9 Days in Belize and Tikal, Guatemala

Pictures by John Niebler and John Zastrow

I'm off. Wow, it’s early: about 4:45am. I slept for about an hour and fifteen minutes and nearly forgot my flight info.
At O’Hare: I must have an honest face because once again I went through security in about three minutes. Had to take off my boots but no diabetes supply questions at all.
I arrived at Belize International about 4:00pm. It took forever to get through immigration. Z had arrived on an earlier flight and we met at the airport. With not time to spare we flagged a land taxi to speed us into town for the last water taxi of the day. That was our first sight of the blue water. “We’re finally here.”

On Caye Caulker: Found Tina’s Backpacker’s Hostel. Rustic is generous. Cockroaches zipped under the bed when the lights went on. We were in a shared room with a teenage brother/sister pair traveling their way through Central America. They were nice and did the Blue Hole diving trip the day before. Tomorrow is our turn! We ate dinner at the Rainbow Restaurant. Fresh fish. VERY good. This was one of those melt in your mouth seafood meals that you can only get when the fish are caught within a mile of where you were eating.
We crashed early so we could make our 6:30am dive boat.