Central America: Part 1, Belize

Summary  We’ve had ten days of beach-life on the islands of Ambergris Caye and Caye Caulker: diving, snorkeling and chilling out. Then a week inland at San Ignacio, visiting Mayan ruins, exploring caves and canoeing, as well as just hanging out, drinking beer. The weather has been patchy, often raining but never cold. Next stop: Guatemala

We flew to Mexico on January’s 12, swapping Chelmsford’s -2 degrees C for the blazing 30+ heat of Cancun.

From the airport we took the air-conditioned ADO bus to Playa del Carmen – through flat but green countryside. We’d booked a Private Room at the Green Villa hostel, which turned out to be the other end of town from the bus station, so a lengthy trek down the resort’s main street was tough in the heat! We actually ended up with a dorm of bunk beds to ourselves, which was not great but ok for one night only…

Slept ok then up and out to get the bus to Chetumal, from where we’d planned to take a boat to San Pedro on Ambergris Caye, Belize. Arrived there only to find the boat was full so took the advice of a guide and got a Taxi to the border, and then a Belizean taxi to the nearby airstrip and a Tropic Air flight to San Pedro. This felt like quite a treat, and saved a lengthy boat journey, so well worth the extra cost.

Landed at San Pedro and shared a cab to Pedro’s Inn, the hostel we’d booked for the next few days. Pedro’s is owned by a guy called Peter, originally from Amersham as it happened, so he was familiar with Bovingdon. They have a couple of pools and a bar selling pretty good pizzas, as well as the ubiquitous Belizean beer, Belikin.

The room was pleasant enough, and it was only a short walk to both the seafront and the centre of town. We booked two dives the next day with Ambergris Divers, and had some tasty food at Wild Mango’s cafe.

There’s only one main paved street in Ambergris Caye and the traffic is almost entirely made up of golf carts and bicycles plus the occasional taxi or pickup. It’s small enough to walk everywhere, stopping at cafes and bars as you please. Some bigger, swankier resorts along the beach-front like Ramon’s Village, but it’s mostly shabby-chic at best.

A couple of little highlights were the Reef seafood restaurant, and almost opposite, fabulous ice-cream and sorbets from DandE’s.

The diving was a little disappointing – the weather was very mixed, and they’d had a lot of rain the last few months so that may explain the poor visibility, but also there was very little marine life in evidence. On the first dive it was so bad that I was actually surprised when I saw a fish after about 20 minutes!

The second dive was an improvement – lots of soft ferns and coral and rather more fish, although still lacking in variety, and not much small stuff visible. Saw plenty of Nurse Sharks however.

Prices for the renowned “Blue Hole” were about $300 each so we decided to move on to Caye Caulker for a few days, about 20 mins by water taxi.

Caye Caulker is even more laid back – it’s like one big beach with wooden shacks built on it. The streets are all just white sand, all the shops and stalls are independent local businesses and lots of houses offer food or laundry services. It has a slightly dodgy reputation but I suspect that’s only in evidence if you stay out late drinking into the night. We felt very safe and welcomed wherever we went.

On Saturday we went Snorkeling with a local tour operator – sadly the weather was poor again and we were freezing in the boat as it crashed and banged it’s way to the Hol Chan marine reserve. Snorkeling was tricky in fairly choppy waters but we did see Eagle Rays, lots of Stingrays and Nurse Sharks, a couple of Turtles and some big shoals of fish, Snappers and smaller reef-fish. And a Conger Eel for good measure 🙂

On Sunday it was hot and sunny as we walked south along the beach down to the nature reserve, past the airstrip. Saw a baby stingray in the shallows and an Osprey drying it’s wings perched high in a tree. Just around the corner the female was in the nest atop a telegraph pole. Walked back up the shore stopping for coffee and a rum-ball at ‘Ice-n-beans’, then back to base to chill out.

We had booked a three-dive Blue Hole trip with Frenchies Divers for Tuesday so Monday was a day for lazing about on the various jettys in the sun. We had to be at Frenchies for 4:30 to sort out our dive gear, then headed to the ‘split’ at the North end of the island for a sun-downer and stopped by the coffee shop for a bag of mini-doughnuts 😛 Then got caught in a sudden downpour heading back to the hotel.

That evening we ate at Pasta del Caso – lovely fresh pasta, red wine and great deserts, and then watched the 8:30 showing at the outdoor cinema: Wolf of Wall Street.

Up at 5am for the Blue Hole trip, we boarded the boat as the daylight arrived, speeding out into the open water. The Blue Hole dive took us down to 40m, so that was the first dive if the day. Much anticipated, it was something of a let down in dull conditions and average visibility, with almost no marine life in evidence. Some huge stalactites made an impression but it was otherwise dull… more of a ‘Grey Hole’ quite frankly!!

Thankfully the other two reef dives were much more interesting, with plenty to see: turtles, rays, sharks, a Conger and three Octopi all sharing the same rocky outcrop at the end of the final dive. More like it! In between we had lunch at a small island with a red-footed Booby colony. Also spotted iguanas and plenty of Frigate birds.

Wednesday morning we checked out and took the water-taxi to Belize City, then walked to the Bus terminal and got a bus to San Ignacio, through lush countryside, becoming more hilly as we left the coast. The bus was busy: people constantly getting on and off. We got to San Ignacio early afternoon and found a cheap room (US$25) before wandering around the town a bit. Booked a tour to the ATM Cave for the next day, had some cold beer and an ice-cream and then returned to the room to shower and chill out.

Thursday’s trip to the cave system at Actun Tunichil Muknal (ATM) (http://www.pacztours.net/actun-tunichil-muknal) turned out to be even more intrepid than I imagined. Started easily enough, with a bumpy minivan-ride to the site, in the Tapir Mountain Nature Reserve, just south of San Ignacio. Wearing only clothes that we were prepared to get wet, we then hiked for 45 minutes to the cave entrance, including three waist-high river crossings.

The entrance itself is the outflow of a stream which runs through some 11kms of limestone caves, and we had to swim into the mouth to start exploring the caves themselves… we had helmets and heads torches but were often waist-deep and sometimes swimming in the clear, cool, fast-flowing water. After much clambering and squeezing through gaps we reached some big caverns complete with Mayan pottery and several sets of skeletal remains – quite eerie as you can imagine!!!

The rock formations and crystalline deposits were stunning but cameras were not allowed so no pictures we have no photos but it was an amazing experience. We returned, muddy and damp but quite exhilarated 🙂

On Saturday we went to the local market in the morning and then headed up the hill to Cahal Pech (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cahal_Pech) – a Mayan ruin just outside the town. It was drizzling lightly, but still warm and my boots had almost dried out after the cave tour…! Cahal Pech is one of the oldest Mayan sites in Western Belize, having been occupied in some form since 1200 BC. It was rediscovered relatively recently, with excavation / restoration starting in 1988 and completed in 2000.

Saturday night on Burns Avenue – the local hospital – was a little more busy than usual, with plenty of by now familiar faces outside ‘Flayvas Bar’ and the ‘Wing Stop’ opposite and a nice, friendly atmosphere.

The sunshine returned on Sunday so we sought advice from Bob at Pacz Tours and took a ‘Collectivo’ taxi (runs on fixed routes and will pick up as many passengers as possible) out towards the river crossing from where we walked up to the spectacular Xunantunich Mayan city remains, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xunantunich) near the border with Guatemala.

A large site, prominent from c. 600 AD, the highlight is the 40m high ‘castillo’ from the top of which you can see for miles in all directions: West into Guatemala, and East as far as Belize City on the coast. We spent a good hour at the top, sat in shade on the cool stone looking out over the landscape. Fabulous 🙂

We were back at Flayva’s by 2pm for a cold beer and some lunch. In the evening we shared some very delicious food and cocktails at Bar Fuego – quite a modern place, unlike everywhere else in San Ignacio…!

For our last full day in San Ignacio we went kayaking on the river Mopan, with a freelance river guide called Henry. A taxi took us upstream as far as the Guatemalan border, and dropped us off with the inflatable kayaks. Once in the water we drifted with the current under a blazing hot sun, barely seeing a soul, save for the occasional fisherman or woman washing clothes in the river. We did see all manner of birds: blue and grey Herons, Egrets, Vultures, Buzzards, Kingfishers and Swifts. And a great many Iguanas: mostly big, orange-tinged males, basking in trees or on the river-bank. Sometimes they would throw themselves into the water as we got close, even from ten or twenty feet up, which made a hell of a splash!

Our serene progress downstream was punctuated with frequent stretches of ‘rapids’, which whilst not remotely dangerous, added a certain buzz of excitement, and usually a welcome soaking on a hot day.

After two hours we stopped for lunch – stewed chicken, rice and beans, cooked by Henry’s wife and delivered to the rendezvous spot by our taxi-driver. Two hours later we were on land again, changing into dry clothes at a riverside bar. Cold beers all round – except for the taxi man of course, who had a coke…

It was a great way to spend our last day in Belize – in the big outdoors, relaxing, in complete peace and quiet, with occasional moments of excitement and activity. Thoroughly recommended!

Next stop: Guatemala!!