A BIG birthday is as good an excuse as any to eat well and travel. We spent most of the month away from home, with short visits to the Lower Mainland bookending a holiday in Belize to celebrate my 50th birthday. (I posted several blog entries documenting our travels.) We visited my mom for the first time since she moved into Langley Lodge; the transition has gone as well as could be hoped. I belatedly constructed a gingerbread house with Annika and opened my birthday cards. We took samosas and birthday cake to supplement lunch at Dad's, then visited with Karyn and Jessica while watching Avery play lacrosse. We celebrated "Everyone's Birthday" with Auntie Janet and June. I watched NFL conference championship football with Karyn, who thoughtfully baked me another birthday cake. Then we returned safely to our home on the island before it snowed to end the month. The IIHF World Junior Championship tournament provided well-contested, drama-filled games, suspenseful entertainment, and a perfect conclusion, as the Canadian squad avenged their opening game loss with a victory over Czechia in the gold-medal Final. Since we were away from home, we watched fewer films than usual. We watched three good television series, and tried one poor one. I read five books, and listened to one more, in January.
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Two months after booking our return airfare for Belize, but still five months before our trip, United cancelled our return flight. By then I'd already booked all eight of our accommodations, the corresponding transfers, and our tours, so accepting their offer of a refund was not a good option, especially since alternative flights had doubled in price. Instead, we had to accept a double-connection option that added ten hours of travel time to our return leg, mostly in the Portland airport. I asked for some food vouchers due to the extended delay and inconvenience; the United agent complied. We enjoyed Chinese food in the Houston airport and packed our sandwiches to be eaten later while in the Portland airport. It's shocking how quickly $60 of credit is spent. Surprisingly, we both managed to get some sleep while sprawled across several chairs in the quiet Portland airport while waiting seven hours for a one hour morning flight to Vancouver. The Musqueam Welcome Area always greets us upon our return to YVR.
We took an earlier ferry to Caye Caulker than originally planned, then walked a short distance along the beach to our hotel. Within about 200 metres of walking, we already knew that we preferred it to San Pedro. Since booking a room at Coconut Beach Caye Caulker, it has flip-flopped between names and it's unclear whether or not its currently operating under the name Popeye's Beach Condos/Resort.
We found our way around the island... Once again, we walked a lot, checking out all of the local food options and taking in the island's sights. Caye Caulker's motto is "Go Slow", and that's pretty much the entire reason to go there. With its sandy streets, colourful paint, and swaying palms, it has a laidback beachy vibe and little else. Lisa discovered "Dee n D's" on the 'lagoon' side and we ended up enjoying two sunsets and two dinners there. The first night we enjoyed a veggie dish, shrimp skewers, and Cuba Libres. We experienced much hotter weather than expected while on Caye Caulker (32 "feels like" 37 degrees Celsius); we naturally slipped into a pattern of early to rise and early to bed with an afternoon siesta in between. Mornings took us to Auntie's for breakfast and cheap coffee, the bakery for cinnamon bread and cheese and onion rolls, and Errolyn's House of Fry Jacks where a bean stuffed fry jack is just 75 US cents. By day two, we already knew where to go for barbecue and Happy Hour. Lisa also found "Reina's" where we shared delicious Jerk Chicken (sweet and spicy with pineapple) and curry chicken our second night on the isle. It's amazing how quickly routines can be established. The main place to hang out is at the Lazy Lizard at The Split (where a hurricane divided the island in two). We returned to The Split over and over again. Caye Caulker was unsurprisingly our favourite stop in Belize. On our third and final evening on Caye Caulker, we returned to "Dee n D's" for more of their veggies and shrimp, and to compare their Jerk Chicken to that enjoyed the night before. We spent a final relaxing morning on Caye Caulker before taking the noon water-taxi service to Belize City.
After visiting five ancient Mayan sites in five days, it was time to head to the cayes to experience a different side of Belize. We had another private transfer from Lamanai Landings to the water-taxi in Belize City. The waters were calm and the hour and a half ride to San Pedro, Ambergris Caye was smooth.
As always, we did a lot of walking. We covered all of San Pedro, checking out both the town and the beach. San Pedro was filled with golf cart traffic. Palapa is the main bar in San Pedro, and certainly has the best location. Trying different foods is a fun part of travel; we continued to enjoy tasty cheap eats like stuffed fryjacks and shrimp burritos. In the evening, we were serenaded by a talented guitarist. Our hotel faced the lagoon on the west side of the island, allowing us to appreciate the sunset both evenings. The next morning I awoke as an old man; it was my 50th birthday! I began the day with a snorkel tour to Hol Chan Marine Reserve and Shark Alley. I created a separate blog entry for those interested in seeing more of the many photos I snapped of marine life. Our hotel supplied us with free (terrible, rusted) bikes, which we used to venture up to "Truck Stop", exploring beaches & resorts along the way. By going earlier in the day, we had the popular stop virtually to ourselves. (Either that, or I reserved it exclusively for my own VIP birthday.) I enjoyed watching the sun set on my 50th birthday. Briana's Food Place was the most highly reviewed cheap restaurant in San Pedro and was very close to our hotel... in just two days, we ended up eating there four times! We gained even more appreciation for the deal we were getting when the table next to us filled with a tour group where each person had paid $75 USD for a local food tasting - they were served one sample each of the same items that we had ordered plates of that evening for $7. After just two nights, we were ready and happy to be headed to Caye Caulker on a half hour morning water-taxi.
For my fiftieth birthday, I literally caught the first boat to Hol Chan Marine Reserve. When we went into the water there were no other boats in sight. After snorkeling the cut through the reef (which is little more than 75 feet wide and just 30 feet deep) for a little over 45 minutes, 19 other boats had arrived. I have been fortunate to swim with sea turtles before, but seeing these green sea turtles up close was as wonderful as ever. I saw at least three different types of rays: southern stingrays, spotted eagle rays, and roughtail stingrays. Five spotted eagle rays cruised back and forth dozens of times in search of food. The roughtail stingrays were huge - perhaps 7 feet wide and 600 pounds! Jacks, groupers, and barracuda are all common at Hol Chan. There are apparently many types of grunts, snappers. puffers, squirrelfish, damselfish, parrotfish, and angelfish. None of those mean anything to me, but I know I saw yellow ones, blue ones... Our other stop was just one mile south of the Hol Chan cut and is listed as “Zone D” of the Hol Chan Marine Reserve. Once a place where fishermen would clean their catches, this 1,280-acre protected region, has evolved into a top snorkeling location known as Shark Ray Alley because it offers the rare opportunity to snorkel beside stingrays and nurse sharks in just eight feet deep water. What a memorable start to my birthday; the others aboard the boat sang "Happy Birthday" to me, and the marine life was spectacular.
We woke early for a five am transfer to Lamanai Landings Hotel to ensure we were ready before our nine o'clock tour. We were pleasantly surprised that we were able to immediately check-in to our huge over-water room despite arriving before eight in the morning. We took a river boat to the ancient Mayan archeological site of Lamanai, viewing plenty of wildlife (crocodiles, iguanas, black-bellied ducks, river turtles, bats, ibis, herons, etc.) along the way. Lamanai means "submerged crocodile". Despite having previously visited several Mayan ruins, including a few sites within days, we decided to go to Lamanai because of its two distinguishing features - the unique river approach and its unexplained Olmec masks found on a Mayan temple. The next most unique building at Lamanai is the Jaguar Temple. We witnessed the ongoing excavation of the site. We also saw Belize's national flower, the black orchid, an elusive Tayra, and loud Black Howler Monkeys up close . We were not allowed to climb the High Temple. The Mayan ball courts throughout Belize are much smaller than those found in Mexico. We explored the royal residences, learned of Lord "Smoking Shell" from Stela 9, and then enjoyed another great homemade lunch. With few alternatives, we ate dinner at the hotel's restaurant, but in the morning, road side options materialized for breakfast.
Our transfer driver treated us to some fyah haat tamales (and coconut squares for dessert) on the way to San Ignacio. Our longest stay in Belize was four nights in San Ignacio, so we were relieved that our cabana at Midas Belize was great. The staff were accommodating and the pool was nice. I even watched five toucans in one tree outside our room. We used San Ignacio as a hub for most of our explorations of ancient Mayan sites. On the day we arrived, we walked to Cahal Pech and explored its many corridors, rooms, and plazas. The following day, I went on an excursion to "ATM" by myself, as exploring a skeleton laden cavern via underground river seemed like a literal nightmare to Lisa. Actun Tunichil Muknal translates to Stone Cave Sepulcher, and I spent about 3.5 hours inside this remarkable place, named by National Geographic as the world's #1 most sacred cave. Photography was banned after a tourist fractured an ancient skull by dropping a camera on it, so I selected these photos from a Google search (except the lunch was my own😋). Entering the cave involves a short swim. Much of the cave's exploration involves wading through an underground river. Eventually we reached a spot where we were required to remove our shoes and climb barefoot (my choice) or in socks up rocks and eventually a ladder. The entire cave is 5.5 miles deep/long; we ventured half a mile in to reach the "Crystal Maiden" before retracing our steps back. Some caverns are huge, while others required careful maneuvering to navigate. The "Neck Slicer" is the tightest squeeze where one must turn sideways and angle one's head to allow the neck to pass by the narrowest point. It is unknown how many people were sacrificed in this cave, but so far 14 have been confirmed - 7 adults (5 male, 2 female) and 7 children. I saw five of these, including the most famous skeleton known as the "Crystal Maiden" (because the calcification makes the bones sparkle when a light shines on them). By the time we exited the cave, we had traveled through nine levels of the underworld. The ceramics at the site are significant because they are marked with "kill holes" (created to release spirits lurking within), which indicate that they were used for ceremonial purposes. One even features an alux (a type of sprite in the mythological tradition of certain Maya peoples). We walked to eat most of our meals at the market or from street vendors. On the 17th we both joined a tour to Caracol, a large ancient Maya archaeological site that once covered approximately 200 square kilometres, an area much larger than present-day Belize City, the largest metropolitan area in the country, and supported more than twice the modern city's population. On the way back we made a brief stop to view Rio on Pools. The following day, we took public transportation to check out Xunantunich on our own. We spent our final afternoon in San Ignacio relaxing by the pool and visiting with a couple from Mayne Island. We took it easy and went to bed early, as the following morning we had a five o'clock transfer.
We were relieved to discover that there is a direct bus from Placencia to Hopkins so getting to the Funky Dodo Hostel was easy. Hopkins proved to be dirtier, poorer, and smaller than anticipated, so we were glad we'd only booked one night. Hopkins is a Garifuna village, so we ordered hudut - a fish stew with a coconut base served with mashed green plantains that is considered the signature Garifuna dish. We also had garlic shrimp on coconut rice. After dinner on the beach, we listened to some Garifuna drumming. I rose early for sunrise (with help from confused and overzealous roosters) , but like Hopkins itself, it was underwhelming.
We opted to have our transfer driver take the "Hummingbird Highway" to Placencia as it is apparently more scenic than the slightly faster route. Either way, we eventually had to travel the entire length of the 19 mile long peninsula to reach our cozy cabana in the heart of Placencia Village. For a relatively small space, our Airbnb was efficiently organized and well appointed, making our three night stay a comfortable one. Our very central location allowed us to easily pick up cheap street food from local vendors and enjoy it in our cabana. I woke early on our first morning in Placencia, so I went for a walk to take sunrise photos. The magical bonus was watching a pod of at least four dolphins just offshore. Since our cabana was on the only road that accommodates vehicles to the peninsula, we said we were staying on "the main road". We were corrected and informed that the original narrow "Placencia Sidewalk", which was the only "road" until 1984, is still officially the "main road" so that it maintains its Guinness Book of Records status as the narrowest main road in the world. At least three locals told me that the best place to swim was at the beach to the left of the pier (where I'd seen dolphins), so that's where I went into the water. While I was in the ocean, Lisa spotted a sign asking people not to feed or harass the crocodiles. I later googled it and discovered that American Crocodiles breed nearby and grow to 20 feet! We spent a lot of time walking along both the sidewalk and the beach. We walked all the way to Turtle Inn, also known as Coppola Hideaways for its owner, director Francis Ford Coppola. Placencia means "pleasant point", and is known as "the caye you can drive to" for its laidback island vibe.
To ensure that our transfers were as stress-free as possible, we booked a one night stay in Belize City at the beginning and end of our trip to Belize despite the fact that it is not a particularly touristy place. Upon arrival, we ventured out only to get some bottled water before dark. In the morning, we enjoyed breakfast at the Coningsby Inn. We walked along the waterfront and explored the city's sketchy downtown core before our private transfer arrived. Later in our trip, we passed through Belize City to take the water-taxi to San Pedro, Ambergris Caye. Our third and final visit to Belize City was when we returned from Caye Caulker by water-taxi. Having redeemed the Wyndham points received as compensation for our troubles in Flagstaff last year, we spent one night in an ocean view suite at the city's affiliated Ramada hotel before departing Belize and concluding our vacation.
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