Central America: Part 2

Once again, Mindy takes the reigns to tell the story of our Belizian adventures:

Check out part one before you view our Central America adventure continued...

After Lamanai we took a bus ride down to explore the surrounding area of San Ignacio, which is a little town located about 10 miles from the border of Guatemala. We spent one full day touring the Actun Tunichil Muknal cave, which exceded all our expectations and ended up being an amazing, once in a lifetime experience. After a sketchy van ride on a very bumpy road and about an hour of hiking through the jungle, we ended up at the mouth of this gorgeous cave.

We donned our headlamps and spent about an hour and a half wading and swimming up the water in the cave until we reached a cavern, where we promptly removed our shoes and spent the next hour practically walking on top of Mayan artifacts dating back hundreds and hundreds of years. There was pottery EVERYWHERE!

It was incredible to be inside of this beautiful cavern surrounded by so much history, and none of it behind glass or bars.

The whole time I just kept thinking "there's no way this would EVER happen in the States..." Our walk through the artifacts eventually led us a ledge where we climbed up a ladder to see two human skeletons-the remains of an ancient Mayan sacrifical ceremony.

The A.T.M. cave also ended up being the first time that we met Ed and Scott. We continued to run into them throughout our trip and spent quite a bit of time hanging out with them in Caye Caulker.

We took one more day trip out of San Ignacio into Guatemala to see the famed ruins of Tikal.

Of all the ruins in Central America, this is by far the largest, which is an amazing feat since only 20% of the temples on site have been excavated. Highlights: climbed up many of the temples, saw a wild boa constrictor, held a tarantula, and I saw a couple of wild toucans (Taylor just missed them....it's kind of a sore spot....).

Thus ended the jungle portion of our trip. From here we headed to the Caribbean to stay on an island off the coast of Belize, very near to the Blue Hole dive site. On the way we made a brief stop at the Belizian Zoo, where we saw many animals in cages that we had already seen in the wild, and where Taylor tried to pick a fight with a giant Harpy Eagle.

We arrived on Caye Caulker with the intention of relaxing for four full days, and that's exactly what we did! The island is a whopping 3 km long, so it's really easy to get around.

We spent time swimming and snorkeling in the channel, eating fresh and incredibly cheap lobster, hanging out with new found friends, biking down the main road, and soaking up the sunshine. Our favorite experience on the island ended up being snorkeling. We went with a guide out to explore the Coral Gardens, Hol Chan Reserve, and Shark Ray Alley, and it was the best snorkeling Taylor and I have ever done. We swam with giant turtles, nurse sharks, sting rays, and thousands of colorful fish. We saw barracuda, a really creepy eel, and octupus, and two massive manatees. It was INCREDIBLE to see God's diverse creation beneath the clear blue water.

While on Caye Caulker we decided to spend our last 2 nights of the trip in Cancun, but this time we decided that we would splurge and find a hotel with a pool on the ocean. I was tired of swimming in salt water, and we were both ready for an air conditioned room. We looked on Hotwire before leaving Caye Caulker and found this "four star" hotel for only $68 a night. The catch was that the site wouldn't tell us the name of the hotel until we booked. It seemed way too good to be true, but we decided to take a risk and just go for it.

Long story short, we spent an entire day traveling from Caye Caulker to Mexico, encountering just a few mishaps along the way (like our tour bus leaving us at the Mexican border with no money), and arrived at our hotel tired and hungry, not knowing what to expect. It was.......... AN AMAZING, GORGEOUS, INCREDIBLE FOUR STAR HOTEL! Now, those of you who know me well know that I am cheap and am all about a deal and would never willingly spend money on an extravagant hotel...thus I have never experienced TRUE LUXURY. Now I understand why people splurge!

We spent the next two days in an awed state of bliss, swimming in the giant pool, exploring all the boutiques and restraunts in our hotel, and just gazing at the turquoise ocean. It was a fabulous way to end our trip, and it made me realize that although I love an adventurous vacation and really don't mind roughing it most of the time, ending a trip with a little rest and relaxation in paradise is pretty great.

Looking back, it was an incredible experience. Although I feel much safer traveling in Westernized countries, I am glad we pushed ourselves out of our comfort zones and spent time in a few third world countries. I can't even put into words how humbling it was- we are so blessed and have so much in America. God truly protected us and kept us safe and healthy during our travels.

Our between cities and countries connections were almost flawless (minus a few mishaps at the Mexican border...but really, can that count? It IS the Mexican border after all...), and we had no trouble finding our hotels when arriving in new cities. Exploring God's beauty and creation from a different perspective was inspiring, and we were able to meet and spend time with really cool people along the way. It was a great trip.

So there you have it- our adventure of 2009. Until next time....