Belize: British Outpost

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Trip Start Mar 31, 2006 Previous
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  Dangriga, Belize
Sunday, March 18, 2007

Life can be very tough at times. As I have said before our life on the road is not all a bed of roses: whilst I lie in my hammock surrounded by clacking coconut palms and a multi-hued sea on a little island (5acres) on the reef, the wind is really a little stronger than I would ideally like it to be. So bothersome!

So we made it to Belize: I got back from Chile a day late but with an extra working day to add funds and so Sheila was OK with that. Found her in Antigua in good spirits so we reloaded the car and headed out. Immediately got hopelessly lost in Guatemala City and it took a couple of hours before we were on a road that everyone said was going to the place we wanted, but I think we may have been mispronouncing it because when we finally located ourselves on the map we were on a road going NE rather than NW (towards Copan instead of Coban!). Oh well just a few miles more. That first night we made it to Raxruja where we had been before (the infamous day when we -Sheila actually - left our rucksack behind in a restaurant and I swear started off her ulcers)

1 Sayaxche so African

. When we arrived there was this huge RV parked outside the hotel; as big as they get; the owner and his parents chatted to us asking about what they could see and we started to tell them but realised that the RV could not get through many of the roads. People are mad: they had 2 air-conditioning units, huge generators, two dogs; wife was hoovering all the window blinds because of the dusty road; he even had his own satellite dish so that he could do his emails; why did they leave home?

This reminds me, that when I was with Sheila in Antigua we saw our worst case of tourism clashing with culture. In a church there was a large family gathering with a very old man in their midst, and three of the younger women were stroking votive candles over his face and clothes whilst they were chanting and then they lit the candles and placed them in front of the altar one after another whilst praying. Two middle-aged, lycra clad ladies bustled over and started taking photos. The indigenous people do not like their photos being taken at the best of times but even less so when they are in the middle of a private religious ceremony. But undeterred by their obvious discomfort, and not content with the photos already taken, the two ladies began to manhandle the three indigenous ladies into poses that better suited their photographs. We nearly screamed. But being typically reserved Anglo Saxons we said nothing other than vile mutterings under our breath

2 The truck and stuck ferry

. I think many tourists view it all the same way they view a theme park.

We left Raxruja and headed for the Belize border. On the way you cross a broad river on a lovely ferry at Sayaxche (which we talked about in an earlier blog) but this time we watched a wonderful manoeuvre with a huge truck that had wedged the ferry in the mud (see the photo above): he had to back up and then accelerate as fast as he could go and then slam on anchors just before he went off the end into the river to build-up some momentum; he did this many times and slower inched the ferry off the mud; all seemed in a days work for the truck driver! We got to the border at about 3pm where there were quite a number of people queuing to go through. After parting with some "unexpected" money with both Guatemala and Belize we entered this strange place where everyone speaks a sort-of English (very Caribbean). Sheila, even after several days, can't get used to it, especially after just spending a week in Spanish school. They still use "miles" here!

Belize is "cute": it is not really a country since it only has about 350,000 inhabitants and everything is so laid back that you need to prod people before you ask a question. But they are all so friendly and if you stop for more than a few seconds someone has engaged you in conversation

3 Caves in Belize

. This of course has its downside: in Latin America you can usually get rid of unwanted attention by saying "no entiendo" but here saying you don't understand your own language doesn't work.

We spent the first two nights just across the border in San Ignacio on the edge of a very large park called Mountain Pine Ridge Forest Reserve where we spent the day visiting caves, wandering in the forest and swimming in lovely rivers and pools. But amazingly the area is swarming with British troops who are either protecting the border (Guatemala as well as Mexico claim all or part of Belize between them), or getting jungle training; not sure which but Land Rovers are dashing all over the place. We were also struck by the relative wealth of Belize compared to its neighbours and all seemingly built on tourism, orange juice and sugar cane, although they have recently found oil.

We then drove down to the coast to Hopkins. The drive through the hills was lovely: all limestone country and the erosion has left a very jagged jungle covered landscape with endless orange orchards in the lower lying areas. Hardly anyone around. And what was so noticeable was the lack of litter, virtually no plastic bags at all; and the small towns and villages were generally immaculate

4 Typical Belizean countryside

. At Hopkins, a dusty little Garifuna village, we stayed at Jungle Jeanie's Resort; a 70 plus, marathon running, semi-hippy Canadian from Kelowna! Camped amongst her cabins and had a very peaceful two nights feeling very much at home.

Then out to one of the Cayes which are dotted along the barrier reef. This one is about a 30 minute fast boat ride from Dangrida and is called Tobacco Caye. It is only five acres and maybe three feet above sea level at its highest point with about four ram-shackle resorts (really just a few cabins and an eating area for each resort) spread around. Today it is almost deserted. Good value with full board at one called Paradise. We took a boat with some others to go snorkelling as soon as we arrived as a cold front was predicted for the next day and potentially high winds would prevent any snorkelling. Lovely fish and coral and some we hadn't seen before, but definitely not the best we have seen. That's the problem with life: as it gets longer and you see more and more disappointment becomes more likely; or am I just a miserable old git - don't answer that question!

But all lovely! Really relaxing, great company, good food, friendly people, and we will be sad to leave tomorrow and head out of this strange little British outpost called Belize!

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5 Hard life in Hopkins	6 Tobacco Caye	7 On Tobacco caye	8 More of the hard life
9 Sunset on Tobacco

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