Belize 1 - Belize City and Inland

Our travels were precise, we planned to rest at our place of landing in Ladyville and explore the places it had to offer, then move on to the coastal peninsula of Placencia to seek out the snorkeling on the reef and then on to the island of Caye Caulker to experience the laid back island life experience and more reef snorkeling. Our first intent was to take public transportation (I wanted the local experience as much as possible) from each major location to the next, but found that the trip from Ladyville to Placencia would be 8 hours by bus or $350 US for a private driver. Further research showed that < $100 US could take us by plane from place to place so we opted for a plane from Belize City to Placencia, Placencia to Belize City with a water taxi to Caye Caulker and plane from Caye Caulker back to Belize City for our return flight.

Our trip to Belize was 11 days and 3 places.  We landed in Ladyville outside of Belize City at the International Airport, it would be the first stop for us at an AirBnB  hosted by Judith.  It was a detached 2 bedroom apartment set back from the street behind a gate and was in the country, complete with fireflies, horses and chickens, the previous life of this structure was the office for Cattouse trucking.

Linda, Paula and I

It was very clean and had a kitchen, a bathroom with very good water pressure and a little living room with a flat screen tv for streaming netflix. It was a great place to rest from the flight and explore the inland country.  The host family was warm and friendly, we loved spending time talking to Judith’s daughter in law, Paula and getting her insight into her country and people.

We had a side trip to Belize City to trial run the bus as a means to get to the airport for our next destination, it was educational and deterred us from relying on that method to get to the airport. We saw a city that closes down on Sunday and transacts business though a roll down chain gate with nothing else open on the block. There were alleys that had characters hanging out that I would have warned my adult male friends to avoid, yet there I was, checking it out with my sister. We found there was nothing remarkable about Belize City that we needed to see.

I want to point out that I packed for 11 days in a backpack and wasn’t allowed a carry on, so everything I needed was either in my purse or this backpack from E-Bags. I searched a long time before I decided on this one. I didn’t want a conventional suitcase because I wasn’t sure if there would be even surfaces to roll a suitcase over so I was specifically looking for something I could easily carry. We also didn’t know what kind of public transportation we would be taking so bringing a suitcase on a crowded bus wasn’t what I wanted. This worked perfectly for my needs, if you follow the link there is a video that shows all the compartments and features. I loved it.

This was a view of downtown Belize City on a Sunday.

Our first local breakfast including Fry Jacks, eggs, turkey bacon, beans, and a happy cow cheese wedge.

My smiling fry jack made me happy all day.

Saturday morning we were picked up by Junior at 7:30 and we were ready to set out and explore, the agenda was Altun Ha, a Mayan Temple, and then the Baboon Sanctuary with lunch in between.  We engaged a tour guide named Anne Marie to show us around after paying the $5 BZ entrance fee,we could wander around on our own and see if we could figure out what the mounds and open spaces meant, or, hear first hand from an expert in Mayan history what took place all these centuries ago at this spot.  We found out that this site was run by religious people, they were the ones that resided at this site, and the religious rituals were blood letting, but not sacrifices.

The mammals in question were actually Black Howler Monkeys but the native people call the Baboons, so that is what the sanctuary is called.  It is land set aside by the landowners along a path known to be inhabited by the monkeys, it’s an agreement between the owners and the government to allow space for the families to live undisturbed by the build environment.  We left the office and headed into the jungle along the road and our guide would stop and show us plants and animals that were native to the area. When he saw the vegetation that the monkeys like to eat, he left the boundary of the path and picked some greens.  When we approached the family in the tree and the guide held out the castor bean branches, the juveniles came u p and took the greens right out of his hands.  They loved the treats that he offered, and they obviously recognized him from many years of leading the tours.  

He had them crawling through the branches and over our feet to get close, they were so cute, until they started answering his howls.  They were so loud, please, watch the video of the calling back and forth between the guide and the males in this family.

The only open restaurant on a Sunday in Belize City (also Chinese New Year) it and closed after we left at 2pm and the only grocery that was open, was closed by then.

Cowfoot soup at Marva’s

Lobster plate at Marva’s

This hot sauce came in many varieties, we discovered it at breakfast on the 2nd day and ate it all though the trip. I brought back 2 bottles and then realized I could get it on Amazon and not worry about it breaking in my bag.