Belizean Impressions

 The map, although not the best, gives you an idea of how Peter and I spent our time in Belize.  Sailors could easily spend a season exploring offshore and inland.We saw all the featured animals on the map except for the whale shark - it was not the season.
Milly with proudly flying Canadian flag last flown in Rio at the Olympics. 

 Peter and I spent six weeks exploring Belize, mainly the cays and the atolls.  The barrier reef extending from the north end to the south end of the country was phenomenal, the second longest in the world after The Great Barrier Reef.  Huge ocean waves crashed on the outside and on the inside the water was flat and calm.  You could see the breaking line of waves from miles away - a white line on the very blue sea.  The atolls warmed us up for the Pacific one day - large areas of water completely enclosed by reef. Belize boasts three of the four atolls in the Atlantic. The water inside is every conceivable shade of blue and is dotted with coral heads and reefs, loads of fish including shark and magnificent spotted rays.  It was glorious.

After several days delay, we finally checked into Belize at Placencia, a sweet town with gorgeous white beaches, dirt roads, great ice cream and friendly people.  Checking in involved a dinghy ride, a bus ride on, yes, the Hokey Pokey across an enormous lagoon and a taxi ride to three different offices.  And then back in reverse order.

The Hokey Pokey is the local bus.

Lobster fisherman go out to sea in these traditional, now motorized, sailboats with very long booms.  They pile many dugout canoes on top.  Men spread out from the mother ship over the sea surface in the dugouts and dive from them for their catch.

Milly and TomTom

Tobacco Caye sitting right on the barrier reef was lovely.  We snorkelled and for the first time swam with very large black spotted eagle rays.  So majestic and graceful.  The tiny island, 200 m long and 100 m wide, had a couple of "resorts" and guesthouses.  Didn't take long to explore.

Oops.  Hurricane Matthew which we had evaded in Curacao did some damage here when it headed north.  Many docks were demolished including the main marina in Belize City where we had intended to stay.  Gone!

  

English Cay.  We dinghied ashore and were given a tour of the island by the lighthouse keeper.  He was 25 and happy to be living on the island where his family had been caretaking for generations.  

Construction in Caye Caulker to water access only site.  Nothing is easy.   The sand on this barge was shovelled from the sand bar in the middle of the bay by one older man up to his knees in water.

For the first time since Barbuda in the Eastern Caribbean, the land was flat as a pancake.  If sailing close to the coastal mainland, we could see large mountains in the western haze but the coast itself and certainly the cays were flat.  The cays are largely undeveloped mangrove islands.  The occasional palm usually marks a fishing camp or tiny resort of palm roofed huts.  The view from the boat was of blue sky spotted with cumulus clouds, spots of flat green cays and sea of beautiful blues.  

The water is very “skinny” as they say in the sailing world, meaning shallow.  It is so treacherous for sailboats that we had to pay an extra premium of over US$1000 to sail in Belize.  We were lucky if the depth was 1.5-3.0 meters - our draft is 1.2m.  At several points there was someone on the bow to look for coral heads that loom from the bottom making the shallow sandy bottom a maze of hard and sharp obstructions that regularly put holes in the bottoms of boats. 

The barrier reef as we approached the narrow cut to get to the wavy side - the Atlantic.  Breakers as far as we could see.  A  beautiful sight but not so pretty to negotiate.

Getting through the reef line to visit the atolls on a windy day was a nerve wracking adrenalin rush.  There are several cuts that are well charted, some wider than others.  Getting out into the sea is especially challenging on a windy day when the waves are breaking.   When the kids were with us we had one especially exciting exit through a very narrow cut at Ambergris when the waves were huge and breaking.  Tom and I were on the bow, uselessly looking for coral heads as we bounced from trough to peak, holding on for dear life.  We made it only to suffer a change of wind direction which necessitated a trip by motor.

Canadians are everywhere!

Caye Caulker - going to market.

  

Unfortunately, and despite Belize being an “eco-tourism” destination, litter in the sea was a disturbing sight.  Plastic bottles and styrofoam take out dishes were regulars in the sea and lost and battered flipflops, plastic cigarette lighters and bottle tops scurry the beaches.  In Belize, there is a real effort to rake and tidy the beaches in front of the resorts and in town but once off the beaten tourist track, the litter plagues the beach.  I'm sure much of the garbage is from boats and far away islands.  There are signs, many hand painted, to keep the region clean but it does not yet seem to be part of the island culture.  Granted, the islands have a real challenge to dispose of garbage responsibly and a lack of funds to do so, but …..

We rented bikes on Ambergris to explore the island to the north of San Pedro, the only town.

This guy had found his very own mangrove island to fish from.

San Pedro on Ambergris with lovely shades of blue water.

We went on two tours: A snorkelling tour from Caye Caulker with a local young business owner.  He led us through beautiful patches of coral and wonderful schools of fish including nurse shark.  Definitely worthwhile.

Nurse shark.  We swam with many on this trip.  At first a little hesitant but they paid no attention to us at all so, although we kept a healthy distance, we followed them around with confidence.  Nurse sharks suck and slurp crustaceans, sea urchins and bony fish from crevices.  Felt pretty safe as we were a bit big to slurp.

Beautiful colours although this is fire coral which stings like crazy if you touch it.

Lettuce coral.  Very delicate looking.  One of my favourites.

Sea horse.  They always look like they have very stiff necks.

The fishermen consider pelicans pests, but this goofy one is hard not to like.

 A second tour was to the mainland by small boat to a fishing village, a bus ride inland, and a second river boat ride to a water access only Mayan ruin.  Fantastic.  Although we snorkelled almost daily, we did not dive which necessitated a tour and a voyage in a small boat outside the reef in the super rough waves.  We were sorry, though, not to dive at Lighthouse or Glover's.

Our inland trip was to Lamanai, a Mayan ruin.  After an hour small boat ride at 6:30 a.m. to the mainland and up a river, we were served a local pastry and egg breakfast in this village, population 68.  It had only recently had a road put in so now the children can go to school although high school students have to travel 2 hours one-way.

Unfortunately, our bus, that took us from one river boat ride to another, broke down in the middle of nowhere.  To get the spotty cell phone connection, our tour guide had to climb on top of the bus.  Another bus arrived about 20 minutes later.  All part of the adventure.  The next boat was a long, traditional river boat with an enormous engine.  We scooted along taking narrow turns and passing slower boats.  Not sure how we could go so fast without hitting oncoming traffic but there must be a system - there were no close calls.  Our driver had been on the river for years and new where to stop to view monkeys, iguanas and birds.  We also passed a Mennonite community where the best farming in the nation takes place.

Part of the charm of Lamanai was it's setting on the river in dense rainforest.  It was inhabited at least as early as 1500 BC reaching it's peak around 100 BC to AD 700 with a population of around 35,000 and continued being used until about 1500 BC when it was decimated by an epidemic, probably smallpox.   It boasted large temples,

Howler monkeys added to the aura of the ruins.

At the top of the first temple.  We were the only ones of our group who climbed!  Weird!  Peter and I always have to get to the highest peak around.

Most of the excavation began in 1974 by David Pendergast of the Royal Ontario Museum!  Strange for us to have a hint of home in the middle of the jungle.  Made us proud!

A little steep.

A ball court, no less.  Unknown how the game was played but indicates that there was time for fun and games.  A very sophisticated civilization.

The original sculptures on this temple were being ruined by the likes of us, shamefully.  These cement replicas covered them to keep the originals safe.

We explored Belize at a pace dictated by the weather.  We holed up in Caye Caulker during a strong “norther”, not leaving the boat for a couple of days and had to leave Glover’s atoll where we had planned to dive prematurely to find a sheltered anchorage for another high wind system.  At this time of year, northers from the North American continent seem to come through about once a week.  This became an important feature in finding a weather window to head north to Mexico.  

I would like to have spent more time exploring inland, especially the mountains, and gone for a dive or two.  So I guess it’s yet another country that we will have to return to.  Seems to be a growing list.

The Family in Belize

Milly looking pretty Half Moon Caye at Lighthouse Reef.  We were one of two boats at this fabulous atoll.

So happy to have our kids with us!

Em, at home on the bow.

Peter and Tom talking sailing.

The great highlight of our Belizean tour was, of course, a visit from Em and Tom, our children, and Gid, Em’s boyfriend. This is no easy feat.  We are spread out all over the globe.  This year, Em came from Brooklyn, Tom from Valencia, Spain and Gid from Toronto.  We are very grateful that they make the effort to travel many miles and coordinate their time so we can all be together.  Since becoming irresponsible vagabonds, the family time has become more important and very special.  It is always wonderful to share our adventures with them and we want them to love coming to visit so it will occur often.  In the last three years, while we have been with Milly, they have met us in Buenos Aires, Barbados and, in 2016, Belize.  Each location has been unique and we’ve had great times but Belize was our first real cruising experience and it was very full.    

Em and Tom joined us first and Gid came a few days later.  We sailed each day, a new anchorage each night with E&T. 

Exploring beautiful unspoilt beaches at Half Moon Caye

Half Moon Caye is the nesting sight of thousands of seabirds. A platform at treetop level, gave us an amazing, eye-level view of hundreds of frigate birds, the males attempting to attract females by inflating a huge balloon at the base of their beaks (the red dots in the green).  

Tom, pondering the boobies :)

Amazing! 

 A booby.  They nested not more than 6 feet away.  Blue beaks and red feet.  

Natural beach art.

A guy gave each of us a coconut that he had just cut off a palm.  Guzzling!

The water was rough but a pod of dolphins still came to visit at the bow.  So thrilled that the kids could have this treat even though they had to hang on tight.

We declined to eat this guy.  Barracudas, particularly around coral reefs, sometimes carry ciguatera fish poisoning which can lead to severe illness, even death. A risk not worth taking.

On the way we caught (and released) a toothy baracuda, were entertained by a school of dolphins at the bow, marked 10,000NM on Milly, sailed through rain and high wind, and ran aground three times - in sand, luckily. 

Note, second line on far left - 10,000NM on Milly.

While Tom and I were snorkelling at Lighthouse atoll through the submerged walls of coral, we were suddenly startled by a large reef shark coming out from under an overhang toward us and then veering away.  We both yelped into our snorkels and Tom quickly took a breather in the dinghy where Peter and Em were keeping watch.  Suddenly, I was alone in the water - just me - no shark and no Tom.  Tom got back in but the shark didn’t reappear.  Em was surrounded by small, we think, lemon sharks in the shallows while peeing - Tom had warned us that sharks are attracted to ammonia - is this true?  Timing certainly made it seem so.  Em ran to shore mighty quickly and declined to snorkel.  I no longer pee while swimming. 

Rather an intimidating warning.  We had absolutely no intention of feeding a shark unless they were interested in a bite of us.

Our attempts to get to the anchorage at Turnoff Atoll was interrupted by running aground twice.  These locals came to our rescue and offered to lead us over the sandbank.  With complete faith we followed at a good clip and promptly ran aground a third time.  Unfortunately, we were deeply embedded but the local guy dove into the water to look at the keel and direct his buddy on which way to pull our enormous boat with his tiny one.  Peter gunned our Volvos and finally we were free.  Meanwhile, a pit bull like dog that accompanied the men jumped into the water to play with a couple of dolphins.  They hung out together for at least 20 minutes.  Unfortunately, we were too busy rescuing the boat to get the full show.  The dolphin and dog were obviously enjoying each other's company.  The guys said it's impossible to keep the dog in the boat when there were dolphins to play with.

Tom took first me and then Em on a full speed ride in his namesake through a narrow network of mangroves with steep corners, a big smile on his face.  A video was attempted but didn’t illustrate the rush.

The "skinny" Belizean waters meant we had to keep close watch for sandbanks and coral heads.  

Em doing her thing...

Tom doing his.

And I guess me doing mine - food prep.  For the first time we had fresh conch, purchased shelled but prepared no further.  We had to clean off the coloured, slimy bits until just pure white flesh was left.  Then sautéed in butter and garlic.  Delish!

We picked Gid up on Cay Caulker, a small island with a smaller, very laid back town where the only vehicles are bikes and golf carts, the roads sand and young backpackers are the primary travellers, many who come and never leave.  And then to Ambergris, where we were treated to a wonderful meal and tour provided gratis at a top end resort on the island.  Em has connections!

The only access to Matachica Beach Resort on Ambergris was by boat.  Here we are - all dressed up and ready for lunch at what Lonely Planet calls one of the 'swankiest resorts' on the island.  "Extravagant, exotic and eclectic...serious about the idea of tropical luxury."  All true.  An incredible treat just to wander the grounds after our simple living on Milly.

A three course lunch in the outdoor dining room.  We had the best table in the house -on the edge of the beach, looking over the water.  The Mambo Restaurant is award winning.  Our service was superb - Gid was even given a mug he had admired.  Thanks, Em!!

On the dock at Matachica there were several private pods where guests could lie in a double couch/bed under a canopy with service - just in case you didn't have the energy to walk to the beachside bar.  As part of Em's deal, she had to post a few pictures enjoying the ambience.  Not hard to do.

Back at Caye Caulker, Em and Gid explored in kayak...

and Tom on SUP.

Adding a jump off a treetop into the water.

After paddle boarding, kayaking and more snorkelling, they left us on Christmas Day after a traditional Norwegian! Christmas Eve dinner and a bowl of risgrøt for lunch. 

Even their lifelong stockings made it to Belize and they are still aboard for Christmas's hereafter.

Belizean pork ribs Norwegian style with potatoes, prunes, sausages, apples made up our Eve dinner.

Merry Christmas!

 

Another Norwegian tradition - a hot rice porridge served with cinnamon and butter.  One almond is hidden in the porridge. Whoever has the almond, gets the marzipan pig.  This year Em had chosen our pigs and brought them all the way from NYC - a single pig and a kissing couple.  And, appropriately, she got the almond, and won the pig which she shared as is also the tradition.

The boys ready for risgrøt.

Our last feast.  Stick to your ribs rice porridge - good for a series of flights.

We were very sad to see them go - their stay seemed like a whirlwind - but there were plenty of adventures.  

Em and Gid had given us each a Milly t-shirt for Christmas.  Proudly displayed.

The airport in Caye Caulker.

And the plane to take them to the international airport in Belize City.

Hard to say good-bye!  Too short but a really great visit.  Come again soon…please!