EN GUATEMALA YA!!!

Quite a few things have happened since I wrote the last bit here. First news , YES, I AM FINALLY IN GUATEMALA!!!!!! :) its been quite a long and not quite a bum friendly trip from Chetumal in Mexico through Belize to northern part of Guatemala, and precisely Flores in El Peten region. Its here where the proper rainforest starts. Its 8am but I can already feel the heat and the humidity, my legs are all marked by mosquito bites but anyway, its great:)
Yesterday Pamela finally came from Guatemala City and she is gonna travel with Rudy and me for the next 10 days. I feel extremely happy about that, as she is like a volcano of energy. We really had a good time last nite, walking around Flores and eating tostadas and drinking Guatemalan beer called Gallo beer. But let me tell you some more about the stay in Chetumal in Mexico and also the short episode in Belize.
The time in Mexico couldnt be better, as Mike, a friend of Alvin, the guy who was our Couch Surfing host, had Volkswagen Beatle, year 1998, quite battered but still running smoothly on empty Mexican motorways, doing easily 140km/h. There was 6 of us in the car at times, but even travelling 5 inside felt like sardines squeezed in a tin... Even though Chetumal is not a place where many tourist stay with an intention to visit its few attractions, the guys took us in their funky little car to some really cool places on the coast. I even drove El Bocho (volkswagen beatle) !!! These cars had been produced here till 2004 and its easy to find stunning ones at a very low price, the only thing is that its bloody expensive to ship them overseas... Sigh....
Another thing that I have already mentioned in the previous post is lime, that the Mexican add to virtually everything. But What I tried a few days ago was really odd. Its called La Michelada, and its a lager with loads of salt, lime juice, worcester sauce (known here as salsa inglesa) and some other spicy ingredients all mixed together and drunk as if it was some kind of a soup! Salty beer, hmmmm... :) I think I can resort to Asda lager instead ....:) But the food here is lush. Along the motorway people sell you fresh pinepples, oranges, and lots more, but from time to time there you can find a little trailer with a few chairs and a table where you can eat tamales (my favourites), which are banana leaves stuffed with meat, rice etc, mmmmmmmmmmmmmm, tacos, which here are little maize pancakes with the topping of your choice, tortas, tortillas, etc:)
Bad news: Im scatter brained even here, no change about that, and I already lost my Guatemala Guide:(

And here comes a really interesting part, at least for me when it happened which is bus trip through Belize. We decided to skip visiting the Cayes (diving paradise) and inland Belizean attractions as I was told that later in Guatemala we will find similar stuff (Guatemalan Garifuna people who live in livingston on Guatemalan Caribbean coast) and that Belize is expensive and not really a tourist friendly place. We only got off a bus in Belize City which is actually more important than the capital Belmopan, and there were some other tourists who wanted to get on the bus and go with us to Guatemala. However, in Belize it is not possible as the law says that you cant catch a bus which comes from abroad and only passes through Belize, if you want to leave Belize you have to catch a Belizean means of transport! There was a guy walking around and not letting the tourist get on the bus we were travelling in.
Belize to me looked like Jamaica, even though I have never been there. Reggae around, folks with dreadlocks, all the population is of Black Carribean descent, it was so different than Mexico and now Guatemala. Travelling through the countryside I had a feeling there was no bigger towns (even in Belize City most of the houses were wooden and very shoddy). Sugar cane and maize crops around, with a characteristic scent, a few houses from time to time, narrow tarmac road, and what surprised me, even though I did not see that, but Rudy told me its commonplace in Belize, that people tend to bury their relatives in their gardens outside their houses. I would like to come back here some day, because even though most of mexicans and Guatemalans say its not worthy, to me it looks quite interesting (perhaps because it is so exotic).
What made me laugh was the Queen on Belizean banktones (Belize used to be British) who here looks about 20 years younger!!! I would not say she was fit, but maybe they could do the same in the UK...:)
Now Guatemala, the place which I have come to get to know, and the highlight of the trip. I think Pamela is done with her make up, Rudy is waiting for me, so I better finish now as we are setting off to see Tikal, the most important of the Mayan ruins in the jungle of El Peten. I feel great to be here.

See you soon.

:)