Chillies, chilly and chillin' (10 - 12 January 2010)

San Ignacio is a small agricultural market town, eight miles east of the Guatemalan border, we were here to rest up before Guat II and for Ant to go caving. But it has a whole different feel to Belize City – less glitter and more a Belize/Guatemalan mix – we are only nine kms from the border. People say hello and seem genuine rather than threatening. The town is a bit of a mish mash of concrete two story buildings and old wooden shack houses, with all the shops run by Chinese…. We checked into the Midas resort a jungle retreat just out of town which was really nice.
Starving by this point and as we had crossed the entire country in less than 4 hours (including the zoo stop) we felt we deserved some pizza and rum (s) at Greedy Too's. It helped the rain go away, because come dusk it was dry at last. Unfortunately neither of us were feeling too bright after the pizza ahem….? and so had a quiet night in at the Midas Hotel. It would have been quiet had it not been for the towns dog chorus, none as pretty as the Dyl, who has been enjoying the snow in Wales.
It appeared to be getting colder…. Next day Ant went off to the cash machine (see next blog) and Gill stayed and lolled about in the cold reading the latest John Grisham…. That evening was even colder (even Ant felt it) and everyone who lives here says it was the coldest they can ever remember. Note to self when travelling to the tropics in January, don’t bother with the sundress, strappy tops or sun cream, just bring your winceyette jamas…..

But the next day started a little warmer and we went on a long walk to Cahal Pech, a deserted set of yet more Mayan ruins on the top of the hill just outside town. It was still the usual pile of old bricks but we did have the place to ourselves and we revive the ancient Mayan art of dance for any of the spirits that were around – see our pics. It was also nice (if not as safe) to be able to clamber anywhere and not be held back as in Chitzen Itza by officials and ropes.

Today we have been lazy observing the local wildlife in the hotel grounds. We have seen toucan and leaf cutter ants, squirrels, other birds with big yellow tails, small birds with bright blue, yellow and green plumage. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGjiBiVDAcU We also tried the chilles and weird cherries straight off the tree. Take a look at the attached vid of leaf cutter ants – David Attenborough couldn’t have done as well.
Food here has been good as we found Hannah’s in town, and her famous shrimps. She also served a decent cold white wine – a real treat as even we were getting a bit bored of rum! The heat continues to elude us, but the earthquake in Haiti tonight stopped our complaining.