On to Hopkins

Drove inland to Belmopan, the capital, (an instant town built after Hurricane Hattie destroyed most of Belize City in 1961); stopped to buy bananas and papaya from a fruit stand, then headed southeast down the Hummingbird Highway. It winds through the hills - lush tropical vegetation on either side of the road - saw some small wild Bird of Paradise flowers.
We passed a citrus plant with huge open-top trucks full of oranges waiting to be processed into concentrated orange juice for export.
It rained most of the way. As we moved closer to the coast the landscape changed to flat plain, and soon we turned off onto a rough dirt road to Hopkins. The village is about two miles long, parallel to the beach, and you can walk on the road without fear, as cars are few and far between, and go slowly due to the many potholes. Most people walk or rides bikes to get around.
Our hotel is small (3 rooms) and rustic; the location more than makes up for it: each room has 2 hammocks on the covered porch, and the view is of sand, palm trees and the ocean stretching out to the horizon - next stop Jamaica if you sailed east from here. We saw a lot of colourful birds in the shrubs nearby.
Brad went for a swim, and when he was quite a ways out from shore, heard breathing nearby - there were two manatees swimming about 15 feet from him, coming up for air then showing their backs and tails as they slid beneath the surface again.
The bugs are bad here, so we slathered ourselves with repellant before dark. Besides the usual mosquitos and no-see-ums, there are a lot of Doctor Flies, so-called because they inject an anesthetic so you don't notice them biting; then later the affected part swells to the size of an egg and burns and itches for about an hour.
Dinner had been arranged before we arrived, at a Garifuna woman's house. We could have had iguana, but decided on a seafood meal instead. It was a typical meal of casava bread, fish in coconut broth, with mashed plantain patties, and was served under her mango tree in her yard, with a single lightbulb illuminating the table. We were ten: the four of us, two other Canadians, and 4 Americans on a culinary tour of local cacao and coffee farms.

Trip to Caracol

This was our first cloudy day; we had been expecting another scorcher, but were pleasantly surprised at the cooler temperature.
We were 4 Canadians and our guide; he drove in his ancient Ford econoline van - he'd gone through several gas engines he said, and it had been an automatic originally - we could see the gear changer thing on the steering column, but it was now a manual transmission and a diesel engine. He explained how he and his friends worked on it over 2 weeks - some work - some beer - more work - more beer etc. He was a unique individual and the van was something else too. It had the original pedals on the floor and closer to him, the new ones. He stopped twice to look under the hood (engine still running) and add some fluid somewhere (oil?).
We drove for 2 hours on dusty, bone-jarring dirt roads up into the Mountain Pine Ridge Forest - which has suffered from the Pine Beetle too.
Came to the British Army jungle training camp, and could see their huts and vehicles (Prince Andrew trained there). Later we heard their helicopter overhead, and saw a red sign: Live Firing Area No Entry (!)
Arrived at Caracol at 10:00 and walked the main areas, climbed three temples, and just finished when it started to rain lightly.
The view from the top of the highest temple was unbelievable - we could look into Guatemala and see trees and jungle and mist all around. You could imagine the Mayan cities with all the people bustling about below, trading with visitors from Tikal and the coast.
Had our lunch and started driving back down the road; we had planned to stop at natural pools in the river to swim, but it was rainy and coolish, so only stopped at the side of the road for photos of the pools.
The road - that orange/red clay just like the road to Tikal in 1979 when our bus sunk up to the axle - had turned to mush with the rain, and we slid a bit on the way down hills. Our driver regaled us with tales of other times when the road was worse, and he went down hills backwards (not intentionally).
Just made it into our room around 4:00 when the heavens opened up and it just poured - torrential rain - and we looked out our window at people running for shelter on the road below. It was sure nice to be warm and dry inside.
Tomorrow we take the bus back to Belize City; we're sad to be leaving this area - there's lots more to explore here. Friday we drive with Debra and Phil down to Hopkins - a Garifuna village on the coast - see the link at the bottom of the page for more detail.

Visit to a jungle lodge

Got a taxi out of town to the Lodge at Chaa Creek; it's west of San Ignacio, right on the Macal river. It's a huge, beautiful property with lots of trails; we got a map from Reception and walked part of the Rainforest Medicine trail, which was interesting; read the descriptions on the plants, shrubs and trees.
Had a wonderful lunch at the enormous open style restaurant - very upscale - and tasted our first key lime pie - delicious!
Then walked up to the Blue Morpho butterfly farm and took pictures of them landing on our t-shirts and hats. They also have a small Natural History Centre.
By then it was time to head to the employee parking area where we hitched a ride back to town with the Maintenance manager.
It was a very hot day and we thought longingly of how cool it had been in the cave the day before.

3. The Cave

At the end of the trail we left our packs, ate a banana, donned our helmets (with headlamps) and climbed down to the river that comes from the large cave entrance.
Swam about 30' across a deep pool. We walked single file upriver in ankle deep water until Martin told us to put our right hand on the shoulder of the person ahead of us, and turn off our headlamps; we were going down into the Mayan Underworld.
We shuffled along like this until it got so dark you wondered why you bothered to keep your eyes open.
The water got deeper and colder, we turned a corner, then finally stopped (still in the dark) and Martin then told us the Mayan creation story - all we could hear was water dripping and the sound of his voice. It was an incredible start to our cave exploration - we swam upriver, climbed over rocks, saw the usual cave formations, squeezed through small passages, then climbed out of the water up to the entrance to the Sacred Chamber, where we had to leave our shoes/sandals and drybags, and walk in our socks (no bare feet allowed).
This is where we saw pottery and skeletons - there are 14 in the cave; we saw several. It was amazing to think that these bones were still where they were placed so long ago.

2. The hike

The trail through the jungle crossed the Roaring river 3 times - we waded across. Our guide showed us a termite nest and how to eat them (we declined). Also saw hummingbirds, yellow and purple orchids growing around ant nests, balsa trees and strangler figs.

1. The drive

Drove east on the highway then south for 7 miles on a really bumpy road - sort of like driving up a dry creekbed - and we were glad we weren't in our own van; luckily it's "the dry" (dry season) here, but the bad road was evidence of the heavy rains.
We drove across the shallow river twice, saw huge Ceiba trees, small houses, then the valley. The whole area was occupied by Maya and the cave was used for rituals.

One way to stay cool

Left town at 0845 in a van for an all day tour to Actun Tunichil Muknal, or ATM for short as it's called here. It's a large cave system 3 miles long, used by the ancient Maya in the Late Classic period (pottery has been carbon dated 600 AD).
Only certain trained licensed guides are allowed to take people into the cave, with a maximum of 8 in a group.
We were 5 plus our part-Maya guide, Martin, who speaks Creole, Spanish and English. The trip involves an hour drive, a 45 minute hike, a swim, then the cave, where you go half a mile in, and emerge 3 hours later.

Bus ride inland

Caught the 9:30 bus west to San Ignacio, which is a small town near the Guatemalan border. We traveled along the Western Highway on a local bus (Bluebird school bus) with the door open, stopping often to drop off and pick up passengers.
A few times the driver pulled over because a group of cyclists were coming towards us with their support vehicles (it was a race - competitive cycling is big here).
About an hour and a half later, around Teakettle Village, the landscape changed from flat savannah to hilly (foothills of the Maya Mountains), and we started to see different (lush and green) vegetation: banana trees, orange groves, teak tree farms, a sign for the Belize/Taiwan experimental farm; we saw horses in fields, and crops of bush beans.
Arrived in San Ignacio around 12:30, found our guesthouse and walked around, got lost, then found; arranged two all-day tours: Monday to a Mayan cave and Weds to Caracol.

In the city

When people greet you in the evening, they say Good Night!
Most people have a 45 hour work week here - Monday to Sat noon. Government employees work Mon - Friday. Agricultural workers make minimum wage: BZ $2.00 an hour (!)
While slightly larger than El Salvador, Belize only has a population of 300,000 while El Salvador has 7 million people!
PS G left Friday.

Five feet from a jaguar - talking to a toucan

Drove 40 minutes out of the city to the Belize zoo, where they only have injured, abandoned or donated critters. It's an educational centre, with large enclosures with lots of trees and vegetation. We were there early and saw so many animals: a cute grey fox, a beautiful jaguar right at the fence, a sleeping ocelot, margay cats sleeping in the fork of a tree, peccary, coatamundi (relative of raccoons), howler and spider monkeys, and tapir, or mountain cow, the national animal. Birds we saw were a jabiru up close, parrots, scarlet macaw, an emerald toucan and the larger keel billed toucan. The two hours we spent there went by quickly.
A film crew from Japan was there filming for a documentary about Belize.

Getting the tourist dollar, Part Two

We'd heard that every Weds at a beachfront hotel, there is the "world famous" Chicken Drop, where there's a board with 50 numbered squares, - you buy a ticket for a square, and hope the chicken drops (poops) on "your" square - it's a dollar a ticket and winner takes all.
We lined up in the bar to buy tickets, and must have stood in line for at least half an hour, enough time for them to sell lots of beer. The first time the chicken was put in (there's a net around the board) - it didn't move, and so the winner was a guy from Idaho with the middle number. G describes the second one:
"The announcer said she usually lets people who have a special occasion put the chicken in the drop, - this guy (slightly drunk Aussie) yelled that it was his 21st birthday. When she asked him to do the tradition of spinning the chicken around 3 times, he started to do so quite vigorously until there were cries of protest from the crowd, scared the chicken was going to be hurt. It was pretty funny though."
That time the chicken walked around more, but despite having 4 numbers, we didn't win the $50.00.
Watched the eclipse of the moon from the beach.

Getting the tourist dollar, Part One

We heard that every day at 4 p.m. crocodiles are fed "a few miles south of town, past the water tower, on the lagoon side." G describes it: "We rented bikes, and after a long and arduous bike ride where Dad led us astray numerous times, we finally came across an open part in the lagoon where 5 gangster looking kids called us over: - You guys want ta see da crocodiles? - After more tourists gathered they tied a rope on a frozen chicken and threw it repeatedly into the water until a crocodile came. The first one was probably about 8' long and the second about 12' long. They'd throw it in and tease it so the croc would try to bite it - to try to get it out of the water but they only got them half out."
Then they collect tips from the bystanders.

Snorkling

Our local guide took us out to the Hol Chan (Mayan for narrow channel) Marine Reserve. First we had to wait our turn to have the Marine rangers, in their boats, come and stamp our tickets (there's a fee of $10.00 US to be in the Reserve). They patrol the area and if they catch anyone fishing in the protected zone they're fined $500.00 belize, or $250.00 US.
We snorkeled as a group (of 10) to the channel and back, and saw a small barracuda, groupers, a spotted eagle ray, a green eel, tons of colourful fish, and lots of different kinds of coral.
Then we went to Shark Ray Alley and snorkled with sting rays and nurse sharks. Luckily they stay on the bottom and aren't interested in people. Nurse sharks have their teeth inside, and don't look too fearsome; but they can suck conch right out of its' shell! It was a great trip.
Met 2 young men on the dock - both from Kelowna and here on reading break. The people snorkling with us were all from Wyoming.
B and G tossed the frisbee in the late afternoon and were soon joined by quite a few local kids who wanted to play.

Water taxi

Took a noon water taxi from Belize City to San Pedro on Ambergris Caye - took just over an hour. San Pedro is not the sleepy town with narrow sand streets we saw in 1981, the last time B and I were here. Now bikes, golf carts and a few cars and vans whiz by on the paved roads, and pedestrians hug the buildings (only a few sidewalks), and fear for their lives. Easier to walk on the beach if possible. The north-south streets are Front Street, Middle Street and Back Street. Development now stretches way down the beach in both directions.
B and G went windsurfing from the beach in front of our small hotel; lots of wind for them.

Lamanai

The most amazing day. Got up early and drove an hour north to Orange Walk. Met our tour guides and got in a boat for the trip up the river through jungle to the Mayan site of Lamanai.
On the way up the river we saw crocodiles of all sizes, birds: ibis, snowy egret, snail kites, wood storks, Northern jacanas, and 2 Jabiru storks on their nest (biggest flying bird in the Americas). Saw iguanas, snake cactus hanging from trees, and passed a sugar "factory" the guide called it, and a Mennonite community.
An excellent guide took us around Lamanai. We climbed to the top of the High Temple (about 11 stories high), and G's comment was "this is epic!" The view was of the river and jungle for miles in every direction.

Arrived!

Arrived at noon - sunny and humid. Debra and Phil live at the end of a road near the Belize River and their house backs on to a canal that goes to the river. Their yard has a coconut tree, honeysuckle, and what I think is a yellow hibiscus bush.
After Belikin beer on the shady patio and some lunch, Phil took us on a tour of the city. We saw poor areas, wooden houses on stilts, fancy houses on the water, mostly up in case of a storm serge. Also saw the Governor's house, now a cultural centre, Battlefield Park, fishing boats with dugout canoes on them, the Baron Bliss monument, a cruise ship anchored offshore, and the swing bridge, which is cranked open by hand.

Packing

Enough armchair travel! Time to get going - leaving on Friday!

Finished Beka Lamb

Last summer our friends mentioned the novels of Zee Edgell, set in Belize, and I just finished her first one, Beka Lamb. It's set in Belize City in the 1950's and gives a real flavour of that time. See the link at the bottom of the page for more info on the book and author. I hope to read her other novels as well.