Blogs from Orange Walk District, Belize, Central America Caribbean - page 2

The bird watchers clucked that persistent rain was going to diminish the annual bird count. After the morning tour, Maureen and I hiked a few miles on our own through the jungle, which is impossible to capture in a photo, though we tried. I showed Maureen one of the tombs which a prior guide had shown me. Like most sites, this one had been pretty much pillaged by tomb raiders. Nowadays, archeological excavation is directed by infrared satellite photography, very effective. My Mayan guide was quite sad about the resulting loss of his history and therefore identity. He was the carrier of oral tradition for his clan, worrying about whether his son would carry on this tradition. We took the rest of the day off to relax, idly watching one of the staff -there were forty ... read more

Guides and birds We had individual guides. I do like to start with guides, not so much for the information, but more to chat them up about their lives. Here, the guides grew up in the jungle, swimming, he said, with the crocodiles. That evening we took Night Walk which was a bit spooky, with flashlights, rain dripping, howler monkeys in the back ground, looking for jaguar eyes in the darkness. Maybe we would see the armadillo here. We only saw wolf spiders, bats, and crocodiles. Wolf spider eyes could reflect a flashlight beam from a hundred feet. Dark, slippery in the mud, I fell and cracked my view finder. I now had a 1950’s camera and I did not know when batteries were low. I don't have any of the photos I took on the ... read more

Well crossing the border to Belize turned out to be a mini-adventure. We were too late to get a bus across so had to get a taxi from Chetumal in Mexico to the 'frontera'. After exiting the mexican bit, we crossed to the Belize side and got our stamps, said adios to the taxi driver and then realized that it was half nine at night, there was nobody about and we were standing outside the Belize border control with no transport to the next town (about 15km away). In the end this old guy and his friends arrived in a pick up and asked if we wanted a lift to Corozal, the next town, so the three of us hopped in the back and took the bumpy lift to the next town..fair play to them they ... read more

We left Mexico on Saturday morning and crossed the border by bus to Belize. Border crossing was a painless experience and after a very slow journey on the Belizean side (the bus likes to stop randomly about every 50m or whenever someone feels like getting on or off) we arrived in Orange Walk about 6pm. Orange Walk is a tiny little town that feels a bit like you are in some american western movie...with ramshackle old houses with return verandas and Ma and Pa sitting outside on their chairs. The streets have the funniest names like Flambouyant street, Lovers Lane and the next town along is called Crooked Tree.. The only difference is the people. They seem to be a confusing mix of super friendly Jamican/Carribean/Mexican/Mayan and Asian. The only restaurants in the town are Chinese ... read more

It is hot in this country! Good thing we expected that, so its not a huge shock. Lets see, quick summary. We got into Belize city early afternoon yesterday and took a $25 (non-negotiable, it says so right on the official sign) ride into town to the bus station. There is no ticket counter because you pay the driver right on the bus. No ticket counter means no one to ask questions. Good thing the schedule is posted right on the wall. After figuring out that the bus standing with the designation "Chetumal" would pass through where we wanted to go, we got on. The guidebooks did not lie, the buses are old American school buses, although they are a bit spruced up with tinted film on the windows. The bus ride was uneventful. Loud rap ... read more