I got on the bus in Chetumal shortly before noon and began an all day bus ride to the south of Belize. Twenty minutes into the ride we arrived at the border and spent about 30 minutes weaving our way through immigration and customs. As much as I love to travel, I am always slightly anxious at border crossings. My United States visa issues have created an automatic fear response when faced with an immigration official... what if they don't let me in?
When I got back on the bus after clearing through the process, I felt a familiar rush of joy and adrenaline. I am in a new country! I have never been here before and everything I see will be new! How exciting.
I stared out the window as we wound our way south. I did a few double takes driving past billboards, becoming aware of the language switch. I had become so accustomed to being in a state of semi-comprehension - of relying on context to carry me through conversations, directions, commercial messages on billboards even. I was back a world of detail. I got the jokes, the innuendos, the word plays... weird.
Riding through northern Belize was a gradual and subtle transition from one culture to another. There really wasn't much to see for a while...familiar landscapes, a roadside stand here and there. Belize is a tiny country, and it also has a tiny population (only 250,000 people live here), so the frequency of any actual towns or buildings decreased significantly from what I was used to. The first thing that struck me as really different from Mexico was how buildings were spaced, and an apparent preoccupation on the part of Belizeans with the concept of the lawn. No matter how ramshackle and remote a building, there seemed to be some attempt at a green, cleanly mowed, front lawn. What an interesting symptom of British colonialism. Much of what I saw along the road to Belize City seemed to be under construction, without giving the impression that it was going to be finished anytime soon...especially roads.
As we rollled into Belize city, the diversity of the country began to introduce itself. I saw churches upon churches, but no two of them shared the same denomination. There were Catholic churches, Baptists, Presbitarians, Jehovas Witnesses, Mormons, and quite a few I had never heard of before. The buildings they were in looked pretty much the same however - nondescript concrete blocks with some attempts at stained or colored glass windows, but nothing old, grand or beautiful. In the streets were people of all colors of the rainbow. Black, white, latin, asian, indian etc, etc. What a welcome change to the relative homogeneity of Mexico. The look and feel, even the smell of Belize takes me back to when I was a kid living in southern Africa. A large percentage of the people of Belize are Garifuna - descendants of slaves forced across the Atlantic long ago. The African influence is vibrant and strong - some places seem plucked straight from a town in Botswana and replanted. Other things are typically Caribbean though. The melodic accent, the rasta vibe, the vegetation, the turquise waters, for example.
I spent only a few minutes in Belize City. Enough to get off the luxury liner of a bus I was on and step onto a slightly less luxurious one headed for Dangriga - halfway down the coastline of the country. The ride took us west into the mountains and the thickest, most lush and luxurious jungle I have ever seen. One could picture the monkeys and jaguars roaming around the thicket. Incredibly diverse plantlife - different kinds of palm trees, bamboo, citrus and other fruit trees, vines, mangroves, anything I could imagine...just not name. We passed through Belmopan - a tiny burg posing as the capital after Belize city got slammed by one too many Hurricanes and had to abandon its status as government seat. Then back east, where I changed buses once again for the ride from Dangriga to Placencia. Once again the level of bus luxury declined, and I found myself squeezed onto a dilapidated old school bus. Nothing like a bus that looks like it's going to implode any minute to make you feel like you're really going local. I like it.
Placencia is a very small Creole town at the southern tip of a peninsula running parallel to the coast. My friend Pandora's house is on the road between Placencia and Seine Bight, a Garifuna town just a few miles to the north. She built a house on her mother's property - part of a resort called Miller's Landing. And that's her address: Millers Landing, Placencia...no street names or anything here. Once we left the main highway and hopped on to the peninsula, the road was unpaved and dusty and I had a hard time figuring out where exactly to get off the bus. It was going on 7PM, and since Belize doesn't believe in daylight savings time, it was dark allready. With the driver's help I arrived shortly after 7:30, sweaty, dusty and achy all over. Pandora was out to meet me and served me cold beers and Spaghetti and meatballs immediately. Thank you! We talked for a little while to catch up, but went to bed pretty soon after, postponing any major activities until daylight.
Pandora's house is on the west side of the peninsula looking over a big lagoon. Like most houses in the on the country's coast it is built on tall 9 foot stilts, making it flood safe and improving the view considerably. She has lived there for just under a year with her little 5 month old daughter Jazmine. I got the opportunity to meet the little tyke bright and early and we connected immediately. Jazmine is very cute indeed, with a cheeky smile and a mellow disposition. The three of us spent the next couple of days hanging out at the beach and popping in for dinner or lunch in Seine Bight and Placencia.
It became obvious to me that we were in a rather remote place when it came to finding various food items. The infrastructure, even on the mainland, is that of an island nation. There are shortages of the most random things for weeks on end, creating a barter culture of sorts. This week's luxury item was dog food. On the other hand, there was a sudden influx of cheese, which was quickly snatched up and stashed in the freezer. While water is not always available due to the excessive tapping by one of the larger resorts up the pipeline, it is clean, delicious and pristine artesian well water. Oooh what a luxury compared to Mexico's putrid tap water.
The ocean had been rather rough for the last few weeks, and rain had been announcing itself, but never really coming through for a while. On day two of my visit, the weather turned and we were gifted with clear skies, glassy calm water and hot and dry sunshine. On one of our beach outings, we met up with Gavin and Pete, two campers who were exchanging their services for space on one of the most beautiful beach spots around. We spent a day enjoying their coastal paradise with them and playing guitar. It was a perfect beach experience.
Pandora's mother, a commercial tanker captain before she began her life as resort host, predicted one more day of perfection and it was suggested that the next day would be the best snorkeling day in months. I jumped on the chance and arranged to go on a snorkeling excursion with Gavin the next day. We were picked up from our beach by Captain Bibi late the next morning, and along with four other guests, including a nice guy from Seattle called Ken, made our way to weave between a few of the hundreds of islands off the coast to Silk caye. Silk caye is actually two islands, 21 miles out from Placencia, and about 6 miles from the barrier reef. I have never been anywhere like this. I didn't think these islands existed outside of the movies. The sand is soft as flour, and almost as white. The water on this particular day was clear and calm, providing amazing visibility. Once we had hopped off the boat and dumped our stuff on the island, I immediately donned my mask and fins and started to look around under water. I have not done a whole lot of snorkeling in my life. What I have done was in the Mediterranean and the Pacific - worlds apart from what is on offer here. A little intimidated by the foreign environment, but curious to see what snorkeling can be like when the conditions are perfect I paddled around the perimeter of the island. Oh wow. The vegetation itself was amazing. Coral, sea fans, all kinds of strange sponges and ocean vegetables and amazing rock formations played host to a teeming abundance of life. I could see, though a little fuzzily due to my nearsightedness, for about 150 feet or more. The variety and rainbow spectrum of colors in the fish I saw was amazing. Yellow striped ones, red green and yellow ones, neon blue ones, little ones, gargantuan ones, in groups, alone, skittish, bold - the show went on and on. At one point, as I was splashing along looking down at the show, I looked up to find I was staring at a barracuda right in the face. I was a little leery of its rather calm stare and strangely hostile energy and quickly detoured. How interesting, how different species of fish behave so differently. I really have only met fish out of water or in aquariums - not places where you would pay attention to their particular behaviour or personality... Anyway, the barracuda was scary. I returned to the island, where Bibi was cooking up a storm, and we chowed down on his mother's recipes. Good times. Back on the boat after a few more rounds around the isle, we checked out another prime diving spot, saw a nurse shark and lobster along with more abundant life and then popped by one last little Caye, housing nothing but a small bar for an end of the day beer. What a fantastic day. We got back at dusk, I headed to Seine Bight with Gavin and Ken for a quick dinner and fell into bed satisfied and dead tired.
I stayed with Pandora and Jazmine for a couple more days, lounged on the beach and puttered around town. I had a wonderful relaxing time, although I have to say that there was one thing that put a damper on my joy. The insects. I am okay with mosquitoes, and can handle the occasional bite here and there, but having been pretty much unfamiliar with sand flies prior to this trip, I was extremely sensitive to their tiny little bites. I am told that they stop irritating you after you have become acclimated to the place, but my virginal skin reacted violently, and the dozens of bites that I ended up with itched like crazy, driving me absolutely wild.
I decided I wanted to see a tiny bit more of Belize and made plans to leave for Caye Caulker, a famous backpacker destination east of Belize City, on Monday morning bright and early. On Sunday, a delicious barbecue lunch with Pandora's mother and beers with Gavin in the evening topped off a great visit. I was excited to see a bit more of the country and slowly becoming aware that I was less than three days away from the end of my trip. A good time to spend some time alone on an island and reflect.