Punta Gorda, BELIZE

It was a long 5 hour bus ride from Guatemala City to Puerto Barrios, in the far north of Guatemala, here on the Caribbean Coast. I stayed the night in this little port town - dusty roads but surrounded by green jungle. This morning early I took a real fast boat up along the coast of Guatemala and Belize to a pretty town of Punta Gorda, southern Belize. As people (mostly black and mix of black and indigenous) here are so laid back, they simply refer to the town as PG. English is widely spoken here in addition to Mayan languages and a little Spanish. People are very friendly.

Spent the past few hours with Dr. Alfred Lau, one of the world's most respected botanists and also known as "The King of Cacti". Dr. Lau (in his late 80's) discovered so many plant species around the world (mostly in Central and South America), than he doen't even know the number. I looked through his years of publications and found many plants bearing his family name's Latin version (laui)...such as this and this, and many more!

I am going into the interior tomorrow for hiking and to overnight with a Mayan family in a Kekchi Mayan village with a population of 300. Wish me luck...as I will have to walk a long way to find the village.