June 19, 2000
Very small airport. Customs was quick & friendly. No need to worry about film. Hot, humid & overcast, but bearable. Drove through Belize City w/Ramon, our guide from Windy Hill, to the Zoo. Belize City is 1 foot below sea-level, so the dead are buried above ground. Drivers shuttle to Texas and sell used vehicles here. With a little palm-greasing, anyone can get a license - as evidenced by the accident we drove by in the city. There are 'sleeping police' on the roads - speed bumps. The Zoo was great. All animals indegenous to the country, in natural and fenced areas, with fun signs. Saw Rambo the Toucan, Bullethead the Tapir, Polly the Parrot, Boomer the Crane, and more. After the zoo, stopped at JB's, a British military watering hole thatched-roof cabana with a wonderful view of citrus orchards and the " Sleeping Giant" (of the Maya Range), for bottled water and a 'red Fanta'. After Guanacaste Nat. Reserve and Warrie Creek village, the landscape becomes more lush, hilly w/villages along the Western Highway. Stopped at a roadside stand in Ontario village (named after Canadian missionary) for mangos to share with the little kids & gave the seed to the scrappy puppy. Then we were off to the first resort...Windy Hill, in San Ignacio, Cayo District. Total cabana theme going on here, with cable, of course. Our cabana, in back, is very neat-o. Mahogany furniture and shuttered screens, not to mention our own hammock. Cool. Just had time to see the main compound, but it's ripe with coconut palms and flowers of all sorts. For dinner, we had mayan soup (chicken-based), rice w/coconut milk, curry chicken, mixed veggies w/raisins & peanuts, roasted plantain, cole slaw, and flan. Then we just hung around at the bar and talked to the bartender, John.
the Belize Zoo.
the 'Sleeping Giant' range.
us in our cabana.