San Ignacio

The local Hi-Et Hotel















No one I talked to had eaten at the delicious seafood restaurant. And not just because it looks so deadly...




I feel like I could have lived here for the rest of my life.

San Ignacio is a friendly little place with a large fresh fruit market, numerous pubs and eateries, and friendly people. It has its charms, people sit on their verandas and watch the world go by, people drink beer at 7 a.m. for breakfast, go and sit at a table with a chess set for 5 minutes and someone will come by for a game. Everything is a two minute walk away. There are no lines in grocery stores, just one long counter where the price of your items are tallied and everyone looks for change at the same time. There is a lot that is good, in other words.

At the same time it is not without its annoyances , walk two steps outside and you hear: "Taxi?" "Taxi?" "Need a cab?" "Hey buddy, where are you going?" "Taxi?"

I have never seen a place so flooded with taxis. They need to go to Barcelona, over there people wait in long lines for a cab. I saw actual fist fights break out over cabs in Barcelona...but that is the way it is with the world, isn't it?

Another nuisance of San Ignacio is the general listlessness and sketchiness of certain people. There are those who drag themselves into conversations just to end up asking for a dollar. Bums hang out by food vendors wanting to pressure you for a bite. All this can be avoided with practice, but it is startling at first.

Time really is the main thing to settling into a place or lifestyle. My first 10 days traveling were tough. I couldn't concentrate on music or books. I spent a lot of time comparing costs of goods and coping with new possessions and routines. But with that done, I feel like I could have pressed on and traveled for a long time. I started listening to music again, I felt like I could start to write a book...it just took some time to adjust.

Still, I am glad I am home now. I know there is a lot to do here, and I won't be bored. I did a lot during my time in Belize:

• Climbed Mayan ruins
  
• Sailed the Caribbean
  
• Swam with sharks
  
• Hung out at pubs till the late hours
  
• Made my way through small water-filled passages of a cave
  

I think more important than those things though were the little things I encountered:

• I saw tour guides give a beer to fishermen who had been out all day
  
• I bumped into people and had a coffee with them
  
• I peeled a coconut on the beach
  
• People were kind to me, paying for my cab, giving me water, giving me fruit samples
  
• I talked with store keepers about their troubles and debts
  
• I saw Lebanese T.V. in grocery stores
  

I can't think of any more right now, but there were a lot of nice little moments of kindness and civility that always made my trip.

At the time I felt like I could have pressed on, rode a bus into Guatemala, and then to Honduras, Costa Rica, Panama...really though, I didn't have much of the heart or gusto to see all that just now...there will always be another day, and more adventures waiting for me...