Cerres (pronounced SER-ous) is a mayan templ e that was also much like a park setting. The temple was down a rather long path that was lined with these plants that have purple, red green leaves. It was full of children who were on a field trip from School and very. Inside the building was the usual information regarding this particular temple and the ball field there with many stages of the ages as I put it. All was very interesting but smaller than Xuan Tuan Wiche (I think?) that we visited last year. When you get up the path to the Park building there is outside of the park a long dock with a hut at the end, it is beautiful spot. We went along the trail till we came to a point that said “Temple this way” and another sign that said “Mosquito trail” obviously picking the right trail is important, BOTH WAYS. As we were going the Temple trail we came upon a setting of the faces that still remained, some of the temple having been excavated incorrectly and seeming like a dreadful loss! As I looked up from the faces behind me was a large peak with the children looking down on their mothers, continuing down the trail to the other side of the peak was a large set of steps with several plateau’s that visitors could stop at. You knew then what the peak was for. Charlie climbed to the top. I stopped. It wasn’t that I thought I couldn’t do it but that the heat was finally catching up to me. I realized that the whole morning we had walked the market and done things I normally could not have done and that I had not supplied myself with enough water. So I stayed on the bottom until Charlie came down and then we followed the direction of where the children had gone to see the remaining part of the temple. As we traveled along we lost sight of the children and suddenly realized we were in the middle of the jungle. It was slightly frightening but more exhilarating than anything because we were on a path. As we travelled quite a distance (45 minutes at least) were getting eaten up by the mosquitos. At the end of the trail when we finally came out there was the sign “Mosquito trail”! Everything is a learning lesson here. Needless to say I had been thinking I was suffering from some heat exhaustion prior to going but I knew coming out of there I needed help. I went to the end of the dock and just sat under the hut as Charlie scooped water from below and threw it on me. We sat there for the next half hour just trying to get me cooled down. After putting my feet in the water and him pouring water on me I felt so much better but now I knew the signs to look for, one of them being the hair on the back of my head was standing on edge and that I was suddenly feeling chilled and hot at the same time.
After that we drove back to Cerros Beach and took a swim. Now the thing I have learned about the first place we stayed at was the water was heavenly to swim into but the bottom of the water is a mixture of silt, mayan road ruins,(rocks!) and banks of sand. The water was great to swim in once you got to the good sand but prior to getting there it was a trial. Still worth it to get out there! Once back on the ground we spent time with the owners, Lola (their dog) rascal and Izzy ( cats) and their parrot, Marley. I have to say the entertainment is good but the food was fabulous and we truly felt welcomed.
The next morning we rose, has this really great breakfast, (I will warn you the bacon here is like none you’ve had anywhere else and really great!) and went to see Dan. (Remind me to tell some of you about peppered papaya!) Dan is an older man who is strongly interested in Mayan history. He seems to come from a family of travelers with many relatives in Mexico, Texas, California, ect. He has this acreage in Progressive heights that lays along the lagoon. It seemed like a nice lot totaling about 5 acres. Great for lime trees and a self sustaining farm. These towns are only about an hour away from the Mexican boarder and you can see the wealth of information that passes between the expats about the best place to live. If you live south it’s nicer but your buying into the rat race again, it’s developing too quickly and the politics are too heavy. There is two places that you get your major goods from: Belize or Mexico. Belize is like Rochester, full of the political bs and the type of people that like to have the mentality of street rats. Mexico is a larger Mall and a place to run away to when the isolation of life gets to the expats, plus a good place to buy necessary items like nails, clothing, see a movie and get general goods. Though you pay slightly more in taxes to bring your stuff across the boarder, it is still much cheaper than you can get in Belize or Belmopan and the quality is better. Did you know there is a Sams, a Walmart and now rumors are there is a Home Depot coming in?
After the day before and how hot I had gotten the one set of plans we had made (to visit a Butterfly site) went out the door. I have found that if you plan on doing anything in Belize you probably should plan to do those things prior to 10 in the morning or after 5 in the evening. It isn’t a really great day time place to go if you want to do the temples or out in the hiking trails. “For True!” So we spent the afternoon swimming, got back and had a skype chat with the girls and then went to the resort for dinner. Mind you this whole time spent with Jen and Bill they have made us feel so good and welcome, they have treated us like friends and it has spoiled us somewhat. At the resort they had invited two other friends to come over, expats that are Real Estate “Consultants”. Beth, Brians Wife, is Ms. Belikan and has her poster over the bar, thinking that was what I was meeting was intimidating but when I met her she was a down home Georgia girl who reminds me so much of Emily in looks. She and Brian both talked to us about the types of property out there and even though we weren’t interested much in their listings we became good friends that night. I look forward to spending more time with all of them.
The next day we had another great breakfast and then hit the road. It’s easy to take the wrong road in Belize because not all of the roads are marked and it doesn’t take much to miss a turn. It sometimes works to your advantage and I think we did hit a good short cut, bad road though! LOL. We finally ended up on the Western Highway and we were headed to Battle Creek, just past San Ignacio. We had made an appointment for a realtor that next morning and it was a pretty long trip over. We are close the boarder and heard that 165 people had been beheaded on the Mexican boarder into Nicaragua so many people on this side of the boarder are up in arms. We were stopped along the way to San Ignacio by Armed soldiers who are checking passports along the way. They were friendly enough and we weren’t what they were looking for. We picked up a police officer who was hitch hiking along the way and took him to his sister in laws house, then we stopped at the Zoo for the afternoon just to check it out. It’s 15 US, 30 Bz to get in and I wouldn’t say it was completely worth it. There was a timing thing there as well because the howler monkeys and the spider monkeys weren’t out. We saw a jaguar, a puma, some of the native species from Belize and then it was too hot for anything more.
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