'nuff said...*

*except the Red Sox

ALCS/WS Reflections

Let me open by saying I have no idea how I'll top Robin, who was relegated to her house while I was at the ALCS Game 7 which afforded her the ability to be witty and timely and brillant as always.

But I digress. Here I am, in front of my stupid little 27" TV, which, for the record, isn't even mine, having never paid the woman who used to live here her 30 bucks for it. It's the bottom of the 5th and we're up 2 to 1. This has been a far more engaging game than last night, when we walked up to the Rockies in their stupid black and purple tunics, kicked them in the head and stole their lunch money. (I mean really, how could we not? They were wearing TUNICS!)

The Top 5 Reasons I'm Grateful I was at Game 7 Last Sunday Night
5. Didn't have to listen to Joe Buck call the game. What a loser that guy is.
4. Got to tell people how tired I was on Monday because I was AT the game last night.
3. Saw the glory of the Boston Police up close, and to give them their due, it was phenomenal.
2. Saw, on the jumbotron, and in real life, albeit it from the Siberia of the bleachers, Papelbon's dance.
1. I never thought I'd ever attend a post-season ball game, let alone in Fenway, ever in my life. And then I got to.

Big shout out here to the Notini family. To Butch, who has always been good to us and to Kathleen, who has been my friend for only about 3 years now, having moved to friend from "that girl I grew up with". They made it all possible.

The two jackasses (and may I repeat: JACKASSES) behind us talked at the top of their voices about everything OTHER than baseball. I found out all about Joe's stepkids, some dude in the hospital and everything wrong with him, amongst other such shit. We wanted to kill them. Everyone around us wanted to kill them. When they left to get snacks and beers, we all sighed an audible sigh of relief and talked about how crappy they were. They never stopped, for the whole game. GO HOME. Why are you here? Why didn't you sell your tickets for a grand?

The two cutiehead college boys in front of us got progressively drunk throughout the evening. One was trying, at one point, to drink his beer and text someone at the same time, and the added swaying made it quite the challenge. Kath finally had to ask the other one to pick a spot to stand and stop swaying all over the place. That was around the time that they high fived us and said "you guys must be Boston college girls! you totally look like it!" We were flattered, let me tell you.

This game was the first time I ever managed to pay attention to a game from the bleachers. I was so pleased. It was easy, even. Everyone stood at the right time. Nobody was all that drunk. There wasn't too much chatting (other than the aforementioned jackasses).

We left the park at 12:30. When we left, about 2/3 of the park was still full. We left by Ted Williams and cut through the hood towards the Fens. I didn't think going through the Fens would be a good idea, which it isn't at night on a regular night, but when we arrived at Park Drive to loop around back toward WIT where we'd been granted parking priveleges, the Fens was lit up like a Christmas tree. Every cop car in the tri-state area (what three states I'm referring to is irrelevant, I just love the term "the tri-state area") was parked there. It was cool! So we waltzed right through and were at the car by 12:45, which included a stop at the 7-11 for water.

So Game 7 was the bomb and now here we are. They wear purple. I can't really respect a team that is the same color as Barney. Jacoby won us all a taco! There's nothing better than shameless advertising actually built into the game! We do love Ellsbury, though, enough to make a petition for him. (Shout out here to Robbie, who alerted me to this little phenomenon.)

Schilling just tipped his hat for what might be his last time at Fenway. We love ya, dude. Thanks for taking us to the 6th! Thanks for bleeding half to death in 04 for us. Thanks for being a good guy. Hello Hideki, we love you too! (But not more than Tek, who I'm sorry, is truly beautiful, and a nice guy and kick-ass Captain who everyone loves.)

Peace out, peeps. Vegas has us with 2-1 odds. Here's to no sleep and faithful watching! (And to everyone on the West Coast, sleep an extra hour for me this week!)

Actun Tunachil Mukhnal

I went on an amazing adventure yesterday. THE thing to see here in Western Belize, other than crossing over to Guatemala for Tikal, is ATM, which stands for Actun Tunachil Mukhnal. It is a cave system and a cavern containing clay pots and skeletal remains of Mayans. It was found in the 70s and fully excavated by a Belizean archeologist in the 90s. It was CRAZY.

Come with me, as I recount what I did yesterday.

I arrived at 8:30 at the Mayawalk Tour Office in San Ignacio. I was loaded onto a bus (supposedly air conditioned, but not) with 25 other people. All but 4 of us were on a tour, led by either Tucan or Intrepid, both Aussie companies. Many of the other people were older, in their 60s or 70s, which surprised me, considering what I knew of this tour. I was with Sarah, a British woman who is travelling for the year on her own (she's 33) and who was staying at my guesthouse.

We arrived after an hour's drive (mostly down very bumpy dirt roads) at the parking area. We parked, and packed up our cameras, water, lunches (provided to us) and our Petzel helmets (the kind you use to rockclimb). We then set off to walk 45 minutes into the jungle. It was an easy walk along a path and we had to cross the same river three times (water up to our knees).

A word about clothing. I was wearing lightweight capris, my Keens (those water sandal thingys with the closed toes), and a tanktop. I had my bikini bottoms on, but a bra on top.

Then, we arrived at the picnic area. We were split into three groups of 8 and ate lunch. Then, staggered, we entered the cave. The opening is amazing. Huge, and the first thing is a 20ft deep pool, about 30 feet across. You jump in and swim to the other side. At this point, I was wearing my helmet and a headlamp and my camera had been put into a drybag which the guide was carrying on his back. On the otherside, you climb onto a rock embankment.

We then set off. We trekked 1/3 of a mile INTO the cave. Through waist high water, knee deep water, chest high water, running rapids, little waterfalls, and dry sections. It was totally, completely pitch dark except for our headlamps. The cave ceiling above us was between 100 and 200 feet high. Only a couple of times we saw bats, and occasionally a little fish in the very clear, very clean, refreshingly clear water.

Two of the ladies in my group who were at least 70 (but hearty Australians) could not swim. This did not stop them. Nor did the climbing across rocks, climbing up rocks, between rocks and down steep inclines stop them. This, perhaps, was more amazing to me, a wimpy American, than even the cave.

We finally, after an hour or so, got to a place where we stopped. We then climbed up about 20 feet up a huge rock and onto a shelf above it. From there, we went up, up, up. When we got to the entrance to the actual thing we came to see, they handed out cameras and we all had to take off our shoes and put on socks if we hadn't already. (You have to wear socks inside the sacred cave b/c the oils on our feet would cause damage as would our shoes.)

We went in and looked at all the clay pot remains, the skulls and bones remains and the cavern around us. It was pretty cool. The guide had a huge powerful light in order to show us the cavern we were in, b/c our headlights weren't enough at all.

We walked through the grand cavern, which was the size of a football field (lower ceilings here) and then up a ladder to another smaller cavern where the full remains of a skeleton are. She is lying out on the floor. I have amazing photos. It was super cool.

The guide kind of sucked. He didn't give us much history or anything about Mayan culture. He just kind of talked in philosophical circles, but it didn't really matter (except when he really got going for 10 minutes or more and I wanted him to just shut up and move us along -- really, I have no patience).

After we were done, we went back the exact way we came, it took about an hour to get out of the cave and another 45 minutes to walk back to the van. For those of you who know how much I hate being wet, it was a little bit torturous to walk that far soaking wet, but it helped with the heat and dry clothes awaited me at the van, so it wasn't too bad. We changed and were back in San Ignacio Town by 6.

The entire experience was very very cool. I've never been caving, let alone that far into a cave. I love to do things like that, since it reminds me that I am in fact still young and fit and able to do just about anything. And the older people helped me imagine still doing things like it when I'm 70.

A few last notes, as this is my last post from abroad before I make my way home tomorrow.

-- This little guesthouse I'm staying in, the Hi-Et, is awesome. It's a family's house. There's some rooms with private bathrooms, but I'm in one of four with a shared bath. It's a cute little room with french doors (wooden french doors like storm shutters, but french doors nonetheless) that lead out to my own private little balcony. The balconies on my floor are all made from the dormers at the top of the house. It's awesome.

-- Hanna's, the Belizean gift to food. This restuarant is amazing. Huge portions for a good price and the only curries I've found in Belize.

-- Cafe del Sol, where I sat for almost 4 hours today, drinking coffee, eating breakfast and reading my book.

-- I just found out that it is going to cost me $37.50 US to get out of Belize. That's the departure tax to fly out. The most expensive I've ever seen! And, I also found out that after I ride the bus from here to the bus station in Belize City, it will be $50 BZ or $25 US to get the 8 miles from the bus station to the Int'l Airport. Apparently it used to be $30BZ until all the taxis got together and decided to rip off the tourists. So to get out of here will cost me $62.50US. CRAZY. Glad I planned on taking the T home when I get back, because that taxi ride would be another $25US.

-- I am over budget on this trip. I can't believe what I've spent. Oh well, I guess. Each trip is once-in-a-lifetime and I only do this once a year, right?

-- My trip back from Guatemala was great, and uneventful. Since I had bought cash there and had to take it back across the border and turn it into Belizean money, I was paranoid about having that much cash on me. I hadn't brought my money belt across the border, thinking I was only staying one night and all...So, I stuffed the 1300Q (Quetzales, Guatemalan money) in my bra for the trip from Flores to Santa Elena's bus station and then the 2.5 hour trip to the border. I went to the little bank on the Guatemalan side of the border and asked to change my quetzales into Belizean dollars. They said they didn't do that and directed me to the dudes with the little black bags, the black market...crazy. They gave me an excellent rate and I then stuffed my Belizean dollars down my bra and made my way across the border. It was a super-easy border crossing.

--Oh, and when someone boards a Belizean bus carrying a machete or other large knife, the driver takes it and keeps it up front until the person gets off. I thought this a very wise and safe policy that I saw universally inforced!

I guess that's it. I'll be back in the US (Miami) tomorrow early afternoon!

Another great trip, over and done. I can hardly believe it's over.

Mas sobre Guatemala

This is a photo of Isla de Flores, Guatemala. It's pretty cool. Right across the bridge is Santa Elena. Flores is sort of an annex. It doesn't have a bus station or a proper bank, one has to find those in Santa Elena.

What this place does have is lots of very cute hotels and restaurants/bars. I had breakfast in a great little coffeeshop. Many of the places that are around the perimeter road have doors that open directly off the street (a la everywhere i've been in central/south america) and then they are very deep, going all the way back to the lakeside. We had dinner last night in a place like that, with lakeside seating.

I contacted the tour place in San Ignacio last night via email to confirm that I could stay here until Thursday and then still do the two tours in Belize before I head home. All is well. So I will stay here tonight and then make my way across the border tomorrow back to Belize.

My dilemma about not having enough cash is solved. First of all let me say I have absolutely no idea what the hell I was thinking leaving the U.S. with only $500 cash and no means to get more. I left my ATM card at home. Why? Not sure. I planned ahead for this trip. I could picture both the Belize and Guatemala map in my head. I knew the name of currency in both countries. I had a rough idea how much things would cost (although Belize, as I've already mentioned, is more expensive than I'd anticipated). I've travelled a ton. Then, why, oh why did I not have enough money? No se.

This morning, I set out to try to get money somehow. First I went to San Juan Travel, which, according to the 2005 Lonely Planet Central America book (which Robin has) gives cash advances against credit cards. No such luck. They looked at me like I was insane and then told me to use the ATM. When I said "No tengo PIN para me carta de credito" they looked at me like I was even more insane. They were justified. They sent me to the Banco Rural here in Flores.

I hiked up the hill to the bank and waited in line with two hombres to gain entrance when it opened at 8:30. I went up to the girl at the caja and said "Quiero usar me carta de credito para consiguir dinero. Este es possible?" Nope. She said, not here. You have to go to Banco Industrial en Santa Elena. I asked if she was sure that there I could get money even though I do not have a PIN for my credit card. Yes, she assured me with a smile.

Okay. Sounds good. So I flag down a tuk-tuk. SIDE NOTE: There are tuk-tuks here! Seriously. Tuk-tuks, just like in Thailand. It's been 5 years since I had the pleasure of seeing or riding in a tuk-tuk. So great. I love them. They are a little different here than in Thailand, but just as cute. And they only cost Q5 (about $.60) to get over to Santa Elena from here.

I share the tuk-tuk with another guy. The driver is very chatty. But it is very hard to carry on a conversation over the noise of the tuk-tuk itself as well as the surrounding traffic, especially in another language. The result is that the guy thinks I'm a moron. Ah, well. People often do.

I get out at the bank, but I only have Q3 in coins or Q100 note. He doesn't have any change. So I ask "Quieres esperar para mi?" Do you want to wait for me? Sure, he says. I go in the bank and lo and behold, you can totally buy cash against a credit card, as long as it's a Visa. ANOTHER SIDE NOTE: I have no idea why I packed my Visa. I only use my Mastercard at home, ever. I don't even know why I keep the Chase Visa. I haven't used it in ages. I think I packed it in case my other card got stolen or something. Thank god for small favors of fate.

She asks me how much I want, I tell her, she calls someone, gets authorization, and gives me cash. It took all of 10 minutes. So easy. I wonder if I could do that in the States?

I go back out, fully expecting my tuk-tuk to be there, and prepared to pay him Q5 for the trip to the bank, Q5 for the trip back and Q5 for waiting for me. He wasn't there. He didn't even come in looking for me or to at least collect the Q3 I had that he knew I had. So weird. I keep thinking he'll stop me on the street in Flores and ask me for his money. I sort of hope he does, as I feel badly about stiffing him.

So now my money worries are over and I can enjoy the last 4 days of my trip. :)

Every day an adventure, even if it is of my own making, due to incredible stupidity.

Besos.

Estoy en Guatemala

I am in Guatemala.

I spent the day on a Tikal tour. It was truly awesome. Click the link to see what I'm talking about.

Then, instead of going back to Belize with my tour, I got off in Las Cruces and jumped a collectivo (minivanbusthing) with Robin, from my group. She's Aussie and was headed to Flores. So I came with her. (I was maybe going to say in Tikal, but I was done with it by 4 p.m. I had left my big bag in Belize, and figured, why not?)

So we are sharing a double room, my share is $5 (ah to be be back in a country where the US dollar actually goes far!). I will stay either one or two nights and then head back to Belize.

It's gorgeous here. It's actually Isla de Flores, since it's in the middle of a lake. Our hotel room is on the 3rd floor and we look out over the lake.

Wonderful. Gotta go explore before I lose the sun!

I (thought I) Love Bus Travel

I climbed onto the 8 a.m. bus in Punta Gorda this morning along with about 8 Belizeans. I was all set to travel all day to get to San Ignacio, in the north. I thought to myself: "I love bus travel. It's great. You get a real feel for the country, the people, the culture." 6 hours later, I wasn't so sure. I think I'm old.

Belizeans travel mostly by bus. Before we even left Punta Gorda, we'd driven all around town and the 8 people turned into more like 30. Few people outside the cities own cars and air travel, while relatively economical, is still expensive. Buses here are ALL, I repeat, ALL, old school buses from the United States. Have you ever travelled 6 hours on a school bus? Maybe. I don't really remember. I might have when I was 10. But not full-sized, and not in 95 degree heat and not when there's a billion people on the bus with me. I'm a wus. I'm an American, spoiled wus.

My knees hurt, my legs hurt, I was hot. When it started to rain, I almost cried when the bus attendant guy came around and closed all the windows, in an attempt to suffocate us all. When I changed buses in Bamlopen (the capital of Belize), I didn't get a seat and stood in the back where I had stuck my pack in the crack between the back seat and the window. Every times someone opened the back door (which was a lot to load stuff and people), my bag almost fell out. Luckily, that ride was only about an hour of the total trip and I got to sit down for the second half.

The buses are painted bright colors. They actually look pretty cool. All along the highways, there are dead buses parked in lots, in people's yards, all over. If you ever wondered where all the school buses in the U.S. go to die, the answer is apparently Belize. Use that in your next Trivial Pursuit game and get your final pie!

On the bus. Women travel more than men on the bus. They are often in pairs or groups and often have 2 or 4 or 6 kids with them. One woman today, I kid you not, had an infant in a piece of cloth. It was lying down sleeping and she had gathered the cloth at the top like a bag and was carrying it. It was one of the most amazing things I've ever seen. I wasn't the only one staring, and I was the only non-Belizean on the bus.

The bus stops every 2.5 feet to pick up whoever wants to be picked up on the side of the road (a la Paraguay). This, my friends, is why it takes 5 hours to go what should have taken 3. Not only that, but if you remember, school buses do not stop on a dime, so often, we would overshoot the person on the road and then BACK UP to go get them!

Belizeans speak English, pretty much universally. They speak it with different fluency, depending on where they are from, how much education they have received and how much they come in contact with tourists.

They also speak Kriol. This was, for a long time, sconsidered a form of bastardized English, but has recently been linguistically proven to be it's own own unique language. If you listen really closely, you can kind of figure out what people are saying. It sort of sounds like reggae-talk. There's "mans" a lot and "das" a lot. It's interesting.

Some people speak Spanish. It depends on the region. In San Pedro lots of people did. Down south in Punta Gorda, not so much. Here in San Ignacio, more.

Then there are Mayan languages. The only one I've come in contact with so far is Kertach (no clue how to spell it or say it). There's also Mopan and probably a million others.

There are black people, brown people, Mayan people (who clearly look Mayan) and there were lots of blond headed little kids with Belizeans in San Pedro. It's quite a mixture of people here. It's lovely, actually.

Last night, I spent the night in Laguna, a village about 10 miles outside Punta Gorda. It is part of the Toledo Ecotourism Association (TEA). They have a guesthouse. I took the bus from Punta Gorda at 6 a.m., got off a the "Laguna Junction" (not a real place, just where the road to Laguna meets the main road) and prepared to walk in the 3 miles to get there. It was pouring. Luckily, a car came along, driven by Vicente Sakul, who happens to be the President of the TEA! (I'd been told about him ahead of time.) He took me to the guesthouse and then Rosa came by. The families in the village who are working with the program rotate being the "attendant" when visitors arrive. It was Rosa's turn.

I got settled in the guesthouse, which was lovely! It had two rooms with bunk platforms and she made me a bed. There was a back patio and then a side building with a toilet and sink/shower with running water.

I had breakfast at Rosa's house with Seffina her daughter. Tortillas, beans, and eggs with a sweet kind of hot tea to drink. Then I had a village tour, which really amounted to just a walk around the circle of "road" that makes up the village. Rosa pointed out flora of interest and the buildings (school, church, health center, shop). 300 people live in the village, 85 of whom are children. Rosa has 8. Justina, who fed me lunch and gave me a "craft lesson", is 29 years old and has 6 kids. She goes every three months to Punta Gorda for a Depo shot for birth control. She's heard rumors that Depo gives you cancer in the long run, so she's worried, but she's trying to balance that with the idea of yet another child. She was obviously worried enough to share the whole story with me.

At lunch, John showed up. He did the same deal as me, but 4 hours later. He's Australian, but lives and works in East Africa. Just finished a temp job (enviornment stuff) in Hondurus, and is traveling around. It was great to have someone to hang with all afternoon. We went on a walk through the jungle up the "Farm road" which led to no where, talked for 2 hours about the US, Iraq, Bush, Michael Moore, privelege, travel, diving, and more and then ate a very weird dinner at Patricia's house. It was beans, fry jacks (which are flour tortillas, but fried and puffy and delicious), and hard boiled eggs. The house had dirt floors and only hammocks for sleeping and it was Patricia, her very old husband (I think), her son and then two young girls showed up. I have no idea the family make up and no English was really spoken. I was sort of glad to have John there.

Then we showered (well, bucket bathed) and went to bed at 7:45 because there wasn't electricity in the guesthouse. It was a good thing, though, because we were up at 5:30a to catch the "market bus" back to PG. All in all, it was a great experience and the entire $55BZ ($27.50US) I spent went directly to the folks in the village. No middle man. Oh, and I bought a hand made caxtal (bag) from Rosa and a gift for my dad from Justina, each for $10BZ, so that helps them too.

I have now apparently arrived in the northwest having left my good sense and frugal ways on the school bus. I just booked a trip to Tikal in Guatemala for $85US (which I had planned on doing from the start). I also booked Caracol, which is a Mayan ruin here in Belize which was recently featured in Nat'l Geo Travel magazine. I ALSO booked a trip to ATM (which stands for some long Mayan name I can't remember right now) but is essentially a living museum that was discovered not too long ago with human remains, Mayan artifacts, etc and is supposed to be the coolest thing ever. All together, the three will run me $245US, which, I supposed, for 3 full days of tours which include transport, guides and lunch, is a bargain. (That was the price for a one-day, three-dive trip to the Blue Hole.)

I haven't decided yet whether I'm going to stay over in Tikal for a night. The trip doesn't stay over, but I could do the whole thing and then just not go back with them, and stay overnight and make my own way back on the bus the next day. That's prolly what I'll do so I can have a sunset at Tikal. Since I've had it in my head for DAYS that I fly out of Belize City on Saturday and just realized at about 3 p.m. today that I don't actaully fly out till SUNDAY, I just found a whole extra day! Yippee.

So all is well in Central America. More later.