dare2go

Belize


Tiny island in the Caribbean

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We spent a lot of our time there eating (mostly fresh seafood), drinking (they make good cocktails and there was always a happy hour somewhere - usually 2 for the price of 1, and they would bring them both at once!), reading and sleeping. We did take a snorkelling trip to the reef, but it wasn't overly successful for either of us. I couldn't bring myself to leave the side of the boat, because the water was so deep, and since the boat had to be anchored off the reef, I didn't get to see the reef. I did however see a whole lot of Rays that were attracted to the boat by the guide throwing fish. Juergen couldn't find a face mask that didn't leak water, so he eventually gave up trying to snorkel as well. Quite disappointing, but nice to be out on the ocean with a nice group of people. There was even a young Australian guy in our group, taking a year off to travel between high school and university.
It was actually very nice to be out of the camper for a few days (but we were both pleased to get back to our own comfortable bed when we returned). Our hotel was right on the ocean and our room looked onto the water. We got an excellent breeze from that direction and didn't need to use our room fan at all. It is quite hot in Belize at this time of the year, but out at Caye Caulker it seemed to be almost 5 degrees cooler than on the mainland. We found a really nice place, Amor y Café, to have breakfast that served excellent coffee and also baked their own wholemeal bread. It is run by a Dutch woman, who was very friendly and a wealth of information. One day we were having lunch at a bar that was showing Wimbledon, and I got to see Leighton knocked out of the competition - he put up quite a good fight though. We find that we don't really miss television at all, but I did enjoy the tennis for that short time.
When we arrived back on the mainland we did some food shopping at the market and went back to the marina to get ready to leave the next day. Our next stop was the Bermudian Landing Community Baboon Sanctuary. They are not actually baboons, but black howler monkeys. The local people, prompted by a visiting scientist, got together to save the howler monkeys in their community. They have been quite successful and now have a very organised tourist destination. It costs $US7 to enter the Sanctuary and that includes a guided nature walk. Ours was led by an old man who has lived in Bermudian Landing all his life. Unfortunately no one told us about the mosquitos in the jungle there and Juergen had to leave the walk, just as we spotted the monkeys, to get away from the swarms of mossies! I got to see the monkeys up really close because when the guide called out to them, they came up to him with no fear. We also took a canoe trip along the river with another guide. He had the sharpest eyes I have ever known. He could pick out animals and birds from a long way away and as we would get closer we might be able to see them. There were iguanas, some monkeys, lots of different birds and some bats - these I had difficulty seeing even when he paddled us right up to the tree they were on, and he had seen them from the other side of the river! This 2 hour trip cost us $US25 each, plus a tip, but I figure they can use all the money they raise - it seems to be such a worthy cause. We were welcome to camp at the information centre - it was just $US5 for the night and they provided almost new bathrooms (seemed to be unfinished) with cold showers. The information centre is full of interesting facts and photos. It was a pleasant detour and well worth the time and money spent.
Belize is making a great effort to conserve its native fauna - as seen at the zoo and the Baboon Sanctuary. We were aware that the tour operators on Caye Caulker had all the right information and procedures for protecting the reef and its residents. Belize also has a number of National Parks and the only Jaguar Sanctuary in Central America.
After the baboon sanctuary, we drove west towards San Ignacio and the border with Guatemala. On the way we drove through Belmopan, the capital of Belize. It has been the capital since 1970 and was purpose built to take over from Belize City because of the constant threat of hurricanes on the coast. Once again, we had expected something more than what we found. Belize is such a small country and just doesn't seem to have the wealth for infrastructure that we take for granted. The city looked like most of the country we had seen - poorly maintained and depressed in large sections.
Mennonite returning from market in Cayo When we arrived in San Ignacio, we stopped in town to do a little shopping. We had heard about a German bakery with really good bread, but were disappointed not to find it open. We are not sure if it is closed temporarily or permanently. There is an operating French bakery and we were able to buy some passable sour dough and rye bread there. We are really missing the bolillos (bread rolls) we lived on in Mexico! We camped at an RV park west of the town, on the way to the border. It is run by a Belizean couple who worked and lived for many years in the USA. It was clean and quiet and well-organised and empty. We realised that we have been staying in empty campgrounds since we left Palenque. Hopefully we will get to meet some more travellers soon.
The next day we decided to drive out to Spanish Lookout, which is a Mennonite community north of San Ignacio. It was a rough dirt road and we had to cross a river on a hand operated ferry, which looked less than buoyant to me! The town surprised us both - it was the most modern and organised settlement we had seen in our time in Belize. Businesses like the tyre retailers and the dairy factory had buildings that wouldn't have looked out of place in any large city in the USA, and we found the largest supermarket in the whole country!
Belize is a small, but interesting country with just over ¼ million people. Guatemala claims it - but the Belizeans we talked to were all fiercely patriotic and proud of their small nation. Unfortunately it is very expensive compared with Mexico and, I suspect, other Central American countries. There appears to be a lot of poverty and lack of infrastructure, but the locals all seem to be happy and friendly people. We only saw a part of it, and would perhaps have explored more if it had not been so hot, but it seems to hold a great tourist potential. Maybe when people get tired of what the Mexican Caribbean has to offer and seek somewhere quieter and more in the slower pace of the Caribbean, Belize will increase its revenue from tourism substantially. But whether this will be to their advantage or not remains to be seen.


 
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