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Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 37
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pix here: http://community.webshots.com/user/lsmith17s

Not So Brief TR: Belize City airport is hot at 11am Saturday morning. We easily catch the next Tropic Air flight, thanks to voucher arrangements made by the ever-efficient folks at Xanadu, our home for the next week.

We buzz over to AC, enjoying the views of the shallows between the reef and the mainland. Spotted a group of 3 sharks swimming in the shallows off an islet and a Mayan Air flight headed back to BZE.

Stood out in the hot sun at Ambergris Caye airport, getting windblown and dust-coated and grinning stupidly while waiting for luggage to be brought out of the plane's belly. Grab a cab and off we go to the Super Mart to get water and beer and other goodies. Back in the cab for a very short ride to entry of Xanadu. We're here! Alex meets us, grabs our luggage and, after we check in with Lupe at the desk and chat with Susan, the manager, we chill at the pool for a bit while our room is prepped. Soon we're unpacked and organized in our lovely, comfy and cool digs. Let's go chat w/ Lupe about stuff to do and get on a boat for snorkeling tomorrow!

The week flies by, each day taken up with activities. We snorkel Hol Chan preserve, visit sharks & rays at Shark Ray Alley, snorkel Mexico Rocks (our fav spot), where we swim with spotted eagle rays and a coupla large, curious barracuda. We spot a sleeping nurse shark and get eyeballed by a passing loggerhead turtle.

One day we trip over to Lamani ruins on the mainland, a highlight. We're accompanied by a group of middle-school age kids, who are on a romp. One poor soul, Carlos, gets motion sickness at the drop of a hat and between the fast boat from AC to the village of Bomba in the jungle, he's pretty green with the twists and turns as we zip along up-river in that fast craft, banking crazily around tight turns in the mangroves, throwing up a 10 foot wall of rooster tail off the lee chine.

We get to Bomba mid-morning, where it is hot, still, dusty. Some avail themselves of the "one star" el banyo while others poke their heads into dim, hot huts sporting local crafts that are, IHMO, overly priced and not particularly unique. A local boy is walking around with two orphaned baby parrots on his shoulders. People take pix and chat with the young man, who explains he found the birds in the nearby jungle and is taking care of them. They seem perfectly content to be perched where they are.

We hop aboard the dust express, where, after about 10 mins of roaring down a dusty track, zigzagging potholes, we screech to a halt to let Carlos rush down the steps and outside to lose his breakfast. The other kids peer curiously out the widows at Carlos then, all together, go "ughhh! Argh!!" and make faces. The adults roll their eyes and speculate on what can help settle his stomach. He will keep this up all day, on the bus, on the boat, back on the bus, back on the other boat... it will be a long day for poor Carlos.

The bus arrives at our mid-way point, where we break for the "two star" el banyos, baking in the heat. A large, open pavilion next to the New River gives some shade and catches fitful breezes as we await the signal to hop aboard the next boat and another fast, windy, twisting and high-banking ride 25 miles up river to where Lamani ruins perch on a high hill overlooking a large lagoon.

Gee, we're here just at noon, when the equatorial sun is at its zenith. We wilt in the heat under a pavilion, eating a nice, hot meal (!) of BBQ chicken and rice and plantains and oh-my-God I just want a frozen drink. Water and soft drinks are disappearing fast from the cooler. We soon make our way up to the airless museum, where we politely swelter and drip while our extraordinarily knowledgeable guide and boat captain attempts to hold the kids' attention while pointing out certain artifacts in the glass cases. Most folks wander outside to catch a breeze.

Off down the canopied trails to the ruins. This is the fun part, stomping along these high mounds made centuries ago by these ancient peoples, surrounded by jungle growth, bird calls and howler monkey grunts, groans and growls that echo through the trees. We trip over roots as we crane our necks- look, there's a toucan! Very cool to spot one in the wild. Our guide knows all the critters by their calls and keeps us fully informed about all things Mayan as we approach the first of 4 excavated temples, one of which is a tomb.

Soon we are looking up at the steep stairs of the largest temple, and of course I break my promise to myself that I'll not clamber up another danged pyramid again, not after doing my share in Mexico but no, it's mid-day and the sun is baking me while I start up, up those steep and eroded steps to the top, where I doubt there is a stick of shade but where I know I can count on a breeze and a hellofa view across the jungle canopy to the lagoon below. Yep, there's a view after all, and I perch on about 9 square inches of crumbling limestone, with a sheer drop all the way to the jungle floor at least 8 stories below, where I know there's shade, if only I can get down these dang steps without falling headlong as my head swims from vertigo. Those dang teenagers are frolicking like mountain goats and I feel every bit of my middle age years. Ouch, that stone is Hot!

Safely back on terra firma, sucking on the warm water bottle like a mother's teat. We catch our collective breath, round up the stray kids and stumble off to the other temples that have been torn from the jungle overgrowth. We know we are faced with at least 4 more hours of back-tracking, including the flying boat ride down the New River to the bus to the other boat. We run out of water, soft drinks, fruit, food and energy and poor Carlos never gets to keep anything in his stomach, all day. We finally approach the dock at Xanadu just as the sun is sinking rapidly into the sea, tired but happy travelers.

I seem to recall walking up the beach to, I think it was Blue Water Grill, where I intended to slowly sip a frozen Kalua Colada, but which I gulped greedily to "drop my core temperature". This is critical therapy after a long, hot day's trek into the jungle, be sure to make a note.

A wonderful meal (I seem to recall), followed by a leisurely stroll (and a bit wobbly from the boat movement still going on in my head) under the full moon back to Xanadu and oblivion.
The sun comes up and the birds start squawking about 5:30 am, so we were up too, getting an early (and s l o w) breakfast at Coconut's up the beach. Later, we caught a boat to Hol Chan and snorkeled with the crowds - heaven knows what the place is like on season. It reminded me of cattle boats dumping crowds off at any number of sites in John Pennekamp State Park off Key Largo in Florida, my home. Oh well, it was cool and wet and plenty of fish to see and hear.

Next stop was Shark Ray Alley. If one hasn't been close to somewhat tame southern sting rays and nurse sharks, it's a fun stop-perhaps. Personally, I've been there, done that after 30 years of diving and I truly don't approve of grabbing sting rays or any other animal and forcefully holding it and stopping it from locomoting as it will. Much less do I approve of grabbing rays by their sensitive noses, where there are literally thousands of minute sensing cells that they use and need to help them feed. One large female had her tail bobbed off at the root and nobody can convince me that wasn't done by a human hand-I was appalled to see her mutilation and she was particularly shy of being handled. Good for her!

Subsequent snorkel trips were private charters or nearly so, as we were visiting on off-season. We took a day trip over to Caye Caulker and snorkeled a half day there on broken, beat up, bleached-out reefs lacking the fish life we had seen off AC. Operators on AC told us the business is unregulated on CC and the folks there simply don't care for their reef as do the operators on AC-I believe it. I've seen some pristine reefs in my time and I've watched the Florida keys decline from the late 1960s through the late 1990s, when some areas have begun to recover, but slowly. The shape of things to come off CC is not a pretty story- the reef will take decades to recover, if it gets the chance, between storms and being loved to death.

We highly recommend Steve Rubio, owner of Unity Tours and captain of the No Rush catamaran, as a friendly, knowledgeable and delightful host for an all day excursion snorkeling, fishing and beach BBQ-ing or an evening sunset sail or a � day snorkel trip. Lupe at Xanadu will hook you up with Steve and anything else you may desire-believe me, the folks there know how to take care of guests, and they have the patience of saints.

Xanadu was our wonderful, relaxing, quiet home, not too far, not too close to the bustle of San Pedro town, which was as close as a walk or a bike ride.

All to soon it was time to retrace our steps, back to Tropic Air at the airport then to Belize City and the shock of arriving back in Atlanta to a cold, dreary, rainy Memorial Day weekend. We couldn't even show off our tans, hidden as they were under long sleeves and jeans! Wahhh- take me back to Ambergris Caye, "la isla bonita"!

Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 2,675
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Thanks for the candid trip report. I'm glad you mentioned the handling of marine life, I don't like that either. I enjoyed the details of your Lamanai trip, it remains one of my favorite mainland tours. I think I could have done without Carlos, if it were me though wink Your pix were fantastic, great color. Thanks for sharing, greatly appreciated.

A
Anonymous
Anonymous
A
We were due for a good long trip report - takes you back - thanks!

Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 7,059
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Carib, thanks for sharing your trip with us.
Yes, we needed a good report. Nice pictures.


Dare To Deviate
Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 645
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GREAT pics. Thank you so much for sharing. Makes me want to go back very much. smile

Joined: Feb 2003
Posts: 4,001
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nice report glad you got to live the dream and enjoy .....


Living The Dream Every Day!
Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 2,208
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CaribTraveller,

Loved your honest writing style. Glad to hear Lupe is still doing well. We had a few drinks with her on our last trip. We did not go to shark ray alley for exactly the reasons you mentioned. If I want to see sea life and handle it I can go to Sea World. Unfortunately there are a lot of idiots out there who think it looks 'cool' to have their picture taken with a wild animal that is being held, grabbed or otherwise molested in it's natural habitat. If you want a picture holding sea life, at the very least, be sporting, catch it yourself and eat it or let it go. Don't tame it up to impress.


www.conchcreative.com
Belize Wedding Photography

Joined: May 2005
Posts: 11
taz Offline
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Thank you very much for your report. I certainly enjoyed reading it. I wish they would make people stop touching the rays and sharks. I am glad to hear that others disapprove. Five more days and I am there.


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