AT EASE IN BELIZE

(NK) Our journey continued on land as we blazed a trail down one of the few highways in Belize, heading towards a spot called Lower Dover in a small village called Unitedville. Belize is known for it’s Cayes, beaches and barrier reef but with only 325,000 people in a country about the size of Wales, its wild interior is a great place to explore. The laid back towns of the west have a very quaint feel with adventure calling from all angles.

Lower Dover is a field station between Belmopan and San Ignacio with an uncovered Mayan site that is on the cusp of being excavated and restored by archeologists. Owned by an American family, during June and July it’s all about archeology, but for the rest of the year tourists are welcome to stay. With a jungle backdrop this really is a place that puts you on nature’s doorstep and we arrived to find a Coati Mundi was being smoked for dinner after losing a fight with one of the pet dogs that lives there.

The field station was indeed in a field

Madeleine whips up organic healthy fayre in the kitchen from her extensive garden while her son Justin takes guests on tours around the jungle trails. We loved our stay here and learned a huge deal from the family about the local ecosystem, its plant life and Mayan history. Too many people head straight from Belize City to Guatemala, without stopping off around San Ignacio and its neighbouring towns.

Fresh salad allowed us to take a break from tortillas

We decided to get more adventurous and headed into the Pine Ridge Forest. A remote protected area close to the border with Guatemala. Usually an armed escort goes into the park everyday to convoy the tourists up to the Caracol ruins, as there are occasionally bandits that cross over from Guatemala. But we’d missed it. The ranger at the gate asked which areas of the reserve we’d be visiting and assured us we’d be OK on our own.

Into the wild 

Along the way we met a guy called Arran who owns the Mountain Equestrian Trails. A thoroughly decent chap, he helped tighten a few loose bolts on Trisha and gave us some tangerines plucked off a nearby tree, before pointing us towards Big Rock, in his opinion the best swimming hole in Belize.

The road took us past Blanceneaux, a very classy place owned by Francis Ford Coppola. We had a quick smell of our underarms and decided it was probably for the best if we carried on driving. Eventually we pulled up to a little wooden sign and took a very steep trail down to the river. What we saw blew us away. It opened up on the most idyllic waterfall, but best of all we had the place to 

ourselves.

.................

Surrounded by steep rocks it’s possible to swim through the two icy pools and stand right underneath the falls. We both stood at the bottom in awe as water thundered all around us. When we turned to look out, a huge rainbow had landed right at Fiona’s feet.

“Where’s the pot of gold.” I said.

“I AM the pot of gold!” She screamed.

The water was icy fresh

After a fair bit of swimming and some fine dining (a coconut we hacked open and shared) we decided to pitch a tent and stay the night. The place was deserted so we felt fairly safe or as safe as you can feel, camping in the wilds of a foreign country. The road was only a few hundred meters away from the tent and the path was gravel so we’d have plenty of warning if we had human visitors. The jaguars and pumas would hopefully keep their distance.

That night we had an encounter of a different kind. Being fairly well travelled we’ve seen the brilliance of the night sky in a few remote places but what we saw that night was incredible. Millions of stars from horizon to horizon filled the sky, there were so many and so bright it was impossible to make out any constellations. We stood and watched the various swirls and galaxies, again in awe at the natural world, until one on the horizon started to pulsate before changing colour. At first we assumed it was a plane or helicopter but the night air was silent. The colours changed with a movement akin to a hippy's lava lamp and it wasn’t long before Fi had decided it as a UFO.

It certainly was unidentified, as neither of us had a clue what it was (we were later told it was probably an exploding sun or a super nova). Fi started to feel spooked and dragged me into the security of our tent. The tent that couldn’t protect us from an angry raccoon, but was sure to save us from aliens.

We were awoken by a knocking at the door, which is very confusing in a tent. Woody woodpecker and his friends were hard at it, looking for breakfast and after the rather light coconut dinner we whipped up some beans and crackers of our own. We pushed on further into the reserve in search of the Rio Frio cave, stopping first at Rio on Pools for another swim and a run around. The whole area was becoming our private playground.

Like a Timote advert!

Weird Woman

When we reached the cave we were shocked to find that two other tourists had also decided to visit the cave at exactly the same time as us. Ah well, it was good while it had lasted. The cave was enormous and opened out into the jungle. The Maya people worshipped here and brought offerings.

Cathedral sized cave

It was also home to a giant at one point. Look, I found one of his old footprints.

Genuine giant footprint from 908 BC

After two days in the wild we headed back to Lower Dover for one last night but made a very special stop at Mamas Hot Sauce Factory. Hot sauce is a very important part of our diet so we felt obliged to go and sample some.

Yes, good spot, I've been wearing the same vest for 15 days straight

Big Mama had been busy and has started branching out into chocolate and fudge. Now chocolate and chilli is a fairly accepted flavor combination amongst people that spend too much time watching cookery shows. But fudge and chilli, that’s a new one on us. Turns out it could be the new garlic bread. Delicious smooth creamy fudge, not dissimilar to the type you find at a Cornish seaside town is followed by a smack around the face from the habanero chilli. Lovely stuff.

Fi gets a fudge flavoured smack around the face 

Also making the list of enjoyable Belizean treats is the chocobanana, modeled below rather seductively by Fi. Dipped in chocolate and nuts before being frozen, it makes for a filling but naughty afternoon snack.

A new love for chocolate banana

Our ten days in Belize has certainly been eventful and I don’t doubt that one day we’ll be back. Some very friendly people and a laid back atmosphere have helped put us back on track. With the wind in our sails we headed for the Guatemalan border. Bye bye Belize, we had fun!

Shout out to Uncle Pasci