SAN IGNACIO - After not too long on the 'Chicken Bus' we arrived in San Ignacio... a charming little colonialesque border town close to Guatemala.  When we got off the bus we found a French AND a German bakery, and tons of fruit stands with fresh pineapple, watermelon and fried plantain chips - which are delicious by the way.  We then  headed to an internet cafe to check email and such, but the internet link was by satellite - and terribly slow, especially whenever a cloud passed overhead   About fifteen minutes after arriving the power went out! 

It all worked out pretty well though because at the shop we ran into a Californian named Erica who married a Belizean and is living in San Ignacio.  When she was talking about her mom I heard her say "...and she was all...".  She sounded just like my friend Suzy so I instantly knew Erica was from California as well.  We had lunch together and then she took us in her Isuzu Trooper (just like Anna's!) on a tour of her village, Bullet Tree, just out of San Ignacio.  It was a blast... we met her husband and children and she hooked us up with her brother-in-law who runs tours from horseback riding to river tubing to cave exploration.  Her other brother-in-law runs a little resort with his wife named Cohune Palms, where we will try to stay upon returning to San Ignacio with Kath Jim and Leigh.  If we don't go with those guys we will go back on our own... it's that nice!

In town there are a bunch of great restaurants... Ezra's cooked amazing breakfasts and Hanna's made a tasty curry.  There were others to try but we only had so much time!  We stayed at the Venus hotel and they had Cable so we got caught up on local events and such.  Plus we watched a few movies in ENGLISH which was the real treat. 

The next day I was looking off our balcony down into the football field when I saw a few busses pull up... turns out the Belize national team had a match with a 2nd division squad from Guatemala!  We watched the game and talked with a Guatemalan named Ruyendo who gave us the inside scoop on all the Guatemalan players.  They had nicknames like 'Pastel' (cake), 'Leche' (milk), 'chocolate', 'Rambo', etc.  He told us all about Guatemala too and gave us lots of great information on what to see and do.  It was so much fun because it was completely spontaneous... we went and got banana chips and pineapple from the local vendors and watched the match with scores of Guatemalans.  There weren't many Belizean fans, and honestly their team wasn't very good... the Guatemalans were all 16-20 years old and still BARELY lost 1 nil to the 20-24 year old Belizeans!  In my opinion Guatemala was the better team.  Here's a shot from the game...

 

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