We Be UnBelizeable

Pardon the pun, but we are: Unbelievable and in Belize! Sorry we haven't written in a while!

The last time we reported we were in Xela on Independence Day. We dreaded going back to the only 3 beds we could find in our nasty hostel dormitorio. We shouldn't have complained for when we returned our beds had been taken by a group of Israeli girls who were much tougher than us. We only got one bed to share. Gabby was freezing near the window, Sarah was roasting in the middle, and Andrea was freezing near the aisle. It was a long night.

From there we went to Lake Atitlan for a couple of days and then to Tikal (which we soon discovered translates to "Land of Sweatiness"). Tikal is the largest preserved site of Mayan ruins, it is now set in the middle of a jungle. It was once the center of the Mayan civilization.

We arrived at 7:00 am and hiked into the grand plaza which has two of the larger temples on either side of an open courtyard. We had the entire grand plaza all to ourselves except for the carpet of bees we walked through whose buzzing echoed through the entire plaza.

We were sitting on top of temple II trying to imagine what life here was like in it's heyday when we heard a terrifying roaring sound off to the south. After staring at each other in disbelief we were debating whether this noise was A) a hungry lion B) angry Mayan gods or C) a dinosaur. These were obviously the only three possibilities. Right when we settled on C and decided to walk the other direction we ran into a park ranger (or someone who looked official). We asked him "What is..." and we pointed to our ears. He said "It's a jaguar" and grinned.

This was a possibility we had not yet considered.

He had a good laugh and then escorted us to go see the quite harmless howler monkeys in person. [Editor´s Note: there was some confusion with this...the roaring sound was actually the howler monkeys, we were not being stalked by jaguars, nor did we see any...for better or worse. We did however see a tarantula about the size of a plate, he almost ate Andrea, but she´s pretty fast, she escaped.]

It was the perfect beginning to our day at Tikal. We can't describe how incredible this place is. You just have to see it.

So with one more week off before school starts we were wondering where to go when on the bus ride home our driver just happened to be taking reservations for the bus to Belize. As we obviously needed a vacation, we decided, Why not go to Belize?

Early yesterday we were ready to go to Belize, however, our bus was not. We got the 7:30 bus at 8:30 when it arrived and headed to the border. Andrea had read in the guide book that Guatemalan officials will ask you for an illegal "Exit Tax", so when they asked us for a dollar we refused to pay and began holding up the only line. Finally, as the agent realized she couldn't argue with us because "No Entiendamos" (we don't understand) she just gave us our passports and moved on to easier targets. So Gabby paid.

She forgot to stamp my passport, which isn't necessary, but I did not know this, so I went back and insisted that she "Stampa" my passport. She was less than willing but eventually gave in.

I find that many words in Spanish really are similar to the english word but with an O or an A at the end. Just a note to you all, stamp is not one of those words. I don't think Stampa is a word at all, but she got my point.

We all made it across the border. We are now at Ambergris Caye in San Pedro town to enjoy the Caribbean beaches for a few days.

One Love - Andrea, Gabby, and Sarah

So it turns out "estampa" is a word.