Cruising Belize 2018

Here are a selected group of photos from our winter in Belize this year. Other than a one day tour of part of Belize south of Placencia with Renate & Jim & and his daughter Trina on Emerald Seas, when we visited a huge Spice Farm, two waterfalls and a small Mayan ruin, we cruised the Belizian cays, reefs and atolls. Hopefully these pictures will give you a feel for our time here. Our first visitors were Pam & Peter Grace, neighbors from Shrewsbury in February and our second (and last) were Russ Wolf and Larry Barns in March. Great times!!

Lotus Flower at the Spice Farm 

These flowers grow over rapidly spreading vines and are
among my favorite flowers

These brilliant flowers grow up or down.

Fruit trees of many kinds line the paths and provide shade for
some of the spices underneath

A view of the larger falls where we swam.

And the smaller falls we stopped to see on the way back

Scott, Heather, Peter and Pam Grace. They visited us in
Placencia, Belize for a week.

Pam & Peter exit the small Maya Airlines
flight from Belize City to Placencia.

Jerry and Deborah celebrated their 50th
Wedding Anniversary with us all at the
Paradise Resort

Dinghy Raftups happen spontaneously where a large group of cruisers gather - too many to meet on any one boat. Here in Spapadilla Lagoon we had 20 dinghies tied up. Then we pass appetizers around and enjoy our sundowners. 

Renate reads to Ama after I finished my art class with her.
She lives with her parents on Hideaway Cay in the
Pelican Cays and we've known her since she's been a baby.

A view from the Mayan site we visited during our one
day tour of South Belize.

Here those blue flowers above hang in chains from vines and frame a bridge over a pond filled with those pink Lotus
 flowers during our visit to the Spice Farm.

Coffee beans just harvested

Another view from the Mayan ruins.

An evacuated royal tomb

The view over Sapadilla Lagoon from our anchored boat as the sun starts to set. Hundreds of birds circle and then roost on
the small cay in the center as the sun sets.

Jerry, Scott and Deborah from Czech & Mate listen to Dave
from Cordelia playing and singing on our boat 

Just after sundown at Turniffe Atoll looking over at Emerald Seas

Scott, Heather, Russ, Renate and Jim at Yoli's Bar having BBQ just before we went to meet Larry's plane.

Lucky Heather with her two handsome friends on Scott Free

Russ and Scott with friends from Chicharnee at dinner on
King Louis Caye

Approaching the bar at EZE on South Water Caye

We were lucky to have a spontaneous concert by a group of
talented drummers, singers and later dancers!

Renate, Larry, Dave and Jerry 

Russ cuddles up to Deborah and Ellen

Larry enjoyed a long talk with a local fisherman

Many families cruise too with their kids and dog.

One thing is constant - beautiful sunsets!!

A cool visit to Coban, Guatemala

As I mentioned in my post on Semuc Champey, we hired a driver and van from Otto Archila (otitoursplus@gmail.com) to take us up to the mountain city of Coban for three days. We took the slow road up on roads that looked more like stream beds and must have only averaged 15 kilometers an hour for most of the way. I really can't believe the van made it and our driver was exhausted at the end of the trip. None of the online directions gave us any idea of the difficulty so we arrived really too late at Semuc Champey and it took 11 hours to get to our hotel that night.

Tiny but often old churches appeared at the small villages

We saw very few vehicles on the road, generally only the
vans that provide public transportation.

This is a very rural area with few homes and only a couple
of "villages".  A vehicle going by is a source of
entertainment and everyone was surprised to see us.

As you can see these photos are blurred as they were taken
out of the window but I loved this family sitting in front of
their house - the few vehicles provide some entertainment.

The lovely view from the one "restaurant" we saw in 4 hours - it was a welcome sight!

Happily our hotel, Don Juan Matalbatz, was welcoming and comfortable. The desk clerk walked us over to his restaurant recommendation, El Penescal, and it was excellent. By this time I had every bit of clothing I had brought with me on! That night I slept in my fleece...and every blanket in the room.

Our driver and van in the hotel courtyard.

The view from our room showed the top of the Cathedral
in the main square.

Renate found a cart selling clementines (with seeds) but
delicious.

Next day, after breakfast at the hotel (not that great), our driver took us to Orquigonia. This beautiful reserve has hundreds of orchids saved from deforestation throughout Guatemala by the family that lives there. Our young enthusiastic guide gave us a tour and we learned lots about these fascinating flowers. And of course, took tons of photos.  One thing we all found amazing was the tiny tiny orchids that we would never know existed.  The tour ended with a delicious cup of tea.
We drove back to the city to have lunch at Kardamomass - a beautiful restaurant that features the local cardamon seeds in many ways. We started off by enjoyed their excellent coffee flavored with it. A warming fire near our table took away a little of the chill.
In the afternoon we drove out to Chicoj for a tour of the coffee cooperative plantation.  This huge operation is run by local men and women who live right on the place. Our guide was very .informative and showed us the whole process. It was all in Spanish but Dave did a pretty good job translating. We sampled the coffee afterwards and bought some of their beans.
That night we had a excellent meal and experience at La Abadia. This small 5 table restaurant is first class and the food and service wouldn't have been out of place in Boston or NYC. The owner and chef previously had a restaurant in Venezuela but were driven out of there by the deteriorating political situation.
Our last day we had breakfast at El Penescal and took a MUCH easier road back to the Rio Dulce. It was quite scenic also as we went through the coffee growing area. We left at 9:30 and were home at 2:30.

Closeups are fun

The variety is amazing

The usual tourist photo opportunity

I had a hard time picking out only a few of these photos

This transparent butterfly was so gorgeous

Renate at Kardomomass

Dessert at Kardomomass - a cheese cake with tomatoes!

The group with our guide at lunch at Kardomomass

The view up into the hills at the Chicoq Cooperative Finca

The map of the coffee plantation at Chicoj

Our charming guide at Chicoq

Jim, Renate, Heather, Linda, Ellen, Dave and Scott. 

This is me in every piece of clothing I brought
having dinner at El Penescal Restaurant,
our first night

Busy streets in Coban.

Semuc Champey, Guatemala

My next post will give all the details of our 3 day trip to Coban. Here's some pictures from our visit to Semuc Champey, a remote beautiful series of pools and waterfalls in the mountains of Guatemala. It took us 7 hours to get there, 3 hours on a road that looked like a stream bed. Unfortunately it was overcast, cool and too late in the day to enjoy the wonderful swimming and hiking. The walk up to a viewing place where you can see all the pools at one time would have taken us another couple of hours. But this is a place we hope to come back to and stay for a few days - in warmer sunnier weather.

Dave & Ellen of Cordelia, Scott & Heather, Jim & Renate of Emerald Seas, our friend
Linda on Just Now didn't make this group shot.

This bridge tested our drivers fortitude - and ours too as we
were standing up in the back of the cattle car!

Here's the view on the way back. Only one
vehicle at a time!

It was fairly cold but I dressed even warmer
as I was still recovering from bronchitis

Looking down the valley

A series of paths and steps followed along
the pools.

The water varies in color and would be even more amazing
if we'd had any sun.

Water cascades down from pool to pool and
you can see the steep cliffs that form the
valley.

On our cloudy misty day the water often looks pale green.

A raging river comes down the narrow canyon and drops
underground, reappearing after several pools. These pools
are fed by a multitude of streams that pour down the sides of
the narrow valley. 

Renate and Jim pose with our guide.

The small pools are fringed with lovely ferns.

A few hardy young souls used the waterfalls to slide from
one pool to another.