Roadside Assistance is on the Way!
Here’s what we were planning to do today…
Here’s what we were doing instead…
Our driver and tour guide for a day at the Caracol Mayan Ruins picked us up shortly after 7:30 this morning, and we joined two other couples (one accompanied by their 9-month old son) in the van. We were about 40 minutes into our 3-hour drive when we simultaneously heard and felt something snap under the hood. Upon inspection, our driver determined that it was a fan belt that had been frayed and would need to be replaced. Apparently he didn’t keep spare fan belts in the trunk, so once we rolled out of the middle of the road and carefully navigates to a spot where the guide could get a weak cell phone signal, they called for help.
While we waited for the new belt to arrive, several of the guys congregated around the open hood and tried to look like they were doing something useful. The rest of us took advantage of a nearby shady driveway and passed the time getting to know each other. Around 10:00 the part finally showed up, and by 10:30 the new belt was in place and the van appeared to be working properly. The only problem was that since the Caracol park closes at 2:00, we no longer had enough time to make the drive there and still have a worthwhile visit. So the consensus was to cancel those plans and head back to San Ignacio.
Grateful in situations like these for the reminder that “man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps” (Proverbs 16:9). We don’t know why God re-directed our steps, but He clearly did, so we embraced the change and went a different direction.
As one might expect, our change of course began with a search for some lunch! In the San Ignacio market, we found a booth offering quesadillas and tostadas, so we watched our chef at work and soon had two delicious plates of food for $4US. We are getting so spoiled with this delicious, freshly-prepared food at amazingly low prices!
From there we decided to grab the bus for a 20-minute ride over to San Jose Succotz where we could cross the river via ferry for a hike up to Xunantunich.
One of Julian’s bucket list items was to hand crank a ferry across a river (who knew?!), so he was excited to cross that off his list.
It was a steep climb to the entrance, but we were rewarded with a sparsely populated sprawling complex with fascinating ruins to explore. Particularly impressive is the towering El Castillo.
Panoramic views from the platform at the top of El Castillo were breathtaking. A cool breeze greeted us at the top of the climb and made it a refreshing spot to sit and take in the landscape of Eastern Guatemala and miles and miles of Belize.
While waiting for the bus to come through to take us back to San Ignacio, we flagged down a taxi (or, more accurately, he honked us down…as they pass pedestrians – particularly those who look like tourists – the taxi drivers issue short honks as a means of offering their services. Basically all you have to do is make eye contact and nod and they will be on the side of the road ready to load you up). You can identify taxis by the solid green license plate on their car. And believe me, that is the only means of identification because other than that the car can be on any shape whatsoever. Our car had a shattered windshield, no seatbelts, and a rugged interior. But for $5US total for both of us, he drove us all the way back to San Ignacio and dropped us off downtown right in front of the restaurant we wanted to try for dinner.
Tandoor Restaurant was our final stop of our rearranged day, and we were eager to try their chicken tikka masala to compare with our favorite Indian restaurant back home. It was delicious! The entrée was easily a 5-rating, but the fact that they were out of naan bread of any kind bumped the restaurant as a whole down to a 4 on our imaginary rating scale…I mean, an Indian dinner without naan? It should not be!
