ODO: 319,555
This morning we decide to bail on the waterfall. We aren’t sure about the trail information we got from AllTrails, and honestly, Iceland and the PNW have ruined us for waterfalls, so we figure it’s fine to skip it. Off to Caracol instead! The road in is very muddy, but very nice as they are in the process of paving it. Caracol closes early, and we got a late start, so by the time we get there all the tours have left for the day. Wooo showing up late! We are met with an afternoon monsoon, so we hide, I mean check out the museum until it rains itself out. There is a small dog that wants to be our tour guide, so we follow her to the first pyramid. We climb every single one of the 20″ tall steps to the top and take in an amazing view of the jungle, and the smaller pyramid across the field. Getting to the top was work, but climbing down the very narrow and tall steps is actually a little scary, especially since we are trying to get down before the rain starts up again. We make it into the jungle just before the rain hits. There are two more sites to explore, and explore we do! With our jelly legs we climb the remaining, and thankfully smaller, pyramids. On the ground around them there are large carved stones and weird new bugs. After all that adventure, we head back into the pine forest towards a new campground for the night.
We wake up to several giant grasshoppers and a large red spider, in our most expensive campsite to date, $30USD/night. We like this sport, but something has been biting us and we’re covered in large welts, so we need to leave. The waterfall hike is on our way out so we stop for a quick look. It’s more of a walk, down two flights of stairs, but very much worth it. All the rain has made the falls more dramatic, but made the river brown so it doesn’t look inviting to swim. San Ignacio is our next stop to look for yarn. KoKo is making what she calls: The Sweater of the Americas. It requires yarn from each country we drive through. This is her first knitting project. San Ignacio is all one way streets, and paid parking, so we drive in circles until the frustration of it drives us out of town and to a nice quiet spot where we are able to relax and have a shower.
Remember a few weeks ago when we discovered the cracks in the camper? Today is the day our new brackets from OK4WD arrive to Belmopan. That’s right, they shipped us warranty parts all the way from the east cost of the USA. We confirm with the DHL store that our package is on the afternoon delivery truck, so we leave to run errands while we wait, laundry and such. When we arrive in the afternoon, we learn the DHL person we spoke with didn’t’ actually know where our package was, and now it’s too late in the day on a Friday to track it down, or drive the hour to Belize City to try and collect it from Customs where it’s currently stuck. We spend an hour on the phone with UPS and UPS’s Belizean counterpart trying to figure out how to re-route our package because in the morning we start our run across Guatemala to catch an airplane back to the Bay Area for three days. We did not reach a satisfactory resolution.
Bright and mid morning we head into town for some food before attempting the border. Always start what might be a stressful or long day with breakfast! Our border crossing is very smooth, and as fast as can be when lots of paperwork needs to be completed. It helps that the border has a guy who speaks great English to help people like us. Let the airport run begin! We have ten hours of highway in front of us, and will go as far as we feel casual about. Which is Rio Dulce, roughly halfway. We stay at a hotel on the waterfront, under the bridge. Sounds sketchier than it is. We have a lovely waterfront dinner under the bridge. One great thing we notice right away about Guatemala? The gas is much cheaper than Belize!
Day two of causally bombing to the Guatemala City airport begins with getting caught in a swarm of black shiny moths. Or do moths only come out at night? Either way, here we are in the parking lot of our hotel being swarmed by these strange black, shiny day moths while we load up. A few hours later we hit the outskirts of Guatemala City. Its very dense, and very sprawling, and very poor on the edges. Down the side streets there are gates blocking entrance to the neighborhoods. Some with armed guards. And it’s loud.
We arrive at the airport way, way too early. This is part of the plan so we can make sure we like where we will be leaving the truck, which is never easy. The small lot tucked under the airport rental car lot is what we choose. Fingers crossed it is as safe as the guard tells us it is. Our airport experience is not the best. Like the rest of Guatemala City, the airport is very loud inside. Staff are unfriendly and unhelpful. One woman tries to turn us away from security because she thinks we are here on the wrong day, and it’s almost a fight to get her to understand our flight is at 2:30am, not 2:30pm. That’s right, 2:30am…Once we make it through security and immigration we start looking for food. It’s only 6:30pm, and most things are closed. The things that are open are staffed by surly people. Probably because it is very hot in here and the air is very still. We eat a mediocre snack of a meal before settling in to some very hard chairs, in front of a giant fan. The fan helps a lot. And now we wait.
As soon as we’re settled on the plane, KoKo is sound asleep. Berne doesn’t manage to get much of a nap. We touch down, switch planes, and KoKo goes straight back to sleep again. After plane number two, its right into an Uber (that KoKo sleeps through again!) and straight to the office where we spend the next two days.
