Belize - May 15-26, 2003. Belize is an English speaking country in central America, until 35 years ago a British Colony. However, the evolved dialect is sufficiently odd that I could understand some people no better than if they were speaking Spanish. In a loud bus terminal, it was hopeless. Getting there is rather easy - Both Continental and American fly there daily or twice daily from their hubs in Texas and Miami. We paid $430 each for an SF-Dallas-Belize City RT. I've also read that in high season, a group might try instead to fly to Cancun and then work their way down the coast. I'm not convinced the savings are worth it, but if you wanted to add the Yucatan to the itinary it might be a fun method. Entering the country is pretty straightforward for an American. Simple visa form, and a slightly amusing SARS check by 3 nurses in masks. Just a form asking if you'd been to China or had a fever. You'd be crazy to raise your hand there. Like so many countries, there is an exit tax $20. We paid much of it twice because we went to Guatemala for a day. In some rare cases you might not have to double pay, but don't bet on it. Money Money in Belize is trivially easy for Americans. US Dollars are accepted as freely as Belizean ones, and the casual exchange rate is 2BZE=1USD. And traveler's checks are fine as well, taken the same way as cash. Only once did I convert currency - I got 600BZE for $300 in traveler's checks at the water taxi station in BC. The rest of the time I worked with change I got from transactions. However, it was hard keeping small bills as I brought mostly 50s and 100s. Credit Cards are accepted by most hotels and guide services, but quite a few apply a surcharge of up to 6%. Add in the 1-3% that your own bank charges for foreign transactions and I don't think it makes sense unless you're uncomfortable carrying too much money. We charged the hotel bill for 8 nights on San Pedro, and one sailboat rental. That was ~$700, and I spent 1350 of 1500 in cash/checks that I brought. ATM access is not said to be a reliable method for you to get money, so don't assume you can. Prices are higher in Belize than typical for Central America. It is a small country (210,000 people) that doesn't produce much. Most goods are imported. This also cuts down on the number of things to buy and take home. Aside from rum and habanero pepper sauces, you're looking at some crafts, and the usual tourist tshirts and shot glasses. Getting Around. Belize City is not where I'd stay on a trip - a bit too developing for my tastes, and the only place where I felt a need to be careful. It may make the most sense to flight a puddle hopper direct from the airport if you're going to San Pedro or San Ignacio. Tickets run ~46/person. We choose the other routes. If you go to the Muni airport, tickets are less than $30. For a group, taking a taxi over would save, but it's hassle vs $$. Bus: It's a $20 taxi from the intl airport to Belize City, where we went to the bus station. Upon parking, got the insistent unrequested porter who grabbed the big roller and escorted us up to the ticket window. We had just missed the express and so we got the regular to San Ignacio at $7BZE each. Cheap, but it got us a school bus trip of 3.5 hours to go the 70 miles, stopping repeatedly to let people on or off. Coming back we were able to read the schedule and grab the express for $11BZE; it stopped only once at Belmopan and used a A/C Greyhound style bus. Definitely worth the extra, and took only 2 hours. Water Taxi: To get to San Pedro from Belize City you can take a 2 hour boat ride in a small boat that can take ~40 people. Fare is $28BZE one way, $50 RT. A bit lower if you only are going to Caye Calker, the first stop. Seas were calm when we were there - it was a pleasant feeling at 30-40mph, but that's a lot of sunshine time for us blancos, and hats don't stay on in that wind. Taxis are everywhere, sometimes more helpful than others. When we got to San Ignacio they were ready to drive us to hotels, but I needed to go only 50 yards to get to the one I had intended to check out first. This time of year that town is pretty sleepy for tourists, so fares are few and far between. On the bus ride back it stopped on the outskirts of town where a taxi man said this was the stop for the water taxis, but I thought he was drumming business, as there was a boat at the bus station itself. Then I get there and find its closed on Sundays (or perhaps forever), so I was the fool there. When you're a tourist you become wary of locals trying to scam you, but in Belize it was usually counterproductive. Given the opportunities I did give, it seems like cheating you is uncommon in this country. Cayo District: Western part of the country, bit hotter and more trees. San Ignacio is the largest town in the area at 12,000. I guess that number needs to be kept in mind as when you show up it's a bit less than expected. There is a main street of sorts that is 3 short blocks, and a couple other short offshoots, and that is it for the traveler. In the outer periphery are some well spoken of resorts, didn't want to be stuck with one vendor for all services. I initially had planned to look at the Aquanda in the town across the river, but thankfully I had made no committment as it was a good couple miles away, well off the river, and no where near anything else. Instead we get off the bus and start rolling down the walk. I had seen numerous ads for the Venus Hotel on the bus and it was listed in my guide book as fine, so we took a look. At $32 a night for a queen bed, AC, and a gigantic shower, it was just fine, though by the time we left we wondered if we were getting a rash from the bedspreads. It was on the second day that we were introduced to the much maligned power grid of Belize. We returned from our trip to Tikal to find no TV, no AC, no lights at all. I had packed a single large scented candle for atmosphere and it proved to be very useful over the next 10 days. In this particular night, power was out till past 9 in the evening and it effectively shut things down. No dinner, and frequent hiding in the cold shower to stay cool. Two lessons - 1) pack a good candle (and matches) along with an LED flashlight, and 2) don't pay too much for AC that won't work in an outage. Try to have a room that gets some breeze as well. Eating - we came to Belize with the understanding that cuisine is not a focus and it was confirmed. Lots of passable, but not thrilling meals. San Pedro town eating diving Blue Hole. Tikal - It's 10 miles to the border, then perhaps another 50 or 60 beyond to the ruins of Tikal. Because of that along with State Department warnings about tourist muggings, I opted to find a guide to arrange all. The guys affiliated with Eva's would go any day they had a minimum of 2 going, at $75USD each. It was well worth it. You can actually make this day tour from San Pedro by plane, but then it's over $200 a person. We had no clock in the room, and I forgot my watch. I was a bit concerned about being awake at 7am after the long first day, but it worked well enough and next time it will be on the checklist. A van got us drove to pick up the guide, and we drove to the border. It would just be the two of us, a sign of the quiet offseason. We passed X, a smaller Mayan site, on the way. Another tour group told is not to bother after Tikal. Soon after we got to the border zone. We paid $28 in exit fees and walked over to the Guatemalan side. In this area there are lots of currency traders and talk is that you can get well above the usual 2.0 rate. But I didn't want to deal with grey market money, and didn't forgot to bring much anyway. Filling out the visa form was simple enough and we then rejoined our guide with a new driver and van. So started 40 miles of dirt road until we got nearer to Tikal, 30 miles of paved road thereafter. If you fly, you get 40 miles of pavement only, but the airstrip near the site is no longer in operation. Backing up, Tikal was the central city of the Mayan civilization and may have peaked as high as 2 million residents. Contrast that with the entire population of Belize! Remarkably, it was located 20 miles away from the nearly large body of water, and it may have been a prolonged drought around 800 AD that lead to the collapse of the Mayans. Since then the jungle spent 1200 years reclaiming the land with great success. Large structures poke out of the canopy while smaller pyramids were completely covered. Many have been left in that state because exposure to the air starts eroding away at the limestone. The jungle itself is fairly thick but perhaps not as lush as would be expected. Dunno if the dry season is part of that, or if this area just isn't as verdent as Costa Rica. It didn't feel like a rain forest. The wild life is ever present - spider monkeys in the trees, coatis (pictured) on the ground, and at one point we could hear the howler monkeys that growl like lions, and do so very loudly. We were able to climb 3 structures: a small pyramid, then Temple IV, the tallest structure in the Americas until NYC started sprouting up skyscrapers, and finally the pyramid of Mundo Perdial. It's probably good that was it as we were getting pretty hot and thirsty. Temple I and II were closed off to people a few years ago due to deadly falls. When you look at the steep and inconsistent steps of I, you can see why. Unfortunately most of the structures are either solid or not open to walking. The views are nice at the tops but there's not much you can do besides look. I had debated staying overnight and doing two days in the park but I think that the day trip suffices for most people. Much less hassle with luggage, too. At the end of 4 hours trekking about we went out to a restuarant at the entrance where we started on the drinks. Sylvia discovered her newest favorite drink - a lime soda that came in a monsterous margarita glass. We spent the rest of the trip trying to find more places that served it, but it seemed to be a local item. (Decent substitute has been using frozen minutemaid limeade with Pelegrino sparkling soda) The drive back was more dust and heat, but we fixed that with a stop at a market/gift shop where I downed 3 Fantas in but a few minutes. No big desire for crafts, but I had a grape soda fixation for the rest of the trip. Tunichil - This is a cave system made famous a couple years ago by a spread in National Geographic. Inside are artifacts and more than a few bones from the Mayan era where leaders came for spirtual enlightenment and left many sacrificial children behind. Found in 1997, it now runs the risk of being opened up to large tour operators and may turn into a bad Disney attraction. Go before it happens - worth the trip into the interior. We found Mayawalk as we were looking for an outfitter to take us tube rafting in the caves. They said the rivers were too low due to the dryness, and come on this trip instead. Obviously commercial motivation may have been present but this is a trip I wanted to do anyway and the price was 55 each. Unlike Tikal, this had a large group going, 10 women and me. Just like a party at home, but without me planning it! 5 Canadians, 2 Swiss, and a couple gals from the SF area were there. We stuffed into one van and took an hour drive on the roads, then an hour on dirt into the back hills. From here we did a 45 minute trek in the jungle with 3 shallow river crossings. We saw the classic chiclet tree from which gum used to be made, and a surprising number of termite nests. The trail mostly stayed in the shade, making the temperature pleasant enough. The guides warned of snakes, but none encountered. At the entrance to the cave system they had a campsite with tables - time to eat the rather decent tupperware lunches they provided us. Perhaps it was the warmth and hunger as again we didn't have time to eat breakfast, but it was the best meal in Cayo: speghetti and spicy chicken breasts. We knew there was a short swim in, but I thought it would be simple enough to get Sylvia across. But I forgot about how unbuoyant I was alone in fresh water and she didn't know what would happen when she hung onto my neck for dear life. A near murder suicide, but then successfully negotiated. On the way back out we did a clumsy two man assist that got her briefly dunked. The real surprise was once in, we still had considerable water to deal with, with most of the half mile trek inside being in water ranging from a foot to five feet deep, with occasional narrow rock cracks intermixed. Too wet unfortunately to get the camera out of the dry bag, but nice adventure. My headlight wasn't terribly bright - just a 3 LED element powered by AAs. It would be worthwhile to bring a small halogen spot light as the side passages were sometimes quite deep. At the midpoint we climbed up vertically about 50ft where we would be entering a dry, open zoom where many artifacts lie about. At this point we were asked to go barefoot and to step very carefully. Items were all over the place, checkered over them were narrow walkways. Many pots or rather the remains of them were visible. Apparently they were destroyed back in the day - the Mayans had superstitions about leaving them whole. Only 4 or 5 exist in the cave system. I may be too much the guy; I find 1300 year old pottery only vaguely interesting, but the rock formations in this area were great. The ceiling was 100ft above and you had all sorts of stalagmites and stalagtites. And then there were the bones. The Mayans sacrificed many young children by leaving them behind. The skeletons were quite well preserved in a few cases. The highlighted artifact of this particular cave is a fully intact specimen that is probably closer to dust than bone now. And then we turned back. For once the trek out is as much fun as coming in. On a couple occasions we stopped to turn off the lights - there isn't a hint of lightness in these caves. Black is black. Hopefully this will be maintained. Currently only 5 guides are approved to lead groups in, so the numbers are quite small. If it is greatly opened up then the quiet will be destroyed, artifacts will get broken, and I fear accidents will become common. This is one of those short term/long term calls that tourist nations must make. I'm happy we made it in first. I'm going to go do some California caves now and see how it compares.