Bill Holmes - Activities - Hiking and Biking - Central America
LinksMexico - Playa del Carmen
Mexico to Belize
Belize - Lower Dover day 1
Belize - Lower Dover day 2
Belize - Lower Dover day 3
Belize - Lower Dover day 4
Belize to Guatemala
Guatemala - Tilal - Dawn, Early Morning, Morning, Late Morning, Afternoon and evening
Guatemala Flores to Belize City
Belize - Belize City to Cay Caulker
Belize - Cay Caulker rental
Belize - Cay Caulker first day after arrival
Belize - Cay Caulker snorkeling
Belize - Cay Caulker north walk
Belize - Cay Caulker kayaking
Belize - Cay Caulker south walk
Belize - Cay Caulker last day
Belize - Cay Caulker Bill's departure
El Salvador to Costa Rica
Costa Rica day 1
Costa Rica day 2
Costa Rica day 3
Costa Rica day 4
Flowers
Flutterbys
Zip rides
Return to Jan Jose
Costa Rica to Cancun
Cancun
Itinerary Summary
11/29 - At 2:00 AM take taxi to SAC. At 6:10 AM fly from Sacramento, CA and arrive Cancun, Mexico via Phoenix, AZ at 3:05 PM.
11/29 - Hertz taxi van to Playa del Carmen for $67 each.
11/29 - Playa del Carmen
11/30 - Playa del Carmen
12/01 - Playa del Carmen
12/02 - Taxi to AVO bus to Chetumal, Mexico, local bus to Belize City, and van to Lower Dover.
12/03 - Lower Dover to San Ignicio and Cahal Pech ruins
12/04 - Lower Dover to Xunatunich ruins.
12/05 - Lower Dover to Actum Tunichil Nuknal (ATM) cave tour.
12/06 - Lower Dover to butterfly farm, nature trail and medicine trail.
12/07 - Tikal arrival
12/08 - Tikal tours
12/09 - Van to Flores, fly to Belize City, taxi to water taxi dock, take water taxi to Caye Caulker
12/10 - Caye Caulker
12/12 - Caye Caulker
12/13 - Caye Caulker
12/14 - Caye Caulker
12/13 - Caye Caulker
12/14 - Caye Caulker
12/15 - Melody takes water taxi to Chetamal, Belize to catch ATO bus to Playa de Carmen.
12/16 - Melody takes van taxi to Cancun, Mexico for 4:05 PM US Air flight to Phoenix, AZ and Sacramento, CA. Bill stays in Caye Caulker an extra day to avoid layover in San Salvador, El Salvador.
12/17 - Bill takes water taxi to Belize City to catch flight to San Jose, Costa Rica via San Salvador, El Salvador, and stays with Carla Carnitas.
12/18 - Carla drives Bill to step father's loft in San Mataeo, Costa Rica for the night.
12/19 - Carla drives Bill to Ocotan and Playa El Poco to enjoy beach, and stay in hotel,
12/21 - Carla drives Bill to volcano.
12/20 - Costa Rica.
12/21 - Costa Rica.
12/22 - Bill flies from San Jose, Costa Rica to Cancun, Mexico
12/23 - Tours Chicken Iza
12/24 - Relaxes in Cancun
12/25 - At 4:05 PM, Bill departs Cancun, Mexico on US Air to Phoenix, AZ and Sacramento, CA.
ADD 12.5% Tax to all of the following ticket prices
Belize City - Belize International AirPort to Central Farm $609 BZ
Belize City - Belize Municipal Airport $603 BZ
Corozol to Central Farm $1081 BZ
Central Farm to Placencia $969 BZ
Placencia to Caye Caulker $892 BZ
Dan Grica(Stann Creek) to Caye Caulker $585 BZ
Mexico converson is 8.125:1, i.e. 81.25 pesos = 10US
Belize conversion is 2:1, ie. 100BZ = 50US
Contact Maya Island Air at info@MayaIslandAir.com
Detailed Itinerary:
Melody 11/29-12/16. Bill 11/29-12-25. $491 (total) round tip for Melody via Orbitz $598.84 for Bill on US Airways.
11/29 - US Airways 12 departe Sacramento, CA (SMF) at 6:10 AM, arrive Phoenix, AZ (PHX) at 8:59 AM; 1 hr 49 min travel on Airbus A320. Change planes. Time between flights: 1 hr. Depart on US Airways 315 at 9:59 AM and arrive Cancun, Mexico (CUN) at 3:05 PM; 4hr 6min travel time on Boeing 757-200. Total duration: 6hr 55min. Take taxi van 52 KM to Playa del Carmen, Mexico. If skipping Plya de Carmen, take ADO beautiful and airconditioned GL Deluxe Bus for 60 pesos for one hour drivce to Belize border, or take OCC bus for 38 pesos for 1:20 hours to border. Exit the front of the airport and walk to your right. There is usually a bus there, but if not either ask a porter or just walk over to the bus stand which is right at the end of the front of the terminal. ADO buses depart from Cancun Airport to Playa del Carmen: 10:45 - 11:45 - 12:45 - 13:45 - 15:00 - 16:45 - 17:45 - 19:00 - 20:30.
11/29 - Tax taxi van to Playa del Carmen, Mexico for 1 hour, and stay at Hotel Cielo for $67/night at Hotel Cielo, OB29111210, 4a calle entre 5 y 10 Avenida, Playa del Carmen, Q.Roo (4th Street between 5 and 10 Ave), USA Tel 718.710.4773, MEX Tel +52.984.8731227, Roberto Zacarias, www.hotelcielo.com, reservations@hotelcielo.com.
11/30 - Explored Playa del Carmen and enjoyed beach. Neglected to visit Tulum south of Playa del Carmen. It is the first colony of the Mayans. Got timeshare talk in exchange for $150. Can live in resorts for $199/week after paying $21,000 for membership.
12/01 - Playa del Carmen
12/02 - Taxi to ADO bus station at 20th Avenue between Calle 12 and Calle 14 to Chetumal for $20 each. Take local bus to Belize City for $10 each. Depatures are more infrequent than told. Wait 1.5 hours for bus to Belize City.
12/02 - Had to pay Customs to leave Mexico and pay Customs to enter Belize. At the Chetumal bus terminal is a Novelo's Bus Line counter where we bought tickets to Belize for $10US ($5BZ). Waited two hours. Paid for Internet access ($10BZ/hour) and use of toilet in bus terminal ($5BZ) or taxi terminal ($3BZ). Bring your own toilet paper. Failed to get either of two "Premier" service express air-conditioned buses with snack service. Got old school bus instead with an Express sign in the window. The Premier departs Chetumal at 10:30 a.m. and 1:45 p.m. The fare is about $10US, and the trip takes about 2 hours. Regular buses leave about every hour and the fare is cheaper. We waited two hours. The bus made numerous stops, adding hours to our journey to Belize City. Call Novelos in Belize at 501-2-72025 & 73929 for more details on schedules and reservations.
12/02 - The bus connections and travel times caused us to arrive in Belize City around 7:00 PM. Rather than have us stay in crime-ridden Belize City or take a bus to the Capital at Belmopan, Madeline Reynolds sent her taxi driver, Ralph Potter and his wife to drive us for $100US from the bus station to Lower Dover, Mile 59 Western Hwy - General Delivery, San Ignacio, Belize, (0)11 501 614 4100, lowerdoverbelize@gmail.com. We arrived at Lower Dover Field Station at 8:30 PM rather than the planned 2:30 PM, ate and slept for $60/night totaling $440 for two.
12/03 - Rode around San Ignacio with Madeline while she ran errands, purchased ATM tour and ride to Tikal, explored Cahal Pech ruins, went food shopping in the open market, and ate lunch in market area.
12/04 - Drove Madeline's jeep to Xunatunich. Ate lunch at San Ignacio restraurant. Had two cavities filled, a bad filling replaced and teeth cleaned by Meg Ryan DDS for $250 US, and shopped in open market.
12/05 - Picked-up on road by PACZ Tours for Actum Tunichil Nuknal (ATM) cave adventure.
12/06 - Visited butterfly farm, nature trail and medicine trail with Madeline who wants to do something similar with Lower Dover. No time for canoeing, cave tubing and the zip lines at Calico Jacks (calicojacksvillage.com $100 for day; use pacztours.net for other adventures and travelbelize.org for general information. They get the room taxes. Good book: Rainforest Remidies by Rosita Arvigo. Good mover: Joseph Freight
12/07 - Replaced flight or bus drive to Placentia on coast south of Hopkins for tour of Tikal. Caught tour SUV to Guatemala border where we connected with a Guatemala driver and van contracted to the same company to get to Tikal for $30 each. Had to pay Customs to leave Belize and pay Customs to enter Guatemala. Sometimes the van or airline companies include some of these fees in your ticket price. The road is not shown on Google Maps, so used Google Earth.
12/07 - Tikal at Hotel Tikal Inn for $111 each. Power to rooms and for hot water limited to 6:30-9:30 AM and 6:00-9:30 PM. Lobby had more power and WiFi most of day.
12/08 - Dawn and morning tours for $18 each; Hotel Tikal Inn for the night
12/09 - 4:45 AM van to the Flores airport for $30 each. Total 222+36+60 =$318.
12/09 - Took Tropic Air flight from Flores to Belize International Airport for $114 each. Took taxi to Belize Express water taxi dock for $25US. Boat trip to Caye Caulker cost $20US each. Air fare to Caye Caulker would have been worth the time lost in taxi, water taxi and waiting for water taxi. Skipped Hopkins for more time on Caye Caulker. Would of flown to Hopkins Dangriga airstrip for for $63 or taken bus or water taxi to Hopkins. Furthermore, it was no longer on the way from Placentia to Belize City. Otherwise we would have taken bus (65.8 Km, 1.5 hours) to Hopkins, and stayed two nights at Hopkins Inn for $61-99. A deposit of $39.50 was mailed to Box 121, Dangriga, Belize, hopkinsinn@btl.net. Hopkins charged Mel's card for two day's stay, and refused to refund any of the money, because we canceled within 14 days of arrival. Even cancelling 21 days in advance only earns a partial refund. On 12/11 we would have taken a bus to Belize City (134 Km 2 hours) or taken a water taxi or flown Tropic Air from Dangriga to Caye Caulker Airport (CUK) by way of the Belize City Municipal Airport for $41.50 + $35.00 = $76.50. Stayed at Amanda’s Place Cabana for $90/night for 4 nights = $490.50, AP111122010, cayecaulkerrentals@gmail.com, www.cayecaulkerrentals.com.
12/10 - Explored Caye Caulker town, learned about best restaurants, ate lobster for lunch and dinner. Caught-up on web site.
12/11 - Caye Caulker - 9:45 AM snorkeling tour that lasted to 5:00 PM. Sayings: The most dangerous sharks have two legs. The dumbest must have the best luck. Ate Italian lobster dinner. Caught-up on web site.
12/12 - Caye Caulker - Explored northeast side.
12/13 - Caye Caulker - Kayaking aroung split to see hole to cave under island and fish that live in it.
12/14 - Caye Caulker - Explored southwest side of island.
12/15 - Mel takes water taxi to Chetamal, Belize to catch ATO buss to Playa de Carmen, because she was told that traveling to Cancun in one day to catch her flight was impossible.
12/16 - Mel takes a taxi van to Cancun, Mexico (CUN), departs on US Airways Boeing 757 flight 813 at 4:05 PM, arrives Phoenix, AZ (PHX) at 7:35 PM (4 hr 30min), changes planes (time between flights: 1 hr 30 min) to Airbus A320, departs Phoenix, AZ (PHX) US Airways 371 at 9:05 pm, arrives at 10:07 pm in Sacramento, CA (SMF) (2hr 2min); total duration: 8hr 2min. Could have flown Tropic Air from Caye Caulker to Belize City International Airport for $63.00. Tropic Air does not list a flight from there to Cancun, but Maya Island Air does for $282.98. It arrives at 11:33 AM in plenty of time for US Air flight on same day. Bill remains in Caye Caulker working on Web site.
12/17 - Bill takes 7:00 water taxi to Belize City, taxi to Phillip S. W. Golden International Airport ($25), and works on Web site while waiting for 12:30 PM Taca Embraer 190 flight 411 to San Salvador, El Salvador Comalapa International Airport. Flight is delayed while baggage for passengers not flying is found and removed, but still caught Taca 7639 Airbus A321 flight to San Jose, Costa Rica. Both aircraf were new. Total cost $472.62. Bill joins Carla Contrara's mother's birthday party, and stays with Carla and her two boys, Max and Emi.
12/18 - Carla drives Bill to step father's loft in San Mataeo, Costa Rica for the night.
12/19 - Carla drives Bill to Ocotan and Playa El Poco to enjoy beach, and stay in hotel.
12/21 - Carla drives Bill to volcano.
12/20 - Costa Rica.
12/21 - Costa Rica.
12/22 - Bill Taca flight 535 from Juan Santamaria (SJO) San Jose, Costa Rica to Cancun, Mexico for $589.55, reservation code 4PRGCW, and finds hotel for two nights.
12/23 - Tours Chicken Iza
12/24 - Relaxes in Cancun
12/25 - At 4:05 PM, Bill departs Cancun, Mexico on US Airways 813 Boeing 757-200, arrives 7:35 PM in Phoenix, AZ (PHX) (4 hr 30 min) for 1 hr 30 min wait in airport before boarding US Airways 371 at 9:05 pm for flight to Sacramento on Airbus A320, which arrives in Sacramento at 10:07 PM (1 hr 30 min) for at total duration of 7 hr 30 min.