More Belize

This post was started on Sunday the 11 and continued today, the 13th.

OK, I finally saw my first beggar here, In Belize City.  It was an old man, and he got indignant when we didn't give him as much change as he wanted.  Oh well.

Belize City is POOR.  Many of the people live in complete shacks. Mike thought it was as bad as Africa.  (Having never been to Africa, I can't say whether he is right or not.)  Everyone seemed very eager that we not walk around anywhere after dark, but we did anyway.  It seemed okay, no one acted hostile or threatening.  But the next day we heard there was a shooting right in the area we walked in the very next night.  We made friends with the owner of our hotel, a Belizean woman who spent most of her adult life in the US, in New York.  She told us that there was danger, but if we used common sense we would be okay.  That is how it usually is, I have found.  Anyway, she told us a lot about Belize.  The crime is mostly because everyone is so poor.  It is less violent in the countryside because people can fish and grow food.  (Of course the tourist areas are safer than anywhere else.)  In the city, the only way to eat sometimes is to rob somebody else.  It is that poor.  It is just sad.  It is a beautiful country.  Mike felt the atmosphere in the city was extremely tense.  And Mike is pretty comfortable just about anywhere. 

Yesterday we left Belize City and took a bus to Orange Walk Town, in the countryside.  The buses here are interesting.  In El Salvador, they cram as many people as possible onto each bus - there is no such thing as too crowded.  Here, you must have a seat.  So when the buses arrive, everyone rushes to get a seat.  I was almost crowded out by a determined woman wielding a baby.  We did miss one bus because when we finally got through the door of the station and up to the bus, there were no seats left.  So next time we were smarter and got up close, pushed and shoved with the best of them, and got seats.  Hopefully I didn't elbow any babies in my haste to ace out everyone behind me.  I did use my backpack to my advantage - turning slightly sideways and blocking people behind me.  I  am not proud of it, but when in Rome . . . 

It was about an hour and half ride through the countryside.  Orange Walk is a farming community, and there are not many tourists except for people going to the ruins nearby.  That is why we came.  he hotel we are staying at is pretty nice, and relatively reasonable for Belize.  It is also interesting that Belize is significantly more expensive than either El Salvador or Honduras, and even more expensive than a lot of Mexico.  (It is interesting because the country is so poor.  If we are feeling it, how much more so must it be for those who live here with no money?)

Orange Walk Town also has a lot of Chinese living here.  They seem to run almost all the small grocery and liquor stores as well as lots of the restaurants.  Our host in Belize City said it was the same way there - because the Chinese stay open when the locals will not, like on Sundays and holidays and stuff like that.  They are not lackadaisial as far as keeping regular hours - meaning that if the sign says they open at nine, they will be open at nine, not nine-thirty or ten.  In fact, yesterday was Sunday, and when we asked at the hotel where would be a  good place for dinner, he told us it was Chinese or nothing.  So we had Chinese (No problem for me, I love Chinese, they aren't hung up on putting cheese on everything).  I must say - it was absolute heaven to have a meal based around vegetables.  While this might by TMI, I have been having problems with the food down here.  It is good in the sense that I love coconut rice and beans.  But they don't do much with vegetables, and the meat, while very tasty, is usually fried.  And then there are the fry jacks, which are basically fried bread.  We were eating three meals a day of this stuff,. and on several days I threw up all my dinner within an hour of eating it.  I started to feel crappy before we even left the restaurant, and there were good places, not fast food or street stalls.  But last night I did not get sick, did not wake up with horrible heartburn, and this morning I feel really good.  I even slept better.  I have simply been eating way too much of stuff that isn't good for me.

So yesterday we went to the ruins at Lamanai.  Even though I now consider myself almost an expert on Mayan ruins, these were especially fun to visit.  You have to go there by boat. and we had a great group on our boat - me and Mike  (USA), a couple from New Zealand, and three Canadian couples.  One of the Canadian couples were two young kids backpacking their way to South America.  The boat ride took abut an hour and a half, and on the way we saw crocodiles, and lots of new birds.  One of them was known locally as the Jesus Bird because it walks on water (lily pads, actually.)  The river we were on was beautiful and the ruins themselves are right there on the river's edge.  The vast majority of the site is completely unexcavated, but there are four tall temples that have been exposed.  Some of it was excavated and then reburied so as to keep it safe until the money can be found to do further excavation.  It was surrounded by heavy jungle, where we saw two different kinds of monkeys.  It rained while we were there, which was great because than meant it wasn't too hot.  And since the rain down here is warm, it doesn't matter if you get wet.  And once it stops raining, you dry off pretty fast.  And finally, if it is raining, there is probably some  cloud cover so the sun is not beating down on you. 

Tuesday, November 13

We are now in San Ignacio, near the Guatemalan border.  So far this is our favorite place in Belize.  The town has a nice hippie vibe (for lack of a better way to describe it) with lots of good places to eat and stay.  We are in a great little cabin with a little porch.  Even though we are right in the heart of town, we are off in the back behind the hotel proper and it is nice and quiet at night.  There is no AC, but the ceiling fan works great and it is to hot enough for AC anyway.  And there is a TV with US shows, which I have said before is a treat.  We get Comedy Channel so we get Daily Show and Colbert Report.  Plus network news. 

Today we went to a ruin site that was walking distance from town here.  While this one was a lot of fun because there were tunnels and stuff like that to play around in, I have to admit I MIGHT be getting a bit burned out on ruins.  Just a bit.  It did rain, though, and we had fun ducking into tunnels and rooms to hide out from the rain.  And again, the rain was nice because even though it made the steps at the site slippery, it kept things cool.  Tomorrow we are taking a trek that will take us through the jungle, we will have to swim through a cave, and hike throughout this cave to an archaeological site inside of it.  I am excited to do it because it is very likely that they will soon stop allowing tours through this place.  Thursday we go to another set of ruins - the largest site in Belize - and get to swim in a cave.  After that, we are heading back to the coast for a festival celebrating the Garifuna Settlement Day.

Anyway - pictures will be forthcoming as soon as they are downloaded. 

"Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever."  (Mahatma Gandhi)