A summary post for five days? Thought you’d get away from it eh, no such luck!
It’s been a whistle-stop trip through Belize to get to Mexico, just five nights, but of course a highly memorable one. We return to backpacking life with a literal bang as our latest two-hour-late-shuttle bus taking us north to Mexico and pumping diesel fumes into the aircon has just burst a tyre. However, it does me the chance to befriend a cat.
Our time in Belize has been magical (nausea and belly-aches notwithstanding). The cave systems, colourfish fish, and James popping the question will no doubt be the memories I take with me, over how rough I’ve felt in the in betweens. However, those low moments only served to remind me how lucky I am having James by my side to look after me through the bad, as much as to share in the good. For me, remembering James putting his arm around me, looking with full love and concern in his eyes as I shook uncontrollably on the boat feeling full rotten, is one of those moments that I will oddly cherish, and one of the many reasons there could have been no other answer to his question than yes.
So, we leave Belize as fiancés, something for many years I never thought would be on the cards for me. I’m so glad to have stuck to my guns (and put my mother through many years of worry!) and waited for the right person, rather than the person who happened to be there at the right time (as I think society can pressure women especially into doing).
Belize will, of course, hold a special place in our hearts for this reason, but Caye Caulker especially. For being not just a beautiful place, but holding a wonderful moment of our relationship forever. We hope it remains the calm, idyllic space it is today. We worry that the writing is on the wall for how it will continue to develop. Typically it is only governments that can stop the uncontrollable tides of the tourist trade, so we hope they find a way to manage it sustainably, and can protect this wonderful area with the same care they have of the ruins in the cave. After all, pachamama was here before even the maya, so why not give her the same respect as they have our ancestors’ artifacts.
Being able to speak English again has been a nice respite from the last six months of Spanish, but it’s time to continue up the gringo trail, through the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico’s east coast, stopping at Bacalar and Tulum on the way to Cancun, where we’ll meet up with our friends Hector and Sophie. Then one last stop, and we leave Latin America behind for this trip.
Vamos, pero no tan rapido…
Rule of Three
The Maya believed in three main spiritual levels, the above, the here and now, and the below. So, it’s only appropriate to continue the rule of three in their honour.
Highlights (Alex) – getting engaged!!!!, the amazing colours of the fish and coral, swimming through the darkness of the ATM cave as the light from our torches reflects onto the walls
Highlights (James) – ATM caves, whole experience, adventure and artifacts. Snorkeling, swimming with sharks and seeing so much amazing stuff under the waves. Proposing to Alex, being able to enjoy the evening and the day afterwards celebrating with loved ones from afar.
Lowlights (Alex) – feeling sick on the snorkeling trip, stomach pains and weakness from Guatemala, diesel fumes on the shuttle out of Belize
Lowlights (James) – the journey out of Belize took forever for what we thought would be a quick journey, we should know better by now. Seeing Alex unwell on the boat and having my own issues with the snorkel/mask. Being too polite and British to use the kitchen full of Spaniards in our Airbnb until I was starving and desperate.
Takeaways (Alex) – It’s easy to neglect your deity when things are going well, begging your god(s) in times of hardship is nothing new. Humans will do barbaric and horrendous things in times of desperation, living unsustainably caused this desperation for the maya civilisation, let’s hope we find better solutions than offering up our enemies’ insides or children! James and I have talked about growing old and our futures together many times, but there is just something different knowing that for sure for some reason. Maybe being engaged provides me the confidence and assurance that I am worthy after all.
Takeaways (James) – The island of Belize has a lovely balance between tourism and locals sharing the land, it’s what I imagined a Caribbean island should be like without tourists needing to hide in their resort for safety or avoiding being pestered for their dollars. However, how long this will last remains to be seen, with Heather from Tsunami Adventures telling us two new tour operators are opening every week; this has the undesired knock on effect of locals being forced out of their homes and pushed out towards the fringes of the island. My final takeaway is you’ve got to move with the times, some tour operators have terrible old websites, refuse to move away from doing everything by email and won’t use social media or Viator/Get Your Guide, sure these services take a cut but they massively increase your reach.
Description (Alex) – where we got engaged! Haha. White sands and earth, so different to the sticky red clays of South America, but also incredibly green. Calm and friendly
Description (James) – very chilled out, go slow island vibes. Caribbean paradise. Mainland doesn’t offer much but the ATM caves are incredible.
Entertainment
TV & Film: Justified
Books: Red Dragon
Podcasts: Red Devils
Where We Stayed
Maria & Arturo’s Airbnb (San Ignacio): 4.5 ⭐️ huge room, lovely hosts, could do washing for free, terrace with hammock, huge bathroom, amazing breakfasts, but expensive for a room, net curtains giving no privacy or shelter from morning light, and felt a bit under their feet when wanting to use the kitchen
Blue Wave Hostel (Caye Caulker): 3 ⭐️, was fine, nothing special, charged for water refills, kitchen was small and cutlery was dirty, bathroom doors didn’t lock or locked too well!
Birdhouses (Caye Caulker): 5 ⭐️, amazing views, privacy, 3 kinds of air con, huge modern bathroom, free bikes, lovely host, where we got engaged, eek.
Cutting Room Floor
- The young lad who helped us find our Airbnb in San Ignacio, and our joy in being able to communicate our plight in English
- Google opening hours being wrong all the time
- There are no cars on Caye Caulker, just a giant fire truck. Everyone else gets around by golf-cart or fixie bicycle
- Being told that there are two crocodiles (Alfred & son) that sometimes come into the tree out from of the Birdhouse to shake down the branches and eat the less stable of the nesting birds
- Hearing the howling wind and rustling trees at night in our Birdhouse. Absolute peace.
- Bimbling about on bikes around the island
- Finally figuring out how to brake on a fixie (you pedal backwards!)
- The owner of the tour company lamenting at how competitive the island has gotten since she moved and setup there from Canada with her Belizian partner 20 years ago. Back then, she had to have health tests and also approval from the local community, now anyone can come here and setup shop.
- The competition is thinning out the demand, the island is only so big, and so there can only be so many tourists doing tours each day, sadly this means Heather has to palm us and other tourists off onto other companies to make it work.
- The competition is also way more tech savvy than she is. They are coming from abroad knowing how to have an online presence and get listed on Get Your Guide or Viator. But they take 20%, she tells us. We can’t help think that unless she modernises, she will get pushed out of the market. Surely some customers with a return of 20% less is better than no customers? Adapt to survive and all that.
- The bikes on Caye Caulker are in such high demand that you could end up paying $250 for some rust bucket piece of metal so they get stolen all the time apparently
- The lady who came up to me in the cafe to tell me I was the spitting image of her friend from college, even including my mannerisms. I forget her name, but future me looked good for her age! She apparently also worked in Sothebys in London, where Ben used to work. She took a few photos and I hope her friend was as flattered as I was. Perhaps there’s a time warp in Caye Caulker!
- The couple in their 70s on our snorkel trip in such good fitness. I asked the lady her secret. She said she exercises often, she dances salsa and samba, swims all the time, and walks a lot. They’ve also just taken up nordic walking, apparently it uses 20% more of your muscles!
- Franklin giving the same lady the chance to drive the boat, something she said she’d never done before. The joy and happiness was infectious, one of those genuinely happy for someone else moments.
- Franklin giving his son Raymond a hard time for almost everything he did. It was Raymond’s 16th birthday no less, and surely you can only blame the teacher if the pupil doesn’t know what he’s doing.
- Raymond being such a sweet kid, clearly not one for following in his dad’s footsteps, but doing as he was told with care and respect and trying his best.
- Finding out that getting seasick whilst snorkeling is a real thing, not just because I’m a weak dog. Similar to being in a car, if you’re looking at a flat floor and then your body is bobbing about all over the place, it’s going to confuse your brain. Add in water splashing in and out of your ears, plus bobbing my head above water everytime Franklin yelled out a fish name, this also confuses your brain. So maybe there’s hope for me yet, at least with scuba diving, or snorkeling in calmer waters!
- Kids throwing rocks in-front or behind their football that kept ending up in the water to “push” it back towards the shore, clever!
- The many little lizards and geckos speeding around like tiny, tiny dinosaurs. Hard to dodge on the bikes!
The Photos
Arriving into Belize, not the climate we expected, and not the climate we stayed with:
This sign with somewhat conflicting messages in a public park for children. Almost like two different people painted this with very different understandings of what it was for:
Politics in most countries (look at the banner):
Queenie on bank notes:
Setting off for snorkeling:
The glorious kitchen view, I’d happily cook looking out at this every day!
Just before James popped the question, little did I know!
In the restaurant for Valentine’s Day after the proposal, pretty apt:
A black rabbit hopping down the road in Caye Caulker without a care in the world for all the pedestrian, golf-cart, bicycle or stray dogs traffic:
Blazing sunsets:
I am chosen one! This little tabby coming for cuddles as we waited for our shuttle bus tyre to get replaced. Smitten:
1 Comment
Lovely to hear all about your wonderful news. A beautiful place, which I’m sure you’ll both have lovely memories of for life 😊. Hope you’ve fully recovered from your tummy troubles now. A wonderful blog, with such beautiful pictures to always treasure. Have a fantastic time with Hector & Sophie X