What, more hiking?

This morning we got another early start. We had a nice breakfast on our veranda: fresh papaya, watermelon, toast, fresh squeezed orange juice and some really tasty biscuits filled with coconut and something like chai spices. Our guide for the day, Julien, picked us up at 7am to head to Mayflower Bocawina National Park. Our (*read "My") plan for the day was to hike to the top of Antelope Falls and do some zip lining. Why is it my plan and not Gavin's? Because Gavin despises hiking and would never plan any kind of hike as part of a vacation. Especially not today's particular brand of hiking...


After Julien drove us out of Hopkins and down another typical Belizan bumpy dirt road, we arrived at the national park. The hike up Antelope Falls is only about two miles. No problem, right? Lonely Planet had warned that this hike was "strenuous," but I tend to ignore Lonely Planet's advice on physical activities because they tend to be over cautious on their listings; a hike labeled "strenuous" would be strenuous for people whose only form of exercise is lifting the remote control to change the TV channel.


Here's how I describe the hike to Antelope Falls: 1 mile of easy walking, 1/4 mile of STEEP stairs, and 3/4 mile even steeper so that you have to grab a rope or tree root every step... Yes, I believe strenuous fits the bill. Plus we were in the jungle - not a breath of breeze below the canopy, plus even in the morning it is 80-90 degrees here. Our guide did not set a fast pace; he was so slow going up the stairs and climbing the path that I was actually getting MORE tired having to follow him! Gavin and I thought he was going to go into cardiac arrest and we'd have to carry him out! I don't see how he can guide tourists on these hikes almost every day and still get so out of breath!


Despite the "hardships" of the hike, there were some really nice things to see and smell on the way up. There was a HUGE tree with above-ground roots as tall as me; I of course had to get a picture doing tree pose inside the roots of this particular tree. :) We also smelled the scent of "bear cedar," smelling like freshly cut cedar though it was just live trees... We got to see a beautiful blue morpho butterfly, incredibly electric blue. Gavin pointed out an unpleasantly large spiderweb with an equally unpleasantly large spider chilling out in it. (but still no tarantulas, thank goodness!) Also at one of the look-out points we got to see two pure snow-white hawks lazily circling in the valley below.


We paused a the bottom of the main part of the falls to take a couple pictures (and let our poor guide have a sit down break :) ). The falls were pretty high, and really lovely. Then we continued hiking/climbing up beside the falls. By this point we were completely drenched in sweat, hot and getting exhausted. Then we finally reached the top of the falls.


The whole hike was SO TOTALLY WORTH IT! At the top of Antelope Falls is a deep pool fed by the waterfall - perfect for a chilly, refreshing post-hike swim! I have always wanted to swim in a pool under a waterfall, and I finally got my chance! The water was clear, clean and cold. I walked in with my water shoes, then swam across the pool to stand on the rocks under the falls. What an amazing feeling to have the water pounding on my head, washing off gallons of sweat, smears of sunscreen and greasy bug spray. It is probably the most clean I have ever felt in my life! There was also a little rope with knots so we could climb out of the pool onto higher rocks and then jump in ( I cannonballed. :) ). I could have stayed there all day, but I eventually started to get cold and hungry, and lunch was waiting at the bottom of the hike...


The hike down went much faster. (though I almost dragged Gavin over a cliff with the rope we were both holding on to for balance...) We stopped at a beautiful viewpoint on the way down that overlooks the the jungle and the Maya Mountains. The mist from humidity added a bright haze to everything below... I noticed that despite the bug spray being washed off, I was actually bothered LESS by bugs on the way down than I was on the hike up!


We had a nice lunch that had been cooked by our guide's sister in law, and then continued on with our jungle adventure. :) We headed a bit deeper into the jungle to do some zip lining. Julien has been guiding tours for 17 years, but he had only done the zip line once just yesterday! He decided to do it again with us today. We got all our gear and joined our two zip line guides in yet ANOTHER uphill stair hike to the first platform. From there we did eight different zip lines - a couple really fast and a couple really long. Julien looked a bit terrified every time he jumped off the platforms. :) This was probably the most fun zip line I have ever done. Gavin and I tried to take a couple videos. One video I made as I was zip lining I barely made it to the platform, despite not braking at all... So on video, I have myself losing speed too soon, flinging my foot forward so the guide could grab my leg and drag me to the platform. Lovely, clumsy landing. :)


After zip lining, we drove back to Hopkins through the orange groves. I have been dying to see how a fresh-picked orange tastes. I mentioned that to our guide, but told him I didn't want to pick any off the trees because that would be stealing. Our guide replied, " It is only stealing if you pick three or four bags of oranges, one or two isn't stealing." With that said, he pulled the car over, got out and wandered into the orchard to find me an orange! I had no choice but to follow. Julien said the best oranges were higher in the tree, and I was about to say, "Oh well, I guess there will be no orange stealing today..." But then he picked up a fallen orange and threw it at the high bunch of oranges knocking three of them down. I quickly grabbed them off the ground and ran back to the car before anyone discovered our thievery.


We arrived back in Hopkins where we discovered we had a flat tire on the POS rental car. Luckily it had a spare, so we changed the tire and the spare was also low on air! Greg hopped in the car with us and took us to a local mechanic who had an air compressor. Greg also suggested we have the owner, James, fix the original flat tire, too, just in case we had another tire problem on the way to the airport tomorrow. We left the tire with him and dropped the car back at our inn. Then, for lack of anything else to do in Hopkins, we walked to a gift shop we had seen on the way to the tire place. We got a cute little wood sugar bowl that we will probably never use as such - we just wanted it for decoration. :) Then we went back and picked up our tire; James only charged us $5 US to fix the tire!


After fixing the tire, I finally got to try my fresh orange. None of the oranges we saw in Belize looked like what I am familiar with as an orange; none of them were actually the color orange. The three Julien nabbed for me were mottled green and yellow, but he assured me that they were ripe. They were really hard, like a softball... and they had about that much taste. They were virtually impossible to peel because the rind was so hard, and once I finally got the rind off, the oranges were ALL pulp, as unchewable as the sole of a shoe. The only thing we could do was squeeze the juice out with our teeth, then spit out the rest! I guess fresh is not always better...


Starting early in the afternoon, the house next door to our cabana was blaring BAD music, so we decided to find somewhere else to sit on the beach. We walked down to Windschief, where we had had drinks last night, and got some nachos and used their internet. I got to catch up on journaling, finally! Then we came back to the cabana to finally shower of the day's grime. Gavin fell fast asleep, so I let him nap for a while before dinner while I sat on the veranda.


Learning our lesson from the last time we went to Driftwood Pizza, we called our order ahead so we wouldn't have to wait so long to get our food. We decided to walk down the street to it and see what was going on in Hopkins on Saturday night. Pretty much nothing. The street was dark, several people were walking and biking by, loud music was playing in some of the houses, but there did not seem to be any "nightlife." On the way one of the Rastafarian guys we had met on the beach a couple days ago came over to us and annoyingly walked with us for about 15 minutes to Driftwood, jabbering on about nothing, complaining that his family wouldn't give him money for sandpaper to finish his driftwood mask carvings (which we KNEW would result in him asking us for money at some point...) He showed us a "back way" to the pizza place, basically through some people's back yards in complete darkness. I turned on my flashlight so we could see where we were going. Once we got to the pizza place, he of course asked us for $3 Belize dollars so he could buy "sandpaper." We gave it to him in hopes that he would leave us alone! But he came into the pizza place, too! He sat at the bar and chatted with some other guy at the bar, talking loudly enough that we could hear him making fun of us, saying we were afraid of him and using the flashlight, etc. And he used our $3 Belize dollars to buy beer and cigarettes. Of course we knew he wasn't going to be buying any sandpaper, but he could of at least kept up the pretense and bought his beer and cigarettes at A DIFFERENT BAR where we wouldn't see it! At least the pizza was fabulous. :)


When we left Driftwood Pizza to head out for dessert, Gavin made me put our cash in my bra in case the Rastafarian guy had pegged us for a robbery or something. We joked that I was turning into his grandmother, who at our wedding in Mexico was discovered t be carrying $2,000 in her bra! Our walk back was uneventful, and we saw no sign of the guy. We had planned on going to Thongs Cafe for banana bread pudding. (someone needs to tell the German owner of the cafe that the word "thong" now refers to skimpy underwear rather than beach footwear...) Hopkins is such a small world that we happened to run int Jimi and Sabi, the couple we had talked to for a while last night. We sat with them as they finished their dinner and had a couple drinks and dessert, then we all walked back to Windschief together for some more drinks. The bar was dead; only the four of us and a couple obnoxious drunk American tourists, but it was fun to have another couple to talk to, especially since there is not much to do in Hopkins.


We say goodbye to Belize tomorrow...

Hazards of Hummingbird Highway

Today was another day of a lot of driving. We had breakfast at Gumbo Limbo, said a fond farewell to our wonderful hosts Jenny and Mike, then headed off to the coast again for our last two days in Hopkins.

To get to Hopkins, we were lucky enough to drive one of the most beautiful drives in Belize: the Hummingbird Highway. The Hummingbird Highway took us through the Maya mountains, passing through jungles and huge orange tree orchards all the way from the Cayo district to the coast. Though beautiful, the highway was fraught with peril. :) First, a dog decided to commit suicide right in front of us; we were driving along and suddenly about 50 feet in front of us, a dog ran into the road and laid down right in our path! What a brilliant place to take a siesta! We stepped on the brakes, and he changed his mind and wanted to live, so got up and trotted at Belizan pace ( that means "leisurely" ) off the road. Farther down the road, we saw a few kids playing in their yard. All of a sudden, the ~1 year old baby decides to SPRINT into the road! His six year old sister ran into the road after him, scooped him up and carried him back into the yard. We looked for the parents and saw the mother hanging out the window of her house on stilts, not looking all that concerned... Lastly, a full grown man who should have known better stood in the middle of the turning lane, so we stopped and waited for him to move, but nearly got rear ended by another driver, who laid on the horn at US!

But at last, we finally arrived in Hopkins. We found our bed and breakfast, the Hopkins Inn, pretty easily. Our host Rita was not ready for us to come into the room yet, so we walked down the beach to the other side of town to get some lunch.

The Hopkins beach is pretty depressing. It could be a lovely stretch of beach, but this was the most trashed and dirty beach I have ever seen. Bits of every type of garbage known to man were washed up on shore, along with a ton of dead sea grass. All the dead sea grass turned the water washing up on shore a dirty brown color. Also, the locals evidently make huge piles of garbage in their back yards (the beach is their back yard) and light it on fire, so there were tons of piles of partially burned garbage all over the beach! We finally decided to leave the beach and walk along the dusty road in hopes of a better view. There was not really much to see in Hopkins; I was really surprised that Lonely Planet put it in the top 25 Belize experiences.

We arrived at Driftwood Pizza, owned by a couple of US expats. It was so nice to have some pizza after trying very hard to find some Belizan food that was amazing; most Belizan food has been not all the impressive, and as "eating the culture" is one of our favorite things to do on vacations, we have been a bit disappointed in what Belizan cuisine has to offer. (they don't really seem to have their own cuisine - we can get a lot of Mexican food here, and the Central American staple of rice and beans, but haven't had anything really unique to Belize) The pizza was GREAT! I had a vegetarian Hawaiian pizza with eggplant instead of the meat, like I make myself at home, but they actually MARINATED the eggplant in vinegar and spices before cooking it and putting it on the pizza! YUM! I'll have to try that myself. I asked the owner how he marinated the eggplant, and he wouldn't tell me; secret recipe, I guess. They also put honey on the crust and added coconut and sun dried tomatoes to the Hawaiian pizza, which were both interesting touches. Gavin had his usual pile 'o meat pizza and also enjoyed it.

After lunch we walked back to Hopkins Inn on the road. On the way we were stopped by two little kids selling "sweet buns." Gavin was about to say no thank you, but I made him stop and buy a sweet bun; I had read in Lonely Planet that little kids go from door to door selling breads, cookies and desserts that their mom's freshly bake each day, and I had been hoping we would get to buy from one of them! The sweet buns were a kind of biscuit that was just slightly sweet and had a touch of coconut and the occassional raisin inside. They were nice and warm - probably not from coming fresh from the oven, but more likely because the kids had been carrying them around in the hot sun for a while. :) (Later in the day as we were driving out of town, we saw the same kids drop their WHOLE BOWL of sweet buns in the street, pick them back up and put them back in the bowl... Maybe it wasn't such a good idea buying from them after all...)

When we got back to Hopkins Inn, our room was ready. We are again staying in an oceanfront cabana with a nice, breezy deck facing the ocean, where they will serve us breakfast tomorrow. I asked one of the owners about doing a tour of Mayflower Bocawina National Park, and one of the tour guides happened to be at the hotel dropping off some other guests. We set up a tour that will take us on a hike to Antelope Falls and also on Belize's biggest zip line. We realized that we didn't have enough cash to cover the tour, so we had to drive to Danriga 20 miles away to go to an ATM; there are no ATMS or banks in Hopkins.

The drive to Danriga was uneventful, and the most interesting thing in Danriga appeared to be a storefront labeled B-Hive Coffins Fast Food - not sure I would eat there... :) The drive back had lovely views of the sun setting over the Maya mountains and the orange groves; I made Gavin turn around and stop several times so I could take pictures.

When we got back to Hopkins Inn, it was finally time to relax on the beach - the FIRST time on this whole vacation. (Gavin has been teasing me this whole vacation that I didn't plan any relaxing time, and when I am dragging him to all the different activities, he asks me "What's the matter, am I not relaxing fast enough for you?" :) ) We first walked over the the nearest grocery store across the street from the inn so Gavin could buy a Belkin beer; the national Belize beer, which he hadn't tried yet. ("It tastes just like every other country's cheap beer," he said. ) We dragged a couple adirondak chairs over in front of the water, took out our iPads and my small speakers, and sat in front of the water, me writing my journal and he reading. Gavin made a "beach bum" playlist for us to listen to on the beach. A local guy named Brian stopped to talk to us for a bit. Brian has lived here his whole life and makes carvings from driftwood. He was carrying a couple with him, maybe in hopes that we would buy them. :) He asked if we could climb the nearby coconut tree, and I said definitely not. He left us soon after, but he had planted the idea into Gavin's head. A few minutes later, Gavin suddenly got up out of his chair, walked over to the tree and started to jump up it, moving both hands and both feet at once. ("Ow! I pulled my groin!" were the first words out of his mouth. :) ) I of course didn't have my camera, but I got a picture with my iPhone, at least. :) Then I had to try myself. I climbed a bit more carefully to the height that Gavin had so he could take a picture of me, then I fell off. :)

We went to dinner at the Indian restaurant next door, which Rita had recommended. The food took FOREVER to get to our table, but it was pretty good. I tried their paneer tikka masala, and it tasted like they put several cans of tomato paste into it, along with the typical Belize habanero sauce to make it spicy. Not the best Indian food ever, but still beats rice and beans! :)

After dinner, we walked two doors down on the beach to a bar that Rita had told us was THE place to be on a Friday night. We met a couple from Austria (Jimi and Sabi) there and talked to them for a while. They are avid SCUBA divers, and Jimi had a bad ear infection. Gavin looked in his ear with our flashlight, told him he needed antibiotic drops, and then they bought our next round of drinks. :) We also played a bit of foosball with them and a few locals, which was fun, even though I am terrible at foosball. Gavin and I managed to win against Jimi and Sabi the first time we played with them, then quit while we were ahead and came back to the cabana to be lulled to sleep by ocean waves. We have another early start tomorrow...