So, I'm going to kind of bypass the last three weeks in Costa Rica and update it later on for my personal notes It was such an adventure and we had very limited wifi so I did what any 70s baby would do and stopped worrying about the internet and just got on with having a good time. We hit 5 national parks and some very remote spots (Drakes Bay on the Pacific coast and Tortuego on the Caribbean coast consist of adventures just to get there) which were unbelievable amazing. I feel we have been living in a zoo these last few weeks. Costa Rica is very famous for it's wildlife as it's a land bridge between north and south America and they take their conservation very seriously. The kids never got bored of the walks, the boat rides and the guides showcasing nature in it's pristine environment.
Unfortunatly I got pretty bad gastro and v
omit bug. Didn't help that we had a 8 hour journey over sea, small plane and bus to get to our next destination the next day. Took me about 4 days to recover. Kyran has had an earache on and off for 10 days now. Poor sod missed the snorkelling off Isla Cano national park but did get to see an endangered turtle swim past the boat which everyone else missed. Well, I will update
So Belize!
What a surprise this place is. I'm trying to remember why we decided to come here. Our Canadian/Australian friends had mentioned it as a place to meet (but we decided on San Antonio in Texas instead) and when I researched it just before we left Sydney I thought - 'Wow - Mayan ruins and world heritage coral reef , I'll book it anyway' and just booked it flights and accommodation in the two main areas that covered this. I had literally done no other research. So it was with a major surprise that we landed and everyone spoke English as a first language!! I felt a bit of an idiot with my 'Buenos dias' opening and to receive a reply with a caribbean drawl of 'how ya doin?' at customs.
Belize is tiny. About 70miles wide by about 170 miles long. Our two hour drive took us from the Belize City airport (more airstrip than airport) in the east to the most westerly point of the country - San Ignacio. We are currently on the Guatamalan border and are here to look at ruins. So far so good! Our bus driver was most informative. He of creole background, gave us so much information about the history, the people, the industries and as we past by the only prison, which seemed very open told us it's a wonderful safe place to live. In the 24 hours we've been here my first impressions are I can believe it. Belize was under UK rule until independence in 1981(formally known as British Honduras) and it kind of feels like a place James Bond would visit on his early missions before he hits the rich casinos! You can see it's a poor country. Buildings are rundown, even our hotel has the feeling of having seen better days. As we drove the breadth of the entire country we saw very few cars and certainly it does not have the infrastructure to cope with more! the roads would need a lot of work!
It has to be one of the most religious places I've ever been to. You want to set up a church...come here!! We passed 100s of churches on the way here. The amish run a lot of the agriculture and you can see them on their horse and carts. The mennonites (some quazi catholic group) seem to run almost every thing else in industry (building, infrastructure, logging and also agriculture) and I get the feeling that have a lot of power in government. The creoles are the catholics and seem to be happy to work for the other groups. The chinese/taiwanese all own the supermarkets (yes this is true!) and apparently the indian christians all own the clothes stores! Everyone speaks English with a caribbean drawl but most are bilingual with spanish being the other language spoken. It being Saturday we hit the market in San Ignacio. We bought coconut water from creoles, Cinnamon buns from mennonites, medicines (steve now has gastro!) from the spanish and saw all the different ethnic groups working and intermingling in the market place. The amish kind of stood out and I wondered where they had hidden their horse and cart but perhaps they hire a car these purposes! I got talking to a mennonite woman from England, she explained a bit of the history but it was so funny to see her adult daughter dressed from the 1800s yet talking with this Jamaican drawl. I wanted to put the reggae on!!! I also got talking to some other american christians who'd come over and set up their own church. So, perhaps this is why it's so safe!?
Belize, unlike Costa Rica - which was expensive if you are travelling with Australian dollars, is very cheap. Two belize dollars = 1 USD. The money looks like pound notes with pictures of the queen and the $1 coin looks like the 50 pence piece. A beer is $2 USD. Even Steve can't moan about the price of stuff here!!
A little bit about the hotel - Hotel Cahel Pech, named after the Mayan ruins next door. We have fabulous views over the town (bloody tiring hike up a hill) . We booked a standard room but on arrival upgraded two a two bed suite for an extra $100 usd for the 5 nights (see I told you it was cheap!) Food is excellent, laundry service allows me to not be washer woman but you have to sit in the bar to get any wi fi (improvement on a lot of places we've been to) and we set off for Xunantunich Maya Temple tomorrow which is right on the border with Guatemala.
The kids are in the pool, , Steve is sleeping and I'm tucking into some seriously good Creole/Mexican chicken dish.
Animal photos are from Costa Rica. The rest is Belize!
