belize

“If you do not change directions, you may end up where you’re heading.”  -Lao Tzu

After crossing the Mexican border into Belize, which consisted of a line-up on the wharf (complete with a dog sniffing all our stuff, my bag was apparently suspicious and pulled apart – must have been all the hard drugs I brought along in case I got bored), we hopped on a boat to Caye Caulker. We stayed one week on this small island in a dilapidated shack on the beach; it was wonderful! We slept in late and adjusted to life at our own slow pace. Every day we took a walk or a swim, meditated or did yoga, and one night even took in a movie (or two) at an outdoor cinema. We grabbed a spot on the sand and watched pirated films with a nice cold beer. We met a nice (if not a bit eccentric German-American) looking to buy real estate and tagged along ostensibly to look at property. We got a nice boat ride out of the deal and saw the other side of the island.

   

      

     

  

After mustering up the motivation to move on, we headed for San Ignacio which is close to the Western border with Guatemala. We spent a couple nights in town which were a bit uninspiring and decided to head out further to a place called the Trek Stop – which had medicinal plants, a butterfly garden and Mayan ruins – as well as $5 camping. We spent a few nights breaking in our new tent, made friends with a stray dog that we nicknamed Red Fox (don’t ask) and stared at thousands of spiders’ eyes glowing in the night whenever we used our headlamp. We picked a spot in a clearing by ourselves which was really beautiful in the day, but a bit eerie at night. And late at night we could listen to Tino (the friendly proprietor) and his friends’ jam sessions on traditional wooden xylophones.

    

We walked to a smaller village for provisions and checked out some Mayan Ruins at Xunantunich, which was really peaceful all except for the shrieking howler monkeys, sounding more T-Rex than mammal. Then it was time to pack up and head on out.