Belize Journal
Ladies & Gentlemen:
At long last I am posting my diary from Belize. As you know, I went to Belize in May with two friends (Kathryn & Linda). Naturally, this is a censored version; I left out 99% of my own personal reflections.
But this journal should give you a taste of our Belize experience. Enjoy!
(Linda, me, Kathryn at Marthas in San Ignacio)
Day 1 - Saturday
Arriving in Belize
After a long plane ride, we finally arrived in Belize. During our descent, we flew low over the lush forests, across peninsulas, over clear, crisp blue water speckled with small leafy islands. Even I, the one who insisted on aisle seating because of a fear of flying, leaned over laps to gaze (wide-eyed) out the window.
Departing San Francisco’s cold weather meant I was wearing black track pants and a back windbreaker. Well, when we took our first step off the plane, the intense Belizean heat about knocked us out. One by one, we each took that first step down the airplane ladder, to be followed immediately by “Whoa! Omigosh, what the-!” when the pelting sun hit us, singing our hair.
We wearily dragged our heat-heavy bodies into the (God-blessed) air-conditioned terminal. There, we showed our paperwork, and waited eagerly to see if the God of Airport Baggage Transportation had decided to take our luggage as a sacrifice, never to be seen again.
Good karma allowing, our bags were among the first off the plane. We all ran into the small bathroom, stripped off our clothes and emerged in shorts, T-shirts and sandals. Now we were ready for Belize!
We easily found a cab to take us to Belize City (downtown). The cab ride was amazing, we passed lagoons, small villages… The driver was, as most Belizeans are, extremely nice. He told us all about the country, the people, encouraged us to ask questions. He told us about his home, his life…. When we passed the Belize River, he offered to stop and let us take a swim for a while. At the time I thought, “Yeah right, and you’ll drive off with our luggage!” In retrospect, I am almost certain that he genuinely would have waited for us. One thing I learned in Belize is that it’s still possible to trust a stranger.
We entered downtown Belize City. Very poor city. Looked like something out of National Geographic. Dirty, moldy, dark streams of water run through parts of town, alongside the main roads. It was Saturday, so everyone was outside barbequing. Apparently, Saturday is the day when everyone around BBQs outside. Teenage boys were gutting fish on the street corners, preparing to throw them on the grills.
Lots of people walking barefoot, kids and adults riding old dirty bikes. Yeah, speaking of…every bike and car in Belize is old, falling apart, and dirty. I quickly began to love that, it added character. Here, we are so uptight about everything being crisp and clean. We’re shallow, and into looks. In Belize, no one expects your property to be clean and showy, it’s all functional and that’s it. You’d probably ask for low-brow looks if you showed up in a bright white car.
We got to the Belize Bus Terminal. A small dusty, hot room with one young man selling tickets. We told him we were going to San Igancio. Cost was $5. Bus was supposed to leave at 12:30pm. We had 45 minutes, so we looked around. Lots of people were sitting in the small room, fanning themselves. Mostly locals. We found 2 female tourists about our age. Like us, they had huge backpacks strapped to their backs. There was a person selling sodas in the corner of the room. I decided to use this time to read the Belize brochures I took from the airport. At this stage in my trip, I had a small padlock on every zipper of my smaller backpack. By the 3rd day, I realized these were not necessary, and stopped using them. I was learning to lose my distrust of people, that I had learned in America.
At noon, a bus pulled up. Tons of Belizeans poured off the old dirty bus. Mothers held their children’s hands, helped elderly off, teenagers jumped off and ran down the streets… It was clear they wanted to get off the hot, sweaty bus. Immediately, all the people in our station climbed onto the bus. Kathryn and Linda got on way ahead of me, I was worried the bus would be full and I wouldn’t get on! It was sooo crowded. Luckily, I was able to push myself on. I shoved my backpack onto the luggage rail above the seats, found Kathryn and sat down.
Packed bus! Women, men, children, animals… The bus was very rickety, most of the windows were cracked or broken. I was fortunate to be sitting next to a window (all of which were down, so the hot air could creep in). I counted about 70 people on the bus, and only 5 of them were tourists. Belize is not a tourist-developed country yet. It’s a best-kept secret in Central America. There was something exciting about knowing our mode of transportation was NOT tourist-oriented. We were riding with the locals, many of whom were going home. I was so squished, I had most of my left arm hanging out the window – this resulted in the oddest-shaped sunburn later that day. A triangle across my mid arm/elbow.
We drove down a dirt road for hours. Every so often you’d see a little covered bench (a bus stop), and a long dirt road going off into the distance. At the end of these occasional long, dirt side roads were a few houses.
(Bus ride to San Igancio)
Now, houses in Belize were fascinating. They were basically a collection of old wooden slabs, and sometimes sheet metal…just nailed up together in no particular architectural fashion. Houses were up on 4 stilts…it’s a wonder these toothpicks could hold up the homes. Sometimes the entire house would be slanted to the left, and I have to wonder if Big Uncle Joe stood on the weak side, would the house topple over? Also, the doors were always open. It’s too hot to keep them closed. And there are no windows (glass) built into homes…they are just open squares. Also, every house in Belize has laundry hanging across the yard outside.
(House in Belize)
Our bus stopped briefly in Belmopan, the country’s capital. I think this was to help local commerce. Our bus stopped next to an area where there were tiny shacks in a row, each with smoke spiraling upwards out of them. The moment our engine turned off, tons of little boys and girls ran out of the shacks. Each had an old, broken plastic laundry basket or crate on their head, toting soft drinks, local candy, and hamburgers or BBQ chicken wrapped in foil.
The children ran along the sides of the bus, advertising, “Ham-boor-gus!” Ham-boor-gus! Bar-be-que cheek-en!” Some children and their mothers came onto the bus, walked down the aisles. Many passengers bought their lunch…so maybe this makes sense. The bus takes people home, probably also at dinner time on work days, and by stopping in Belmopan, they can buy a cheap dinner since they won’t be home another hour or so…? Linda bought a soft drink which we all shared.
Our drive continued. I noticed that some of the small houses we passed also acted as stores. You’d usually see a faded “Coke” plastic sign atop a wooden post. That usually meant the nearest house sold soft drinks. I’d see someone’s house, with a little counter in the main room, and an old fridge behind it. I can’t imagine much was sold at these local stores. At one point, our bus stopped to let passengers off. An old lady was sitting outside one of these house-stores, sipping a soda. She recognized a passenger on our bus and they chatted a bit. Since no one is in a hurry in Belize, the entire bus happily waited until their conversation was done to continue.
More images I saw as we drove down the countryside:
1. A little girl in a frayed, dirty pink dress washing clothes in a wooden bucket on the side of a house.
2. A little boy in overalls, standing next to a Sprite sign, crying.
3. Two sisters walking, sucking on lollipops and giggling. No shoes on.
4. A 10 year old boy walking through the lush, thick grass around his house, kicking an old ball.
5. Kids hanging out at the bus stops, while sitting on their bikes.
6. Women washing their children in little streams. Children laughing, splashing water. Animals playing in water, too.
We finally got to San Ignacio. There is no sign saying, “Welcome to San Ignacio!” You basically just have to guess where to get off. Every town looks about the same as the next. San Ignacio is on the eastern border of Belize…it’s inland, right next to Guatemala. The people here are more medium brown skinned, and appear more Hispanic. Perhaps because of the proximity to Guatemala. Once we got off the bus, we saw that it was a small town. (Big surprise) About two main roads, garnished with street vendors selling fresh fruit. We bought some mangoes and plantain chips. (Yum!) Very very cheap.
(Downtown San Ignacio)
Downtown San Ignacio consists of little shops, tiny guesthouses (all in stages of wear & tear), and small mom-and-pop restaurants. You can walk through the entire downtown area in less than 10 minutes. We ended up staying at Martha’s – we got a nice 4-bed room with a floor fan. (There is no AC in Belize lodging that we could find) Martha’s was a great start…it was basically a large house with 4 rooms total. We had a bathroom in the hall, which seemed to belong to us. Only cost us $10 each/night.
We unloaded and walked around town. VERY HOT. Everyone tried to sell us tours. “You girls wanna go to Caracol?” We felt very safe. The people were very welcoming. Everyone seems to take an interest in meeting/greeting any visitors. We saw a few other backpackers here and there. We had dinner at Martha’s – I had chicken kebabs, rice, and watermelon juice. ($7 total) Belize is big on ‘fresh fruit juices’ – and you can get just about any fruit juice imaginable.
Tired, weary travelers, we went to bed at 6pm. (Well, Linda and I did, but Kathryn stayed up a bit longer). Ahhhh, it felt good to sleep.
