Cayes Bound

I woke to the sounds of Diane bustling around the room. The clock says it is only 5 AM. Oh how I want to sleep longer. There would be no loafing around this morning. We had to be in the Grand Plaza for sunrise. Grab our 10 AM van ride back to San Ignacio. Eat some lunch. Take another van ride all the way to Belize City. (No chicken buses this time.) Catch a 4 PM flight to Ambergris Caye. Then a hail a cab for a ride to our hotel south of San Pedro.

The skies were blue as the sun rose over Temple 1. There were howler monkeys in the trees above. They paid no attention to us as we sat to enjoy the moment. We met a friendly woman in her forties traveling alone. She was happy to have someone to talk with. We hiked over to Temple 4. On top, we came across a critter called a Coati. (photo below) This is a fury, four-legged animal with a bushy, striped tail. He was busy investigating all the scaffolding and workers tools. It spotted something below and disappeared down the side of the temple. We took our time to enjoy the view. Then looked at our watches. It was time to go.

The trip from Tikal to the Belize City municipal airport went smoothly. The flight to San Pedro on Maya Island Air was supposed to take only 15 minutes. We even got bumped to an earlier flight. This was looking good until we took off and Diane spotted our bags still sitting on the runaway. Then we were told that the airplane was actually going over to the Belize International Airport and we would need to change planes. Aaak! We waited in the airport for almost an hour. When we finally arrived in San Pedro our bags were not there. So we hoped they would arrive on the next flight. Over a half hour later the plane landed with our bags. Our short 15 minute flight ended up taking 2.5 hours.

We hailed a cab. There didn't look like any room in the van due to his entire family was packed inside. The driver kicked his sons out to make room for us. I felt a bit guilty about the boys having to walk. We rode with the rest of the family to the Corna Del Mar hotel.

This had been a long day of traveling. I asked Ernesto, the desk clerk, where was a nearby restaurant that served good, inexpensive Belizean food. He recommended "Antojitos" across from Marina's grocery. The place was only a five minute walk south. We were greeted at the door by some friendly locals that invited us in. The food was fabulous! Diane had the Belizean stewed chicken and I ordered the fresh snapper. Good food. Friendly people. Extremely affordable. The whole meal cost about $10 US. Reminder to self: Always ask the locals where they like to eat.

Next: San Pedro