Riiiiice and Beans

Weh di go aan?! (Hows it going in creole)

Creole is the coolest language ever. Its just like they took english and made it more cool. You can understand what their saying mostly because it sounds very similar (e.g. whats the time= weh taim yu gat?)
So yes Caye Caulker where I was before was great. The last two days before i left, we (me and some friends from the hostel) went fishing in a canoe. It was going very badly until I felt a tug and caught my first fish ever! The bad part was the fish i caught you couldnt eat and apparently comes with a $1000 fine. Woops. Im not sure if this is true but...
This local kid saw how amazingly well we were doing (hmmm) and so offered to show us a spot where we would actually do well. We paddled out to his self-made shack and ended up catching 14 fish! (nothing to do with the fact that the kid did most of the fishing...!). All of which we ate for tea. I was the only person to catch a barracuda which was deliciously great.



The next day we went snorkelling. It was absolutely incredible. The water was so clear you could see everything, and everything was amazing: belize has the 2nd biggest coral reef in the world. Beautiful fish everywhere, sharks, sting rays. It was exactly like the sort of thing you see on tv. It felt like a completely different world; massive coral formations, all the different colours you can imagine with schools of fish gliding around you and right next to your face. Incredible. We also drank rum punch and had a generally great time.


I then headed off with a english guy i met (seb) from the islands, back inland and stopped off at Belize zoo which was interesting. Its not like a normal zoo; the animals are pretty much free except for a little wire every now and again. Saw howler & spider monkeys, jaguars, puma, snakes, parrots, macaws, eagles, ocelot....
We ended up in San Ignacio. Nice place on the Macal river with a cool market and lots of stuff to do around. We got talking to a nice woman who owned a restaurant and made the best lemonade ever, and we hired a canoe from her husband and paddled up the river.

Amazing scenery with the jungle hanging over the river. Then the next day I went to Actun Tunichil Muknal- a massive cave in the middle of the rainforest. We had a guide and headlamps etc, and it was really great. To get in you have to jump into the cave river which is ridiculously cold. The whole time your either wading or swimming. Alot of squeezing through gaps and climbing up stuff. The mayans used to live in this cave, and they thought it was the entrance to the underworld and the gods, so left alot of offerings and did alot of sacrifices here. Theres remains of pottery and bits of bone and skeleton everywhere. The bones had bits missing or damaged so it was obvious that they had been sacrificed. Great fun.



Ate some pancakes then left and headed to a little cabin towards the mountain pine ridge reserve called Barton Creek Outpost. Its run by this really nice family and is an hour long drive over rough terrain to get there (they have to come and collect you). During the drive you pass through alot of mennonite farmland. The mennonites are the weirdest thing. Their from Germany and speak a dialect of german but all live in Belize. They dont use any modern stuff and are completely self sustaining; so ride around in horse and cart, wear braces and big hats and have big beards. Its really random to come across them in the middle of Belize.
Anyway this outpost was brilliant; right next to prime rainforest and a river. Spent the days rope swinging into the river, going for walks in the forest (with the kid who knew the way and a machete in case of snakes) and eating great home cooked food.

Met a cool kiwi and english girl who were volunteering and also a tour group of danish girls. The last day we went for a 6 hour hike into the rainforest to reach some amazing waterfalls. This was the best rainforest ive seen so far- so lush and dense. The guy who came with us was a proper, real-life Ray Mears/Bear Grills guy. He was constantly talking about what he would do in various situations ("just cut down those palm leaves, collect those logs, set up under that cliff next to river and termite nest and your sorted for food shelter and water!"). We ate termites (taste like peppermint) and found those ants that are used to close cuts because they bite into you and dont let go, even when you cut their head off (the guy made a bet: if the ant head was still on his arm by the time we got back we had to buy him a drink, if not he had to buy us all a drink. Yeah that was a good night). We had to cross loads of jungle rivers, many of which we had to hold our rucksacks above our heads to get across. The waterfalls were beautiful.

Yesterday I left and arrived here, Dangriga which is cool. Havent seen one other gringo, so its a very meet-the-locals experience, which is really cool- their so friendly, just walking around I talked to many locals. Its cool because some people are like "ayyy man talk to me for one minute", and you kind of expect them to ask for money for something (like mexico and guat etc), but literally all they want is a chat.
Eating alot of chicken, rice and beans. The best dish ever. and cheap.
Its amazing how relaxed and generally happy these people are- evidence see pic below.


So yes. Im thinking today ill head to Placencia which is more touristy but has nice beaches.

Bis Spater
Simon x
(p.s. dont worry ive shaved off my travellers beard now)