I had a blast in Belize, even though I was there for just a week, and given that short amount of time, we decided not to kill ourselves trying to get to the bottom of the place; so as soon as we flew into Belize City - which is a well-cooked shit hole - we made like fugitives to the islands. We stayed mainly in North Belize, and there are two Cayes (keys) there worth visiting: Caye Caulker and Ambergris Caye. We just went to Caye Caulker, which is tiny and home to young travelers, much the same as ourselves I suppose, with limited budgets, who don't mind sleeping on dodgy stained linen, sacrificing air conditioning for a slap-up feed, etc.
From what I heard, and saw on the at the docks, Ambergris Caye is for the show boaters: saw a lot of loved-up Yanks, tearing the arse out of it on the credit card, occasionally mingling with our types out on the
coral, staring up 15 feet above them at the snorkelers from the weighted sanctuary of their diving suits, looking at the same goddamn thing for about a hundred times the price: fish, and lots of the little blighters too. I also hear that it's 'the' place to go for honeymooners, and I'd expect the accommodation to be a lot nicer and with snazzier restaurants and that sort of thing. I've heard good reports, but wouldn't be my scene.
The people are really chilled out, but I made the initial mistake of mistaking 'chilled' for 'friendly'. I didn't find them to be that exactly, but then that's a huge generalization. Although I met a lot of rude fuckers in Belize city, and generally they radiate indifference. They'll get you a drink, or show you a room, but they really just couldn't give a shit whether you take it or not. We ended up going to this bar about four nights in a row, and every time I went up, you'd swear they'd never seen me before. Not a sniff of a, "hello again", or "any auld schcandal?". But then you do bump into the odd person who seems to have managed to grasp the underlying principles of the tourism business, and get a genuine enough smile - and when you do, you tend to latch on to those people - just to prove the system works. Belize is a strange melting pot, part Mayan, part Spanish and
with a large African influence. It's the only English speaking country in Central America which is probably a big attraction for those godawful insular Americans. They also perpetuate the Rastafarian way of life, but I deeply suspect this to be concocted for the gullible tourist trade. 'Pseudo-rastas', so to speak.
We did a lot of snorkeling, swinging from hammocks, and eating lobster every evening and mainly just relaxing and enjoying ourselves. It definitely wasn't traveling, but I got the travel bug again and as soon as I came back all I wanted to do was leave again. It's definitely not that cheap though, especially compared to neighbouring countries like Mexico, Guatemala (which can be dangerous in spots apparently) and Honduras, but some stuff is still pretty good value, like food. We were blessed with the weather, and it only rained on one day, which we were expecting as it's not the greatest time to go. Just to say we saw some legitimate culture, we spend a couple of days inland visiting some ruins, which were actually well worth the effort. We went to a place called Lamanai, which I thought was intriguing, and certainly adequate for an introduction into Mayan history, but we met a few 'ruin snobs' who just kept telling us to go to Tikal in Guatemala, which was apparently far more impressive. Although one of those was a rotund girl from Harrogate who somehow managed to puke 'up' her snorkel, and all all over the reef. The damn fish thought all their birthdays had come at once.
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