San Pedro and Going Home

This is part 4 of a 4 part blog about Julie and Bradford’s trip to Belize. Posts 1 and 3 will be written by Julie, while posts 2 and 4 will be written by Bradford.

The delay in finishing up this travelogue has more to do with me wanting to forget the worst part of our Belize trip than simple procrastination. In fact, it was such a sad leg that we realized on our way out that we hadn't taken any photos on Ambergris Caye! And that is a shame since it really is beautiful, despite all the development due to tourism.

On day 6 we woke up very early in the morning in order to catch the early bus to Belize City. Ian happily gave us a ride to the bus stop even though the sun had not yet risen. Hickatee and its hosts Ian and Kate were the highlight of our Belize trip. We will definitely return and would urge any other travelers in southern Belize to visit them as well (a perfect rating with 80 reviews says a lot!).

The bus ride to Belize City was better than our other buses since this time we were lucky to grab a seat on a charter-style bus, not the regular school bus style we were used to. It was a good thing too, since the bus ride was very long.

Finally arriving in Belize City at the bus terminal, we stopped at our favorite food shack and shared a light lunch of chicken and rice made in the Belizean way. We then continued our walk out to the docks, only about 1/2 to 1 mile away from the terminal. Arriving there, we paid for our tickets and waited to board. The sea was beautiful on the way out to San Pedro and about an hour later we disembarked the ferry and rode a cab out to Pedro's Inn. Pedro's Inn is really a hostel with a bar on the ground level. We didn’t mind staying in a hostel since it was inexpensive and we planned on spending very little time there. Our agenda was full and we couldn't wait to get started!

Since it was too late to do any snorkeling, we decided to have a walk about town. After we returned we ordered a pizza at Pedro's Inn. Soon after, however, my gut started protesting (if not the pizza, then something else). I quickly realized a horrible case of TRAVELER'S DIARRHEA. We only had a few days on San Pedro and I was to be shackled to the toilet for the entirety of it. Talk about terrible timing!

I feel so bad for Julie who was forced to share my fate - at least the fate of being confined to our tiny two-bed box that was our room. Julie, I promise we will return! I have to make up for denying her the opportunity to snorkel in such a beautiful turquoise sea.

As we were getting a taxi to leave Pedro's Inn I noticed a worker at the hostel cleaning out a pipe to the septic tank. Later, I recalled small signs (which I ignored in my abject misery) around the bathroom warning not to flush the toilet paper. I will definitely tip the guys at the hostel well when we return! I can’t help but laugh however at the mental image of the poor guy cursing in his Belizean accent at the septic tank trying to unclog it.

The rest of the trip was uneventful. We rode the ferry back to Belize City, caught a taxi to the airport, faced a profoundly irate airport worker, flew home, and went to sleep.

This trip was wonderful – it was (relatively) cheap and we had MUCH more fun than if we had bummed around a resort. In the famous words of General Douglas MacArthur,

[WE] SHALL RETURN!

PS- Side note from Julie- please ignore the ill-fitting background on my blog. It is under construction... :)

Punta Gorda

This is part 3 of a 4 part blog about Julie and Bradford’s trip to Belize. Posts 1 and 3 will be written by Julie, while posts 2 and 4 will be written by Bradford.

Day 4: We woke up early, packed together all our things, and left the cabana at about 7:00 for the bus station. We were running a little late, and at the terminal we discovered that we had missed the express bus to Punta Gorda. We checked the schedule and saw the next one would be in an hour. We took the time to get some breakfast which ended up being a pretty poor excuse for a burrito. I still don't know what it was made of but it looked and tasted a lot like something that had been eaten already... The one good thing about it was that it ended up being the only gross thing we ate on our trip... thank goodness. We also still had a jug full of the saril that we bought from Betty but upon opening it we found that it was already in the early stages of fermentation. Bradford wanted to keep it, the stinker, but I convinced him to throw it away. One less thing to lug around and no drunken Bradfords to contend with (I kid)!

Before we got onto our bus we saw our friends the missionaries again, talked for a bit, and then we were off. The drive down to Punta Gorda was gorgeous. The scenery was beautiful and the weather was perfect. I was reminded a little bit of Kenya again when we kept stopping and stuffing more and more people onto the recycled school bus. Bradford and I took a video before it got too full to move our elbows.

Punta Gorda is a quaint coastal town and the last 15 minutes or so of our drive was right on the shoreline. It was gorgeous! We were the last ones to get off of the bus and our driver was kind enough to go beyond the normal route and drop us off as close as he could to our destination (Hickatee Cottages).

He let us off at the end of a dirt road on the edge of town with directions the rest of the way. Bradford and I quickly learned, however, that when given directions in Belize they're only good for a little way, then you have to stop and ask for more. After about 4 miles of walking (in the hot sun with ALL of our bags mind you... yes I whined a little...) and three installments of directions from friendly natives (one of whom was the only of two people we met on our whole trip that didn't speak English), we arrived to the refreshing, rainforesty acreage that was Hickatee. I was never happier.

Hickatee is a wonderful retreat that has multitudes of plant and animal species, nature walks ranging from 15-90 minutes through natural rainforest, three darling cottages, a "dipping pool", a lodge, Oscar the cat, and a very hospitable British couple. When we arrived we walked up the gravel path to the seemingly deserted main lodge. We wandered a bit, trying to figure out what to do when a fellow guest who had been laying by the pool came and told us that our hosts had just laid down for a nap but that he was sure they wouldn't mind checking us in first. I tried to stop him from doing said waking, but to no avail. Kate soon greeted us in her charming way and very warmly introduced us to Hickatee, our cabin, and Oscar. We soon released Kate back to her nap and we immediately took turns in the shower to cleanse ourselves of the day's bus ride and "walk". Afterward, I explored our little cottage and was instantly smitten. Our cottage is their "deluxe cottage". It used to be Kate and Ian's home until they moved closer to the lodge. Needless to say, the ONLY reason we stayed in the deluxe cottage was because Kate cut us a screaming deal. I adore Kate. Without her our whole Belize trip may not have worked out as well as it did. She was my pen pal during the planning stages of our trip and proved herself as a priceless resource of information.

Anyway, our cottage: it had a glorious bathroom with a very nice shower, a nice sitting room, a back patio, a front porch with a hammock, and a bedroom. It had tons of windows, the most beautiful wood floors I have ever seen (seriously, I wanted to ship them home with me) made from native trees, a large luxurious bathroom (did I say that already?), and comfy furniture. I wanted to take up permanent residence. We had a few hours to relax and snooze a little before we recruited Ian to drive us into town for dinner (it was Valentine's Day so we decided to go out instead of staying in and having Kate cook us something).

He dropped us off at a restaurant that was complete with chairs made from logs, a stage set up for a live reggae band, and little geckos singing and scuttling on the walls. I loved it. We got there at about 7:00 and there was no one there but us. We wanted to stay until 11:00 when the music started but we were so tired from the day that we decided to just call it a night. We walked to the main part of town and grabbed some ice cream from a little grocery store. After we finished we found a friendly cab driver to take us back to Hickatee. At night there's a generator that runs for a few hours so Bradford and I picked out a movie from our cottage's little library and watched a movie until the generator turned off. Then, we set up the hammock on the porch for Bradford to sleep in and I snuggled into the wonderful queen sized bed and fell into a blissful sleep.

Day 5: When I woke up I was surprised to see Bradford asleep on the floor in the main room. I found out that he had come in halfway through the night because the hammock was uncomfortable. I think he was scared from the eerie monkey noises or Oscar pouncing on him but he denies it ;). Soon after we woke up, Ian brought us a tray of ginger tea that we took out onto the patio to enjoy in the cool morning air. After tea we dressed and headed to the lodge for breakfast. Kate is an excellent cook and breakfast was quite a treat of fresh fruit, eggs, sausage, bacon, and delicious homemade bread with local jams and honey. We also had the opportunity to chat with the other five guests that were staying there. After breakfast we all went our separate ways. Bradford and I took advantage of the free bike rentals, provided by Kate and Ian, to ride into town and found a spot on a bench by the beach. We sat and enjoyed the beautiful weather and sea breeze. We were soon joined by a native teenager. I think Bradford and I were both holding our breath for a minute, waiting for him to finally ask us for money or something but we were pleasantly surprised to find that he really did just want to visit with us.

After a few hours of enjoying the beach and our new friend's company, we rode around town again and found a shop so we could purchase some delicious hot sauce. I think I ended up with 5 bottles at the end of the trip, plus three for Bradford's dad... Its good stuff. And all different flavors. After we made our purchases we went back to Hickatee and enjoyed a nice sit in the pool and conversation with one of the other guests. We, read, talked, snoozed, and enjoyed being outside until the bugs became too much of an annoyance. We went to the cabin for a nap and then went on one of the nature trails before dinner. We'd wanted to catch a glimpse of all the animals but we started a little later than we'd hoped and we ended up stumbling around in the dark. It was kind of eerie, especially with the occasional spider web in the face, but it was really neat to see and hear the rainforest at night. Once we finally found our way out of the trees we met the rest of the group on the lodge porch for dinner at our respective tables. I had swordfish and a salad and Bradford had soup and chicken. I don't love fish, but Kate can make just about anything taste great. After dinner we had fresh ginger tea and a plate of chocolate made by a local Mayan woman in the Toledo district. She grows all the ingredients herself and the result is some deliciously earthy tasting chocolate that can easily become an addiction... We bought 6 bars to take home with us. It was all they had or else I would've gladly bought more.

After dinner we sat and talked with Ian and Kate about the ways they try to live green and support the local businesses, not the larger resort type places and business that are squelching some of the native charm. Something that I found absolutely fascinating. We also played with Oscar, the orange tabby cat that roams the premises. He has a stick with a toy bug attached by some fishing line and he chased it all over the lodge. It was really entertaining.

After our enjoyable visit with Ian and Kate we went to our lodge to watch another movie and then showered, got our things put together for our early morning departure the next day, and settled in for a few hours of sleep.

Dangriga and Cockscomb Jaguar Reserve

This is part 2 of a 4 part blog about Julie and Bradford’s trip to Belize. Posts 1 and 3 will be written by Julie, while posts 2 and 4 will be written by Bradford.

Day 2: On our first day in Dangriga we decided to take it easy. We slept in our cabana until about 10am. The sound of the surf and the cool breeze made it easy to sleep late. We woke up to Ruthie, our hostess, shouting to us through our window whether we wanted breakfast. We were served a simple breakfast of homemade bread, jam and juice.

After breakfast we got our gear together and took a walk around Dangriga. We headed in the direction of the market hoping to pick up some souvenirs. Walking about town was a fun experience; the streets were full of friendly Garufina, Creole, and Mayan people. We browsed the market and found ripe, inexpensive pineapple and papaya for sale. We continued exploring, walking the quieter roads off of the bustling main street. We walked past a few schools, an LDS church house, and were even offered some “green stuff” which we politely declined. On our way home we waxed hungry so we stopped at a random roadside eatery and ordered the usual: beans, rice, chicken (or fish or beef) with some delicious sauce over all of it. We also drank some saril, a tasty Jamaican tea made from the saril flower and ginger.

Ruthie helped us prepare the pineapple and papaya and we sat in the shade on the beach, reading our books and eating our fruits. It was very relaxing. Ruthie had her son get down some coconuts from the tree and we drank the juice, after which Ruthie then told me how much to tip her son. That was kind of annoying – we ended up avoiding the helpful Belizeans because for the most part when they were helpful they expected a tip. I blame tourists for creating that false economy.

In the evening we ate dinner at Ruthie’s with an Irish couple staying in the next cabana, then went to bed.

Day 3: We woke up early and walked out to the bus terminal to catch a bus heading south. After a short ride (maybe 25 minutes) we arrived at the Mayan Village outside the Cockscomb Jaguar Reserve.

The reserve is located about 7 miles from the main road and there are taxis that take people up to the reserve, however they are $20 USD ONE WAY. We were on a tight budget so we stubbornly decided to walk. It was a beautiful day, not more than 85 degrees (F) and the road was lined with bushes of big beautiful flowers. We found some “12 o’clock”, the local name for a plant that will fold itself up when touched. And just before reaching the park, we saw a sign that cryptically said “Plane Wreck 500m” so we investigated.

Soon, however, the walk started losing its charm: we were wearing our new Tevas without socks (read: blisters). About halfway up we realized we were doomed, and when we finally made it to the reserve I could barely walk.

We looked at a map with a helpful park guide and decided a tubing trip down the river would do our feet some good. The tubes were only $5 USD for two. We walked the short trip to the entry point, and it was at this moment that I remembered my fear of rivers and lakes. The park guide’s affirmation of snakes in the river didn’t help. I grabbed a big stick and gingerly started floating.

The jungle was beautiful. The birds were singing and the sun was shining and I was on the lookout for snakes. Julie thought it was hilarious that her big strong bad boy was petrified by an unseen terror slithering toward him in the clear, cool water. At one point we made a wrong turn and found ourselves in a smaller river running parallel to the main river, full of branches and scary spiders. Fortunately our little terror tunnel met back up with the main stream.

In order to get out of the river we were supposed to look out for a rope running across the river, grab it, and pull ourselves to shore. After that, we were warned, there are dangerous rapids. When we finally saw the rope we did manage to grab it and start pulling ourselves to shore, however it was at that moment that I saw a spider on my leg. It wasn’t particularly big or scary, but it did take all of my attention to fling it off. When I finally rid myself of the spider, I looked up and saw that I had drifted beyond the rope’s safety! I jumped off my tube, threw my pack to Julie (who barely caught it), and forged my way back up river. I nearly died.

Being out of the river, we decided to leave our tubes on the trail and make the small hike to the waterfall near Ben’s Bluff. The waterfall was cool and dark and made for a great place to relax. We contemplated swimming under the waterfall but eventually we both lost our nerve. It was dark and scary, and I couldn’t help but imagine huge tentacles grabbing me when I got close. Julie was braver than me though, and made a valiant effort.

We relaxed at the falls for a while and even made a friend with an indigenous crab named Crab Cake. We remembered seeing that Ben’s Bluff appeared to be somewhat close to the falls when we looked at the map earlier, so we decided to once again abuse our feet and go to one last place before heading back for the day.

The trail to Ben’s Bluff looked bad to begin with. I thought “Ben’s Bluff… bluff… aren’t bluffs above everything…?” 45 minutes and nearly as many “lets rest here for a minute”s, we made it to the top. What a beautiful view!

The hike down to the park visitors center seemed longer than it was because our feet and legs had reached their limits. Arriving at the visitor center we realized that we did NOT want to hike down to the road to catch our bus. We found another American couple from Colorado who were going down as well so we split the $20 USD cab.

While waiting for the cab we were attacked by small, biting flies. I looked at my legs and saw tiny pools of blood and realized that they were eating me!! This was when we realized that I shouldn’t have convinced Julie to not bring the bug repellant (“ah there’s no bugs in Belize…”).

Arriving at the road we quickly surmised that we missed our bus. We waited, hoping another bus would come, but it started getting quite dark. I remembered the times in the Philippines where my companion and I would hitchhike our way home when it was too late for public transportation, so I ‘nonchalantly’ started poking my thumb in the air. The problem with trying to hitchhike without letting anyone know is that no one knows you’re doing it. So, at the approach of a big tanker truck I blasted my thumb out with such force that he couldn’t do anything BUT stop.

Our friend Hugo was trucking gasoline all over Guatemala (where he was born) and Belize (where he lives). We were so grateful, even though Julie had to sit on my lap and he wasn’t passing by Dangriga directly (we would be dropped off a few miles from Dangriga). We even invited him to dinner (somewhat of a ploy on my part to get him to take us all the way to Dangriga, but mostly because we were so grateful) but he looked at us, shrugged sheepishly, and said “I’m late…”. Next time Hugo, next time!

After he dropped us off at the junction, we found a good spot to hitchhike the remaining distance. After just a minute or so, a couple in a pickup truck stopped and gave us a ride to our cabana in Dangriga. As we rode, we spoke through the window and found out that they were Jehovah's Witnesses from Spain on a mission. Hugo and the JW’s were like angels to us.

We were on such a high after that – what a perfect day! And to top it off, while we were walking to the eatery to grab some dinner we met two LDS missionaries who were assigned in Dangriga. It was fun talking with them about the work in Dangriga and the branch they had there.

After dinner we fell asleep almost immediately to the soothing sound of the surf just 20 feet away.

Landing and Getting to Dangriga

This is part 1 of a 4 part blog about Julie and Bradford’s trip to Belize. Posts 1 and 3 will be written by Julie, while posts 2 and 4 will be written by Bradford.

First off, I apologize to the blogosphere (and a million times over to Bradford) for those of you who have been gripping the edges of your seats waiting to hear how our Belizean adventure further unfolds. I have been slacking and putting it off and off and off... All Bradford’s gentle motivations to get me on the ball were left for naught until today. Now, that being said, on to Dangriga!

We boarded our plane leaving from Salt Lake City to Belize City (switching planes in Dallas/Ft. Worth) at 8:20 AM and arrived at 3:55 PM Central time. The flights weren’t too bad, I was actually able to sleep some, thanks to ear plugs, a sleep mask, and less than 3 hours of sleep the night before. Something about an early morning flight encourages all-nighters… Once we got off the plane (via a rolling staircase like you see in all the movies about tropical places…) we retrieved our checked bag, went through a customs process, and were promptly offered a cab ride into the bus station downtown by a friendly cab driver. His name is John and he was very chatty and readily made conversation. Bradford held up most of our end of the conversation while I marveled at the scenery, warmth, and the curls already forming in my hair from the humidity.

After about a 20 minute cab drive we arrived at the bus terminal. We paid our friendly cab driver who left us with his business card and one last time tried to convince us to have him take us to Dangriga in his cab rather than the bus. We politely declined, saving us about 100 American dollars doing so, and then faced the barrage of men eagerly waiting to assist us in finding the right bus to Dangriga. It wasn’t overly pushy, which I found refreshing. A lot of the places I’ve been have had similar hordes of men and I’ve usually felt overwhelmed, accosted, and sometimes mildly under attack . I was relieved to find it less overbearing here. We did end up following a friendly individual who showed us where our bus would be. I can’t remember his name now (another reason to write about these things soon after they transpire instead of waiting…) but he was really easy going and accommodating. Bradford and I were starving and hadn’t eaten in what felt like eons and our bus wasn’t arriving for a few minutes so our friend took us over to a roadside cafe (though nothing but the sounds of sizzling food from inside indicated it was anything but a shack) and we had our first Belizean meal. It was delicious! It was beef (Bradford had chicken) and rice and beans smothered in some kind of spicy red sauce that I still can’t really describe because nothing I’ve ever had tasted like it. It came with a small pasta salad on the side. It was incredible. Bradford and I could have easily shared one plate satisfactorily too, even in our famished state. It cost us about US$6 for the whole meal.

Before too long our bus arrived so we gulped down the last of our Fantas and hurried back to the terminal. We left our friend with a tip (and the rest of our dinner that we weren’t able to finish) and boarded the painted up old school bus that was our ride. We chose to ride only the James line buses while we were in Belize because its the only private bus line that stuck it out when the government was trying to monopolize the bus lines a few years back. Its the line the locals try to support. They’re easy to tell from the other buses because they are painted in green, red, and yellow horizontal stripes. Ours was an “express” bus to Dangriga and even so it ended up being over a 6 hour ride. By the time we pulled into the terminal at Dangriga it was well past dark. Bradford got in a few snoozings and I was left pretty awake despite my yearnings for some shut-eye. So many times along the ride I thought we were “almost there” but I was only right once… Regardless, it was neat to observe what we could of the beautiful country before it got dark.

Once we got to the terminal at Dangriga we shuffled off the bus and tried to orient ourselves with the quiet, dimly lit town. We were solicited a cab ride or two but Bradford was confident the cabanas (Ruthie’s Cabanas to be exact) we were staying at were only a short walk away. After we walked about 30 ft one of the same cab drivers pulled over and generously gave us a free ride the rest of the way. Which ended up being only about 100 yards further. We thanked him and gave him a tip and then we walked up to the robe-clad Ruthie who had been honked out of her house by our driver. In her Garifuna accented English she told us that she was so worried about us and had been waiting on her porch all day for us to get there and when she didn’t hear from us she became even more worried. She immediately struck us as a very warm, spunky lady who casually addressed us as “baby” whenever she spoke to us. She took us to our cabana that was about 50 ft away from the ocean shore and we settled in.

Even though we were tired we took a few minutes to walk back to town and grab a few snacks from one of the still open shops. For dinner we had a can of pringles, a snickers, some local candy, and a bottle of water. While we ate we watched some cable from Colorado on the little TV in our cabana. We don’t know why or how they get Colorado’s cable down here in Belize but Bradford and I thought that was kind of funny. Not long after that, Bradford fell asleep and I soon turned off the TV and went to bed myself. The soothing sound of the surf breaking on the beach, plus a long day of travel made it too easy.

(This is Bradford and me on the express bus from Belize City to Dangriga. We look a little weary already. This is the only picture of me on the entire trip with straight hair... The humidity took over soon after this was taken. I regret not taking more pictures of the whole experience. Next time we well get more. Because there WILL be a next time!)

Belize: February 11-February 18 2009

This is part 0 of a 4 part blog about Julie and Bradford’s trip to Belize. Posts 1 and 3 will be written by Julie, while posts 2 and 4 will be written by Bradford.

Back in October 2008 I got an email from AirfareWatchdog.com (great service, I highly recommend it) alerting me to amazing prices to Belize from Salt Lake City and a handful of other airports. I quickly looked up where Belize was, saw that it was in a tropical locale and decided to ask Julie what she thought. I emailed my family and friends and called Julie. Julie can’t pass up an adventure, so we decided to go. It was such a short sale that my unimpulsive family and friends missed out; just my Julie and me. Total cost for two round trip tickets from Salt Lake City: $420.

After buying the tickets we let the trip slip into the back of our minds, the place where we put Christmas and birthdays only to be thought upon with mild excitement and anticipation until we are startled to realize they’re almost upon us.

In the months preceding the trip Julie did a lot of research on where to stay and what to do in Belize. We made the decision early (out of necessity) to make this a very low budget trip – no renting cars, taking planes or expensive tours, but using the local bus system, eating local food, and staying in quaint (ie make-Julie-grossed-out-because-it’s-so-run-down) places, and so on. Even with this in mind, I was surprised at how relatively expensive everything was. The Belize dollar is fixed at 2 Belize for 1 USD and a meal at a roadside shack would cost between 6-8 Belize (3-4USD) in Belize City. Because of Julie’s excellent research abilities we had an OK idea of where we were going to stay: Dangriga for some jungle action, Punta Gorda for some relaxation, and San Pedro on Ambergis Caye for the beach and snorkeling.

Sooner than later we realized that we had only a week to get ready and to plan. We started buying the small things we needed and collecting things to take. I started doing research on the bus system and how our daily itinerary was going to be. I found the perfect tool for doing this: tripit.com. Our itinerary can be found here to see it in action.

The night before we were to leave (very early in the morning) I packed up my backpack, set aside the Teva Wraptors that Julie and I bought months before (these were perfect), and caught an hour or so of sleep. It was about to begin!