Blogs from Belize, Central America Caribbean

Sunday morning, 7 am, and we can hear African drumming drifting along the beach, Garifuna drumming to be precise. We are in Hopkins, a village set up by slaves who had escaped from the sugar plantations. Hopkins is now a centre for Garifuna drumming, a tradition that the slaves brought with them from Africa. Our little guest house is on the beach and in the heat of the day we are able to stay cool beneath the coconut palms. Small boats set out from the beach every day to fish on the reef, 20 miles out to sea. The fishermen stay away for two or three nights, camping on the reef's sandbar islands. The beach bars all sell fresh fish dishes – red snapper is the only fish we actually recognise! Also fishing here are brown ... read more

JOHNNY'S JOURNEYS: MEXICO, HONDURAS and BELIZE... 2021 November 28, 2021 (Sunday) Happy birthday Janet. We say good-bye to our daughter and leave at 8:15. About 130 miles later and we're in New Orleans looking for the cruise ship terminals. Driving past the Norwegian ship, we find the closest parking lot and prepay for 7 nights. One shuttle picks up our luggage while another shuttle takes us to a nearby building for our required Covid tests. Plus, we had to show proof that we had each received both Covid vaccines. On the sidewalk was a plaque which commemorated the 1984 World's Fair. We each had come to New Orleans that summer of 1984, to enjoy the World's Fair, before we had met. Our test results took about 15 minutes, then we were boarding the Norwegian Breakaway. After ... read more

We traveled from Belize to home today. We got up for the final sunrise and another beautiful day in Belize. One last look at the beautiful pool and beach. It was an interesting drive on the Hummingbird Highway today. We were stopped at several police checkpoints. Not sure who or what they were looking for, but they hardly stopped us and waved us through. A truck with bananas and a motorcycle were the most exciting things we saw. We dropped our car at the rental and then went into the airport. The airport was busier than usual. Lots of travelers trying to get back home as the last flights will be on Sunday. Our flight was on time and was uneventful. Immigration and customs in Chicago was uneventful. After a short delay to get our shuttle ... read more

We got up early again today for another beautiful sunrise. We had breakfast at our hotel before heading northwest to the ruins of Xunantunich near San Ignacio. It is right near the border with Guatamala. It was about a 3 hour drive with lots of road construction on the Western Highway. Once there we had to ride the hand cranked ferry across the river. Pete stayed in the truck to drive it on and off the ferry, but passengers were required to be out of the vehicle. Once on the other side it was a 1 mile drive to the Xunantunich Archaeological Reserve. We paid our entry fee and then headed in to look at the information center and then to the ruins. This one was larger than the ones yesterday with more intact structures. We ... read more

We got up early again for another beautiful sunrise. The plan for the day was to head to one of the national parks we had driven past on our way from Belize City the first day of our trip. We were not sure how far away it was, but we left early so we could get there early enough to book the rappelling tour. We got there about 0845 and the tour was scheduled to leave at 0900. We grabbed some donuts and fruit at the restaurant and booked the tour. We were in a group of 8 total with 2 guides. The guide was very informative about the plants and jungle and gave extensive information at our rest stops on the hike up the Antelope Trail. We stopped to take a look at an overlook ... read more