Blogs from Belize, Central America Caribbean - page 100

Hello again! I must go ahead and warn everyone that this entry could be very slack. I believe I have been affected by the local laided back atmosphere, way too much sun, and an abundance of Cuban cigars. Let me just put it this way; my brain and body are fried. On the mini-bus ride from Flores to Belize City and the cigar boat over to Caye Caulker, Dad and I met a group of 5 Swedish girls travelling the coast. We spent the next three days in Caye Caulker snorkeling, scuba diving, and having nightly dinners and entertainment with the group; but I will discuss that in more depth later. Just off the coast of Belize, is the world's second-largest barrier reef after Australia's Great Barrier Reef. The waters are very shallow west of the ... read more

We left the Trek Stop, San Ignacio at 7am, and caught a public bus which took us through the Belize capital Belmopan, and on to Belize City. From the Marina in Belize City, it was a speed boat trip to the Island of Caye Caulker. We arrived at around 2pm, to the Indigo waters and palms trees. Paradise!!! Belize has the 2nd largest barrier reef in the world, so here is a snorkerlers paradise too. After checking in to the hotel, I walked up the main road, had lunch, and then hired a Kayak, and went out to sea. It was beautiful, very warm, and the sea was fantastic. There are many tropical fish around the reefs. After an hour or so I came back, and went for another swim, checking out the fish and trying ... read more

River boat tour We arranged to take a boat tour up the New River to another set of Mayan ruins - Lamanai. The boat trip up river took about half an hour. Our driver/tour guide, Javier expertly navigated us through the semi-narrow river at about 30mph! When we arrived, we had a few minutes before our tour began. Before we headed back along the paths, we were able to see a couple of Black Howler Monkeys that are apparently quite prominent in the area…these were the only ones we saw though. Javier, who wasn’t the greatest tour guide, had two interesting habits. #1 - He repeatedly called us “My friends” basically beginning every other sentence with it. #2 - He constantly repeated the name of the animal/plant/ruin he was explaining. We visited three partially excavated structures ... read more

Altun Ha We left Belize City after a short drive around, and a stop at the local "Save U" for some groceries/snacks for the day. We drove along the Northern Hwy towards Orange Walk, with our destination being Crooked Tree. Crooked Tree is the village where the Biltons spent most of their time when in Belize, so we were all looking forward to getting there. But first, we took a detour to check out our first set of Mayan ruins - Altun Ha. We took the old Northern Hwy to get there. After being only mildly harrassed by some random guy to pay $5US each for a tour, we set off on our own. The main part of Altun Ha is the ceremonial section, which has been excavated, and extensively cleaned. The lawns were well manicured ... read more

Comme la rando a eu lieu le matin, j'ai pu profiter de l'aprem pour aller visiter les ruines toutes proches de Xunantunich. J'avais ecrit un truc super long pour vous decrire tout ca, mais ca s'est efface, donc je vous decrirai ca de vive voix! Et puis, pour bien conclure la journee, je vais faire un petit plongeon dans la Mopan river (tjs la meme), un peu en amont de l'endroit ou les femmes du village lavent leur linge, et la un mec tres sympa du village s'installe et m'explique qu'il vient pecher la tous les soirs. Du coup on s'est pose tous les deux et il m'a dit plein de trucs sur la culture maya (la population dans cette region descend des mayas, contrairement a la population noire de la cote qui descend des ... read more