After only a couple of nights in San Ignacio we jumped on a bus and headed for Belize city in order to get on a boat to go to Caye Caulker, one of the many little islands off the coast of Belize from which there is good snorkelling to be had. With about 20 different operators offering the same thing as far as snorkel trips go, we went with the only one that was a bit different in that they took us out on a sailboat instead of a motor boat. Although there was several predictions of bad weather, we lucked out with a perfectly sunny day (which of course meant that our lilly white skin got sunburnt dispite our best suncreening efforts). We saw heaps of fish, 2 different kinds of rays and a couple of nurse sharks (and a lone dolphin from the boat). The coral is pretty damaged there and not terribly impressive and the marine life totally made up for it, we even got to pat one of the rays! Once we'd had our fill of ocean and fish it was back on the boat to have our fill of local rum punch. Not really to our taste, but a couple of others on board certainly enjoyed it and managed to make complete twats of themselves! We chatted to a Sydney girl most of the way (bloody aussies everywhere) and had BBQ lobster dinner on the beach with her later - very nice.
Getting off the island and back to Guatemala proved a little harder, but after a really rough boat ride, lunch in a really rough local establishment, a beer with a really rough local at said establishment and a couple of really rough buses, we finally made it to Rio Dulce just in from the caribbean coast in Guatemala. The plan ws to stay in Livingston, which is actually on the coast, but it's only accessable by a 1hr water taxi, which run rather irregularly and after a quick visit we decided it wasn't worth the stay. In fact, both places were rather underwhelming and if it wern't for dinner and beers with a very well travelled and interesting french lass at a cool little place where an aussie girl was working, it would have been really crap!
So we hopped the next bus and made our way back to Antigua where our time in Guatemala began because it's such a nice town and it's close enough to Guatemala city that we don't have to spend a night there. Every local and tourist has told us how shitty and dangerous it is there, so we've spent our last couple of days wandering around and visiting some local sights that we didn't get to see first time around. And, as luck would have it, the fountain in the parque central was working this time, so we got to experiece it's beauty in full (see pic!).
So, this is pretty much where it ends. We fly out of Guatemala early tomorrow morning and after a long layover in LA and a painfully long flight home (18hrs) our incredible holiday is over.....until the next one.
Although there has been some highs and lows, we've had a fantastic time and done things I don't think we ever thought we'd do. We've loved all the counties we visited as they each have amazing and unique things to offer. The people in all three were worth the trip alone.