1-9 December, 2011

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This trip was done under the auspices of REI Adventures and came in two pieces: a 1.5 day "Mayan World Extension" tour, centered out of Crooked Tree Wildlife Sanctuary, and 5 days on islands on Belize's barrier reef. The reef is second only to Australia's Great Barrier Reef in length, being some 180 miles long.

The CIA maintains an interesting site on countries: here is Belize's. There are 4 main ethnic groups: Creole, Mestizo, Maya and Garifuna. The country is relatively lightly populated with 300,000 people, but ~40% live below the poverty line. Tourism has become their major industry. Something like 30-40% of the land area is set aside as national parks and preserves. While the official language is English, the practical language is Creole. It was described as similar to phone texting - really rapid-fire shorthand English.

We did not see much British influence, aside from the official language and some names. Cars are right-hand drive and measures are miles and gallons. It seems they decided the US influence was more important to cater to. The vast majority of tourists come from the US and Canada.

 Everyone we met was friendly and welcoming, and the 4 guides were great. How bad can it be to be on tropical islands that are <100 yards wide with cabins and hammocks overlooking the water.

Mayan World Extension

The Bird's Eye View Lodge is situated on the south lagoon in Crooked Tree. We had the place to ourselves the first night, after being picked up by our Creole guide, Leonard, from Belize International. Rice and beans became a thread throughout our culinary experience. The plan was a river boat trip to the Mayan site of Lamanai, taking the better part of a day; followed by a birding tour of the Crooked Tree south lagoon and creeks by boat; and wrapped up with a personal tour of the Altun Ha Mayan site.  Ann and Elisabeth (on the barrier reef tour) did the Mayan extension after the kayaking portion.

 Here is a partial list of birds seen on the tour: jacanda, spotted sandpiper, snowy egret, limpkin, cattle egret, anhinga, turkey vultures, black vultures, great blue heron,  belted kingfisher, red warbler, blue green nuthatcher, green heron, pie-billed grebe, double crested cormorant, tree swallows, tri-coloured heron, snail kite,  bat falcon, social flycatcher, osprey, great kiskidee, black collar hawk, olive throated parakeet, least grebe, yellow tailed oriole, yellow headed parrot, squirrel cuckoo, boat billed heron, scarlet tanager, roadside hawk, black bellied whistling duck. And so on. The birder guy on the boat said he listed 47 species.

Barrier Reef

Leonard dropped us off in Belize City, for the handoff to the Island Expeditions folks, with Mestizo Juan Carlos as our mainland guide. We were taken to the Tropical Education Center to visit the Belize Zoo and overnight in the TEC guest accomodations (fancy tents). Juan Carlos gave us an intro to Belize after dinner and then drove us to Dangriga Town the next morning for the boat ride out to the Cayes to start the islands tour. We were introduced to our guides, Karm Swamos (Garifuna, lead guide) and Moses Terry (Creole), and then to our boats. Most folks were in Nimbus doubles; we were in Necky Eskia singles. After lunch and our wet exit practice, we set off. It was very windy and raining when we arrived on Coco Plum Island for this, but by the time lunch was done everything had settled down to a lovely afternoon on the water and few mile paddle to Tobacco Caye and our first two nights. We got to meet 10 others intrepid travelers for our journey. Most were near our age, but there were two sisters 15 & 25 years younger than the rest - refreshing!

 We paddled by "Bird Island" with a good population of Frigate birds and boobies. The throat sac on the male frigate is quite the adapation! then on through a cut in the Tobacco Range to Tobacco Caye. The island is maybe 100 yards across and has the classic cabins hanging over the water on stilts. Hammocks on the decks. The one price to pay was no hot water. We then discovered that the kayaking was really just transport to snorkeling sites; we adapted. We also found out that a good supply of antihistamines and topical anaesthetics were critical for dealing with insect bites - apparently mostly from sand flies.

 After a day of snorkeling around Tobacco Caye, we literally set sail for Southwater Caye to be our base for the rest of the week. Those of us in the single kayaks "barnacled" up to the doubles for the sailing leg. The weather started going a bit south after this: cooler, more wind and rain (sometimes a LOT of rain). And coconuts falling on a tin roof at night can be quite alarming!

 We visited the Smithsonian's marine institute on Carrie Bow Caye, with the idea of snorkeling next to it. The winds ended up precluding this idea , so we settled for a tour of the institute by the site manager and then a vigourous up-wind paddle back to Southwater Caye. We amused ourselves locally in the afternoon, going for a paddle around the island, and that evening had a night snorkeling outing. Very interesting at night, with noticeable current and flashlights. We didn't really see a lot (a lobster, various fishies), but it was high entertainment value.

 The final full day was an outing to Billy Hawk Caye (billy hawk is the local name for osprey) for lunch and snorkeling. Again the winds were too high for paddling, so we went by motorboat and had a fine lunch provided by Alex, the island owner. Then a final snorkeling outing. The novelty here was greater variety of coral, including rod coral. Back at the ranch, Karm gave us his promised demonstration on coconuts - tracing their lifecycle and how one obtains water, milk and flesh from them. And how one gets the next round of coconuts.

 Our last day was spent getting home: pack up back into the 3 dry bags each and pile into the boat back to Dangriga Town. There were lively seas, so the ride back was great fun with a lot of bouncing. Then a rush to get everything out of the dry bags back into luggage we'd left behind. We had a brief tour of the town from Karm and Moses, with a stop at the local grocery store for hot sauces and the like, before boarding the chartered Cessna flying us back to Belize Int'l Airport.

Click a picture to see a larger view.