it has been a while ...

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so it has been a while since my last update. Maybe I’m adjusting to belize time a bit easier than expected…

so since New Years at Sarteneja:
02 Jan - we scored a free ride from a couple from Montreal that were heading to Belize City. They were kind enough to drop us off in Orange Walk Town. The trip in their VW was slower than the public bus, but we imagine far more comfortable and more enjoyable. Our trip to Orange Walk was the start of our ‘no longer on vacation’ time, so everything had to be looked at in terms of business potential. However, arriving in the town we immediately knew it wasn’t for us. Can’t really explain what it was - just wasn’t right. So we wandered around, took in the limited sites of the town, sat down by the river watching people fish, and tried to soak in the environment.
Orange Walk is the first ‘working class’ town we had visited. It is also a large market town where the Mennonites sell their fruit and veges. It is an interesting mixed community with Spanish, Carib and Mennonites all mixing their cultures and attitudes together. Driving down to Orange Walk the views were lines of perfectly formed vegetable patches going for as far as the eye can see. I believe the Mennonites from this area are ‘Mennonites Progresso’ - so can talk to locals / those of other religions, can use tractors, and can accept rides from those with cars, but just cannot drive. The main attraction to Orange Walk is the Lamani ruins. The only way to access the ruins is by boat, so of course, you can only get to it by taking a tour. It would have been amazing to see, but we figured it would be way to easy to spend all our money on all tourist things, and then not have anything left for our purpose. So we’ll go back one day - we found a nice place to stay with beautiful views across the lake. Maybe our first weekend off…

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Comments

[Mark]

a great read
Wow. Brings back memories of our time traveling around Mozambique, beautiful beaches, great people, chilaxing all day long. But sounds like it's coming down to business time - hope u packed your business socks Chad! Good luck with decision on where to set up Casa de Bowles.