Travel - Belize

Belize - two holidays for the price of one! -Pat Archibald- Many Canadians are attracted to Central America as an interesting, beautiful and convenient tropical vacation spot, but are reluctant to try it because they don't speak Spanish. The happy solution is to travel to Belize. It is the only Central American country that was colonized by Britain, so Canadians feel right at home with a Prime Minister, rather than a President, and a picture of the Queen on the money. If visitors are lucky enough to have two weeks at their disposal, Belize will give them two very different holidays with a minimum of travel. Many Belize holidays start in the area called the Mayan Mountains where visitors have fishing, hiking, photography, bird watching, canoeing, kayaking, and exploring to enjoy. There are fabulous caves to visit, where ancient artifacts may be seen and photographed. The jungle trees are filled with birds and animals, including howler monkeys, parrots, toucans and iguanas. The latter are so tame that you may have to tip one off your chair before you can sit down for breakfast. Of course, the jungles are also filled with the unbelievable richness of the Mayan history. The Mayan civilization dates from approximately 1500 BC to 900 AD. Belize is a country where Mayan ruins are literally everywhere you look. It is estimated that there are thousands of sites, most mapped only from the air. Very, very few have been studied, much less excavated. Still, over a dozen sites are now being excavated by North American universities, and are open to the public. Tour guides are very knowledgeable, and will really bring the site to life for the visitor who shows an interest. They will show you how the pyramids were built in layers, like an onion. The first pyramid would be ritually 'killed' before the next layer was added. They will explain the rules of the 'ball court', where the losing team was sacrificed and even the winners could suffer broken bones. As you walk from one temple or pyramid to another you will be walking over trails littered with millions of bits of broken pottery. The urge to pick up a shovel and start digging can be overwhelming! If you have a day to spare, the Guatemalan city of Tikel is only a few hours drive away. Here you can climb to the top of one of the pyramids and look out over the green sea of the jungle, stretching out to the horizon. From this vantage point you will see the tops of four other pyramids rising above the treetops like icebergs floating in a green ocean. The area that is now Guatemala and Belize was once covered with a network of roads connecting the great cities and temples. What is now forest was then farmland. Now you see only jungle where the roads and villages used to be. When you are done with jungle exploration it is only a few hours drive to Belize City and the Caribbean Sea. A short plane ride and you are ready to explore one of the fabulous Cayes. These tiny, sandy islands are so small that motor vehicles, including police cars, are all golf carts. As you cruise along the sandy roads the local children, all fresh and bright in their school uniforms, will politely ask if they can hop on the back and enjoy a ride home. Ambergris Caye and Caye Caulker both provide a full range of hotels, bed and breakfasts, restaurants and shops, as well as dozens of dive companies and snorkeling tours. The scuba divers will enjoy the world famous 'Blue Hole', created when the roof of an undersea cave collapsed. This almost perfect rock and coral circle has a diameter of 1,000 feet and is 412 feet deep. It will be the highlight of a diving vacation. For the snorkeling folks, Belize offers the only coral reef in the Northern Hemisphere. Here the visitor can simply float and look down on a world of unbelievable colour and richness. The braver souls can enjoy the excitement of 'Shark Ray Alley' where nurse sharks are hand fed by divers, and visitors can swim nose to nose with sharks and rays. Whether you are a bird watcher, a diver, a jungle explorer or a frustrated archeologist the friendly nation of Belize will give you a holiday to remember forever.

 

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