Just passed through the border, otw way to Tikal
I am here!!! After the longest red eye flight ever... well, maybe it wasn't that long, but it seemed to take forever, I have arrived. Jon and Kara are aleady here and now all we have to do is wait for Jen. Half hour later, she has arrived. We go over and rent the car I reserved at Crystal Rent a Car (they are the only car agency that allows driving to Guatemala), we get in and off we go. We are driving from Belize City to Guatemala. I am so excited. There are tons of things that I want to see down here but the most important is Tikal. I have been to several Mayan Ruins- Chichen Itza- Tulum and have been incredably impressed and awed, but this is supposed to be the "capital city" of the Mayan civilization. Only 10% of the ruins have actually been excavated and from pictures I have seen, it already looks amazing.
My girls Jen, Kara and I. After 3 hours driving from Belize City to Guatemala, with no map or signs on the road, we made it!
Sorry, I get a bit sidetracked sometimes and am a bit of a history dork. I think I am lured by places like this because it still seems so untouched. There is no McDonalds, no KFC. The people are amazingly friendly, although we do have to be somewhat cautious. I would love to be able to travel again by myself. My dream life, to make enough money to take endless times off and travel everywhere.
The border crossing was interesting. As we drive up we see two run down buildings and an old bridge with tons of poeple hanging about with all different types of items. The Belizean side is paved, clear lines of what we need to do/go. As soon as we cross through, the road becomes dirt, and we are at the mercy of my spanish. No one else speaks spanish.
La Casa De Don David, our accommodations for the next couple days.
After quite of bit of confusion with a man who is supposed to be helping us out, we park the car, get a permit, show our rental agreement, pay a fee, get a copy that we paid a fee, get a stamp, and then show the stamp to another security guard before a boy, who looks about age 17 (holding an AK47), lifts the guard rail and lets us through. Of course we tip the guy who helped us out- we convert some of our money, since we don't know where the nearest bank/ATM is and find the conversion rate to be about 7 to 1.
Oh... and did I mention that we have no maps?! This should be fun. Off we go. I am not too worried, there are two major roads that go through Guatemala and only one goes the direction we are headed, so we follow cars in front of us and find ourselves on the widest dirt road I have ever seen.
View from the resuraunt
It is about the width the 405 freeway and could fit 8 cars across. The border crossing towns are small and poverty stricken but as we leave this area, the lush green forest starts to emerge and the elevation changes. We look around and see hills and mountains of untouched forests and trees. Along the way, we see small towns were there seem to be no people, but we see horses tied to trees on the side of the road.
After about 3 plus hours, we see a sign. First one that we have come across since we have crossed the border and thank god we are in the right area. I had looked online prior to us leaving and had read some positive comments about a place called the Casa de Don David. After getting a little lost, we find it burrowed against the lake.
Mosun... hmmm, humm good beer. Kara doesn't share well.
By this time, it is almost sunset, and we have been travelling all night, all day. I want a beer. Jen and I check into our room, basic but does the job. It is one of the few places that has hot and cold running water with electricity, $17/per night. We check out the place and realize they have a gazebo with 6 hammocks for people to relax in, ooohhh.. so excited. Both of us collapse into one and stare out at the lake in front of us. We head up to the resturaunt and proceed to have great dinner and a fantastic beer called Mosun. It reminds me of Guiness but better, tastes like chocolate. We relax and watch an amazing sunset in about 80 degree weather, it is going to be a good trip.
Day one- we are here. I can't wait for tomorrow. We are getting up early to try and see the sunrise.
