Needless to say, I was asleep the entire time during the flight to Miami, where I had to wait for about one hour for the next flight to Belize.
Indeed in about one hour after our arrival we boarded another AA plane, destined to Belize. Once more, in that flight, other than talking to the very sweet lady next to me, Sarita, who was going to Belize for her granddaughter’s wedding, I was asleep. Evidently, the quality of sleep that you get on a plane economy seat is not very good, nonetheless it was very helpful.
We landed at around 10:00 local time (NY is two hours ahead.) Goldstone airport is small and family like.
I went through passport control where the form I submitted was missing the hotel where I would stay (did not have one anyway.) All I could come up with was “it is a hotel near the University.” This was too vague for a custom’s officer to accept, nonetheless the employee did and filled out a random name for the hotel. After that I passed the customs control and then I was free to go.
At customs control, the custom officers made everybody open their suitcases and checked inside for smuggled material. In this case that meant liquor and some other items that are heavily taxed in Belize. I had not seen such a scene since my twenties when Greece was not a member of the European union and whenever I returned from America I had to go through the same process. I had totally forgotten about it.
There was no bus or other public means of transportation to the city, so I hired a cab to take me for a two mile ride to the main road, the only semi-descent highway in Belize and there I waited for the bus that took me to the bus terminal in the city. After that I begun looking for a hotel, starting w/ the person that had been sitting next to me and who was Spanish speaking. For your info, the major and official language of Belize is English but a good portion of the population speaks Spanish. People pointed me to different directions and finally ended up at the North Front Guest house
The person who showed me to my room was a nice fellow by the name of Mario, a Canadian from Quebec. I settled in, then I was told that there was no running water for now, there would be in a couple of hours. After I settled in I went for a tour of the city. It turns out that Belize city is not exactly what on would call a city. Rather it is, what I call, a big village, very cute in its own right. People are friendly and personable. For instance, the court guard that had helped me to find the guest house after explaining the directions to me, went on and recounted details from his personal life. He told me how his mother had left him behind when he was six months old to go to England and would only return once in a while see her own mother (his grandmother) and when she died his mother never showed up again.
The city is flat and one gets the intense impression of being exactly at the same level w/ the surrounding sea
Waterway
Mendicants
The port
School
Bus stop
El hombre poly tail
The light house
A different house
The main street
Central square
Water ways
Having made the decision to go to Belize literally at the last moment, I was unprepared and unplanned, as usual, and that this was once Maya country was all I knew about Belize. I made the best move I could think of, I went to the tourist information office. The ladies there were very nice and largely ignorant. All I managed to get out of them was a couple of pamphlets. After I left, I started walking around and keeping an eye out for tourist operators. Down the same road where the office was I spotted a hotel, the Palm Trees In. I went in and asked the two ladies that were in charge whether they knew of any tourist operator. They said yes and gave me a pamphlet of a tourist operator describing the tours he was organizing. I copied the info I needed thanked them and left. I walked back over the bridge at the side of the guest house and walked North Front Street in the opposite direction from the guest house. That took me by what I later found out was the “Tourist Village” and further beyond at a light house. I took a couple of pictures and then I walked into the Radison hotel, which appeared to be an exclusive location. I inquired whether they organized any tours. The lady that was in charge provided me w/ a pamphlet and proceeded to discuss it.
I walked back towards the guest house running in my mind all the combinations of the excursions offered by the two different agencies. I decided to start w/ the one proposed by the inn. I walked back to the inn and found one of the two ladies there, the younger one. She turned out to be the younger sister of the two. I asked her if she could contact the operator. For that we would need a calling card she said and I rushed out to buy one. When I returned though, she said, pointing at the pamphlet that the tour I wanted was not organized for tomorrow, but no worries, she knew somebody else, Sherman. With her help I contacted Sherman and we arranged for him to pick me up at the inn tomorrow after 8:00. I left and returned to the guest house where the water was back and running, a good time to take a shower. After I was refreshed, I went to the back of the house to smoke a cigarette to relax. Soon Mario and his girlfriend, Sandra, joined me. We had an interesting conversation and after we discussed all we could think, I went to my room to sleep.
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