Showing 1-11 of 11 results
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
Scuba Diving Tips for a Family Diving Holiday
Blog: My Little Nomads - 23 March 2011
How to travel the world with kids: My Little Nomads Most emailed post: Tips and Advice for Traveling With Kids Most popular post: How To Pick the Perfect Greek Island for a Family Vacation
-
It’s A (Very) Small World
Blog: Trans-Americas Journey - 10 February 2011
So, we just spent two days at Cotton Tree Lodge in southern Belize near Punta Gorda (we will be telling you more about Cotton Tree’s big plans for chocolate in this region soon). While at Cotton Tree Lodge we met two funny, smart and interesting couples from Alaska–one of our favorite places on the planet. One of them, Rick, looked a bit familiar to us but we didn’t think too much about it. Until… Rick mentioned that he and his wife have a cabin near Cantwell, Alaska.
-
Whale Shark Hunting – Hopkins, Belize
Blog: Trans-Americas Journey - 15 July 2010
If someone said to you “hey, the world’s most gigantic and elusive fish is pretty much guaranteed to show up at this spot on these days, all you have to do is jump in the water,” wouldn’t you jump? Decades ago fishermen in Belize started noticing giant creatures in the water around the full moons in the spring and early summer when local mullet snapper spawn off the southern coast. Not realizing that whale sharks, which can grow to 60 feet long, are neither whales nor sharks but toothless and harmless filter feeding fish, the fishermen were terrified.
-
Halloween at Placencia
Blog: Viva Latin America! - 7 November 2009
Or their version of it, anyway. It was around the Day of the Dead time for the rest of Latin America, and so the English-speaking Belizeans go trick or treating. We headed to Placencia to find a beach. For a country with such a vast amount of coastline, Belize isn’t actually all that hot on beaches. [...]
Showing 1-11 of 11 results
