Diary 9 (or Chantal's a'comin!)22/8/2001 It's an early start on this Tuesday morning to catch the first bus to Belize City at 5am. This got me to the marine terminal nice and early to catch the water taxi, a big speedboat that ploughs its way across to Caye Caulker, loaded to the gunwales with backpackers and their backpacks. I recall relaxing in a creekside bar last time I was here, glad not to be one of the sheep standing in line, back bowed by the weight of my pack. Ho hum! This doesn´t bode well for liking the Cayes. Two hours later my opinion is firmly negative; Caye Caulker has an average age of twenty, is dirty, unkempt and generally rundown: not quite what it said on the tin. But 5 hours later I´d found something more to my tastes: a tiny bar tucked away on the north of the island had dispensed oodles of cold beers more or less on tap and 5 locals had "suckered" this gringo into playing 31[1] with them. The gringo walked away from the table (when they gave up) 25 Bze dollars up - hehe! I spent another 2 hours buying my fellow card players with the profit :-) After a spot of grub and sleeping off the last couple of beers in a hammock on the beach I meandered my way back to the hostel to sleep it off properly.Caye Caulker looks a little better in the morning and I enrol for a day snorkelling off the reef. The sailboat motors its way out to the Hol Chan Marine Reserve where the coral comes in all shapes and sizes: flimsy fronds, round chunks, bits that look like brains as well as the more classic shapes that I was expecting. There are all kinds of fish too, all shapes, colours, striped and patterned. Our second stop was at the Ray and Shark Alley. Our guide led the group in a chase after several 2 foot nurse sharks. I wasn´t in the mood as I´d just found a 5 foot specimen and floated above him whilst the rest of the group flailed around at top speed. The boat finally unfurled its sails for the final run home as I snoozed on the cabin deck. Caye Caulker also to have become a place for reunions with friends from Poptun, Flores, Tikal and Mexico all in the space of half an hour. I might have some drinking companions tonight...Thursday is officially declared a day of rest. After finally raising my sleepy head I head to the Oceanside Restaurant for brunch[2] and stuff myseflf on their chicken burritos. The afternoon is similarly lazy with hammocks, a good book and an occasional dip in the sea playing major roles. After a brief spell on the ´net[3] I teamed up with Jesse, Laura, Ross and Ann to cruise the so-called night life of Caye Caulker. All the bars conform to one stereotype or another: I&I plays incessant reggae whilst the clientel lounge in hammocks and swing seats, Popeye´s serves lobster and live music, the Oceanside becomes the favourite of rich kids on holidays financed by dad, and thankfully the Hurricane Bar id deviod of cardplayers. Phew! In retrospect, Caye Caulker is fun and chilled during the day when everyone is away diving or snorkelling on the reef, but I get the impression they´re all trying too hard on their return in the evening - somethings aren´t meant to be forced and goodtimes are one of them. Time for bed for this old foggie, a ticket for the morning water taxi back to the mainland is burning a hole in my pocket.A word about the misnomer "water taxi". Imagine calling for a cab and having a porsche pull up outside your house, only on water. From the moment you pull away from the pier and the throttle hits the forward stops, you and your fellow (30-odd) passengers are blown and buffetted across the waves until the bow crashes back into the calm waters of Belize City harbour and you can finally see where you are going again. If Michael Shumacher lived in Belize, he´d own one of these monsters. Today is my return to the Yucatan in Mexico and its duration is spent on one bus or another (at a much more sedate pace) meandering their way up the coast to Tulum. After checking into the local hostel its time for a couple of cold beers and some research into my return to the ruins tomorrow...The Coba ruins are 40 or so kms west of Tulum, but I´ll be damned if I can get there! The bus terminal, the bus drivers and even the collectivos won´t sell me a ticket or anything. Unwilling to concede to this sudden wall of stubornness and downright refusal (I can see free seats on the buses!) a change of plans is in order: Tulum ruins today and a renewed assault on Coba tomorrow. Tulum´s ruins lie 4km out of town along a dusty highway, the sun rapidly climbing overhead but the heat and dust are worth it - Tulum is stunning! The ruins date from the late-classic period: the product of a civilisation in decline and are diminutive in comparison to the Mayan´s earlier architectural triumphs, but ..... and its a big BUT .... their setting! Perched on a cliff edge, they overlook the azure waves of the Caribbean, beneath a cloudless sky with the deep greens of ample trees shading the grass around and between them. Wow! A path from the main temple leads down to a perfect white beach[4] but a swift wade around the bluff that supports the main temple complex opens up an unpopulated stretch of 300 more metres of gorgeous sand, dotted by large rocks calved from the cliffs above. Iguanas and geckos[5] abound on the beach and around the ruins and after waiting for the noon-day sun to pass vertical I head back into the site to take some more piccies. Back at the hostel it´s movie night, watching Castaway with Tom Hanks, a choice that doesn´t seem too appropriate with hindsight...Sunday morning: bus to Coba, what was going on yesterday ??? Coba covers 50 sqkm, all of it visible from the heights of Noluk Mul. This temple is the highest in the northern Yucatan at 42m but the universal flatness of the surrounding landscape and low deciduous forest makes the commanding views from its peak all the more impressive. Actually "gobsmacking" is probably a better superlative. It literally take my breath away, even more than the steep climb up the southern staircase did. The remaining stelae at the site are larger than any I´ve seen yet, their heiroglyphics and almost lifesize carved figures are badly eroded but still discernible to the eye. After lunch I hitch back to town with an American couple and their hire car as the first bus back isn´t until 4pm and the taxi drivers want to charge me 25 quid! Time to chill in the car´s aircon, or at least until they give me the latest news on tropical storm 3, now codenamed Chantal and looking like it´ll brew into the first hurricane of the season. Landfall could be anywhere between Belize City and Cuba. Funnily enough the best projections place it over Cancun on Tuesday morning. I´m due to fly out of Cancun at 9am on Tuesday! I do wish I hadn´t watched Castaway last night!Had a leisurely breakfast and caught the bus to Cancun, back to the touristy city where I started in Mexico. Seems a lifetime ago! Checked into the same hostel and caught up on the hurricane news. With Chantal only a few hours away, and now heading south of Cancun :-) the beach wasn´t too appealing so I scooted off to explore downtown Cancun. It´s still the tourist hell that I remembered, but some of the backstreets have shops with goods advertised in pesos not dollars and the locals are definitely friendlier off the tourist track. So... How to kill an afternoon in Cancun: Get a tattoo of course! A 14inch lizard now adorns my lower right leg[6] and GOD IT HURT! I wonder if you can fly with a fresh tattoo?The hurricane[7] didn´t do more than make a strong breeze and some quick heavy showers in Cancun (it did more in Chetumal where it made landfall) so its off to the airport in the morning for an epic day of travelling. Taxi, fly to Mexico City, and then onward to Guatemala City. By now its 3pm and after taking a bus into town and seeing the scale model of the Eiffel Tower over one of the road junctions, Guatemala had lived upto its reputation of not being a tourist destination (v. crowded and dirty, even if a pleasant 24 degC) so I dodge the touts again and hop on the first of 3 buses that will take me east to Chiquimula, 60 km from the Honduras border. By now its 9pm and having started at 6am I have a quick meal at the local Chinese and sleep. PS. Did I mention the minor dose of gringo belly that had me visiting every toilet in Mexico City airport? PPS. And the gentleman who sat next to me on the bus to Chiquimula and spent two hours unloading and loading his 5 magazines of live ammunition for his handgun which spent the journey nestled in his lap? Quite unnerving.Left my luggage in Chiquimula and caught yet another series of buses to Copan Ruinas in Honduras. This sleepy little town is only 21km inside the border and a beautiful combination of colonial architecture and narrow cobbled streets. The ruins are outside the town, but saving them for tomorrow I spent the afternoon exploring the town, its museum and catching the views from the converted prison above the town. In the museum, the detail of the carving on the preserved stelae, altars and thrones is fantastic and there were also jade and bone relics from burial sites on display. My hotel here is built around a large courtyard with trees and shaded shelter of chairs and tables. It´s been quite muggy during the day, but the evening is pleasantly cool and suprisingly free of mosquitos. Hurray![1] A local variation on blackjack, only aiming for 31 points not 21. [2] Actually more lunch if the truth be known. Thanks to Ross and Ann for the recommendation. [3] Think I managed to reply to everyone. [4] already getting crowded at 9.30am! [5] I´m only distinguishing on the basis of their size, big and little respectively. [6] I promise to get a photo uploaded soonest. [7] It only just qualified apparently