Tulum......Belize......Guatemala

July 23,2010

It is amazing to me how easy it all flows. We left Tulum on Tuesday for Bacalar Lagoon.
The plan was to leave from there early, cross the border into Belize and buy new tires for Bluebird at the Free Zone. At Bacalar someone told me not to rush, the stores there do not open until 10 am. So we took our time. I cleaned the inside of Bluebird, organized myself and enjoyed a swim in the Lagoon. On the way to Chetumal I could see dark clouds forming. By the time we got to the border, it was pouring buckets. I was once again drenched before I even left Mexico. Belize has very stringent regulations regarding pets and I knew, I did not have one required form, other then the health certificate for sky. Leave it to Sky to know what to do. He went hiding in the back of the bus, even I could not see him, neither did the custom official, who glanced briefly through my driver window. Thanks to the continued downpour, the official did not feel like searching through my bus and we were allowed to pass. Many thank you prayers followed. The Zona Libre was flooded, so I scratched the idea of new tires.
Something was also urging me on to drive through Belize and get to Guatemala.
The people of Belize were super friendly and are beautiful. I saw some exceptionally handsome men there.....but the urge to get to Guatemala was stronger. Western Belize is absolutely gorgeous and seems to be better off then what I had seen in the north of the country. We made it to the border of Guatemala by 5pm. Crossing into Guatemala was the easiest process to date and very fast. An hour later we arrived in El Remate, on the Peten Lagoon, which looked like a nice place to stay. Tikal is only about 33 km from here. I had been wondering, why I needed to arrive in Guatemala that same day. The next morning, as I prepared to visit the temples of Tikal, I noticed the date..July 22nd. Wow...now it made sense. Numbers seem to have importance when planting the Ruby seeds, or certain arrangements of the planets at times. I spent the whole day at Tikal, albeit without my camera, which I had forgotten to pack with me. The sites are spread out over large Jungle terrain. Despite a fair amount of mini buses, cars and trucks in the parking lot, there were hardly any people on the Jungle trails and only a handful of visitors at different sites. I had read about robberies and such at Tikal, which left me somewhat unsettled walking alone there at first. A prayer for help sent a lovely Mexican family from the Teotihuacan area. Along with them came a Maya lady with her three children. They had no water with them and the children were so thirsty, I shared my water. Connecting with them, laughing and talking, I forgot all about my fears. We traveled together for a while. Later, when I was alone again and fear came, I just recalled the children into my mind and all was well. The jungle was full of animals. I saw a pack of at least 20 Pizotes (coati mundi) with babies, spider monkey families, howler monkeys, gray fox, wild turkey, tucans and many other colorful birds and butterflies, along with orange hawks and voltures. Tikal is a magical place, very alive in spirit. I will probably go and visit again, maybe then I can take pictures. The day ended with a swim in Peten Lagoon. Sky got to swim too and retrieve sticks, his favorite game. I had rented a casita in El Remate, so Sky could have a cool and comfortable place while I was at the Temples.