B11 to B12 (3/18/11-3/23)

El Florido

best border building in C.A.?

It's not even 15 minutes from Copan to the border crossing at El Florido, barely enough time to get my drawers all up in a bind. Surprise, surprise, a Honduran border run professionally and smoothly. B11 refers to the fact that this is the 11th border crossing of this trip, being that there are a total of 14 of these suckers to deal with. I'm not even allowed in the new building pictured; a guy with a shotgun makes sure of that. A woman grabs my passport and vehicle papers, disappears for 10 minutes, then hands my stamped passport back to me and I'm told to drive forward to immigration to get myself processed out. They also stamp my passport and I'm out of Honduras. No charge for any of this (are you listening, El Amatillo?)

When I park on the Guatemala side a woman who works with their tourist department asks me a bunch of questions about my time in their country. That's a first. I think (?) because a lot of tourists use this border to get back-and-forth to Copan that both countries have made an effort to make this crossing somewhat pleasant. Even the costs of services are posted. I get stamped into Guatemala for a cost of 10Q ~$1.13. Then, it's over to the aduana building to process the vehicle. There are some truckers ahead of me and the woman doing my paperwork is quite slow - let's say she's diligent - so this takes about 45 minutes. I pay 55Q for the car and I'm free to drive forward after about 1-1/4 hours.

Rio Dulce

part of dock at the Nana Juana

It takes me about 3-1/2 hours to make the drive from El Florido to Rio Dulce, the first half of which is through dry, brown country, and I don't think I saw one thing that was pretty or interesting. Didn't  even take a picture. Later, it turns green and hilly, but it's overcast the whole way. The main highway that goes east-west here carries lots of traffic and the semis are thick and fast on this 2-lane road. I have - at least in my mind - a "Duel" situation with one truck that's behind me for a couple of hours. Every time I thought I shook him going uphill, he tracks me down passing other cars and trucks going like 80. But he never passes me. It makes me nervous. When I turn north on the road to Rio Dulce he continues east. Lucky for him.



I'm allowed to use the pool

 I read that one could camp at the Hotel Nana Juana on the river. The Rio Dulce goes out to the Caribbean and yachters come in here to dock and relax or to get protection from storms. This place caters to that crowd and it's a pretty nice location and they have a good restaurant right on the water. I don't get to camp on the pretty side of the hotel, however. I'm directed to the other side, along the boat storage area. At least it's secure, has hot showers and it's quiet at night

The reason I'm here is to take a boat tour from Rio Dulce out to Livingston, out on the coast. It's supposed to be a really nice day-trip and I so wanted to go on this trip that I waited through 4 days of on-and off rain before finally giving up. I didn't want to do this trip unless it was blue skies, which it never was. Jean Claude, the hotel manager, said the weather this time of year is "usually perfect". This is the most rain I've seen in 6 months. Time to move on.

Finca Ixabel

north into the Peten

Less than 2 hours north is this farm started by a couple of young Americans back in the early '70's when this was still remote jungle. The husband was murdered by some Guatemalan army guys about 20 years ago, but she has persevered, see their website.  Now, the road is paved and much of the surrounding rainforest is ranch and farmland. If you've ever read about traveling in Guatemala you've read about Finca Ixabel. It's turned into a sprawling farm/summer camp for adults. They have rooms, treehouses, a swimming hole, restaurant (famous for their bread and cinnamon buns) and a large area where one can camp for $3US. I had to check it out for a night, it's very peaceful.


scoping out Finca Ixabel

 Another first for this trip: a couple from Norway drive up in their seriously loaded LandCruiser...with a rooftop tent! Unfortunately for them, it's an inferior ARB tent, but it's still a tent. They're doing the trip down to Chile. I'm losing track of how many people I've met doing that trip. It reminds me I need to take that trip, hopefully before I turn 60. There are still some spots I've missed in Central America so I figure two months from Denver to Panama and then 10-12 months to go from Columbia to Chile to Venezuela. Who'll go with me? Don't all jump at once.

Tikal

temple 5

Another 2-1/2 hours north through much the same kind of hilly jungle/ranchland on a good road takes me to the giant Mayan site of Tikal. There is a hostal/hotel across from the main parking lot called The Jaguar where you can rent a tent or bring your own. I end up parking next to Cindy and Steve, a young brother and sister from Fort Collins. If it wasn't for location, this hotel would suck as they have a noisy generator they like to run between 6-9 at night. Once that turns off, though, there is only the sound of the jungle, and the howlers were especially loud at times, like they were right on top of us. And there were some spider monkeys playing around in the trees for awhile.

People were leaving the campground at 4:30am to get to one of the temples where you can watch the sunrise over the jungle. Screw that, I head in at 6, which is barely light as it is. Well, this day the fog was low and thick and no one saw anything. After about 3 hours of wandering around I'm burned out on rocks at which time the skies begin to clear. Of course. Having seen like a dozen of these sites I find it difficult to get excited anymore, but it is certainly one of the most impressive Mayan sites, if you're into that sort of thing. I can check it off my list.

Melchor de Mencos


Belize is on the other side

30 days hath Guatemala
click to enlarge

 Time to move on to Belize, a 2 hour drive east to this border town, B12. Another surprise, both countries are still open for business even though it's lunchtime. These borders are starting to kill me with kindness. Guatemala charges me $4 to exit. Not sure why, since it cost nothing when I left the country some 4 months ago. I'll never understand the inconsistency between borders of the same country. But, it's quick and painless and I then drive through a fumigation machine and into Belize. This costs $5. Next, it's into a building that holds both immigration and the aduana. No further cost to process me or the car (I think I pay when leaving). One last stop is the insurance building. You need to buy car insurance and it costs me $23 for 2 weeks. 1-1/4 hours of border b.s. and I'm free to enter Belize, the land where the locals speak English and the roadsides are clean.