My Dear Readers,

My trip is finished. I am at home.

Before describing last part of my trip I would like to answer some questions on
Glover's Atoll. There are  two outdoor showers with rain water in the middle of
the island and one sink, see picture. There is one composting toilet, which
smells a little, but almost no smell. The island is formed by corals, so there
are no sand beaches there. It is a short walk from any cabins to the shore from
which you can start snorkeling. You have to wear fins or shoes, as there may be
sharp stones or sea urchins in the water.

After Glover's Atoll I went to Livingston, Guatemala. I stayed in hostel
initially, then  moved to empty 4 star hotel nearby for the same price $15. It
is low season in Belize. I ate famous seafood soup "tapado" made with coconut
milk, very tasty. I sailed through Rio Dulce river to Rio Dulce village. Rio
Dulce is nice, but smelled of gasoline from many boats. Unfortunately this is
the fate of the most nice places on the Earth in our age of mass tourism. Rio
Dulce village is typical hectic central American village, but it has highest
concentration of yachts per square meter, as it is place where they hide during
hurricane season.

From Rio Dulce I went to Semuc Champey, Guatemala, a place which is notoriously
difficult to reach. Again, in our age of mass tourism, the omnipresent tourist
companies provide inexpensive and convenient mini buses to bring you anywhere.
Semuc Champey is a unique karst (limestone) phenomenon. Clear, warm, intensively
blue water formed several connecting pools, see picture. In the most perfect
form I saw this phenomena  in China in Jiuzhaigou Park. But in China thousands
of  Chinese tourists were allowed only to look  at this beauty. Here you can
swim and dive in these warm beautiful pools of blue water.

From Semuc Champey  I went to Tikal, which I visited 2 years ago, then to Belize
and eventually to Chetumal, Mexico. From Chetumal I took bus to Xcalak, the
place which I unsuccessfully tried to visit from 2005. The bus to Xcalak takes
five hours, last hour is on a very bad road. Village is quite nice, almost no
tourists. Quite a good reef is  close to shore. It is probably easy to swim to
it in warm water. But when I got there, water was not warm enough. You probably
will not freeze to death, but it will be  quite uncomfortable to swim to the
reef. It is possible to get to the reef with a hired boat for $100 per boat. But
I noticed two local guys with spear-guns on the motor boat and asked them to
take me with them.  Their guns are home made, but they do spearfishing  every
day and are very skilled at it.  They dive quite deep and they  stay under water
for very long time. They do not leave any stone un-turned so to say. So it was
not many living
creatures left there.  When we swim back to the boat I was  exhausted. They
were  young and they do it every  day. It was quite difficult to follow after
them.

From Xcalak I went to Cozumel. Access to my favorite snorkeling place near small
boat harbor was blocked by gigantic construction work of new mega resort.
Fortunately another mega resort was destroyed by hurricane and large pieces of
it were washed into the sea. They formed  a new artificial reef. There were lots
of fish there and I speared some, see picture.  It was like wreck diving.  This
place is not far away from the town. It is South of town, just behind second
lighthouse. Like wreck diving, wreck snorkeling is not for inexperienced people.

Attachments:
1. Glover' Atoll toilet
2. Glover's Atoll sink
3. Rio Dulce. Woman waiting for taxi boat
4. Semuc Champey 1
5. Semuc Champey 2
6. Daily Catch

Alex Mumzhiu
Washington, USA
Dec 20 2011

PS: Please let me know if somebody is going to Cancun soon. My new dental crown
is left at dental lab there.

6 of 6 Photo(s)