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

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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


After the slow day we had in Cozumel the day before, we wanted to kick it up a notch in Belize. This stop and Roatan were the two I was most looking forward to, so we booked the Land Rover and Cave excursion, not really having any idea what to expect.. and what we got was far more than we could have imagined! We were off the boat by 8:30 and began the first leg of our jouney quickly thereafter. We took a covered/open air truck through the city passing schools and other parts of daily Belikan life. In Belize city, there are rows of schools, not spread out like what we see in the United States. School aged children wear uniforms. We went through a little bit of rain, but since we were under the ... read more
Land Rover expedition
Hollowed tree
Belize


Hi Everybody! From Panama City, we flew to Flores, Guatemala, a town on an island surrounded by the waters of Lake Peten Itza. It once had huge Mayan pyramids, but they were destroyed by the Spaniards in the 1600's. Today, the town has many buildings painted in bright colors. The town only has one paved roads. The other one lane roads may have once been paved, but today they are only dirt and sand. The town was extremely dusty. All of the merchandise in shops was completely covered with dust. Our hotel sat on the lake and we enjoyed watching the Vietnamese types boats on it. We enjoyed a fish dinner with our catch coming from the lake. That is one special thing about this trip. We have had great fish - from whole baked fish, ... read more
Flores one lane unpaved street
Boat on Lake Peten Itza in Flores
Hotel Santana in Flores


after the last night in our cabana in Mexico, which we spent with a scorpion, a giant spider and a small, but scary guy in a shell, we headed to Belize. Whereas we had found the Mexico a well developed country, Belize is a completely different story. Most of the travel we spent in post-american school buses with millions of locals carrying bags, fruits & vegs, other food, bicycles, cement, bricks, buckets, etc... and stopping everywhere, every 5 minutes. It was actually quite fun, since the belizeans are really open-hearted and helpful, though the space available for legs was definitely too small and after 5 hours in such a bus I found my self quite uncomfortable. On the other hand, we had a chance to straighten our legs when the bus was ocassionally catching a fire ... read more
new mate
sklep na sprzedaz
Photo 4


We got to experience our first border crossing going from Mexico to Belize on Wednesday (17th). We had two options, to take a taxi to the Mexican border, do the formalities, walk across the bridge into Belize and take a taxi to the immigration building and then get a bus to Belize City which sounded like a lot of hassle, or get a direct bus to Belize City that would stop at the Mexican border, wait for us, drive us over the bridge to the Belize immirgation building, wait for us and then continue onto Belize City. No prizes for guessing what we picked! After a breakfast of street tacos we hopped on the direct bus and had no problems doing the border formalities. There was a bit of confusion though as there is a departure ... read more
Orange Walk, Belize
Belize City
Number plate


Happy New Year to all my favorite people! The holidays were a whirlwind of new friends and adventures, and I can’t wait to share them all with you! I have been very busy making new friends and being a part of my new community! I have been training to be on the volunteer fire department, tutoring math in the small village north of here, housesitting, singing karaoke, and hosting and attending many board game nights. (It's been raining quite a bit!) Lots of my new friends are business owners down here too, so a lot of time is spent contemplating the many ideas and options for people and products down here. It's a good time to see so many blank slates and so many creative ambitious people trying to chalk them up! I hope to ... read more
the other half!  Perfect rainbow!
Cant stop photographing my backyard :)
The entrance to the Cave hike




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