Blogs from Belize City, Belize District, Belize, Central America Caribbean - page 5

On the way to Belize City, 20 april 1990. Once we crossed the border and were on belizian territory, the change was abrupt nd sudden. No more spanish but the belizian english with the musical lilt that we remember from Livingston, no more latinos with their rodeo hats and no more colorfully but smelly indios - they all left the bus at the border - instead the bus is full with black creols wearing bowler hats woolen pants with dull colored shirts. No more subtropical rain forest with shrieking parrots and rowdy howler monkeys. The country side is open with the ocassional low hill stretching out at both sides of the paved road, the green grass moist from a passing rain shower. Both Peter and Nora are yellow in the face, still suffering from these so-called ... read more

People have been asking me about how the hurricanes are effecting us now. Here on the Glory, we haven’t been bothered by Ike. We’re in the Western Caribbean this week, nice and far away. Other ships however are getting bounced all over the place with different itinerary changes. Including the Liberty. They’re supposed to be doing the Eastern Caribbean, right in the path of the storm. Instead, they’re over on the West side. And today they were in Belize. And we were in Belize. At first I’d had thought about going over to the Liberty and having some visits and catch-ups. I emailed Jody. He’s never been to Belize and thinks he likely won’t again, so he was eager to get out and see stuff. And he suggested I come along. So thanks to the wonderful ... read more

Well I managed to survive my week of Spanish lessons though I'm sure my Spanish is just as bad as it always was! At times I thought my teacher was going to despair. Ah well, no doubt I've learnt something useful from them. I spent my first two nights with the school at Chiqui's house where I was joined by a young French couple. This made the mealtimes slightly less embarassing but they didn't speak much English or Spanish so there wasn't much conversation going on there! For the other five nights I was staying in a guesthouse where I was the only guest for the majority of my stay. It was pretty decent having a whole house to myself but it was a shame that I didn't get the opportunity to meet more people studying ... read more

V & I headed off to Belize, where we hoped to do some great snorkeling and play in lush jungle surroundings. Without an agenda or reservations, we prepared to pseudo-backpack in search of beach, fish, and tropical forest. We found that and mosquitoes...shoulda brought DEET and left the citronella oil at home. It was the first time I had been to Miami, and fortunately, our layover was 5 hours. V rented a car and took me around his stomping grounds. I don't know how he studied through medical school with the beach yards away and the sunset gracing the backdrop of his condo. I still think the West coast is the best coast...humidity does not fare well with me. We arrived at BZE and were picked up by my coworker's family. They graciously took us to ... read more

So we set off from The Chetumal Hostel at 7.15 am to catch the Premier Line primera class bus direct to Belize city, which we were assured by Lilia, our host, departed at 8 am. There wasn’t one! At the ADO terminal we are informed that other than the 5am & 6am buses the next one is at 11.45am! Not something the guide books or the Premier Lines website tells you. We catch a cab to the Nuevo Mercado as we are told that there are many primera class buses that leave for BC from there about now. There aren’t! The first Premier Lines bus is at 10 am. Instead there is a Co-operative Society bus with a friendly driver leaving shortly - it’s an old American school bus - so rather than wait for 2 ... read more