Blogs from Belize City, Belize District, Belize, Central America Caribbean - page 3

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Belize was a simple day for us. We took the 5 mile tender from the ship to the mainland. For those who have never cruised – this happens in areas where there either isn’t a port big enough for the ship – or there never will be a port big enough for any cruiseship because of the water/land conditions. In this case, there is a coral reef that Belize is famous for. Obviously, destroying it in the name of capitalism isn’t an option! We walked around the port for a little bit before stopping into the Wet Lizard for a drink and snack. They fundraise by letting people write on the walls with markers and the establishment was started by an Atlanta gal who moved to Belize some 15 years ago with her family/children. She ... read more
Wet Lizard
Cheers!
Carnival Legend


K- Antigua is generally regarded as the jewel in Guatemala's crown and the "must see" City. However when we arrived there on Sunday we didn’t really take to it - although very pretty the main square was packed with tourists, there were 4 high-end coffee shops on the square alone and we found it a little Disney. However, since then we have explored the side streets and the local market and we have both changed our minds. There is a good mix of real life and tourist comforts and lots of great food and we are considering re-visiting it at the end of the trip in order to attend Spanish school and then perhaps travel through S America. Lots of time to decide that though! Whilst in Guatemala we also spent 3 nights at Lago de ... read more
Sweet!
Lake Atitlan - Santa Cruz Laguna
View from Santa Pedro dock - Lake Atitlan


Right so, the last laugh is on me I suppose. In my last entry I left it trying to make you all feel massively jealous that I was about to go Whale Shark diving but alas it wasn't to be. We booked with this feller named Phillipe and everything appeared to be leggit. Got a nice early night for the early get up and were happily waiting at the pick up point at 7am. By the time we got to 7:30 and no one had arrived we getting a bit worried but we had his phone number and so we gave him a call to which he did answer to tell us that unfortunately we wouldn't be going to on our trip because our good man Phillipe and his partner had spent the night in prison ... read more


Geo: 17.4977, -88.1867As the only English-speaking country in Latin America, I have always been curious about Belize. It's known for its ocean reef and language, and that's about all I knew. It was British Honduras before it became independent in the 1960's.Because of the reef, no cruise ships visiting the port can actually enter the city. Rather, all the ships anchor off shore and people are tendered into town on smaller boats. We were eating breakfast outside as we pulled into "port," passing two other ships already anchored. It was all very impressive, but we couldn't even really see any of the city, other than a faint blur on the horizon. We'd booked a tour through the ship to visit the Mayan ruins of Lamanai (or Submerged Crocodile), and that meant we had to catch the ... read more
Anna on Top of the Pyramid
Lamanai
Locals Fishing on the New River


Cuando llegamos al zoo, encontramos un boa constrictor muy grande, nosotros abrazamos la serpiente :) Hay muchos animales, Tapirs, monos, pumas, cocodrilos... y una aguila harpy que es muy grande! 4ft alto y con alas de 6ft! Algunos animales estaban dormiendo y no los vimos. Desgraciadamente, le dolía el ojo a Darío y no disfrutó mucho. Un hombre nos manejó a nuestro cabaña cerca del zoo. Darío probó muchas cosas pero su ojo peoró. Eventualmente yo vi que habia un pedaso de arrena en su ojo y lo saqué con pinzas! agh! nunca mas! Despues fuimos al zoo por un tour de la noche. El animale mejor en el tour fue el Mono Alluador! Nuestro guia les llamó y ellos respondieron y fue muy ruidosamente, especialamente porque estuvimos solamente un metro de los monos. Tocamos los ... read more
Dario y Tapir
Puma
Junior


Today we’re in Belize and a crew tour was offered. Jenny, Duain (the directors of the younger teen club) and I signed up to go together and we were part of a group of about 40 crew members. Belize is a tender port, so we started the day with a 20 minute ride to shore where we then boarded a smaller motor boat. That boat took us down the coast a bit to a nearby river. We spent about an hour sailing up the river searching for wildlife. There were tons of different birds in the mangroves at the sides of the river and swooping overhead. We saw some crocodiles too and our guide even pulled up close to shore by one. It was just sitting there sunning – until it suddenly leapt back into the ... read more
Overhead
Me, Jenny & Duain
Looking Up


Tulum, Quintana Roo, a 2 de octubre del 2009. Saludos a todos. Bien, después de un mes y un día terminé mi gira centroamericana, así que aprovecho para mandarles unas pocas fotos de lo poco fotografiable de la Ciudad de Belice, la ciudad más grande de Belice (tiene unos 70 mil habitantes). Esta era la antigua capital del país, hasta que a los burócratas se les ocurrió fundar una nueva en despoblado hace más de 30 años y crearon Belmopán, que tiene sólo 15 mil almas. Para hacerse una idea, este país es más grande que El Salvador, pero tiene mucha menor población (este último le anda pegando a los 6 millones de almas, mientras aqui viven 300 mil beliceños). Para mejorar la economía, aprovechan sus playas, islas y arrecifes al norte del país para atraer ... read more
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Wednesday, January 13, 2010 - Belize City, Belize There is a 200 mile coral reef a few miles off the mainland which precludes cruise ships from entering the harbor. We anchored off shore with SEVEN other cruise ships. Belize is short on commercial endeavors but they have the cruise ship business wired. Normally in an anchored situation, the ship uses its own personnel and tenders to transport passengers ashore. Belize requires the cruise ships to use local tenders (a tender being described as just about anyone who owns a big boat). The system proved to be a bit inefficient but ultimately everyone got off and back. During the colonial period Belize was a source of harvested mahogany trees. The work was done by slaves and in a fashion that left damage to the enviornment even today. ... read more
Loaded onto Airboat
Almond Hill Lagoon
Iguana


On our return to Belize City we played it safe and checked into a hotel called Chateau Caribbean. Now it sounds grand and looks very colonial from the outside but it was in need of a bit of paint inside but it was a great place to stay - a room almost as big as our flat and probably the biggest we will see this trip so on the blog is a photo of half of it before we trashed it and turned it into a laundry room. Belize City is one rough place and certainly you only go there if a) you are on a cruise ship or b) you need to catch a bus across land or a ferry out to the islands. After turning up early for our bus to Guatamala we then ... read more
Chateau Caribbean
View from the Cruise Village


Leaving San Pedro was extremely hard, none of us wanted to go at all as we´d had such a wicked time there. But as it was pretty expensive we decided it was for the best to move on so on Tuesday morning we headed for the boat with tears in our eyes. The scenery from the boat as you wizz down between the Cayes and the coast is amazing, dense forest vegetation on the mainland side, the trees hugging the shore line. The country seems so untouched, we were traveling for miles without seeing a house at all, giving an amazing impression of what it has been like for years and years. To the other side were the Cayes, beautiful tropical islands, some big some tiny, with pure white sands and palm trees and tiny piers. ... read more
Belize City 2
View from the Swing Bridge
Street scene Belize City




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