Rio Dulce and the Castillo de San Felipe, Guatemala

Yesterday I went to Rio Dulce which is a small town on the shore of the Lake Izabal but also the name of the river between the lake and the sea.

The town is not particularly pretty but I walked between this town and the Castillo de San Felipe.

This Castle was built by the Spanish in the XVI Century to protect the area from the pirates... Yes there were some pirates around here... But after a while there were not that many pirates anymore so it became a prison. And then a little after that the pirates came back so it became a protection again...

It was really interesting to visit this Castle and it was on the shore of the lake so from there I had a good view on the lake. It was a nice pleasant day.

Quiriguá, Guatemala

So after having left Belize, I decided to hang around a little bit around Puerto Barrios in Guatemala. This city is really boring and is basically only a port on the Atlantic, so nothing to do and a bit dodgy I would say.

However from this town I have been able to travel around and see some nice stuffs. Yesterday I went to Quiriguá, which is about 100 km from Puerto Barrios and it takes about 2 hours and 30-40 minutes walking to arrive there.

It is not a big site and there isn't a lot of buildings (unlike the site that I've done before) however this site had a lot of stelae with sculptures or let say design on them. And it was the reason why it was worthy to go there.

The stelae appear to be the story of the different rulers of the city, their war glories, their relationship with the gods, etc etc.

Besides the site was in the middle of the Jungle as often and I have been able to walk a little bit in it and also be bitten so many times by these fucking mosquitoes.

One of the nice things that you can find in the jungle :-)

Also on my way to the site, I could walk in banana plantations... Yeah see the banana you might eat and which come from Guatemala (the "chiquita" or "dole" one) well it comes from there.

Belize Botanic Garden, Belize

Today I have been to the Belize Botanic Garden which is located close to San Ignacio (I am still in this little town but should go away tomorrow). To go there I took the bus for 10 minutes and then I had to walk about 8 km. Fortunately a pick up stopped and help me for around 1-2 km but for the return I had to walk the whole way.

It was really nice to go there, it was in a valley behind two hills and also it was really quiet, there was no one.

The garden was quite big and lots and lots of trail, you could easily get lost or at least miss something because of the different trails that you take.

It was interesting to go there to see some plants. Unfortunately the season was quite bad as only few plants were flowering at the moment. I mean it makes sense as it is the end of autumn (I am still in the Northern Hemisphere).

Being located quite far away from town makes also possible to watch at the fauna and I have seen lots of birds, insects, a few agoutis and also lots of squirrels.

my fingers are at the same level than the caterpillar. It was at least 10 cm long