SAN IGNACIO FARMERS MARKET & MAYAN RUINS

It's Saturday & that means farmers market in San Ignacio. First though it's breakfast at Lower Dover everything fresh - eggs from their chickens, juice & fruit & the best coffee. Our first stop is Spanish Look Out a Mennonite community, it is possibly the most modern village in all of Belize & one of the few places to buy foreign goods. The one road through the area is better than the highways in the rest of Belize.

To leave we needed to take the "ferry" across the river. This was quite an experience. The raft is pulled back & forth across the river manually & holds 3 maybe 4 cars.

After this experience we were off to San Ignacio & the farmers market. After crossing the river on a single lane bridge we spent several minutes finding a parking place, finally found one down by the river. there were more cars here than any other place in Belize at one time. This was also unlike any farmers market I have ever seen. There were at least 100 stalls of people selling all kinds of fresh fruits & vegetables, places to by chicken & other meat, and so many places serving food & drinks I lost count. That was only the beginning though, there were vendors for everything imaginable. We saw people selling clothing (not sure if it was new or used) & shoes, household items, things like Avon & other perfumes & such & so much handmade items I could have shopped all day. We did buy some gifts & I spent some time looking at some Mayan jewelry that a lady was carving, I will go back one day a buy a necklace from her. There is a great deal of Mayan influence here as we were only 5 or 6 miles from the Guatamalan border & people come across the border to sell their goods. It was all pretty amazing.

It was a very humid day & on our way back to the car we watch the kids doing what kids everywhere do, swimming in the river.

Ron wanted to see the border to Guatamala, so we started driving, but after several warning signs, we turned around about a mile before the border. Back in town we found some fast food

 There are no fast food resaurants as we know them in all of Belize, this is fast food, so when in Belize.....
Ron wanted to see some Mayan ruins so we headed off to Cahal Pech, just outside of town on one of the mountains. I have to say I was pretty impressed.

What a busy exhausting day! Back to Lower Dover & a nice cool rain water shower. Ron went for a hike with the owner to see some newly discovered Mayan Ruins on the back of their property. It will be interesting to touch base with them in the future as these are studied & excavated. These ruins post date most of the other ruins & appear to be much larger, possibly an entire city on the bank of the river. After that it was dinner & early to bed. Tomorrow will be another busy day, starting with our drive to Placencia.

OFF TO THE JUNGLE!

Time to say goodbye to the Gecko Bungalow & explore a different part of Belize. Heading for Cayo District & San Ignacio. Heading out the Northern highway we stopped at the Belize Zoo. It is a zoo unlike any I have ever seen. Most of the animals are rescues & all are native to Belize, but that is not what makes it so unique. The animals are in their natural habitat, & so close you can touch them! There are plenty of signs telling you not to stick your fingers in the cages.

The pathways are like beautiful jungle paths.

This whole zoo is run completely by donations, & most of the workers are volunteers.

We enjoyed our visit & now it's off to Lower Dover Jungle Lodge. This is in a very remote part of the country. It is an eco lodge, with over 100 acres, most of which is jungle. It bordered by rivers on 3 sides. We stayed in a cabana with a rain water shower, & mosquito netting over the bed.

this is an actual working eco farm, they raise chickens (2 of which we had for dinner) & other animals, & have 6 dogs that accompanied us on a walk. It was kind of cool as they were leading us on the walk & would run off into the woods at times to chase critters they heard.. It was like having guard dogs. Dinner was amazing again, fresh chicken, vegetables, soup & potatoes. We had an early night as there isn't much to do in the jungle after dark & we definitely didn't want to walk around on our own.

Caye Caukler -the Best Snorkeling Ever!

Finally the weather cooperated & we are off to Caye Caukler. there are only 2 ways to get to the caye, either by water taxi or by air plane, so we decided to take the plane. We got to the air strip & boarded our 6 seat air plane for the 15 minute trip to the caye. Great sights on the way!

When we landed we took a golf cart taxi into town. there are no cars on the caye, only golf carts & bikes. Our taxi driver owns a gift shop & let us store our bags in his store while we were on the island. We stopped for a local breakfast of brown eggs, bacon & fry jacks, which are awesome & would become part of breakfast every morning!. We walked the beach, which is the length of the island & beautiful. Now it's time to snorkel. Since we have to catch the last flight back to the mainland we can only do a half day snorkel which was $35 each for 3 hours. Unlike most snorkel trips we have taken this one was a 15min. boat ride to our first snorkel stop on the barrier reef. Belize has the second longest barrier reef in the world. We have snorkeled most of the Caribbean Islands & Mexico, but this by far the best snorkel we have ever done, & the least expensive as well! We snorkeled with rays, nurse sharks, so many beautiful fish & amazing coral. Our guide took us through the coral in the reef, where sometimes there was barely a passage for us to fit through, & often the coral was right under us. It was so beautiful. We will definitely repeat this snorkel when we return to Belize. Back on the Caye we played tourist, we shopped had lunch & generally enjoyed speaking with the locals who were all very friendly. Caye Caukler turned out to be our second favorite place in Belize!

After a fun filled day it was back to the air strip & our flight back to the mainland for our final night at the Gecko Bungalow. Tomorrow it's off to the jungle for a few days.

Rainy Day in Belize is Better than Snow at Home!

Slept great that night! But woke up to rain in the morning, so we went back to sleep, hoping it would pass. Well, it was still raining when we finally got up, so that decide our plans for the day for us - no Caye Caukler, we drove north to Corozal to check it out. Driving in Belize is an experience the highways are 2 lane roads usually with no shoulders & Belizeans drive like they were trained in NYC, the speed limit is 50mph, but you wouldn't know it because if you drive that people pass you on curves, hills, it doesn't matter. I suggested to Ron that he had to drive like he was back in Detroit. Oh & most bridges are one lane, so whoever gets there first goes across! Roads are not well marked either, there are few mile markers & they are just posts painted white with a number on them. Fortunately there are only 4 main highways in Belize, Northern Highway, Southern Highway, Western Highway & Hummingbird Highway, so it's pretty hard to get lost.

Corozal in a nice medium size town right near the border with Mexico. I vaguely remembered driving through on our bus trip. We had lunch - Belizean Chinese, with local beer because the beer is cheaper than bottled water. We also did a little shopping & some sightseeing. Most people ride bikes, so you have to be careful in towns. Belize also has what they call "silent policemen" entering into every small town! these are the speed bumps from HELL! most are marked with a sign, but not all, & a small town can just be a small group of buildings, so you really have to watch. You also need to remember that where there's one, there is another as you leave town. There are also speed humps, these are speed bumps except they are much wider & these are usually by schools & used as cross walks. Speaking of schools most of the schools are run by churches in cooperation with the government - what a novel idea! the kids all wear uniforms, each school has it's own uniform, all different colors. Most of the kids take buses or walk & it seems like most of them are actually smiling. More on that in another post. We enjoyed sightseeing in Corozal, but for me it reminded me a bit too much of Mexico.

Back to the Gecko Bungalow for our second night. dinner at Manatee Lookout was lamb chops that were amazing, between 6 & 8 chops with a veggie salad & flat bread with homemade humus. The chops were a bit small, but most meat & poultry is small in Belize - no hormones, everything is free range, it tastes so much better! Plans for tomorrow are Caye Caukler weather cooperating.