Belize

Eighteen blogs written and I’m finally discussing a country I’ve visited! Belize surprised and delighted me in so many ways.

We stayed at Hamanasi Adventure and Dive Resort, an all-inclusive eco resort with amazing customer service! Kaitlin, our wise travel advisor, informed them of dietary needs within my family that include not smelling or eating onions or peppers. You would think that would be a challenge, but they reserved our balcony restaurant table to be upwind of everyone else and provided menus in advance so they could prepare our meals without the offending items. Everything was delicious, beautifully presented, and thoughtfully served.

Allan and Kristen went SCUBA diving, I snorkeled, and we all canoed, paddleboarded, kayaked, got massages, experienced Mayan ruins, explored a cave containing Mayan artifacts, and hiked in the jaguar preserve (no jaguars, but plenty of birds on this particular trip). We also relaxed in our gorgeous treehouse room, read books, and did puzzles. It’s probably the most laid back vacation I’ve ever had.

English is the official language of Belize so I didn’t even have to pull out my rusty Spanish. The people we had conversations with were engaging and willing to share their thoughts, which I found to be a refreshing change both from countries that dislike Americans and countries with servile practices.

To experience Belize without leaving home, I think the best option is checking out their flora and fauna. If I had unlimited money to buy books and unlimited space to store them, I would have bought the following books in the Belize airport. Most of them have quite good ratings on Goodreads and are available, at least used, on Amazon.

Bird Books

Birds of Belize by H. Lee Jones – most of the tourists I met in Belize were there to birdwatch. Belize has almost 600 identified species and more species are discovered within the country every year.

The Last Flight of the Scarlet Macaw: One Woman’s Fight to Save the World’s Most Beautiful Bird by Bruce Barcott – a well rated book about the tension between environmental conservation and development that can be picked up used for a couple dollars on Amazon.

Flower Books

A Rainbow of Colors: A Guide to Flowers of Belize by Irene Keesmaat

Guide to Orchids of Belize by Brendan Sayers and Brett Adams

Cookbooks

U Janal Aj Maya: Traditional Mayan Cuisine by Aurora Garcia Saqui

Food of the Gods: Vegetarian Cooking in Belize by Rosita Arvego

Literature

Pataki Full: Seven Belizean Short Stories by Colville Young

Memories, Dreams and Nightmares, a short story anthology by Belizean women writers

Ping Wing Juk Me: Six Belizean Plays

Characters & Caricatures in Belizean Folklore

Dreaming about Travel

More beauty from Belize and options for a great trip can be seen at https://www.thecrazytourist.com/?s=belize

Finally, when this pandemic is over, you might want to plan travel to Belize using your local travel advisor. Shout out to my favorite travel advisor, Kaitlin Darnell at Laura's Travel in Redlands. May the travel industry survive and thrive - may we all survive, thrive, recognize our mutual humanity, learn to deal with our conflicts, and allow peace and health to flourish in Belize and throughout the world.

Photo credit: Karen Darnell - this isn't the biggest iguana that we saw on the trip, but this is the one right outside the window of our tree house.