Thursday, September 09, 2010 – Day 02

I got up at 6:00. I had not taken a watch w/ me because I do not own one and this time I had not brought a cell phone either. To find out what time it was, I had to turn the netbook on and look at the time there. Very Original!!!!

I took a shower, got dressed, and worked on the netbook till around 7:40. At that time I got up and walked to the Palm Trees Inn where Sherman would be waiting for me after 8:00, as he had said.
The only traffic officer in town



The hotel was closed and I waited outside. The lady that opened the hotel came at around 8:30. She was Francela’s sister and when I told her that I was waiting for Sherman she invited me in to wait for him more comfortably. As I waited I chatted w/ her, her name was Shakira, but Sherman did not show up. I decided to go buy a calling card and give him a call. At the first attempt all I got was his answering machine but when I called a few minutes later he answered the phone and apologized. He said he would be there in 20 mins. At this point I knew I was screwed. Either he would show up or I would have to hang around town for the entire day. It was too late to arrange for anything else. So I continued chatting w/ Shakira. The topic of conversation was the upcoming Saturday carnival. She said that everybody in Belize expects that day through out the year and the anticipation builds up, especially during the last couple of days. Tonight, for instance, she and her girlfriends would go dancing all night. Actually, a friend of hers stopped by and the carnival and the dancing was the main topic of their conversation. The 20 mins went by and Sherman did not show up. Shakira advised me to give him a call again. I did so and when he picked up he said he would be there in a few minutes. Indeed he showed up on time this time. The total waiting time was a little more than two hours.

Sherman showed me to a van that already had 8 passengers and I squeezed in. They were passengers of a cruise ship that had docked to Belize today and had decided to take a tour to Altun Ha. To go to Altun Ha we had to take the northern highway.
This is how the North highway looks like


I took several photos from the car as we were driving
Rural Caribbean house


House on stilts


After passing a military post we left the highway and turned into an even smaller road, where two cars coming from the opposite directions could hardly fit.


Finally we arrived at Altun Ha which is one of the major Maya sites of the area


Altun Ha means “Stone Water” and it was unearthed in the 70s
First glimpse


The site


The gravity fields in that area are really low and if one is not careful, one can take off easily




Up the stairs


The main pyramid


Up the pyramid


View of the side from the top of the pyramid


Main pyramid from another angle


View of the entire site





We drove back into the city and the driver left us at the so called tourist village.
The tourist village is a site privilegely located by the water front and access is denied, unless one has a foreign passport. There is a shopping mall and places to eat or have drinks. The view from wherever you choose to sit is fantastic. My assumption is that locals are not allowed in because there are no tariffs or taxes on any of the goods sold there and since the some items, like liquor are heavily taxed in Belize the place would have been heavily packed w/ people that want to buy tax free items.

I went up and down the boardwalk a couple of times my eyes always fixed on the view










Finally I stopped for a drink



My next move was to walk back to the city and near the center I ran into Shakira who asked me how I had liked Altun Ha. I told her that I was on my way to buy a watermelon and if she were at the hotel in half an hour, I would stop by and perform the deed there. I took one of the roads that lead to the center but in the opposite direction. I wanted to go to the farmer’s market that we had seen when returning from Altun Ha and also take a picture of THE ONLY traffic light that the town has, pointed out to us by the driver/guide. As I walked I took pictures of everything noteworthy.

Dental office


Wooden house ready to fall apart


THE TRAFFIC LIGHT






A very good unanswered question is “what is the penalty for running the red on the ONLY traffic light in town?” I can only guess and my guess is that the penalty must be severe, something like 10-year incarceration and chopping off an arm. It only makes sense.

On the way I met a funeral procession




House w/ garden


Tree shade


House w/ garden


Fish market


Shakira was at the hotel w/ her sister and this is where the other half of the watermelon was eaten.

I left before 17:00 and headed to Ranson hotel to book a tour for tomorrow.
Meanwhile the festivities had started



Policemen in police car


Beautiful house


The man in charge At Ranson told me that the participation for tomorrow’s tour was low and the tour might be cancelled. They gave me their phone number to call and verify later. I walked back to the guest house and had a couple of cigarettes w/ Mario. At around 19:00 I called and the answer was that the tour was canceled but if I wanted, for a little more money, they could arrange a personal tour for me. I said OK and arranged to be picked up tomorrow morning at 9:00 from the guesthouse.

The final move of the day was to go get a haircut. It has been my habit whenever I travel to get a haircut from local barbers, and since a haircut was long overdue, I decided that this was the time. By asking I located a barber shop a couple of blocks from the guest house. Even though it was after 19:00 and in addition there were three barbers giving haircuts in the store, there was a long line of locals waiting. So, I waited in line. The other surprising thing was that none of the three barbers used any scissors. I don’t think there were any scissors in evidence. All haircutting took place by means of mechanical means, the electric haircutting machines. All along, there was a youth in the store waiting for his turn, who was preaching the gospel in a very loud voice. I must make something clear. People speak Creole, which is English w/ a very different accent and a vocabulary influenced by African languages. As a result when they speak to one another I can hardly understand, I may catch about 20% of what they say. So, in this case, I think the youth was preaching the gospel, but, on the other hand, he might have been making fun of it. When my turn came, the man gave me a quick and nice haircut. Freed from the weight of my hair I headed back to the guest house.

The rest of the evening I just hung out, washed my clothes, and finally went to bed.

Wednesday, September 08, 2010 – Day 01

My AA flight 2003 was scheduled for 6:00 in the morning, which meant I had to leave my place at around 3:00. The implication was that I might not get any sleep at all. Indeed I did not go to bed fearing I wouldn’t wake up in time but at the same time between taking care of stuff and getting my things ready there was no time left to sleep. I made it to LGA in time.

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.