Belize Belize City, Belize

Belize City, Belize

It was an early morning today so we ordered room service to save a few minutes of time. In Belize we take tenders into the dock so we had to go down when we were ready to leave the ship and get a ticket for a tender boat. Fortunately our timing was perfect and we just made it on the tender getting ready to leave. It was about 20 minutes to tender over to Belize.

We docked right in the middle of tons of shopping and quickly walked down to the Wet Lizard where we were supposed to meet our tour for today, Hammerhead Sports / Coral Breeze. We were about 45 minutes early so we went to a bar at the dock and got a couple coke’s – 16 ounce glass bottles! LJ said we’re moving here just for the Coke’s. He took some photos of the canal area and we went back to check-in for our tour.

We had been told we would be leaving at 9:30 local time (10:30 ship time) but quickly found out that we were actually leaving at 9:30 ship time so we immediately boarded a very small boat with nine other tourists and our three guides and headed up into the canal, towards the Belize river. After traveling for about 10 minutes or so we stopped at a small dock and they said we would board our own boats here. They suggested we visit the gas station restroom as there wouldn’t be any other restrooms during the day so we all walked over to the gas station/convenience store for a quick stop. The other nine people consisted of a group of six family/friends from Michigan and then one Japanese lady from California who had two family members from Japan with her that spoke little English. The boats were for 2-3 people so they each had three in their boats and then LJ and I were in the fourth. Three of the boats were the small inflatable boats and ours was a 14ft fiberglass v-hull with a 40HP Johnson 4-Stroke. It worked out quite well as I definitely wanted to drive the boat and LJ wanted to take photographs. Our three guides were in the lead boat, then the lady from California with her family, the two boats of Michigan folks and us as the caboose.

I was a little worried because I definitely wanted to go fast and LJ wasn’t sure that would happen since it was a tour and we were going up a river. Fortunately we quickly found out that part of the time we were our in a large portion of the river and able to go full speed – of course, that was after LJ got up in the bow and leaned down over the front to help get us up to full speed. It was both beautiful and heartbreaking. There were many homes on the river, from beautiful brick houses with landscaped yards to tin shacks with a cut out for a front door. We saw a child about two years old being bathed in a bucket and then homes with boats and outdoor grills and entertainment spaces. Our guide explained that every person born in Belize was entitled to land. They have three years to develop the land or they forfeit it so many people just have to put up these small shacks in order to keep their land but they can’t afford anything more. There were many families and children that came to the riverside and waved to us as we went past. It’s definitely a sharp reminder of how much we have that we take for granted in our daily lives, from simply clean water to drink and a place to use the bathroom and shower. Our guides would help spot wildlife and we would slow down for a closer look. We saw a couple small crocodiles and one larger one. We also saw various birds and as we ended our 30 mile trek up the river saw howler monkeys in the trees. At this point we turned around to return back down the river. Part of the trip was also through a Mangrove forest that was simply beautiful.

Once we got back to the small dock, they unloaded two of the boats and then asked us one and one other boat to follow the lead back to the main dock where we originally boarded, which was fine with me – more driving time! This part of the area had a lot more litter and quite a bit of poverty. We also went under one bridge that we had to duck our heads to fit under. Negotiating in that part of the water was a bit different but we made it safely back to the dock and said goodbye to our guides and our boat. Captain Bevy turned in her keys.

We did some shopping there at the port and then headed back to get on a tender back to the ship. Once back on the boat we grabbed some lunch and then headed to the room for much needed showers. And then… guess what? Naps… LJ to the gym… then dinner and no snow tonight – just back to the room and prep for tomorrow’s visit to Costa Maya – our earliest day yet.