Once again we woke ourselves up nice and early.
I forgot, but yesterday while drinking coconut rum, we met a Danish couple in their young twenties. They were traveling through Guatemala and Belize for the summer. They had been asking how to get to Punta Gorda. So we stepped in to let them know that we were going that way and that they should just come with us. They seemed happy with that arrangement.
So we picked up Sasha and John (our Danish colleagues Tom likes to say) and headed out of the peninsula. We could drive about 1 miles north of our hotel and then the paved road ended. The dirt road was pretty bumpy and awful. Tom drove quite well though, I must say.
Eventually we headed into Mayan land. We ate breakfast at a place while it down poured. By the time we got back in the car the rain was mostly gone. We drove and drove and drove. We stopped at Nim Li Punit to see some Mayan ruins. There were mostly stelae - rock structures with Mayan writing on them telling about historical events. The site itself was still quite a lot of rubble, but still really neat to see. Just so huge and humbling.
We kept driving on. We saw lots of thatched roof homes and dogs running around. Eventually we drove toward Lubaantun - more Mayan ruins. We almost didn't make it. We circled through the town 2.5 times. We asked different kids for directions and they kept saying we had to cross a river. We had not seen this river, so we were somewhat confused. Eventually we found this "river" and crossed it on a small bridge. We kept driving and driving and then made it to the ruins.
At this point it was hot and muggy. We hiked up the grass slope and talked to the man who worked there. He told us a bunch of history and information. Then we walked around the site and took lots of pictures. It was very cool, but still incredible how much more work needed to be done to restore the site to its former glory.
With our Danish Colleagues still in tow we headed to Punta Gorda. It was not much a town to see, but we ate lunch at a good place and then left them to fend for themselves as we headed back home.
We dropped the car off right on time (or maybe 5 minutes late) and ate at Cozy Corner. A restaurant right on the beach a little bit south of the Barefoot Beach Bar. We had lobster and fish fillet and drank some beers and told stories of camp and high school.
All in all a very fulfilling and long day.
