More Belize

Greetings all

Well this last Friday was a runaround day trying to find appointments here close to the western border region and orient ourselves.

Before going on, there are quite a few voids in cell phone reception here and we are not always able to make or receive calls – also our comms provider has no agreement with the local operators for data service so please not that we are and will be unable to receive e-mail on the mobile phone for the duration of our stay here and will thus be only checking e-mail in the morning/evening when possible.

Be that as it may, yesterday we met with Tom Wilson of Baka-Bush Adventures, who with amazing graciousness gave us so much of his time and treated us to a more than full day of his time, knowledge, dry but keen wit than anyone has done since we set out on the expedition.

This included the privilege of seeing and experiencing the back country of this region as we are sure, few get to see or to share with him – this included more than two hours in one of the thousands of wet cave systems, riding bush tracks through the forests and ‘savanna’ patches that left me with so many déjà vu moments through the day.

These caves are so amazing to behold and would be insane to try and describe in their beauty and graceful elegance, not to mention the rich Mayan history coupled to them.

As we could not carry the camera, we include only a few pics taken before we commenced.

This awesome and breath taking experience also included riding zip-lines over and through the forest canopy, repelling down cliff’s to a few zip-line stations and ending up with a final zip descent through and into a huge cave opening.

Sometimes one moves through life and on those rare occasions one bumps into one’s kindred spirits, Angelika and I sure found this to be so true when it came to Tom, a true gentleman and a real man with a genuine love and connection with the bush and his environment in which he lives.

Sunday: We met up again with Tom in the morning close to Belize City where he keeps his Air Boats docked alongside the main road and next to a canal of water that connects to a vast marshland that few get to behold because of the inaccessibility thereto except with the use of these shallow draught boats powered by 400HP engines driven by aircraft propellers.

Noisy as they are, they allow one a rare insight and passage into an environment very difficult to access and strangely enough, the birds and other creatures do not seem to care about the cacophony and intrusion.

Riding an airboat was as close as one can come to an aquatic helicopter ride and so totally a trip to behold.

Leaving Tom was like saying goodbye to an old buddy, knowing we will meet up again soon down the road and being able to pick up within in seconds, whenever we meet up again……which we will.

We piled back into the ‘Elsie’ and headed south to meet up with such an amazing couple, the Ushers, who also in their own right, live on such an amazing piece of land with such a diversity of ecosystems that range from ‘savanna’ to forest, riverine, salt/fresh water lagoons and ocean frontage.

Just like Tom, it is so refreshing to see people who have a passion for the land they live upon, and yea, like Tom, we hope to soon see our tents becoming an integral part of that natural environment.

Belize, is very unusual, very beautiful, full of history and a place looking for something to happen when it already started to do so.

We packed in a quick river ride in the morning to evaluate the potential sites there and then packed up once again and headed further south to meet an old customer of ours at Ken at Belize Lodge.

So much going on here but we will try to update again tomorrow but we have no cell comm’s here but we do try to get e-mail at least once a day.

We hope to be in Belize City for our appointments by Thursday.

Take care

Paul and Angelika

The last of Guatemala and start of Belize

Greetings all
Gosh so much has happened since we really posted a detailed blog but that is the nature of the beast in being constantly on the move and as you have seen if you follow this blog, we have covered a lot of distance this last while.
Guatemala was truly beautiful and good to us even though we had only a few appointments there, we met some really good people and saw some truly beautiful country.
Most impressive are the Mayan ruins of Tikal in the northern province of Peten that cover a stunning area of 5000 square kilometers, most of the ruins are not excavated except for the palaces and Grand Plaza between them.
The gem of Guatemala is truly in the Peten Province and the "jungle's" in the region are particularly stunning even though they do not reach the heights of those in Costa Rica.
Dear "Elsie's" developed a short in our second battery (remember the waterless battery story in the beginning of the expedition) that had us having to jump start her - this led to the discovery as well of one terminal in the alternator that had broken loose and the indicator relay had given in once again of which we still need to get fixed here in Belize.
The crossing from Guatemala into Belize was absolutely fantastic on both frontier points with friendly personnel and an inexpensive and smooth transit through - this was so refreshing for us that we could not help but thank everyone for the experience and also 'Elsie' breezed through without much ado.
For these next few days we will be staying in a small place between Belize City and the Border to meet appointments on either side.
Above are a few pics ranging from Antigua to the Tikal ruins.
Take care
Paul & Angelika

next Belize

Greetings
Elsie had yet another hiccup we had to attend to so we will only be entering Belize today, Thursday
More later on updates
Take care
Paul & Angelika

Trundling along in Elsie

Greetings from Guatemala City,
This Sunday finds us here for two meetings and then on to Peten in the north before entering Belize on Tuesday or Wednesday.
The past few days have been so hectic and we have covered a lot of ground.
Antigua is a really pretty city, old and with a lot of cool old buildings and a ton of character even though it is a total tourist trap.
There is also a huge volcano looming over the city but then I think Guatemala makes and exports volcanoes as there are so many of those awesome mountains here.
Yesterday we met with a wonderful lady who own a beautiful coffee plantation in the SW of the country - she wanted to see us about starting a luxury tented lodge on the property.
She is a biologist herself so she has made a remarkable effort in combining and integrating the plantation with the natural forest.
After walking the plantation and visiting with her we headed towards Guatemala City, getting here in the late afternoon tired of the insane traffic of the highway and unsure of how we were going to wade through the big city.
We muddled our way along fine until we were unsure of of whereabouts, that I called through the window to a cop passing us on the road, as to where the main Avenue Reforma was?
He pulled away indicating that we follow them and before we knew it we had the blue lights flashing and we were getting the "Royal Escort" into town.
They left us close to the hotel we were looking for but before long we were lost again but soon found our way and was happy to finally be out of the city traffic.
At the hotel we had another dilemma as Elsie would not fit into their secure parking garage (we never stop at any hotel unless it has vehicle security) so I told the manager I would park her right in front of the hotel and his security guards will just have to watch over her but this he did not like so we compromised and parked her across the road. As soon as he left the hotel the security dudes called me to come and move her to the front of the hotel as suggested.
When I went to check on her this morning she was the main center of attention with an admiring crowd around her who all had tons of questions about Elsie, us and our expedition.
Wherever we are she is quite the crowd collector :)
Sorry about the no pics but I cannot find the cable to pull the pics off my camera but hope I find it in Elsie a little later and will hopefully get more pics up soon.
Enjoy what is left of the weekend and have a great new week.
Paul and Angelika

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Guatemala et al

Greetings tonight from Antigua, Guatemala.
Yesterday we got stood up by our client so we enjoyed a fantastic lunch right over the ocean in La Libertad and last night we spent our last night in a quaint room in the tiny fishing village of Los Cabanos still in El Salvador and were treated to a great storm with amazing lightning that made daylight of the ocean as we sipped on some cheap wine.
Getting through the border this morning took quite some time but it was refreshing to see that we had to stand in line with the rest and not have to go through the bribe thing and all we have experienced in Guatemala so far is friendliness with cops and all.
Guatemala is so beautiful and even though Antigua is a 'gringo' tourist trap, it is beautiful in it's own way with a lot of very old buildings and cobbled streets with a huge volcano looming up over the city.
Tomorrow we head to the Western part of the country and then to the North East to meet up with a number of clients and then hopefully by the end of next week we shall enter into Belize where we have a lot of work to do.
Lastly, for those of you keeping up on 'Elsie' she is doing so well now and trundling along like a trooper, though she does not like climbing mountains.
We will post a few more pics tomorrow.
Take care and stay well
Paul and Angelika

Pics of the last week

Nica/Honduras/El Salvador

Greetings all

Wow, so much has happened in this last short while since entering Nicaragua – we met Stacy and Mike at the second “end of the road” destinations since starting the expedition and we were so amazed and impressed by this out of the way remote resort with the most pristine and beautiful beaches and one of Central America’s largest estuaries that is about 10 “Elsie” miles down the beach – check it out at www.redwoodbeachresort.com

Anyone wanting to adventure to such a remote but truly beautiful and comfortable resort and be treated to Stacy and Mike’s spontaneous hospitality, should make the effort to go, just don’t expect to leave in any hurry as time means nothing there.

We worked on them setting up a few tents up there that will be rather unique if they decide to proceed.

This destination is truly also a fisherman’s paradise for those who care to get on the ocean and catch those underwater critters.

After bidding our farewell’s we headed to Honduras where the border crossing was a total nightmare with bribes up the Wahoo.

After just a short distance in Honduras, we were constantly harassed by the cops and fined for the most incredulous things that I started to get a real uneasy feeling in Honduras and by the next morning, I was not at ease and was not able to reach any of our clients that we were to meet in the north of the country that we decided to trust my instincts and get out of the country.

So early the next day we boogied across the border into El Salvador and I was real happy about our decision to do so.

El Salvador has welcomed us and we are happy to be here, so much so that Elsie got her first wash today and is looking better that the two of us for now…..

We are unable to upload images, so they will have to wait for another day - so sorry as they are cool pics.

We expect to be entering Guatemala by the weekend and then onto Belize.

Life is beautiful and then you can marry it and all is good.

Paul and Angelika