Belize

On the morning of December 2nd Leane (the owner of the permaculture farm from my previous post) drove us to her friend Miguel’s house. Leane hires Miguel’s brother to do construction work around her farm and she is familiar with the family. Miguel is a Mayan man living in a small Mayan village. Jessi and Reevsy had stayed the previous night there, we were spending one night then catching a ride with another family member to a spot called Blue Hole close to the Belizean capital of Belmopan. On the way over Eric and I made breakfast in the back of the pickup.

Miguel’s home was very simple, essentially one room with a simple kitchen, storage space, a couple beds and hammocks. It had the standard modern Mayan cement floor, wooden walls, and a thatched roof. Miguel lives alone but multiple friends and family members came by to visit. It seems like a tight community.

That afternoon Miguel took us to see the Tiger Cave near his home. It was a 30 minute walk through the very hot sun along a dual track road to the cave. Along the way we passed the hydro station that provides power to nearby villages.

We approached the cave through a deep ravine which eventually closed over. We spent about an hour making our way into the system before reaching the end of Miguel’s route for the day. There is a lot more to the system, with branching paths and routes that are dangerous to take without proper equipment. The caves were absolutely incredible, some chambers were easily 25m tall and just as wide. I had a great time climbing over boulders, exploring the more open caverns and briefly wondering down branching paths. Unfortunately I couldn’t get any good pictures in the dark.

On our way back we stopped at a river for a quick swim. Eric and I took the time to quickly explore another cave, this one filled with water. We swam maybe 20 meters into the cave, disturbing dozens of bats as we went.

We woke up at 3:30am the next morning to catch our ride. We piled 4 people and all our bags into the back of a pickup for the 4 hour drive up to Blue Hole. Although I slept a lot of it, the stars, sunrise, and Belizean landscape were all beautiful from the bed of a pickup.

There two places called Blue Hole in Belize. One is a massive sinkhole out in the ocean which people spend hundreds of dollars to see. The other is a park with a small swimming hole which people pay $10 to see. We arrived at the later about 10 minutes before it opened. We spent about an hour wondering around the area and swimming before heading back to the road to catch a bus. The bus ended up driving right past us so we had to hitch a ride. After 20 minutes in the the blazing hot sun a man named Ted pulled over to pick us up. After a brief stop at Ted’s sister’s house for a chat, Ted drove us straight to the Belize Zoo.

The Belize Zoo operates a guest house in addition to the actual zoo. We were planning on checking out the zoo during the day, then checking into the guesthouse and taking the night tour of the zoo. Inside the zoo we saw Tapirs, Spider Monkeys, Crocodiles, and more, all native to Belize. For the night tour we got to see the nocturnal animals. One of the Jaguars had been trained to do somersaults, which was pretty hilarious. Doing a trip in the day and a second guided one at night was definitely worthwhile, we had a good time. The guesthouse itself was very nice. After a week in the jungle having a warm, private shower and a real bed were massive luxuries. The dinner and breakfast included in our stay were also excellent.

During our breakfast the next day we had the opportunity to talk with a member of Belize’s large Mennonite community who had recently left (escaped) her town. She was happy to share a huge amount of information on her life and the community. It was fascinating to hear about her life, especially as a female member of the religion.

We left the zoo with the intention of taking the cheap, slow public transport system back to Guatemala. We ended up lucking out when a shuttle driver who happened to be going our way pulled up at the bus stop. He offered a direct trip for 3 Belizean dollars more than the bus. Our 6 or 7 hour trip across the border and on to El Remate turned to 4. There was a funny moment on the bus from the border to El Remate when water started pouring out of the air conditioning vent in the ceiling.

At El Remate Eric and Katie split off from the group. Jessi, Reevsy and I were spending 2 nights there and going to Tikal, Katie and Eric had found a nice hostel nearby to relax for a couple days. We arrived at our hostel, got a room and a few beers then relaxed after three very full days.