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| A Rastafarian Temple |
A little over 50 years ago a friend and I went to Belize. We were on a grand tour of Mexico and Central America with stops in Tulum, Honduras, San Salvador and Guatemala as well as Belize and other places in Mexico. We were foolish, innocent, naive young women, still living in a haze of hippiedom with a perhaps misplaced faith in the goodness of the world.
Along the way we met fellow Americans, Europeans, and natives of all the countries we visited, including many that were indigenous. We traveled on buses, boats, trains and small planes. We hitched rides, sometimes lucky ones, and in Belize a terrible one where we were raped and were lucky to get out of it mostly unscathed. We were all of 22 years old, almost 23.
Now here are Lee and I going back to Belize. I recently got out my little travel diary from that long ago trip. I remember a surprising amount, but I’d forgotten a lot as well, including how we got from Tulum to Belize City, and where we stopped when we took a boat down the coast.
This trip is of course a far cry from the one back then. We are flying from Minneapolis to Houston and from there to Belize City where the resort where we will be staying will pick us up and take us by car and boat to Caulker Caye where we will stay for a week. We’ll explore, relax, go snorkeling and take one day to go on a guided tour of some Mayan ruins.
I expect things to be unrecognizable. I remember Belize City as quiet, with dusty streets. We stayed at a hostel with a big front porch where we hung out for several days recovering from our harrowing journey. We met an Australian who took us to a restaurant and bade us try something called “sour sop soup”. I’m sure it had coconut in it and beyond that I have no idea.
We eventually found a “rice boat” going down the coast that took us to Placencia Village and then on to Punta Gorda where we took a small motor boat across a bay to Livingston, Honduras.
50 years ago most of the Belize interior was impassable, with roads that only the toughest vehicles could transverse. When we go to the ruins we will travel on a road to the town of Orange Walk and then take a boat up a river from there. I’m sure it will be better but maybe not by a whole lot.
I’m excited for this trip. We are currently on our flight from Minneapolis to Houston. We have a fairly tight connection in Houston but with luck things will go smoothly.
It’s horribly cold in Minnesota, -15F this morning with a wind chill close to -30F, and tomorrow will be worse. It’s even cold in Houston, 30F, so they’re probably freaking out.
It was hard leaving the dogs this time, even though I know that they are in good hands. I just have this sense that Heather is toward the end of her time with us, and it makes me sad. We’ve taken to leaving her in the crate when we are gone for a few hours and a few days ago she pooped in the crate and got it all over herself so she had to have a bath when we got home. It was a mess and I felt terrible. Since then she’s been okay but she’s been coughing more and sometimes it just seems like she doesn’t feel well. Poor Heather. I just don’t want her to suffer. When it’s time I would rather err on the side of one day too early than one day too late.
January 21, 2025
When I left off we were on our first flight. We landed in Houston and had about a 20 minute walk to our next gate and about 40 minutes supposedly until our next flight started boarding. Such a big airport! We get to our next flight and it’s delayed a bit “due to operational changes” whatever that means. A lot of flights for Tuesday (today) are being cancelled because of the bad weather so maybe that was it, anyway they had to get a a different plane. But eventually we boarded and took off.
It wasn’t a very long flight, maybe an hour and a half. We started our descent and approach to the Belize City airport and as we were preparing to land the plane’s engine’s roared and we took off again. Lee and I glanced at each other; we knew that wasn’t normal! We circled around with my mind going to dark places intermittently while I kept telling it to “shut up!”. We descended and landed again without incident. The pilot got on the intercom and apologized. Apparently a Delta jet had decided to taxi on to our runway right when we were preparing to land! But as the pilot said, “we’re all safe now”. Sheesh. New one for me.
Belize airport is little of course, but pretty busy. Another plane landed right around the same time as us so immigration was crowded. But once it was our turn we went through swiftly. Nothing to declare and no one challenging us either. Soon we were out in the arrivals area and there was our driver holding a sign that said Weezies and Conrad Nill. Onward!
He drove us to the Marina where we boarded a little trawler. At first we putt-putted through a canal on our way to the open water. We saw a lot of iguanas. The green ones were the males and the brown ones were the females. We saw nice birds too, and a rainbow!
Then we hit the open water. He opened up the throttle and off we bumped through the somewhat choppy waves. It was a long boat ride it seemed. Bump bump bump. Not my favorite pastime, that’s for sure.
Finally we approached Caye Caulker, a little island and our home for the next week. We’re staying at a small resort called Weezies. Our room is very nice, a suite with a large living room, a kitchen, bathroom and bedroom. The living room has a balcony overlooking the pool and a little bit of open water.
We were very tired last night. We ate at the resort’s restaurant. I tried to stay up until a decent hour but I’m sure I was asleep a little after 8. Still I managed to sleep until a little after 6 so well done Lynn! I woke up with a raging headache though, might have had something to do with that “Belizian Cooler” I had with my dinner.
A rainstorm blew through during the night. It’s supposed to rain most of this week off and on but we don’t really mind. I’m still getting over this cold. I have a croupy cough and my ears are stuffed up as well. This warm humid air has got to help.
In the morning we had coffee in our room and then went down to the restaurant for breakfast. I had huevos rancheros and Lee had fry jacks (Belizian beignets) and a fruit plate. The huevos were a little too spicy but I ate some of Lee’s fruit and a fry jack dipped in honey which was great. As we were eating another storm blew through.
After breakfast I took a shower and then we decided to walk into town. We took the road to get there. It was very busy, lots of bicycles and golf carts, some private, some taxis and some delivery vehicles. No cars on this island. The road was packed sand with lots of puddles. It started raining a couple of times and we ducked under awnings or porch overhangs until it let up.
We stopped at a grocery store. We needed more bug spray (sand flies!) and a little something to eat in the morning before the cafe opens, bread, butter and cream for our coffee. We wanted some fruit too but no luck.
We found the ferry which we will need on Friday when we go to see the ruins. Then we walked back along the water. There is a path winding around all the little resorts on this island. A much prettier way to go!
After resting back at the resort for a while we walked into town again for lunch. We tried one place but it wasn’t open. We found another, La Cubana, that looked ok and popped in there, sitting in the back room along the beach. We had only been seated for a few minutes and it started pouring again. Good timing!
We had their “snack plates” for lunch. I had their stewed chicken, which was delicious. Lee had grilled chicken and said it was good too. I had a beer and Lee had a coke zero. We struck up a conversation with some people at another table. One of the guys had traveled in Central America a lot, not 50 years ago, but 30 so we reminisced about how things have changed and how some things seem the same.
While we were sitting there a group of snorkelers came into the restaurant. They were soaked from getting caught in the rain but they said the snorkeling was great.
We were pretty lazy the rest of the day. At one point we walked out to the dock and sat there for a while but the bugs are just terrible. The water is very shallow and you could just walk into it and swim if you wanted. Almost no waves and very clear with a sandy bottom.
We had another quiet night, ate at the hotel restaurant and in bed by 9. One problem; mosquitoes! Lee had turned down the fan and they started bothering us. It kind of disturbed my sleep. I had songs stuck in my head and couldn’t get comfortable. Another problem was a little water running down the wall. Lee put down his towel so the floor didn’t get wet. Eventually it stopped.
In the morning I got up around 6, started the coffee, and then the power went out. Ugh. It came back, went out again, came back again, and seems to have stayed on since then.
After breakfast (banana pancakes, mmm) we decided to make reservations to go snorkeling on Sunday. The weather is supposed to be better by then. AND we decided to take a small plane back to the airport on Monday. It will be a lot less hassle than taking the ferry, and faster and less bumpy than a small boat.
We rented bikes for the day. They are just beach bikes but that’s all you need around here. We cycled all the way up to the northernmost point of the island which is called the Split. There is a small island that you can take a ferry to and bike around there as well. Maybe tomorrow.
Then we cycled down to the airport and watched one of the puddle jumpers land, right over our heads. That was fun! Traversing most of the island was about 3.5 miles. It’s just not very big.
We went back to the hotel for a little while and then took our bikes out again to lunch at a little middle eastern place. The owner was originally from Honduras. She had married a man from Jordan but they split up. I joked “but you kept the recipes!” She laughed.
Then we tried to find an umbrella but no luck. We bought a couple of ponchos instead, just in case, and I bought a strip of bandaids because I’ve now got a blister on one of my toes from walking around yesterday in flip flops. Sigh.
To Be continued.
