Belize

At the end of July, we rode some twelve hours on the bus to get from Palenque, Mexico to Belize City, Belize, where we met our friends Ben and Kristen who flew down from Texas for the week.

Our first night was spent in disappointing, dirty Belize City. Far from a historic cruise ship port that we expected, Belize City, battered by hurricanes, lost its capital city status 10 years or so ago. Today, most of the wooden homes are leaning, appearing ready to fall at any moment. Broken down cars fill the front yards, and an open drainage system runs alongside the cracked sidewalks. Despite the evident poverty, amazingly, prices are much higher than Mexico, approaching -- and in the grocery store exceeding -- US prices. A decent meal in a local diner runs about $10. On the bright side, we found a really friendly hostel and a great home-style diner, and made a couple new friends whom we'd coincidentally meet again the next month in Guatemala.

The second day, we took a van tour inland to do same "cave tubing" and to visit the Belize Zoo. The zoo is an animal rehabilitation center, and all of the animals live in a natural habitat, making finding them hidden in the trees and brush a game for the visitors. The stars of the zoo are the beautiful black jaguar with its darker black spots hidden within its black fur, the strange anteater-cum-cow tapir, and the magnificent, Fruit Loops-inspiring large-billed toucan.

The next morning, the four of us took a speedboat ride out to the island of Ambergris Caye, where we would spend the next week scuba diving and relaxing in the sun. Besides a whole lot of time sleeping in hammocks on the beach, one day Kristen and I took a bike ride across the hand-drawn ferry to the even more tranquil and exclusive side of the island. On another day, Shannon and I boated over to Caye Caulker.

After Ben and Kristen returned Home, Shannon and I stayed a couple more days in order to dive The Blue Hole, an unusual phenomenon in which an island with underground caverns collapsed into itself back during the end of the ice age. The now-flooded cavern is 120 feet deep and still preserves enormous stalactites. Because of its depth, the Blue Hole appears from above as a giant circle of very dark blue water. But, the even more exciting part for diving is that hundreds of Caribbean Reef Sharks consider the hole their home. During the entire dive, we could look up and down and see several 4-to-5 foot sharks circling above and below us.

The dive trip was the most well-orchestrated that I've experienced. We were picked up from the pier in front of our hotel at 7AM and whisked over to the dive shop, where coffee, pastries, and cheese awaited. About three-quarters way into the 90-minute boat ride out to the dive site, the captain cut the motor and told us all to come up deck to see the hundreds of small dolphins flying towards our boat. They were fantastic. After the dive, fresh pineapple was sliced and ready for us. Shortly, we docked at an island to eat lunch and look at the big Red-Footed Booby birds sleeping in the tree tops. Before heading back to Ambergris Caye, we stopped for a wall dive along the barrier reef to see the coral and tropical fish. After this dive, we each got a Snicker's bar, and soon, the pineapple juice and rum drinks started flowing for the trip back home. At around $200, this was an expensive but perfect dive trip.

July 19 - 28, 2004