Sunset

Finally, a decent sunset.  The previous days it has bee too cloudy.

And really, it was even better to watch the sunset than the pictures show.

Caye Caulker, Oct 29

The sky seems to cloud over every time I reach for the camera.  Here are a few of the area, starting with the evening view from the front of the hostel.

The bottom photo is of Wish Willy's.  One of the many open air bar/cafes on the island.  And no, it does not look better in real life, it looks even seedier.  On the other hand the food is great and the staff are very friendly.  Whole lobster served with rice and beans, and potato salad, and a drink will cost you $15.

Pictures

The pictures are not coming through in decent detail.  I may experiment with external links.  In the meantime, if anyone wants a copy of a picture, send me a note and I'll see what I can do.

Mayan Ruins, Altun Ha, Belize

I spent the money on a guided tour, and as tourist season is not in full swing here, had the guide all to myself.
The road to the site was okay, but heavy rainfall for the past day had made for frequent puddles and the occasional bit of water flowing over the road.
The guide, Raymond Brakeman, was well informed and eager to talk on a broad range of topics, from agriculture, employment, economics, flora, fauna and the regional history to name a few.
The original Mayan name for this place has been lost to history, and it got named Altun Ha as a variation on the name of the closest village.  It translates as Rockstone Water.

The small hills or mounds you can see behind the sign are building remains.  Most of the smaller ones have not been excavated or thoroughly explored, mostly due to a lack of funds.  the government of Belize does not want to expose the ruins until they have enough funds in place to do the job correctly, rather than allow a low budget undertaking to turn a national heritage into a mess.
The entire area was built up by the Mayans, it is an artificial hill built from material hauled by hand.  The closest source of limestone is south of Belompan over forty miles away.

The ruins that have been unearthed were deteriorating due to exposure to the elements.  In various places new cement, stone and mortar have been used to stop further deterioration.  The above picture shows a large plaza or square, with a multi-layered building on the far side.  the building itself was made in slow stages with 50 years or more passing between completion and adding on the next higher level.  This whole area is elevated from the surrounding country, and there could well be additional layers hidden underneath the current level.

The partial excavation of this mound, shows the limestone blocks that made up the base.  Most of the blocks exposed are about 18 inches long and 4 thick.  I think most of the other blocks I saw at the site were rectangular in shape, 18x12 and 4" thick.

The tree on the left hand side of the mound is Allspice.

The Mayan people were fairly short, and these narrow passages were actually used as sleeping quarters.

The top picture shows the masonry depiction of what has been labelled as the 'Jester God'.  The multi coloured stone that shows on the right side of the frame of the lower picture as well as the white cement have been added to stablize the entire structure.  Additional re-inforcements have been added in other areas as well, resulting in enough protection to allow people to once again climb to the top of the building without damaging it.

The altar on the very top of the building had traces of soot and char when first uncovered, and thus we know it had been used for burnt offerings.  The view from the top is quite nice, and further research online says the actual extent of the ruins is quite  bit larger than even these pictures show.  The ruins encompass an area of about 5 square miles, with this temple complex comprising a small portion of that area.

Belize City, Belize.

Ah, here at last.  There are many points at which I could say my traveling started, either when I first thought seriously about it, when I left Vancouver bound to the prairies to spend time with my parents, when I left their farm, when I got into the USA or other points along the journey.  For me, I think the real point where it starts is here, in Belize City, away from my comfort zone and throwing myself into the pool, waiting to see if I splash in water or bounce off the ice.  This being the tropics, a bounce off ice is very unlikely.
The trip from Palm Coast to Miami was full of second thoughts about what I am doing.  Not the traveling bit, but the lack of structure to the travel.  Emotionally, it felt very much like jumping off a diving board and not knowing what the water will be like.
Turns out the water is quite warm.
The view from the balcony that wraps around the hotel is truly different from any other place I have stayed at.

The coconut palm is a rather strong hint that I am far from Canada.

The house across the way from the hotel is another hint.  Construction of most buildings here is either cement or cinder block.  The few wooden structures look like the next storm to come through will level them.  I did not take any pictures of those, and will let your mind fill in the details around peeling paint, sagging siding and two and three story buildings with way more list than is healthy.
The common theme on all easily reached windows is security bars and mosquito screens.  The common theme on all roads and sidewalks is drainage.
I was walking through the major shopping area when it started to rain, and found myself under an awning with a number of other folks.  What had been a busy street with cars, trucks, motorcycles, bicycles and pedestrians
 quickly changed as the last two sought shelter.  The rain came down quite hard for about ten minutes, then eased off slowly.  About half an hour after it started, it had stopped and the streets went from having water running down the sides to being dry enough to walk on quite fast.  As I was walking, I was continually asked if I wanted a taxi, directions, what was I looking for etc.  I noticed this kind of activity rose quite a bit as I headed one way in particular and found I was heading toward the dock for cruise ships.  There was quite a swarm of locals there, with many of them selling small souvenirs and hand crafted items.
Lunch was at a small diner, Marlin's.  The place opens up in the back onto Haulover Creek which given its size is way too big to be a creek.  There were a number of twenty foot open boats tied up along the creek.

All for now.  Time to watch the local news, and book a stay out on Caye Caulker.

Catsillo de San Marcos

Back to St Augustine after the government decided to open the monument of Castillo de San Marcos.
I took quite  few pictures, and the following mostly shows the view from the top of the main wall.  It is about 30' high, and 17' thick.  There are a large number of rooms built into the walls, including ones for barracks, cooking, bathroom, storage, jail, and offices.
The castle itself saw action a few times, including one siege lasting more than 25 days, if I recall the sign correctly.  It changed hands a number of times through treaty and negotiation.  There were a few staff in period costume and they did a demo of musket firing.

The weapons on display included this impressive 15" bronze mortar.

The line of cannon in the background were typical of the ones used to defend the castle, with the various sizes placed where they would do the most good.  The over all plan of the castle was well thought out for defense, and modern buildings have crept into the area's original killing field of over 250 yards of cleared field.

Palm Coast Florida

I have stayed just over a week at Francis and Marina's place.  Catching up on years of happenings and relaxing after days of motorcycling through the southern states.  I was lucky in my choice of friends those 20+ years ago, and they have treated me to a very fine time here.
St Augustine was very pretty, and very packed with tourists.  The castle is a federal monument, and thus closed during the federal shut down. 
On the way back to their place, we walked round the ruins of an old sugar mill / rum factory.

In the trees around the factory grounds, there was evidence of a recent fire, perhaps 1 year ago and the photos I took of that did not really show the damage and recovery very well.  However the picture of the little lizard on the tree came out decent.

So we went on an airboat ride through a Florida cattle ranch.  Here are the cattle.

And here is what most of the ranch 'land' looked like.

And some of the wild life found on the pasture.

We had about an hour ride, taking off from The Jolly Gator Fish Camp, and heading south.  We really did not see many gators, and the only largish one we saw, we noticed by the splash he left when he dived into the water.  The little fellow in the picture above the birds was about 14-18" long.  The amount of bird life was beautiful to see, and as I was playing with the settings on the camera not enough of the pictures came through decently.
Next up is Belize.

On to Florida

I took the I-10 and went through Mississippi and Alabama, entering Florida in about 4 hours of driving.  Most of the trip was very humid, I felt like I should wring out my shirt even though I was not sweating.
Once into Florida, stopped in at the tourist info and a nice lady there suggested staying at Torreya State Park.  It was quiet, out of the way and off the beaten path.  I only took one walk, and at the end when I was quite tired, I found the head of the trail I should have taken.  Sigh.  The trail I took was a nice walk through the woods.

The forest was close to a river and the canopy overhead was very dense and as a result there was little under growth.  In a few areas Palmetto and ferns and a few shrubs grew but for the most part it was quite easy to walk in.  The path overlooked a rim swamp area, which was dry at the time and the pictures from that area did not come out decent.  Mostly it was the same type of tree with thicker undergrowth. For the first half of the trail I kept disturbing the cutest little frogs.  One froze in place and here it is.  Scale does not show, but it was the size of my smallest fingernail.

The frog is near the root to the left of center.

The walk I should have taken went past a civil war artillery emplacement.  The state has chosen to allow nature to reclaim the area, but the shape of the entrenchment can still be made out.  The  Apalachicola River went from the Gulf of Mexico to Athens, Georgia which was the south's industrial base.
Another feature of the park is Gregory House, a restored plantation house with a gorgeous view of the river.  The interior was not open to viewing while I was there.

Note the breeze way separating the kitchen and dining area from the main house.

From the display in the gift shop it is a popular spot for weddings.
And warning to those who do not like spiders.  The below picture is of a banana spider who was about 2 inches long in the body.

Fountainebleau State Park

The park is small, very well maintained and has few visitors.  It is located quite close to a city, and from the size of the parking lot gets quite busy during its peak times.  The lake that it is on is quite shallow, at least along this shore.  The picture taken below is from a pier that juts out over 100' from the shore, and the water still looked to be under 2' deep.  If you peer closely at the picture, you will see high rise buildings in the middle, on the horizon.  That would be New Orleans.

Honest.  It's there.  It is real, not photoshop.

Anyway the next picture, I have always seen Spanish Moss hanging from trees in swamp areas, not in the middle of a campsite, which looks like it never floods.

And Dana, because you love all things praypul, French Bayberry.

P.S.  Really this state park is nice, but the air conditioning in this laundry area is set to 64f.  A little on the cool side no?

Texas

From El Paso to Orange, Texas is a long haul.  I stayed three nights at George's place, and was very well treated.  It was very warm during the day, and cool at night.  He was a nice host with many hours of conversation being passed.  Wednesday when I arrived was fighting practise, and we went, a small one with only 4 fighters but fun was had.  Lighting was too low for pictures. 
I got bored with most of the desert scenery, and did not take many breaks or pictures along the way.  I did pull over at one picnic spot to take a few, mostly to show the dry horizon.

Next photo op was at a place called Eagle Creek.  The water was not running, but there were pools here and there in the bed, and the canyon cut by the creek was very nice to photograph.  I also grabbed a few of the flowering shrubs, the purple blossoms were along the road for hours of travel.

I stayed at Anderson, and the next day drove on to Seguin, just past San Antonio.
From there, it was another long haul to the Louisiana border, and I found a campground at mile 7 on I-10.
Near Seguin, I tried a local diner and picked the chicken fried steak.  I have never previosly tried one, and figured if I ever was having one in the middle of Texas was about as typical as I could get.  The steak itself was fine, quite filling and had a good texture, everything else on the plate could have used an up-grade.

Tuscon and Gila National Forest

Violente, Zippy and Lindsay were excellent hosts in Tuscon.  With only a 2 minute walk to a supermarket, I made linguini, with a modified pesto, broccoli with asiago and balsamic creme, and followed by small peices of toast with more balsamic creme, deep fried garlic chips and more asiago.  Fast internet and great conversations.  A very nice place to crash.

Trying to see the Hopi Cliff Dwellings in the Gila National Forest was a bust.  Nice winding drive, up hill, twisty followed by downhill twisty with a few  nice views and very little traffic, but due to the shut down of federal services, there was no access to the monument/dwellings.  I was a day late I guess.  It goes back on the bucket list for next time I am in this area.
As I still have not transferred the photos from the camera, that will have to wait for El Paso.

Gila National Forest