CENTRAL AMERICA – WEEK 2

 

Our Intrepid tour is advertised as ‘basic’, and that it is, as we found out when we checked in to our first room at the Hotel Cocodrilo in Playa del Carmen.  Elva will definitely not be treated like a ‘princess’ on this trip!  We smelled the tell-tale aroma of mold as soon as we walked through the door.  At 6:00 in the evening, we met our group, led by tour guide, Javier.  There are sixteen of us: six over-sixties and ten under-thirty-fives.  Four are from Canada, four from Australia, three from England, two from Germany, and one each from the US, Switzerland, and Ireland.

Our first hotel was located just down the street from the Coco Bongo Club, one of Playa’s hottest nightspots, apparently.  The music kept blaring until 4:00 am but we slept through it for the most part.  The next morning, we were on our own, free to wander around Playa until we all marched to the bus stop and got on the 2:30 bus, bound for Tulum.  One of the features of this tour is that the group travels mostly by public transit.

Driving on the Yucatan peninsula is like driving across the Miscouche swamp: flat as piss on a plate, barely above water, and boring as hell to look at.  No matter, I slept most of the way while Elva rode shotgun.  We arrived at our second hotel, the Villa Tulum around 4:30, rented bicycles and rode to the beach where I had a dip.  The bikes had to be older than the first CCM Mom bought me when I was eight!  We pedaled back to the hotel in the pitch darkness and followed Javier’s suggestion for a group meal in downtown Tulum.  Elva and I had the mariscada, or fish platter: the best I’ve ever had, served in a little hole-in-the-wall.  I had my first real taste of octopus, and found it quite nice!

Javier bought us tickets for the bus to Chichen Itza on our second day in Tulum.  We couldn’t resist visiting one of the seven wonders of the modern world, given that we were so close.  Our American friend, Gordon, came along with us.  We hired a guide who gave us a great tour of the site and recommended we have a bite to eat at his wife’s restaurant, Fabiola’s.  So the three of us piled into a cab and rode the short distance into town.  It was a good decision, as Fabiola’s is genuine Mexican all the way.

The next day was a travel day, and Javier had warned us that the trip to Caye Caulker would take at least nine hours.  We piled into taxis at the hotel, rode to the bus station and took a coach as far as the town of Chetumal on the Mexico-Belize border.  From there, we went through Belize Customs and hopped on two mini-vans for the ride to Belize City.  Next, we boarded a water taxi for the one-hour trip to Caye Caulker.  Arriving at our lodgings for two nights, Tom’s Hotel, we took one look at the room and were reminded of Elva’s father’s expression for a bed belonging to the poorest of the poor: un grabat.

The group followed Javier’s suggestion for dinner and feasted on seafood at Rose’s Grill; definitely a keeper!  We awoke at 6:00 am to a sound I haven’t heard since my summer-job days: a fogger.  Then the unmistakeable smell of insecticide hit us.  It didn’t bother me but wasn’t to Elva’s liking at all.  Not one mosquito on the island today though!

Caye Caulker is a charming little place that hasn’t been spoiled by the big resorts or the big money.  Not yet at least!  Its well-chosen motto is: “Go Slow!”  Little more than a long, narrow sandbar, the island has no paved roads and the only motorized vehicles are golf carts.  Children cycle the pot-holed streets in complete safety, people are friendly, and they all seem to know one another, except of course for us tourists.

On our second day, most of the group booked the full-day snorkeling excursion with Raggamuffin Tours.  Elva had decided to spend the day ashore as she’s not particularly fond of the water.  We boarded our old wooden vessel, the Ragga Gal, and sailed off toward the barrier reef.  She reminded me of the SS Minnow on the old TV show, Gilligan’s Island.  But it was a fair day, and our skipper, the much-tattooed Jacob, and his first mate, Vito, made sure we got to our destination safe and sound.  The photo below shows a group of nurse sharks I swam with a few moments later.

The snorkeling was amazing.  We saw many kinds of coral and fish all colours of the rainbow.  At our second stop, the crew put out some chum to attract the nurse sharks and sting rays.  We were able to swim down to see them feeding, and I took full advantage.  On the way back, they broke out the rum punch and cranked up the music.  The younger members of the group danced on the old girl’s foredeck and put the passengers on the other Raggamuffin Tours to shame.  We had a hell of a time!  To end our day, we dined al fresco at a barbecue place right on the beach.

 

On our last morning on Caye Caulker, Elva and I walked to the deserted end of the island, past the small airstrip and a few homes that were definitely ‘off-the-grid’.  On our way back, we were startled to come across a crocodile that glared menacingly at us from a salt-water inlet.  We didn’t stop to chat, needless to say.  Soon, it was time to board the water taxi for the ride back to Belize City.

From dockside, our taxi driver raced through narrow streets that I would definitely not want to stroll after dark.  We arrived at the Belize City bus station and suffered a bit of culture shock as we walked through the rather destitute waiting area to our ‘chicken bus’, an over-the-hill American Blue Bird school bus.  Away we went through the dirt streets of the city, bouncing through potholes, dust streaming in through the open windows, music blaring, bound for God knows where!

After crossing many kilometres of swampland and seeing crushing poverty along the way, we arrived at the capital city of Belize, Belmopan.  Our bus pulled into the muddy station, filled up with all manner of creatures of the human variety, and we were off again to our destination of San Ignacio, a one-horse town of about 15,000 souls.  Arriving there, we checked into our hotel, the Venus.  Our standards by now not being very high, we got about what we expected!  There was little hot water, and live wires led to the shower head, but at least the bed wasn’t home-made.

On our full day in San Ignacio, Elva and I decided to team up with two other members of the group and visit the Mayan site called Xunantunich.  We sampled a local delicacy called ‘fried jacks’ at Pop’s Diner and had the best breakfast of the tour so far.  To get to Xunantunich, we hopped into a taxi that looked ready for a demolition derby, rode 12 km. or so toward the Guatemala border, crossed the Mopan River on a small cable ferry, accompanied by several horses, and walked uphill fifteen minutes to the site. 

Our guide, Javier Herrera, was excellent and well worth the $20 US we paid him.  He was very knowledgeable and in no rush, and we were able to climb to the top of the main structure, a 40-metre high pyramid called “El Castillo”.  The tour complemented our visit to Chichen Itza and added considerably to our knowledge of the history of the Mayan civilization.  It’s a shame so much of their knowledge has been lost to the ages.

Saturday morning, it was off to the Guatemala border and our next destination, Flores.  Guatemala is by no means a rich country, but it is clearly more prosperous than Belize.  The agriculture is more advanced and the houses we saw along the way better constructed and maintained.  Flores occupies an island in the middle of a beautiful lake.  It’s a pretty little town with a lot of character and charm.  Our hotel is the best one thus far, and the place makes us want to stay awhile longer!