Day 1--Belize City

Hi there,

Rob and I are in Belize for 11 days, the first three of which we will spend in Belize City alone, and then join our “Intrepid Tour” for the last 8.


We arrived yesterday on a late but otherwise uneventful flight from Toronto to this very small airfield.

Passengers got off from the front or back of the plane and clumped down portable stairs to the tarmac and into warm, windy, humid Belize.

Just outside the airport was a virtual sea of drivers holding up signs with passengers’ names. We were hoping to see (told to expect) such a sign with our names, as we had arranged transfer to our hotel. No such sign did we see, so finally dug deep into our luggage for that important piece of the itinerary with the emergency phone number. And that’s when our guy materialized.

We are staying at the Ramada which is also the staging hotel for our tour. This Ramada is also home to Princess Casino in the lobby and a movie theatre which only shows movies on the weekend.
Rob enjoying a complimentary rum drink
After a complimentary check-in rum punch, we settled into our room. Great view! Our wall of windows face the sea, and every so often a frigate bird or pelican flies right past - close up and personal. Trouble is, you never know just when that will happen, so forget snapping a picture!




We walked around yesterday to find a shop which sells beer, and another which sells water. This street has many such shops - very humble, run-down looking on the outside, with bars on doors and windows. Nice folks inside.

This hotel is not in a very scenic part of town. Fortunately, there are palm trees surrounding it, and a nice park half a block away on the sea. We see mostly Great-tailed grackles and Scissor-tailed Flycatchers around here.

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher
We had dinner in The Calypso, a rustic restaurant around back of the hotel on the water. We chose the local speciality of Beans & Rice with Stewed Chicken or Beef and Fried Plantain.


That’s it for now.
Hansi


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 9--All-Day Snorkel Tour

Image
Yesterday most of our tour wanted the All Day Snorkel Tour. The weather held—the trip was a GO, so we had to book at 8 am to get fitted with fins and masks. (For the 10 am sail). I discovered that they had prescription masks. I tried one and LIKED it. (Deposit required). We were in a big sail boat which held the 14 snorklers and 5 crew. Sun came out—sunscreen came out as motored along toward the reef and against the wind for about 45 minutes. At the first stop, we geared up and went over the side (some of us much less gracefully than others, I’m afraid) and once I got the knack of breathing through my mouth, I was ok. The sea was rough though, so waves sometimes got into my tube/mouth, and I had to remind myself that I probably wouldn’t drown. We saw big nurse sharks, stingrays, and sea turtles feeding on the bottom. WOW. One turtle came up for a gulp of air right under Marina and she petted it. Back on the boat, we moved on to the second stop—a channel right at the...
Read more

Day 5--Xunantunich & Belizean Birthday (reported on Day 7)

Image
Right now, it is Day 7, and we have just crossed the Guatemalan border on our way to Tikal. On a bumpy bus and without my keyboard, I will attempt to thumb the events of Day 5. Our group, lead by Ernesto, walked into the centre of San Ignacio to have lunch at a little hut barbecuing chicken. Very inexpensive, very delicious and served with the usual suspects - beans, rice or tortillas. Then we waited quite a while at a bus stop for a “chicken bus” to a Mayan Ruin called Xunantunich about 40 minutes out. The bus let us out at a ferry dock where a teensy hand-cranked ferry took us and about two cars across a teensy river—five minutes at most Then we set off on foot UP HILL and more uphill and even more uphill, (les pouffes les pants) . Oh good! Downhill! Oh damn! More uphill.   But finally we dragged ourselves  Rob and I—as the youngsters didn’t seem to be puffing) to the site of Xunantunich. It is so amazing to see one of these Mayan structures in person after r...
Read more

Day 6-- Walk Through Town

Image
I will get back to Day 5, but first I want to offload some pictures of our walk through town today on Day 6. We are having a relaxing, non-tour day after our exhausting jaunt yesterday.  We had a late-ish brekkie in our hotel and then set off for downtown with camera and binos. Right away, we spotted a pair of woodpeckers on a pole - yet to be identified - but after that, it was primarily beautiful flowering plants, people and places. This house was clearly under construction and not nearly done, but this fellow was lovingly cleaning the glass of this china cupboard. This  was an “everything” store AND hotel.  How handy! Convenient shoe repair around the corner from the hotel. Hansi This is the woodpecker I mentioned earlier. He is Velasquez’s Woodpecker. Velasquez’s Woodpecker. From where we bought an apple turnover - yet to be eaten. From where we bought a slice of pizza. Eaten! Do I hear you sayi...
Read more