This was our first cloudy day; we had been expecting another scorcher, but were pleasantly surprised at the cooler temperature.
We were 4 Canadians and our guide; he drove in his ancient Ford econoline van - he'd gone through several gas engines he said, and it had been an automatic originally - we could see the gear changer thing on the steering column, but it was now a manual transmission and a diesel engine. He explained how he and his friends worked on it over 2 weeks - some work - some beer - more work - more beer etc. He was a unique individual and the van was something else too. It had the original pedals on the floor and closer to him, the new ones. He stopped twice to look under the hood (engine still running) and add some fluid somewhere (oil?).
We drove for 2 hours on dusty, bone-jarring dirt roads up into the Mountain Pine Ridge Forest - which has suffered from the Pine Beetle too.
Came to the British Army jungle training camp, and could see their huts and vehicles (Prince Andrew trained there). Later we heard their helicopter overhead, and saw a red sign: Live Firing Area No Entry (!)
Arrived at Caracol at 10:00 and walked the main areas, climbed three temples, and just finished when it started to rain lightly.
The view from the top of the highest temple was unbelievable - we could look into Guatemala and see trees and jungle and mist all around. You could imagine the Mayan cities with all the people bustling about below, trading with visitors from Tikal and the coast.
Had our lunch and started driving back down the road; we had planned to stop at natural pools in the river to swim, but it was rainy and coolish, so only stopped at the side of the road for photos of the pools.
The road - that orange/red clay just like the road to Tikal in 1979 when our bus sunk up to the axle - had turned to mush with the rain, and we slid a bit on the way down hills. Our driver regaled us with tales of other times when the road was worse, and he went down hills backwards (not intentionally).
Just made it into our room around 4:00 when the heavens opened up and it just poured - torrential rain - and we looked out our window at people running for shelter on the road below. It was sure nice to be warm and dry inside.
Tomorrow we take the bus back to Belize City; we're sad to be leaving this area - there's lots more to explore here. Friday we drive with Debra and Phil down to Hopkins - a Garifuna village on the coast - see the link at the bottom of the page for more detail.
