.....In January 2011, my wife and I took a two week trip to Belize. Here is a country with a history dating back from the Mayans almost 3800 years ago to the present, with a geography ranging from mountains to coral reefs, with the lowest population density in Central America and with an area about 1/4 the size of Indiana. This is an American traveler’s paradise. The official language is English since the British ruled it as British Honduras until 1981. However, the remnants of Mayan, Spanish, English and Garifuna language are heard as is Creole (not French based Creole). This mixture of heritage and language increases the fascination of Belize.
.....One of the reasons we have for visiting a place is to meet people and see how they lives as well as to learn something of their heritage. I think it is safe to say that we met more interesting people in Belize than in any other country we have visited. So I decided to tell you about some of them. I had to omit some of them because the article was getting too long.
.....We did not take a guided trip so we were free to visit wherever we though we could travel and talk to whomever we wanted. We drove many kilometers across roads ranging from the very good to the who-calls-this-a-road category. The main north-south and east-west roads are quite good even with the traffic control road bumps. Some secondary roads are fine but others are more like a trail that is barely passable. We had rented a 4wd vehicle not for the drive but because it has a higher clearance than a normal vehicle. This proved to be a wise choice.
.....The people renting the vehicle to us were our first interesting people. It took awhile to get through the rental process mainly because the woman in charge was quite talkative and quite interesting. She and her husband were retired but continued to run the local rental store. She gave us directions to our guest house and then remembered that she told us to turn left instead of right. So she drove about 10 miles to Belize City hoping to find us and correct the mistake. Fortunately, we had figured out the instructions and had already found the place just as she arrived.
.....Our first night in Belize was spent outside Belize City in a B&B run by a friendly Belgian and her equally friendly dog. At breakfast, we met a young woman who was a technical person for a computer firm out of Venezuela. We learned that some Chinese refuse to learn Spanish but will learn English. We also were treated to her analysis of the political state in Venezuela.
.....We traveled down the Placencia Peninsula and spent 5 days at the ocean. This place allowed us to explore the area nearby and to do some snorkeling. Our hosts were from the US and spent half the year in Belize. The caretaker, local historian, fisherman and guide was of Mayan descent. He was delightful to talk with and to watch him fish as we snorkeled on our own deserted Caye (coral reef island pronounced key). We saw a lot of fish and coral and he caught lobster and crabs. He also showed me where some reefs were within easy swimming distance from shore and where I was greeted by a manta ray.
.....We took a trip to the Jaguar Preserve and did some hiking. On our way back from the twin waterfalls, the mountain decided to throw a rock at me which I deflected with my foot. Unfortunately, the rock was harder than my skin and I ended up needing a few stitches. Our hosts arranged for me to see a Doctor in Placencia which was about 20 miles from where we stayed. He had been trained in Miami and Cuba, spoke fluent English and Spanish and told us a lot about the area. He worked with what we might call minimal equipment but did his job and also acted as his own pharmacist and charged a reasonable rate. We left his office and went to eat at the Pickled Parrot.
.....I discovered that I had brought the wrong charger for my camera battery. We had two cameras with us but the second one was limited in its abilities. In the US, this would not have been much of a problem since I could buy an inexpensive charger. In Belize, with a population of only 313,000, sales do not justify inventories of seldom sold items. It turned out that the owner of an office supply store (not much larger than the Shepherd’s Center meeting room) used a similar camera for taking passport photos and told me she would charge my batteries. She did but would not accept payment for the service. With the charge, I was able to use my camera judiciously for the rest of the trip.
.....The second leg of our trip included visits to a number of Mayan sites near the Guatemalan border. We stayed near a town on a river near the border. Here we met a delightful Englishman who rented a group of cabins on the bank of the river. He served us breakfast on a porch visited by parrots who let us know they were there. He intends to expand his offerings and we wish him well.
.....We also met a couple of friendly young guides. One, whose name was Diego (Jim in Spanish) was guiding a group on a pyramid. I read his name tag and during a rest time for him, I talked with him. His native tongue was Spanish but he spoke very good English. He had an excellent knowledge of the Mayas and it was interesting to get his take on the ruins and history. The other guide was a Guatemalan who took us on a tour of some tropical gardens as well as of an Iguana nursery. We held and were crawled on by little and large iguanas. The guide was quite interested in native plants as well as in the preservation of the native iguanas. It was a down day for tours (we were the only people on the tour) so I think we ended up with spending double the time a normal tour takes.
.....From the western part of Belize, we went back east to a wildlife preserve where we spent the remainder of our time in a nicely outfitted cabin on the lake. The group of cabins, camping ground and lodge were owned by a former British helicopter pilot and his beautiful native wife along with their two delightful young boys. This was an industrious family who, along with a couple of local people, were building up this lodging area. We took a tour of the wildlife area early in the morning where we saw more species of birds that I have ever seen. Unfortunately, I had to preserve battery charge so I took half the pictures I would like to have taken.
.....We toured the area and went to the Baboon Sanctuary. On our way there, we stopped at the town of Burrell Boom for lunch. We randomly selected a place that served lunch. We were greeted by a couple much older than we and talked with them and ordered lunch. After it was served, we though it a bit unusual that both of them sat down at a table next to us. We ended up with a 20 minute lunch taking about 1.5 hours! We learned that the husband was the first official dentist in Belize. He and his wife bought a motel with a restaurant and were just about to finally retire as they had just sold the complex. We also learned a lot about the history of the English in the area. It was really enjoyable. On the way out, he insisted that he take our picture since he thought we probably did not end up with many pictures of us together. He was right.
.....Baboon is the local name for Howler Monkeys. The woman who was in charge of the sheltered area took us on a tour to see the monkeys. It had rained and the monkeys had retreated to their tree high shelters. So the woman’s husband scouted them out and his wife called them over to us. They came with mothers carrying their children and surrounded us in the trees above us. The only advice was to keep our hats on and not to look directly up while standing under the monkeys.
.....On our way to and from the monkeys, the tour guide would name plants and tell us what they were good for. In a couple of cases, she said that the plants were ready for picking and she would come back later and pick them. I asked her if she had ever written (I knew she could write since I saw her doing so at the shelter) down what she knew about the plants and she smiled and said it was all in her heart. An amazing woman!
.....While at the sanctuary, we bought a bottle of cashew wine, a specialty in the area. We took it back to the wild life preserve and served it to the guests at one of our meals. We all agreed that this is one of the things best kept as a local specialty.
.....While at the preserve, we were treated to excellent meals and even ate one evening meal with the whole family, including the two boys. We were able to talk with the owners and found out a lot of information about both their lives and the history of the area. The next day, the youngest boy who was not yet in school took me on a tour of their property and told me of the flying snake near the bridge and the crocodile in the pond. His dad later told me he crocodile was real but the snake was a good story.
.....The two boys wanted very much to see snow. I had taken a 5x7 picture of snow around our place to show people who might want to know what is like where we live. So I gave them the picture. They responded by showing me how to find a snake and a tarantula. Fair trade and a great ending to a wonderful journey!