BELIZE IS NOT A RICH COUNTRY, but Guatemala made it seem that way. Immediately upon crossing the border my girlfriend and I were dogged by insistent money changers, taxi drivers, and peddlers of textiles, food, and drink. Just beyond this menagerie was a bridge leading over the Mopan River, which was lovely in spite of…
La Ruta Maya – Xunantunich
MY GIRLFRIEND AND I decided to visit one more Maya site before leaving Belize and crossing over into Guatemala. She didn’t commit to the excursion at first, pleading an understandably sore ass from the Caracol adventure, but soon changed her mind when she saw what a beautiful day it was. Besides, it was only twenty minutes by…
La Ruta Maya – Caracol
I WOKE WITH STOMACH PAINS and wondered if this was going to be a bad day for a bus trip. My girlfriend and I were headed for the Belizean town of San Ignacio, near the border with Guatemala. A five-hour ride. Fortunately the cramps eased as we drove inland past the Maya Mountains which rose…
La Ruta Maya – Lamanai
PRIOR TO LEAVING FOR MEXICO I was constantly importuned by friends and family to be on my guard, to take extra precautions, to avoid standing out as a foreigner. These concerns had been stirred up by the media in the United States due to a spike in drug-related violence along the borders of the two countries. …
One Flew East…
THERE ARE TWO KINDS OF PEOPLE in the world; me, and all the lunatics. At least it can seem that way after a few months in Bangkok. Just the other day I was walking through the hotel lobby when my friend Jake called me over to introduce a fellow American he’d just met in the…
James Perry 