Blogs from San Ignacio, Cayo District, Belize, Central America Caribbean - page 5

Belize is one of those countries where you might wonder 'what were they thinking?' A population of 320,000 people clinging to a thin strip along the coast between Guatemala and the Carribean Sea. An ex-British colony in a solidly Spanish speaking area of the world – if you discount the West Indian nations not that far away. The country relies heavily on tourists – primarily the sun lovers and divers – and sugar cane that looks like it is grown, or controlled, by large agri-companies. It is probably as rich as any other country in Central America, has a democratic system and the people mostly speak English. It seems to be doing alright but surely it hasn't enough population or enough resources to survive on its own in the long term. We didn't spend long in ... read more

Up with the sun again. It rained allllll night. I would wake up ocassionally & listen for awhile to decipher whether I was hearing rain or the river or both. It was a fun game that helped me fall right back asleep again. I also woke up to the smell of coffee brewing from below the loft. My favorite morning treat! Non travel days I enjoy multiple cups of coffee. Yumm! It smells so good here in general. The plant life is so green & it smells fresh. Especially after the rain. Everything also looks greener & more vibrant after each rain. Smiling plants. They made us a yummers breakfast of banana pancakes & scrambled eggs. The dairy all comes from the Menonites & I could probably just eat the butter with a spoon. They also ... read more

Up early today. Our plan was to be on the 6am bus but we passed out without setting an alarm. Thankfully the roosters & birds always wake up with the sun & we woke up at 6. So we caught the 7am bus out of Placencia heading to Dangriga. It was a beautiful sunny morning & tough to leave... Onto the bus, it was a shorter version than the usual buses & was quite crowded by the time we went through the local villages. It also had no overhead storage so all the backpacks, boxes & bags were stacked on top of one another on the spare tire in the back, next to the emergency exit. Everyone uses the bus. After spending most of the day on the bus (5 in total) I realized there are ... read more

San Ignacio Friday 3rd September We caught the red eye water taxi at 6.30 am which took directly to Belize city in about 45 minutes. Once there we said our goodbyes to Nat and Hannah. We will miss them but we promised to keep in touch. Belize city is a bit dirty and doesnt look like fun at all. Our tour company had arranged for us to pick up our tickets at a deli at the bus station but when we arrived to obtain the tickets the guy there was a bit off with us as we hadnt any paper work and said the rules had changed. basically he wanted us to get a bus to the border of guatlamala to obtain immigration passes to stay here. So after a hour of fannying about i managed ... read more