More Travels

This week we went to Belize to see the Maya Ruins Cahal Pech and Xunantunich. If you have never seen a Mayan ruin. I can only tell you how I feel being there. It’s impressing to see how many rock they moved there and what they built with so many rocks so long ago. “But why?” Some say there is spirits still there. When I first saw this picture our son that was with us had taken, we all laughed and said.” He was not looking for spirits but maybe he had caught one or maybe made a picture of one by accident. Look for your self. Is this a spirit from long long ago hanging around the ruins.

Made at Mayan Ruin “Xunantunich”

If there was a hill or a high place that is where they built there temples. Climbing the tallest one there is always a thrill. If the people that take care of the place don’t stop Pam it won’t be long and she will be up on top. Here Pam is already on top.

Butch and Pam on the highest temple at “Xunantunich”

They’re always different. Some have high temples. Some have what looks like maybe some rooms. Always a ball field.. I have heard a lot of people say why they built them but I believe it was some kind of religion. People sometimes will do unbelievable things because of their religion. They worked on them a long time then just abandon them. Why would you work on something for maybe a thousand years and then just leave it and then it would lay in ruin in the jungle for as long with no one there. I love to just set and dream of what it may have been like thousands of years ago or longer. A place of great pleasure or a place of work and rules so hard, it would kill you. I think any thing about the ruins is hard. We road a bus the locals ride from our boat in the Rio Dulce, Guatemala to Belize. No chickens on the bus but no other gringos either. There was no more room on the bus for anyone. Riding for hours. No where left to stand. Kids in people’s laps that was just riding the bus and had no kids. People setting on hand rest of the seat so more people could stand. We have been here in Central America for a couple of years now and I have never seen that many people on a bus. Not even a chicken bus. Here is a cute little girl setting on a bucket of oil “maybe for the bus” in front of our son and if there was no where for any one to stand and they were trying to get one more on. She would set in our son’s lap and let her brother set on the oil bucket so some one could stand in his place.

Bus Trip

It was hot even with the air conditioning working. If you are looking for adventure. Try riding a bus loaded to where there is absolute no place to set or stand. It being hot and raining with Spanish music playing so loud. “ It hurts.” You know you don’t have to look anymore, “ You’re there.” Then you have to go through the people at the bus station and the boarder. Being a gringo, you stand out. People looking at your passport, through you bags. Money changers want to change your money for their money. That will always cost you. Cab drivers telling you the last bus just left and you need a cab. That the price has just gone up because there are no more buses today. It’s hard to wade through it all sometimes but we have learned to take it easy and look around. Say nothing. Walk around and smile. See if you can find a bus. We have learned most of the people at or near the boarder will lie to you. Most of the time there is a bus “or” the cab drivers will follow you around and stand in front of you. Each one lowering the price. The best way to go is talk to some one that has been there and never believe some one saying “ I take care of you.” in broken English. On the way up the bus stopped at a mall just before we were to go in to the bus station and on to Belize. A man came on board and saw us, “only Gringos on the bus” Remember. He ask “ Where you going?” We said “Bus station and on to Belize. He said “I take you. This bus don’t go there.” The bus driver motioned for us to go with him. The bus driver didn’t speak any English. We dint know what they were saying to each other. I’m sure it was not the bus drivers fault. We went on with the little man in his van. We ask if there would be any charge He said. “No bus ticket take care of that.” When we stared to go across the bridge in to Flores,I stared to tell him. “No! We need the bus station. He said. “No bus station in Flores. I take care of you. I said. “Stop now!” He just went on. I stared to yell as load as I could. “Stop! Alto Policias!” That is, I am going to get a cop involved. If you don’t stop. He stopped in the middle of the road and we got off with our bags. Then we saw the scar on his face. It was Scar Face. A notorious little man that works just above the law there in Flores. If you call the law he will say he just didn’t understand what you wanted. What he wants you to do is go to his tourist office From there he will get you what you need. “ I take care of you.” Remember but at a price you will always remember. We had been warned about him before. We had been to Flores before and he ran to us and we made it in to his offices before I stared yelling at him the first time. “No! You are not who we need. We don’t need to be taken care of. A simple, “No Thanks!” Won’t work with this guy. He will grab your bags and run with them to his office. That’s twice we were almost taken by Scar Face. We caught a tuk-tuk back to the bus station just in time to go on to Belize. A tuk-tuk is a little motor bike looking thing they use down here for a cabs in towns. We have them in our blog a lot. They are fun to ride. The law says only two passengers to a tuk-tuk. Now they were 3 of us. Driver said. “No problema.” We went on and made Belize before the buses stop running. If you would like to see more than just pictures in National Geographic about places like this, come on down. You will learn how to get along. Whether you believe in ghost and spirits or not. The Mayan ruins are something you want ever forget.

This was made at the Mayan Ruin “Cahal Pech”

Next week. We will tell more about the picture we took with maybe a ghost in it. It’s real. It has not been doctored in anyway but maybe we know what caused it or “Maybe we have proof, We are not alone.”

Traveling Inland

In the last few weeks I have been sick and maybe not doing as much as we normally do but now as they say. “I’m back.” We have company as our son is here from Kansas. We went to Guatemala City to get him. A trip to the city is always a treat. You can buy stuff there like a hamburger at Burger King. Ever wonder what it’s like to eat out at a fast food restaurant from the US in a foreign country? As for Burger King, it’s just like the US, only thing different is they only speak Spanish. Ordering can be fun but we are getting better at that. We have a friend that speaks very good Spanish now after being here a long time and I ask him how long before he could speak Spanish when he came down here. He said. “Three years of trying hard. You start to get better after five years.” He said he could do it all read the paper, watch TV and get the news, even get the weather forecast off the radio. I’m not that smart I guess because I still use mostly one word sentences. We have been in Central America for two years now. Sometimes I can get two words in a sentence like I need something or maybe that is three words. “Yo necesario Pepsi.” Maybe that’s not even a sentence either but its works for me. “ I need Pepsi.” This makes me very proud maybe because we have a few Yankee friends out here that say we don’t speak real English being from the deep south in the USA and it comes trough in our Spanish. We are planning to leave here before Christmas and maybe not come back here so we want to pack in as much as we can before we leave. This weekend we are headed to Belize to see another rock pile. Its the closest big one near us here and we want our son to see it. We have already been there but our son has never seen a Maya Ruin. It’s big but not like Tikal or Chichen Itza. There at Xunantunich you can walk around with very little supervision. We like that. We will be posting pictures of our trip next week. Our trip to the city was interesting this week. At the airport there were a lot of indigenous people waiting outside. Our son said he thought there was a foot ball “that’s soccer down here” player on the plane. He sat next to him. Maybe they were trying to see him as he got of the plane. In this picture you can see a gringo waiting on someone outside the air port like we were. Look how much taller he is than the rest of the people standing there.

As people stared to leave. Most were in the back of small trucks. A common site down here. If you are working on your Spanish. Here they call small trucks “Pick-ups”. Not some long Spanish name. Just “pick-ups”. Who would ever guessed that?

One thing we like to do when we go to any city is walking around and look. Here a indigenous man is trying hard to sell Pam a poncho made by hand but even if it’s beautiful, what do you do with it and it being so hot here? Where do you wear it? I think gringos look weird in traditional Guatemala clothes anyway. I do have a hand made hat band made here on my favorite hat but look at how tall the man is or maybe I should say how small he is trying to sell Pam the poncho.

To say the food here is bad is like so much of what people say or maybe think about any thing they are not use to but I don’t like the food here. I’m sure it not bad. People here love it. Because I don’t like it. Doesn’t make it bad. What I do like is a good steak now and then. They cut steak here about a quarter inch thick and it’s still to tough to eat but in the city they have restaurant like what you find in the states. We found a “TGI Fridays” had a steak just like in the states. A real treat for us. Now we are back in the Rio on our boat. Maybe some would think our marina is not what they like either. We have no swimming pool, no old movie at the bar night. We don’t even have a bar. What we do have is a lot of peace and quit. Maybe and big iguana or a wild monkey will drop buy.

This is going to be a hard place to leave. There are very few marinas this quite any where we have been but how do you see the world if you don’t go. Where next? We will tell later when we get closer but for now. It’s going and seeing another rock pile. The Kite Festival. Maybe a volcano and as we have been doing, next week we have another installation at a school of a solar panel and lights in a remote village where there is no power. Where they may have never seen a gringo in there village. Remember on one of these trips we had to ride a mule to get there. We are trying to get a little movie we made of that on You Tube. Maybe next week we can get it to where you can watch it but for tonight. Pam is packing for our trip to the Mayan ruins in Belize with our son. I hope everyone reading this is as happy as she is.

Things We SEE

This week we have been battling the heat. It’s hot here. Our air conditioner is broken down and if it wasn’t, power is very expensive here. We couldn’t afford to run it. Either way the heat is something you have to deal with in the Caribbean. Every one is saying. “It will cool down some soon.” I want the afternoon storms to start coming. The strong thunder storms bring the cool air down off the mountains. To make every thing more complicated I have been sick. Its was my fault I have been doing teak work and breathing in all that dust with Pam saying get a mask. Didn’t listen and now had to listen to her saying I told you so with me in bed. Every thing is getting better now with a run of antibiotics bought at the drug store. They can tell you which drug you need there. The boat is looking better. I feel better and our son is coming back down to stay with us as we get the boat ready to leave. Mid November maybe. We will tell where we are going later as we get closer but for how it’s seeing as much as we can before we leave. When our son gets here we are going to take in more Maya ruins and anything we think we can do but just being here, there a lot to see. There’s a man here cutting out a dug out canoe straight from a tree.

When we were gone to the states to ride our motor bike to Kansas I think they ate all the iguanas here. They were hides on the fence behind the marina when we came back but now we are seeing more iguanas coming back.

We named him Big Red

The wild monkey has not been back.

We know we will miss this place when we leave. Where can you live where you look all day to see if the monkey is back. A lot of people that come here hate learning Spanish but I like trying to get along. My Spanish is bad but it’s fun when I finally get trough to the people here. I like bananas more than plantains and know they are saying “Monkeys like bananas more than plantains. Knowing what they are laughing about makes life here more fun. It’s fun to watch kids here. Most families are having less kid now from what people say. A lot of women just have two and just having two with a strong family. It’s fun to watch and older brother take care of a little sister but when it’s the sister’ turn to take care of a younger brother it’s like the younger brother is just something to torture. I guess kids are the same the world over.

Older brother take care of younger sister