Update from Oct-Nov trip in 1999
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travelogue |
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Update from Oct-Nov trip in 1999
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I like sleeping under thatched roofs. Their palm leaves crinkling in a tropical breeze and quivering during rain showers give me an exotic, faraway sensation. So I was plenty content on visiting Belize, a small country facing the Caribbean south of Mexico. I began my visit to Belize as many do, landing at the Belize City International airport and ping-ponging my way down the coast in a noisy little twin -engine . |
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I went this last time during the rainy season to experience rain forests at their wettest (seemed fitting to me) and to enjoy the off season discounts. The sky cleared on many occasions to let me be as active as I pleased -snorkeling, diving, hiking to archaeological sites and visiting Maya families. It wasn't too long before I re-encountered Belize's tortuous roads. It's a dirt-road country, especially in the south. Most roads down here are miserable strips of axle-breaking potholes that come complete with a bone-jaring ride. |
| Months and now years after my last trip,1995, much of what stays fixed in memory appears as a montage of unconnected images. -Dipping toes into the sand, loud Punta-rock music playing as I eat Cahune cabbage in the middle of PG. Hunkering down during a squall that caught me as I was hiking. And mostly drinking Belikin, the national beer, at Pete Aleman's place and the sand-covered floors of Placencia bars with such signs as no shirt, no shoes, no problem. More memories of meeting friendly people- and swerving, as everyone does on the road. Usually to miss a unsuspecting dog sleeping in the road or chickens. All these memories will most likely to draw me back to Belize again very soon. I can still smell the the sweet jungle aroma and the soothing sound of rain drumming on a thatched roof. These memories get me through the past-paced American life |
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I stayed in one of the larger villages in Toledo District but visited the others quite often. Most of the smaller villages had about 80 families living there in thatch-roofed wooden houses alongside the Rio Grande, tending milpa, raising pigs and chickens and gathering food from the surrounding rain forest. The Toledo Maya are hardly untouched by the modern world. |
More to come...
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©Jaguar 2000 ~ Central America
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