sinuous...

is how the road is from orange walk to san ignacio. a beautiful drive though. you go from the savanna-like landscape in the north...full of sugar cane fields...to the lush foliage (w/ craggy peaks in the distance) along the western highway.

driving in belize is relatively stress-free. the majority of the population is situated in belize city...few belizeans have vehicles (who the hell can afford to spend $4.50 for a gallon of gas?!?). most of the manuevering is around potholes, creaky public buses, schoolkids, or

yep. it seems that sundays in belize are the prime time to hold road cycling events. either there's a pack of guys training or there's a procession of sirens/flashing lights, the cyclists, and their equipment/support entourage trailing them. TWICE we ran into race stages!

so...after taking nearly three hours of dodging multiple cyclists and traversing over speed bumps (before and after every village), we made it to our hotel on cahal pech hill.

since it was still morning, much too early to check in, we decided to head to belize's national archaeological treasure, Caracol. it's the largest Maya site in the country. during the seventh century, perhaps 50,000 people lived there. it is one of four MAJOR ceremonial centers in the maya world: Tikal (Guatemala), Calakmul (Mexico), and Copán (Honduras) are the other three.

back to the outrageously priced rental...to the turnoff for san antonio village...through mountain pine ridge...to douglas d'silva (aka, augustine) and to the site.

a mere 53 miles.

this is where pothole hell is defined. the road from san ignacio to caracol epitomizes dangerous driving. razor sharp rocks, extremely eroded limestone paths, narrow wooden bridges that cross wide rivers, and stunning views line this route. if you take 2.5 to 3 hours to make the trip, that's just about right. anyone who has made it to caracol in less than that allotted time was either extremely lucky or his corpse was later found along the road.

i kid you not. the ten miles between douglas d'silva and the paved road that leads into the site is most disastrous road i've seen since our 2001 trip to bolivia (from rurrenabaque to the pampas).

as you may have guessed...a happy razor-sharp rock welcomed us to western belize...on the abovementioned road. luckily, we had a military escort behind us.

military?!?

yes, there are two (9:00 & 11:30) daily military escorts from douglas d'silva on the way to caracol. apparently, there was a rash of armed robberies along this road a couple years ago. and now you can't go to caracol w/o military intervention. usually, they caravan behind the morning tours arriving from mountain pine ridge and san ignacio.

well, we didn't get there until 11:45. nevertheless, the bored soldiers were more than happy to escort us to the site. after all, when we arrived, they were just playing cards and sitting around.

'bout 30 minutes later, we hear a thumpthump. awww...shiiiiiit!

when i got out of the car, i was expecting a flattened tire. not this... as i said, we were extremely lucky because a HUGE, burly soldier by the name of Darren, helped us change the tire. now i know why the soldiers trail your vehicle. had they been ahead of us, we may still be on that road.

and Darren...THANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOU

when we arrived at the site, we bought the three guys a round of soft drinks and thanked them profusely. and just before we headed into the ruins, i dug out the new deck of cards that i brought for the trip and handed it to the big guy. sorry that there were no hardcore pics like their deck at the base, but at least they were new ;)