Belize
Trip Start
Jan 02, 2006
1
2
4
Trip End
Feb 2006
Belize,
Belize
Thursday, January 12, 2006
Belize is a cool place. A place which will hold fond and lasting memories for Katie and I. We bumped into familiar faces that we met in Mexico; namely two guys from Kentucky called Andy and Chris. We also met some fantastic new people at the hostel that we stayed on a little island called Caye Caulker: one being a girl called Ruth from Newcastle who actually studied in Sheffield; a girl from Norway called Ida who crossed the border with us; and a guy from Rome called Claudio who cooked us all shrimp risotto and spaghetti with lobster. Yum Yum!
The national language of Belize is English, which was a true blessing as my Spanish is still shocking, although as I write this itīs getting a little better, e.g., I can actually ask for an ashtray instead of slyly flicking ash on the floor. The people are also incredibly laid back and friendly; understatement being a major hobby of theirs, e.g., Caye Caulker was ripped in two by a hurricane in the 80s, but the locals refer to the stretch of water which separates the island as the split. Whereas, if this had happened in England, Iīm sure that it would still be spoken of in cataclysmic terms and be a factor in the trains and buses running late.
We went snorkeling on the reef which surrounds the island and which makes it a bugger to get in and out of. Part of the trip was swimming with Nurse sharks while they were feeding, which was an amazing experience; especially for myself, a man who gets panic attacks off the coast of England thinking that a Great White will mistake me for an overweight baby seal and gobble me up.
A spider monkey
However, a Nurse shark is only about 4-6 feet, but it was cool all the same. That part of the snorkeling also entailed swimming with stingrays. A thing that Katie was not that enamoured with as she read that the barb of a stingray holds a poison that can lead to amputation. However, her worries were eased by the fact that our guide picked one of these things up. Something which didnīt seem to piss it off, but just to make sure we all did swim away from the immediate vicinity.Following a fantastic weekend on Caye Caulker Katie and I went to a place called San Ignacio. We got a tip from some American girls, thanks girls, that a tour called the ATM was an unbelievable experience and it was. It was a far better experience than a drinking game they taught us that I got incredibly drunk from on rum. Even though it cost $80 it was worth every single penny, sorry cent. The wet caves that we had to spelunk through led to a dry cave that housed Mayan ruins, artifacts, skulls and skeletons. An erie and unforgettable experience. The Mayans believed that the cave was part of the underworld and the sacrifices and artifacts that the were carried out there and left there were a means of appeasing the forces of the underworld. I think the guide said these forces had recently relocated to the UK and produce TV programmes like Pop Idol and manage bands such as Westlife etc.
From Belize we went to Guatemala, but that is a different tale altogether...
