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Dreaming in Chinese
Blog: Snarky Tofu - 26 December 2009
Christmas Night, and I am operating on fumes. Last night was Christmas Eve, and the center of the town's festivities was the house of the Mayor's brother, which also happens to be next door to my hotel. Here's how folks on Corozal celebrate the night before Christmas: Explosives. They began rocking my hotel a minute or so before midnight. Quarter-sticks of dynamite, sporadic gunfire, whizzing Mexican bottle rockets.
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Planes, speedboats, Automobiles....
Blog: Snarky Tofu - 23 December 2009
...Pickup trucks, school bus, horseback, jungle dory (that's a kind of canoe propelled with a pole by a man standing up, often named Christopher). I thought I'd used every feasible method of conveyance on this trip through Belize. I'd even been back on a completely different crank-powered ferry boat.But nothing prepared me for this lift on a 2-ton road grader speeding over (while simultaneously grading I suppose, whatever that means) the dirt road from Midway to Baranco, in the way-way south of Belize's Toledo district.
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Anatomy of an afternoon’s hitchhike
Blog: Snarky Tofu - 12 December 2009
Hopkins is a beach village four miles off the southern highway, and Placencia is a tourist town sitting at the tip of a long peninsula. As the crow flies they’re close enough, but I'm no crow. And there isn't a direct bus.
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Birdies by the Sea
Blog: Snarky Tofu - 11 December 2009
Hopkins, a long stretch of beach with a town attached, or a long town with a beach attached. However you want to put it, the place is peaceful. Not so for the sea, now pounding the shore all white-capped and roiling. It is one of those days best spent on the beaches' dry side, or pummeled by waves like a plastic ball in a spin cycle. Even so, I watched a windsurfer out past the roughest bits, skating and bounding over waves. Windsurfing was always one of those things I planned to learn but never did, a shame, really, being that once upon a time I lived in Penghu, Windsurfing Heaven.
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A visit to the Hot Sauce Factory
Blog: Snarky Tofu - 8 December 2009
Easily the best known name in Belize is that of Marie Sharp. It's a name constantly on tongues and passed across tables from Punta Gorda to Corozal, from the deepest jungles of Cayo to the Cayes of Glover Reef. For Marie Sharp is the creator of the Belize's most popular condiment, Marie Sharps Hot Sauce. The nation is not known as a culinary hot-spot.
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Everything you ever wanted to know about Belmopan (but were afraid to ask)
Blog: Snarky Tofu - 7 December 2009
Bellmopan became the political capital of Belize after a hurricane nearly destroyed the capital of what was then called British Honduras in nineteen sixtyzzzzzzzzzzz....Wazzat? Sorry. Anyway, yes. Belmopan. The political capital of Belize, Belmopan is home to a number of government buildings, as well as a shopping area and sevzzzzzzzzzz....Huh? What? Don't touch my stu...huh? Wazzat? What was I writing about again? Belmo-where?Oh look. I made a film. Where's the bus station again?
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Back in Howler Monkey Land
Blog: Snarky Tofu - 4 December 2009
To be fair, the growling of the Howler Monkey is less zombie like in broad daylight than it is at night, which isn't a bad thing. Back in the Community Baboon Sanctuary they seemed quieter in the light of day, more simian and less likely to be cannibals driven into flesh hunger by necromancy, voodoo, or, as is becoming more popular these days with the new breed of zombie auteur, viruses and/or chemical warfare tests gone awry.Why, it was downright peaceful when I shot this film on the bridge leading to the CBS just 6 miles west of the main highway.
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I make my peace with BelizeCity
Blog: Snarky Tofu - 1 December 2009
Night in Belize city, staying at the Bayview, a small Taiwanese owned Hotel on the north end of town. The town has grown on me, strangely enough, though I'd be hard pressed to think of more than a couple of reasons to spend a day and a night here. Unless you've come to gamble at one of the Casinos. Which I haven't. Or research a guidebook, which I have.
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Belize Day What? Caye Caulker
Blog: Snarky Tofu - 29 November 2009
In hindsight, trying to label blogs by day on this trip might have been overly ambitious. Hell, trying to keep track of time in Belize in general is a mistake.I wound up spending an extra day in San Pedro. By Friday afternoon, my research done and edited, I was ready to leave. But I was committed to another yoga class at Ak'bol Yoga on the northern island Saturday morning, and by the time the class was out I'd missed check-out, and figured another day of research / relaxing wasn't going to set me back. I'm in Belize, after all.
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Belize Day Three: On the Wings of a Dove
Blog: Snarky Tofu - 26 November 2009
The Thunderbolt from Corozal to San Pedro is a good deal @ US$25, but at US$40 Maya Air's 20 minute flight is a better deal for the time constrained and speedboat averse.
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Day Two: Crack Smoking in Corozal
Blog: Snarky Tofu - 25 November 2009
Corozal is a laid back town, not even close to being as dodgy as Belize City. Even the crack smokers are more relaxed here, as demonstrated by this guy enjoying a pipe on main street in broad daylight.A few moments later, he crooned for us.You've got to respect a crackhead unafraid to relax publicly. As long as he keeps away from your bicycle, that is.
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Belize Day One: The best laid plans...
Blog: Snarky Tofu - 25 November 2009
...Of mice and men, or so begins some bit of advice against making plans in the first place. Wise words in Belize, where serendipity is prayed for and logistics is a dirty word. It was no surprise when my plans for the day - to explore Corozal, where I landed late last night - had flown out the window by ten AM, replaced by newer, better plans. Two Canadians working on a real estate development across the bay were taking two potential clients in a private boat to their property, just a mile south of Sarteneja.
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Pros and Cons of Belize City
Blog: Viva Latin America! - 11 November 2009
Pros - It’s the only way to get out to the Northern Cayes. They’ve got a good (if expensive) water taxi system that goes very regularly out to said Cayes. As in every half hour or so up until about 5.30pm. It stops you from thinking that Belize is just a bountiful font of nature interspersed with lovely [...]
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Ambergris Caye – Amazing Snorkeling
Blog: Viva Latin America! - 10 November 2009
The trouble is, I don’t scuba dive. Belize has the second largest coral reef in the world, and people come from far and wide to dive into it and apparently it’s absolutely incredible – but I don’t dive. Partly that’s financial, but it’s also partly about the potential death factor. That Nick Hornby book about [...]
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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. [...]
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Cool Things To Do Around San Ignacio
Blog: Viva Latin America! - 7 November 2009
As mentioned previously, you can go do the marathon mission to the ATM Cave, or be ferried down to the Caracol ruins by the Belizean police. But if you fancy doing something a bit more chilled out, there are a few fantastic options. On the extremely bumpy road to Caracol, you’ll see a sign to Rio [...]
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One last Belizean adventure
Blog: A Travel Diary from Mexico, Central and South America - 7 November 2009
Unsure of whether or not to push on back into Guatemala, we convinced ourselves that there was probably one more thing not to miss in Belize - and that's the second largest coral reef in the world! And perhaps we shouldn't miss Belize City either. After all, it is not possible to know Belize without seeing it's largest city, according to our book. Besides, to get to the reef you must take a boat from Belize City to one of the cayes, so two birds with one stone, we went to Ambergris Caye.
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Caracol And The Cutest Monkey Ever
Blog: Viva Latin America! - 7 November 2009
Seriously, watch this video, and tell me it’s not absolutely gorgeous. That’s Jack. Jack is a three month old howler monkey who fell off his mother’s back near the archeological site of Caracol. He was injured in the fall, and one of the wardens from the site nursed him back to health. But by then, of [...]
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Actun Tunichil Muknal Cave – Incredible
Blog: Viva Latin America! - 6 November 2009
Rarely do the Belizeans put restrictions on places in the name of preservation of culture. The exception is Actun Tunichil Muknal Cave, familiarly known in Belize as the ATM cave. You can imagine how many cash point jokes they can get out of that. Only two tour companies are allowed to visit ATM, and only [...]
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Guatemala vs Belize
Blog: Viva Latin America! - 6 November 2009
Wow, what a staggering difference. We didn’t have the best ever first experience of Guatemala. It began with the Santa Elena taxi drivers, swung through the less than thrilling Flores, nearly ended in heatstroke in Tikal and finally cost us 200 Quetzales in border fines. Alright, that last one was our fault, but on the other [...]
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Top 10 Travel and Adventure Favorites from Abroad
Blog: Canada's Adventure Couple - 16 October 2009
Six months ago, we decided to work diligently on our blog. It has been an amazing experience writing daily posts and it has made us reflect on our past travels. In a few short weeks, we will be making new memories, but for now we would like to share some of our Favorite things that we have encountered in our travels. We were brainstorming about moments that have stood out over the years and here is our list of Favorites from abroad.
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Cart Around Belize
Blog: Brilliant Tips Travel Blog - 21 September 2009
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 up renting one on a few different days and covered just about every nook and cranny discovering remote docks and beaches. I have a very vivid memory of stumbling across a beautiful beach on Ambergris ...
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Lighthouse Reef
Blog: The Belize Travel Experience - 9 September 2009
When visiting Belize and looking for new spots to see and snorkel three of my local Caye Caulker friends made it happen for me this time by taking me to Lighthouse Reef. Rafael, Fiona, Patrick and i spent 4 amazing days out on Northern Caye on Lighthouse Reef and snorkeled to our hearts’ content. This trip [...] No related posts.
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Five Sisters Falls
Blog: The Belize Travel Experience - 4 September 2009
On my second day in Cayo district Patrick and i decided to check out Five Sisters Falls and the Lodge under the same name right above it in the mountains. Five Sisters is one of the many waterfalls in the Mountain Pineridge area. We had to get a ride up the mountains in a pickup truck [...] No related posts.
