You better Belize it

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It has been quite tough writing this entry as we have found it difficult condensing things down. The blog is both to inform you of our travels and to serve as a travel diary for us. We have added some headings to the text to try make it easier to for people to pick what interests them. Of course for the people with little time we hope the photos and their captions will keep you satisfied.

Arriving in Caye Caulker for Lobster Festival

After a gruelling 24+ hours of travelling, involving 5 separate flights and 2 hours of 40 degree heat waiting to get through customs, we arrived at our planned destination, Caye Caulker (pronounced “Key Corker” by the locals). Unfortunately for us, we had arrived in the middle of the annual lobster festival and all the rooms were taken, including the one we thought we had reserved.

Backpacks on backs, drenched in sweat and hounded by mosquitoes, we trudged up the beachfront road from the tiny airport. After first being offered ganja, we were told that we would be very lucky to find any accommodation for the night. After asking at a few places and receiving a negative response each time, we were beginning to lose hope as the heavy packs we were carrying sapped our energy. Fortunately, a man called Allison took pity on us and allowed us to leave our bags at his place while we continued our search. Twenty kilos lighter we came to a place called the Vega Inn, where the proprietor and her parents were sitting outside enjoying a drink. Initially she told us she had no rooms but then told us that we could rent her house for the exorbitant rate of U$100 plus taxes. The reason for renting out her house, she told us, was that it was directly across from the main Lobster Festival festivities and there would be extremely loud music all night, so they were sleeping in a tent on the beach. Although we knew this was a bad deal and way over budget we had little choice but to accept.

That evening we joined in the festivities, eating lobster and drinking Beliken beer. It is not often your arrival is accidentally timed to match up with the biggest event of the local calendar. People from all over Belize were there for the celebrations and there were some really beautiful bodies on show. The festival alternated between loud Reggae over which the DJ would shout and drums depending on whether the power had tripped. Soon our long journey took its toll and we were forced to fade just as the music really started pumping. Thanks to earplugs we managed to get a reasonable nights sleep although the heat did take some getting used to.

The next day we checked into the Tropical Paradise Hotel which had a much more reasonable rate, was miles away from any festivities and most importantly for Nicky had air-conditioning. Set up we now began to slow down and get into the Caribbean way of life: midday naps, giant burritos at Rasta Pasta and sundowners at the Lazy Lizard (Where shady people hang out).

Hooking up with Bob and Don

After two days of chilling out with only a snorkelling trip to see sharks to show for it we met up with Don and Bob who had just arrived after a 20-hour bus ride from Mexico City. We had tried to reserve them a room in the Tropical Paradise but when they arrived the room had been given away. Instead they checked into Allison’s place, which took a long time to find as Carl was convinced it was blue when it was actually white. (It was good to return the favour as he had helped us when we arrived).
With Don and Bob we had enough people to play five hundred (card game), which we did at nearly every opportunity while sipping panty rippers (Pineapple juice with coconut rum) or rum & coke.

Diving the Blue Hole

The major attraction of the Belizean Barrier Reef is the Blue Hole, a collapsed underwater cave about 400m across and about 300m deep. After doing a day of refresher dives we decided to go check it out. The blue hole dive takes you down to 42m, just below the roof of the old cave, where you swim between huge stalactites. 42m was quite a bit deeper than we had ever been before so we were quite nervous about the dive, however it turned out to be really easy as there is no current at all in the hole. It was really dark under the roof and it took some time for our eyes to adjust. The blue hole is well known for its sharks, however, unfortunately we did not see any sharks though we did see some pretty big fish. Some of these fish were swimming on their sides, which we had been warned not to mistake for nitrogen narcosis.

The blue hole trip also included a shore visit to Half Moon Caye, where we paid the exorbitant 80 Belize $ per person in park fees, and two shallower dives just off the shore. Half Moon has resident colony of Belizean boobies, Don especially enjoyed seeing so many boobies out in the sun in one place but was a bit worried about the lack of pairings as they are supposed to mate for life.

The other dives had excellent coral formations and on one of the dives we did a really cool swim though a narrow tunnel in the reef. The third dive we spent totally surrounded by fish as the guide kept feeding them leftovers from our lunch.

Journey to Gales Point-Manatee

Before we got too settled into the island lifestyle we decided we should go and check out some other parts of the country. We had heard that the best place to see Manatees was Gales Point, South of Belize City. We weren’t sure how to get there but thought Belize City would be a better place to find out. After squashing everything back into our packs we caught the 8am water taxi to the city. On arrival Nicola managed to organise a water taxi through the canals and river systems all the way to Gales Point. The taxi would be coming from Gales Point so we were told to meet at the Sea-View Shopping Centre in an hour and a half.

Well it took a lot longer than an hour and a half and we consumed 2 whole bags of ice lollies while our little patch of shade gradually shrank as the sun neared noon. Eventually the guys, Brendon (long dreads) and Elvis (short dreads), arrived to tell us that we should wait while they went and got fuel. Nearly an hour later they finally returned and our water expedition began.

The area between Belize City and Gales Point-Manatee is a labyrinth of rivers, canals and lagoons surrounded by thick mangrove forest. We saw some interesting birds and a creature they called a quench that looked like a tall brown raccoon. We also spent quite some time looking for crocodiles, which we did not find. As we travelled the water continually changed colour, from brown to black to green to yellow to blue green it was a really awesome journey.

When we neared Gales Point Brendon offered to take us to the Manatee hole for an extra 10 Belize $ each. The hole, marked by a stick in the middle of the lagoon, is the site of a fresh water spring to which the Manatees, which live in salt water, come to drink. The manatees were there but it was clearly too hot for them near the surface and we only saw their nostrils poking up from under the water as they surfaced to take a quick breath before disappearing under the water again. After watching Manatee nostrils for about 10 minutes we decided we had had about as much sun as we could take and we asked to move on.

John’s Place

Brendon assured us that the best place to stay was John’s place as the main Manatee Lodge was too expensive. The walk to Johns place was not short and we were quite relieved that the place was okay, as we really did not want to embark on the long and hot walk back to the Manatee Lodge.

Our next thought was to our tummies and asked where could we find food. Brendon proudly informed us that John’s wife was the best cook in Gales Point and would be happy to cook for us. He also suggested we should consider going to see turtles laying eggs on the beach, which we organised to do that evening at 7:30. At this time we were severely dehydrated so Brendon took us to the worlds smallest bar and liquor store. The bar is owned by the family of a man who dreamt he was going to die, so he built the bar, organised a liquor license, taught his wife how to run the business and then died.

While escaping the heat that afternoon, an army of ants suddenly appeared from nowhere. One moment there was nothing and the next thing there were thousands of ants marching in legions across our patio and up the outside walls of our house. They seemed to attack anything they saw and could not be dissuaded from coming into our rooms even with DET. John swiftly appeared with a mechanical sprayer but told us that it was better not to spray as we may trap them inside our rooms, also they eat all the pests such as cockroaches and woodborers so its not a bad thing having them clean the place out. Thirty minutes later the army had moved on and there was not an ant to be seen.

That night Denise, Mrs John Moore, prepared a fantastic meal of Jewfish with Rice and Beans, followed by lemon pie and washed down with a glass of Soursop juice. It was great!

Search for Turtles

At 9pm, again 2 hours late, Brendon arrived to take us to see the turtles. We set off down the road to where the boat was moored (miles away) at the Gales Point Manatee Environmental Protection Centre. Brendon was expecting to meet his uncle Moses here, however, Moses was not there and they had to send a car to fetch him. Moses was an important member of the tour guiding party as he was the story-teller and boy could he tell stories! When Moses eventually arrived, the first thing he did was pull out his “degree” certificate from a college in Massachusetts and for the rest of the evening he did not stop talking. He spoke a form of Creole which was difficult to follow but repeated everything at least 5 times so you could listen for key words a build some sense from it.

Navigating by the light of distant Belize City we set off into the dark. As we headed out of the lagoon into the sea the wake of the boat began to glow with the phosphorescence of the disturbed little diatoms in the water, this got brighter and brighter and soon we could see the movement of fish in front of the boat. When we scared a school of fish they would shoot off in different directions and it looked just like a firework. Some of the fish were really big and we could see huge glowing patches moving away from the boat. It was quite magical and we got really wet as dipped our hands into the water to see them glow.
The turtle search itself was fruitless and we only succeeded in donating large quantities of blood to the local mosquito and sand fly population. Bob described it as one of the unhappiest times of his life.

Manatees

The following morning we organised through Brendon to hire some canoes, our plan being to go out and get some better sightings of the manatees. The first canoe he gave us was a wooden one made by Uncle Moses and when Carl tried it out he could not prevent from capsizing, so instead Brendon got us some large plastic ones. These Canoes were fine but the paddles were not quite up to it, one set was really short and the other had most of the blade missing.

It was really hard work paddling out to the manatee hole and when we got there we found that there were already some other people there in a motorboat (this was probably a good thing as the stick is not very easy to spot). Without an anchor we rafted the canoes up and watched holding on to the stick. The resultant viewing was that we saw more or less the same nostrils we had seen the previous day. As we started paddling back to shore Don and Bob noticed that a manatee was actually following their canoe. When they stopped it came right up to their boat before swimming underneath and away. It seemed they were really curious about the canoes so if we paddled near to them we could often get some really good sightings. For a while we forgot about the 35-degree heat as we paddled backwards and forwards trying to get near them.

When we returned from the canoeing, Denise prepared an excellent breakfast of fried cakes and scrambled eggs. Brendon came over to tell us that he could take us to Dangriga, the next major city, in his brother’s car for 75 Belize $. When we had first asked the price had been 160 Belize $. The car was pretty old and it took ages to get the boot to latch closed but it got us there just in time to catch the chicken bus to Placencia (Placiencia if Nicky is pronouncing it).

Lazy days in Placencia

Placencia, home of the barefoot dream, was a really chilled out place and we found lots of time to play cards and laze about. It took 3 days before we did our first decent bit of adventuring, a sea kayaking trip to Andy’s Island and the newly named Don Caye, a small pile of sand inhabited by birds and does not appear on any maps. That evening the guys went to a see some live music at The Barefoot Bar. The band had two very contrasting vocalists and started off playing reggae but later changed to a different style that required lots of bootie shaking. It was quite something to see and obviously requires some practice as none of the European girls seemed to be getting it right.

We had planned to dive the next day but when we woke up to a fierce tropical storm we decided that it might be better to postpone. When the weather improved we organised to go diving in the Silk Cayes. The Silk Cayes are a group of about 5 perfect deserted islands right on the barrier reef. Each island had from 3 - 12 coconut palms, perfect white sand beaches and turquoise waters surrounding them. On our second dive we got to swim with a turtle, which at one stage looked like he was trying to bite Carl after being chased by our Dive master.

That evening Marta and Agata, 2 Polish girls who were staying in our hotel, had suggested we go to the local Karaoke evening with them. After much persuasion Nicola decided to go along and even try a song. Disappointingly they did not have a very big selection and after a song being hijacked by the local nutcase (who took the mike and shouted Nicola’s song terribly out of time) Nicola decided to go for another song “I will survive” by Gloria Gaynor, however their version was by Diana Ross and was a very different version to what she expected. Bob also got into the swing of things and sang 2 songs.

We were sad to leave Placencia and our new-found Polish friends but Hurricane Emily was on her way and we still had much to explore. All in favour of taking a different route back we caught a water taxi to the mainland town called Independence to connect to the local bus to Belmopan. This bus was a little more crowded than our first bus experience and we managed to get the last 3 seats on the bus, Bob insisted on standing until his legs got tired

Belmopan and Cayo District

In Belmopan we opted for the Belmopan Hotel where we managed to get a room with 4 beds and aircon for US$60. This hotel was very close to the bus station and had the added benefit of a swimming pool. Before venturing to the Italian Mexican restaurant, which became our local for our time in Belmopan we organised a tubing trip on an underground river.

Caving Underground Rivers

The caving company offered transfers for US$25 per person so we decided the 7:30am local bus and a short walk was a better option. We were quite pleased that we only paid US$1.50 for the bus ride until the next day when we found out we should have only paid US$1. The trip got underway with a 20 minute Jungle Limo (tractor trailer) ride to the river during which we got stuck and had to be rescued. Getting to the river we had our first surprise, we were going upstream…. We thought we were going on a journey on an underground river and paddling the whole way upstream would be exhausting. Apparently this was not the case. The trip involved paddling into the mouth of the cave where we got out and walked around to look at Mayan artefacts and geological formations, ate lunch and then floated back to where we got in. It was very tame and not the adventure we had expected. We were all very disappointed as the trip had cost a lot of money and we really could not splurge on another one.

Back at the lodge we debated for some time as to whether we should do the unthinkable for a South African and complain. Eventually we decided we would let Iain (Iain Andersons Adventure Company) know that we did not feel the trip had matched our expectations and he should not use words like “Kick-ass” on his website. He was very concerned we had not enjoyed ourselves and told us we were on the wrong trip if we wanted action. He then offered to give us a complementary trip on what was in his opinion the most action filled adventure he offered. We took the offer and agreed to phone him the next day at 7:30 to check out river conditions.

One last thing on our list of things to do in Belmopan was to visit the inland Blue Hole which was just across the road from Iain’s place. We arrived to find that due to the rain it was no longer a blue hole but a brown hole. We had a good swim in the cool water and Don chased hummingbirds with his camera before getting out in time to catch the bus which was supposed to come past at between 4:45 and 5:00.

The bus took forever to arrive so Carl and Don amused themselves by throwing rocks at various targets until eventually Don won a coconut from a palm tree. After 3 separate lotteries on the bus arrival time, it was nearly 6:00, we hitched a ride on a bakkie (Pick-up truck). It was pretty comfortable, it was free, and they dropped us off very close to our hotel. Hitching, the ultimate way to travel.

Next morning Don pretending to be Carl checked the weather conditions with the lodge and it was A-okay, the trip was to go ahead. This time our group was much smaller, the 4 of us along with 2 teachers from the US. This trip was not a tubing trip but a hike up a river inside a cave to a set of waterfalls. When we reached the falls we would climb them and then jump down them into the pools below. The cave system had some enormous chambers with thousands of stalactites hanging down from the ceiling and some structures that looked like hundreds of orange bathroom basins connected together over which the water gushed in waves, these looked really cool when lit up with a torch. It was an excellent trip and the jumps were not too scary for Nicola.

Lessons on "beef" and "steak" in St Ignatio

With Hurricane Emily pushing people inland we decided it was best to get up to St Ignatio as quickly as possible as we were worried about finding accommodation. Unfortunately we were too late as there were already thousands of people in San Ignatio when we arrived and no accommodation. A very Friendly Taxi driver called Kent, who we initially treated with much suspicion, said he would take us to the outlying villages, as maybe the lodges there would have rooms. First 3 places we tried were full and then the next 2 were closed. Eventually we ended up at the Riverside Lodge, which was pretty expensive but at least they had rooms. They were also hosting a big party that night which meant that the restaurant was closed so we walked into the village to look for food. We found a pretty cool bar opposite the soccer field and although they did not serve food allowed us to eat takeaways there.

No too long after settling down to our pre-dinner drink we found ourselves engaged in a conversation with a couple of locals, Theo and Dennis. Theo originated from Calcutta in India and had 23 grandchildren, along with his last and favourite 16-year-old daughter, a beautiful Mayan Princess called Christine. Theo’s claim to fame is that he was the first person to describe El Pillar (a non-excavated Mayan ruin site not too far from his village), which he told us no less than 20 times. He also kept trying to advise Carl on marriage, “All women are the same so why go chasing others?” Bob and Don escaped to fetch us some dinner and left us with the overly talkative pair. What seemed an age later they returned with Garnaches, Empandes and Salbutes. These all seemed to be different versions of tacos with chicken or beans. Thankfully the conversation turned to focus on them.

According to Theo, Bob had no hair because he was too stressed and he needed a woman so he could get his “beef”. Don on the other hand had lots of hair and was perfect for his blue-eyed princess Christine. In order to deflect attention away from himself, Carl put his full effort into selling Don as a potential husband. Between Christine and the girl next door, Theo was determined to set Bob and Don up to get some “steak”. We managed a none-so graceful exit a little while later claiming fatigue. As there seemed to be such a problem with transport and accommodation in San Ignacio we decided to head out to Guatemala the next day.

Guatemala, where the xylophone is still popular
Kent our taxi driver from the previous day took us to the border and advised us not to change money on the Belize side as the rate was better past the Belize border - we should be getting 3.5 to the Belize $. As soon as we got out the car, we were accosted by hoards of moneychangers looking for 3.4 to the Belize $. Carl historically being a nervous border post person told them to go away, he needed space. After making it through to no man’s land we decided to change some money, we got a rate of 3.5 so Kent was right. Bob and Don were not so lucky having changed money before. Something Don didn’t seem to take very well.

Across to Guatemala border, some guy approached us trying to get us to give him our passports so that he could go to the front of the queue. He would also need the 10 Quetzals per person required by the immigration. Not believing him we refused to give him either the passports or the money and continued waiting in the queue. Getting to the front took some time as there was a severe problem of locals queue jumping. Nicola with her British upbringing was having none of this and told a woman off for doing so which obviously impressed the official as he reprimanded the woman and served us first.

To our great amusement we heard that Bob, who is always so conscious of money, had left a 100 Quetzals note in his passport when handing it to the immigration officer. The official thanked him very much and pocketed 20 for a so called “border fee”. This we later found out from the British home office updates was a common scam at the Guatemala border.

After fending off taxi-drivers we crossed the bridge to find a local bus. The journey from the border toward Tikal is well know for hold ups and we had been advised to avoid going on the tourist buses. Agreeing to a price of 20 Quetzals (about 3 US$) each for the 2 hours ride to El Cruce (the junction to Tikal) we loaded our bags on the top of the minibus and squeezed in with the 6 locals, 2 Aussie girls and a English girl. On the way chatted about where we had been and what we had seen. Carl sitting at the back was observing the landscape as it whizzed by and spotted a guy with a gun hiding in the bushes looking for an ambush. Thank-goodness he did not stop us, he was probably looking for tourist buses.

We were dumped out on the junction of El Cruce, which according to the Lonely Planet is not somewhere you want to be stuck. We thought it would be cool to stay in the park so Carl tried phoning some of the lodges. At US$75 per person it was way out of our budget so we decided try find Casa De Don David which Dave our brother in law had recommended. In rusty Spanish we asked where and how far it was and were told it was only 1 km away, round the very next corner the sign said 2km to Casa De Don David.

A couple of minutes into our walk the rain started to pour down and we were very quickly drenched. Hiding under a shop’s patio Nicola decided to try her luck and stuck out her thumb to a passing bakkie. Amazingly he stopped and with our almost non-existent Spanish we tried to explain the hotel’s name. We were obviously not very good as 500m down the road he stopped outside another hotel. But at least we were now in a semblance of a village and sheltered under another shop’s patio while Carl, who could not get any wetter, went to check Don David’s out. It was pretty cool and become our base for the next few days.

A day of leisure nearly over Carl, still on the spot a toucan mission, decided he had to go on a walk. He convinced his reluctant wife that a walk was a good plan and with no buy in from Don or Bob, we set off on our own. The walk started with a 1.5 km walk along the road to the National park entrance and as soon as we got to the park the mosquitoes were there to welcome us. Apart from the mosquito clouds that followed us on our hike, we saw 2 squirrels, a rodent like thing that looks like a dassie on stilts the locals call a bush rabbit and a tarantula. We heard the calls of howler monkeys but couldn’t see them. On exiting the park however we did have a very brief glimpse of a Toucan.

Tikal Ancient City of the Maya

We were up at 4:30am the next day for our trip into Tikal. We had chosen a guided trip as we knew very little about Tikal. Juan our guide was excellent, he had a good sense of humour and a very good knowledge of the ruins and related subjects. Despite being up at 5am, we never saw the sunrise over the ruins and because breakfast delayed our departure we also missed the mist. Juans tour was very well thought out as he kept showing us more and more spectacular ruins until we reached the “main course” where pyramid 1 and 2 and the great jaguar mask are situated. Tikal is a dual experience with both archaeology and nature on show. The jungle covers the majority of the ruins and most of the time we could hear the howler monkeys calling. Some of the ruins have been left deliberately covered with vegetation although this may have something to do with a lack of finding. After climbing many stairs in the sweltering heat by 2pm we were ready to go home, we had thought we would want to stay longer.


The next morning we went on a jungle canopy tour. You wear a harness with a pulley, which you attach to cables running between the trees and then wizz along them between platforms. We enjoyed this a lot and could have done a much longer course. Carl almost managed to loose a finger by grapping on to the cable in front of the pulley. After the canopy ride it was on to Flores an Island city near Santa Elena for a couple of days of catch up and organising. Carl and Don swam across to a neighbouring island, which was deceptively far.

Tummy Trouble

Unfortunately between the big Pizza dinner the night before and an ice-cream, Nicola managed to pick up a bug and spent the next day in the bathroom or flat out on the bed. Unable to keep anything down she decided to skip dinner at the Guatemalan restaurant with excellent Guatemalan Chorizo.

Adios Amigos

That evening we said our goodbyes to Don and Bob as we were headed back to Belize and they carried on deep into Guatemala. The next morning still sick, Nicola was given a plastic bag by the bus driver for the 5-hour trip back to Belize. Armed with the knowledge of the border charge scam, we managed to be the only tourists on our bus to avoid payment, by just saying no.

Despite delays (Belize time), the heat and the tummy bug we really enjoyed our time in Belize and Guatemala and will miss our travelling companions. We are still 1 game up in 500’s and it will be some time before they get an opportunity to set that right.

We are off to improve our Spanish in the hopefully cooler Venezuelan Andes. Let us know if you like the headings, we are trying to make it more readable as we have so much to say.

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Photos

Silk Cayes
This is the biggest of the Silk Cayes. We snorkelled here and dived nearby.

The Rules
No shirt, No shoes, No s***, no problem

Nicola with a Brain
Brain Coral near Caye Caulker

42m Down
Diving in the Blue hole with Don and Bob

Don Investigates
One of the interesting coral formations off Half Moon Caye.

Pteradactls?
Frigate Birds diving right over Nicola´s head.

Cave Tubing
Cave tubing in the Maya mountains.

Andy´s Island
We sea kayaked past this Island and named it in honour of Mr Wood.

Godzilla
Lazy iguana at Placencia

Turtle
This turtle tried to bite Carl.

Temple 4
Climbing up Temple 4, Tikal.

Toucanet
Toucanet in Tikal

Pyramid of the Great Jaguar
Proof we were there.

Jane?
Nicola wizzing through the trees.

Great sunset too!
Sunset from the island of Flores, Guatemala.

Comments

[Don]

1 up in the 500!

[DAD]

Currency
It would help if I knew Belise$ to US etc why dont you just keep to one currency ie Rand US$ or £. It would be easier to understand. More Photos of you both!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Mr Andy]

My island
Jambo And here I was thinking I was going to have to become a bestselling novelist to afford an island! I trust you put in an offer - $100 max. The headings are good. As a reader, I would like to know more about the places you're seeing and how they feel... what the people are like, how the countries differ from one another, what sense you get of wealth or poverty, what surprises you, etc. Mambo

[Bob]

Currency
The Belize dollar is easy as its pegged to the US Dollar 1 US = 2 Belize dollar.