Paget's Belize Journal

The Preliminary Trip - It Begins - First days - A tourist trip - Flying, sand crabs - San Pedro 1 - San Pedro 2 - Braids, snakes, dogs - Leaving Dangriga The Actual Stay - Help for library - Books; departure - Arrival; weather - Sensations, housing - Security, more housing - Security, snorkeling - Dock activities - Day-to-day life 1 - Day-to-day life 2 - The Quadrille - The apartment! - Cleaning and culture - Hurricane Irene - Too much reality - Hopkins Village 1 - Hopkins Village 2 - Weather - Minimum wage - Transportation - Food Experiments - The Brits; furniture - Meeting and greeting - Night noise, Settlement Day - Dragonflies! - More noise - A good 19th - Wrapping up the 19th - Traveling to Mexico - Thanksgiving in Mexico - Cockscomb Basin - A Belizean week-end - Tobacco Caye - Is it really Christmas? - This is the life - Christmas wishes - Headwear - Christmas Experiences - Lottery - Caye Caulker haircut - Caye Caulker 2 - Geckos - Red Bank - The last few days		Sep 27, 1999 Here I Am and It's Hot! Hello to all, Here I am in Belize and well on my way to slowing down. Since we have lots of new people on the list since my June visit, I will repeat some general information about Belize and Dangriga. Belize is the northern-most country in Central America, on the east coast, bordering Mexico and Guatamala and just south of the Yucatan peninsula. It has a strong Carribean influence and is multi-ethnic -- Maya, Hispanic, Black, plus whatever the colonists brought in. Belize used to be British Honduras and gained independence in 1981. The residents speak English and Creole and many of them also speak Spanish. Schools are taught in English. Besides the mainland, there are many occupied cayes (keys) and atolls along the barrier reef, which is the 2nd largest reef in the world, and, they are proud to say, the longest *living* reef. The snorkeling, diving and fishing along the reef are fantastic. More about this and inland activities as we go along. Dangriga is on the south central coast, on the easternmost point of the mainland. It is the cultural and spiritual home of the Garifuna or Garinagu (I think, one is the language, one is the people, I left all my Belize books at home, so spelling is also iffy). These are the Black Caribes. The town is pretty undeveloped with a population of about 10,000. The economy is citrus (orange, lime, grapefruit, mostly processed for juice) and tourism-based, but since they make few concessions to tourism, they're not making a lot of headway. A reasonable, but small, retail community (but nothing like we're used to) and practically no industry other than citrus. The country's inheritance from the British includes a reasonable infrastructure--water, sewer, electricity and telephone are pretty reliable. No sidewalks of course and not much paving anywhere. The town is at sea level and the highest point in town is the bridge over the river -- maybe 15 feet. Here's a 360 degree view from the bridge. It's the first QuickTimeVirtualReality image that Tony did, but it's good http://www.belizenet.com/qtvr/pano2.html. The trip here was as easy as possible, no delays, no confusions. This time I knew what color my bags were (thanks also to the orange ribbons my sister put on), so they didn't even paw through them at customs. The flight from Belize City to Dangriga was a bit hairy, through a lightening storm that had me nearly clutching the large, bouncy-looking man next to me. The pilot managed to dodge most of it, though, except for some spectacular sheet-rain downpour and we arrived intact. Set me to wondering just how bad it would get before he turned on his windshield wipers, though. Maybe there weren't any, I decided I'd rather not know so didn't check when I got on the ground. I think the househunting report will have to wait for another day. Have to try to earn my keep today. Hope you are all keeping well. Next