Hello again! Are we ready for part two of this two-part
honeymoon series? Let’s
begin with our travels to St. Ignacio, where Garrett and I stayed for three nights at a
place called Black Rock Lodge. Black Rock is an eco-lodge set deep in the Belizean jungle that serves as a haven for travelers looking
for both adventure and a home base to come back to and relax. To get to Black Rock we took a bus
from Flores, Guatemala to the border where we went through immigration and got an SUV
to take us up the winding, sometimes treacherous dirt road up to the lodge. We passed coffee and banana plantations, copse of teak and mahogany trees, and orange groves along the way.
When we arrived we were greeted by friendly,
smiling staff members who thrust cold glasses of pineapple juice into our hands as we gazed around at our new surroundings, taking in the lush greenery, hummingbirds flitting to and from birds of paradise, and the brightly colored, larger-than-life leaves. We took it easy that afternoon, admiring the new views from our cabin's hammock and going for a refreshing dip in the mineral pool before dinner.
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| More swan figurines! |
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| "Don't bother me, I'm in a very important meeting." |
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| I call this one "Artsy Scrunchy" |
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| Our beautiful room. Everything at Black Rock is run on sustainable energy-- they take care to compost materials from the kitchen to use for crop fertilization, filter out waste water through a natural filtration system for reuse, run the entire lodge on renewable energy, and grow all of their own fruits and vegetables organically. They harvest several varieties of mango trees, banana and plantain trees, an orchard of orange and lime trees, a grove of coconut palms, as well as tamarind, breadfruit, jackfruit, passionfruit, and avocado trees. |
That night we had our first family style dinner at Black Rock. Every night you are assigned a different table so you have a change to mingle with all the guests. I was a little skeptical of this aspect of staying here at first—I'm not a huge fan of forced conversation-- but this ended up being one of my favorite parts of our stay here. On this first night, we sat with two guests name Kim and Lisa, both of whom are from LA and who had come to Belize as a kind of "gals getaway." Both are middle aged, fit, and spunky and let's just say they could both definitely hold their liquor, as they waved over beers and bottles of wine throughout the meal. I surprised myself with how much I enjoyed eating with them, hearing Kim's stories of working with kids in inner-city schools as a guidance counselor in LA and Lisa's tales working as a flight attendant for Southwest.
After dinner, Garrett and I went on a night hike where we saw a tarantula, a red-eyed tree frog, a scorpion, and several toads and centipedes. We walked along the property to the tune of crickets, frogs, and other nocturnal creatures and I noticed more stars in the jet-black sky than I think I've ever been aware existed.
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| Scorpion! You can't tell by the picture but this thing was like six inches long. Our guide used a black light to spot it since it has some kind of chemical in its exoskeleton that reflects black light |
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| If Donald Trump was a toad, this is what he'd look like. |
The next morning we got up early to go bird watching. When
we arrived in the dining area there were already a few guests waiting, sipping coffee and eating fresh, steaming chocolate muffins the
kitchen staff had just put out on a tray. Our guide for this excursion was an
enthusiastic, bright-eyed man named Jorge who has wooden gauge earrings and wears his long hair in braids
with a feather stuck through the back. Extremely knowledgeable about
Belizean wildlife, Jorge trekked out in front of us with his Swarovski monocular, stopping at varying points to excitedly wave us over and point out different hummingbirds, a blue-crowned motmot, a melodious blackbird,
and an emerald toucanet, which we spotted hanging out on a branch with a cicada in its mouth waiting for us to leave so he could take breakfast back to his
babies.
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| More papaya trees! |
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| hehe |
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| Emerald toucanet! Jorge let us take a picture through the lens of his monocular to get a clearer shot |
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| :D |
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| Our fearless leader pointing out some cool stuff |
For the rest of the day we took advantage of things to do
around the lodge—going on a very sweaty hike with a couple of new friends we met at
breakfast and tubing down the river (I did not get the free beer you win if you stick the first rapid-- Garrett did).
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| You can't tell from this picture but this is the sweatiest I've ever been |
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| Views from the top of the hike. To our left was Guatemala and to our right was Belize. |
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| Check it out: doing yoga in the jungle |
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| Oohhh |
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| Wowww |
The next day we went to the Actun Tunichil Muknal (ATM)
caves. We were pretty excited about this trip as it's known as being one of the main things you have to do in San Ignacio-- and it didn't disappoint. We
left with a group from Black Rock and our guide, Juan Carlos at around 7 AM. As
we drove back down the winding road, Juan Carlos pointed out different kinds of
flora, stopping at an orange grove to pick a fresh snack to share. He asked us about our travels—what we’d seen and done so far, so Garrett and I
started to tell him about our visit to Tikal. “You know they are shooting a
documentary there?” he asked. “Yes!" I explained that we'd found out someone famous was there but didn't know who... Juan Carlos: “Yeah it's… what’s
his name… he was in that movie with the funny guy… Jim somebobody—Mor…. Free…”
“MORGAN FREEMAN?!” I cried in disbelief. “Yeah!” said Juan Carlos.
And this is where I totally lost it. Ashley—one of
our new friends from San Francisco— and I were screaming and I started bragging about how I'd tell my grandkids I once saw Morgan Freeman in Guatemala... And if they don't know who Morgan Freeman is, you can be SURE I will educate them. Anyway, it was very exciting and gave me a great "SUCK IT" opportunity to Garrett for my nearly always accurate facial recognition.
Now, let's get back to the ATM cave, shall we? This cave is located near San
Ignacio and is notable not only because it’s an archeological wonder, but also
worthy for its anthropological significance. Once inside the cave we waded through mineral pools to get to the main sections of the cave—sometimes only being able to fit our necks through tight crevices between rocks in order to do so. Once we entered into the main openings of the cave, we were afforded some amazing views of sparkling calcium carbonate
stalactites and differently colored walls sparkling with deposits of magnesium, sulfur, and iron. We also saw plenty of ceramic
pots, stoneware, and even skeletal remains of Mayans who were likely sacrificed here in an effort to appease rain gods and bring crop fertility to the region.
For ancient Mayans, caves were spiritual places-- the deeper one went into a cave, the closer to the Gods one became. Mayans would take hallucinogens, go on trips through these caves, practice rituals, and make sacrifices or practice bloodletting; broken shards of obsidian can still be found here that were used for these purposes.
We walked through the caves and our guide pointed out large
sections of the rock that Mayans had carved out to look like different
figures in order to scare away intruders. At one point
he had us turn off our headlamps as he shone a light on a rock; the face
of a witch appeared on the opposite wall. At another point, he shone a light on
a rock that resembled a giant creature, sort of like a t-rex, and moved his hand in circles to make the jaws appear
to be chomping up and down. He called out eerie, howler monkey-like sounds
that echoed through the cave and we all tried to imagine the feeling of seeing by torchlight a giant figure clamp its jaws up and down in an otherwise pitch-black, lifeless place in combination with hearing those sounds, and all while on hallucinogens... It was a pretty unique experience. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the cave to share since in 2012, a tourist dropped his camera on a skull over a thousand years old (whoopsy!) and cameras are no longer allowed.
The next morning we said goodbye to this serene and environmentally sound place and were on our way to Placencia to round off our trip with some more beaching and tropical dranks. We got into Placencia around 12:30 PM, threw on
our swimsuits, and headed out to drink in the sweet, salty Caribbean breeze and bask in the sun.
The next couple of days were pretty close to paradise, with
the two of us wandering the beaches of Placencia that we had pretty much
to ourselves (it’s the low season in Belize so there are few tourists around), sipping rum drinks while watching sea birds soar effortlessly overhead, listening to the wind whisper through the
palm fronds and digging our toes a little deeper into the warm sand.
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| Like I said, this guy really does not know how to relax |
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| Mmmm... A delicious pineapple colada and my favorite Belizean drink: the panty rippah (coconut rum and pineapple juice) |
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| Lobster fritters and ceviche, all of which cost us around 15 BZE ($7.50). |
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| We discovered a great breakfast place called "Friends" (owned by a Canadian man and his family) which had freshly baked cinnamon rolls on Wednesdays and Fridays (we were there on Wednesday) and delicious lobster omelet specials for 10 BZ ($5) while we were there. |
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| We browsed the real estate a little and came across this intriguing ad. I don't know about you but when I think about "romantic life in the tropics" the first thing that comes to mind is a moving truck. |
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| We also discovered a delicious homemade ice cream stand while we were there and tried the mango and rum raisin. Super creamy and tasty. |
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| cool thing |
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| Kind of a blurry shot but we looked particularly nice and felt particularly happy in this picture. |
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| Garrett's schmancy rum drink came with a maraschino cherry and I was envious so he went to the bar and got one for me. So glad I married that guy. |
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| :] |
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| Lookit mom! :D |
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Look again!
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| Holy mother of breakfast. |
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| I know you're thinking "Ok Leah but that is literally just a picture of an omelet and toast." No. This is not just a picture of an omelet and toast. This toast was the most amazing wheat toast I've ever had-- perfectly toasted, buttery, crispy and soft (like the fry jack)... It blew my mind so here is a picture of it mainly for the purposes of me getting to ogle it once again. |
The final stop on our trip was to Hopkins, a village in the
Southeast of Belize with a strong Garifuna drumming culture. Garifuna culture
has its roots in African and South Indian traditions and we were very excited
about our stay at a drumming center called Lebeha that offers Garifuna drumming
lessons, live music and dancing. I think we were meant to stay here on our last night to make us less reluctant to return to the States, because that is exactly what happened. This was by far the most "budget-friendly" place we stayed with rooms at $15 a night, and let me tell you: there was a reason the rooms were that cheap. There were cracks in the wood panels that allowed fun creatures like cockroaches to come in and scuttle over all of our things, the bed springs on the mattress dug into our spines, the outdoor shower was basically a small stall held up by wooden stilts, and the drain was an open hole that led to the ground below (we figured this out, appropriately, by dropping our only bar of soap down it). Anyway, Dorothy, the owner was very sweet and we enjoyed talking with her, so that made our stay here more bearable.
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| We made friends with this dog who was seriously IN LOVE with Garrett |
look at it!
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| See Garrett, you are clearly meant to be a dog owner ;) |
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