Caribbean Cruise! Cont...

 Belize City, Belize

Wednesday, February 15

In Belize we took an hour long bus ride through the city, then countryside, to a jungle so thick with foliage that you can't see the ground.  

Our ride was very interesting.  Edward, our local tour guide, kept us well-informed and well-entertained.  Belize is extremely poor.  The people of Roatan were much better off, and we had thought they were poverty stricken.  I didn't want to offend anybody, especially Edward, by taking pictures of the extreme poverty we saw, but now I wish I had so I could show my kids; an ever-reminder to be grateful for what we have.  We are RICH!  The locals knew it too.  As we passed some locals sitting on the sidewalk watching us spoiled cruisers exit the ship, Jess heard one mutter, "too much money" while shaking his head. 

Similar to Roatan, there is one highway in Belize, which is also a small, two lane road.  At one point we were driving directly through a cemetery, with graves on both sides of the road for about a mile.  Edward told us it's the only highway in the world that drives through the middle of a cemetery, which landed it a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records.   The plot markers were very different than here.  Although the bodies are buried under ground, a cement block that's the full length of the plot, looking much like a tomb of some sort, sits on top of every grave, and at the head of most of the graves there's a stone book opened to a scripture, probably one that had meaning to the person underneath.   I should have at least taken a picture of that!

We couldn't believe some of the living conditions.  One home that stood out the most to me looked about the size of a refrigerator box.  It was up on stilts with a single hammock hanging from the stilts underneath.  It was made of random sheets of corrugated metal with gaping holes in some places.  There was a padlock on the door and someone was asleep in the hammock.  I think that most homes had no running water because I couldn't see any pipes whatsoever on the ones on stilts.  We even passed a mom and several of her very young children in a river, all with a bucket and a stick, washing clothes, a very far cry from how I wash my children's clothes. 

As we progressed into more poverty-stricken areas the questions on the bus turned to money and living conditions.  Edward graciously answered all, and some were shocking.  

Q: "What are gas prices?"

A: "It's equivalent to $6 American dollars per gallon.  That's why most people choose their BMW's, also known as "Better Me Walk's"."

Q: "Is malaria a problem here?"

A: "It used to be, and only is where there's standing water.  An agency of the government comes to inspect one's property and if it has standing water they get a warning and have to clean it up by a certain time.  If it's still there next time they get fined."

I think we saw standing water on at least half of the properties we saw.

Q: "Is there a minimum wage?"

A: "Yes, it's equivalent to $2 American dollars per hour."

Q: "What are the highest paying jobs and how much do they make?"

A: "The highest paying jobs are government jobs and they make about $12 per hour."

Wow, wow, wow.  We are so spoiled.  Jess and I wanted to just load up a van with stuff and go give it to some of those people.  We made sure to tip our bus driver really well!

Edward dubbed our group "Team Edward" and seemed confused when some girls shouted out, "NO! Team Jacob!".  Haha.  After our "complimentary 10 minute massage" (10 drive on a very pot-holed dirt road) we were pretty deep in the jungle.   We geared up for our first zip-lining experience, which we loved!  It was a thrill, to say the least!

This little plant was fascinating.  I don't remember the name, but it's natural defense mechanism is to go to sleep, which is ironic that it's used to treat insomnia.

After the zip-line we geared up for the Crystal Cave, an underground fresh-water mountain spring that flows through a cave. It was interesting to see the ancient pottery and other evidences left behind by the Mayans, dating back from 300-900 ad.  We were told that during some ancient rituals they had more than 300 fires lit in the cave at once.  How they can actually know these things is beyond me, but it was still interesting. 

Here's some of the beautiful crystal encrusted cave formations.

Having feet in some random person's face, and ankles in their armpits is a bit awkward for 

We took a swim in a small lagoon that went 40 feet deep in some places (and brrrr it was cold!), and then we were at the end.  It was such a beautiful sight, as you can see.  What you can't see are all the bats flying overhead!

We had an authentic meal of chicken, rice and beans, nachos, and guava juice.  Delish.

Here's our little jungle bus.

Although we LOVED the jungle, we didn't love this port.  It was too busy, chaotic, and dirty.  We skipped any souvenir shopping and headed back to the ship.  

There was a very distinct brown/turquoise water line.  It was beautiful beyond the brown, out where our ship was anchored.

As Edward would say, we had an "un-Belize-able" time!