to Silverton...quite a ride.


We are currently in Colorado Springs and have been treating ourselves the last few days to another plush hotel. Said a sad goodbye to The Johnsons yesterday and we are on our way out this morning and back to van living. We are camping in Colorado for the next month!

Have some catch up to do on the last month in Mexico and getting some more pictures posted! Will get some up soon! Love to all and more to come...

Belize

We were only in Belize a few days, but would have loved to stay longer. It is a beautiful, lush country filled with such friendly people. The first day we were there, we went in search of a National Park called Five Blues Lake. The only thing we had on it was a Lonely Planet write up. Unfortunately, it seems that right after they listed it in the book, the park pretty much closed. We drove on some pretty run down, overgrown backroads to get there only to have to turn around to find some place else to stay for the night...

We ended up at Ian Anderson´s adventure park on the Humingbird Hwy for the night instead. We were pretty tempted by the cabana´s and treehouses they had on their property, but opted for another night in the van to save $$. They light their jungle property up with Tiki torches every night...

Without very much information on the town, we set our sights on a place called Placencia. It was the description as ¨The Caye you can drive to¨ that got us. It was well worth the drive of 25km on rough dirt. We found the most peaceful campsite run by a couple from Oregon and loved the small town at the end of the road. This place definitely felt like a honeymoon spot.

Placencia has been listed in the world record´s as having the world´s smallest main street. It was built before the road came down into town. And everything pretty much still centers around this street, that is just a couple feet wide...

On our way back from Placencia we stopped at Blue Hole National Park for a few swims in the natural swimming hole there. The crystal clear water flows out from an underwater cave.

From here we pretty much drove to and stayed just south of the border crossing back into Mexico. We weren´t quite ready to leave and would love to come back to Belize someday...with some more money! With gas over $5 per gallon it was a hit on our tight budget!

Tikal

Tikal!! This was our first ruins experience and it kind of spoiled us. We wondered around here for a day and a half and found it really fun to finally sleep in the jungle. There are some crazy noises in the jungle. This was our first time hearing Howler monkeys! They sound like they are about to attack like a lion. They are crazy little buggers!!! The first night we were in the ruins, we pretty much had them to ourselves right around sunset. We were able to climb Temple V and felt on top of the Mayan world.

There was so much to see here with an expansive timeline in history. You can´t climb up the actual stairs of the largest temples anymore. But the three that you could climb up were by a sketchy scaffold stairway system that felt wobblier than if you went up the stone steps.

Temple IV, remember the location of the rebel base from Star Wars? Look familiar?

On the top for the sunrise tour. We hiked in around 5am before sunrise. As we walked in the jungle was coming alive with the morning. All the birds and monkeys and bugs making so much music in the morning. We sat in silence for about 30 minutes atop Temple IV and just listened. Amazing!!!

The sun was trying to make it´s way through the clouds...

and we were trying to wake up!!

View of the Grand Plaza

Temple I This is actually an ant trail. We saw these all through the ruin site. They are making highways...it was crazy!

We´re ready for our Lonely Planet picture...

Photos from Guatemala-Panajachel to Semuc Champey

We have finally had some pictures downloaded to disc and have some computer time to get a posting up. These are all pictures from our time in Guatemala, a country we loved every step of the way. It is a very diverse country and still rich in traditional culture. This is the view across Lake Atitlan that greeted us out our door every morning. The lake was perfect glass every morning, making us wish we had towed the wakeboard boat with us!!

Language classes everyday took place in the school's garden with our teacher, Patricia, who has lived in Panajachel her entire life. The farthest she had traveled was to one of the small villages at the base of one of the volcanoes across the lake.

We were able to walk into town everyday from our campsite up and over the hill from town. This is the view looking back to our campsite on one morning's walk...
The nightlife and bright colors of the streets of Panajachel. The food was great and just as cheap to eat out as to buy groceries and cook, so we took advantage of that! Especially since a nightly rain would make cooking out at camp a little hard.

After leaving the lake, we got off the "beaten path" for a few days and were on dirt roads that took us into some of the most beautiful areas of the country. But ended up being quite a commitment...we were driving about 10 km per hour on some crazy back roads, but it was very worth it. First stop was the caves at Lanquin. They are lit for the first few hundred yards past the entrance and the locals have labeled all kinds of formations within the caves including a monkey face, an Eagle, a skeleton, and the Virgin Mary.

This is the view through the entrance to the source of the river flowing from in the cave that we found out was the drinking source for the village below.

Every night just at dusk, the caves come to life with thousands and thousands of bats coming out for the night. There was no trace of them during the day while we toured the cave...

Our next stop was an area called Semuc Champey, one of our favorite spots on the entire trip. It was a short hike into a series of limestone swimming pools that you can swim in and walk through. We both decided that a spot like this in the states would have been fenced off a long time ago.

The pools alone were so refreshing after a hot day in the car and were so amazingly beautiful...BUT...


It was when we realized we were in fact swimming on a limestone bridge that had formed over the river below that this place became truly magical. The bridge itself was almost 1,000 feet long with countless peaceful pools and waterfalls running through it. You would never know there is a river raging beneath it! Here is a picture of the river as it starts to flow underneath the bridge...

Even though pretty beat from the day we decided to make the hike straight uphill to the Mirador, Spanish for a lookout. The hike litterally went so straight up in some places that ladders and steep stairs had been installed. The view from the top made it all worth it.

Back to School

We are already coming to the end of our Spanish classes in Panajachel, Guatemala. We can´t believe how much we´ve learned in a week, but still have sooo much to do and need a lot more time to study and figure it out...we say over and over again that learning a language is hard, we feel like we´re back at work!! Our classes are for four hours every day and then we have homework each night that takes at least that long. Whew! But we couldn´t have picked a better place to study. Waking up to Lake Atitlan out our ¨front door¨each morning and studying Spanish in a beautiful Guatemalan garden every afternoon...it doesn´t get much better...so maybe not quite like work. Our plan is to be here at least through the weekend and then begin our exploration of some other areas of Guat next week!

Backing up a couple weeks, here are a few pictures to re-cap after our time inland in Mex as we worked our way down to Guatemala...

This was the beach view beyond our camp in La Ticla and a pretty photographed spot as we´ve now seen the same picture in a couple surf guides. The waves at Ticla were HUGE while we were there, double overhead at times! Blake took the challenge and hit the surf a few times and King Neptune wasn´t very nice to him.
We were so lucky to see our first sea turtles in Ticla!!! We COULD NOT believe it, but they were coming up on the beach during the day just down from the town. We kept our distance, but learned within the next few days that the people of Mexico don´t really follow this rule...

The National Geographic movies are right. It IS quite a struggle for each turtle to make their way back to the ocean. It is HARD to be a mother!!! This is the path of one...From Ticla, we said a very sad goodbye and parted ways with our caravanning friends, Tiffany and Danny. They were headed back up to the states and we went the other way to work our way back down the Pacific Coast. We drove on to a small town called Maruata for a night. This is an aerial view of town from the top of one of the cliffs that surround the bay. Look closely to pick out our van!

The beach at Maruata...

We met a pretty fun group just after we pulled into town that insisted that we sit down with them for dinner which turned into the rest of the night. They had hired a live musician for the night, so we were serenaded with traditional Mexican music all night. He was even taking requests...Matt and Norah, bet you can´t guess what we asked for!! Don´t get too excited tho, we still don´t know the words.

We took a walk that night to look for more turtles and ran into a group of Marines that patrol the beach for the same reason. However, they actually harvest the eggs just after the turtle is finished and then pretty much carry her back to the sea. This tortuga was probably 3 times the size of the one we´d seen in Ticla and laid about 100 eggs!

Blake helped carry her back! So much for keeping our distance.

We made one more stop along the way at Barra de Nexpa and both got in the water for some surf here!!