A Gringa No Brasil

Sis and I met up for a week in Belize, and it was incredible! Traveling with Sis meant that our vacation was WAY more luxurious than PC life in Honduras.

I was planning on meeting her there by taking a combination of busses and a ferry, but the ferry schedule was so infrequent and inconvenient that I splurged on a plane ticket instead. We met up in Belize City’s international airport, which has a waving gallery to greet arriving passengers as soon as they exit the plane :) Our first stop was Placencia, which is about five hours by bus. Normally I would’ve hopped on the old school bus to get there, squished into a sweaty seat with three other people and maybe a chicken or two. I tried to compromise with Sis by offering to go on the tourist shuttle, but she decided that another plane was the way to go. So we hopped on a puddle jumper and were in Placencia in less than an hour.

Thanks to Sis’s work connections we stayed at the Turtle Inn. For FREE! I’m used to spending about $5 on a place that just provides a bed and running water (sometimes) so staying at a resort that’s mainly frequented by honeymooners was AMAZING! Fluffy towels, indoor and outdoor showers (with hot water!), turndown service (I didn’t even know what this was before the trip), complimentary breakfast with delicious fresh fruit and pastries, two infinity pools to choose from, staff that was more than hospitable, and our cabana was just a few feet from the beach. I was seriously blown away.

Our stay in Placencia was so relaxing. Lots of sun and just hanging out and catching up. We did manage to drag ourselves away from the beach chairs for a day trip to Monkey River though. It was a beautiful half hour boat ride from Placencia through the mangroves. We went up the river a bit, checking out lots of different birds and some iguanas and bats before we tied up the boat and went for a walk in the jungle to look for howler monkeys. The bugs were overwhelming. Luckily we had loaded up on bug spray beforehand. All along the jungle walk there were holes in the sandy ground where big crabs were living, and our guide was very nonchalant about sticking his whole arm in to try to catch them. Our guide brought his machete with him and walked down the trails banging it on trees and imitating the howler monkey call to try to rile them up and get them to come say hi. We heard them long before we saw them. Their howl is really more like barking. Or as Sis put it, “It sounds like they’re gonna vomit on me.” They didn’t come too close, but we were able to spot them in the canopy.

After four nights in Placencia, we got on another tiny plane to head back to Belize City where we caught a ferry to Caye (pronounced Key) Caulker, a little island just off the coast. It reminded me a lot of Utila (one of the Bay Islands in Honduras) – very laid back beach vibe, backpacker friendly, more golf carts than cars, and a very small town. The only difference is that everything is sand! The roads were just compacted sand/dirt, no pavement anywhere. We stayed at Seaside Cabanas – a beautiful beach front hotel right near the dock. Again the accommodations were way more comfortable than I’m used to. Thanks Sis! We spent our first day hanging out by the pool and walking around town. We also checked out the various dive shops and booked a dive for the following day to Spanish Bay. It had been over a year since either of us had gone diving, but the next morning went off without a hitch. We saw moray eels, huge lobsters, a ton of sting rays (mostly eagle rays I think), and of course a lot of colorful coral and fish.

The diving was so fantastic that Sis decided to splurge on the trip the next day to the Blue Hole – Belize’s most famous dive site. The trip is more expensive than most because it’s further away from shore and there’s a marine park fee. I couldn’t justify spending a whole month’s living allowance in one morning so I stayed behind, but it definitely sounded like I missed out. She had a great time, got to see a lot of sharks, a sea turtle, and a bunch of other fun stuff. Instead, I spent the day working on my tan, taking a long walk around pretty much the entire island, and reading by the pool. Tough life.

For our last night in Belize (Saturday), we met up with some friends that we had made on the dive trip and a few of the locals that work at the dive shop. The locals had their own little motor boat so we decided to go out to the bay in-between Caye Caulker and neighboring Ambergris Caye to check out the bioluminescence. Very cool! Wherever you touch the water, it lights up!

From there we continued on to the town of San Pedro on Ambergris Caye. The island is a little bigger than Caye Caulker, which means that San Pedro has more people and more of a night life. We saw some live music at a bar/restaurant before heading over to the club for some reggaeton and techno. Lots of dancing later, we got back in the boat to head to Caye Caulker to get a few hours of sleep before catching the ferry to Belize City in the morning.

All in all a fantastic trip! Check out my pictures: unBELIZEable! (There are a lot more in Sis’s Facebook album too.)

Facts about Belize that you may not know:

-         It was formerly known as British Honduras, and the national language is English so I didn’t get to impress Sis with my Spanish.

-         On the coast, most people speak with a Caribbean (similar to Jamaican) accent, and most speak Creole as well.

-         Despite being surrounded by Spanish-speaking countries, most Belizeans on the coast don’t speak Spanish unless they’re originally from somewhere more inland, near the Mexican or Guatemalan border.

-         Typical food is similar to Honduras – rice, beans, and chicken. Also, the coast has a LOT of seafood, of course. We ate a lot of conch.

-         Their hot sauce is HOT.