Monthly Archives: November 2018

Sailing

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There are a lot of opportunities in San Pedro for sailing and snorkeling. Also diving and fishing opportunities are easy to find. I decided on a full day snorkeling tour on a sailboat. This one was provided by Carribean Adventures. None of the tours seem to leave super early, which is good if you were up late drinking rum the night before!

They have a fantastic sailboat. It almost makes me want to buy one myself. 
There are some spots to sit inside and also spots to relax on the deck and sunbathe. They offer unlimited rum (and I’m sure other companies do too). They have good snorkeling equipment and helpful guides. You are likely to see Manta rays, sea turtles, and sharks. Also plenty of fish. 
They also put in a great lunch. Fresh fish as well as chicken and vegetarian options were on offer. Before lunch I managed to swim with a giant turtle which was really neat. 
One of the places you go to is called Shark Ray Alley. This place was discovered when fisherman were cleaning their catch here. The waste attracted a lot of fish and sharks. This pretty much guarantees that you will see marine life. The down side is that they still feed them, so they have become very human defendant. I’m not sure I agree with this practice. While they are not being placed in physical captivity, they are very dependent on humans feeding them now which breaks their natural hunting cycle. 

Chicken drop

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I’m in San Pedro on Ambergris Caye in Belize. I heard about an interesting activity that they do on Thursday nights at Wahoo’s Lounge called Chicken Drop. At first I thought, why in the world would you drop a chicken?  It turns out the dropping is different from what I expected. 

Before the chickens arrive you can spent one dollar to place a bet on a numbered square. A single chicken is then put into the arena and we all wait for it to poop on the floor. If it poops on your number then you win $100 (most likely as a bar tap). 
If the chicken does not feel like relieving itself then a backup chicken is called for, and so forth until there is a winner. There is a whole ritual around it where you shake the chicken first or blow on its behind. Apparently this helps!
If you are in San Pedro on a Thursday then you should check it out. 

Volcan Pacaya

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There are not too many places in the world where you can climb an active volcano. That would be crazy right? There is no way people would climb something spewing lava? Well, this is Guatemala. 

I’m going to tell you Pacaya is not a difficult hike, but bear in mind I ran a marathon two weeks before this, so I had a large amount of cardio training.  It’s about a 2 hour accent to the viewpoint and it’s pretty much all uphill. Most people with a moderate level of fitness should have no problem. It’s not a technical hike but it is mandatory to have a guide. 
This is the viewpoint. From here you can see it smoking with the occasional ash shooting out of the top. When we got here I was disappointed. “Where is the lava?” I asked the guide. It turns out the trail continues down from here and you can get pretty close to the lava flows. 
Now – what you see depends on the mood of the volcano. There could be small lava flows, large lava flows, or no lava at all. 

Apparently this is small. But it’s hot enough that if you sit in the ground you are nice and warm. If you move rocks to one side then you can roast marshmallows. If you move rocks and put your hand down you will move it fairly quick. The guide handed me a hot rock, and I ended up dropping it. 

You cannot go any closer than this point, but nobody will stop you. Just be warned that tourists have been injured or killed by flying ash. 

You also get a nice sunset over the volcano.