(NK)We made a
rookie error by crossing into Belize without filling Trisha up. The cost of
fuel in Belize is significantly higher. After going through the paperwork in Mexico we
drove through no mans land and were immediately overwhelmed with Caribbean
hospitality. The heavily accented English and the friendly smiles that greeted
us immediately put us at ease. Customs and immigration was a breeze. We ended up
chatting to the passport control guy for about half an hour as he gave us his
picks of where we should visit.
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| What have you done to the Police unit! |
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| Rustic river crossings |
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| The ferries use Manpower in Belize |
The first stop
involved a two hour-long drive down a dirt road and a crazy river crossing before
arriving at the very peaceful Backpackers Paradise. Natalie and Ed’s place has
a variety of organic fruits growing in a jungle setting. The spiders are
getting bigger and the creepies are definitely doing more crawling. We pitched
the tent after a small incident with a big hairy spider, before joining Natalie
in the restaurant for some Lion Fish and coconut rice.
Lion Fish is a
poisonous non-native species that’s killing off other native species all over
the Caribbean. We spoke to a marine biologist who told as that they’re doing
everything they can to encourage restaurants and fishermen to start selling
this stuff as opposed to the Conch, which isn’t as abundant. It’s one of the
best fish I’ve ever tasted, very meaty with the slight sweetness you get in scallops.
Makes sense, tastes delicious and saves the sea. There, some education.
The next day we
went out horse riding with Natalie through the jungle past a Jaguar watering
hole.
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| Saddle Up |
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| Bush came along for the ride, looks like someone we know |
(FK) Natalie
kindly offered to take us out as Neil and I both hadn't ridden since we were
young. So, we got kitted up like Brokeback Mountain extras, mounted our trusty
steeds and off we went for a jungle, village and beach hack. Natalie had
reassured me that my horse was very relaxed and would have no problems.
Great, I
thought, that will ease me back into the saddle nicely. It became apparent
early on that Ned was in no hurry at all, despite all my enthusiastic
"vamoose!" and "allez!" it did little to encourage my ride
to pick up his pace. Natalie even fashioned a whipping stick for me, but even
that didn't work. It wasn't until Natalie's feisty young horse gave mine a bite
on the legs, that he decided to pick up the pace momentarily, only to return to
an amble. Neil was an absolute natural galloping off ahead whilst I could only
laugh at my stubborn horse.
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| The Three Amigos |
(NK) That
evening we got acquainted with two other travellers, Kerry and Linda who were
also heading to Caye Caulker, so we agreed to leave Trisha with Natalie and Ed
and jump in the back of a flatbed down to the port. The three dogs that live at
Backpackers ran behind us all the way down to the pier and gave us a goodbye
kiss.
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| Puppy love |
(FK) Island
life was calling again along with the chance of more diving. There's no cars on
the island and the only roads are white sand paths, as soon as we stepped off
the boat, the laid back Caribbean vibe hit us with the island's very apt moto
of 'go slow' apparent. It's a place not without its characters, especially the
colourful Rastas, spreading warm greetings of love, peace, oh and the offer of
some good homegrown weed too!
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| The Rasta Mantra |
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| Go Slow |
We found the
cheapest place to stay (but really good) was Sandy Lane and we had our very own
private love shack. So we dumped our small bags, chucked off our flip flops and
went for a beer.
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| With a roof right over our head |
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| Yes. It. Is |
The highlight
of my three days was a massage at Cocoplum with Mayan midwife Ms Juana. We
found it by accident, exploring the island on our Fixie bikes. Chris the owner
invited us in to have a look around, despite it being Sunday morning and a rare
day off for him. He was a pretty interesting chap, and could talk more than me
(NK – which meant we were there for a really long time). He’d been born into a
Mennonite family, but did not fit the mould with his creative freethinking. He
had designed a beautiful and tranquil haven set back from the main town. His
eye for design was clear with his Remy Mackintosh inspired designed lights and
a zen like balance to the whole place.
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| Coco Plum Sanctuary - designed by Chris |
We got talking
about some of his past clients and the wonders of Mayan medicine and practices.
Chris told us some of the amazing differences the Mayan womb massage had made
to women and their partners.
Chris is most
definitely in touch with his feminine side and not afraid to celebrate it. The
Mayans believe that the centre of a woman is her womb and in order for her to
be as emotionally balanced and as fertile as possible, her womb needs to be in
the centre of her body. Urmm, yes Chris, every woman's womb is in the centre,
isn't it? Apparently not. This can lead to various problems such as hormonal
mood swings, depression, pains in other parts of the body, miscarriages and
difficulty getting pregnant. He'd treated numerous women who had
difficulty conceiving, one of whom was about to embark on $20,000 IVF
treatment, only to discover she had fallen pregnant naturally six weeks after
returning home. Even women who aren't planning on getting preggers end up with
a bun in the oven.
Don't worry
this isn't going where some of you might think it is. So anyway, I was sold
purely on the hormonal balancing side. A girl can never be too balanced in my
opinion. Ms Juana got to work on me with a full body massage, which was much
needed after the stress and strains of the previous weeks. She finished on my
stomach area, massaging around my waist, hips and my insides it felt like. She
took my hands and got me to feel my stomach, pointing out a cavity in the lower
left and then a solid shape on my right just above my pelvis. Sure enough my
womb was off centre, so Ms Juana put in back in place and finished with a head
massage.
I woke Neil up
who had dozed off for an hour on the sofa and went and spoke to Chris. I felt
amazing, re-energised and I’m going to say it - glowing. Ms Juana said that I
might have suffered a sore leg in the past. I hadn't told Chris as I didn't
think it was important but I'd been suffering with a really sore right foot for
about a year. It causes me pain when I walk after sleeping or sitting for a
while. I thought it was to do with wearing heels and or poor supporting flats.
Anyway, when I got up from the bed I could walk normally instead of like an old
lady.
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| Ms Juana, Chris and a hormonally balanced me |
I was
absolutely blown away, Chris explained the muscles that hold the womb in place
are connected to the ones in your legs and the position it was in was causing
the muscles in my foot to be affected. He'd had a similar lady in who could
only walk with a stick due to severe leg pain. After a treatment she no longer
needed the stick.
I told Chris
that I would drop him a line to let him know how my foot is and if I end up
pregnant!
(NK) As if
things couldn’t get more relaxing, that night we had a BBQ with Kerry, Linda
and some Rastas. Rasta Mike, Kerry and I went to a back street
fishmonger to pick up some ‘caught that day’ Snapper and Grouper, before Linda taught
me how to roll a joint so we could get everyone’s appetite going. It’s always
good to learn new skills.
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| What a catch |
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| Fi gets her hands dirty |
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| Keep on rollin |
Rasta Mike
turned out to be a whizz in the kitchen and had also brought some of his
homemade Blackberry wine, which tasted somewhere between Port and Sherry.
Before dinner, Rasta Ray gave us a beautiful speech about how he’d like to
welcome us to the island; his home was our home as we all live in one home - planet
earth. No borders, one love.
Spoken like a
true Rasta!
He finished it
with: “I know I’d receive the same welcome in your country too.”
“Errrrm, yeah,
you definitely would.” we said, with lie written all over our faces. Being put
on the spot like that made us think.
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| Rasta Mike cooks up a storm |
It’s strange;
in the US we were warned about Mexicans. Then the Mexicans warned us about
Belize and Guatemala. And everyone worries about dangerous countries without
perhaps giving a thought to the genuine human beings that live there. It’s easy
to get consumed by fear, building a picture in your mind that isn’t consistent
with reality. There are bad people and good people everywhere. It does not
depend on your nation of birth or the colour of your skin.
Another local
called Vicky joined us at the BBQ, and our new friends started raving about how
good fish eye tastes! I was seriously doubtful and told Vicky she would have to
go first. To my dismay she plucked out the sizeable fish eye with a knife,
popped it in her mouth, sucked, then spat it out.
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| Suck and spit! |
It was my turn next, in it
went before I could rationalize anything and surprisingly, it did indeed taste
a little bit like Oysters. I mean a little bit. It’s not something I’m in a
hurry to do again.
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| Yikes |
The boat trip
back to Sarteneja was hit by an unexpected spanner in the works. When we tried
to get the connecting water taxi from San Pedro, we were told there were none on
a Wednesday or Thursday. Our faces dropped. We either went back to Caye Caulker
or stayed in San Pedro for two nights. Both were expensive and time consuming options. In the
distance I saw some more local boats in a makeshift port so we took a wander
over.
On the way we
were accosted by three piss heads, one of whom had a pet raccoon on his
shoulder. He even let me stroke it. Just as we were making our excuses to leave, we were saved by a bypassing Rasta, who led
us to the legend that is Captain Orlando.
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| Captain Orlando |
He told us that
for a fee much cheaper than the Water Taxi he’d take us back to Sarteneja at
Midday. We agreed and came back later to jump aboard his small sailing boat.
The water taxi took about 1 hour 45 so we were taken a back when Orlando told
us it’d take 6 hours. Turns out Orlando’s five brothers were also coming on the
boat. Ah, at last, I thought. We are going to be
robbed and left to die on a desert island.
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| Aye Aye Capt'in |
Turned out to
be one of the best trips we’ve ever taken. We talked and laughed all the way as
we skipped past the beautiful Cayes in glorious sunshine over perfectly calm waters.
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| One of the many Cayes we passed |
As the sun
started sinking, a lone dolphin came right up to the boat and put on a little
show for us. Under a carpet of stars the brothers continued to navigate there
way back home without a compass. Once a week they make the round trip from
their village to sell fruit and veg in San Pedro.
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| We couldn't see where one started and the other ended |
They told us
that the route was also huge for cocaine smugglers and fishermen sometimes found big bags
washed up on the shore.
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| Dolphin/Cocaine watch |
It’s known as the sea lotto and one bag is
enough to feed the village for a year. Unfortunately there have been occasions
when the smugglers have come looking for their gear and they always end in
bloodshed. Another sad example of how the international drug trade ruins
ordinary lives.
As they pulled
up by the pier in Sarteneja we literally had to do a running jump ashore as they
brushed past and headed onwards to their village. It ended an amazing trip that
you won’t find in any guidebooks.
After a wet
night of camping at Natalie and Ed’s we were heading for Belize’s wild
interior.
