Where is the Dawg?

I am guessing that it has been over a week since he was seen hereabouts.

He is busy planning our next trip to Belize. I am out of town so someone has to do some work around the house.

brigitte wrote:He is busy planning our next trip to Belize. I am out of town so someone has to do some work around the house.

I was wondering the same thing. We all miss his posts. Planning a trip to Belize, what's to plan a stones throw away. Hope you're not going in hot and humid weather.

Well John I do not think we travel the way you do. We are driving there and want to see a lot of the Mayan ruins and caves and then on to Guatemala where there are some problems in the Peten and in the Coban area where I want to mee a friend who does beautiful weavings in a remote village in the area of Coban.
It is a good idea to plan a few things if you do what I like to do.

I am on a Maya ruins kick not on a beach trip.

Sounds like a great trip Brigitte!
John probably hasn't ventured further than Costco in years.

Black Christ of Esquipulas at the end of the trip and that should be a lot of fun too.

Brigitte:

Will you be visiting or observing any Indigenous Indians or is it Indigent Indians? John seems to have a misunderstanding of the difference.

viajero wrote:Sounds like a great trip Brigitte!
John probably hasn't ventured further than Costco in years.

Come on now guys. John doesn't go to Costco. That's where those other folks go, you know those who don't vote the right way. John goes to Walmart and Superlake. They are quite a drive for him because he lives so far West of Ajijic as you approach the Chapala/Jocotepec municipal border.

johninajijic wrote:

brigitte wrote:He is busy planning our next trip to Belize. I am out of town so someone has to do some work around the house.

I was wondering the same thing. We all miss his posts. Planning a trip to Belize, what's to plan a stones throw away. Hope you're not going in hot and humid weather.

Well, I, for one, appreciate John´s kind words about missing my posts (perhaps written in jest) but since my darlin´ wife is down in San Cristóbal de Las Casas doing some much needed home repairs while leaving me here to dogsit and indicating that excessive postings on forum boards might indicate a frivolous attitude toward accomplishing my assigned Ajijic tasks, it seemed prudent to communicate here infrequently.

I am tasked with mapping out a road trip from San Cristóbal and back via various Maya ruins between Escárcega and Bacalar then down to Belize and from there over to Tikal and return and (maybe) down to Punta Gorda, Belize and, perhaps Livingston and Puerto Barrios , Guatemala and then back up through Qintana Roo to Isla Holbox and along the Gulf to Mérida and Campeche stopping at a number of Mayan ruins all along the way in Quintana Roo, Yucatan and Campeche before returning to Palenque, Chiapas and home. This is a rather ambitious project which originally was to include Coban, Guatemala but my study of this idea indicates that, perhaps, Coban is a separate trip (from Comitan, Chiapas down through Huehuetenango, Guatemala) due to the limitations of the road access to that area from Peten. Of course, some of this is made more problematic by Zeta activities and general lawlessness in the Peten and , perhaps, elsewhere in Guatemala , which should be avoided if at all possible and may actually preclude journeying through some legs of this planned trip under present- day circumstances. So, John, as you can see, this is not a simple trip plan as you may have thought originally. At this time, I don´t even know if it´s all feasible or only partially so but it is intended as a wintertime trip come January if the world does not come to and end in accordance with the Mayan caledar in December as some anticipate.

This is a long-time dreamt-of trip and, since I just turned 70, it seems the time to do this before the Shady Acres Rest Home with its oatmeal pablum breakfasts and Texas Line Dancing Saturday nights beckons in a few years.

If we pull this trip off or at least some of it (Belize and Mérida being primary goals), we´ll publish our experiences on this board for the benefit of any of you who might also wish to try this road trip some time in the future.

It sounds very interesting. Now Dawg you’re really not all that old my Aunt & Uncle are both 94 and we just received an invitation to their 75th wedding anniversary. They were travellers and perhaps that’s what keeps you young. BTW he still drives and has a real love for good food.

More power to ya Dawg! Doing the trip at 70 is even more impressive.
Sometimes the planning of the trip can be almost as much fun as the trip itself.
As usual, things may not go exactly as planned but the screwups make for mighty interesting story fodder. SNAFU.

Thanks for the comments, Parker & Ferret. Now, I feel like a spring chicken again. If nothing else, just in case we run into a Zeta corpse carving party in Peten, the "feets don´t fail me now" epiisode to follow as Dawg imitates Birmingham Brown (Mantan Moreland) in the old Charley Chan movies will either kill me or lift my spirits as I run for my life. Don´t forget that I grew up in the old 1950s Alabama where, while driving upon some back roads one could happen, randomly and without notice, upon a rather edgy Ku Klux Klan rally attended by liquored-up and unpleasant types in bad moods so I grew up not knowing for sure what was around the next bend in the road and always prepared to flee at any time.

By the way, I meant to ask in my first posting if any of you had motored down to and around Belize from Chetumal in the past and could share some of your insights with me as a result. The rest of the trip through Mexico is over roads with which we are familiar but there may be surprises in store for us in Belize and on the road from Belmopan to Flores of which we should be aware. I would appreciate any input from those of you who might have made a similar road trip in the past.

Try Caye Caulker in Belize. Stay at Leeside. See the reef before
it is gone. I enjoyed two weeks there five years ago. Rooms are
built like a ship. Hottest best Jamacan Jerked Chicken I have ever
had out on the resturant on piers off the beach on the ocean side.

Oddest hotel winner was the Caribbean Queen in Belize City. The
dogs of war was filmed there and not much has changed other
than moving the bar. Basically after a certain hour in Belize City
they lock you in for the night. Stayed in the roof room. Largest
room we have ever seen. Great place to have a drink during
the heat of the day at the bar.

Belize was mucho fun but frankly we expats have it much better
here in Mexico but I wouldn't mine another trip to Caye Caulker.

Z

Try the fried Conch with a Belikin (sp) Stout.

Thanks for the hint on Cay Caulker, Zed. We´ll keep that in mind and no matter where we go in Belize, I´ll keep my eyes peeled for conch - especially for conch fritters and fried conch. The only place we´ve had really good fried conch in Mexico has been in Mérida although I have seen conch on the menu at Tehuantepec´s most famous seafood joint in Oaxaca. We didn´t try conch in Tehuantapec when we went to this restaurant because we had to try their mixed shallfish and octopus cocktail which was outstanding. Cinch next time we are there which will be this winter on the trip which includes Belize.

Here´s a bit of trivia for you. The farthest south we have been on the Caribbean Sea in Mexico is Xcalac, Quintana Roo just a few kilometers north of the seacoast divide between Mexico and Belize but actually well south of the border at Chetumal. The peninsula upon which Xcalac sits is actually the same peninsula designated Ambergris Cay in Belize. While Ambergris Cay is designated an island, it is an artificial island having been rendered so by the Maya centuries ago when they constructed a shipping canal at a place today called Boca Bacalar Chico which was inteded to provide access to the Caribbean from Bahia de Corozal. If you are ever in that desolate part of Qunitana Roo, I recommend you drive the isolated but well maintained coastal dirt road from Xcalac to Majahual for a splendid ocean front drive through beautiful back country. Watch out or you will end up on the nondescript inland paved highway beween Majahual and Xcalac which is a straight, boring drive through spindly stunted scrublands.

I believe they are planning major development of this whole area around Majahual and down to Bacalar including a huge international airport which is a damn shame since this area´s charm is largely associated with its mysterious and intriguing isolation.