For those of you who don’t know, I didn’t get a Visa for working in Guatemala. This means I need to conveniently leave the country every 90 days for a long weekend – a perfect opportunity for a little R & R. For our first ‘trip’ we decided to go to Belize, or at least that was my excuse.
Luke, another BVC member from Esquipulas, joined us for the little adventure, along with two monks from the monastery in Cobán. When we got to the border at Belize though, the two monks weren’t allowed in. There was a recent rule change, similar to Canada and the US, that now required all Guatemalans to carry a passport in Belize and not only their identification cards. Too bad for them, they missed an awesome trip.
So we caught the last bus from the border to Belize City. After about 3 hours, we arrived in Belize City well after dark and found ourselves a sufficiently sketchy guesthouse (hotel) to stay in. After some conch soup and a couple Belikens, we were ready for bed.
In the morning, we took a water taxi out to San Pedro – a caye (key) just over an hour away. This is one of the coolest places I have ever been. Like an undeveloped Cancun, Mexico. Just as nice, but fewer people, cheaper and a little more culture. People in Belize speak English as well, so that wasn’t a problem. I would recommend this place to ANYONE. Absolutely fabulous. It was low season for tourism, so all the prices were really low. We rented a great condo with queen size beds, private deck/patio, private dock, air conditioning – all for $55 US/night.
We also took advantage of San Pedro’s close proximity to the 2nd largest reef in the world. We spent an afternoon snorkeling, checking out one of the best snorkeling sites in the world, Hol Chan – check it out on-line. This included a visit to ‘shark alley’ where we swam with wild nerf sharks and stingrays (yeah, the “harmless” rays that killed our beloved Steve Irwin). Actually got to touch them in the water and everything as we had this completely crazy guide that would catch them and hold them for us underwater. Yeah, he got a tip…
There was some great nightlife there too. Without going into too many details, we spent a couple nights socializing with a bunch of Canadians. For some reason or another, Canadians love this place. It was nice for me though, as Canadians made me feel closer to home in MN than anyone else I have met down here. Highlight: At one of the bars, they had the world famous chicken drop. You are probably asking yourself, what the hell is the world famous chicken drop – as I did as well. It consists of a large board with painted squares numbering 1 – 100. Each person buys as many squares as desired, at 50 cents each, and then draws their numbers. Once all the squares have been purchased, a chicken is released on the board, which is surrounded by a small fence. Wherever the chicken decides to do its ‘business’, the person with that square wins the pot – which was the total winnings (the house doesn’t take any). Only catch is the winner needs to clean up the mess in front of the entire crowd. Very fun. I will be introducing this to Wytt in hopes of bringing the “world famous chicken drop” to Waconia, MN. My mother would be so proud…ha
On the way back, we stopped in Placencia for a night. Another great place on the coast, but more low keyed. Apparently it picks up during the high season, but during the rest of the time it is more of a couples hangout. Nice though.
After crossing the boarder back to Guatemala via water taxi to Puerto Barrios, we started our lovely bus trip back to Coban. Awesome trip though, I will be recommending it to everyone I know.
Take care,
PD
P.s. Almost forgot. I saw my first deadly snake here in Guatemala. Luckily, this guy had just been killed minutes before by a car in front of us. Despite my smile in the picture, I don't like snakes. At all.
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