Belize- Key Lime Pie, Coconut Tarts, Jam Rolls!!!

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San Pedro

We crossed over the border and headed for customs and immigration. We completed all the forms and got our passports stamped. We were in, no fuss, no bribes, no problems!

Our first night in Belize was spent in a campground called Caribbean Village in a small town called Corozal. The site wasn’t very far from the town centre, so we headed in to get some money and some food. We managed to get some food but no money. In some countries our bank card just doesn’t work and Belize appeared to be another one. Luckily we have a back up credit card, which we managed to get some cash on but naturally it cost us a small fortune for the pleasure.

The next day we were going to leave the van for a few days and go island-hopping to the cayes of Belize. We caught the 7am ferry to San Pedro. After getting our taxi to or intended guest house we waited for the owner to check us in. Unfortunately, he was way too busy screaming expletives to some poor sole on the other end of the phone. It was a little embarrassing and after about thirty seconds we decided it wasn’t the place for us and got the taxi driver to take us to Ruby’s Guest House. Despite being a budget place it was a little more than what we wanted to pay though. We booked ourselves up for a snorkelling tour, in fact, we booked up for two tours in the same day.

In the morning we headed off to the aptly named Shark-Ray alley. When we arrived at the site the guide had some chum to attract the Nurse Sharks and Eagle Rays. Within minutes there were some absolutely huge Eagle Rays swimming around us and the guide attracted one of the Eagle Rays so that we could stroke it. They were really slimy and like rubber and it was fairly intimidating to be so close to these beasts. After a while of the Eagle Rays hanging around, the Nurse Sharks appeared. These were about six feet long and it was amazing to see sharks so close though we were both more impressed by the Eagle Rays. After heading back briefly for some lunch our second tour was to Mexico Rocks, which was abundant with marine life and picturesque coral but no turtles yet! We still had our fingers crossed.

Key Lime Pie, Jam Rolls, Coconut Tarts

From San Pedro we took the twenty minute boat ride to Caye Caulker which was entertaining for all the wrong reasons. We arrive on the jetty where the laid-back Rasta told us to wait at the end of the jetty. After a while the boat arrived. Like our boat from Corozal to San Pedro, it was a big powerboat type craft. Like a speedboat but much quicker and capable of carrying about forty people. The skipper was bringing the boat in to dock and honestly, we would have made a better job of it. Seriously, the guy could not have done a worse job if he tried. The boat was coming in directly perpendicular to the jetty. Like the other people around we were waiting for the skipper to turn the boat road but it just kept going straight for it. We were still half-expecting it to swing round when it made contact with the jetty. All of a sudden, the jetty jolted and we could hear the sound of wood creaking to breaking point and seriously thought the jetty would collapse. The boat then went into reverse and with a bit more trouble was docked up for us to board. We set off on our way to Caye Caulker hoping this joker wouldn’t make any more mistakes like sink us out at sea.

When we got to Caye Caulker we immediately noticed that the food, tours and accommodation were much cheaper. We took advantage of this and booked ourselves on another snorkelling tour. The day of the tour the weather wasn’t great. It had been quite overcast and it looked like rain. Our tour started with a trip to the Manatee Reserve. Manatees, also called ‘sea-cows’, are distantly related to elephants and are pretty big creatures. We managed to see quite a few of them, but mainly just there noses. Their huge bodies would create a massive shadow under the water. The rest of our trip was spent snorkelling different areas of the Barrier Reef. The visibility under the water was incredible even when it was raining on the surface.

Caye Caulker has a very Caribbean feel to it. Everyone is dressed like Rasta’s and playing Bob Marley. The whole island has a very chilled out feel to it. Rich on a number of different occasions got offered some weed by the locals. There was also a cool dude cruising around on his push bike yelling out ‘Key Lime Pie, Jam Rolls, Coconut tarts’ in the strongest Rastafarian voice you can imagine.

Amigos

From Caye Caulker we headed back to dry land and a couple of boat ride later we were reunited with tha van back in Corozal. Unfortunately, the laptop completely stopped working in Corozal half-way though an episode of Family Guy. Rich spent most of the next morning unsuccessfully trying to figure out what had broken and after giving up we headed towards Belize Zoo. That evening turned out to be one of our stranger evenings. There was a restaurant near the zoo called Amigos with a field behind it. We asked if we could camp up and they kindly agreed as long as we ate there. The bar was pretty busy as was a Friday night. There were a lot of Gringos in the bar; many of them appeared to be on a work night out from the Zoo. One thing we noticed about Belize is that there is a huge mix of races and cultures and most of them were in the bar that night. It was entertaining, at first, to see everyone performing really poor renditions of songs in the karaoke. Though after a while we just wanted it to stop - especially after we threw the towel in and headed to bed.

The zoo itself is not very big but by far the best zoo we’ve ever been to. With many different animals there our highlight was one of the Pumas. We spotted her hiding in the bushes in her enclosure and we just sat down by the side. Jess pulled out a bottle of water to drink and for some reason she seemed interested in it and came up and sat just on the other side of the fence. We sat there for about twenty minutes and she seemed perfectly happy with out company. We could even hear her purring, really loud, and it was incredible.

Caves Branch Jungle Lodge

We only spent one evening here and ended up costing us a about $200 Belize dollars. We had hoped we could camp there as the Rough Guide stated. The guide also states this can be a budget option but couldn’t have been more wrong. The reason we couldn’t camp was because they were improving and extending the current site. Rich had been quite excited about going there as we could do the majority of the tours we wanted and the place was described as being brilliant. However, it turned out that the tours were really overpriced as was the accommodation. We would have moved on, but we arrived just before dark, so we had no choice. We suspect that like many places once they are in the guide books they increase their prices and things begin to change. After some negotiation, we ended up getting a nice room for a discounted rate. We also ended up getting their buffet dinner as there was no where for us to cook. All in all though we had a great evening. We had some nice food and some cocktails and we also got a nice bed for the night. The next day before leaving the lodge we went to the Blue Hole which was just over the road. It was an exposed cenote, similar to the cenotes in caves we had seen in Mexico. Though good to see, it wasn’t particularly impressive and after a short amount of time we made our way towards San Ignacio.

San Ignacio

We spent a little longer in San Ignacio then we originally planned. A lot of our time was wasted trying to sort out our car insurance for Central America. We still managed to do some fun stuff nonetheless. The most impressive was the Actun Tunichil Muknal cave. This cave has only been recently discovered and holds many Mayan artefacts and had been used for human scrifices. The tour began with a forty-five minute hike through jungle and across rivers to reach the cave entrance. Once at the entrance we had to swim and wade through chest high water. It must have taken us an hour or more to reach the artefacts. We had to climb in and over different rocks, and through stalemates and stalactites. Once we reached the dry cave we were only allowed to wear our socks. We got to see some Mayan Pottery which was over 1500 years old. The ‘vessels’ were arranged in different ways as offering to the gods. There were also skeletons from the sacrifices that remained there intact and undisturbed. One Skelton was of a sixteen year old girl. It was incredible to be inside the cave and learn about what the Mayan people did over 1500 years ago.

The following day we took a beautiful drive outside San Ignacio to place running horse-treks called Blue Ridge Mountain Rider. We took a horse trek through a jungle. The trek was great fun and we went for a dip with the guide in an emerald pool. Rich also went into another cave that was tiny. Jess didn’t go as she didn’t like how tight the spaces were. Rich got to see more Mayan artefacts that were only discovered 6 months before.


In San Ignacio, we stayed at Inglewood Camping Grounds where the incredibly friendly owner, Greg, drive Rich around town to buy some memory for the laptop as Rich figured out that’s what the problem was. We bought the RAM and the laptop now works better than ever. From San Ignacio we headed towards the Guatemalan border. Having heard lots of good and bad about Guatemala we were a little apprehensive but excited none the less.

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Photos

Skull
Sacrifice by a Mayan over 1500 years agao