Barton Creek Cave and the Fer-de-Lance

After a good night's sleep at the Five Sisters Lodge we headed out for a guided trip to the Barton Creek Cave. Funnily enough, Barton Creek is a familiar name in Austin as it is one of the swankier neighborhoods of our town, but I don't believe there is any connection to this remote spot in Belize.

The cave was a long and bouncy drive from the lodge requiring fording two rivers. Luckily the lodge has a four wheel drive Toyota and our Mayan guide Rene was driving. The site is very pretty - set in to the edge of a hillside. The cave was known to the local owner, but only became public knowledge when he sold the properties in the 1980s and was explored and researched in more depth. It is about 4.5 miles long, although we could not go all that way due to the low ceiling.

We have been to a number of amazing caves in our travels, so it takes a pretty neat cave to impress us. What was fun about this cave was that is was flooded and so we explored it by canoe (I paddled Kelly, Aaron and myself in one boat and Rene paddled another canoe with a newly wed couple in the other). The formations were interesting, especially the natural bridges, but what made this cave unique for us was that it had been a Mayan ritual sacrificial site. We got to see evidence of human bones and pottery. Apparently the victims were sacrificed somewhere else then their bones and blood brought here into the underworld. They used the stone bridge to cross from one side to the other and one can easily see how one could associate the place with a spirit world. Some jade jewelry with an inscription from the Mayan city of Caracol was also found, so there was obviously some trade or connection between the sites.

Rene's canoe exited the cave first after we had spent about an hour exploring. As we came out a little behind, I noticed a snake, about 5 or 6 feet long swimming in the pool ahead of us outside the cave. It was moving pretty fast and having watched my fair share of snake related programs on Discovery's Animal Planet channel, I made a few assumptions. First, noticing that it had a triangular shaped head that it was probably a member of the viper family and poisonous (which it was) and second that like most snakes, as long as we didn't antagonize it, it would be more afraid of us and swim away from us (which it didn't!)

The snake actually turned and swam very close to our canoe and even seemed to raise itself up a bit in the water. For a moment, we were afraid that it might strike Kelly who was in front of me, so I quickly took my paddle and put it between Kelly and the snake, it then continued to turn towards me, took a quick look and swam past the end of our canoe and quickly off into the bush on the opposing bank. All in all a pretty hair raising few moments. Aaron managed to grab a few shots of the snake in the water, but unfortunately my camera wasn't ideally setup for this kind of shot. After we returned the canoes I talked to Rene and the local caretaker and they identified the snake from the photo as a Fer de Lance. They had not seen it at all and had no other reports of a recent siting.

I realized this was a very poisonous snake and from my conversation with Rene and some later internet research found out that this is the snake most likely to cause bites in Central America and responsible most fatal snake bites, although most victims do not in fact die if bitten, as long as they get antivenin within about 4 hours.

They can also spit their venom up to 6 feet away, but I am told this isn't harmful to humans. Getting bitten is another matter.

Because the environment is so wet (there has been quite a bit of recent rain), apparently the snakes are more active. The Fer de Lance is a particularly aggressive snake and when it feels threatened, it tends not to back down and go away. Most people get bitten because its camouflage is so good that they inadvertently step on it before they knew it was there.

In retrospect, I suspect that the snake was just making its way across the river when we happened to come along. Either we got in its intended path, or it perceived us as a threat and did what its biological program told it to do. It never opened its mouth or actually entered the canoe, but it got too close for comfort.

I suppose that since we ultimately weren't harmed I feel that we were both lucky and unlucky at the same time. Lucky to see a creature in the wild that most other people will never see (yes I know there are many of you who have no wish to see such an animal without glass in between you!) and unlucky in that we seemed to be very close to the wrong place at the wrong time. Hopefully that will be our last close encounter with a snake, except for our upcoming visit to the Belize Zoo. However, Aaron came across the biggest spider we've ever seen, which you can read about in an upcoming post.

So, so far in Belize we've had Sharks, moray eels, ROUS (rodents of unusual size), snakes, huge insects, and enormous spiders. Fun in the jungle.

Yaxha and back to Belize

Today we left El Remate where we had been staying to visit Tikal and headed back towards the Belizean border.  I had read about a Mayan site called Yaxha which sounded interesting, and Norberto, our Tikal guide strongly recommended visiting it, so when we say the signpost, we decided it would be worth a quick visit.  Unfortunately, the 8 mile drive was over very rough terrain and when we got there it required a US$10 per person park entrance fee (nifty concert style bracelet included!), so we decided to stay a little longer and take our time visiting the ruins.  Glad we did as although Yaxha is much smaller than Tikal, far fewer people visit it and it made it easy to get around and sometimes more atmospheric.  Great view of the nearby lake too.  Wikipedia details on Yaxha can be found here.

Aaron seemed to have a lot of fun with the local arthropods and learned how to safely extract a tarantula from its hiding hole.  Saw some pretty interesting insects, including the VERY large grasshopper that Aaron found.

Returning to the main road, we drove back to the Belizean border and after turning in our car paperwork and getting our passports stamped out of Guatemala, we payed the BZD10 fee (US$5) for an inspection sticker and proceeded to Belizean immigration and customs just in time to be behind a large tour group.  Thankfully the line moved fast and we didn't have to spend all day to get back into Belize.

A few miles down the road is the major town of the Cayo district in Belize, San Ignacio.  We stopped to use the ATM and went to the market stalls to buy some fruit (turns out the day we had driven through here on the way into Guatemala was the major market day).  Anyway, bought some delicious, ridiculously cheap fruit - 5 lovely fresh bananas, a papaya, a huge mango and a dragon fruit for less than US$3.  The fruit here has been fantastic.  Had star fruit a few days later, which I normally think tastes like water, but here is it juicy, sweet, and flavorful.  The dragon fruit was also interesting - unlike the ones we had in SE Asia which are white on the inside, these are the color of beetroot.  Still yummy though!

We are staying at the Five Sisters Jungle Lodge in the Pine Mountain Reserve - only about 24 miles from San Ignacio, but over a challenging unpaved road, so it took us more than an hour to get here.  The place is very remote, but it is really lovely.  Our cabana is actually two stories - Aaron has his own double bed, bathroom and screen in terrace upstairs, while Kelly and I have our own King size bed and bathroom downstairs.  The place is beautifully landscaped, and the staff is incredibly friendly and helpful.  More to come!

Heading to Guatemala

We left San Pedro on Saturday on the Mayan air flight to Belize Municipal Airport, which is about 1/2 the cost of flying to the Belize International Airport. Aaron got to sit in the co-pilot seat, which has the best views. Our flight actually went first to the international airport and after a quick stop made the short hop over the small municipal airport where we were met by a representative from Crystal Auto with our car. We had rented an older model small SUV, but they upgraded us to a larger 6 cylinder Suzuki model, which although a few years old is in good condition. Crystal were extremely helpful, picking us up from the municipal airport and driving us to their office - guess where - close to the international airport. They also provided us a cooler and a cell phone at no charge and gave us maps and directions and also copied my driver's license and passport for the Guatemalan authorities.

We headed out and drove to the border with Guatemala. First we had to exit Belize, which costs about US$17 per person, then deal with Guatemalan authorities, which took about 20 minutes to handle the paperwork for the car and stamp our passports. We knew the first part of the road to Tikal was not paved, but after we hit the start of the paved road, we were surprised to find that it reverted to gravel road for a few miles, then paved road, then gravel road, then paved road. The paved road was excellent - easily able to drive at 50MPH or faster, although we needed to be on the lookout for various children, chickens, pigs, cows, horses and dogs, all of which seemed to wander across the road at will. The gravel roads, not so good - hard to drive more than 25 MPH without being shaken to pieces.

Eventually we got to the small town of El Remate, which is the closest town to the vast Mayan ruins of Tikal. Our hotel, the Camino Real Tikal is actually about 30 minutes from the park and is set next to a nice lake. They welcomed us with a fruit juice drink and gave us an upgraded room. That evening they had a free sunset cruise on the lake, but as the weather was cloudy and there wasn't much else to see, the cruise was a bit boring. We had read about a local guesthouse and restaurant called Mon Ami run by a Frenchman, so we ate there. Very inexpensive simple food, but tasty and great value.

The next day we set out at 5:30 AM for the ruins at Tikal, which is actually inside a large protected reserve, so the experience is both one of visiting the ruins as well as enjoying the natural history. Arriving at the gates at 6AM, we were just in time to be amongst the first outsiders to be allowed in (there are 3 lodges inside the park, but they were very poorly reviewed so we chose to stay elsewhere). We hired an official guide, Norberto, who spoke English and did a good job of explaining the history of the Mayas and this site as well as the flora and fauna over the next 4 hours that we were together. There is a lot written about Tikal, so I won't repeat it all here, but the overall site is huge - there are some 3,000 buildings over a 220 square mile area, although the main ones are in a much more compact grouping. The view from the tops of the temples was really neat In fact, my photo here might look a little familiar - this was used in Star Wars as the home of the Ewok (with some digital enhancements).

In addition to the various Mayan temples, tombs, ball courts, stellae and other buildings, we got to see a number of birds, including Montezuma Oropendula, woodpeckers, flycatchers, and parrots. We also spotted some agouti (large rodents), howler monkeys, spider monkeys, huge grasshoppers, tarantula and other insects.

Afterwards we drove about an hour to the town of Flores, which is considered the nicest town in all of NE Guatemala It is set on an isthmus on the lake and is very atmospheric. We had been given a recommendation of a particular restaurant by a number of people and books, but unfortunately when we got there, we found that they were closed on Sunday. The nearby place that we ate was okay, but nothing special. Oh well!

Belize - Last day on the Cayes

Sorry about the formatting - working off a netbook with very limited screen space and the blogging interface doesn't seem to want to cooperate with aligning the images!












Tonight is our last night on Ambergris Caye. Tomorrow we head back to the mainland where we pick up a car and drive to the Mayan ruins of Tikal in the Guatemalan jungle. After a couple of nights there, we will head back to Belize and the Pine Mountain area to explore some of the Belizean rainforest and visit the Mayan ruins of Caracol. We hope to get to a number of other interesting ruins in Mexico when we head that way later on.

Had a great time diving here - water very warm and clear (except after the storm). We did a number of dives including a night dive. Got to play with nurse sharks, see rays, octopus, crabs, conch, lobsters, jellyfish, moray eels, sea turtles, urchins as well as a host of colorful fish of all sizes. Got to go face to face with some large grouper (after having had grouper for dinner the previous night).

Also spotted a number of interesting animals while on land, including a crocodile, bats, and iguanas.

Food has been very good - lots of fish or chicken cooked simply but very tasty. Our favorite restaurant, pictured below was "Hidden Treasure" which we found through Trip Advisor. Great chicken with pineapple, ginger and peanut sauce.

We took a walk over the toll bridge to the north side of the Caye. This mostly seems to be newer and more upscale developments. There is a local law that no building can be more than 3 stories tall, so consequently there are no huge high rise resort style hotels. Also although tourism is the mainstay of the economy here, it has not displaced the locals, so the town (San Pedro) is not some gentrified resort ghetto. Everyone seems very relaxed and friendly here.

Don't have a lot of the rest of the trip planned in detail, although we have some ideas about what we want to do. We've booked our last night in Belize (before we head to Mexico) to spend at the Belize Zoo lodge, which includes a nighttime tour of the zoo when the animals are much more active. Should be a lot of fun.


Got to speak to Ben in Seattle this evening, where he is doing an internship with Microsoft. He sounds like he is having a great time. The interns had a private show of Cirque de Soleil with free concessions. Sounds like he is getting the red carpet treatment! We miss him, but are very proud of all he is doing this summer.

Day 4 in Belize

Another beautiful day in paradise!

The island (Caye) really does look liked it stepped off a travel brochure. The water is incredibly blue and clear, the beaches clean and white and the people warm and friendly.

The weather is warm and a bit humid at times, but overall quite pleasant.

Yesterday we took our first dive and snorkeling trip. In the morning we practiced our snorkeling around and under the docks where we found lots of fish, including a ray and a couple of boxfish.

The dive was at the Hol Chan marine reserve which is pretty shallow (max depth 30') but stunning, none the less. Saw lots of hard and soft coral, sea anemones, rays, nurse sharks, sea turtles. Perhaps my favorite were the tiniest fish, maybe 1" in length or less, but often with brilliant purple, orange and blue coloration.

After the diving, we snorkeled at "shark ray alley" where they bring some chum to attract sharks and rays. Some of the sharks as pretty large - 6' or longer, but very docile and happy enough to be hugged. Lots of jacks (a tasty local fish) also to be seen. Very fun.

The water is very warm - about 84 degrees Fahrenheit, so we are only diving with rashguard shirts, not wetsuits.

Our rented house is about 2 miles south of town so pretty quiet. We pass by a few lagoons on the way home and spotted the sign in the photograph. Quickly put a damper on any ideas of swimming in the lagoons and in fact we saw a good sized crocodile (more than 6' in length) there our first night.

Today we went diving on the main reef at Dardanellos Cut. A little deeper, max. 60', we again saw fantastic reef in clear water with lots of fish, including many nurse sharks again. In fact, the moment I entered the water, I felt some bumps on my fins and legs. When I looked down, there were a few large nurse sharks checking me out. This time we also saw lobsters as well as groupers in addition to similar marine life we had seen yesterday. Coincidentally Kelly and I had grouper for dinner last night! Apart from the nausea I have from seasickness, having a great time!

San Pedro, Ambergris Caye, Belize - Day 1

Flew from Austin - Dallas then on to Belize City. There are actually two airports in Belize City - the international airport and the municipal airport (about 15 minutes by taxi). To fly to San Pedro is 1/2 the cost out of the muni airport, on the same carrier.
The flight is only about 15 - 20 minutes on a Cessna Caravan turboprop. Got to fly in the co-pilot's seat which gave me a nice view - both of the outside and of Kelly and Aaron sitting behind me.

The airport in San Pedro is probably the smallest we've been to. Baggage claim was unique - see the ph!

After getting to the place we rented for the week (Casa Tulipan) we found the local market, then went to dinner. We have a rented golf cart (the preferred mode of transport on the island) and it is actually about a 15 minute ride from downtown to our place, which means its nice and quiet.

For once Kelly got a nice meal on her birthday. We went to Wild Mango and had some fantastic fish and vegetarian dishes - very tasty. Off to bed and looking forward to a fun week.

Lauren Greenfield at ACP

This week Lauren Greenfield was in town and presented to the Austin Center for Photography from her body work on youth culture. Got the chance to spend a few minutes with her and chat at a private reception beforehand. I thought I shoot a lot of images when I return from a month long trip with 3,000 photos. She told me she thinks she sometimes "overshoots a bit" now that she is all digital. On a recent trip to France and Italy for fashion week she shot over 28,000 images! Back home she has over 25TB of storage and she triple backs up all her images (even on the road).

Her presentation was excellent, but one of the "heaviest" of its kind that I've been to. Many of her images were of young women suffering from eating disorders, some involved with self mutilation. Very powerful stuff and lots to think about.

She also showed a number of images from her "Kids and Money" project which is also the subject of one of her documentary films. The image shown here was taken at a Bar Mitzvah in Los Angeles where the parents had hired go go dancers for the party. And I thought I'd just about seen it all in the Bar and Bat Mitzvahs I photograph!