Into Town
San Ignacio, Belize
I rolled off a creaky bed, grabbing some clothes and my camera bag before taking a seat on the deck to watch the sunrise through the trees. The view from Casa Santa Maria is of various kinds of trees, spotted with palms and flowers. You can see the mountains of Mountain Pine Ridge Forest Reserve, the Macal River, and many jumbo sized ferns. I enjoyed some early morning conversation with Douglas and Bill about what we would do if civilization collapsed. My skills don't transfer too well to this scenario, but Bill had a masterful plan to become the leader of a new religion. Brilliant!Before long everyone was up and at 'em, and we were enjoying breakfast. Delicious banana pancakes, sausage, and watermelon. Today our group would split as the 'youths' headed into town to explore the area while Bill and Annette hung back at the lodge and went on a hike through the jungle. Our 'means well' Renault had a hard time getting up some of the hills, but we made it in fairly good time back to civilization. Our first order of business in San Ignacio was to check into and pay for our Tikal tour with Pacz. Had a funny experience where Katie would ask question and the lady would just chuckle at her (hehe). This happened multiple times. Katie still maintains her questions were legitimate. One of our party (who managed to forget any and all swim apparel on our tropical vacation) took the shopping opportunity to find arguably the best swimwear in Belize. Afterwards we rewarded ourselves for our hard work by getting some drinks across the street where we met a very nice man that wanted to sell us some of his plants. He liked to party. Whistles wet, we then made our way to a hip looking restaurant we had seen on the way in. After a quick look at their menu ($$$) we then trekked to the other side of downtown San Ignacio to Hode's for lunch at the recommendation of a local. Highlight for me was when the waiter brought over a sampling of hot sauces for me to try. I think there were eight or so...and I loved every one. After lunch we walked around town a bit more and then grabbed some coffee before starting our journey back. In Benque Viejo Del Carmen, we stopped at a small market and bought some souvenirs and other goodies, some of which we planned on using during a gift exchange we are going to do for Christmas. The group unanimously decided to grab some groceries and head back instead of going out to dinner and do the whole trip in the dark again. Stocked with random food and some more beers, we made our way back to the lodge. Box of milk in hand, Katie and I made and enjoyed a nice treat of Mac and Cheese for dinner.
