This grocery store was like a nexus of weirdness though because later in the week we stopped here again and ran into the guy who'd sat next to us on the plane ride from Toronto to Belize City. In the 10 minute conversation we had with him while waiting for the plane to take off, he had told us about his house in Canada, his other house in Belize, and his business. He also mentioned how he once bought something in a Belize store and paid in Canadian dollars and the proprietor mistakenly thought that Canadian dollars were equivalent to US dollars (US dollars are accepted most places in Belize because the Belize dollar is pegged to the US dollar so $2BZ equals $1US). At the time of this story, the Canadian dollar was worth less than the US dollar, but our seatmate didn't tell the Belize guy this. Instead, he asked if he could trade in the rest of the Canadian money he had (about $800!) for Belize dollars. So seatmate guy, who owns at least 2 houses and a business, just casually tells us about how he defrauded some unsuspecting Belize guy. Is this what passes for small talk among the rich? "Can you believe this weather? It's almost too hot to casually commit crimes! Harharhar, as if! Every day is a good day for corruption!" When we ran into him at the store, Racketeer Rod (not his real name, probably) stopped to talk to us but thankfully didn't offer us a ride in his truck. I want to get better at calling people out on their shit instead of silently disliking them. I can do it with people I know - I sass Pete constantly. But it's harder with strangers, for some reason. I'm still working on this.
Lest you think Belize is all about running into randos at the grocery store preferred by dogs, let me start from the beginning. Pete and I spent 10 days in Belize at the end of November. We'd found direct flights from Toronto to Belize City that were relatively inexpensive and it was only a 4.5 hour flight (Thanks, Westjet!). Belize is a gorgeous mix of rainforests and beaches and Mayan ruins. At one point, it's estimated that there were a million Mayans living in Belize, but the country's population today is only about 400,000 people. It was invaded by the Spanish (sad face) and colonized by the British (super sad face) so English is the official language of Belize, though most people speak multiple languages (Creole, Spanish and/or some of the 3 dialects of Mayan). Belize gained independence in 1981 and had its first official Pride March in 2017. The National Bird is the toucan! And yes, I did wear my toucan shorts.
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| Belize has excellent taste in National birds |
We booked the trip through Adventure Life, who are always great (we used them when we went to Costa Rica and when I went to the Galapagos Islands). We spent 4 nights inland in the jungle, where we stayed at Pook's Hill Lodge and 6 nights in Placencia, where we stayed at the beachfront Robert's Grove Resort.
Jungle Adventures
I can't say enough good things about Pook's Hill and the amazing guides (Thanks Mike and Mario!), cooks and staff. When we arrived, they said we'd been upgraded to a new room (!) and lead us down this raised walkway to a cute bungalow on stilts. In the jungle. Like really in the jungle, surrounded by trails and the sounds of jungle animals, a 5.5 mile drive down a rocky dirt road away from the nearest main road. There is no WiFi in the bungalows, only in the "happy hour" lounge in the main building, so you can really disconnect and enjoy the surroundings and the delicious meals, which are served family style. Every day, coffee is at 6:30am, breakfast is at 7:00am, happy hour/snack hour is at 6:00pm and dinner is at 7:00pm (they also serve lunch at mid-day but we were out on excursions every day so we didn't eat lunch at the lodge). They even put out almond milk for me, had plenty of vegan/vegetarian options and served us vegan chocolate cake for dessert on our last night! This is also the only hotel where I've ever met, let alone had dinner with, the owner. Vicki is one of the owners at Pook's and she chatted with us at happy hour every day, then she and her friend joined us for dinner on our last night.
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| Our jungle bungalow (jungalow?) |
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| Happy hour/hammock lounge |
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| Moon over jungalow |
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| Tarantula coming to happy hour |
One of the guides from Pook's picked us up from the Belize City airport and we stopped at the Belize Zoo on the way to the lodge. I have mixed feelings about zoos but this one at least only had animals native to Belize and they were all either rescues of some sort or the offspring of the rescues. We saw monkeys, tapirs (kinda like a rhino without a horn), coatimundi, a jabiru (a large, beautiful stork), jaguars and this macaw that came over to us and crooned "Hello" ("from the other side. I must have called a thousand times..." I hope he got a writing credit on that Adele song).
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| Tapirs: up to 500 lbs of cuteness! |
There were a bunch of excursion options (day trips from Pook's with the guides) and we had picked Cave Tubing & Ziplining, Black Hole Drop and Mountain Pine Ridge.
The cave tubing and ziplining was at this place run by a company called Butts Up. We did an easy 30 minute hike on a trail through a cave system, carrying our inner tubes and helmets, then lazy rivered our way through the dark caves and turquoise waters of the Cave's Branch River. We had lunch onsite, then did the ziplining, which was fun but the easiest ziplining I've ever done. These 2 guides accompanied us the whole way and hooked us up at each zipline (the other ziplines we've done have been more like high ropes courses and you have to hook up all the carabiners and do all the work yourself). It was also the only zipline place I've been to where there were no waivers to sign, no weight limits, and no real instructions other than to go fast and only brake if/when they tell you to.
The black hole drop was my absolute favorite thing we did in Belize (other than all the burrito and fajita and chips & guac eating). Pete and I got dropped off at Ian Anderson's Cave's Branch lodge, then three guides took us on a semi-strenuous hike through the jungle and up to the edge of a collapsed limestone cave system, where we rappelled over a 300ft cliff. We got to eat lunch on the cavern floor before hiking back up through caves, up a ladder and on jungle trails back to the start. Along the way we saw a 4ft black tailed indigo snake (not venomous and actually eats poisonous snakes). At one point going up a trail, Ching stopped us and said "put your hand here and your foot here and don't touch this root - the sap is poisonous and will eat away your skin." Which makes rappelling into the void on ropes attached to ancient looking trees seem easy and not at all terrifying after you've survived a forest of killer plants and snakes (plus also their antidotes, conveniently! The rainforest is a magical, albeit slightly murdery, ecosystem).
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| A lot of things can kill you here! But also cure you! |
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| Going over the edge! |
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| Into the void |
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| Rappellin' Pete |
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| Cave Man |
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| This species of ladder is not indigenous to jungle |
In the Mountain Pine Ridge area, we went to an overlook to see Thousand Feet Falls, then got to swim at Rio On Pools and Big Rock Falls. The water was "refreshing," as Mario said when I asked if it was cold. But the weather was warm and humid and we had the pools and waterfalls practically to ourselves so it was a great day. The busy tourist season in Belize doesn't start until December so we came at the perfect time.
Mario drove us from Pook's to Robert's Grove in Placencia on our last day and we stopped at St. Herman's Blue Hole on the way. Another amazing natural pool to swim in. Also "refreshing."
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| Lacey circus acts |
Beach Adventures
Robert's Grove is more of a traditional hotel than Pook's, in that our room had air conditioning, a TV and WiFi. It was a beautiful place, with a beach and three pools, and the staff was very nice. The only downside is that it's 4 miles from the town of Placencia. The hotel offers a free shuttle to town at 10am and 3pm, but then you have to pay for a taxi or bus ride back. Or rent a golf cart for $65. Or call Friendly Drunk Fievel I guess. The day we arrived, we borrowed bikes from RG and rode into town and back, but the bikes don't have lights so they told us to be back at the hotel by 5pm. On Thanksgiving/National Day of Mourning, I ran to town (wearing my toucan shorts obvi!), had a delicious coconut milk frappuccino at Brewed Awakenings (a coffee/smoothie place with an excellent name), then ran back to the hotel. It was super hot and humid and I seriously considered taking the bus back, but I made it. I'm not sure if anyone owns any of the dogs in Belize or if they just kind of belong to everyone. Part of me hopes it's the second one. Wouldn't it be nice if we all belonged to and took care of everyone?
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| The view from our room at RG |
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| This cat joined us for breakfast at RG every day |
We spent our time in Placencia swimming in the sea, walking around town, eating, relaxing and watching HGTV (we don't have cable at home so the only time I see HGTV is at hotels. We watched this one episode of Property Brothers where they were renovating a house and found a huge snake in the wall! I mean, snakes are cool and all. In the outdoors. Where they live. Not so much lurking inside the walls. Nope Nope Nope!). One afternoon, after we'd been swimming on a particularly windy/wavy day, Pete was in the Pool and Raffi (a guide from RG) was like "Oh on days like this, the water is full of sting rays. We had a lady get stung here last week." So the sea is also full of things that can kill you. Good murdery times all around!
We took a snorkeling trip to Laughing Bird Caye (pronounced "key"), where we saw some beautiful coral, fish and pelicans. I also got sunburned on the entire back side of my body, despite wearing sunscreen (it was reef safe sunscreen, but apparently not Jen safe). Though the hot pain of the sunburn made me forget about the itchiness of my mosquito bites, so tiny silver lining I guess.
From RG, we also did a day trip to Nim Li Punit Mayan ruins and the Akte 'Il Ha Cacao Farm. Nim Li Punit is Kekchi Mayan for "Big Hat," so called because a sculpture was found there depicting a king wearing a large headdress. The site was discovered by oil prospectors in 1976. The Mayans occupied it from around 400-850AD. At the chocolate farm, we got to see how the chocolate is made by hand (and eat some too!).
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| The guy with the big hat |
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| Crushing up those cacao beans |
All of the excursions we did in Belize were with licensed guides (presumably because they don't wanting tourists ruining the rainforests or coral or dying from snake bite/tree poison/sting rays), which was great because we got to hear stories about their lives and Belize culture. The best part of travel is having conversations about different ways of living and thinking and being a person in the world. I am continually learning about how other people experience the world differently than I do (but also how we all have some things in common). I now realize how some things I learned from school or absorbed from Western culture/society are biased or just plain incorrect and how some of the opinions I once had were problematic or ignorant. Embarrassingly, before this trip I didn't even know that Mayan people still existed in the world. I don't remember ever learning about them in school, other than about how they were killed by European colonizers. But most of the local people we met in Belize were Mayan and they knew so much about the plants and animals around them, it was really cool. Though I'm kind of glad it's too cold at home for all the poisonous things, except stupid poison ivy and Lyme disease infested ticks. Mike and Mario were also really into bird-watching, which I had no idea was actually like a competitive sport with rankings and everything. And the best part of the Nim Li Punit tour was Raffi telling us about his grandma who was an expert in Mayan medicines and could apparently levitate. I would like some of that medicine myself!
Every trip we take, I feel so lucky to have the opportunity to explore new places, learn new things and do cool shit like repelling into a collapsed cave. And I get to experience it all with my favorite adventure partner/husband man.
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| Flying over Belize in a tiny plane! |
On our last morning in Placencia, we flew out of the tiny local airport on this like 10-person plane to Belize City. The twenty minute flight in this tiny plane was one of my favorite things we did. I also liked running by this airport while we were staying in town. It's right on the main road and there's only a tiny gate in the road that comes down to stop traffic while planes take off (this gate is a relatively recent addition after a plane crashed into a car during takeoff a couple years ago. No one was hurt, thankfully). We flew from Belize City to Toronto, then drove home to Rochester. Then woke up and shoveled snow. From the rainforest back to the tundra. So it goes. I hope my body and my mind (and let's be honest, my bank account) will be up for many more future travels. And that Pete and Jen's excellent adventures will continue for decades to come.
Lyrics of the moment (For Steve & Mookie): "He was guiding me, love, his own way. Now the man (dog) of the hour is taking his final bow. As the curtain comes down, I feel that this is just goodbye for now..." "I'll ride the wave where it takes me. I'll hold the pain, release me..." ~Pearl Jam "Man of the Hour" and "Release Me"
