Today after having one last sunrise breakfast on our veranda we left for home. We had about a three hour drive to the airport in Belize City from Hopkins. Luckily, our hosts Rita and Greg corrected our iPhone's directions; it had us driving over twenty miles on the dirt road called "Coastal Highway." I guess if something is named "highway" Google Maps thinks it must be a good road. :) Instead of Coastal Highway, we got to take the lovely Hummingbird Highway again through the jungles, orange groves and Maya mountains.
We encountered yet ANOTHER hazard of Hummingbird Highway... an unmarked ice cream truck! As we were driving down the highway, we saw a van parked half on half off the road, with a couple people on bicycles standing across the road from it. This did not seem unusual to us at all, as parking and standing on the highway seem to be a national Belize pastime. (we had started joking about "speed bump attendants" because almost every speed bump had some person standing beside it just staring at the cars going by...) However, as we were about to go past the van going about 50 mpg, a ten-year-old girl sprinted RIGHT in front of us bearing three cones of hot pink ice cream! We slammed on our brakes, and I am sure our bumper probably brushed her leg hair as she crossed in front of us it was so close! The kicker is, she and the adult with her did not seem the least bit concerned that she almost got flattened!
If we hadn't almost smashed the girl, I would have had Gavin stop the car for some ice cream. :)
When we had previously traveled from the Belize City airport, we had passed an "interesting" looking facility called the Prison Gift Shop. We hadn't previously stopped, but after reading in Lonely Planet that it was a great gift shop with lovely art made by prisoners, we decided to stop this time. It must have been visiting hours at the prison, because the parking lot was FULL of cars and there were tons of people waiting in line to see the prisoners. I was a little (or maybe a lot) nervous stopping with our car full of luggage. Gavin tried to assay my fears by saying, "The people visiting the prisoners aren't criminals." My slightly stressed reply was, "That's because they haven't been caught yet!" :) The gift shop itself was pretty empty, just a few wood carvings, carved wall panels and one carved chair, plus the shop attendant in an orange jumpsuit... We left in about 30 seconds.
At the airport returned the rental car, checked our bags and got on the plane. Flying out of Belize was one of the most incredible window-seat views I have ever seen. We flew east away from the shoreline, so we could see the variations of color in the water from coral, sea grass and white sand. The ocean stays shallow, only 3-12 feet deep, for several miles away from Belize. We flew over Ambergris Caye and Caye Caulker, and then from the air got to see the barrier reef. On the west side of the barrier, the water continued with its shallow Caribbean-green color variations, then at the line of the barrier reef the sea suddenly became deep blue as the depth almost instantly increased... What a nice view to say goodbye to Belize.
Summary of the trip:
Belize has an incredible variety of experiences for such a small country. In only eights days we got to jungle hike, go spelunking, go tubing in a cave, swim under a waterfall, zip line, dive and snorkel. Other experiences that we didn't have time for were water sports, Mayan ruins, ocean kayaking, bird-watching and more.
Food, which is one of our favorite experiences on any vacation, was kind of a let down. Though we picked some good restaurants, Belize didn't seem to have a food that was especially distinctive - a lot of Mexican food, basic rice and beans (which we generally love, but it was kind of bland here), fried seafood and American food catering to tourists. We found ourselves dumping delicious Belize-made Marie Sharp's habanero hot sauce on absolutely everything to give it more flavor. :)
People in Belize are lovely, very warm and friendly, from natives to ex-pats from other countries. They really want to make you feel welcome, and will bend over backwards to help you out. English is spoken by almost everyone, at least in the areas we traveled, making it an easy destination for Americans who only speak English. (anyone I tried to speak Spanish to replied to me in English.) The pace of life is slow and relaxed, which Gavin and I found contagious; being surrounded by relaxed people makes us relax by default.
Would we go back? Probably not, as we did and saw what we wanted to do and see, and there are so many other places to visit in the world; life is short! Would we recommend Belize to anyone else? Most definitely! You will have an "Unbelizeable" vacation. :)
