Liz: Day 62: Coba Mayan Ruins & Grand Cenote

Yesterday was a fabulous day, a grand tour. We started out with an early breakfast at the loncheria in Akumalito. Loncherias have been our go-to places for inexpensive, no frills, no fuss breakfast. This one is open air and has a view of the main arch leading into Akumal village. They also have freshly squeezed orange juice for 20-25 pesos.

After breakfast we drove about 90 minutes to the ruins at Coba. We arrived with the first of the big tourist buses at 9:30 and by the time we left the parking lot and ruins were packed.  We passed on the expensive guides in front of the entrance and were glad we did as we ended up with one of our best guides of the trip, Orlando. Orlando was waiting with a group of officially certified guides up the hill from the main entrance. For half the price of the first guides he customized our tour with the kids in mind and made it interesting for them, finding ways to keep them thinking about what they were seeing.  He made it interesting for the adults as well and afterwards pointed us on our way to explore the rest of the ruins.

The ruins at Coba spread out for miles. The longest, raised road that the Mayans made here stretched 100 kilometers, almost all the way to Chichen Itza.
We limited our excursion to walking several kms. out to the biggest temple, one of the few temples in Mexico that you can still climb all the way to the top. The stairs are very steep and polished in places near the center rope, NOT recommended for anyone with a fear of heights!  The climb is not too bad (120 steps) and the view is good. You can see some of the ruins rising up through the trees and the lakes in the distance surrounded by jungle. We hired two tricycle carts to give us a ride back to the main entrance.

After a lunch of Kentucky Bourbon Chicken (served with rice, cabbage salad and spaghetti) at a village along the main road, we made our way to the Grand Cenote for a swim.  The water was refreshing and cool, a beautiful blue color and very clear.  You can swim through a cave out to another entrance and watch bats flying overhead.  It was light enough for the non-cave types to feel comfortable and plenty of space to swim out of the caves sans bats for those less inclined for the full experience. I don't enjoy caves or the idea of deep, dark water in caves but I really enjoyed swimming in the cenote. Everyone had a great time.

We finished out the day with dinner overlooking the beach at Akumal. Muy bonita!

Liz: Day 61: Food in Akumal (Tuesday)

We've been having fun in the sun, playing in the water, snorkeling and diving for the last couple days.  Akumal's main beach is my favorite beach from this trip in terms of swimming.  It's nice and shallow for a distance, the waves are gentle and there are fish and sea turtles within easy snorkeling distance.  We have only a couple more days before returning to the rain and snow and we're soaking up the sunshine!

Today I thought I'd leave you with a sample of food in Akumal. Posted below:

Braised Octopus
Fish & Shrimp Tacos (Snack)
A Typical Breakfast
Some American (Kid) Favorites
A Mexican Combo Plate

Ruth: Day 59: Ruins at Tulum and High Pressure Sales

There is just something special about Sunday morning breakfast outdoors; hot coffee for the grown-ups, pancakes for the kids. Good fuel for a day exploring Tulum.  Just one stop to stock up on pesos from the ATM and beverages from the cooler, and we're headed south for the ruins.
Our tour guide told us the story of the ancient Mayans that built this city on the cliffs, their commerce and religion.  We walked the grounds, remarking on the stones that still remain, of architectural beauty and skill.  It would've been great to have seen the amazing panorama from the ocean, but didn't have our swimsuits.  Found it hard to resist taking photos of the iguanas everywhere, and they in turn were eager to pose; they seemed to take on the role of guardians of the ancient temples.
Patrick and Liz say that Tulum has a great deal more touristy feel, with many market stalls and fast talking salesmen; I definitely have to work on my bargaining skills.   I'm such a sucker for "Hmm, lady, this is good quality, can't get a better deal!"
We've taken to afternoon siestas - reading, resting, watching from our balcony as the pelicans fish the waters off the beach; suddenly diving, swooping.  Also saw a hawk with a wriggling fish in its claws fly just past our balcony. He could've dropped it off for our dinner...
Instead, we chose dinner in, at Grandma and Grandpa's third floor suite.  It was deli night and we feasted on favorites - Tillamook cheddar, manchego, crackers, salami, smoked oysters and mussels, green olives, red wine and horchata; with chocolate covered Oreos for dessert!  All, in no way to diminish the offerings of the local restaurants, but just to assure we look forward again tomorrow to their delicious, fresh fare.
Evenings, we've had great fun playing cards and catching up on almost 2 months apart from family. The breeze is blowing through the window to keep us cool, the ocean waves provide the music.

Liz: Day 58: Sailing in Akumal

We have arrived at our last destination before returning home: Akumal, Mexico.  Akumal sits on the southern coast between Tulum and Playa del Carmen and is known for its beaches, sea turtles in the water, and for being a family friendly town/ beach.  We are ready to go home and also determined to enjoy this last week of sunshine before returning to the cold and rain! We are a little less homesick this week because Patricks' parents, Martin and Ruth, have arrived to spend this week in Akumal with us. 

We kicked off our tour yesterday with a sailing, fishing and snorkeling excursion on a catamaran, the Kantaris.  We cruised for a while, fishing off the back before setting anchor at a private beach.  Although we didn't catch anything, the crew still managed to find some delicious fish, which they cooked up for lunch along with freshly made guacamole, pico de gallo, conch ceviche and fresh pineapple while we snorkeled and played on the beach.  Unfortunately a rain squall poured on us right as we were dishing up lunch but the food was amazing.  On the way back into Akumal bay we saw a turtle swimming until it saw us and dived.  It was a fun trip and we highly recommend it: the Robinson Crusoe trip through the Akumal Dive Shop.

We finished off the day with dinner at the seafood restaurant La Cueva Del Pescador.  We had been unable to acquire cash as both cash machines in town were out of order (out of money) and when we found out that the restaurant doesn't take cards we were preparing to leave. However, the server told us we could pay him tomorrow, something none of us has experienced before!  We enjoyed our meal of calamari (squid), camarones (shrimp), mini-lobsters, and fish soup.

Today our plan is to drive into Tulum, tour the ruins and do some sightseeing.

PS: In the shower in Mexico, C means caliente, NOT cold. F stands for frio.  It's important to know when you have to leave the correct one running for 5 minutes before the hot water arrives.

Pictures 5, 6 & 7 below by Ruth Voelker

Liz: Days 51 & 52: Placencia Boardwalk and Monkey River Tour

Placencia boasts the longest continuous sidewalk in Belize.  We enjoyed a walk on the sidewalk, followed by lunch at De Tatch, an open air restaurant overlooking the beach. The views from the sidewalk are beautiful! (see below) The temperature has been steadily increasing these last couple weeks and we kept moving from shady spot to shady spot on our walk.  In Oregon it's 48 degrees today, the inverse of the temperature here, 84. After lunch we hurried home and took naps with the air conditioner blasting.

The following day we took a tour of Monkey River. The town of Monkey River became a town officially in 1891 with a population of 2,500.  It thrived on the banana and lumber trades but was reclassified as a village in 1981 after a banana blight stopped banana production and the lumber trade faltered. Then in 1981, Hurricane Ivy hit the town and completely destroyed it. Now it has a population of around 200 and it's primary income source is tourism. Our tour guide lives in Monkey River and after our tour we ate a traditional lunch in the village.

On our tour we saw many different kinds of birds, turtles, bats, lizards and even a larger troup of Black Howler Monkeys up in the trees.  We saw fresh (two hour old) jaguar tracks in the mud.  We drank water from a tree that stores water in its trunk that is good to drink and tastes fresh. We also rekindled a relationship with our old friends the fire ants. We hadn't realized that the boat trip would involve a jungle trek and were wearing sandals and shorts. It kept us hopping for a bit. We highly recommend that you wear long pants, socks and full shoes in the jungle.

Liz: Days 49 & 50: Hammock Time in Hopkins and Placencia

It was hard to leave our cozy little place in Hopkins with the shaded hammocks overlooking the ocean.  At night the stars are so bright. We would all go up to the roof and lay on our backs looking at the constellations. Every morning the kids in town walk to school in their brown and yellow uniforms that match the school building. Across the road from the school sits a big building that is used for school assemblies. It overlooks the ocean (see below). What a great place to have a school assembly! The sounds of roosters crowing compete with the ocean waves for most typical noise in Hopkins.  It's a nice place to relax!

Yesterday, Friday, we packed up the rental 4wd for our trip to Placencia. We had considered shortening the Placencia portion of our trip after hearing some bad reports but we're so glad we didn't.  It's a fun place with a boardwalk that runs through all of the village with beautiful views of the ocean on one side and the lagoon on the other.  The apartment we're renting sits right on the lagoon and has hammocks of its own.  We've definitely adjusted to life in Belize now. Sofia would like to live here permanently and I'm going to be sad to leave.  There is a slower pace to life here that I like and the sunshine is, well, in much greater supply than Oregon.

Liz: Day 47 & 48: Marie Sharp's Habenero Sauce & A Country Drive

Tuesday and Wednesday we got out and explored the countryside a bit. Tuesday we drove in to Dangriga to get gas and look for contact solution at the big supermarket there. No luck! We haven't been able to find contact solution anywhere here so Patrick has been wearing his glasses to conserve. The importance of this is that you can't scuba dive with glasses and we're planning to dive in Placencia and in Mexico our last week.

We looked for a restaurant for lunch that the locals were eating at, hoping to avoid the more expensive, slow touristy experience.  We found a little cafe that seemed promising and ordered stewed chicken with rice and beans and sodas.  The food came out almost immediately and was delicious. The whole meal cost $15 US. I'm now a committed fan of stew chicken. Yumm.  The prices for many things here have been a surprise for us but it's because it's hard for Belizeans to get a variety of products.  Many things aren't allowed to be imported into the country and/or are highly taxed.  There are some things you just CAN'T get here, no matter how much money you have to throw at it. 

One fabulous thing you CAN get here is Marie Sharp's habanero pepper sauce.  After our lunch in Dangriga we drove to the Marie Sharp factory a little way out of town.  Unfortunately we forgot our close-toed shoes so we couldn't take the tour but we peeked in. They were making fruit jam and it smelled heavenly.  We sampled a number of the products made there, including habanero jelly, banana jelly (Otis' favorite), a sweet hot pepper sauce (good on pepperoni pizza!), and several of the other hot sauces.  Patrick even tried two drops of the ultra hot "Beware-Comatose Heat Level" habanero sauce and survived it. We all enjoyed our time there.

Wednesday we headed south to Punta Gorda.  On the way we stopped at Lubaantun, the Mayan ruins where a crystal skull of unknown origin was found.There was a photo of the explorer who was part of finding the skull (see below).  He must be at least some of the inspiration behind the Indiana Jones character.  The drive to the ruins was gorgeous.  It was sunny and the travel bliss was in full effect. Horses grazed beside the road accompanied by white egrets. For a while we followed a horse and buggy carrying a Mennonite farmer, two towheaded boys and a load of watermelons.  As we drove through the cheerfull village of San Miguel, three piglets came racing around the corner of a building towards us and stopped to graze near our car. 

We had so much fun on our drive and at the ruins that by the time we explored Punta Gorda a little and had lunch we were late getting home.