Activity Summary
Thursday 11th May - Day 252 (continued)
Travel to San Ignacio via Belize City
San Ignacio Market & town
Nicola gets The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (nothing to do with travelling but so iconic a moment it makes the highlights)
Friday 12th May - Day 253
Canal-Pech Mayan ruin site
Research afternoon
Dinner at Erva’s restaurant
Saturday 13th May - Day 254
Green Iguana Conservation Project (at the San Ignacio Resort)
Very late brunch at Pop’s restaurant
Travel to Flores & Guatemala
Summary
San Ignacio
San Ignacio is a very small town/city with very little to do that isn’t expensive activities such as the ATM cave or river tubing. These experiences are apparently quality but the cost of Caye Caulker and just Belize in general put us off forking out at the end. While the food is cheaper in San Ignacio, it really wasn’t by much.
We managed to find reasonably priced activities in Cahal-Pech & the iguana conservation project but otherwise we spent a lot of time in our accommodation. For Luke, it was worth the 2 night layover but with a car and more money there was a lot more to see and do here.
Belize City
We used the city as a transport hub to move between Caye Caulker and Flores. Passing through it didn’t seem anything special, just a normal Central American city that apparently is a little rough and ready without much tourist appeal to it.
Transport
San Ignacio
Caye Caulker hotel -> [walk] -> Belize Express ferry / pier -> [ferry] -> Belize City -> [shuttle] -> San Ignacio accommodation
Pretty easy courtesy of the E-Z boy tour package for BZ$73pp.
Guatemala border
San Ignacio accommodation -> [private shuttle] -> Belize border -> [walk] -> Guatemala border -> [private shuttle] -> Flores Island -> [walk] -> Flores hotel
Rather than taxi and collectivo it across the border we opted for what would be the lower stress option of booking a shared private minibus from our accomodation in San Ignacio, drop off at the border and then picked up at the other side by another private minibus that would take us to Flores. We booked with Mayan World, cost US$25 each and while it did work out all fine it wasn’t the smoothest of transitions and rides. But it was the best affordable option.
The border crossing on the Belizean side is super chilled. The BZ$40pp cash fee is paid, passport is stamped and then the walk over to the Guatemalan border control can be done. The route of which was not wholly clear but a number of locals helpfully directed us around a load of vehicles and finally through the required building.
The process is equally smooth with the Guatemalan border control. A simple stamp and we are through to meet the rest of the orange wristband wankers on the curb in front of the minibus that would take us to Flores.
Accommodation
San Ignacio - Mana Kai Camping & Cabins
Number of nights - 2
Price per night per person - £15
The grounds of the accommodation were pretty nice. Wide open green space, tucked away from the less pleasant streets of San Ignacio and felt like a nice wilderness bubble. It helped massively that our room, in an isolated 2 storey house amidst the green wilderness-esq setting, was perfectly comfortable with one queen bed, decent aircon and the WiFi was great.
It got a little noisy at night from a nearby bar but not so loud we couldn’t block it out. The outdoor kitchen in a shack was a tad challenging to use but we made do. We were pretty happy with our choice here.
Diary
[Continued]
The ferry was at an incredibly pleasant temperature with a cracking wind through-draft once up to speed. Prior to that it was pretty uncomfortable but we had padded seats on the side of the boat, weren’t sandwiched in and didn't have to wait too long before we were on our way. Nicola had a perfect little window to practise her horizon staring methods and the ride wasn’t choppy at all with the protection of the nearby islands and size of the vessel.
In Belize City we disembarked and waited patiently for all the bags to be dropped in what looked like a lions circus pen. It became an absolute free for all as people circled around the pen trying to find their bags on the back of the luggage trolley that had been wheeled in and vying for one of the employees attention to get out of there as quickly as possible. An older and slightly inebriated American woman decided to frequently charge past Nicola, Corona in hand like the classy bird she was.
When we finally got our bags from the middle and base of the pile, we stood around the office of the tour operator (Atlantis) putting on our shuttle to San Ignacio. After a much longer wait than expected we were led to a car park where our bus hadn’t actually arrived. It turned up not long after but it was pretty chaotic as the guys failed to effectively direct people between two buses - one going to San Ignacio, one going to Flores. In the end it took us probing to work out their system and then direct others who were hopelessly standing around.
Just as we thought we would take off with plenty of legroom, the bus kept filling up with late stragglers and even went as far as picking the last 2 up after setting off and just about to leave the car park. Clearly no longer in Mexico.
It was a fairly chill and short bus ride to San Ignacio that dropped us off directly at our hotel. We had to do a bit of a double take as we arrived at Mana Kai camping & cabins, pulling into a vast open green space with trees and a couple of small cabins / buildings which looked pretty nice but had serious mozzie risk. Turns out there were limited bite related issues in our room and there was AC to cut through the humidity of San Ignacio.
It took a little while to find someone to help us at Mana Kai, eventually having what seemed like a long term guest grab the owners to see us to our rooms.
Just as we dumped our bags the heavens opened up. Well timed, refreshing and it was nice to sit and watch for a bit.
After the food expenses of Caye Caulker we had decided to try and keep it a bit cheaper here. We had a pretty basic outdoor stove and utensils we could use to make a simple rice dish so we decided to attempt that. We got all of our ingredients from the San Ignacio Market around the corner and trusted in a bag of spices to make the meal slightly more palatable. We had to go to a local store for yoghurt and cereal and also sorted our laundry for next day pick up.
For the last few days Nicola had been gassing up the 12th May, asking Luke ‘guess what happens on the 12th May’ as if it was a special relationship event he had forgotten. It was none of this, but it was a special day for Nicola who could finally download and play The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom on her Nintendo switch. As the UK is a number of hours ahead, this meant she could download the game at midnight and hope the WIFI would make this all possible. After spending 5 minutes raging about how it wouldn’t connect, a simple restart and retry fixed all her problems and she could leave downloading for a few hours. Saying she was excited would be an understatement.
We cooked our basic veggie rice dinner on the outdoor hob with a fair amount of difficulty due and it was not a great dinner. But it was cheap and there was enough to feed us the next day.
When Zelda had downloaded, Luke lost her for the evening. Nicola played her games while Luke sorted the blog and watched some Marvel.
Our plans for San Ignacio were a bit thin and we hadn’t really done much extensive research into what we wanted to do. We knew the ATM cave was one of the most popular attractions but at US$125pp it was far too expensive and Nicola had done it already. The tubing was also quite expensive but had a good review from Steve & Lee. Weighing up costs after Caye Caulker we decided to reign it in here and we don’t really regret it - the diving definitely outweighed the caving (of which Luke isn’t wholly comfortable with anyway).
We had our cheaper cereal, yoghurt and banana breakfast before going to a local bakery (The New French Bakery) to stock up on snacks. This was probably one of the worst bakeries we had been to but provided us with the dried goods needed for later.
There was a ruined temple site called Cahal-Pech that wasn’t too far away so we decided to walk the 2km there. It was warm, humid and unbelievably hilly and by the time we arrived at the temple, Nicola was not a happy bunny.
She perched on a bench as Luke sorted tickets and as a heat coping mechanism, she soaked her hat and T-shirt in the nearby sink which worked pretty well.
With Nicola’s body temperature reaching more appropriate levels, we walked through the museum and then the Cahal-Pech Mayan ruin site.
The ruins were pretty cool. The main area was well preserved and looked impressive, much like the other ruin sites but this was different by having various areas of the site being well connected and it ended up being like a maze.
We navigated through a load of tunnels, connected buildings and high points. We didn’t see anyone else as we walked around the site, bar the museum.
The effect of nature retaking the temple was cool, with parts of the building submerged under soil and trees. It was definitely a good morning outing and one that was super easy to do ourselves. Tours could be arranged for US$60 where we paid US$5. The Belizean tours and activities are extortionate.
Once done we sat and ate some of the bakery goods at the familiar Nicola cooling off bench.
Our next cheaper activity was planned to be the Green Iguana Conservation Project (at the San Ignacio Resort). The next tour wasn’t due to start for an hour so we decided to do some chores in between which ended our ambitions of coming back here that day. Situated up a hill through town was not an appealing task once settled back in our room and at a sensible temperature.
Firstly we enquired in town about transport to Flores. It turns out a private transfer is super expensive (US$55ea) so we sacked that. We picked up our laundry and went back to the room where we booked onto a Mayan World shuttle for $25pp - much more acceptable.
The next hour wasn’t a fun one for Nicola. Her research on Tikal was infuriating her with the conclusion that a tour would be US$95pp. This stress was elevated when our recently booked Flores accommodation offered tours and shuttles for £15. The internet in some instances is wholly unhelpful but we wouldn’t have had much time when arriving in Flores the next evening to sort one.
To let Nicola cool down Luke sorted out the terrible leftover rice lunch. Nicola spent the rest of the afternoon playing Zelda while Luke planned and booked various Guatemala things.
We had dinner at Erva’s restaurant which consisted of reasonably priced burgers before doing much of the same hotel activities in the evening.
Our organised transport to Flores wasn’t going to pick us up until gone 3pm so we had a fair amount of time to kill. We couldn’t stay in the comfortable AC’d room past 11am (despite asking) and for all the beauty of the accommodation it didn’t have a particularly cool climated chilling area, only some hammocks & wooden benches under an open wooden structure. It was a warm day again so we took off in search of airconned places to pass the time once we had to leave the room (we were able to leave our big bags in the office).
Luke had the perfect cash balance to pay the Belize border exit fee but this fortuitous balance was wrecking balled by Nicola purchasing a $2 mango portion. Worst part, the mango was terrible and she couldn’t eat it and Luke then needed to reassess his cash reserves.
This time we did make it to the Green Iguana Conservation Project. Once at the San Ignacio Resort (one of the nicer hotels we had been inside since travelling) we perched in the bar, got probably the worst sprites we’ve ever had (for some reason they had zero flavour, much like the syrup running out of a Wetherspoons soft drink) while trying to cool down from the large uphill slog to get here before the tour at 12pm. Nicola naturally whipped out her switch and was one of the better behaved children in the area, quietly playing her game without so much of whining.
We were taken through the hotel to the conservation hut and had an hour long iguana tour with some flora and fauna thrown in. There was a lot of information and plenty of iguanas to see. Those that had come from domesticated backgrounds could be stroked and the whole experience was pretty good for the £9 fee each. We did see a black spine tail iguana roaming around, apparently really common and ripe with salmonella in their spit so they have little love or care from locals.
Green iguanas apparently have it in their faeces and the main issue the project focuses on in Belize around declining numbers is local population hunting for females while they are pregnant for their eggs. It is illegal to have as a pet or kill iguanas in this breeding period, roughly from August to March, which carries a 3 year prison sentence and $5,000 fine but is pretty much the only time locals want to kill the animals. Another name for green iguana is ‘bamboo chicken’ so that’s one to watch out for… The project hatches eggs in a breeding program that controls the temperature of the incubation so that they hatch under colder temperatures, and as such breed 95% females in order to rejuvenate the population decline of predominantly egg-bearing green iguanas.
There were some serious American fat fats on the tour with us who did ask a lot of questions but for once actually were pretty reasonable ones. Watching them made Luke feel 1000 degrees warmer in the greenhouse style iguana home.
Once done we Sat in the bar for a little bit to cool down and use the WIFI before leaving.
We walked into town to have a very late brunch at Pop’s restaurant and chill there as long as we could as it was pretty comfortable in the booths and with AC. Luke’s fryjacks stuffed with egg, chaya (like a local spinach), sausage and beans were great. A little expensive but filled the hole.
The bus window we were given was between 3 and 3.30 so we spent some time in the wooden shelter at the accommodation before the bus arrived.
When this did arrive there was a fair amount of confusion. The bus was pretty large, rammed full of Irish tourists who were travelling together post finishing uni, and they were only expecting to pick one person up. After a short time of protesting / trying to work out whether this was the right bus to Flores, we boarded on the last 2 possible seats. Considering we had booked through WhatsApp this all should have been more straightforward than it was but we made it.
It was not a comfortable ride as we had to use the small fold up middle seats without proper back support. We are now those old people that complain about that. It took far longer than it needed to to get to the border, randomly stopping in what seemed like a San Ignacio resort for an age. Nicola got chatting to one of the Dublin university graduates and we had a good laugh having not seen such a high concentration of white people (gringos) for an absolute age.
Perks of being in the bitch seats, we were the first off the bus with all our stuff, identifying the orange wristband secured after handwriting our names on the bus drivers list (not a great system) and the first to the border control. We paid our BZ$40pp exit fee from Belize and were stamped out of the country with barely a word being said.
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