It’s been a short and, relatively, relaxing couple of weeks in Belize. We accomplished many of our Belize goals: snorkeling different parts of the reef, short day sails from island to island, seeing a manatee, and eating a lot of cheese (that last one was Adam specific – the cheese in Cuba was a huge disappointment to him).
There were also some surprises along the way: the vegetarian food options in Placencia were amazing, we’ve developed a love of lime daiquiris and drink them whenever possible to deal with the insane heat, we found a camouflage coloured starfish, and we found a hole in one of Adam’s teeth (probably not related to the Cuban cheese?)
We didn’t do any land based sightseeing in Belize but the outlaying islands are beautiful and the marine life along the barrier reef is amazing – we saw a jellyfish with a colony of fish living inside it! Most of the waters of Belize have been divided up into 8 marine reserves which seem to be more about money making than actual conservation. One would think that there would be tight restrictions on what you can and cannot do in the designated areas but, as far as I can tell the only monitoring that goes on is that a couple of young guys in blue shirts, who call themselves rangers, appear to collect an entrance fee. There is actually a lot of this in Belize. We are charged $5 US a day just to be in country (the money is collected when we check out), $5 US per person, per day, to be in the marine reserves (you are almost always in a marine reserve), and various miscellaneous entrance fees and taxes along the way. Adam was particularly annoyed by a “sanitation” charge that we had to pay to put our garbage bag in the town dumpster. We aren’t sure where the money is going because there are little to no services being offered, but everyone has a government issued receipt book so it’s hard to argue. I personally find the “aids to navigation” fee for foreign boats a bit hard to swallow since the aids are non-existent. We did come across a stick with some palm leaves on it that we assumed marked a shallow patch but we can’t be sure.
We are currently hiding out in a lagoon waiting out some bad weather and looking for a window to cross the border into Guatemala. We are about 30 miles away from the entrance to the Rio Dulce and we are looking forward to starting the last leg of the trip.
There were also some surprises along the way: the vegetarian food options in Placencia were amazing, we’ve developed a love of lime daiquiris and drink them whenever possible to deal with the insane heat, we found a camouflage coloured starfish, and we found a hole in one of Adam’s teeth (probably not related to the Cuban cheese?)
We didn’t do any land based sightseeing in Belize but the outlaying islands are beautiful and the marine life along the barrier reef is amazing – we saw a jellyfish with a colony of fish living inside it! Most of the waters of Belize have been divided up into 8 marine reserves which seem to be more about money making than actual conservation. One would think that there would be tight restrictions on what you can and cannot do in the designated areas but, as far as I can tell the only monitoring that goes on is that a couple of young guys in blue shirts, who call themselves rangers, appear to collect an entrance fee. There is actually a lot of this in Belize. We are charged $5 US a day just to be in country (the money is collected when we check out), $5 US per person, per day, to be in the marine reserves (you are almost always in a marine reserve), and various miscellaneous entrance fees and taxes along the way. Adam was particularly annoyed by a “sanitation” charge that we had to pay to put our garbage bag in the town dumpster. We aren’t sure where the money is going because there are little to no services being offered, but everyone has a government issued receipt book so it’s hard to argue. I personally find the “aids to navigation” fee for foreign boats a bit hard to swallow since the aids are non-existent. We did come across a stick with some palm leaves on it that we assumed marked a shallow patch but we can’t be sure.
We are currently hiding out in a lagoon waiting out some bad weather and looking for a window to cross the border into Guatemala. We are about 30 miles away from the entrance to the Rio Dulce and we are looking forward to starting the last leg of the trip.