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Jan

Best of the Trans-Americas Journey 2011 – Best Adventures & Activities

Posted on January 6th, 2012 :: Posted in Adventure, Archaeology Site, Belize, Best Of, bird watching, birds, Camping, Cave, Central America, Church, El Salvador, Festivals/Celebrations, Guatemala, Hike, Honduras, Jungle, Mayan, National Park, Ocean, River, SCUBA

This post is part 2 of 4 in the series Best of 2011

Welcome to Part 1 in our “Best Of 2011″ series of posts. Part 1 is all about the top Adventures & Attractions of the year (from falconing in El Salvador to diving in Honduras). Part 2 covers the Best Food & Beverages of 2011 and Part 3 covers the Best Hotels of the year.

Yes, end of year round-ups can be lame. On the other hand, they can also be a valuable chance for us to look back on the year that was and remember just how damn lucky we are.

Done right, an end of year round-up can also be a quick and easy way for you to get a dose of the best tips, tricks and truths that made our Trans-Americas Journey travels so special in 2011. Maybe, just maybe, you’ll hit the road yourself in 2012 (or 2013, no pressure).

First, a few relevant stats:

In 2011 the Trans-Americas Journey…

…thoroughly explored four, albeit very small, countries (Belize, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador)

…drove 8,055 miles (we said they were small countries)

…spent $2,300 on fuel (yes, that’s in US dollars)

…had one flat tire (after driving over a nail in Copan, Honduras)

…bounced over about a billion topes/tumulos (vicious Latin American speed bumps) and through twice that many pot holes

We did manage to spend some time outside of our truck doing and seeing exciting things. In no particular order, here are some of the adventures and activities that made all that time on the road even better. Enjoy!

Best Adventures & Activities of 2011

Best adventure surprise: There are only a handful of falconers in all of Central America and only one who’s certified to guide guests. That would be Roy Beers, owner of Cadejo Adventures. We walked through the hills above San Salvador with Roy and his Harris Hawk Chucky (named after the horror movie character). We strolled through coffee plantations and forested hillsides as Chucky followed along from tree to tree, landing on our gloved hands when we called and half-heartedly hunting (he wasn’t very hungry). Somehow the forest looks and feels different with a hiking buddy who can fly and the experience made hiking without a bird of prey in tow seem downright boring.

Best natural swimming pool: Guide books and travelers rave about the descending pools of water called Sumac Champay in Guatemala. We are happy to report that these pools, totally created by Mother Nature, lived up to the hype and were worth the serious side trip to get there. Crystal clear water (except in the rainy season), a perfect warm temperature, dramatic surrounding cliffs, not crowded (though avoid weekends) and we even got free pedicures thanks to gazillions of tiny fish intent on removing every last scrap of dead skin as we soaked.

Best adventure we did for the first time: We love to SCUBA dive and we’ve done it hundreds of times all around the world. However, we’d never been on a liveaboard dive boat until we boarded the Aggressor III in Belize in 2011. Specially built and equipped to accommodate just 18 divers with plush cabins and a huge dive deck. Even better? The swanky SCUBA services including hot showers and warm towels post dive, freshly made snacks all day long (hey, diving is hard work) and great dive masters. Bonus:The 3-D dive site maps drawn by the staff on-board the Aggressor III were colorful, informative and playful (sometimes they even featured plastic sea creatures stuck on the white board for effect). Best of all, the maps were clear. Even directionally-challenged Karen could quickly understand the layout of the site and navigate around during our awesome underwater adventures.

Best National Park name: Parque Nacional El Imposible in El Salvador.

Best guide: We don’t usually hire guides. However, when we wanted to get an authentic glimpse of the FMLN perspective on the decades of war between the El Salvadoran army and FMLN guerrilla fighters which started with genocide in the ’30s and really flared up in the ’70s and ’80s we went straight to Bar El Necio in Suchitoto and asked for the bartender. Luis Carrera is a treasure (and not just because rum cocktails and ice-cold beer are just $1.50 at this revolutionary-themed bar). Luis has since quit his job as a bartender to focus full time on guiding. He will take you to nearby villages that were obliterated during the war and introduce you to elderly people and translate when they recount their often horrifying first hand experiences during the country’s darkest moments. He’ll even take you home to meet his mom, an infectiously bubbly woman who survived a massacre, fled into the jungle and quite literally gave birth to Luis on the trail while she was on the run. Contact Luis at sapitotours@gmail (dot) com.

Best voluntourism opportunity: Love and Hope Children’s Home in the hills above San Salvador lives up to its name providing a truly homey home for children whose own families are unift or unwilling to care for them. Rachel Sanson, a native of Ohio, has been in El Salvador since 2001 and she helped start the home in 2004. She’s still there and she can use all the help she can get. Volunteers are accepted for short or long-term stays (room and board included). We visited the home and a friend of ours still raves about his experiences during a brief volunteer stint. We were impressed with Rachel and with the home’s policy of putting all volunteers through a background check before allowing them through the doors to help heal and teach her needy kids.

Best zip line: In the hills above Metapan in El Salvador, just shy of the Montecristo National Park, lies Hostal Villa Limon. In addition to a handful of lovely, multi-bedroom cabins with kitchens Villa Limon has one hell of a zip line. Eight different sections criss-cross the slopes up to 300′ (91 meters) above the jungle and coffee plantations below. One particularly steep stretch is 1/4 mile (.40 km) long. It’s almost enough to distract you from the awesome views of volcanoes in the distance.

Best private waterfall: For $120 you can reserve your own private waterfall, swimming hole and rustic picnic pavilion in the vast protected area around Hidden Valley Inn in Belize. They’ll even bring you a four-course champagne lunch and string a handmade Do Not Disturb sign across the trail to ensure complete privacy.

Best hot springs: Just outside Ahuachapan in El Salvador lies Termales Santa Teresa, a paradise for anyone who likes to soak in water super-heated and full of healing minerals. Huge, deep pools ($10 pp for a full day of access) already exist in the shade of a well tended garden surrounded by a vast coffee plantation. A few large villas are also available for rent right around the pools and a new hotel and reasonably priced dorms are being constructed right now. Our thanks to Claudia and Roberto from the lovely La Casa de Mamapan hotel in Ahuachapan for taking us to this hidden gem!

Best borrachos: The pro partiers in the town of Todos Santos in Guatemala know how to drink and these borrachos (Spanish for drunks) don’t let a little inebriation get in the way of a good time either. A popular regional pass time is drunken horse racing which is every bit as baffling (and dangerous) as it sounds…

Best tour operator: Miguel Huezo of Suchitoto Tours in El Salvador. He knows the most unique places, the most enjoyable activities, the most innovative guides and tour operators and he devoted a tremendous amount of time, effort and passion to make sure that we got acquainted with all of them. And he’ll do the same for you: suchitoto.tours@gmail (dot) com

Best adventure honeymoon suite: Eric and I well past the honeymoon stage but if we weren’t we might consider spending part of our honeymoon inside a cave owned by Ian Anderson’s Caves Branch in Belize. First, you hike for an hour into the jungle then you rapel nearly 300′ (91 meters) down a cliff face called the Black Hole Drop (we did this as part of our awesome cave adventures with Ian Anderson’s Caves Branch). After the rapel, a short walk leads you to the mouth of a cave where a real bed has been set up and strewn with flowers, candles have been lit and champagne has been chilled. Your guides cook you a romantic dinner, then wander off to leave you two alone. In the morning, they cook breakfast and guide you back out.

Best jungle hike: We were hot. Our feet were sore. Our minds were blown. Hiking through the jungle to reach El Mirador in northern Guatemala isn’t easy, but the remains of one of the biggest and hardest to reach Mayan cities is worth it–as is adding a day onto your adventure so you can hike back out via Nakbe and La Florida archaeological sites (where we finally saw a jaguar, sort of). Our thanks to Manuel of Tikal Connection for providing us with the gear and guides needed to have this amazing experience.

Best religious festival: Turns out, there are very good reasons why the Semana Santa (Holy Week) celebrations in Antigua, Guatemala are world famous. In 2011 we were lucky to spend the entire week leading up to Easter in Antigua (huge thanks to Gene and Judy for letting us stay in their gorgeous home). We watched elaborate religious floats paraded through the streets. We saw artistic but temporary albombras (carpets) created on the streets and even got to help make one thanks to Evelyn of Hotel San Jorge.

Best National Park entrance: The swing bridge that gets you into Parque Nacional Pico Bonito in the Cangrejal Valley in Honduras.

Best (easy) bird sighting: Quetzals are known for three things: the technicolor plumage and extravagantly long tails of the males, their shy nature and their love of a narrow swath of remote cloud forest. In other words, they are exciting to see but usually very difficult to see. During their mating season (roughly March to June) all you have to do is manage to wake up at dawn and stumble from your basic room at Ranchito del Quetzal Hotel on the edge of the Biotopo del Quetzal in the Alta Verapaz region of Guatemala and head down to the hotel’s humble comedor. There, you will find a hot cup of coffee and quetzals waiting for you. You almost don’t even have to leave your seat to watch the extraordinary birds dip and dive from tree to tree, tails streaming and feathers glinting.

Best (worth the effort) bird sighting: The resplendant quetzals we saw during our morning at Ranchito Quetzal came so easily that we almost felt like they didn’t count. So we made the rough journey to a remote privately run nature preserve called the Chelemha Cloud Forest Reserve. In addition to a stylish, sustainably handcrafted guesthouse and gourmet, organic, locally grown food you will find quetzals here, but you’re going to have to hike for it. We walked for three hours high into the protected cloud forest where our guide finally pointed out a known nest site inside the hollow stump of a dead tree. After sitting silently nearby, camera at the ready, the male emerged from the nest and obligingly posed on a branch for a while.

Best dive site: During a few days of diving with Utopia Dive Resort on the island of Utila in Honduras we visited a dive site called The Pinnacles. In the course of a 55 minute dive in warm, crystal clear water we saw dramatic coral and rock pinnacle formations, the most enormous green moray we’ve ever seen (easily 6′ long) plus spotted morays, golden morays and a turtle feeding serenely on a coral head with a bevy of colorful angel fish scavenging around it.

Best camp site: We spent our very last nights in Guatemala camped on the shores of Lake Ipala, a lake in the crater of the Ipala volcano. The road up was wicked, it rained like hell and some dude stole our cooler, camp stove and camp chairs (which were all recovered with the help of our friend George Boburg of Guatemala’s awesome Proatur tourist assistance organization). Still, what we really remember was the scenery and serenity of this spot.

Best bird watching platform: Belize Lodge & Excursions has a lot going for it including three of the most unique lodgings in Belize and an equally unique approach to conservation. Jungle Camp, a lodge so deep in protected jungle that it’s only accessible by boat, offers one more superlative to add to the list: epic bird watching platform hung around the girth of a sacred ceiba tree 100′ off the ground.

Best National Park infrastructure: Parque Nacional Cerro Azul in Honduras was developed in partnership with a Canadian NGO. This helps explain the extraordinary infrastructure which makes it such a pleasure to explore this park. In addition to a variety of very comfortable rooms, the park has a covered camping area with running water, flush toilets, cold showers and electricity. The park’s nine miles (15 km) of trails through the jungle and past waterfalls are all well marked and well maintained. And the restaurant even has WiFi service. Well worth a night or two.

Best church: We’ve seen hundreds of churches during our Trans-Americas Journey but the most memorable and unusual one so far is the irreverent, controversial, absolutely compelling Church of the Rosary (Iglesia el Rosario in Spanish). The church, located in downtown San Salvador, was created in 1971 by artist and architect Ruben Martinez who tweaked everything you normally associate with a Catholic church in Latin America. The exterior looks like a particularly ugly crumbling airplane hangar. The cross looks like a rudimentary ship mast. Inside there are no pillars or columns. Stained glass windows have been created by randomly imbedding hunks of colored glass into the curved, bare concrete walls and ceiling. The stark, simple altar is on the same level as the pews. To the right of the altar is an area that houses the remains of brother Nicolas Vicente, and Manuel Aguilar (heroes of El Salvadorean independence) and representations of the stations of the cross. So often melodramatic and predictable, the stations of the cross in the Iglesia el Rosario are depicted in thoroughly modern, enticingly abstract sculptures created by Martinez in carved stone, wrought iron and re-bar. If you see just one thing in the capital of El Salvador it should be this ground-breaking church.

Deep South – Toledo District, Belize

Posted on August 29th, 2011 :: Posted in Belize, Boutique Hotel, Cave, Central America, Food & Drink, National Park, video

Poor Punta Gorda. Down at the southernmost tip of Belize, practically in Guatemala, it’s well past the destinations most travelers visit. But we’re not most visitors and Punta Gorda, the capital of the Toledo District, was definitely on our radar. Okay, mainly because we had to extend our visas and we were told that we could do that easily in Punta Gorda.

Happily, that turned out to be true. The immigration office is located basically at the end of the road right at the small port. After a short wait our visas were extended for another 30 days for a fee of 50BZ (US$25) per person. Down the hall a very accommodating gentleman extended our truck permit for the same amount of time (no fee). For your information, you can also extend your Belize visa at immigration offices in the capital, Belmopan, Belize City and in Dangriga.

Mission accomplished, we explored Punta Gorda a bit. Turns out PG (as literally everyone in Belize calls it) is a really charming town. It was founded by Garufinas (escaped slaves) who still make up about half the population. Until 1992 PG was an R&R center for the British Army. Picture that, if you can.

Today, PG mostly serves as the end of the road and a transit point for anyone arriving in Belize by boat from Guatemala and Honduras (or vice versa). The pace is slow and the facilities are quirky (including the theme rooms and wacky architecture of the Sea Front Inn).

Machaca Hill Rainforest Canopy Lodge

Just outside of Punta Gorda is one of the Belize’s very best boutique hotels, and that’s saying something in a country that boasts two of Francis Ford Coppola hotels–(Blancaneaux in the Mountain Pine Ridge Forest Reserve and Turtle Inn in Placencia) as well as Ka’Ana Boutique Resort in San Ignacio and a few solid options on Ambergris Caye.

The pool at Machaca Hill Rainforest Canopy Lodge in Belize.

The location on a hillside below the meandering Rio Grande, the awesome tricked out Land Cruiser parked out front, the lodge-like main building and the sounds of monkeys and birds in the surrounding jungle combine to give Machaca Hill Rainforest Canopy Lodge the look and feel of an African lodge.

The massage room at Machaca Hill’s spa is uncharacteristically large and light-filled thanks to floor to ceiling windows with views to the surrounding jungle. Howler monkeys and toucans often stop by.

The place used to be a mid-range fisherman’s mecca called El Pescador before being sold and completely reinvented as Machaca Hill in 2009. The owners and management fess up to the fact that they’re going for the level of service normally delivered on high end safaris and Machaca Hill does deliver the best food and the best service of any of the many great hotels and resorts we’ve stayed at in Belize plus the chic surroundings you’d expect.

Enormous showers with inlaid river stones and jungle views at Machaca Hill Rainforest Canopy Lodge in Belize.

The 12 enormous bungalows at Machaca Hill all have super-private screened in porches, tons of gorgeous hardwood and views into the jungle that get you VERY close to nature.

This howler monkey and his troop romped around in the trees right in front of our bungalow at Machaca Hill Rainforest Canopy Lodge in Belize.

There seemed to be one guide on staff for every bungalow–which is a good thing since the list of outdoor activities offered at Machaca Hill is long and enticing–from hikes through the lodge’s 13,000 acres to river kayaking to guided fishing. We went kayaking on the Rio Grande every morning (after French press coffee and homemade biscuits in our room, but before a scrumptious breakfast) and we were rewarded with toucan and howler monkey sightings galore.

Morning kayaking with toucans and howler monkeys on the Rio Grande below Machaca Hill Rainforest Canopy Lodge in Belize.

Active days were capped off by a nightly cocktail hour as a warm up to amazing meals, often using ingredients grown in the lodge’s unique organic garden.

A local Garufina drumming troupe performing during cocktail hour at Machaca Hill Rainforest Canopy Lodge in Belize.

Check out our video, below, to see and hear Garufina drumming–including their version of Johnny Cash’s Ring of Fire…

Blue Creek Cave

While at Machaca Hill we signed up for their trip out to Blue Creek Cave which meant we finally got to get into that Land Cruiser for the drive from the lodge to the Kekchi Mayan village of Blue Creek where our Mayan guide Vincente was born and still lives with his wife and children.

We’ve been in a lot of caves in Belize including Waterfall Cave, River Cave and Actun Tunichil Muknal (ATM) Cave. Blue Creek Cave is a different, more mellow experience. After a 15 minute walk along a lovely trail and past a small collection of basic bungalows that are sometimes for rent (ask in the village), we reached the mouth of the cave which really does have an incredibly blue creek rushing through it.

The river is deep too so be prepared for some real swimming to access the interior of the Blue Creek Cave. Called Hokeb Ha in the Kekchi Mayan language, the cave is believed to extend five miles into the earth and includes interior waterfalls.

If you want to enjoy the river but not go inside the cave (where guides are required), ask in the village about inner tube and life vest rental.

A swimming hole near the entrance to Blue Creek Cave in Belize.

The entrance to Blue Creek Cave in Belize.

We emerged from Blue Creek Cave to the real highlight of this trip–a beautiful table set up in the living room of Vincente’s home complete with utensils and chairs and linens brought from the lodge. This created an appropriately special setting for the food, which included traditional dishes prepared by Vincent’s wife. Our favorite example of traditional Mayan food was a dish made from hearts of palm (collected from the jungle) which were stewed then mashed with onions and peppers and chicken stock. Delicious! It was an amazing meal and a wonderful brush with living Mayan culture.

A swanky hand washing station set up by Machaca Hill Rainforest Canopy Lodge as part of our luxury picnic lunch in the Mayan village of Blue Creek after exploring Blue Creek Cave.

We’re already making room for Machaca Hill on our annual “Best of Hotels” list for 2011.

Cotton Tree Lodge

Slightly north of Punta Gorda and down a remarkably rough dirt road you’ll find Cotton Tree Lodge, a kind of outdoorsy sleep away camp for grown ups with a sweet tooth.

Bungalows at Cotton Tree Lodge in Belize.

Thatch roof bungalows fan out along a raised boardwalk on the banks of the Mopan River where a rope swing beckons. Rates are all-inclusive and set menu meals are served family style (though the food, some grown on site, is quite a few steps up from camp cafeteria fare).

Nearly ripe cacao pods–the basic ingredient in chocolate.

The really remarkable thing going on at Cotton Tree Lodge has to do with chocolate. Now we have your attention!

Cacao has been grown (both wild and cultivated) in the area for years but the growers have never really been organized and the system for harvesting and processing the cacao seeds from inside the torpedo-like pods was never uniform.

As cacao farmers struggle to make ends meet, Cotton Tree Lodge has stepped in and set up a co-operative that helps them maximize profits and ensure that quality remains high and Belizean cacao remains available to select artisanal chocolate makers.

Cacao beans are removed from the pods then dried during the initial stages of chocolate production.

The lodge is also brainstorming ways to process and market things that have traditionally been considered a by-product of cacao production–like cacao juice. Turns out this slightly cloudy liquid which drains off fresh cacao seeds when they’re harvested, is delicious (like apple juice and grapefruit juice combined). It’s even better with a splash of vodka.

A shop selling local cacao and chocolate products in Punta Gorda, Belize.

Two great couples from Alaska were also staying at Cotton Tree Lodge when we were there and as we talked to them one of the guys started looking really familiar to us. A moderate amount of cross examining revealed that he had helped us change a flat tire on a remote road in Alaska back in 2006 when our Journey was exploring that beloved state. It’s an amazing but true story.

Rio Blanco Falls National Park

One morning we all piled into a van for a day trip from Cotton Tree Lodge to Rio Blanco Falls National Park, lead by our guide Marcos. Once there, we were eager to get into the cool water for a swim and most of us jumped off rocky ledges into the deep pools below. The Alaskans, of course, lead the way.

A hand-painted welcome to Rio Blanco Falls National Park in Belize.

During the dry season Rio Blanco Falls is fairly serene.

Rick showing us how it’s done, Alaskan style.

Check out our video, below, to see more people taking the plunge at Rio Blanco Falls National Park. Karen almost convinced herself to jump…

Cave Man – River Cave Expedition, Caves Branch, Belize

Posted on August 17th, 2011 :: Posted in Adventure, Belize, Cave, Central America, Jungle, Mayan, Outdoor, video

It’s no exaggeration to say that Ian Anderson, of Ian Anderson’s Caves Branch Adventure Co. & Jungle Lodge, invented cave tubing in Belize. Not that it’s such a complicated thing to invent. Get an inner tube, stick you butt in it, float into a cave, float back out. But the fact is that no one in Belize offered it as a trip before Ian did, so we call him the Cave Man. We hope he doesn’t mind.

Yep, that’s the mouth of River Cave. No wonder we float in on inner tubes…

By the time we got around to trying his signature adventure we’d already done his Black Hole Drop and his Waterfall Cave Expedition. The classic cave tubing experience, Ian’s “River of Caves” Cave Tubing trip, is only offered during high water. So we signed up for The River Cave Expedition (US$85 including transport, guides, gear and lunch) which includes tubing and walking.

To really get inside the cave with us, check out this video…

A giant chamber inside the cave draped in sparkling formations created by thousands (maybe millions) of years of flowing and dripping water.

The beginning of the trip was basic tubing so we just sat in the cool, clear water and slowly paddle our way to the mouth of the cave. Once inside, the lights went out, our headlamps went on and we continued to float inside the cave which is spooky since you can’t see what’s in the water.

Pretty soon the water got too shallow for floating, so we beached the tubes and took off on foot.

A giant chamber inside the cave full of stalagmites and stalactites created by thousands (possibly millions) of years of dripping water.

Once on our feet, the guides lead us into various chambers and up onto roomy ledges to check out areas that were used by the ancient Mayans as ceremonial sites during forays into caves (believed to be the underworld or Xibalba) to speak with their Gods. Because the Mayans were more than a little bit afraid of the underworld (some living Mayans still won’t go into a cave), anthropologists and archaeologists believe they had to have been in severe need of help from the Gods in order to perform these subterranean rituals. The bigger the problem, they believe, the deeper they went.

You’ve got to crawl to get inside a crystal cavern but it’s worth it to see wall-to-wall sparkling flowstones like this.

At the back of one of the largest “rooms” inside the cave lies a spectacular area which was like a tiny crystal cavern. It required some crawling and contorting to get into this area, but it was worth it to see the the massive sparkling flowstones created mineral-laden water running through the cave.

A pot on a fire site left behind by the Mayans when their ancient sacred ceremony was done.

River Cave is full of weird drippy formations like this.

Natural (and hand-carved) cave formations were believed to have been used by the Mayans to create representations of their Gods. Our guide used his flashlight to show us what this formation would have looked like to the Mayans when they placed a torch under it.

This enormous toad seemed to be doing just fine deep inside the cave, probably living on a diet of …

…giant cave-dwelling scorpion spiders.

Even after doing three awesome tours with Ian that still left at least half a dozen other tours we’d like to do someday, including his multi-day jungle survival trips. When we were there Ian was also building a new chess center in further support of the Belize National Youth Chess Foundation which his wife runs as a way of encouraging 5-15 year-olds to get into the game and stay (and excel) in school. Oh, and Ian was also thinking about making his own goat cheese. We’ll just have to go back again soon.