i keep a diary

January 18, 2013

Belize: Part 1

I'd been prescribed a 2-week vacation by my Chinatown acupuncturist to help with my diagnosis of depleted yang. Who am I to argue with science? Belize, here I come!

Friday, January 18th

With my history of missing early-morning flights, I decided to stay up all night instead of temping fate with sleep. Kicking off my adventure bleary-eyed on the way to the airport at 4:25am...
...JFK was practically empty.
airport
Got comfy...
shoes
...and dug into the first of many "vacation books" that I'd downloaded to my phone.
book
Sunrise from the air.
airplane ˆ sunrise
Seatmates.
asleep ˆ flying ˆ hoodie ˆ strangers
Layover.
airplane ˆ airport
Taking pictures from the plane-window using "toy mode."
airport ˆ construction
Back in the air a little after 2pm, I looked out the window and noticed things were starting to look gorgeously turquoise and tropical.
flying ˆ island ˆ ocean ˆ wing
me
The smile of a man who's been in a New York winter for too long.
flying ˆ me
Touchdown in Belize!
airport ˆ wing
I always fly to countries with zero pre-arranged plans. It's hard enough for me to figure out what country I want to go ahead of time, never mind trying to decide on a city or hotel!
airport
As soon as I made it through immigration, I bought another ticket to take a regional flight down to Placenia, a sleepy beach town about 90 air-miles south of Belize City.
airport ˆ tickets
4pm boarding call.
airplane
I love flying in little planes.
airplane ˆ flying
Gorgeous jungle-river view under the wing.
flying ˆ river ˆ wing
Flying south along Belize's coastline. You can see the Placenia Peninsula in the background.
flying ˆ river ˆ wing
Cool to watch the approach and landing from over the pilot's shoulder.
flying
Group taxi ride into town from the airport.
driving ˆ taxi
I walked the pathway next to the beach, checking to see if the hotels had any vacancy. I got lucky on my third stop...
beach ˆ ocean
...and snagged a soled room facing the water at the Seaspray Hotel.
hotel
They only had vacancy for one night, so I'd have to find a new place in the morning. Excited to put my feet up after 15 hours of travel.
feet ˆ hotel
After a generous nap, I hit the beach around 11pm looking for somewhere with a kitchen.
beach
Had myself a late-night tasty plate of veggie fried rice.
food
Walked up and down the chilly, breezy beach for a bit and then called it a night.
beach

Saturday, January 19th

Saturday was cloudy, windy and drizzling rain.
beach
Had some fruit and yogurt for breakfast.
Checked out of the Seaspray...
...and set off on a walk down the Placenia Sidewalk, to find another place with vacancy.
sidewalk
After striking out at more than ten places, I finally found a room at the aptly named Deb & Dave's Last Resort!
hotel ˆ sign
The room was great. After dropping off my stuff...
bed ˆ hotel
...I spent the afternoon reading on the porch.
hotel
Strolled the deserted beach, made a reservation to go on a boat tour of the Monkey River...
beach
...had myself a smoothie...
juice
...and a burrito.
burrito ˆ food ˆ mexican
This is pretty much what the rest of my evening looked like.
beach ˆ chair
Read this guy in one sitting. Haha.
book ˆ phone
Grilled cheese for dinner.
food ˆ sandwich
me
Hotel self-portrait before bed-time. "Well, here you are in Belize."
mirror ˆ me

Sunday, January 20th

Woke up early and walked over to the dock to catch a boat to explore a river named after monkeys!
hotel ˆ path
Waiting for the boat to arrive at Captain Jak's dock.
boat ˆ dock
Neato tree near the dock had peanutty-looking bark.
peanuts ˆ tree ˆ wtf
Captain Jak, with parrot on shoulder, holds our tour boat for me.
best ˆ boat ˆ parrot ˆ travel buddies
We had a 45 minute ride along the coast to get to...
boat ˆ ocean
... the Monkey River delta.
boat
Our tour guide, Percival, was excellent! He grew up on the river and was really good at spotting and identifying the local flora and fauna.
bird
I don't remember what any of these birds are called.
bird
But he sure knew!
bird
Lizard in a tree!
lizard
Looks like a sleestak!
lizard
It's almost easy to miss them, but if you look at the underside of the tree you see a row of bats sleeping in a vertical line! Look at the crazy "face" pattern on their backs to keep predators away! It looks like a tiny, scotty-dog face!
bats ˆ tree
Percy also pointed out a yellow flower, which if made into a tea, acts as a natural antidiuretic, earning it the local name "Piss-a-bed plant." Hahaha.
boat ˆ river
Along the water's edge, just a few feet off our boat's bow, Percy pointed out a ten-foot crocodile.
alligator
Huge tree with some kind of pods hanging off it.
tree
trail
After going 90 minutes up river, we stopped for a hike through a wildlife preserve.
hiking ˆ jungle ˆ trail
The jungle was lush, dense and filled with all sorts of exotic plants like these huge palm fronds...
jungle
...light-orange birdbath-shaped mushrooms...
jungle ˆ mushrooms
spike
...and trees with 5" long, eye-level spikes! Eeek!
jungle ˆ spike
Percy was an awesome guide. We paused at this huge bamboo grove to listen to the CAH-RAZY sounds of the howler monkeys in the distance barking / screaching to each other!
hiking ˆ jungle ˆ strangers ˆ travel buddies
Bamboo grove right out of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
bamboo ˆ jungle
Onward towards the monkeys!
hiking ˆ jungle
As tempted as you might be to let your eyes wander around in wondoer as walk, there are worse things than tree spikes that you could accidentally put your face into...
hiking ˆ jungle
...so it's VERY IMPORTANT that you watch where you're walking!
jungle ˆ spider
So amazing / horrifying! (Dear non-vegetarians, I hope you remember this photo next time you tuck into a delicious crab and/or lobster! Ew! Ew! Sea bugs!)
best ˆ jungle ˆ spider ˆ wtf
Our guide Percy paused and casually asked "Anyone thirsty?" before slashing his machete in a diagonal arc at a thick vine above his shoulder and offering the fresh water pouring out of it for each of us to drink.
best ˆ hiking ˆ jungle ˆ vine
percy
Baddest dude EVAAAAAAAR.
best ˆ hiking ˆ jungle ˆ travel buddies ˆ vine ˆ percy
percy
This vine had enough water for all of us to get a mouthful. A few minutes later, Percy pointed out...
hiking ˆ jungle ˆ travel buddies ˆ vine ˆ percy
...some howler monkeys up in the trees.
jungle ˆ monkey ˆ tree
They are so fast!
jungle ˆ monkey ˆ tree
me
Percy decorated my jacket with a leaf to demonstrate it's sticky, velcro-like surface.
hiking ˆ hoodie ˆ jungle ˆ leaf hats ˆ me
Walking along the water's edge near our boat, Percy paused on the path and pointed to a gnarly, tooth-filled snout poking up out of the water.
crocodile ˆ river ˆ scary ˆ teeth
No big deal, just a ten-foot long crocodile.
crocodile ˆ jungle ˆ river
Neat to be in a place that still has really large wild animals.
crocodile ˆ jungle ˆ river ˆ scary
After our hike, we took the boat over to Alice's Restaurant in Monkey River Village for lunch.
restaurant
Afterwards, the cook took us out back and showed us the hutch where he raises pacas.
gibnut ˆ pacas
gibut
In Belize they call this animal a gibnut and it's considered a local delicacy.
cute ˆ pacas ˆ gibut
gibut
Hey! Please don't eat me! I'm adorable!
cute ˆ pacas ˆ gibut
Boat ride back to Placenia.
river
Turquoise mangrove.
mangrove trees ˆ river
We got back to the dock a little past three. An awesome day. If you're in Placenia, definitely check out the Monkey River boat tour with Percy!
boat ˆ river
Back on land, I made friends with these two roaming beach dogs! A few kind words and a scratch behind the ears...
beach ˆ dogs ˆ feet ˆ travel buddies
trail
...and suddenly, I had an entourage! (They were both low and wienery looking and made me think of Maddy).
best ˆ dogs ˆ travel buddies ˆ trail
I found a lovely, shaded mangrove inlet (that looked relatively crocodile-free)...
beach ˆ mangrove trees
...had a nearby tropical pine decorated like a Christmas tree.
beach ˆ xmas tree
Spent the rest of the afternoon reading on the beach...
...enjoying the view and the gentle lapping of the water.
Got hungry around seven and decided to find a new place to eat.
Walked past a gift shop with a huge outdoor hutch of parrots in the back.
bird ˆ parrot
Had a solid veggie burger dinner...
burger ˆ food
...and spent the meal deciding on my next destination.
book ˆ juice
Walked back to my room in the rain.
flower
Spent the evening listening to the sound of the pouring rain on my room's corrugated, sheet-metal roof...
bed ˆ hotel
lefty
...wrote a bunch of notes for the day into my travel journal. (Usually I do this by email, but I had promised my acupuncturist that I'd stay away from all things computer-related during my vacation! Gotta replenish that YIN!).
hand ˆ writing ˆ lefty
Got bored with writing and started sketching. Why not start with where you are?
drawing ˆ feet
My left foot.
drawing ˆ feet
Then I drew this cool, ocean-weather conch shell that was in my room.
drawing ˆ seashell
Then I sat and then read a book about sitting. I enjoy reading different people's take on how to approach meditation. Oceanic Mind - The Deeper Meditation Training Course
book

Monday, January 21st

On my way to inquire about a diving trip, I followed these two cuties on their morning commute to their beach-front school. This narrow sidewalk is one of the main "roads" in town.
beach ˆ sidewalk ˆ walking
Love the bright pink of this four-petaled flower (Dame's Rocket?)
flower
The weather was calling for more rain so none of the diving boats were going out. If the weather wasn't going to improve, I decided it was time to leave the beach-town of Placenia and check out another part of Belize. I decided on San Ignacio, a town up in Belize's Cayo District, the country's mountainous rainforest region near the western border shared with Guatemala. I had a bunch of time before my 2pm bus, which I tried to fill with this delicious breakfast by the water's edge. Mmmm.
breakfast ˆ cereal ˆ egg ˆ food ˆ juice ˆ tea
This sign is another example of something I found really charming about Belize. They're an English colony and English is the official language, but a lot of the signs there phonetically spell out the local pronunciations of words! SO GOOD!
beach ˆ best ˆ sidewalk ˆ sign
Before leaving, I took some pics of the "big construction" project they had going on in Placenia to widen the main sidewalk.
beach ˆ construction ˆ sidewalk
Future me: "This place is totally different now! I remember what it was like back in the day when the sidewalk was only 20" wide. Before this 28" super-highway was installed! Pssssh."
beach ˆ construction ˆ sidewalk
Cool to see that old American school buses end up in other countries and are used as public transportation.
bus ˆ driving
I had to get off in a town called Dangria and wait a while for a different bus.
bus ˆ driving
I really enjoy transportation in other countries. It's nice to sit in a bus station and just wait around with a book. You get lost in the story and sort of forget where you are, then for a second when you look up you're like "Holy shit, where am I?"
book
The bus from Dangriga to Belmopan was packed! I stood in the crammed in the aisle leaning on a sea of strangers for a bumpy two hours! The bus cleared out a bit after Belmopan and finally got a seat. I ended up sitting next to a guy around my age who sounded like an American. He told me he was Honduran, but had lived in Texas for years until he was found, put in some kind of crazy immigration detention center for years, and then finally deported. He was on his way to San Pedro island to meet up with his two younger brothers who he hadn't seen in 16 years! I wished him well and got off...
bus ˆ driving
... in San Ignacio at 10pm!
bus
I walked around for a bit looking for a room and found one at the Hotel Mallorca. View of the street out my room's window.
hotel ˆ sign
Not bad for $20 a night.
bed ˆ hotel
Found a local restaurant down the street that was still serving and fed fettuccine into my bus-weary face.
food ˆ pasta ˆ phone

Tuesday, January 22nd

Slept in and woke up to an overcast day.
best ˆ hotel ˆ sign
Looking north up Burns Avenue.
hotel
Walked around town a bit and had breakfast in another hotel's lobby.
breakfast ˆ food
A little afternoon, I chatted with a local taxi driver about a few local places I was interested in checking out and he suggested Xunatunich, a late Mayan ruin from 650-1000 AD.
driving ˆ taxi
The road we were on lead right up to the edge of the river. We had to wait for the floating bridge...
bridge ˆ river
...cable to be HAND-CRANKED across the river by this guy!
best ˆ bridge ˆ river
Awesome, right? After the bridge arrived, he drove on...
bridge ˆ river
...and the guy even let me hand-crank the bridge across!
bridge ˆ river
me
The car drove me a bit up the road on the other side of the river...
sunglasses ˆ walking ˆ me
...then left me to walk the rest of the way up hill...
trees ˆ walking
...to the gates of Xunatunich!
sign
The weird, shiny orange tree on the right is called a gumbo limbo tree and contains the antidote to the also-local terrible poison-ivy- x-100 that you get from coming into contact Black Poisonwood tree.
tree
Locally, this tree is called a "gringo tree" because the tree's peeling bark looks like the sunburnt skin of all the white tourists. Haha. (This is all info I learned from X on my Monkey River tour!)
sunburn ˆ tree
I rarely research places ahead of time, so I wasn't really sure what to expect.
Approaching the glorious...
pyramid
...El Castillo!
pyramid ˆ stairs
Built around 800AD and standing 130+ feet-tall, it's the second-tallest structure in all of Belize. After walking up the first group of steps to the first terrace, we went to the other side of the pyramid...
best ˆ pyramid ˆ stairs
...to continue our ascent to the top.
pyramid
View facing away from the courtyard.
pyramid ˆ scenic overlook
The stones that makes up the "hallway" that leads from the backside terrace to the courtyard terrace are covered in bright orange lichen.
pyramid
Orange you lichen it? (Xanthoria is one of the cooler-sounding geni of plants. Sounds like a princess in a fantasy novel.)
best ˆ lichen ˆ plant ˆ wall
mayaan
View of the courtyard! More unbelievable than the fact that you can actually climb up to the top of these monuments is the fact that there aren't any safety railings or roped-off areas to prevent you from falling off the edge and plummeting to your death. Even getting this close to the edge to peek over and take this picture made the people up there with me nervous and made my palms start to sweat. Haha.
best ˆ mayan ˆ pyramid ˆ scenic overlook ˆ mayaan
me
Obligatory "pretend you're falling over the edge" photo.
best ˆ fall ˆ pyramid ˆ scenic overlook ˆ me
See those other big "hills" on the left-side of the horizon? Those are probably other Mayan pyramids buried under dirt and jungle that are waiting to be discovered and excavated!
mayan ˆ pyramid ˆ scenic overlook
me
Such an amazing place to visit.
pyramid ˆ scenic overlook ˆ sunglasses ˆ me
Aftering walking back down the treacherous mossy-stairs...
mayan ˆ pyramid ˆ stairs
...our tour guide took us through the rest of the site.
mayan ˆ stairs
The view of El Castillo from the top of smaller pyramid-mound in the courtyard.
mayan ˆ pyramid
After an hour-and-half of wandering around the site in wonder...
mayan ˆ pyramid ˆ scenic overlook
...I headed back down the road to the bridge to find a taxi on the main road. On my walk, I spotted a bunch of...
walking
...local flora...
flower
...and fauna.
bird
While waiting for a taxi near the road, I thumbed through my guidebook looking for other places of interest and noticed that the nearby Chaa Creek had a Natural History museum and a bunch of interesting exhibits so I decided to stop by to check it out on the way back into town.
museum
The had a butterfly garden filled with blue morphos, Belize's national butterfly. Blue Morphos don't have any predators because they are poisonous!
butterfly
The tree leaves they eat as caterpillars contain a trace amount of cyanide which slowly accumulates in their body over time.
bugs ˆ caterpillar ˆ museum
Red & Yellow = don't eat me, I'll kill you!
bugs ˆ caterpillar ˆ museum
They also had this insect which is the most-interesting / terrible thing I'd seen in a long time. A Peanut-head bug! From Wikipedia: "In several countries, such as Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela, there exists the myth that if somebody is bitten by the machaca, he or she must have sex within 24 hours to prevent an otherwise incurable death. The insect is actually harmless to people."
bugs ˆ museum ˆ wtf
After the Natural History exhibits, I checked out the gardens. Most of the things are this way!
sign
Crumpling a leaf I pulled off an All Spice tree to enjoy its wonderful fragrance (smells like cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves all in one).
garden ˆ sign
Lots of big gorgeous trees I'd never seen.
Lots of exotic, big-leafed plants! The lovely leaf of the excellently-named Monstera deliciosa!
hand ˆ plant
I don't know what this plant is called but it's def one of my faves. I wish all my clothes looked like this.
best ˆ plant
The fronds on this palm look like the fins of a fish.
clouds ˆ plant
While I was exploring the grounds, I even spotted a few sizable wild gibnuts running around!
gibnut ˆ pacas
Orchid House.
garden
Check out the size of this tree's massive seed-pod, um, thingy!
garden ˆ jungle ˆ trees
Busy day! Went back to the hotel for a nap.THIS, by the way, is the hilarious / terrifying entrance to my hotel:
Hotel upstairs, MEATSHOP downstairs!.

Sure, you're welcome to stay here. As long as you can overcome your fear of the obvious horror-movie danger of us murdering you in your sleep and SELLING YOU AS FOOD in conveniently-located meatshop downstairs. Haven't you seen the movie, Hostel, you idiot?
best ˆ hotel ˆ scary ˆ sign ˆ stairs ˆ wtf
Bought a phone card and tried calling some of my peeps to say hello.
phone
me
Woke up at 10:30 starving and hit the town in search of something to eat.
shadow ˆ walking ˆ me
Wandered the streets adjacent to San Ignacio's main drag.
buildings
Hit the jackpot at Maxim's Chinese Restaurant. Open late...
restaurant ˆ sign
...and served me a solid plate of stir fried veggies...
food
...and several ice-cold Belikin beers.
beer ˆ weird foreign food
On to the next book!
book
Cathemeral creature that i am, I stayed up half the night reading. Yay, vacation!

By the way, I was pretty broke at the time and trying to stick to a tight budget. This entire day, including the hotel, food, taxis, admission, tips, and the Kindle books I bought all came in under $100 USD! If you're looking to have fun on a budget. You can definitely do alright in Belize.

Wednesday, January 23rd

Wednesday was cloudy and rainy. After a lazy morning, I met a local driver who took me out to the Green Hills Butterfly ranch. We're about to pass a horse-and-buggy carriage driven by one of Belize's 10,000 German/Belize-kriol speaking Mennonites!
driving ˆ mennonite ˆ taxi
You get to walk around inside their huge butterfly conservatory.
butterfly
It's filled with plants and butterflies.
bugs ˆ butterfly ˆ plant
...commonly known as the glass-winged butterfly!
best ˆ bugs ˆ butterfly
They're amazing. Their wings are so transparent...
...that I was able to take a clearly-focused picture of the leaves THROUGH their wings just like a window.
bugs ˆ butterfly
Took me a while to spot this giant.
bugs ˆ butterfly
Like a parliament of owls watching you.
bugs ˆ butterfly
This guy's colors were my favorite. The pattern is beautiful too. I see seven moons over mountains in the desert.
best ˆ bugs ˆ butterfly
Cue music from Snow White.
bugs ˆ butterfly ˆ hand
Black & Orange.
bugs ˆ butterfly
The black orchid, Belize's national flower.
flower ˆ orchid
After leaving the butterfly enclosure, I went over to the hummingbird feeders they had hanging up nearby.
bird ˆ hummingbird
It was amazing to be able to stand in such close proximity to so many of them. The sound that their wings make when they fly in to land is so lovely and strange!
bird ˆ hummingbird
Trying to get a close up of this one's pattern.
bird ˆ close up ˆ hummingbird
Whiteboard nearby listing the nine different species of hummingbirds that they've spotted! violet sabrewing
bird ˆ hummingbird
In between rounds of drinking at the feeder, the birds rested in the branches of nearby trees.
bird ˆ hummingbird
Shimmery green and blue (Scaly-breasted hummingbird)
bird ˆ hummingbird
Male and female of the same species.
bird ˆ hummingbird
Look at the length of the guy's beak on the left!
bird ˆ hummingbird
He's called a Long-billed hermit! If you look on the left you can see his colors. I like how the top part of his beak is black and the bottom part is yellow. So handsome and hermit-y.
best ˆ bird ˆ close up ˆ hummingbird
Blue-speckled head, rainbow-speckled body.
bird ˆ hummingbird
I tried to pretend that I was just a friendly tree. I didn't get any takers...
bird ˆ finger ˆ hand ˆ hummingbird
....but was surprised to see that they willing to get so close to me. (I'm guessing that from their perspective I move in slow-motion like a mountain of molasses)
bird ˆ finger ˆ hand ˆ hummingbird
me
Back at the hotel later that evening I went through my nightly ritual of...
hotel ˆ me
...sitting in the empty hotel lobby where there's wifi waiting for books to finish downloading on to my phone.
hotel ˆ phone ˆ shoes
I love reading fast-paced thrillers on vacation.
book
I went to bed a little past midnight with a plan to get up early the next morning and take a day trip into neighboring Guatemala to see the massive Mayan site, Tikal.
bed ˆ door ˆ hotel