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...

Sailing Ships

I left San Pedro and found myself in Caye Caulker about an hour later. A laid back beach town Caulker is nice, but as I had took a day trip there before I found myself wanting to push on to the mainland. I was thinking of heading on, but then saw a sign for a 3 day sailing and camping trip going out the next day, so by the magic that is impulse, I decided to take the trip and stay the night on Caulker.

The sailing trip was very nice, 3 British students studying to be doctors, 10 Harvard Law students about to graduate, 3 Caribbean Garifuna guides, and a sprinkle of solo travelers like myself, made the mix for the journey south along the coast of Belize, from Caye Caulker to Placencia.

The trip consisted of sailing clear blue waters with occasional stops to snorkel and see tropical fish. The first night we stopped off at an impossibly small island (pictures later) pitched tents and had a camp fire. The next night was at Tobacco Caye, which was a little bigger, and at least inhabited by other people. 3 hotels, two restaurants, two bars, and a handful of houses, gave the place an air of civilization. Still, we pitched tents and camped again. One of the bars had live music in the form of 3 drummers. Perfect for dancing.

The trip had an interesting dynamic. The Harvard Law students all had their impending graduation in mind, and their new jobs to start. It was a sharp contrast of my recent departure from the formal working world, and it seemed odd to hear their worries and concerns about their jobs ahead. We were the same age and yet in completely different worlds.

I spent a lot of time working on the ship. I washed dishes, got to cook a meal once, dropped and raised the anchor (that means hauling up a very heavy chain), and even got to sail the boat. I am not sure, but I feel that this helped me get more of a connection with the crew. The best way to understand someone is to try do their job and see the work that weaves the center of their reality. If I am going to make a connection with the Caribbean Garifuna culture, I feel like that is the closest I will get. I think the trip to them seemed odd. Us tourists paying money to be taken down a coast line they knew with their eyes closed. Kind of like tourists paying me to drive them 200 miles along I-40 East, or something... In any case they were very nice. Towards the end of the trip we traded photos of our family and I am very proud to say, they gave me a crew t-shirt!

After the trip, I stayed the night in Placencia with my new British friends. In the morning we took the bus inland, and parted ways at San Ignacio were I am typing this now. They continued on to the border and into the Guatemala...

So far, San Ignacio is very nice. A mountain town, full of fruit stands, and a much lower cost of living than the islands. It feels like a breath of fresh air, it feels more like reality. I like it very much.