Zebrafish

Welcome to the jungle

The image of seeing a Mennonite snorkelling with braces, long trousers and blue checked long sleeved shirt and ginger beard stuck in my mind. And now we were camping in the jungle near a Mennonite area in Cayo.

The German speaking Mennonites were invited to live in Belize as they are good farmers and although they live in closed communities with their own schools and churches, they are a peaceful and friendly people.

They are not allowed to own cars and so you regularly see them travelling in horse drawn carts or their women riding horses always with dark blue bonnets covering their heads but bare feet.

We took a taxi from San Ignacio and camped for free next to the river at the family run Barton Creek Outpost. We met quite a few cool people here and it was good having some lazy days in hammocks, cooling off using a rope swing into the river, walks in the forest and fields and messing about in canoes.

We took a tour by canoe 700m into a 8km long cave by torchlight. Inside had the atmosphere of a cathedral with giant stalagtites and calcified rock formations. This was a sacred ceremonial place for the Mayans and there were the remains of skulls from sacrifices and pottery that collected holy water from dripping stalagtites.

We had one our best days so far horseriding with Mountain Equestrian Trails though the jungle and up onto the mountain pine ridge to the isolated but stunning Big Rock falls for swimming and climbing in the waterfalls. Nearby was a dirt airstrip and a home owned by film director Francis Ford Coppolla.

Arron our guide was very knowledgeable about the jungle we rode through, pointing our plants whose sap  were natural birth controls and others which were originally harvested by Wrigleys for making chewing gum, before these products were synthesied by chemists into the form we know them.

Mahoganey trade was the original reason why the British made a colony here. It was once a sleepy backwater of the Caribean as the barrier reef kept the Spanish out and left it an ideal hangout for pirates.

The jungle is full of the ruins of Mayan huts and farm walls. There were 1-2 million Mayans living here, but now there are only a quarter of a million people. The forest has grown back and much is protected by national parks and private landlords.

Over the border in Flores, Guatemala it was 41c and humid. The heat hit us! It was difficult just walking down the street without being drenched in sweat, so we took it easy drinking cold beer. Flores is a beautifull lake island of colonial style houses of yellow, turquoise and pink and cobbled streets joined to the mainland by a bridge.

The main reason to be here is to take the 3.30am bus for sunrise at the famous Mayan ruins of Tikal. Even at this time of the morning it was hot. We walked through the jungle to the terrifying night noise sounds of howler monkeys and climbed a wooden staircase to the top of one of the huge temple pyramids for a sunrise panorama over the forest canopy, exotic birds and pyramids poking through the mist.

The Mayan civilisation was already in decline before the Spanish arrived and many cities like Tikal had already been abandoned leaving these celestial planned cities to mystify humans as to their meaning.

After we took a 6 hour bus ride snaking up through the jungle covered limestone carst hills to the village of Semuc Champey and the ecotourism hostel called El Retiro. One of the best organised places I have stayed with wooden cabins next to the river. Its a cool traveller hangout, everyone eats a communal dinner together so you get to know most of the people staying here, and during the long happy hour a laptop plays out a cool selection of music.

We celebrated my birthday here in a relaxed manner with a bottle of champagne and tubing down the river with Mariejose from Quito and Andreas from Zurich.

We then took an adventurous tour of Semuc Champey. In the morning a group of us waded, climbed and swam 700m into a cave system by candlelight. This involved climbing up waterfalls, squeezing through gaps and dropping into pools below in darkness.

The main attraction here though is the unique 300m long natural limestone bridge  on top of which slowly flows a series of stepped green and yellow pools of cool water, perfect for swimming. After which we were taken down a rope ladder over a waterfall at the end of the bridge to jump into the river below. And on the way back buying homemade chocolate from the local kids in their traditional Quiche clothes.