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The Weekly Photo: The Split on Caye Caulker
Blog: Nomadic Matt's Travel Site - 18 March 2012
The famous “Split” in Caye Caulker, Belize Traveling soon? Book your travel below with my favorite companies and help support this website: Cheap Flights from Vayama | Travel insurance from World Nomads | Accommodation from HW | Guidebooks | G Adventure Tours ©Nomadic Matt's Travel Site.Traveling soon? Book your travel below with my favorite companies and help support this website:
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Five Years on the Road: Our Trans-Americas Journey “Road-a-versary” By the Numbers
Blog: Trans-Americas Journey - 27 February 2012
Happy Anniversary to us! Or should we say “road-a-versary” (thanks Julie)? Today is day 1,825 of our Trans-Americas Journey road trip. That’s five years of active travel on the road not counting a couple of stretches when we were unexpectedly stuck in one place for reasons beyond our control (looking at you, Chevrolet). We’re not very good at math Our initial description of the Journey predicted three years and 75,000 miles to cover North, Central and South America from the Arctic Ocean to Tierra del Fuego.
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Cart Around Belize
Blog: Brilliant Tips Travel Blog - 6 January 2012
While you won’t see any golf courses on Belize’s Ambergris Caye or Caye Caulker, you will see plenty of golf carts. That’s because in Ambergris Caye and Caye Caulker, electric and gas powered golf carts are the primary mode of transportation. Visitors can rent a cart by simply showing a valid driver’s license. We ended [...]
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Virgin in the Dive Zone
Blog: Snarky Tofu - 23 November 2011
For much of my life I've been frightened of open water. If I can see land, I can usually keep fear in check. Once I'm in a spot with nothing but water all around, I get a bit...panicked.Earlier this year, Demian Solano, Publisher of Destination Belize, asked me to write a story for his magazine on a suitable subject. I thought about it for a bit, and decided that the theme of Conquering Fear in Belize had a nice ring to it. I sent a pitch to Demian, and we hashed it over a bit.
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Belize Briefs: Tips, Quirks & Foibles After 2.5 Months in Belize
Blog: Trans-Americas Journey - 14 September 2011
We spent a total of 78 days traveling 1,540 miles through just about every inch of Belize (an impressive feat since driving from the northernmost point to the southernmost point in this tiny country is only 286 miles).
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The Birds! – Belize
Blog: Trans-Americas Journey - 7 September 2011
With huge tracts of protected forest and jungle and more than 400 species of birds that either live in or pass through these areas it’s almost impossible not to turn into a bird watcher while you’re in Belize. During our nearly three months in Belize we saw hundreds of species we’d never seen before in stunning natural places like Chan Chich Lodge and La Milpa Field Station in the vast Rio Bravo Conservation and Management Area. That’s where we met guide and naturalist Vladimir and dubbed him the bird ninja.
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Live-Aboard Life (the diving) – Aggressor III, Belize
Blog: Trans-Americas Journey - 2 September 2011
We think SCUBA diving under practically any conditions is great. Then we got on our very first live-aboard dive boat with The Aggressor Fleet in Belize and learned that on a live-aboard conditions are always perfect. Yeah, the Aggressor III and staff spoiled us. Here’s how. 11 reasons live-aboards rule 1. No elbowing the diver next to you. The Aggressor III has a very roomy dive deck with plenty of space to stow and dry your gear and ample room for suiting up (hey, it requires plenty of room to get into and out of a wet suit). 2. No freaking out about basic gear.
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Live-Aboard Life (topside)- Aggressor III, Belize
Blog: Trans-Americas Journey - 31 August 2011
We love SCUBA diving and we’ve managed to do a lot of it, racking up almost 400 dives between the two of us in some of the best dive destinations in the world including bucket list toppers like Palau and Sipidan. Yes, we’re lucky. And, yet, we still have SCUBA dreams. Specifically, we dream about getting on a live-aboard dive boat–a dream we finally fulfilled in Belize.
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Deep South – Toledo District, Belize
Blog: Trans-Americas Journey - 29 August 2011
Poor Punta Gorda. Down at the southernmost tip of Belize, practically in Guatemala, it’s well past the destinations most travelers visit. But we’re not most visitors and Punta Gorda, the capital of the Toledo District, was definitely on our radar. Okay, mainly because we had to extend our visas and we were told that we could do that easily in Punta Gorda. Happily, that turned out to be true. The immigration office is located basically at the end of the road right at the small port. After a short wait our visas were extended for another 30 days for a fee of 50BZ (US$25) per person.
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Skulls and Stelae – Lubaantun & Nim Li Punit Archaeological Sites, Belize
Blog: Trans-Americas Journey - 26 August 2011
Lubaantun: home of the Crystal Skull (or not) Lubaantun means “place of the fallen stones” and there are a lot of those lying about. What differentiates the piles of stones at Lubaantun, a pre-Columbian Mayan city that dates back to 730 AD, from those at every other Mayan archaeological site is that many of the stones used at Lubaantun were actually cut to fit. That’s a fact. What may not be a fact is the legend of the Crystal Skull of Lubaantun. According to Frederick A.
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Extremely Natural – Belize Lodge & Excursions, Belize
Blog: Trans-Americas Journey - 24 August 2011
Belize is full of remote and wild places like La Milpa Field Station in the Rio Bravo Conservation Area in the northern jungles and Turneffe Atoll out in the impossibly blue ocean. But Belize Lodge & Excursions (BLE) has created a small collection of unique lodges that take visitors deep into the wilderness, and in rare form–no roads, resident jaguars, a private island and the best jungle bird-watching platform we’ve ever seen. Jaguar slumber party: Ballum Na Lodge No TVs. No phones. No Wi-Fi. Just jungle.
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Change in the Sea Air – Placencia, Belize
Blog: Trans-Americas Journey - 22 August 2011
There have been big changes in Placencia since Eric visited in 1993–though we were happy to see that the tiny (but expanding) landing strip still exists in the midst of a giant curve in the road, sometimes requiring drivers to stop and wait for planes to clear the asphalt on their way into or out of the airport. Unlike in 1993, the road to Placencia is paved all the way and construction of fancy homes and condo buildings is going on everywhere you look, giving the place a kind of Caribbean Hamptons 30 years ago feel. Out a long peninsula, the area has one road.
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Here, Kitty Kitty – Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary, Belize
Blog: Trans-Americas Journey - 19 August 2011
The Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary includes 200 square miles of protected land. Established in 1984 and made a sanctuary in 1990, it is the world’s first jaguar sanctuary. It’s now home to roughly 70 of the big cats along with many of their smaller kin including ocelot, jaguarundi and margay. Of course, we arrived at the sanctuary hoping to see a jaguar and we did our best to increase our chances of a sighting. First, we decided to camp in the sanctuary.
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Cave Man – River Cave Expedition, Caves Branch, Belize
Blog: Trans-Americas Journey - 17 August 2011
It’s no exaggeration to say that Ian Anderson, of Ian Anderson’s Caves Branch Adventure Co. & Jungle Lodge, invented cave tubing in Belize. Not that it’s such a complicated thing to invent. Get an inner tube, stick you butt in it, float into a cave, float back out. But the fact is that no one in Belize offered it as a trip before Ian did, so we call him the Cave Man. We hope he doesn’t mind. By the time we got around to trying his signature adventure we’d already done his Black Hole Drop and his Waterfall Cave Expedition.
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Leap(s) of Faith – Waterfall Cave Expedition, Caves Branch, Belize
Blog: Trans-Americas Journey - 15 August 2011
The words “waterfall” and “cave” sound weird together. Is it a waterfall inside a cave? A cave formed by a waterfall? Heck, let’s just go find out. That’s how we ended up signing up for the Waterfall Cave Expedition (US$90 including transportation, gear, guides and lunch) at Ian Anderson’s Caves Branch Adventure Co. & Jungle Lodge. We’d already done the Black Hole Drop rappelling trip with them but this trip added darkness and water to the equation.
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Into the Abyss – Black Hole Drop, Caves Branch, Belize
Blog: Trans-Americas Journey - 11 August 2011
Welcome to Belize where even the highways are nature-centric. Take, for instance, the Hummingbird Highway, one of four main paved roads in the country. Not that Blue Hole… St. Herman’s Blue Hole National Park (not to be confused with the Great Blue Hole Marine Park, a UNESCO site way out at sea) is accessed right off the Hummingbird not far from the capital, Belmopan. This is actually a two-parter park which includes a cave and a cenote, each accessed via its own distinct entrance just a short distance from each other along the Hummingbird.
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Mystic River Resort: A Kid-Friendly Jungle Lodge in Belize
Blog: Ciao Bambino! - 10 August 2011
We recently added Mystic River Resort in Belize to our portfolio of family-friendly hotels. The reviewer raved about the resort so much that we wanted to share more details with CB readers. This is an interview with Leanne Armstrong about her family vacation in Belize and their stay at the property. Leanne and her husband traveled with their three children ages 9, 11 and 14.
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Tiny Town – Belmopan, Belize
Blog: Trans-Americas Journey - 10 August 2011
With a population of around 20,000, Belmopan is one of the smallest national capital cities in the world. Its name is a mash up of “Belize” and Mopan (the name of the area’s main river) and it’s home to Guanacaste National Park, the nation’s first and smallest national park at just 250,000 square yards. A trail winding through the park’s patch of jungle can be walked in less than 20 minutes.
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Bucolic Basecamps – Mountain Pine Ridge Forest Reserve, Belize
Blog: Trans-Americas Journey - 4 August 2011
The Mountain Pine Ridge Forest Reserve in the Cayo District of Central Belize, not far from San Ignacio, includes more than 100,000 acres of protected land in the Maya Mountains. It’s home to cougars, tapirs, toucans, jaguars, fantastic rivers and waterfalls and two notable nature resorts to use as bucolic basecamps while you explore. Food, forest and Francis Ford Coppola Like to eat authentic Italian food? Fancy the idea of hanging out where director (and resort owner) Francis Ford Coppola comes to relax and get creative?
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Borderland Basecamps – San Ignacio, Cayo District, Belize
Blog: Trans-Americas Journey - 1 August 2011
Trust us when we tell you that most towns located within 30 minutes of a border crossing are best seen in your rear view mirror. Not so with San Ignacio. Sure it’s a border town. It’s less than 30 minutes from the Benque crossing into Belize from grimy Melchor on the Guatemala side. Despite its proximity to the border, San Ignacio is one of the more appealing towns in Belize with more Caribbean charm (festive colors, wooden bungalow architecture, creole accents, a languid pace) and less of the squalor of most towns in Belize.
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Into the Underworld – Actun Tunichil Muknal (ATM) Cave, Belize
Blog: Trans-Americas Journey - 23 July 2011
Some tours are so hyped it’s suspicious. Can they really be as good as the chatter about them claims? In the case of Belize’s Actun Tunichil Muknal (ATM) cave the answer is yes. Ancient Mayan ceremonies and superstitions, human remains, a virtually unpronounceable name, narrow water-filled passages and more. It all starts out reasonably enough. After an early morning start with your tour operator in San Ignacio and a bumpy 45 minute ride you hike along a mellow, flat, scenic and mostly-shaded trail through the jungle for about 30 minutes until you reach the mouth of the cave.
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La Isla Bonita – Ambergris Caye
Blog: Viva Latin America! - 7 June 2011
We decided to head over to Ambergris Caye as despite finding Caye Caulker absolutely charming we wanted to find a little more beach and see the other island. That night we headed to Capricorn which is a wonderful beach-side restaurant on the north shore with amazing food. It is a great way to try some [...]
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Caye Caulker – Part 2, Manatees and a Rescue Mission!
Blog: Viva Latin America! - 29 May 2011
The next morning, not particularly wanting to get back on a speed boat but desperate to see manatees, we headed to the EZ Boys tour office and booked two seats on their manatee tour. We popped over the road to get some waffles for breakfast and we set off. We had been trying to see [...]
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Caye Caulker – Part 1, The Blue Hole Dive
Blog: Viva Latin America! - 27 May 2011
As you step off the ferry onto Caye Caulker you are greeted with a sign which tells you to “Go Slow”, and that is happily the ethos that this island follows. We arrived around midday and were greeted at the pier by lots of very dinky golf-cart taxis (there are no cars on the island), [...]
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The Road From the Rio Dulce to Belize City
Blog: Viva Latin America! - 23 May 2011
Maybe we were unwise, but we wanted to get up to Belize City from the Rio Dulce in one day. We had considered stopping in Placencia for a night but due to our tight schedule this would have taken away from time in the Belizean Cayes. So we gave it our best shot. Our first [...]
