Blogs from Belize Barrier Reef, Belize, Central America Caribbean

Note: This is a rerun of a previous blog published a week ago that had formatting problems and to which I was unable to add any photos. Many thanks to Ali for resolving both problems and restoring my faith in the TB platform! So, here we are ‘back on the horse’ of international travel again after a frustrating three year hiatus. Joan and I have just completed three weeks with the grandkids in Virginia/Washington DC, with a number of visits to the latter, but I haven’t bothered to post a blog about it as no one wants to see pics of the White House, apart from Donald Trump, who wants to live there again! Now the six of us, three generations in Damon & Sarah, Elliott & Layla, Joan & myself have ventured over to Belize ... read more

We had another exciting day today. We were up early for the sunrise again. Next we packed our gear and headed to Placencia Village for breakfast at Wendy's. Local spot recommended to us. The food was good. Kasie was adventurous and ordered the fish. It was a whole deep fried fish. She really liked it. A local lady stopped at our table on the outside seating deck and we got a hot cinnamon and sugar donut from her. We also had one of the local pups join us for breakfast. He slept underneath the table while we ate. His collar said Kinkin on it. We gave him one of our fry Jack's after the meal and he casually ate it. He just nibbled at it at first and then finally ate the rest of it. We ... read more

Hej allesammen, Sidder i en bus på vej fra Belize City tilbage til Flores, Guatemala. Har haft en dejlig uge i Belize på øen Caye Caulker ud fra østkysten i det caribiske hav. Belize er en helt anden gryde end Guatemala, meget anderledes. Folket ser anderledes ud, de snakker Kreol - tænk "jah-man" og rastahår, og her er om muligt endnu varmere end Guatemala. Øen vi boede på er lille, men beboet, her handler det om at komme ned i gear og hygge sig - øens motto er vitterligt "go slow" som det fint står på skilte allevegne. Infrastruktur såsom asfalterede veje er der intet af, faktisk er der ikke biler på øen. Her kører man rundt i små golfvogne. Selv øens politistyrke der tæller en håndfuld personer, triller rundt i en golfvogn med "police" på ... read more

There was a weather front stationed over the Caribbean which brought pretty high winds and cool temperatures…well cool for the Caribbean but hot for the South Dakotans on board. Our next port of call was to be Cozumel, Mexico. Unfortunately, due to the weather front, the Voyager was not able to run its tender operations to get passengers ashore. All the available docks were occupied by other cruise ships. Our Virtuoso group was scheduled for an excursion in Cozumel to visit San Gervasio, a sacred Mayan archeological site, and also to tour the village of San Miguel de Cozumel. But instead we had a fine day at sea. We took our group on a galley tour. Executive Chef Kelly explained the inner workings of the galley. A complex operation which serves 700 guests in four restaurants, ... read more

No, he hasn’t lost me yet (Cj writes) ... We crossed from Guatemala to Belize by land, and very soon found ourselves at another Mayan site - much smaller than Tikal and somehow more manageable, with a better sense of the community that lived there. Our guides delighted in regaling us with tales of how the Mayans ritually pierced their flesh - self mortification - in order to worship their many gods. Women used sting ray spines to pierce their tongues repeatedly, men used the spines to pierce - well, let’s say that the men in the group went very pale. Then it was off to Caye Caulker, an exhilarating one hour speedboat ride out of Belize City. Came Caulker is an absolutely charming little Caribbean no cars to speak of, so everyone walks, bikes or ... read more