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		Jun 18, 1999 A tourist trip I can't tell if anyone got the last report which I sent (I hope) Wednesday but was really for Monday and titled something like "The First Four Days" -- Anyone? Yesterday I had my tourist day. Went by van up from the coast on various "highways" and back roads through the citrus fields to the Belize zoo which is a natural habitat approach for native Belizean animals and birds (http://www.belizezoo.org/). The iguanas, of course, stay in whichever compound appeals to them at that moment, but large cats and wart-hog thingies (whatever) are safely confined. It was a grand morning. Never did get to see a tapir, but other than that a nearly perfect zoo experience. The zoo is dedicated to Gerald Durrell, one of my favorite authors, and has major support from Harrison Ford. By the looks of things, if you hang out for a while Harry will drop by. Gerald, unfortunately, has passed on. Lunch at a restaurant with picnic tables beside the river (Belize River I think, but its name changes depending on where you are) entertained by the resident toucan, Juliette. Romeo flew away last season, but Juliette likes to know where her next banana is coming from. This charming little place is called Clarissa Falls and is built on a Mayan temple mound so the story goes. Learn a little and see a picture of our hostess, Cena, (pronounced Chaina) at http://www.belizereport.com/lodging/clarissa/ Then on to Xunantunich, a late Mayan ruin, still occupied about 1000 AD. An overwhelming experience for me for some reason. This ruin is not very popular, so it was quiet and I was free to wander and soak up the feel of the place. And there were handy young Mayan men to answer questions and point out more iguanas and so forth. It's within a few miles of the Guatamalan border but since I didn't climb the 13 stories to the top of the monument, so I didn't get to even look at it. I took some nice pictures of butterflies instead and gazed with shock on an okra tree. These things are weird, with the okra pods growing straight out from the trunk instead of dangling gracefully from a branch. I'm *sure* that's not how we grow okra. Today I'm off to San Pedro to attend a big meeting of the tourist board with Therese and Tony. For the ladies, all my noodling about clothes has paid off. I have an almost perfect assortment. But I wish I had brought some baking soda body powder. Next