Central America 2019: A Mayan escapade through active volcanoes and underwater caves
A realisation just dawned upon me as I write this — there is certain raw charm to the Central zone of every continent, usually less populated/developed being landlocked, enjoy unique geography and in perpetual state of cultural osmosis from north to south or east to west. Be it central Asia, central America, eastern Europe & Turkey, the Amazon basin or central-eastern Africa.
Christmas Eve 2019: The last leg of this world trip again began in the usual hectic fashion before slowing down in the Carribean. On Christmas eve, I travelled across Toronto — Edmonton — Cancun — Belize city by flights, buses and border road crossing. I had no set itinerary for the coming few weeks and the only certain plan was a booked return flight to Mexico.
Belize: A tiny country that packs a punch inside its coasts and jungles
I heard of Belize for the first time in February last year and immediately made up my mind to give it a short visit. Home to the second largest barrier reef in the world, the various little islands, amazing corals with megafauna along with Mayan jungle ruins & caves are unmissable.
After doing the border crossing at midnight from Mexico, my first stop was the backpacking jewel in the Caribbean Sea — Caye Caulker Island, which is so tiny that you can walk around the whole thing in about an hour, and there seems to be more docks than actual people! It was an hour long ferry away from Belize city port. The only traffic sign on the island instructs golf carts and bicycles to ‘go slow,’ and that directive has now become the island’s motto. Even the boat operator I booked for snorkelling didn’t believe in going outside and selling to customers, and I was more worried than him about the cancellation of the trip if he did not get the minimum six people on boat. The classic reggae relaxed approach to life took some adjusting but I can imagine myself reaching that state of living some day :D
The snorkelling + sailing + rum + ceviche trip was just the vibe I craved for in middle of a harsh subarctic winter. While underwater Philippines was unpredictably wild, the Meso-American barrier reef felt like a magical underwater aquarium with infinite visibility and such close underwater encounters with nurse sharks (swimming with the 4th sub-species of Shark in this trip including Thresher, Whale and White-tip), sting rays, turtles, moray eels, schools of fish, dolphins, incredibly colourful shallow reef that touches your belly along with loads of friendly marine life.
The last day was spent exploring Belize city, mainly to convert my Canadian dollars into Belize dollars. I remember knocking on every shop to enquire if anyone can exchange money. After an unsuccessful hour of roaming the main street I had to withdraw the cash from an ATM only. Its advisable to carry only USD to Central America if not their local currencies. No other currency really gets accepted as I realised it over my entire trip. The upside was that I found great street art and cafes for snacking.
Exploring the second set of Mayan ruins at San Ignacio — The Xunatunich ruins are most unique because first, you have to cross a river on a hand-cranked ferry to get there, they are one of the tallest ruins in Belize and you can climb to the top and actually see Guatemala, a mere half mile away!
Guatemala: Mayan heart of Central America that humbly has it all
From mesmerising Spanish colonial towns to towering temple ruins, lava spewing volcanoes, heavenly volcanic lakes, exotic jungles to amazing art, food and hostels, I came here with little expectations and it’s now become one of my favourite countries in the world.
I crossed the land border from Belize to Guatemala and into the vast and remote region of Peten that houses the country’s thickest jungle, home to long-abandoned Mayan ruins of Tikal. I spent the first few nights in this tiny Spanish colonial lake island called Flores, from where I visited the mystical Tikal ruins. Tikal is an outsized mystical time capsule, complete with limestone pyramids, underground caves, thick jungle with sound effects from howler monkeys, spider monkeys, raucous parrots and some 285 other bird species. These ancient 1,300 years old Mayan ruins deep inside the Guatemalan rainforest is where George Lucas filmed the planet Yavin 4 in the movie “Star Wars IV — A New Hope”.
With renewed hope to explore rest of the underrated Guatemala, I ventured south to Antigua, the loveliest and the most romantic town I’ve ever been to. It’s a beautiful colonial town in the central highlands surrounded by colours, quaint cafes, pebbled streets and smouldering volcanoes, and is a UNESCO world heritage site as well. Need I say more? This became my base to explore the nearby gems, and the priceless one was the active volcano hike to Volcan de Acatenango and Fuego. I covered the other gems by travelling in this fleet of refurbished American school buses also called as ‘Chicken buses’ in Central America. I went to visit a Macademia nut farm, a coffee plantation and a beautiful graveyard.
We ended 2019 with a bang, the eco-friendly way by climbing up and down 2 volcanoes (1 volcano twice), each 4000 m tall with total distance of 30+ kms in ~14 Hrs within one day with Volcan de Fuego erupting every 10 minutes with fountain of red lava on New years eve.
The 7 of us who decided to do this excursion even took a break in the middle of the night hike to drink a glass of champagne with a view of the lava fireworks. The first sunrise of 2020 was no less magical, standing on top of Volcan Acatenango and watching the sun rise over the clouds, Fuego and Antigua town.
I remember clicking this hypnotic picture of skeleton trees at twilight while I was sliding down the Acatenango volcano ankle-deep in loose black gravel. The nose was filled with dust and I was still wondering why the hell did I decide to descend Acatenango and climb the second volcano called Fuego just after having already hiked for 5 straight hours since morning. Maybe it was FOMO or inability to say No to an opportunity to watch the volcano erupt lava while standing on it rather than from the opposite mountain.
I ended up in the same spot at around 10pm the same night with barely any energy left to climb back to top. With every one step up, the loose gravel sucked me half step down. With 4 hours of sleep, I again woke up and hiked 2 more hours to catch the sunrise.
With the lower body battered in excruciating pain after the escapade the night before, I took a break in Antigua and left for Lake Atitlan next day. It is considered to be the most beautiful lake in the world, and is also conceived as one of the most unique places. The volcanoes Atitlán, Tolimán, and San Pedro (“The Three Giants“), on the shores of the lake, form an impressive panoramic landscape! It feels literally like an an Eden. I spent my birthday eve here, chilling with fellow hostellers, paddling in the lake, drinking beer, cliff jumping, eating on clifftop restaurants, and exploring the many picturesque lake villages by boat taxis.
Though consistently beautiful, Guatemala is a nation of contrasts, a place where catholic churches exist alongside pagan temples, where rugged highlands give way to tropical jungles, crime exists alongside the warm hospitality and where legacy of ancient civilisation is as evident as modern Latin American culture. Elsewhere there are black sandy beaches, magical waterfalls and roaring rivers that I didn’t get to see this time.
Yucatan, Mexico: Exploring the colourful towns and underwater treasure
With my flat foot hurting by all the walking and climbing plus my butt numb with all the intercity bus travel, I decided to book a last minute flight from Guatemala city back to Yucatan Mexico. I landed in Cancun and departed for Valladolid the same night.
Quiet cobbled streets, tasty street food and sun-splashed pastel walls in this little Yucatan city makes for a perfect peaceful break. Walking through these streets in itself feels like taking a tour inside a colourful, flavourful fun-filled crowded Taco.
The one thing that really intrigued me about Yucatan peninsula were these underground blue water sinkholes called “Cenotes” that were created by the Dino-killing asteroid strike. Standing inside one and looking up to witness how the sunbeam penetrates the top ground hole and fall on into the cave was truly surreal!
Thousands of these watery caverns and cenotes are dotted around this region and form a ring pattern around the crater’s epicenter. These freshwater or saltwater sinkholes even served Mexico’s ancient Mayan civilisation as a source of drinking water. Some even have archaeological artefacts and human remains. But my curiosity wasn’t quenched with this touristic experience and I decided to go to Tulum and scuba-dive into one of these. I dived two caves. First one was in a world-famous cave system called Dos Ojos. It’s not everyday you get the chance to dive an underwater cave system that was featured in BBC Planet Earth and IMAX — Journey into amazing caves!
I thought I had my share of cave adventures when I walked and swam in world’s largest caves in Vietnam. But scuba diving into one really gives that surreal 3D sense of the place which is magical and thrilling in equal measures.
While swimming through narrow tunnels and rooms of this hidden world, even my exhaled air didn’t have any open space to go up. It instead got trapped in the cracks of the stalactites and used to sparkle like a mirror every time I pointed the torch upwards! There were times when I used to shut off the torch and revolve around to watch the sunbeam dancing in the freshwater and the stone formations shining like chandeliers, while also making sure my head doesn’t bump into one in excitement :P
The second dive was at ‘The Pit’ in another cave within the Dos Ojos cave system. I guess this post has already been so long and what better way to end it but with a description of this last adventure.
This experiment with long term travel that began in June finally culminated in me literally swimming into the Mayan Underworld where I not only managed to dive 42 metres deep (13 storeys down) into this amazing sinkhole in the middle of a jungle but also witnessed ultimate spookiness in the form of human remains, dancing sunbeams, dead trees, hydrogen sulphide fog and Halocine hallucination ! This was not only my deepest dive and first ever cave dive but also a chance to marginally cross the recreational scuba diving depth limit of 40 metres.
