We left Utila and headed back north. The first night we made it to Puerto Cortez for the night a
nd the next day we crossed the border into Guatemala. We caught a ferry from Puerto Barrios across to Punta Gorda in Belize. The national language of Belize is English and it was strange not to need Spanish anymore. The money is Belizian dollars and the bills, like Canada, have a picture of Queen Elizabeth on them, but she is very young looking on the Belizian bills. We headed to the town of Placencia which required a bus trip and a quick ferry ride to the peninsula. The beach town had a nice beach and a number of good restaurants. The next day we headed north again and stopped in the capital of Belize, Belmopan. Belmopan has a population of about 8000 people and is one of the smallest capital cities in the world. The capital was moved here from Belize City in the 60's after a hurricane hit but very few people moved with it. The government building are here but there are more parks than houses. We watched a really good soccer game and moved on to Belize City.
We stayed the night and left the next morning on a ferry to Caye Caulker. This is one of the m
any islands off the coast of Belize located along the second longest barrier reef in the world. The reef goes from the Yucatan in Mexico down the entire coast of Belize to Honduras in the south. There were numerous diving and snorkeling opportunities available on the island including full-day tours, manatee tours and a diving tour to the Blue Hole, which is one of the most famous diving locations in the world. However it was too expensive for us so we decided to take a half-day snorkeling tour. The boat went to three location on the reef and the highlight of the trip was called Shark and Ray Alley. This was a place where sting rays were fed and they swarmed around the boat as soon as it arrived. They were all used to humans and we jumped right in with them. You could touch them as they swam by and sometimes they would swim right on top of you looking for food. They sometimes have nurse sharks that come too but this time there was only a lonely barracuda looking for scraps. I did however see a nurse shark later when I was snorkeling through the coral. It is completely harmless but swims powerfully and looks dangerous. The water had many different shades of turquoise and blue which contrasted with the white sand of the island. There wasn't much of a beach but there was a split in the island caused by a hurricane and the deep water there allowed a high diving board to be installed which was a lot of fun.
We left the island and continued north to Orange Walk in Belize. The name is somewhat misleading because there is much more Spanish spoken here and the crop of choice is sugar cane rather than oranges. There is also a large settlement of German Mennonites here that have lived here for 50 years and it was common to see men dressed in overalls walking down the street. Belize is a very multicultural country with the majority a mixture of Mestizos, Mayans and Creoles as well as other immigrants such as Chinese, Indian and the Mennonites. We decided to take a tour to the Mayan ruins of Lamanai. This was an hour long boat ride up the New River, a very flat river, to arrive at the ruins. The ruins were excavated by a man from the Royal Ontario Museum. The main temple was about 35 metres high and gave an excellent lookout over the jungle and river. There was another temple that had a 3 metre high sculpture of a former ruler on the side.
We left Orange Walk the next day and headed to Mexico. This meant we were leaving Central America for the last time and now beginning the North American part of the journey. We arrived in Tulum which has a spectacular beach and ruins. The beach is pure white and the water is gorgeous turquoise. It was surprisingly uncrowded because it is located close to Cancun. However the ruins are not so quiet. One of the few ruins on the coast, the Tulum ruins are smaller and more compact than the other ones I have been to but still very impressive. A wall surrounded the entire area and a number of buildings, such as the palace and the castle, sit atop the cliffs and overlook the turquoise ocean. The first Spaniard to spot Tulum, which was still occupied at that time, noted in his journal that he passed by a town that reminded him of Seville, in Spain.
nd the next day we crossed the border into Guatemala. We caught a ferry from Puerto Barrios across to Punta Gorda in Belize. The national language of Belize is English and it was strange not to need Spanish anymore. The money is Belizian dollars and the bills, like Canada, have a picture of Queen Elizabeth on them, but she is very young looking on the Belizian bills. We headed to the town of Placencia which required a bus trip and a quick ferry ride to the peninsula. The beach town had a nice beach and a number of good restaurants. The next day we headed north again and stopped in the capital of Belize, Belmopan. Belmopan has a population of about 8000 people and is one of the smallest capital cities in the world. The capital was moved here from Belize City in the 60's after a hurricane hit but very few people moved with it. The government building are here but there are more parks than houses. We watched a really good soccer game and moved on to Belize City.We stayed the night and left the next morning on a ferry to Caye Caulker. This is one of the m
any islands off the coast of Belize located along the second longest barrier reef in the world. The reef goes from the Yucatan in Mexico down the entire coast of Belize to Honduras in the south. There were numerous diving and snorkeling opportunities available on the island including full-day tours, manatee tours and a diving tour to the Blue Hole, which is one of the most famous diving locations in the world. However it was too expensive for us so we decided to take a half-day snorkeling tour. The boat went to three location on the reef and the highlight of the trip was called Shark and Ray Alley. This was a place where sting rays were fed and they swarmed around the boat as soon as it arrived. They were all used to humans and we jumped right in with them. You could touch them as they swam by and sometimes they would swim right on top of you looking for food. They sometimes have nurse sharks that come too but this time there was only a lonely barracuda looking for scraps. I did however see a nurse shark later when I was snorkeling through the coral. It is completely harmless but swims powerfully and looks dangerous. The water had many different shades of turquoise and blue which contrasted with the white sand of the island. There wasn't much of a beach but there was a split in the island caused by a hurricane and the deep water there allowed a high diving board to be installed which was a lot of fun.
We left the island and continued north to Orange Walk in Belize. The name is somewhat misleading because there is much more Spanish spoken here and the crop of choice is sugar cane rather than oranges. There is also a large settlement of German Mennonites here that have lived here for 50 years and it was common to see men dressed in overalls walking down the street. Belize is a very multicultural country with the majority a mixture of Mestizos, Mayans and Creoles as well as other immigrants such as Chinese, Indian and the Mennonites. We decided to take a tour to the Mayan ruins of Lamanai. This was an hour long boat ride up the New River, a very flat river, to arrive at the ruins. The ruins were excavated by a man from the Royal Ontario Museum. The main temple was about 35 metres high and gave an excellent lookout over the jungle and river. There was another temple that had a 3 metre high sculpture of a former ruler on the side.
We left Orange Walk the next day and headed to Mexico. This meant we were leaving Central America for the last time and now beginning the North American part of the journey. We arrived in Tulum which has a spectacular beach and ruins. The beach is pure white and the water is gorgeous turquoise. It was surprisingly uncrowded because it is located close to Cancun. However the ruins are not so quiet. One of the few ruins on the coast, the Tulum ruins are smaller and more compact than the other ones I have been to but still very impressive. A wall surrounded the entire area and a number of buildings, such as the palace and the castle, sit atop the cliffs and overlook the turquoise ocean. The first Spaniard to spot Tulum, which was still occupied at that time, noted in his journal that he passed by a town that reminded him of Seville, in Spain.The next day we continued up the Mayan Riviera to the city of Playa de Carmen. This place is second only to Cancun for tourism and we spend the afternoon enjoying the gorgeous but crowded beach. We then took the evening ferry to the island of Cozumel where we managed to arrange through friends a place to stay with a local of Cozumel. The next morning we arranged to scuba dive with a local company. We got on the boat and we headed south along the island. The entire coast of the island was full of huge resorts of every kind but the turquoise of the water was still amazing. We arrived at the Colombia Reef and dived in. The reef was a massive formation of coral and we swam through a number of caves of coral where colorful fish peeked out at every corner. Then we would come back out to open ocean and the endless blues and floating fish were a stunning contrast to the dark of the cave. As we went to the surface at the end of the dive we were joined by a large sea turtle that was also rising to grab a breath of air. The second dive we took was a drift dive. Cozumel has many currents around the island and the abundance of corals make it one of the best places for drift diving. We got into the water and the current took us over the coral. It was possible to relax and watch the coral and fish pass by and the only thing to worry about was avoiding being drifted into coral formations. We probably covered 2 or 3 kilometers in the 40 minute dive and passed over a number of parrotfish, pufferfish, rays and even a shark was spotted.
T
he next day we caught the ferry back to the mainland and headed north to Cancun. We got there after dark but were in time to experience the famed nightlife of Cancun on a Friday night. It was a little bit disorienting being surrounded by crowds, lights and American restaurants and bars after being in Central America for so long but it was fun. We went to a bunch of different places, including taking in a Mexican rock cover band playing in the Hard Rock Cafe. The next day we witnessed the start of the rainy season as the remnants of two tropical storms blew into the area and poured down rain flooding the streets in the morning. Up until this point we had been extremely fortunate with the weather, travelling with the dry season up Central America, completely avoiding the rain and enjoying days of sun. Now we would have to deal with lots of rain every day. It cleared up enough in the afternoon that I could explore the Cancun beach. The beach is a thin peninsula about 15 km long that is packed with resort after resort. Some of the resorts are huge and most of them are designed to bring to mind Mayan pyramids. The beach itself was white sand with turquoise water but the storms had whipped up the waves so that it was impossible to swim. I walked about 5 km down the beach enjoying the surf and the different hotel designs. When I finally decided to walk back to the road I nearly got lost passing through a huge hotel. Cancun was fun to experience but I don't think I could spend too many days there.
he next day we caught the ferry back to the mainland and headed north to Cancun. We got there after dark but were in time to experience the famed nightlife of Cancun on a Friday night. It was a little bit disorienting being surrounded by crowds, lights and American restaurants and bars after being in Central America for so long but it was fun. We went to a bunch of different places, including taking in a Mexican rock cover band playing in the Hard Rock Cafe. The next day we witnessed the start of the rainy season as the remnants of two tropical storms blew into the area and poured down rain flooding the streets in the morning. Up until this point we had been extremely fortunate with the weather, travelling with the dry season up Central America, completely avoiding the rain and enjoying days of sun. Now we would have to deal with lots of rain every day. It cleared up enough in the afternoon that I could explore the Cancun beach. The beach is a thin peninsula about 15 km long that is packed with resort after resort. Some of the resorts are huge and most of them are designed to bring to mind Mayan pyramids. The beach itself was white sand with turquoise water but the storms had whipped up the waves so that it was impossible to swim. I walked about 5 km down the beach enjoying the surf and the different hotel designs. When I finally decided to walk back to the road I nearly got lost passing through a huge hotel. Cancun was fun to experience but I don't think I could spend too many days there. 
1 comment:
Gomen kudasai.
Post a Comment