Arriving in Belize
So, Hiro and I headed down to Belize. I was headed to Orange Walk to take a jungle boat tour down to some Mayan ruins called Lamanai (submerged crocodile in Mayan), and invited him along. I got off the bus in the Mexican border town of Chetumal…I was kind of excited to cross my first border overland. I got off the bus and got right onto another one. The guy who directed me onto the bus complimented me on my Spanish, which I thought was really hilarious because he had to repeat himself three or four times before I understood what he was saying to me, and I was still a little unsure whether I was in fact getting on the right bus. Hiro said it was the one to Belize – he speaks and understands Spanish better than he does English. I think my Spanish is better than his, but he’s been traveling for a while longer, so he might be better at understanding what he needs to.
We got to the border, unloaded our bags, walked to the immigration building, filled out our paperwork, and got in line. I got in the line for the cute immigration officer and flashed him a nice smile when it was my turn. He asked me if I thought 17 days was enough time for my stay (I had originally filled my form to say I would stay for 7 days, and then slipped a 1 in front of it, nervous that he would only grant me 7 days and I would want to stay longer). I definitely did not plan on staying for longer than 17 days. He smiled and told me he would give me 30 days ( the maximum), “in case you meet someone interesting…like me here in Corozal”. “Oh, yeah, I’m sure I will”. “Keep on smiling”. I turned, flashed him one last smile and continued through to customs.
We arrived in Orange Walk in the mid afternoon, and wandered around looking for our hotel (again, another small town with no map in the book). It was such a friendly little town. Everyone smiled and said hello to us. We found our little hotel be the river (the New River). The rooms were interesting – seriously, they just threw up some thick plywood walls, painted them a teal blue, and put a bed inside, but it was all we needed.
So, a little bit about Belize: It’s a member of the British Commonwealth, once called British Honduras (ring a bell?), and is comprised of many different people. There are mestizos (mixed Mayan and European), pure Mayans, and large black population, some ofwhich are called Garifunas, who speak a whole different language. English is the first language, then people speak Creole (sounds like the really thick Jamaican accent of Patoi, which is really a very slangy English), and spanish. Everyone can pretty much speak any of those languages. We were also very surprised to find a very large Chinese population all over the country. Finally, there are these Amish-looking people who are of German decent, called Mennonites, who serve a very similar role as the Amish, although I’m told they’re not quite as conservative. The country is pretty small – I think there’s about 270,000 people.
The hotel (it was more like a guest house) owner was very glad to see us. When I told him I was from Chicago, he said “oh Good”, and when I asked why he said he was glad to see Americans traveling. We got some food after the long day of traveling and went to our rooms early. My sleep was alright, although slightly disturbed by a local couple having some sort of argument in Spanish in the room right next door (talk about thin walls – the whole top 1 1/2 feet of the rooms was separated by screen).
The next day we went on our boat tour to the ruins. The water was high, so we didn’t see too much wildlife…some bats hanging on a tree, just missed some crocs jumping into the river, and some pretty interesting birds. Once we got to the ruins, we saw a few black howler monkeys in the trees, large troops of marching ants, and a really, really huge cricket…like as big as my fist. I’m really not kidding. As I tried to get a picture of it, it could hardly jump away.
The ruins weren’t all that special, but we did climb up the highest tower, which was pretty impressive – super steep stairs, each step quite tall. Fromt he top we had a 360 degree panoramic view over the jungle, and we could see a little ran storm making its way toward us. Luckily, it never did hit us. The rain storms are mostly small here, with small cloud systems moving quickly over the land. Almost every night I see a lightning stormin the distance, and it hardly ever rains overhead.
We had a nice traditional Belizean meal at the ruins – rice and beans and some chicken with some killer potato salad and fried plantains, and headed back to town. At dinner, we met four other travelers and shared our travel stories, sitting along the river, drinking a few Belikins (the local brew), and sometimes having to nearly scream over the sound of the frogs croaking. The next morning, I couldn’t find Hiro, so I headed down to Belize City solo.
Tags: Belize, Tag Index
Tania