It's so foggy over the ocean that it's impossible to identify the exact point in the horizon where the water meets the sky. We're sitting on a wide veranda with 2 dogs by our side and an over-excited Sam swinging in the hammock.
This is the Blue Belize guest house where we'll stay this weekend and the next, around our diving project with ReefCI that will take us out to Tom Owen island from Monday to Fridays. Tom Owen is apparently only about an acre and a half big, with little in the way of amenities.
Yesterday, we took the 5:30 am bus from Belize city to Punta Gorda. We had to get up at 4 (AM!!!!) and leave our hotel at 4:30 to head into Belize City. We were very, very proud that we managed that - could've gone either way really..
The Express James services from Belize to PG turned out not to be so 'express' after all. We ended up stopping about every 5 mins along the 5 hour route to pick up or drop off folks standing by the side of the road. We were each sitting 3 to a seat with people filling the aisles the whole way. I lost sensation in my legs after the first hour.
I was sitting with Ben on a wheel seat (no foot space) and we shared our seat with a mayan girl from Mayopopan named Anselma. She told me it was her birthday the previous day, she just turned 17. When I asked her what her family did to celebrate she shook her head and said, no, nothing. She said 'I got so mad. Really mad because they got me nothing at all and no celebration'. But then she said she was kind of ok with it cause there are 10 children in her family and her father's been sick for 3 years - so sad! Anselma and I spent the trip talking about where we each came from and about Punta Gorda.
She said there's not many jobs, times are rough. Her family used to live in PG but she didn't have good memories of the time they lived there - there was no work and the family couldn't survive there so they moved to the village of Mayopopan. I saw beautiful pics of her garden and family back home, her father is a wonderful gardener. I couldn't understand what illness he had, she said something like cancer. But she was sad because she couldn't go to school, while her siblings still got to attend. Her family needed her at home.
The other people on the bus were mainly mayan looking folks - the women with their lovely long hair and many children, all very well behaved. Everyone was very polite about sharing extra seat space and any person with a small child was immediately offered a seat. When Anselma had to leave, near PG, I took off my mexican blue-stone-heart necklace and gave it to her for her birthday.
On our arrival at Blue Belize, I was feeling sick, with a headache and bad stomach. Luckily, there was not much of a schedule for the rest of the day. But we did have a very upset Andy. He had stayed up late as usual the night before, reading. And the 4 am rise left him on the bad side of a Dr Jekyll/Mr Hyde transformation. So we didn't too too much for the day.
For dinner, we walked down the dirt road to Bamboo Chicken cafe, about 5 minutes walk away. It's located alongside a dock where the fishermen brought in hundreds of fish as we arrived. The food was good solid beachy fare: burgers, fish fillets, fries, rice and beans. A group of local boys, around 10-15 years old, played an informal drum concert for us. They needed a bit of experience and practice, but it was nice to hear their amateur efforts. Our boys were impressed, though they said 'only for a short time', any longer would've been too much!
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Before arriving here in PG, we had travelled from Playa to Chetumal by bus.
We didn't see much of Chetumal, only staying one night. The Posada Costa Azul hostel we stayed in was very basic. There wasn't much of the family or group feel that hostels often have, more of a motel atmosphere. Cheap, but practical. No common living area of breakfast coffee. But showers, tv, internet, and almost-clean rooms.
Chetumal town had the more rustic, tranquil feel that we've grown to love in villages across the yucatan but failed to find in the commercial Playa del Carmen area. We walked the harbour route, considering a ferry to San Pedro (or Caye Caulker) and then to Belize city. But we found the timelines restrictive - they didn't leave til after 3 pm, requiring a night stay in San Pedro before catching another water taxi to Belize city the next day.
Walking into the town in search of food we approached a house that seemed to be set alight with christmas lights - thousands of them! - and as we walked closer we could see a beautiful, intricate lighted scene in their garage/courtyard, featuring a real little waterfall and river, as well as nativity figures and lots more. While we were looking, the owners came out and invited us in. Their living room looked like a Christmas store, with every inch of the walls and ceiling covered in lights and moving or singing christmas figures. The family was so proud and explained how they set it up. They offered us tortas to eat and invited us to stay - but we felt it was time to move on so we politely declined and followed their directions to a seafront restaurant they suggested.
The next day, we took another bus from Chetumal to Belize City where we had booked a room in the Black Orchid resort just outside of town. None of us had ever crossed a border by bus before so that was interesting. We departed the bus as we left Mexico to show our passports and then again as we entered St Elena on the Belize side. The process was smooth and all the security folks were pretty friendly about it.
On the way to and through Belize just about everyone we encountered told us that Belize was beautiful, but warned us from staying in Belize City itself. I was curious about this, but as the bus made its way through Belize City, some of my questions were answered. It is a rough looking place. Buildings unfinished, litter all over the place, not much to write home about. I began to wonder if staying the night in Belize City on the way to PG had been a good idea.
Transferring from the bus to a taxi driven by a retired New Yorker, we made our way, luggage precariously cable tied into the open trunk, to the Black Orchid. The drive was long and the view just outside the city became a more scenic, jungle lined one. Black Orchid itself was a beautiful, immaculately kept, flower and tree filled paradise of a few hacienda style buildings alongside a river.
The more time we spent at the Black Orchid, the deeper in love we fell. There was free roaming pet green parrot called WhooDa Bird that hung about the swimming pool, just outside the screened-in terrace of the restaurant. Howler monkeys hang in the trees nearby, sometimes doing their famous howling. There is a hammock garden where several people can lie in hammocks under a huge, leafy tree. We never stopped spotting for crocodiles and even borrowed canoes for paddling upstream in search of them. What more to say? Just a gorgeous, tranquil environment run by family, including Doug the owner and patriarch with his ex-Johns Hopkins hospital nurse wife, Karen and their daughters, grandaughter Naia and lots more friendly folks.
* Black Orchid Owner Doug's baby grandaughter Nia
* WhooDahBird - mascot of Black Orchid, going to sleep
* Black Orchid pool and hammocks
At Black Orchid, we took a tour of the nearby Howler Monkey reserve, which was great mostly because of the knowledge of our guide, Robert. He had been born and raised in that area and learned herbology from his midwife grandmother. As we walked through the jungle, Robert pointed out which leaves or bark to use in curing fungal infections, slowing the progress of snake poison, assisting in the after-birth processes. He pointed out the chemical paths used by the leaf-cutter ants - the boys enjoyed drawing lines through their paths to confuse them until they found the chemical scent again and continued, so naughty!!
Robert tracked down a group of the local howler monkeys and brought out some bananas he used to coax them down from the tree - along with imitations of their howling, which were quite funny to be honest! The younger monkeys ventured down to take bananas from our hands, often holding our fingers in their little hands for a moment. High up in the tree behind them, their Daddy howler sat watching and making loud howling noises, sounding like a huge lion was nearby.
* Robert showing us the local black howler monkeys
Later that day, we took a nighttime tour of the famous Belize Zoo. What a wonderful example of a Zoo. All of the animals are either rescued or have been born there. The zoo is set in a large amount of property that retains a natural jungle feel. Someone has been very cheeky in placing numerous funny, yet informative, wooden signs around the property. We were literally the only people in the zoo aside from a couple from Iowa (who we became good friends with at the Black Orchid) and the guide. Our little group ambled about with flashlights from one animal enclosure to the next.
* Tour of the Belize Zoo at night
There was an intimate feel to the tour. The guide let us help feed the animals, including tapirs, kinkajous and a jaguar (well, HE fed the jaguar actually, we just got to pet Jrs' paws). We all had turns to hold - or wear, more like - a 7 foot boa constrictor. The moon was surrounded by zillions of bright stars and we could hear strange noises all about. It was a wonderful, magical experience.
*Homes near the Black Orchid and Belize River
We hated to leave the Black Orchid, actually extending our stay to 3 nights from 1. We felt so comfortable with the family-based staff there and enjoyed hanging out with them, spotting for catfish, crocodiles and howler monkeys or hunting around for WhooDa Bird and feeding him peanuts in the shell. There weren't many other residents there at the time, we made good friends with the zoo-trip couple from Indiana and NYC, Chris and Lois. Meeting folks like them has been a major bonus of this adventure.
*canoeing down the Belize River outside Black Orchid
Well, that brings us to date on this adventure. We're just enjoying our lazy weekend now. Maybe off to do a little horseback riding in the jungle or visiting the nearby Big Falls or a mayan ruin. Or maybe just to rest here on our veranda, looking into the foggy ocean.
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