Beautiful Belize

• Barbarabryson's Profile
• About this blog
• Entry from Belize

Trip Start May 12, 2007 Previous
Entry Trip End Jul 14, 2007 Next
Entry

  Belize, Belize
Sunday, June 3, 2007

So here we are spending our last night in Belize and what a fantastic country it has been to visit. At first I was slightly apprehensive about it, wondering how safe we would be and our stuff. Sure, you do get petty crimes here, like any country; it's just blown out of proportion here because of Belize's past. Since the 90s however, the government has made a visible effort to eliminate this threat and has succeeded, in my opinion, to make the country and safe and wonderful place to visit *(hence Belize's main import now is tourism).
 
We crossed the border into Belize 6 days ago and set up camp in a small town called Corozal. We walked around the town, exploring the streets and culture. There was little open for dinner but we managed to find a cheap yet delicious Chinese restaurant in the main square. Afterwards we headed to a bar that was mentioned in the lonely planet

A snake we saw on our trek back to get our bus

. Here we got talking to locals (again) about Belize, its culture, people and beliefs (very deep and meaningful!)
 
The next morning we woke up and began our journey to Caye Caulker, which is an island where you can do the Great Blue Hole dive from. We had to get to Caye Caulker via Belize City, but we didn't spend any time there as we were on a very strict timetable as we knew we might have to wait around the Cayes for a few days as the dives at the Blue Hole are scheduled as it's a protected National Monument
 
When we got to Caye Caulker we managed to get on a dive for the next day. The dive consisted of 3 separate dives, the Blue Hole, Half Moon Caye Wall and Aquarium. All were fantastic but especially when we did the Blue Hole. At first I was a bit scared of doing the dive, especially as the boat next to us were feeding the sharks and all you could see we about 10 fins circling around. However once we descended it was like going into a different universe. I couldn't take my camera down as it only lasted up to 30m so I've included some images of what it's like down there, 40m below the water surface. Basically, the Blue Hole was created by a cave that collapsed over 12 thousand years ago. It reaches over 400 ft deep and spans 1000 ft across, creating a fantastic place for explorers and divers to experience

Me cooling off in the Blue Hole after our trek

. We only had 8 mins down at 40m before we had to ascend slowly, in the distance I saw a silhouette of a shark, and then more and more. At one stage I was diving around about 10 - 12 black-tip reef sharks, it was amazing!
 
The other two dives were really cool as well; we got to see a lot of different marine life as well as amazing corals. We also did a couple of swim through's which were pretty awesome!
 
That night we were pretty shattered so didn't have a late one.
 
The next day we carried on with our travels, going south to the Garifuna town of Dandriga. Here we mainly walked around and took in the atmosphere. It was pretty quiet so we only stayed for one night.
 
Next on our list was the inland Blue hole, about 18 miles south of the capital, Belmopan. Here we trekked for what seemed like hours in probably the most humid weather that I've ever experienced. It paid off though because it landed us by the Blue Hole, a lot smaller than the one I dived but was perfect for cooling off before we caught the bus to San Ignacio

The Great Blue Hole

.
 
When we got to San Ignacio the plan was to book cave tubing or some similar activity. However, on arrival the prices were extortionate so we decided to just do something ourselves. So today we got up and caught the local bus to the 'ferry' (was actually a floating platform you stood on where a guy pulled you over to the other side of the river. Here we walked 2km (uphill!) to get to the Xunantunich Maya ruins. It was a pretty small site but you got to climb all the way up to the top of El Castillo which was pretty cool. Unfortunately I don't have any photos as I didn't take my camera because there have been quite a few muggings on the 2km road between the river and the ruins. Better safe than sorry!
 
So that was Belize, a great country that has a lot to offer! Definitely will be interesting to see how it is in the next 5 to 10 years. Next on our list of countries is Guatemala. I can't wait!

Post your own travel photos for friends and family More Pictures

What we saw 40m underneath the surface

Slideshow Print this entry Share Belize City hotels

Previous Entry Next Entry