LA RUTA MAYA 2001 JOURNAL by Tracy Donaldson Hindman

July 14:  Houston to Brownsville, Texas.     Everyone gathered together for the big send off at Land Rover Houston. Both Dustin and Nathan were running on "Hindman Time" and arrived about twenty minutes late. Dustin was late because he needed to go to AAA to get Mexican and Central American Insurance.

Evidently, the company he had been working with for the past week (Sanborne's of Brownsville) had been dragging their feet on the paperwork. When Friday, the day before departure, came around Dustin called only to be informed that the woman taking care of his paperwork had just quit and they couldn't get him insurance in time... the adventure begins.

After a short driver's meeting/orientation and a photo opportunity in front of the dealership, it was time to make a run for the border, eleven vehicles in all.  (Nine would be making the entire trip.)

Lunchtime involved a meal at P.J.'s Seafood in Victoria, Texas. A great "hole-in-the-wall" restaurant. After lunch some of the group accidentally made a wrong turn. The error was caught after only 4 vehicles made the turn. Upon looking at the map, it appeared that both routes would meet back up on Brownsville. We decided to split up into two groups and continue on.

After almost 350 miles and a long day on the road, we pulled into our stop for the night, the Day's Inn at the border town of Brownsville ($55.37). Ironically, the group that made the "wrong turn" leaving Victoria arrived at the hotel about thirty minutes ahead of the other group.

Big Bird, Dustin's ‘97 Disco XD, was running poorly coming into Brownsville so we lifted up the hood and took a look at it. After about an hour of troubleshooting it was traced to bad gas, ironic since we had yet to cross into Mexico where the fuel was reported to be of a substandard quality. We put some WaterSorb in the tank and it ran great.

After settling into our rooms, everyone split off to finish up some last minute things and get our last bit of American "culture" for the next two weeks. We ran to the local Kmart to get some cables and lock downs as well as ratchet straps for the roof rack on the Camel. We then went back to the hotel for an all-too-short nights sleep. The next morning was expected to be a long one, since we had to do our US/Mexico border crossing.

July 15:  Brownsville, Texas to Tampico, Mexico.     Everybody got up between 5:00 and 6:00 am in hopes of a 7:00 am departure. When all was said and done, vehicles gassed up and our free breakfasts cleared from the restaurant table we left at 8:20 am. Sam Simpson (trip leader) was told it would be best to cross the border at Los Indios, a new NAFTA bridge, because that's where they do the temporary importation paperwork for vehicles. We arrived at the bridge just before 9 am but because it was Sunday the bank there wasn't open. We needed an open bank line to run our credit cards to put down a deposit for the vehicle importation.

Because of the bank snafu, we had to head back to Matamoros and process the paperwork. The strange part is that despite not having "imported" our vehicles or doing any paperwork, we were directed to Matamoros through Mexico. In Matamoros, the Mexican sister border city to Brownsville, we had to explain to the border officials that despite already being in their country, we had to import our vehicles to Mexico.

Immigration consisted of a quick one page form to fill out, a stamp in our passport and we were legal...but the vehicles were not...yet. Each vehicle owner then had to stand in an interminably long line to get temporary vehicle tags. Unfortunately due to a paperwork problem with Elena Manega's vehicle, they had to stay in town for an additional couple of hours of paperwork. Since Antonio and Elena knew the way to Tampico, they bid the rest of us goodbye and planned to meet up with us at the hotel later that night.

After the paperwork, all that was left was for the driver of each vehicle to take a turn pressing a vehicle inspection button. This button lit up a carnival-like traffic light that either came up green or red. A green light and you're safe to proceed, while a red light sounded a buzzer to alert inspectors that you've been randomly selected to have your vehicle inspected inside and out.

Everyone took their turn with the first eight of the (now) nine vehicles getting the green light. Of course Camel was the last vehicle through and sure enough... inspection time. The only vehicle carrying four people and packed to the hilt with baggage and we get the inspection. Despite the customs horror stories we had heard before, the whole process was surprisingly pleasant. The Customs Inspector talked with us while walking to the vehicle about where we were going and if we'd been to Winona, Minnesota. Evidently he had gone on a trip to Winona and was very proud of it. We talked of the cold weather up north, and of the beautiful countryside in southern Mexico. Upon arriving at the vehicle, he opened the rear door, glanced in and said we would have a wonderful time in Mexico and were free to go. Easy!

We drove through Matamoros city with people waving and honking at our caravan. After months of planning, the expedition was finally underway. About twenty miles out of town, we came to our first military/customs checkpoint. They asked to see our recently completed paperwork. Again eight of the nine vehicles made it through, but this time, Sam was the poor soul singled out by the Federales. Sam spent the next five minutes (using his bad Spanish) trying to explain to them that he didn't have to pay duty on the spare parts he carried in his vehicle. Eventually, they let him go and we were all back on the road to Tampico.

Back on the road, we crossed an interminably long desert of yucca plants, mesquite trees and little hovels. We made our way down to the half way point and lunch stop for the day, Ciudad Victoria. Lunch consisted of a stop at El Mesquite, a white linen restaurant that was a stark contrast to what we had "expected" Mexico to be like. Despite the quality of the restaurant, we were still careful, avoiding the ice and vegetables in hopes of not getting "la turistas" this early in the trip.

As we left Cd. Victoria we accidentally took the wrong road out of town. Although this road eventually took us to our evening destination of Tampico, it added on an additional three hours or so to the drive time. However, this winding mountain road rewarded us with some breathtaking scenery and it was a nice introduction to the tropics. It was quite surprising how quickly the scenery changed once we crossed the line for the Tropic of Cancer. Within just a couple of miles, the greenery changed from mesquite and cactus to lush forest and banana palms.

As nighttime approached, Camel was called to the front of the group to light up the sparse roads with its obscene amount of aux. lighting. The rest of the drive into Tampico proceeded rather uneventfully, until Stuart Nance, or Disco Stu, resumed the helm as we pulled into town. In hopes of making it to the hotel before they locked their gates, we had been speeding all day. This time it caught up with us.

While driving into the north end of town, we passed a Federale (Federal Police) squad car. After the whole group passed him, he pulled into the road behind us and began accelerating with his lights on. He pulled to the front of the group and with the help of a second squad car behind us, all nine of us got pulled over. After a five-minute conversation/lecture with Jennifer, Stuarts co-pilot and fluent Spanish speaker, we were let go and warned not to exceed thirty KPH as we drove through town. We sulked away like whipped dogs while local traffic weaved around the group easily doubling our rate of speed, honking and yelling all the while.

We pulled into the hotel at 10:45 pm, only to discover that Antonio and Elena had arrived over an hour earlier, despite leaving Matamoros hours later than us. We checked into our rooms at the Hotel San Antonio ($75.92), quickly unloaded, and headed to bed without dinner. Tomorrow, Sam said we will try to leave at 8:00 am or later depending on how we all feel.  We drove about 250 miles today.

July 16: Tampico, Mexico to Veracruz, Mexico.     Day Three was an early one for us. The day began with a hotel parking lot oil change for Camel. It had been 3,500 miles since it's last oil change, and I knew that if it waited until we got back to the states, this batch of oil and filter would have close to 8,000 miles on it.

Tracy woke up feeling a bit under the weather. She had accidentally washed her mouth out in the shower with a bit of water the night before and was feeling nauseous when she woke up. Three tablets of Pepto and a trip to worship the porcelain god later and she was right as rain.

Stuart's sister and copilot parted company with us to spend the week with some friends who lived in Tampico. One of these friends, a local named Bruno, arrived at the hotel and guided us out of town. It was a good thing he helped us out, as I don't think we would have been able to make it out of town as a group without him.

I can't begin to convey how helpful CB's are on expeditions. On the trail it's helpful to keep everyone it touch and aware of what's going on. On expedition, it's essential. We used it to communicate who got stopped at lights, what turns to make and even to help synchronize petrol stops.

One of the most interesting sights of the day had to have been the bathroom at one of our stops. Perhaps they took the term "hole-in-the-wall" a bit too literally, as that's all the men's facilities consisted of.

For lunch we stopped at El Tajin, an Indian ruin (not Mayan). It was pretty much a tourist stop where the main focus was on the local performers who do a pole descent hanging upside down and spinning. As the pole spins around, it lets out more rope eventually lowering the performers to the ground. Evidently this type of performance is somewhat popular in parts of Mexico, and most of the good pole dancers come from Tajin. There were lots of natives with booths selling all kinds of souvenirs and foods. Likewise there were hordes of kids following us around every corner holding out water bottles and vanilla for sale. Tajin is renowned for its vanilla.

After the lunch stop, we bid farewell to Antonio and Elena as they were continuing on to stay with family in Mexico. We pulled out of Tajin; the group now down to nine vehicles.

After paralleling the coastline all day, we finally had a chance to see the ocean and some stretches of beach. The area we drove through was at one time volcanically active and the landscape is dotted with dormant volcanoes.

We arrived in Veracruz just before dark and they crammed all nine vehicles into their secured parking garage. Most fit in without too much trouble, but the two tallest vehicles, White Rover (Ben and Pat Bibb) and Camel, barely fit. In order for Camel to make it into the garage, the roof mounted jerry cans dug into the ceiling at one point leaving two deep gouge marks.

Hotel Colonial ($48.94)  is a very nice modern hotel located on the Veracruz main plaza. We walked out the front doors of the hotel to be greeted with the sight of mariachi bands serenading diners at the restaurants surrounding the plaza. Although is seemed like a hodge-podge of music with every restaurant’s band trying to out play the others, it was quite remarkable. Amazingly, despite all of the noise out in the plaza, the hotel rooms were completely silent. We fell right to sleep. Tomorrow is going to be another long day on the road.  We drove about 250 miles today.

July 17:  Veracruz, Mexico to Ciudad Carmen, Mexico.     The group woke up early and met at 7:00am to try to get on the road as quickly as possible. The role of navigator/group leader has been rotating daily from vehicle to vehicle, and today it is Camel's turn. We got through the morning with only two minor wrong turns. Wrong turns because we didn't make them but we saw them and told the next car that was the turn they wanted to take. That's the way you have to lead sometimes when you don't know the area and can only read half the signs.

Today was marked by having a huge number of military checkpoints and tollbooths. When all was said and done we ended up spending about $35. US per vehicle for tolls. Some people in the group were a bit upset about spending such a large amount in tolls, but the local information said it would be less than $20 per vehicle. In hindsight it was probably a wise investment as we were able to travel at speeds in excess of sixty mph on well-paved four lane highways. The alternative route was a winding two-lane road where speeds sometimes slow down to fifteen mph when stuck behind slow moving trucks. I'd guess we shaved at least three hours off the trip time by taking the toll roads.

One of the interesting things was that all of the checkpoints and tollbooths are populated by armed soldiers, usually with machine guns and/or assault rifles. Also at either end of the checkpoints are tire spikes that can be pulled out across the road at a moments notice. We wondered how often they had to use that stuff.

We stopped in Minatitlan for lunch. The locals directed us to a carnitas (literally translates as: little meats) but some of us opted to go across the street to a panateria located in an air-conditioned mall. Surprisingly inside the mall they had a new car for sale by a local car dealership. The surprising bit was that it was a newly made "old-style" Volkswagen Beetle. It even still had the seat plastic and new tire "nubs" on it.

After lunch we were off to our final destination for the day, Ciudad de Carmen. Carmen is located on an island on the Gulf coast near the base of the Yucatan peninsula. In order to get onto the island of Carmen, we had to drive over a large bridge, our final toll of the day. As soon as we crossed into Carmen, we stopped a police officer to ask for directions. Instead of telling us how to get to our hotel, he opted to show us. So here we were, nine Land Rovers cruising through the streets of Carmen led by a police car with lights flashing. What an unusual sight it must have made for the locals.

The Los Arcos Motel ($50.00) where we stayed was an absolutely beautiful colonial style hacienda with a fountain in the courtyard. With nine vehicles and fifteen people we had the run of the place. After settling into the hotel, we walked down about two blocks down the street to a real Venezuelan steak house restaurant for dinner at about 9:00 pm. I chose to eat one of their steaks and I can honestly say it was one of the tastiest steaks I've ever had in my life. Some in the group decided to chance it and eat salads or have their drinks with ice, all with no ill effects that we heard of.

Today we drove 426 miles.  Tomorrow, we enter the Mundo Maya.

July 18:  Ciudad Carmen, Mexico to Corozal, Belize.    It was 7:00 am and time to leave, however we discovered that Camel's battery was dead. The on board ARB fridge was left on all night on deep freeze, in hopes of freezing a bucket of margaritas we brought with us. Unfortunately, the amperage was too much for the deep cell battery and it drained completely. No matter though, it was a calculated risk and we thought that would be a likely result of freezing overnight. A quick jump-start and we were on our way.

We didn't take breakfast before leaving because we had heard there was a beachside restaurant about twenty miles outside of town. The selection consisted of either an omelet or an omelet with ham. No matter because the food was good and the location couldn't be beat: ten feet from the ocean with sand between our toes at the table. It would have been nice to stay there all day, but today is another long one: lots of driving, Mayan ruins, and a border crossing. Tonight we'll be resting our heads in Belize.

 After our breakfast on the beach we began our trek inland and across the Yucatan Peninsula. We have three Mayan ruins to visit today. Although we passed many sites along our route we stopped at three ruins that were in varying stages of restoration. The first was most recently discovered and named after a large facade with many jaguars on it, Balamku (Jaguar Temple). We met a young local girl, Lucia, who was nice enough to show us around with the help of Dorothy Donaldson translating for us gringos.

The second Mayan site, Becan, was much more impressive and in various stages of restoration. It was once the capital of the Mayan cities in its day. The site was complete with covered walkways and inner rooms in the temples that you could crawl into. Stuart, Carey and Nathan explored the inner labyrinths of one of the temples and discovered bat and cockroach filled rooms that used to be used for Mayan religious ceremonies. We felt like we were in an Indiana Jones movie.

We made it to Xpuhil, the last ruin of the day, 15 minutes before they were scheduled to close. Luckily the caretakers were understanding and told us they would give us another half hour to enjoy the ruins.  Craig, Anne, Patrick and Victoria opted to eat lunch at a restaurant across the street.

After leaving Xpuhil, it was time to make a beeline for the Mexico/Belize border. The group was traveling quite fast to make it across the border and to our hotel in Corozal before they closed for the night. While speeding, the Federales saw us and pulled a u-turn. On came the lights and moments later they had Sam pulled off to the side of the road. Now Sam subscribes to the theory that it isn't necessary to speak any Spanish, and sometimes the less Spanish you speak, the better off you are. This time, the theory worked. As the police officer started speaking to Sam, he realized it was like talking to a brick wall. After a couple of minutes, he gave up and let Sam go with a just a verbal warning (we think).

Fifteen minutes later we were at the Mexican/Belize border and time for more paperwork. The Mexican side went quite smoothly partly from the help of a fellow Rover enthusiast border guard. He was excited to see all of us coming through and talked about his Series III 109”. After giving him phone numbers and web addresses of where he could acquire parts in the U.S., he promised to bring his 109” to work the day we were crossing back into Mexico.

Our hotel for the night, Hotel Maya, was about fifteen minutes into Belize, right next to the ocean. We arrived just before 9:00 pm and the hotel's restaurant had already closed down for the night. But rather than miss out on eighteen paying customers they re-opened for us. The food they cooked was delicious but the menu was a bit limited. The joke was that their menu choices were "beans, rice and chicken" "rice chicken and beans" or "chicken, rice and beans."

After dinner, it was time to lock down the vehicles and go to bed. Sam chose a rather interesting form of security for his D-90. He ran the winch cable around the sign in front of Hotel Maya and he was secure for the night.

Tomorrow we head for the legendary Tikal ruins.  Today we drove 294 miles.

July 19:  Corozal, Belize to Tikal, Guatemala.     Another morning and another dead battery. This time the fridge was turned down to a much lower setting and theoretically it shouldn't have drained the battery completely. A quick measurement and it turned out Camel's alternator is only putting out about twenty-five amps, about a third of what it should be outputting. Just have to watch the fridge output from now on.

Today was Camel's turn to lead again. We headed out of Corozal and on to the first Mayan ruin of the day, a largely unexcavated site called Noh Mul just outside of Orange Walk, Belize. Getting to this site was fun as it was located out in some sugar cane fields. We turned off the highway, drove through the farmlands and there it was; a set of dirt and foliage covered ruins that were at one time a Mayan city. This site was interesting because of its natural state. The temples looked like giant mounds or hills with the occasional bit of limestone carving or stairway jutting out. We climbed to the top of the largest temple and had a look around. We hiked around the temple and found an entrance to a tomb Sam had mentioned he saw at his last visit. It had already been well visited and raided long before we got there.

We all descended back to our vehicles only to discover that Sam's vehicle had been looted. Evidently someone opened his door, cut a bag free and ran off with it. Luckily, the only thing in the bag was a remote control for his winch, but it was still something of an annoyance. Of course, who ever took the bag likely opened it up, found nothing of value to them and tossed the remote control into the sugar cane fields. The lesson to be learned: No matter how remote the stopping point, lock your car.

Back on the road we gassed up in Orange Walk. It was nice to have the option of different brands of gasoline to choose from. Back in Mexico the choice consists of Pemex and..... Pemex. Here in Belize we had all the familiar brands from back home: Shell, Texaco, Exxon, albeit with much higher prices than back home ($BZ 5.50 per gallon, $2.75 US).

Out of Orange walk, we headed to Belize City for lunch and to pick up Stuart's wife who had flown into Belize. Once in town, we split up for about an hour and a half with everyone attending to various errands. We all met back up at the Swing Bridge, a famous (but very small) bridge in the middle of town spanning what was one of the most polluted rivers we've ever seen. Nonetheless, the river was full of boats and fisherman anchored in. Rather than throwing down an actual anchor, they would stick a long pole into the murky depths of the water which was tethered to their boat, and that was it, they were anchored.

Just down the street from the swing bridge we found a Defender 110 parked outside of a dive shop. We went in to inquire about it and found out that the owners were big Land Rover enthusiasts who owned a second 110 kitted out for serious four-wheeling duty. The owner suggested some fun places to explore in the jungle and we did a shirt exchange, a La Ruta Maya shirt for one of their dive shop shirts. Aside from the nice people, Belize City is some place I could go without visiting again. Run down and dirty, it serves primarily as a changeover point for travelers going through Belize. However, just before leaving town we did spot two diesel Freelanders....

Once out of Belize City, we headed towards the Guatemalan border. We needed to make good time and get to the Jungle Lodge in Tikal, as traveling after dark is supposedly dangerous in Guatemala. The border crossing was rather uneventful, despite an abundance of entry fees, exit fees, vehicle fees, environmental fees, etc. It seemed as though you name it, they charged us for it. There was also a sign in the Guatemalan customs office with a list of "banned" items for importation. Among those items was everything from meat to soap to t-shirts to gasoline. According to the customs rules, it seems, we should cross the border wearing nothing but our underwear. Fortunately, they choose not to enforce any of these rules and we crossed into Guatemala without so much as the pretense of a search.

Immediately upon entering into Guatemala, we roads went down in quality significantly. They went from being old semi-bumpy paved roads in Belize, to washboard/hard packed limestone roads. A few miles into Guatemala we saw a broken down truck with over a dozen people packed into it. Sam and a few of the other vehicles stopped to see if they needed help. Meanwhile the others continued a little bit further down the road. Camel was making a god awful rattling sound in the back like something was loose on the rear axle. For fear of snapping the bolts on the half shaft, I took off the rear wheel and pulled out the driver side half shaft. Finding nothing out of the ordinary, we put it all back together and were back on the road. Lo and behold, the noise was gone. The noise was likely caused by some loose bolts on either the half shaft or the wheel.

Just as we were getting everything together, the police stopped and advised us that we should get moving again. They said that the roads were unsafe to travel on after dark. The police were heading a few miles back to the border, and then were going to send a police escort to catch up to us on the way. With that we decided to kick it in to high gear as we only had a half hour of daylight left. With Sam in the lead calling out obstacles, and everyone running all their lights, we hauled butt, and the police escort never caught up with us.

An hour later, we pulled into the entrance to Tikal National Park; a drive we had heard would take upwards of two hours. Once into the park Sam, the lead vehicle, radioed that a Jaguar ran across the road right in front of him, a rare and unusual sighting indeed. Within ten minutes, we were checking in to our rooms at the Jungle Lodge, nestled right against the trail leading to the Tikal ruins. ($82.25 per night)

Today we drove 235 miles.  Tomorrow we go into the park to visit the ruins.

July 20:  Tikal, Guatemala.         A little after 3:00 am, we awoke to something of a shock- a Howler Monkey demonstrated exactly why they are so named. These monkeys, locally known as baboons, make these loud growls that are often mistaken for the call of a Jaguar. This particular Howler was up in one of the trees in the courtyard that all our cabanas opened up to, so we all had front row seats to his performance. He continued his "howling" for about twenty minutes, and then took a break. Shortly before the sun came up, he started howling again for another good half hour.... nature’s alarm clock.

After that it was about time to get up and get ready for the day. We hired a guide to take our group through the ruins of Tikal. Our guide, Juan, had been guiding at Tikal for about fifteen years and was very friendly and informative. While talking to him about our expedition, he proudly proclaimed that he helped lay out the trails for Camel Trophy in Mundo Maya.

Rather than take us straight to the ruins, Juan took us through some of the single-track trails or "shortcuts" in the jungle showing us some of the flora and fauna of the area. He showed us a species of giant caterpillar about six inches long that lived in the trees. Evidently, they never turn into butterflies, but spend their entire lives as caterpillars.

Along the way, Juan explained that the ruling class of the Mayan people primarily used trickery to convince the commoners that they were the favored of the gods and thus worthy of ruling. Among the tricks they employed was using acoustics in the architecture so that when speaking from the top of a temple their voices would be amplified and had a bizarre chirping echo. In addition, the priests would use a type of signal communication to relay from temple to temple across the region, and thus "predict" to the commoners when the rains were coming. Apparently after years of inbreeding, the rulers dumbed down and couldn't remember these little tricks of the trade to keep the commoners in awe. The commoners then believed that the gods had abandoned their rulers, and so they left the cities. Or at least that's one theory.

 Tikal was once the capital of the Mayan world. All Mayan cities were built without use of the wheel (the Mayan believed the wheel was a sacred symbol) and without beasts of burden to move the rocks. The stones were carved using flint as a tool. After the people abandoned these great cities, the jungle soon grew over them and covered the temples and buildings with dirt and foliage.

Tikal was then re-discovered in the 1800s by chicle farmers who would come through the forest harvesting the gum from chicle trees. In the late 1890s, the first Anglo came to the ruins of Tikal and did some exploring. Because the ruins were engulfed by the jungle for more than a millennia, they were well protected and preserved from the elements. Now that many of these ruins have been excavated, they are once again exposed and have begun to decay. The solution that archeologists and preservationists have come up with is to pull the external stones out, cast them and then replace the outer layer with either replica stones or with fiberglass casts which look identical to the originals.

Tikal has a series of four temples lined up in a row. Each temple is slightly off kilter from the others. The temples are lined up in such a way that the inner room of each one lights up in turn on a seasonal equinox. Juan took us through the woods to Mundo Perdido (the Lost World) another set of ruins in Tikal. Along the way, he showed us some tarantulas and even picked one up to show us its fangs. He had an interesting method of enticing the spider out of the hole. This consisted of putting a bit of spit on the end of a stick. The tarantula would smell the saliva and come out to defend its nest.

We made our way back to the lodge by way of a short cut. Along the way we saw a group of iridescent butterflies flittering through the jungle, as well as a well-camouflaged walking stick bug. By this time, some of us had accidentally been separated from the main group. The smaller group stopped to look at the walking stick and Craig Reece even picked it up in his hand. Upon returning to the lodge, we told Juan about picking up the walking stick. He responded with a surprised look on his face. "Why?" I asked half jokingly "Are they poisonous?" "I am told that they are," was his reply.

We bid Juan farewell and as a way of saying thanks for the tour, we gave him some shirts and toys to take back to people in his village. He also gave us some info as to where we could send some supplies that are very much in need here (i.e. toothbrushes, vitamins, etc.). Juan said he would be more than happy to act as our contact and distribute supplies if we could send anything his way. He was more than grateful and said goodbye with a tear in his eye.

After a long day hiking through the hot jungles of Guatemala, everyone was tired. The rest of the day was spent just relaxing and enjoying the sounds of the jungles. Some even took naps right in the reception area of the hotel lodge. Tomorrow is supposed to be a short day, with only a border crossing and arrival at Blancaneaux Lodge. Sam is excited to get to Blancaneaux, as his family will be awaiting our arrival.

A few people headed back into the park to attempt to watch the sunset from atop one of the Mayan temples but the rangers caught on to them and kicked them out of the park before the sun set. Tomorrow morning some of us are going to try to get into the park early and go to the top of Temple IV to see the sun rise, supposedly a magnificent experience. We have no doubt our howler monkey friend will wake us up with plenty of time to spare.

July 21:  Tikal, Guatemala to Blancaneaux, Belize.     Despite earlier interests from members of our expedition, only Craig and I awoke early to hike up and see the sunrise from Temple IV. According to the GPS, sunrise was supposed to happen at 5:30 am. Taking into account about a half hour hike to the temple, we left the lodge just after 4:45 am in complete darkness. By the time we made it to the entrance of the park the eastern horizon was just starting to light up. By 5:20 we were sitting on top of the temple waiting for the sun to come up. All of the valleys were covered with a blanket of fog, with ruins and hills occasionally peeking through the fog. As the sun came up, we began to hear the haunting calls of the howler monkeys echoing across the valleys. A few minutes later the sun eerily crept its way above the clouds and bathed everything in a soft warm glow. It was truly one of the most incredible experiences of my life.

We walked back into the lodge about 7:00 am, just as everyone else was waking up and heading to the restaurant for breakfast. After breakfast, everyone packed up and headed out to meet up with the Nances and Bibbs who went on a jungle canopy tour. This tour took them through the upper canopy of the trees via zip line. After reuniting, we all took the obligatory photos at the impressive Tikal National Park entrance gate. We had had to forego the official entrance photos, as it was the dead of night when we had entered two days earlier.

Just as we were about to put away our cameras, load back into the vehicles and head on out a spider monkey clamored out of the jungle and played around in the trees by the side of the road. He didn't seem to be scared of us at all, and almost took as much interest in us and are cooing as we did in it. We had seen a few monkeys in the park the previous day high above our heads but this was the first close up encounter we'd had. The locals at the entrance station probably thought we were crazy, eighteen people snapping photos and talking to a monkey.

After leaving the park, we made a beeline for the Guatemalan border to cross back into Belize. Driving along in the daylight, we saw all of the interesting sites that we missed in the darkness two days ago. Just outside of Tikal we passed through the town of Peten on the shores of Lake Peten. It was amazing to see the townspeople out in the lake bathing and doing their laundry in the lake water. You see shots like this in National Geographic and such but never really envision people living like this.

On the road to the border, progress was slowed down considerably as we got caught behind a large crowd of people blocking both sides of the road. Before we got the chance to push our way through someone noticed a coffin being carried at the forefront of the crowd-a funeral procession to the village cemetery. We respectfully followed the group at a moderate distance marveling at the culture similarities and differences. Someone in our group quoted over the CB from Don Quixote, "and his funeral was followed by kings from foreign lands." We couldn't help but ponder what a strange thing that must have been for these villagers to have their procession attended by a strange group of nine Land Rovers from thousands of miles away.

Our border crossing was uneventful, it was actually the smoothest border crossing we'd had so far. After four border crossings, we're becoming seasoned pros at this. In San Ignacio, we left the paved road and started our trek into the Mayan mountains. Thirty minutes later, we were pulling into the Mountain Pine Ridge forest reserve, home to Blancaneaux Lodge. Although we had only climbed to about 1,200 feet above sea level (low by Colorado standards) the fauna changed considerably as the palm trees gave way to tall pines. It was ironic for us, here we had traveled 3,000 miles to find that our destination reminded us very much of home.

The sad thing was that, like home, they have a big problem with pine beetles destroying the pine forest. We later learned that the government doesn't have any real course of action for containing the pine beetle and the havoc it's reeking on the forest.

Entering Blancaneaux was like walking into paradise. The lodge consists of cabanas and villas nestled along a river with semi natural pools you can swim in. All of the rooms are thatched roof huts with stucco walls. The living room has no doors, but instead opens up straight onto the porch with palm trees growing up through the deck. The bathroom is exquisite and my favorite room. The tile shower opens up to the heavens and you literally shower with the sun or stars gazing down upon you and the breeze tickling your bare skin. ($240.00 per night)

After unloading the vehicles we traipsed around the grounds, checking out our home for the next few days. We could play croquet on the lawn, visit the horses at the stables, get a cool drink or a bite to eat at the bar/restaurant, take a dip in the river, take a hike, or just relax in the hammock at the cabana.

That night we were greeted with a large buffet and native drummers and singers from the area. After eight days on the road, this lodge is close to heaven and the miles we've driven to get here seem to melt right off of us.

July 22:  Blancaneaux Lodge in Belize.     Today was a great day. We did practically nothing. We came into Belize with a huge list of things we wanted to do in the days we were here. Upon arriving however, we realized that doing absolutely nothing is really nice too. After waking up late and eating a continental breakfast with Johnny cakes, a bread not unlike sopapillas, a few of us decided that we wanted to go on a canoeing trip to visit a Mayan burial cave.

This tour is normally offered by the lodge, but because we decided on such short notice, they said we could just drive down there ourselves and use the hotel canoes. Since there are always guides in the area they suggested we just hire whomever we found down there. With that, eight of us (the Bibbs, Nance's, Donaldson's and Nathan) piled into our Rovers and drove down to Barton Creek. Due to "technical difficulties" it took us a while to find the side road (look for a Christmas tree and take a right), but once we did it made for a fun drive. The road wound around the hills and through the jungle, it even had a fun little river crossing.

Upon arrival, we found a guide named David who said he knew where the lodge canoes were and that he would meet us up the river where he would launch them. We parked our vehicles in a field about 1/4 mile down the road. Next to our impromptu parking area (the ground was well packed down from previous vehicles) there was nothing more than a hut and some campers just hanging out. We got out of our Rovers and sure enough, there was David with three empty canoes waiting and two already filled with other people. In the cave, he hooked up three searchlights to a car battery and passed them out to adjoining canoes. These served as our only source of light in the cave for two hours.

David explained that some of the Maya used these caves for burial purposes. The Maya believed that there were nine lower levels of existence below that in which they lived, and 13 levels above that in which they lived. Their belief was that after death, the spirit would try to ascend to the highest level or plane of existence, but in order to do this the spirit must first travel to the underworld, the nine sub levels. They believed that these caves were a gateway to the underworld, and that by burying their dead in these caves, the spirit would have a shorter trip to the underworld thus speeding their ascension to the higher levels of existence.

I should mention that this practice was not endorsed by the ruling class of the Maya. The people who chose to visit and bury their dead at these caves had likely left the cities of the Maya to live on their own. If they were caught doing this, they would likely be candidates for sacrifice to "appease the gods."

As we ventured deeper into the cave, we saw remnants of pottery lining some of the ledges. An ancient skull peered down at us from another. We floated under a stone bridge the Maya had constructed to connect opposite sides of the cave.

We continued about a mile into the cave and saw some of the magnificent stalactites and stalagmites that nature had created from the natural flow of water seeping down from above. David pointed out fruit bats sleeping soundly above our heads, only momentarily disturbed by our flashlights.

Upon exiting the cave David said for us to meet him by his van down the road where we'd first met him to pay him. We got in our vehicles and started pulling out when a large man came out of nowhere and asked us what we were doing there. We explained and he laughed saying we needed to pay him for the canoes and being on his property and David was not a legitimate tour guide and was actually stealing his business. We all got into a heated argument with him trying to figure out what was going on. He insisted that we pay him BZ$5 per person and BZ$15 for the use of the canoes because that's what he charges people to use his canoes and guides. We informed him that we didn't use his canoes as we had permission to use Blancaneaux's canoes. He fumed at us and insisted that we pay him anyway. He then said, "Well, I'm sorry that you got caught in David's scam..." We told him we'd give him BZ$5 per person for "parking" and that was all he would get from us. He reluctantly took it. However before we left we asked his name to which he responded "Michael John Bogart."

We went back to David and asked him what was going on. David said that essentially he and Michael didn't get along very well. Once back at the lodge, we asked the staff of Blancaneaux if they had ever heard of Michael John Bogart. The response was "Oh, you mean the fake door man?" I asked them, "Is it just me or is he kind of a d*ck?" to which the response was "Yup, that's him all right." Be warned my friends...

Back at the lodge we bumped into Dustin. Some of us had planned to do some four wheeling the following day, but he wouldn't be able to be a part of it, since he was heading out to the cayes (pronounced keys) in the morning for some diving and fishing. With a (very) little arm-twisting, he convinced Craig and Nathan to head out with him and find some trails.

Since nightfall was quickly approaching, we headed south into the mountains and tried to get as deep into the jungle as possible while still having enough time to get back to the lodge before it was too dark. About fifteen minutes south of the lodge we came across an interesting logging camp that the locals called "Delta Town" (the town is officially named Douglas de Silva) presumably because it was at the intersection of a pair of roads.

A few miles south of this we found a trail. Veering off the main road was a single-track road with a sign indicating it led to Mahogany Creek. Within a quarter mile of leaving the road, the trail became very overgrown and obviously hadn't been driven in quite some time... fun.

The further into the jungle we got, the denser the canopy became, until the sky with it's fading light became completely obscured from view. We drove on until the branches were near constant scrapes on the side of our trucks. We felt like we were in the middle of Camel Trophy. Eventually, with fading light and too many fallen trees in the way we decided it was time to turn back. Three twelve point turns later we were ready to head back out to the main road.

Once we were all turned around, we noticed the lone casualty of the day. While turning Camel around, the antennae got caught on a tree branch and was bent perpendicular to it's intended direction, knocking our Jack (Jack In The Box antennae ball) off in the process. A quick fix and it was right as rain, although Jack looked a bit worse for wear.

Back on the road Camel took the lead to head back to the Lodge. Suddenly, there was an exclamation on the radio that I had something hanging from the back of the Rover. Upon getting out and inspecting, it turns out I had "pruned the trees" somewhere along the way and one of them had decided to come with us. [Tracy's comment after seeing the photos: "How could you NOT see that attached to your vehicle?]

We stumbled back into the lodge just before 8:00 and just in time for dinner. Time to relax for the rest of the evening. Tomorrow we're going on a proper off-road trip deep into the jungle.

Patrick and Victoria visited the Cahal Pech ruins and the town of San Ignacio today.  They did some shopping at the Garcia Sister’s slate carving studio and Mayan museum.

July 23:  Blancaneaux Lodge in Belize.    This morning we woke up at our leisure. With nothing that HAS to be done today, it was nice to be able to relax. Nathan and Tracy headed up to the vehicles and found Craig cleaning out his D-90. Evidently, 5,000 miles (remember he came from Berkeley) of dust and road grime had begun to pile up on his rig. Tracy did a quick precursory cleaning in Camel as well. Other than us, the parking lot was essentially empty.

 Sam and wife Jacque, Sam’s brother and sister, Jiri, Lucie, Luis, Stuart, Ben, Pat, Patrick and Victoria woke up early and visited the Caracol ruins.  The group had a bit of a muddy off-road drive to get there.  Some of the group ate lunch at Eva’s Restaurant in San Ignacio.

Since Anne, Craig's "esposa," and Tracy's parents decided to stay at the lodge and relax for the day, Craig, Tracy and Nathan decided to go explore the jungle and maybe hunt for a bit of mud too.

On the way out of the lodge, Craig and Nathan decided to have a look at Blancaneaux's ex-Camel Trophy Discovery. Seeing a genuine Camel trophy truck is a rarity so they boys took tons of photos to show whoever cares at home or to bore their friends and relatives. "Look hon, remember when we saw THIS rover?!?"

We decided to head down towards an abandoned mining camp called Millionario, as we had heard from a few people that that was were the elusive mud was. Elusive because, although Belize was officially in the middle of its rainy season, there really had been very little rain to speak of.

We headed past Douglas de Silva and along the way hit some scattered rainstorms. Eventually we came upon a really cool single lane bridge crossing a rather wide river. On one side of the river, the hills were covered with pine trees, while the other side was dominated by lush palms and tropical trees.

 Just on the other side of the bridge was a side road that climbed up the side of a hill. There were deep washouts in the road from past rains and it gave us a good chance to get our rigs twisted up. Unfortunately, this road abruptly ended at a group of thatched huts, so we had to turn back to the main road.

On down the road we continued. Although the point of this day trip was off-roading, we were enjoying the splendors of the jungle. Past the turn off to Caracol, the area is rarely traveled, and thus we saw some cool flora and fauna. Huge palm trees grew beside the road with fronds that were easily fifteen feet long. At one photo stop, we saw a pair of parrots fly across the sky.

Further down the road, the grass became thicker; trees grew closer and the track less traveled. Suddenly our antennae and Jack fell off. We jumped out to rescue him only to find that that he had fallen into a puddle. We couldn't help but think of those ads at Jack In The Box where the dilapidated antennae ball asks for a replacement.

Down the track we went and the denser it became. We hadn't seen another vehicle in hours and it felt like we had the jungle to ourselves when we rounded a corner of the forest to a very surprising sight. A sign declaring that we had reached the Natural History Museum of London's Las Cuevas Forest Research station. We drove around beside the building and parked next to their work truck, a 300 Tdi Defender 110. Out from the building walked a pair of scientists speaking "King's English."

They informed us that they rarely got visitors and were impressed at the distance we had covered to get to Belize. They then invited us in for a cup of tea. While the kettle was brewing they showed us around the station and gave us a look at some of the work they were doing. They were collecting specimens of jungle rodents and bats to send back home, as well as doing population counts of Jaguars and indigenous tree frogs. We took tea out on their veranda and talked of things near and abroad.

We told them that we came down to Las Cuevas and more specifically to find a trail called Monkey Tail, because we had heard that it was the most likely place to find mud and, with its remote location, jungle wildlife. We were informed that unfortunately Monkey Tail was closed down because they were doing a wildlife study there but that they had begun the study just that morning. Had we called ahead they would have put it off another day. We chuckled at this information, as we'd had no idea that we'd stumble upon this research station when we started out.

Eventually it was time to head back to the lodge. On the way back to our vehicles, Nathan remembered that some of the scientists had mentioned they were here from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. Nathan casually asked if they liked IRN-BRU, an obscure carbonated orange drink available only in the British Isles. They responded with an enthusiastic "Of course! It's the perfect cure for a hangover, you know." A humorous response, because that's what we'd heard from other Scots when we traveled there two years earlier. Nathan's a huge fan of the stuff, and it just so happened that he had a two-liter bottle of the stuff that his brother Dustin brought back from his trip to Ireland. Deciding that they would appreciate it far more than he would, given their locale, he gave them the bottle. We've honestly never seen someone so excited over a soft drink before... We think it was a welcome taste of home, halfway 'round the world.

Just as we were loading up into our Rovers, we heard a bird call out, and one of the researchers pointed to a pair of huge Scarlet Macaws flying gracefully above the trees. A lovely ending to an exciting visit.

Heading back to the lodge, we discovered that it had rained over parts of the road and turned stretches into glorious mud. Just before re-crossing the stone bridge we saw a huge British MOD Bedford truck parked in the middle of the road. Curious, we called out to see if anyone was nearby. Hearing no reply, we rounded the corner only to find a platoon of British soldiers teaching the Belizean Army boat patrol techniques in the river. Although we wanted to get a picture, a soldier came over and politely, but firmly, informed us that there was to be no picture taking of the soldiers.

Despite the photo moratorium, we were allowed to snap off a couple of pictures of a crocodile that was in a pool next to the bridge. This croc was only about four to five feet in length, but the soldier informed us that a group of crocodiles lived just around the bend in the river, and those crocs were upwards of fifteen feet in length. We sure didn't envy the soldiers in the water.

We continued on down the road until Camel's fuel light came on. No big deal, we just pulled down a Jerry can with good US fuel in it and began to siphon it into the Disco. While doing this, a ranger from Caracol Park pulled up in his MOT (Ministry of Tourism) 110. He told us that he was heading up the road to Douglas de Silva for a cold beer. Evidently, at an hour and a half drive each way, it was the closest cold beer to Caracol. Craig asked him about the Tdi motor in his 110, and the ranger generously let Craig take it for a quick drive while Nathan finished siphoning fuel into Camel.

 Finally back at the lodge we all went in for a nice dinner. Blancaneaux has some excellent food and is renowned in Belize for it's Italian cuisine. Coppola had a pizza oven brought over from Italy for his kitchen, and being the only one of it's kind in Central America it generates some great pizza. After dinner, a few of us went to look at a Pinocchio water fountain next to the lodge's croquet field. We had been hearing loud frog croaking coming from there for the past two nights so we decided to investigate. What we found was incredible. There had to have been four or five different species of frogs there, ranging from one species that looked like an American bullfrog, to a brilliantly colored orange and yellow tree frog. Craig also noticed a small bright orange snake hiding in the rocks that was probably waiting to sneak up on a frog for dinner.

After the little frog trip, it was time to bed down for the night. We don't have any real plans for tomorrow, and that's kind of nice. It will be our last day in Belize before we start the marathon trip back home.

July 24:  Blancaneaux Lodge in Belize.     It's our last day in Belize so we've decided to do some shopping. The four of us and the Nances decided to go back across the border to Guatemala. Both the Belizean and American dollar are very strong compared to the Guatemalan Quetzal, so our money goes a lot further over there. Rather than go through the exportation/importation of vehicles process again, we decided to park our vehicles on the Belizean side of the border, walk across and take a taxi to the local shopping area. Since the shopping area was about a mile across the border and the taxis were only a $1, Stuart and Judith went ahead of us while we finished up our border paperwork.

We went into Guatemala in order to get some cool souvenirs and decorations for our homes. Unfortunately, the part of town that the taxi dropped us off in was the local shopping area where they primarily sold underwear, knock off Reeboks and poorly made soccer balls. We decided to find the Antigua Boutique, a store that had been recommended to us by the people at the lodge. After a series of obscure directions from various locals, we managed to stumble upon it.

Once inside, we discovered that the Nances had beaten us to Antiguas and were going on a major shopping spree with good reason. Antiguas had a huge selection of crafts and things that were all made in the town of Antigua down near Guatemala City. They had things ranging from colorful placemats to hand carved wooden masks to musical instruments.

After purchasing our wares, it was back into the taxis and back across the border. This time we had to take two taxis again, with all of the stuff the Nances bought occupying almost the entire back seat of their taxi. Among the cool things that they bought was a hand made xylophone, which Stuart claims was for their kids back home. Personally, I think he got it as much for his amusement as for theirs, as he kept playing little ditties on its keys (including, I shudder to mention, the Barney theme song).

Back across the border into Belize we decided to visit one last Mayan ruin, Xuantunich. Our primary reason for going here wasn't necessarily to see the ruin, but rather to take the "bridge" across the river. Rather than construct a proper bridge, the powers that be decided rather to run a hand crank ferry to shuttle vehicles back and forth across the river... very cool.

Tracy and Dorothy stayed back at the river to take the obligatory "river crossing" photos - thanks you two. So the Stuarts, Lynn and Nathan went up to the ruins. The ruins were surprisingly cool. The major temple, known as el Castillo (the castle) towers above the area and can be seen from miles away. Currently archeologists are making fiberglass casts of the magnificent frescos that line the top of the temple in order to preserve the fragile limestone rock. According to one of the workers there, this undertaking will continue to go on for the next five years. Meanwhile, back at the river, Dorothy and Tracy made small talk with the locals and saw large iguanas scampering up a nearby tree.

We headed back to the lodge where most took the rest of the afternoon to relax, while Nathan spent some time working on Camel to get it in shape for the drive home. Sometime the day before we had bent a tie rod on Camel and despite having a spare one, we decided we'd temporarily fix the existing one for the drive home.

The Scrantons and the Bibbs spent some of the day at the Five Sisters Falls, lunching at the restaurant in the Five Sisters Lodge.

We settled up bills with the lodge so that we could leave early the next morning. The plan was for us and the Nances to leave early and meet up with Dustin and Carey in Big Bird up in Corozal. The three vehicles were planning to push ahead and cross the border a day earlier. That way Tracy and Nathan could be back in Colorado for work on Monday, five days away. We really love our jobs :)

Nighttime fell and everyone settled down for bed. Nathan laid in the hammock out on the deck reflecting upon his vacation when a huge glowing thing came ripping across the sky. It left a massive trail of incandescent smoke that seemed to glow white. Nathan hollered for Tracy to come take a look. She reluctantly came out but without her eyeballs in. When she came back with her eyeballs and saw it, she called her parents out to see as well. We all just stood there slack jawed for a couple of minutes watching the trail slowly dissipate. Unexpectedly, we heard a loud sonic boom echoing across the jungle. We went to bed wondering what that could have been, a huge meteor, the space shuttle, or maybe even a crashing plane? Whatever it was, it had to be one of the most amazing things we've seen in our lives.

July 25:  Departed Blancaneaux Lodge in Belize.    For a change, we were the first ones up and ready for breakfast. Our group and the Nances were just finishing up our meal as everyone else came stumbling in for breakfast. Our plan was to get on the road earlier than the group, as we were planning to drive on to Villahermosa for the night, another hundred miles or so past Cd. del Carmen, the rest of the group’s destination.

Luis walked in asking if we had seen the space shuttle the night before. We remarked that we had seen it, and he said he had never seen it flying so close before. We later discovered that it was coming in for a night landing in Florida.

We said our goodbyes to everyone and we were off, racing back to the States. Once on the road we hauled butt up to Corozal to meet up with Dustin and Carey. Along the way we made a brief stop at a Land Rover repair shop on the Northern Highway. Evidently the owner, Steve, takes ex-MOD Land Rovers and converts/restores them for civilian use. He had built the 24v 110 that we saw at Sea Sports Belize on Day 6 in Belize City.

We met up with Dustin & Carey, compared stories of our adventures from the past couple of days, and made the short trip to the Belize/Mexican border. They almost didn't let Tracy into Mexico because a guard couldn't read the proper dates on her paperwork but she's not bitter.

We discovered a cool thing called the Free Zone. This is a small area of "no-man's land" between Belize and Mexico where everything we bought was duty free. For the entrance price of 10 pesos per vehicle (about $1.10) we were able to get duty free Shell gas for the low price of $1.75 (US) per gallon, about half of what we had been paying since we left the states.

Crossing into Mexico, we heard the rest of the group on the CBs saying that they had just pulled into the Belize side of the border. Ironically, although they were only a block away from us, it would easily take them an hour to get to where we were.

The Drive Back to Houston For The Rest Of The Group

July 25:  Blancaneaux Lodge, Belize to Ciudad de Carmen, Mexico.   The group had a long day of driving, covering 439 miles.  Hotel Linos in Carmen. ($51.34)

July 26:  Ciudad de Carmen, Mexico to Veracruz, Mexico.   We had another long day on the road. A fast paced 432-mile drive up the Mexican coastline.  Around Frontero and Paraso, we passed a number of very interesting cemeteries.   The most beautiful area was near the small coastal town Catemaco.  We arrived fairly late in Veracruz.  The nightlife was booming and overflowing into the streets, but we were all too tired to go out and enjoy it. We stayed at the Hotel Colonial once again. ($71.19)

July 27:  Veracruz, Mexico to Tampico, Mexico.  We drove 310 miles today and stayed once again at the Hotel San Antonio. ($75.92)

July 28:  Tampico, Mexico to Brownsville, Texas.  We drove 372 miles today and stayed at the Days Inn in Brownsville.  Some of the group wanted to go to Garcia’s in Matamoros for some drinks and shopping but the line of cars to cross the border was looking extremely long.  All of the vehicles, except Patrick’s D-90, were searched thoroughly before being allowed to cross into the U.S.

July 29:  Brownsville, Texas to Houston, Texas.  The group made a mad dash back to Houston.  The 359 miles driven that day brought the round trip total mileage to 4,280.

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