The bus we caught up to Finca Ixobel was overcrowded so we all ended up standing. The
bus made a few stops we still aren't sure what for but all of us had to get off the bus while police searched it. We think that one of the stops was for "wet backs" from El Salvador and the other stop was for agriculture. Finally we got to Finca Ixobel and and we had to walk about a half a mile carrying our suitcases to the hotel. We got to the Finca and went to our room, the room was nice and they had hot water for showers so we were happy. After getting cleaned up we went and looked at the activities that were available. We found a cave expedition one and decided that it looked fun so we signed up for that. After dinner we went to bed early and in the morning we woke up pretty early so we could have breakfast before we went on our cave expedition. When we were getting ready, a lady came up to our room and asked to make sure each of us had tennis shoes we were willing to get muddy. I didn't want to get my shoes all muddy and I had been planning on wearing flip flops but she said that flip flops wouldn't do she went and looked in their lost and found pile and found some tennis shoes for me. The shoes fit when I was sitting down so I told her that they would work.
We left for the caves about a half hour later (the walk to the caves was a two hour walk so we had a long way to go) and found out that we were the only ones that would be going on the tour
that day. We had been walking for about a half an hour and then it started raining so we were all soaking and our shoes were caked with mud. The rain stopped after about 15 minutes but my shoes started to really hurt because they were soggy and they started rubbing. I eventually gave up on my shoes and folded down the backs so that I was standing on the backs, that partially worked but every ten steps I took one shoe would just flop off and I kept stepping in the mud. When we finally got to the caves my feet were disgusting and I was really looking forward to getting in the water (the caves had an underground river going through them so we had to swim). Unfortunately the water was freezing and I had to keep my shoes on in the cave. I tried putting the shoes all the way on because if I kept the backs folded down they would definitely come off, but they hurt to much to do that. I came up with the idea to tie the shoe laces around my ankles so the shoes wouldn't come off, that worked. So we went into the cave; it was really pretty there were tons of stalactites and lots of rock formations that you probably wouldn't see anywhere else. The shoes were also co-operating very well so all was good...Then I noticed that the soles of the shoes were coming unglued and the plastic bottoms of the shoes kept folding over
and flapping all over the place. We got to the end of the caves where there was a 20 foot rock that you could climb up and jump into the river below. Kelsey did that a few times and I was about to but I was already cold and I really didn't feel like jumping then. So we went back to the caves start and had lunch. After lunch we started back, about half way back we were crossing a big field and there was this big group of cowboys, they were all around 20 or 30 and our guide got all freaked out because it was us three girls, him and his dog. I was walking right behind him and he started walking super fast, he was also glancing backwards every thirty seconds until we were out of sight. When we got back to the Finca all of us flopped on our beds and I almost fell asleep. After we were all rested and clean we went to find the lagoon at the Finca so we could wash our shoes. We found the lagoon, washed our shoes, then went back for dinner.
The next morning I woke up to find that mom was really sick and that we probably wouldn't be
doing anything that day. We pretty much just read or walked around all day. Kelsey decided to hike up a hill there that they call The Pyramid (it looks a lot like a pyramid) and I decided not to go with her because I was really tired. She got back about an hour later and the rest of the day was spent reading. The next day we got up and packed and then went to catch a shuttle to Flores which is the town near the ruins Tikal.
But that is another adventure and like the first post about this trip I will be putting Tikal on a third post.
Larissa
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