I arrived in Belize City and was immediately greeted by the filthy hot air sneaking its way onto the plane. I stood around for about 15 minutes hoping to bump into a similarly minded traveler (read: poor) who wanted to split the cab into town. Unfortunately the crowd was a bunch of whities on their little exotic vacas, so I had to part with the $25US and make my way into town alone. I was dropped off at a hostel that was run by two ex-pats: a gray haired lady and her significantly younger pony-tailed partner. I ended up chatting with [View Full Entry]

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My Latin American odyssey began in the only English speaking country in Central America. This was an added bonus as I had yet to learn any Spanish however I chose Belize because of the great reports of diving on the second largest reef in the world. I based on the backpacker island of Caye Caulker and it proved to be an ideal place to qualify for my PADI Open Water certificate. I had managed to time my visit to the island at the height of the rainy season (mid-October) and in fact the day I landed the plane had to circle [View Full Entry]

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In 2003 I was working a tour leader for a Canadian adventure tour company and my route took me through Mexico, Guatemala and Belize. That is how I ended up in Caye Caulker for the first time. On one of my trips, I went with a local friend to rent some snorkel gear and met this lady that had a cat sanctuary. She was renting snorkel gear at the time. That is how I first met Madi from P.A.W. (Protecting Animal Welfare) cat sanctuary. Of course, at the time, I was working as a guide and traveling so much that my [View Full Entry]

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Dicen que la vida es como un libro, el que no viaja tan solo lee la primera pagina, asi que en las ultimas semanas he realizado algunas escapadas fuera del orfanato aprovechando el fin de semana para conocer un poco mas este pais fantastico. La primera visita ha sido a Belize, he tenido que salir de Guatemala tres dias a fin de renovar el visado . En este pequeño pais he aprovechado para hacer senderismo, pues tiene una naturaleza ideal para esta practica , pude visitar algunas cuevas impresionantes , que son autenticos museos en los que aun se conservan restos [View Full Entry]

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For travel journal click here: We stayed on the island of Ambergris Caye (in a remote area 3 to 4 miles north of San Pedro). Most of these photos are of Lamanai (the ruins of the former Maya city which translates to "Submerged Crocodile") which is in the Orange Walk District in northern Belize. [View Full Entry]

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Welcomed by lightning The day after visiting Tikal I went to Belize. In the early morning I walked to Santa Elena, a small town near Flores, and took the bus to the border of Belize. In the bus I met a girl and a guy from France. It was interesting to hear about her stories when she worked for a couple of years in Africa for an NGO. We crossed the border with Belize and had to walk for a while to get to the bus terminal. At the busterminal I bought a coffee by paying with American dollars and received [View Full Entry]

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Alright...I know it's been almost 2 weeks since my last blog but a lot has happened and at the same time not that much has happened. So...my last blog was about staying in at the hostel El Retiro in Lanquin and seeing bats and going in caves and climbing and descending waterfalls and seeing really beautiful natural limestone pools. While I was there I met this girl named Asha. She is from Australia and I had a lot of fun with her. She was headed to the Bay Islands in Honduras and I decided I was going to change my plans [View Full Entry]

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Dana and I next wanted to go to Southern Belize to Placencia and to get there we got on the Regga-King Sail boat and took a 3 day trip through the Belizean keys. At night we camped on islands smaller than my condo with only palm trees. Our captain was also an amazing cook and would make us whatever we caught that day. Dana was a good provider and caught the biggest barracuda! Another guy caught a barracuda and as he reeled it in a shark bit off the back half of it! Waste not so we still ate the rest [View Full Entry]

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Wilderness Medicine Course This was a course designed to teach you how to practice medicine in remote areas when you have no supplies, technology or support. It also taught survival and rescue methods. Unfortunately the course was a bit disorganized and it got cut short leaving out the medical portion. Dana and I did however receive the survival and rescue training and I will tell you the entertaining (for you)/traumatizing(for me) bits. Highlights: saving our broken legged “patient” who was trapped inside a cave and transporting her though an underground river, up a muddy slo [View Full Entry]

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When we arrive in Belize we went straight out to the islands with Bob and Miriam and spend the first 2 nights in San Pedro. The appearance is of a small European city, but the atmosphere is all Caribbean. Instead of cars everyone drives golf carts, so of course we had to rent one for a night and rip around the island. Everything here was slow paced, grooving to the reggae music coming from every doorway. Then there’s the chicken drop… And it really is just how it sounds, they put a chicken in a fenced off square with a numbered [View Full Entry]

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