Belize To The End

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Sooo...... 7:00am we left Flores and headed for the boarder of Belize. We had changed our plans and were entering Belize early as well as heading direct to Belize City and cutting out San Ignacio, an inland town at the top of the country. Neither of us particularly felt great about the prospect of Belize City so after a very spontaneous decision didn't get back on the bus once we crossed the border into Belize. Having somewhat discussed the options with the locals we chose Placencia, a seaside village in southern Belize.

We took a taxi to Belmopan, a town nearby where we were told that we could take a bus to Placencia... which wasn't completely untrue we just thought it might have been direct. In total the day involved 3 buses, a taxi and a boat all within about 12 hours.

Placencia is a very thin peninsula - you can walk side to side within about 5 minutes however on the coastal side is the Caribbean!!!!! That sounds better than it actually was. The temperature during the day was around 30-35d so we did make good use of the water. It wasn't warm but was the perfect temperature to be refreshing when you wanted to get out of the heat.

You can take in all Placencia has to offer in about an hour when walking around - there was literally nothing to do - which we decided was fine as long as you are prepared to do nothing. It is laid back and if you have a couple of good books and don't mind hanging around the place is great. The place is a little like an American retirement village though with a lot of expats choosing this as their version of "living the dream".

From here we moved up to Belize City which, compared to some of the cities we have been to was an easy experience, unfortunately though, the place is a hole with not much to offer. We visited the Museum of Belize the most interesting part of which was the fact that it was in the original Belize Jail which was built some 150 years ago and included a well recorded history of the prison including some of the prisoners. Although it is safe during the day Belize city is considered highly unsafe at night - testiment to which was our guesthouse which had razor wire across the top of an 8ft fence, bars over the windows and a lock on the gate. Needless to say we stayed in after dark.

We spent our last six nights on Caye (Key) Caulker, an island reached by a 1 hour ferry ride. The island itself was long and narrow - there were only three roads running the length of the island and only one of these went the whole way as the island was too narrow in some places for all three. Much like Placencia, the place was really laid back however there was a stronger tourist vibe and a lot more variety by way of bars and restaurants. The first few days on were spent being the laziest we had been on the trip watching movies on cable as it was raining. High winds and rain marked the first couple of days but we did get out after this.

On the thrid day we booked onto a cave tubing tour and travelled back to Belize City. Unfortunately when we arrived at Belize city we were told that the caves weren't opening as a result of the heavy rain overnight. We went back to the Island and instead spent the afternoon on a snorkelling trip which was amazing. Caye Caulker has the worlds second largest reef a couple of hundred metres from shore amazing coral and fish life. The highlight was Shark Ray Alley which is frequented by.... you guessed it sharks and rays. This particular point on the reef is where local fishermen gut and clean there fish creating a strong community of rays and sharks which hang around the area and are very used to both boats and people. Our boat anchored in less than 4ft of water where we could already see the sharks and rays. Despite knowing what to expect there was still some hesitency when the guide says "jump in". I waited until I saw the first guy go in and not get eaten. There would have been half a dozen sharks the biggest of which was 5-6ft and around a dozen rays. They swam around us for 15 odd minutes within arms length. Apart from the highlight of just being in the water near them it was neat to see them so close for so long and be able to see the parts of their bodies moving.

The next day Russell managed to get on a trip to the Blue Hole after trying for days as they only go when they have a minimum of 10. The day was the first perfect day we had had. The blue hole is 2 hours by boat and is quite literally a hole in the middle of the ocean which was first discovered by Jaque Cousteau. The hole is in the middle of an atoll which was originally around 10metres deep in the middle. The bottom of the atoll however was the top of an underwater cave which collapsed hundreds of years ago therefore creating the hole which is now 200ish metres deep at the deepest point. The hole was incredible. We dove to 60 metres where the cave expands outwards allowing us to swim through stalictites and stalagmites all over 8-10 ft high. Just knowing that most of these took 1000's of years to grow is incredible. The next two dives were on reefs and were equally great dives for the corals, fish, sharks and turtles.

Our last day on the island we successfully tried for the cave tubing again which turned out to be a great experience. The cave is pretty deep in the jungle and was only discovered around 1990. We hiked through the jungle with our tubes to the start point and jumped in. The tubing through the cave was reasonable short however the highlight of the trip was drifting down the river with the jungle on either side for 30 minutes to the end.

On the way back we stopped at the Belize Zoo. Not normally something that we would go out of our way to do but we're glad we did. The zoo was established by an animal lover who was left with 20 animals which were "surplus to requirement" once the filming of a movie finished. The zoo is better described as a half way house for animals and all it's guests either have a disability which means they wouldn't survive in the wild or are in the process of being rehabilitated. The coolest thing was that we saw a variety of animals that we would never see in New Zealand from jaguars and pumas to eagles and tucans.

Belize itself is a pretty interesting little country once you look beneath the surface. The country has a population of 350k of which 150k live in Belize City. Belize only gained its independence in 1981. Prior to this it had been a British colony and had been given to the British in an exchange by Guatemala.
One fact that stuck out early on is that 40% of Belize's territory including controlled waters are dedicated to reserves which is evident in the rich jungle and marine life.

Economically Belize is not the greatest place relying heavily on tourism and while we were there found out that the current unemployment rate is 35%. While talking to one of our guides he told us that prior to independence was any national turned 18 they were entitled to a free piece of land which was issued by the government. Whilst that has stopped the government still sells plots under the same scheme for $2,500Us each. Our guide at the age of 48 had a freehold house! He did say that he had to take a $6500US loan to build the house.

One thing that did stand out to us was the people and culture. Normally between countries, especially those sharing land borders there are subtle cultural differences but not great differences that would make you think you were in a complete other part of the world. Take for example Kiwis and Auzzies. This was also our experience between Guatemala and Mexico but despite sharing a land border with both of these countries Belizians are completely something else. Culturally we came to the conclusion Belizians are a mix of Mexican, Indian and Jamaican. Jamaican because they speak like the jamiancan language you hear in the movies like "ya mun" or "dis bus does not stop rite ya". Indian mostly because some of their behaviour was like what we saw in India - that is in times where scarcity is likely push to make sure you get in first. I guess when you've come from an environment where scarcity has been a problem in the past this is natural. We said Mexican as they like the Mexicans they are friendly, helpful and generally nice to be around.

Soo.... In a nutshell that was Belize in 9 nights. We're home and whilst the trip was amazing nothing beats our bed. although given the choice we might still pass on going to work - if someone would pay our credit card bill for us.

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Photos

Bus sign
Notice to all passengers on the bus