Island Life

From San Pedro Town, Ambergris Caye we took a 1/2 hour ride in a water taxi to the tiny coral isle of Caye Caulker. First stop was to find the lovely Lena's Guest House where they had a room available.

The view from our porch sums up the pace of the village; the main transportation methods are boats, golf carts, bicycles and on foot.

Roads are unpaved and few, as this map shows. Snorkeling on the Belize Barrier Reef is just a short boat ride offshore.

Before the growth of tourism, conch and lobster fishing was the major industry. Lobster traps were stacked all over.

 Now there are laid-back mini-marts like Chan's (they apparently deliver when they are open)

and laundry services.

By far, the most popular island industry seems to be Happy Hour.

and my personal favorite.

Happy Hour from 4pm 'till Everybody Happy.

FYI, a Panti Rippa is favorite of former Peace Corps Volunteers in Belize.  A sneaky drink with coconut rum and pineapple juice, it is considered by some to be the national cocktail of Belize.

The Journey is the Destination

This recent trip through Belize, Guatemala and Chiapas Mexico made me realize how much I relish the travel part of a trip. We did this in the '70s but had gotten out of the habit of just taking off with no itinerary.

In this case we knew that we were flying from Mexico City to Chetumal on the southernmost Caribbean coast of Mexico and we knew that the water taxi left at 3 in the afternoon from the dock. That's it: the rest is up to serendipity.

Chetumal turned out to be a commercial border town and if it had particular charm, it was lost on me.  It did have a very nice museum.  We spent one night in Chetamul and then went through immigration for our water taxi to San Pedro Town,  Ambergris Caye (pronounced key).

Arriving without a hotel reservation is part of the new travel paradigm.  We ended up at Ruby's Hotel, on the beach.   Location isn't a problem because there are only 3 streets  and you can walk anywhere in town.  This is the view from our balcony.

The town was full of enticing restaurants but we found ourselves drawn to Estel's for the sandy ambiance and tasty breakfasts.  This photo was the second of many we took with Instragram on the iPhone Melissa gave Bryan.

We arrived at the beginning of Carnival which meant music and dancing.

These gender-bending "ladies" danced and sang behind a truck with loud speakers.  The truck carried a long orange extension cord which was plugged into someone's store or home.  When it was time to move on, the cord was unplugged and the truck moved to the next block and the next available socket.

Belize has a large population of Mennonites who carry on with their traditional dress, farming practices and religion.  They also make a wonderful target for Carnival satire.  Here are a group of dancing non-Mennonites, most cross dressing, as real Mennonites.

 By far the highlight of the Carnival was splashing each other with (water soluble) paint from re-purposed soda bottles.  The first night was for the young kids, the second for the young men and it got crazy, including raw eggs,  just as we left on the last night.