Blogs from Belize, Central America Caribbean - page 102

After a crowded 3 hour bus ride from Belize City, I made it to the town of San Ignacio. I stayed with some friends at their jungle resort on the first night. The place is out in the boonies 5 miles from town. They have made the place very nice, but still have a long way to go. It will be very nice when they are finished. The following day I went to the ruins of Xunatunich. You cross the river on an old hand cranked water ferry and then it is a mile hike to the ruins. The largest Temple is 130 feet and you are able to see Guatemala from the top. I stopped into the Inn at Xunatunich after wards and met a woman by the name of Carina. We made quick friends ... read more

Following our stay in Flores we returned to Belize for our two night canoe trip down the belize river. We started out near San Ignacio and used Tony's River Guides to take us down the river. These guys were all really awesome, friendly and a couple of them were pretty cute. The canoe trip was actually pretty relaxing and we saw lots of wildlife along the way including iguanas, crocodiles, various birds, and monkeys. At night we camped and the guides cooked for us (these guys had all sorts of talents...i should have brought one home with me!). Surprisingly night time in belize is cold. Maybe I had already become accustomed to the heat, but even as a Canadian I felt chilled in the tents at night. At the end of the trip we returned to ... read more

Guess who's back on the caribbean coast again, dear reader, with the rasta cats feeling bless-ed man? Yes that's right, it's your intrepid travel journalist happy to post this entry from Belize. Within a minute of arriving at the bus terminal in Belize City I walked around the corner and saw two local women; one of whom approached with outstretched arms, missing teeth but a winning smile and said to me ¨Hey baby, come to mama!¨ Well, that sure was an interesting opening gambit. So anyways, I go a little further down the street towards the marine terminal, and give some skin when offered by a rasta cat who was chilling with his brothers. The cat glances at my face and says ¨Hey man, why you look like that?¨ Apparently I've been away from the caribbean ... read more

I'm staying in another jungle lodge, this time in Belize. This lodge has composting toilets, tarantulas and army ants. Oh fun! If slightly scary! Yesterday we arrived at lunchtime, then promptly went tubing. This is where you go down a river on a huge inner tube, over rapids and everything. It was slightly hair-raising, particularly the time where I came off after a rapid, then found myself in a real life whirl pool! Luckily I lived to tell the tale... Today we went for a hike across jungle territory to some waterfalls. It was a round trip of 12 miles. It was actually quite easy going, but we didn't take enough water and by the end walking in the sun was very hard work! We had to stomp our feet to scare of any snakes. I ... read more

Belize city turned out to be a bit of a hell hole, and 1 night there was more than enough. It's dirty, smelly, falling apart and there is someone waiting to hustle you on every corner. The following morning we packed up and set off early for San Ignacio via Belize Zoo. Upon entering the zoo Karen was 'stoked' to discover Steve Irwin and Dolly Parton were previous visitors. We got pretty snap happy and were tempted to pretend we had taken the photos on a jungle trek as the animals were easy to view in their natural surroundings. We collected our bags from the nice lady in the gift shop and continued on our way to San Ignacio. The town turned out to be a nice surprise and we have stayed longer than expected. The ... read more