Thursday, we dropped anchor off shore from Belize City. I assume the bay was too shallow for large ships. We were tendered over to the docks on small motor boats. We were all excited when we reached the dock and noticed a dolphin following closely behind us. Of course, I was trying to get a picture when my cell phone rang. It was Daddy, much to my surprise. We thought we were out of range. He called just to see how we were doing. I was able to assure him that all was going well before I lost the signal. I couldn’t get him back. It seems that people could call us but we couldn’t call out. Cell phones work well while at sea in the gulf, but are not of much use once you reach Cozumel and the Yucatan.
As soon as we got off the boat, we were walked through the “authentic” shopping mall built by the cruise line to board a nice chartered bus. There we met Mary, our guide for the excursion. She was not funny or entertaining, but was friendly and knowledgeable. She told us about the history of Belize, which, when we were in school, was still British Honduras. As a British colony until recently, Belize has a history of peace and stability often lacking in other Latin American countries. The government is not known for corruption, and the people have escaped civil war. The country is becoming increasingly popular as a tourist destination.
We saw very little of Belize City as we drove out of town. It did look nicer and more modern than the other cities and towns we had been in so far on our cruise. This all changed, however, as we got out into the rural areas, which to me, looked almost as bleak and poverty-stricken as Guatemala and Costa Maya. One thing that struck me was the amount of trash all along the sides of the road. This might have been a result of the floods that recently inundated Belize after two weeks of rain. Water still stood in many places. Perhaps the flood waters had deposited debris in the ditches along the roadside. Still, there were places where people had clearly been dumping garbage for quite some time. If Belize hopes to become a tourist attraction, they need to clean the place up! I commented on the litter to Doug. “Just like at home,” he quipped. But it was worse, much worse. We do at least pick the trash up ever now and then.
We rode for about an hour to a zoo. The landscape along the way was flat, sandy, and punctuated by scrubby tropical plants. In the distance, oddly-shaped mountains seemed to jut out suddenly from the flat land. Eventually, we entered a more jungle-like forest with thick growth. Soon after that, we reached our destination, a zoo that housed animals native to Belize. We were told an American lady had financed it and was very proud of it. A fellow traveler told us the lady is Dolly Parton.
It was raining on us all the way out there and the rain continued the whole time we were there. It was a light shower, and it was fairly warm, so we just got wet rather than carry umbrellas. We had foolishly left our rain jackets back on the ship. We wandered along trails to see tapirs, tropical birds, black howler monkeys, deer, cougars, leopards, and
other assorted cats. We were able to get up close to the animals, but the rain prevented me from getting good pictures.
The zoo was just so-so, certainly not worth the long ride out to it. We spent a short time there before boarding the bus for another ride to the Belize River where our lunch was already prepared – chicken with rice and red beans. It was tasty, but the conditions under which it was served were pretty unappetizing. As usual, there were people selling goods there, and Doug and I were delighted that one of them had Snicker bars for sell. We bought one for each of us and thoroughly enjoyed them. All of us bought these flimsy blue and yellow plastic ponchos to wear on the boat we were about to ride down the river back to the bay. The rain had stopped, but the sky was still threatening. The motorboat had no cover.
We rode for miles and miles down the river and saw mostly green – green water, and thick green plant life along the banks. Our guide spotted iguanas and black howler monkeys in the trees along the river and made the boatman go back so we could get a closer look. We also saw crocodiles, though they were small. People think nothing of swimming in this river with crocodiles! The rain held off throughout most of our ride, so it was pleasant.
However – when we neared the bay, the bottom fell out. Our driver sped up and we all covered ourselves with our plastic ponchos and huddled down in the boat as low as we could. The boat flew over the water. At one point, I looked at the woman next to me and saw the plastic was covering her face. I pulled my poncho aside and yelled, “Can you breathe?” She pulled the plastic down, and, looking like a drowned rat, as we all did, she said to me, “This is the most miserable day of my life.” I laughed and said to her, “You have to see the humor in it!” She laughed, too.
We were very glad to get back to our ship and get a hot shower before joining Mary Ann and John for a nice dinner. This turned out to be our least favorite excursion, but it had still been an interesting day.
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