lauantai 20. kesäkuuta 2009

perjantai 19. kesäkuuta 2009

Under the surface of Caribean turquoise

After Los Naranjos our paths aparted from Teemu and Jonna. They headed to Nicaragua as we to the islands of northern coast of Honduras. When we got to the island of Utila we straight took a boat ride to a smaller Jewel Caye. It was a funny community. Two atols linked with a bridge, every squaremeter constructed and no motorvehicles beside boats. It was colourful with people from different cultures. Garifuna, spanish and descendants of british conquerors. Less than fivehundred inhabitants and seven churches, think about that.
It was time for new skills. Iitu did a course of Open water diver and Tommi upgraded himself to Advanced diver. Beside the lessons we did couple of dives together, one exciting during the night.

Sunset view from Fishburgers restaurant.

Iitu´s first lesson, how to check the gear. Beans With Rice And Fish.

And soon she was doing the real thing. Like a fish in the water.

Tommi impressed by doing "smoke" rings in the water.

Shipwreck 30 meters deep.

Inside there was a ghosty world.

Green murray eel, we saw many big ones.

Poor pilot whale came here to die. Only skeleton is left.

Stingray hiding on the bottom.

These sympatic creatures are Garden eels. When you tried to reach them, they hid underground.

It was nice to end a dive by seeing the beauty of 27 levitating squids.

Big and angry octopus.

Parrot fish with a devilish grin.

Fireworm resting beside the coral.

Shy squirrel fish posing.

French Angelfish

Two spotted Finn fish.

Spotted trunkfish saying uu-uu.

There actually is a fish in this pic. A scorpion fish. Just find it.

Those eels were long and creepy.

Cute Porcupine fish.

Better a lobster in a hole than on the plate.

Camping in Water Caye, only us on a deserted island. The day was perfectly sunny and the night was amazing. Under a starry sky we watched the lightnings all around in the horizon.

Dorks doing some snorkelling and free diving.

Kuinka saisin rikki kookospahkinan.

Finally it opened. Delicious!

Biggest seastar ever.

Belize - Guatemala - Honduras

Though the material boys got from Bermudian landing was good it was still missing one essential, a close-up of howling alfamale. We got a lift to Belize Zoo to get it. The filming permit cost thousand bucks, Teemu negotiated it to hundred. Well done. What we finally did? We walked in, seeked the monkeys, made them howl and then walked out. A nice free session, huh? It was a start for a good flow with the rides.
We picked up Jonna from Hopkins, headed to Punta Gorda for a boat ride to Guatemala and by evening we were at Chiquimula ready to cross the border. Quick visit to Guatemala followed by quick visit to Copan Ruinas. Boys did some shooting as we girls hung around the small town. The pulse was high, so soon we found ourselves in Los Naranjos from where we visited the beautiful cloudforest. The five kilometers walk with the one and half kilometer ascent was tough and sweaty but worth it. The view was great.
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maanantai 8. kesäkuuta 2009

Community baboon sanctuary, Belize

There is a very succesfull conservation project in Belize. Black Howler Monkey is getting endangered in many areas because of human activity, but in Community Baboon Sanctuary there are thousands of those creatures. They are still living wild in designated areas. We went to do some filming there and this is what they looked like.
They are black, small and noisy creatures.

Some of them were not afraid at all and they really liked cashew fruit.

Chillin' out and watching some stupid humans going around.

Big alfa male getting ready to do some serious howling.

Mayan ruins

We finally got our cameras back from the Mexican customs. It took us a month to fight the bureucracy, and finally we didn't even have to pay any bribes. Now there was a lot of filming to do. One of the episodes is about the Mayan ruins, so we went to see quite a few of them. Our ruta Maya went as follows. Palenque-Yaxchilan-Bonampak-Tical-Copan. And we had allready seen the ruins of Monte Alban and Chinkultic.

It is amazing how the ancient Mayas have been able to build such a huge structures. They didn't use the wheel nor any metal tools. Most of the temples are also positioned following exactly the Mayan calendar. The other mystery is the sudden destruction of the ancient civilization about thousand years ago.

Palenque is one of the biggest ruins in Mexico. That's where we started filming.

Beautiful waterfalls of Aqua Azul are located near Palenque.

The camera man at work.

Happy in Yaxchitlan.

From the small ruins of Bonampak you can find well preserved ancient paintings.


On the way from Palenque to Guatemala we spent a night in a small Lacanha Chansayab village in the jungle.

Jungle kids in their colorful gowns practising a march.


Crossing the border.

On the Guatemalan side we had to change tyre twice before getting to the destination.

The most impressive temples are found in Tical, Guatemala. It's said that Tical used to be the capital of Mayan culture. It was allready abandoned and covered with vegetation when the conquistadores got there.

It is quite unbeliavable that the wooden beam over the door is original.

The rain god had its own pit in the platform. The latter ruler wanted bigger and constructed over the structure but was polite enough to save a hole for the god.

The way up was steep and tall...


...but the view was absolutely worth it.

It doesn't take long for the trees to take over a city. Most of the ruins we visited where inside the dense jungle in exciting surroundings.


There was quite strong earthquake in Honduras while we where near Tical. The small house where we slept was shaking badly, but luckily it didn't collapse.