We flew into Belize City and as we had heard of nothing good to see here we headed straight to Caves Branch to go cave tubing. On the way there we ran into this guy and his baby howler monkey:
Next we jumped off of some rocks and floated through a minor cave system where we saw the usual - bats, stalactite/mites.
I thought this cashew growing on it's tree was cool:
From Caves Branch we got dropped off at the bus station in the old capital city of Belmopan where we had the experience of riding public transportation on the last bus of the day when everyone was trying to get home for the weekend. There is no better place to see a cross-section of working class public in a country than a bus station, and the cultures in Belize are diverse - the national language is English, but all around us we heard bits of Spanish, Kriol/Garifuna and even German from the Mennonites who seem to have quite a presence here. On the two hour busride down the Hummingbird Highway, which in one section smelled deliciously of citrus, a Garifuna kid talked loudly the ENTIRE time. Even knowing some Spanish vocabulary, some French and English of course, I think I understood .02 percent of what he was saying. Since I was squished in and didn't have a window seat I tried to settle into a magazine, but quickly felt uncomfortable with the materialism and excess of what I would generally consider to be the humble Better Homes and Gardens (compared to say Architectural Digest or Elle Decor). Travel can be an important reminder that our own day-to-day experience does not necessarily reflect that of the rest of the world.
We arrived in the predominantly Garifuna town of Dangriga (birthplace of punta rock (I can seriously find zero appropriate links other than this one))and settled into our digs at Pal's Guesthouse, although not before eating at the only place open, which happened to be a Chinese restaurant.
1 comment:
Can't wait for day #2.
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