CENTRAL AMERICA BACKPACKING TRIP | Ep2: Belize & Guatemala

[Music] my name's Carl Watson and I'm currently backpacking through Central America for six weeks Wow that is impressive hideout these two Jeeps now we're driving to some water all the stuff all right water crossing day ten us for the bus to town hopefully we have made it to check out these please it's abandoned for already nine hundred years a lot of travel days like this because my only responsibility for today is to have a good time now I'm traveling by myself and my trip again two weeks ago by flying into Cancun Mexico and heading down to Tula gotta check out some the cenotes and then works my way to key culture in Belize gotta keep my team is here to show you guys the good thing and from here I boarded a three-day island hopping boat trip that travelled south along the Belize Barrier Reef super excited to be here because his place is unreal this has definitely been the best bit with my trip so far after finishing the incredible tour you made our way back to shore to the town of Hopkins I'm now going to be leaving the beaches behind and heading inland to the town of San Ignacio which is close to the border of Guatemala but first I had to get out of Hopkins and I just missed my bus I was told that the buses go every hour from Hopkins and then the same guy this morning went oh no it's every two hours so I'm gonna do is hitchhike out to the highway and get the bus from there when I go more regular so [Music] [Applause] made budgets here and trying to hitchhike just been picked up by Carlos [Music] Carlos dropped me off at the bus stop and within a few minutes I was on a chicken bus heading to Dan griga and then transferred onto the express bus heading to Belmopan the capital of Belize and from there I got on a third bus to San Ignacio yeah I've got maybe two three days here honey nasi oh I'm sorry I said to get settled and pick out what I'm going to do here before heading to why tomorrow look who's back how's you like doing anyway it's still really sore a little bit smacked you like on the right pretty here I was gonna see a doctor in the next few months you around you worry more [Laughter] [Music] so we're in San Ignacio Jerome right now Jerome's been big give us Gator of town he's taking the lovely little tiny fast food place three dollar burritos 350 fruit juice which is just gorgeous oh there we go see sorry I'm busy monologuing there we go just on cue yeah yeah tucking into this have a lot of school around then figure out what the hell I'm gonna do tomorrow in this town there's a bar here called mums backyard like where were you last night your mom's backyard James would love that place what is it an apple banana but it's like a really sweet banana okay Jerome had already been in town for a couple of days yesterday a few of them from the hostel grouped together and hide out a car to go and explore to the nearby temples and waterfalls so our plan for tomorrow is to simply steal his idea [Music] back is gonna train it pretty chilled out place get around going resident Italian what's on the menu you go I just made these supposed to be all just chips in did a bit of a shop a little piece for the night tomorrow we're gonna do our own talks more about that tomorrow but yeah tonight he is pastor then we're gonna check out the town 20 minutes yeah no rush we're in Belize you go slow this is why you make friends with Italians their hospitals all chipped in but he's done the effort look at that look at that okay so today we're going on a road trip to the biggest mine ruin in Belize and what we've done we've got a group together not just one or two but nine people we've hired out these two jeeps a two-hour drive through the jungle to the ruins and we're gonna work our way back something different like waterfalls in caves and stuff so it's gonna be our own little mini adventure today the drive through the jungle along the terrible bumpy dirt roads was exhausting Isis I did most of the driving I didn't get to feel much of it either but after two very long hours we made it to the caracal Mayan ruins my back hurts after that drive basically but we've made it to the ruins not many other people here so go for a little explore and oh [ __ ] Wow that is impressive this thing is huge and pretty much the only people here besides the military escort in Caracol Mayan ruins were occupied as early as 1200 BC however the main construction took place during the Maya classic period between 600 and 900 AD Oh son of a this massive pyramid we're climbing is known as the sky palace which is capped by three temples and rises over a hundred and forty feet above the jungle floor making it the tallest mine building in Belize I say it's definitely worth it to our bumpy drive to get here to see all this pretty impressive and you see if absolutely miles all around crossing the Guatemala and just endless jungle let's go see what's inside the temple what you find in the queue it's a nightclub it's nothing saying I can't go down there it's a tomb he's like dead bodies in that I should explain people often ask me what the hell's up with my accidents my parents are from the South of England but I was born and raised in the north and erm I lived there tells a teen but so I only ever had like a tiny hint the northern accent and I've lived in London the last 11 years so I just now at this miscellaneous accent thought I was gonna be higher up in here I thought I was gonna be higher up in here but I say to people for Geordie person showed up he might start paying back in I'm Nick over here she shows up from Newcastle and now it's probably gonna start fading but yeah well not good so apparently this is still the tallest building in all of police they still haven't built any tallness in the entire countries so it's even more temples this way we're just getting started the town of Caracalla grew into one of the largest ancient Maya cities covering some 65 square miles with an estimated peak population of about 120,000 or more top tip don't do this in flip-flops [ __ ] scary I'm gonna take my flip-flops off to get back down yeah we got this little square here with four temples high getting up here it's giving Nick [ __ ] for being slow running up yeah dead we'll be late like my fear of heights really heightens we've finished with the ruins and now we're driving back to some water for the staff but we just don't look at the river ever enjoy the room made it to our first stop way back it's the Rio pools but if we can swim here somewhere else but we're gonna go check it out [Music] you bet it's all about the bat like right we're gonna go for a little dip in the pool and then we've got some happy cow the Daffy cows got happy cow cheese and cheese biscuits darling after relaxing in a pool for a while we drove further back towards town to the big rock waterfall whoa a jump straight in there getting that water since boiling pot is so refreshing I was so nice so aggression exactly what any been a tiring day driving those roads and a hot day but jumping in hot water temperatures just perfect I love a good water for sir yeah great today alright so we're only about 20 minutes back from the town thinking are the drives only done we're nearly there find out what you've got flat rear tire so now we're gonna change this you'll never change the time of life [ __ ] need to remember that one now if I film this I can learn how to do it fortunately the place we just happened to randomly stop by it's a tire repair shop yeah I just pulled the bigs I've got a space field to get past in rather than a tire repair shop it's working it's working quite painless way to this on I celebrate wants us return to the rental nice one guys that's great video it had been an exhausting day driving on the dirt roads but it was still totally worth it we'd had such a great time together exploring the ruins and chilling in the waterfalls and it just goes to show not only how easily you can make friends traveling but also when your solo traveling you're very rarely by yourself because the next day out of the 9 of us in our group six of us we're gonna do the border crossing together it's come on all right water crossing day the gang is all here little live after yesterday I'm gonna head to Guatemala right now step ones get a taxi to the border you got a taxi for 20 Belize dollars and then to leave please cost you 40 police dollars or 20 us so I'm officially in no-man's land between Belize Guatemala this shouldn't be any fees to go to Guatemala it's been pretty painless so far so so far so good people looking happy that's it so that like the most famous border crossing ever just came through stamps you're in easy easy that was all right I'm just trying to figure out a bus to the town now Ryan next friends Ryan apparently follows the channel and said to Nick oh cars gonna be in Central America you should try and find him and she's like didn't be [ __ ] stupid how mother [ __ ] find this random book in the middle of Central America and then I bumped into Nick okay but he's grown up since then so it's ten us for the bus to town we're gonna wait here a few minutes and then we're sois hopefully well just gracias [Music] the minivan only took an hour and a half to get us to the town of Flores biggest smile our ceiling makes face today my girls you don't see much like jordi cliches by getting that excited by McDonald's oh my god come to Guatemala have western food once we were dropped off you just had to walk through the cobbled streets to find our hostel all right so we made it to our hostel las amigos this place isn't actually available in hostel world but it's where one stays and flyers and it's weird because it's right in the middle of the town but as soon as you step inside it kind of feels like you're in a jungle because it's like trees and plants everywhere and little animals roaming around and it's a great place you know it's got tons of amenities they've got their own travel agency they've even got like a health spa horan clinic and the during the day it kind of has a vibe by this chilled out hipster kind of Zen cafe has its own restaurant and bar but then at nine o'clock that'll shut so that people can get some sleep if they want and then they open up this soundproof nightclub upstairs which we've nicknamed the Jenga for [Applause] [Music] Flores is a little town on lake peten itza it's popular with tourists because of its proximity to the famous to cal mayan ruins we'll be checking those out tomorrow for today we're just gonna have a chill day and head over to a rope swing and another hostel on the lake [Music] we have come across from Florida sever their become to this other hostel the whole game is hostile okay hojae's becomes this guy's hostile to do some rope swinging which obviously I'm not going to do for a reason you're already now and this is our drum that's his other one [Music] was it me [Music] Alice Clark back off right yeah we can chart here rope swinging tubing and relax today and tomorrow we're gonna check out the cowl ruins that's the plan another busy day in Central America very chilled travel days I love travel days like this because yesterday we did the border crossing tour I got a tour booked we're gonna be like doing an activity but which just means that today is just free to just hang out chill out not a care in the world so you just try and milk it for some more subscribers how did I please please subscribe yes I love day like this like this just yeah we just sit around having beers you can do that at home but we've got a rope swing we've got a beautiful lake got some cool people and the great time like I said not a care in the world our only responsibility for today is to have a good time ever enjoy rope swing Island Resort the hospital thing after having a fantastic and very chilled day out we made our way back to Flores and in the evening we went to explore the town we had to be very careful where we walked because of the cameras Birds this sharp at night that's good on a side street specially [Music] we escaped our Hospital for the evening comes this small local place got a barbecue going just for 30 Cazalas which is like roughly three quid or four u.s. dollars yeah fresh food just got it on the ghost it's like and when I asked for it simulating about his food they have the good side it's a great day between China rum swing so very very good evening so far [Music] [Applause] the next morning we were off to see the main event the Tikal Mayan ruins there's different tours throughout the day including sunrise and sunset tours but since we didn't want to get up early and it usually rains late afternoon we opted for the middle of the day tour today we're finally doing to count ruins somewhere wanted to go through for years but morale is not very high because our chilled a got a bit carried away yesterday we're doing our cue number three of 20 maybe they're lots of waiting around shuttles tickets IDs some more tickets but we'll get there screaming good it's gonna be good we now got our wristbands for the VIP section of the took our club I'm just have to give our tickets right my name is Floyd part of the big ones part of the most spectacular collusion initiative began the ones are allowed to climb Tikal was the biggest mine city of the Mayan territory which stretched from the southeast of Mexico to the west of El Salvador and Honduras Tikal city itself covers an area of 576 square kilometers and archaeologists have found over 60,000 buildings here between 200 and 900 AD Tikal dominated the mine region politically economically and military until it was abandoned towards the end of the 10th century people from Flores de France because by accident in 1848 so from 900 years afterwards to 1848 nobody live in this place what happened the power of vegetation grew up would cover the city today ninety percent of the city it's like 10% of the city my friends we can see we can take your photos right we can climb some of the buildings and 5% is restored in 5% its original owners just had our workout for the day climbing up his temple to get the best view of temple number one [Music] it's photoshoot time okay everyone's get the perfect picture me included yeah good picture so [ __ ] isn't pretty often to finally be here though I'm gonna explore around like another few hours lots of different temples different pyramids see I things to check out [Music] we've no way through the jungle to pyramid that's only been open a year ago we can climb all it to the top again 360 view and we pretty sweet we're gonna make it as long as we don't trip over and the roots first we have a lot of animals here so we got to go deeper into the jungle to see more animals for instance that's the nature documentary part of the trip we saw two cone which is not gonna come out with them at all and some spider monkeys it's a good day because you see monkeys we saw the Coco Lita you saw the tucán the real token and the fake Dukan spider monkeys many different animals today my friends climb part of the builders that's good it's good day for the human race remember the movie ends this is the bad guy you want destroyed the nest the grasshopper will shut that moon please mister see right here kiss me right here we're gonna have 20 minutes in this place my friend lime yep Maksim Sabo like three or four minutes to go up come back down and we move to the highest point of the girls team for number four Wow pretty damn impressive up here great view of the park that's the second biggest journal in the world as we Mexico all the way down to Costa Rica biggest being right let's go to the highest point my friends so - cow was the original capital of the Mayan culture until I moved on the JIT Schnitzer so it's a very very important place what's even more important was it was used in the original Star Wars movie it was the rebel base George Lopez Lopez 1977 he wasn't up filmed I'm moving my friends here's the top of temple for like a airbase and the movie you can see how to look like fly in the airship and top of Tikal yeah I was using visual Star Wars new hope and also in rogue one so this is the sunrise temple the star war symbol or temple number four the highest point of the Cal my friends right now we're on the Star Wars temple it's nothing every stars you see yes they had an awesome day two car ruins like such a beautiful place such an iconic place it was amazing to finally go there and it's good fun going with friends have made the last few days just of added that extra level of bantering fun today they asked why you come through fighting ehtekaf okay since my last morning here on Flores last night I was like I'm not drinking I'm gonna have a quiet night so just need some rest you know can't keep hitting it hard all the time so that was my plan just have a good good night's sleep but problem is when you in hostels you can never guarantee a good night's sleep so I'd say about 95% of the nights in this trip it's been fine so I don't want to scare people off hostels if you're watching us then you're not been backpacking before but last night I had pretty much everything like any sort of cliche you thing that could happen in a dorm room that you wouldn't want it kind of happened so I was sleeping up there the two drunk guys came in late on they were talking loudly then some other drunk guys came in and turned the lights on waking everyone up and then a couple came in and had sex writing that they're just they're washed I was sleeping just there then when they were done luckily didn't last too long um this guy was snoring his head off all night long and then about at 5:00 a.m. this guy's alarm went off like 10 minutes they just didn't wake up and then once he did switch off his alarm that guy started snoring again so basically last night I got no sleep whatsoever and that's what I'm looking at feeling like [ __ ] supposed to be well rested today but its exact opposite but that's hostel life for you so I'm about the halfway point of our trip and I've had a slight change of plans because I'm in Florida Guatemala but my plan was to go back into Mexico a little bit to see the lengthening in San Cristobal the main reason being Santos was like an old colonial Mexican town and you know I've done the Cancun kind of touristy glam area like a couple twice now I would see the sort of more traditional side of Mexico well if by doing that there may not have to miss out some up shampoo which everyone raves about say is the best thing about the Morrow's just chatting James up days go and he's like mate you can't miss it out you've got to go and so I was like coming and Ari about it for two or three days think you know could I squeeze it all in and then I thought you know what I want to do a proper trip of Mexico in the future and see like you know travel around the country so I can save san cristobel for then and this trip just focus in Guatemala and shampoos so that's what I'm gonna do my flight home was from Guatemala City anyway so by doing this it buys me a lot of extra time to really enjoy the country it saves me money by not doing two additional border crossings in and out of Mexico and it means that they'll miss out on what's supposed to be the highlight of Guatemala well that's the way you go do when you're traveling you've got to just be willing to be flexible and I always come up with a plan we gotta be very willing to just get rid of the plan and go over the flow once you get on the ground that's what I'm doing so I'm going to smoke champeta morrow and I'm gonna be having three nights there there should be an incredible time exploring such a beautiful place with all the friends I've made recently and we'll be hiking swimming tubing seeing these stunning waterfalls as well as relaxing and partying in an amazing hostel so it's just going to be perfect two days right I'm now in Antigua semuc champey end up in there a lot longer than I planned cuz I ended up getting ill there so just to recap what happened the last few days I mean the Jenny's from forest to smoke shampoo is about 10 hours crammed into a minivan with the rose or gradually getting worse as you head up into the jungles and the mountains alright to put an eight-hour journey to get to smoke shampoo yeah now in the town language which is right by it and my Lodge is up on the hill and they got this free shale to take me up there you get to town alone green and you have to transfer into this basically like cattle on the back of the shuttle with your bags and all the other backpackers heading up to the hostel and just sort of hanging on for dear life hoping that you make it it's been a long tiring day so I just wanna we get there and check in basically that but the journey is worth it because once you get to Zephyr lodge it is stunning yet it is so beautiful it's almost like a five-star resort they've got a swimming pool they've got a barn sewing pool they've got a jacuzzi no pool tables great bar great place to hang out the dorm rooms were gorgeous like the single bed that I had you know was like by of a window with a beautiful view of the mountains it was just perfect and first evening I got there so tired from the journey is like I'm gonna put the camera away and just enjoy myself I made a great time sewing Paul's to kuzey then having a lot of fun at the bar [Applause] all right first things for exampie tomorrow uniform tore this area with the hospital but my first day at the long drive yesterday is like I need to get a tube she went she leaving the hospital I mean she was always fun and the river was like nice turquoise blue all this jungle around you have music play on the speaker's tons of beers just get drunk and a good time awesome day this is like the world's best theme park ride don't let go Jack [Applause] [Music] however I'm back in the pool just continue in the party [Music] [Applause] the water comes out from under [Laughter] and the plan for the second day was to do the smoke champ you talk but we woke up the weather was terrible so if not our will do that the day after then and just chill out for the day [Music] so we've come into town language just to get some pizza and this band has been playing all day like since like 7:00 a.m. or something non-stop it's now it's now 2 o'clock and is still going like the other ones [Music] that's just like I thought on how they have the energy to just keep going it goes on and on and on when you're gonna hangover especially that nick has [Music] [Music] [Laughter] when towards the end of that second day I started getting ill racing under stomach bug the plan for today was through the actual smoke champ you too and that's why I'm here to see but yesterday I got ill so I've just been in bed for the last 24 hours and nothing worse than being ill at a party hostel you just won't get out of here and we were on but I still a c-section peak that's what come here to see ya what's happened to me is pretty standard for Central America and especially by tomorrow from speak to other people everyone gets a stomach bug at some point why she here so it's it's not a tragedy or anything it's just boring and frustrating it's like you're here and you want to be enjoying as much as you can but you're just tired and exhausted because you can't eat much food I've extended my stay for another night I'm trying to tort on tomorrow if I have enough energy if I don't imagine it to tomorrow then I'm just gonna cancel that move on because I can't stay here any longer wanna go see some other stuff of Guatemala so hopefully I'll get better soon [Music] and then I'm a fourth day there I'm still feeling a bit rough part like I need to get out of here so I signed up for the tour anyway I was like I can't come all this way and not see some milk champey you know I changed the plan of my trip to see some little champey I can't see it as we walk through lanquin to reach our Jeep to take us on our date or we found out what all the music practicing was for that we've been here in the last few days here in Guatemala every town is an annual fair the date of which depends on what st. the town is named after and what date the Catholic Church celebrates that's eight full name of the town lanquin translates to st. Augustine man Quinn and the church celebrates st. Augustine on the 28th of August which just so happens to be whilst we're here it would have actually been really cool to stick around and watch the celebrations but after being stuck in bed ill for two days there was no way I was going to miss out on my tour of some Luke champagne now the Falls aren't too far from land Quinn but it still takes 45 minutes to get there because of the dodgy roads and as part of our tour there was a couple of activities on offer before we got to semuc champey itself good morning everyone my name is Rafa today welcome to summer campaign the first activity is what we're gonna start to do right now it's gonna be the water caves it's like a couple minutes from here in this case we're gonna be in select and our hard for 2 hours depends amenity for inside now the first bit Latour is the cave tool and I've decided not to do that just because I'm still feeling really rough I've got like your serial energy I face been living on a diet of peanut butter on toast for like a day or two days so I'd like to put my sensible cap on and say no to it okay with the pool's feel a bit tired or not very well and you just get out the pools with a hike confirm a bit tired not very well just turn around on the hike if I'm not feeling well in the cave you're still in the [ __ ] cave just look I get out of it so the rest of the group's gone to do the case for like an hour and a half and I'm just have to hang out here now when I knew I was gonna be hanging out for hour and a half whilst they were caving as I great I probably should be sitting by the Jeep in a muddy carpark but it turns out this is where I've got to wait so it's not too bad at all [Music] because a gorgeous gorgeous waterfall just here right by the path they got rope swings got a really nice women in here more waterfalls up there so as far as places to hang out for an hour and a half can't complain this it's pretty spectacularly here [Applause] so yeah hopefully get through today for Hillel right and this may not be the most enthusiastic there to be so still burn pretty rough but yeah we're gonna get there and then it's off to Antigua tomorrow to the mountain [Music] alright wait it's a soap shampoo that's a hike uphill hike down again but any kill we just got that viewpoint like cuz I've managed it weed I was basically running on empty and no energy to use nearly kill me sinful money of excess Australia not to slip over yeah I'm absolutely shad when we got to you're down to the pools of smoke champagne I'd like just sit and rest in the shade for half an hour before I actually go on the pool so just need to catch my breath it's places beautiful straight to finally be here but it's hard it's working in the MTS apart a video because I'm exhausted so it's good to finally be here you don't mind me I'm gonna go [Music] this selection back this is one of those very strange experiences where you at such a beautiful place and it was gorgeous and you know me you've seen my videos you know how much I love Porter Falls but I was just a girl oh yeah it's beautiful but yeah whatever I had to say we could really appreciate it because I was just just exhausted [Music] what's doing some up shampoo again I would do the tour on your first day even if you're tired just get it done free Kent Hill second day just go relax on the tube get drunk have a good time third day get out there and then you look back at some what shampoo guard that place is amazing rather than spending too long and far too much money there because thing to know about that hostel is it's all run on a tap system which you just pay for the credit card at the end so when you're drunk and you're playing those bar games you can just do five more and more drinks and more food and not realize how much you're spending and then without realising you can just rock up this massive bill which you've got to pay off at the end it's a wrap [Music] finally got to leave there's no other sort of eight to ten hour shuttle van to here and on Tigre [Music] so yeah I've got two more weeks to go could have decided to treat myself to a private room in a hostel and just have a breather get myself back together then get back involved the last two weeks this trip want to be really active you know got with volcanoes doing three-day nights to day hikes half day hikes whatever sprong at towns different villages and I've set leave my energies to do that so hopefully I'm going to get back to the groove for the next couple of days and start feeling better and just start properly enjoying myself and really make the most these last two weeks in Guatemala [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music]

Channel: Karl Watson: Travel Documentaries

Views: 148,360

Keywords: adventure, backpacking, belize travel video, belize travel vlog, central america backpacking, central america travel, central america travel video, central america travel vlog, central america trip, guatemala travel video, guatemala travel vlog, karl watson, karl watson travel documentaries, semuc champey, solo backpacking, solo travel, solo travel central america, travel, travel central america, travel documentary, wanderlust, flores, san ignacio, tikal guatemala, caracol

Id: 8yGpb1NPyx4

Length: 40min 20sec (2420 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 20 2018