Downing
Contributor
Made my annual trek to Belize in June, flying down on the first and returning on the twenty third.
Since I didn't go through Mexico City like last year, I'm happy to report that this time I managed to hang onto my wallet, passport, drivers license and credit cards. Man, does that make life easier.
This is the first time that I had to catch a red eye on American Airlines out of Portland. Always before it's been a 5:30 am flight with a quick stop in Dallas and then on to Belize. This time, I had a five hour layover in Dallas so I didn't arrive in BZ City any earlier even though I left Portland almost six hours earlier. Hopped a Tropic puddle jumper and a half hour later I was finally in Placencia, ready to begin my dive/jungle/dive sandwich.
I went Whale Shark diving the next day but no luck. Near the end of the second dive, after ascending up a few feet I tried to go back down but had a tooth squeeze in one of my upper left molars. Ouch, very painful. First time that's ever happened. I would ascend a few feet and it would go away. But I could not descend at all. Even worse, by that night my right ear felt plugged up. The next morning, it was completely plugged, my neck was slightly swollen and I was knocked out of diving. This was a Sunday, so I had to wait until the next day to see the doctor. He said my ear was full of wax, prescribed ear wax softener drops and told me to come back in two days. When I returned, he flushed my ears out using warm water in a syringe and boom, I was ready to dive again. No ear or tooth issues after that.
I was a diving dog the next three days, going to Silk Cayes, Pompeon and Raguna. Saw a Lion Fish on at Silk but couldn't do anything about it. After that, I took a sling on every dive and we took out as many as we could find. Between me and the guide, we probably averaged about 15 a day. Interestingly, it seemed like there were fewer than in years past, even in areas where there were tons of juvenile fish. I wonder if we're driving them deeper.
On one of the dives, a large Nurse Shark was following us around. At one point, right after I speared a Lion Fish, the shark zipped by me from over and behind my shoulder and took the Lion Fish right off my spear. Lazy.
After every Lion Fish dive, the crew would clean and filet them.
At the end the first week, I rented a car and took off for the Toledo District. I had a couple of sites on my Bucket List to see and found almost all of them. I stayed at Garbutt's Marina, which is nothing fancy but Dennis has a couple of cabanas there that jut out over the water and with decks that look out at the Bay of Honduras. Followed the new road all the way to Guatemala, where you have to cross the border on foot. The scenery along this road rivals the Hummingbird Highway. Stopped off at Rio Blanco Falls, which is a beautiful waterfall. Thought about trying find a site where a river disappears into a sinkhole. Turns out it's a two-hour hike on a very steep muddy trail so I passed. Just too treacherous during the rainy season. Found the Voice of America satellite field referenced in a book I read about an American family that moved to Punta Gorda and lived in a tree house right on the ocean back in the '70s I found the trail they used to get back and forth to town. While hiking the trail, I ran into three policeman back there drinking beer and celebrating one of them getting a promotion. Really nice guys, and I hung out with them for a while.
After three days in Toledo, I drove up to the Cayo District. As the crow flies, if there were a highway it would take about an hour. But there isn't, so you have to drive back up the Southern Highway to the Hummingbird, then up to Belmopan and hang a left on the Western Highway. I picked up a pair of hitchhikers, a Belgian and a Swede, on the Southern Highway. Turns out they were headed to the Cayo to do some farm work to help fund their trip. I took them all the way to their destination both as a favor and I wanted to see that area of the Cayo. Good thing for them as it was about 15 miles down a very rough dirt road starting in Georgeville that then looped back to Santa Elena. The next day, I decided to track down Chaa Creek Lodge and duPloy's Jungle Lodge. Again, far down a very rough dirt road. These two resorts are within a couple of miles of each other. I wanted to check them out and report back to my wife, who is very much a creature comforts kind of gal. Of the two, Chaa Creek is bigger, nicer and a lot more expensive but duPloy's is very nice and has a 50 acre botanical garden that Carol would love. We may stay there someday.
The next day I drove back to Placencia and resumed Lion Fish Hunting. We went to Blackbird Caye, Southwater Caye and several others that I can't remember.
As always, I did all my diving with Splash Dive Center. It was great to see the crew again. There's been some turnover, but several of my favorites are still there. Dorian, in particular, is probably my all-time favorite dive guide. Very easy going but also very professional. We've dived together so much that we know what the other one's thinking, and he trusts that I know what I'm doing.
The reefs were in very good shape, with lots of the usual variety of fish. It wasn't unusual to see some big stuff, like turtles, rays, lobsters and sharks and on a couple of dives we saw all four. It seemed like there were fewer Moray Eels but then again they don't hang out in places where the Lion Fish do. I did have one swim after me a bit, which is always a little unnerving.
Ralph and Patty at Splash were wonderful hosts as always. Splash continues to be a top-flight operation with the highest ratio of guides to guests I've seen anywhere. Towards the end of my stay, Ralph and I went hiking in the Cockscomb Basin. I love how you can zip up the road and be in the jungle in less than half an hour. I spent my next to last night in Cockscomb sweltering in a little cottage with no electricity and water that stank of kerosene in hopes of either hearing or seeing a jaguar and/or howler monkeys. No luck there either. Lots of birds, though.
Then I made my way up to Belize City. That place is beyond crazy and a bit of a culture shock after spending so much time in the jungle and village. Still, I can see the improvements in the downtown core. Speaking of improvements, there was road improvement construction all over the country, including the Hummingbird, the Western Highway and most especially the Northern Highway from BZ City to the Bridge over the New River. That section of the Northern Highway is going to be the first four lane road in the entire country. I spent the night in the Villa Boscardi B&B, which is on the outskirts of BZ City about three blocks off the Northern Highway. I had to fly out at 6 am the next morning, so I wanted to be close to the airport. Otherwise, I would have stayed at my first choice, The Great House, across the street from the Ft George Radisson.
All in all, it was another great trip. I got in a lot of dives, especially week three, and checked off a number of items on my Bucket List. I've been going to Belize for years, and there's still plenty to see and do. Can't wait to return next year.
Since I didn't go through Mexico City like last year, I'm happy to report that this time I managed to hang onto my wallet, passport, drivers license and credit cards. Man, does that make life easier.
This is the first time that I had to catch a red eye on American Airlines out of Portland. Always before it's been a 5:30 am flight with a quick stop in Dallas and then on to Belize. This time, I had a five hour layover in Dallas so I didn't arrive in BZ City any earlier even though I left Portland almost six hours earlier. Hopped a Tropic puddle jumper and a half hour later I was finally in Placencia, ready to begin my dive/jungle/dive sandwich.
I went Whale Shark diving the next day but no luck. Near the end of the second dive, after ascending up a few feet I tried to go back down but had a tooth squeeze in one of my upper left molars. Ouch, very painful. First time that's ever happened. I would ascend a few feet and it would go away. But I could not descend at all. Even worse, by that night my right ear felt plugged up. The next morning, it was completely plugged, my neck was slightly swollen and I was knocked out of diving. This was a Sunday, so I had to wait until the next day to see the doctor. He said my ear was full of wax, prescribed ear wax softener drops and told me to come back in two days. When I returned, he flushed my ears out using warm water in a syringe and boom, I was ready to dive again. No ear or tooth issues after that.
I was a diving dog the next three days, going to Silk Cayes, Pompeon and Raguna. Saw a Lion Fish on at Silk but couldn't do anything about it. After that, I took a sling on every dive and we took out as many as we could find. Between me and the guide, we probably averaged about 15 a day. Interestingly, it seemed like there were fewer than in years past, even in areas where there were tons of juvenile fish. I wonder if we're driving them deeper.
On one of the dives, a large Nurse Shark was following us around. At one point, right after I speared a Lion Fish, the shark zipped by me from over and behind my shoulder and took the Lion Fish right off my spear. Lazy.
After every Lion Fish dive, the crew would clean and filet them.
At the end the first week, I rented a car and took off for the Toledo District. I had a couple of sites on my Bucket List to see and found almost all of them. I stayed at Garbutt's Marina, which is nothing fancy but Dennis has a couple of cabanas there that jut out over the water and with decks that look out at the Bay of Honduras. Followed the new road all the way to Guatemala, where you have to cross the border on foot. The scenery along this road rivals the Hummingbird Highway. Stopped off at Rio Blanco Falls, which is a beautiful waterfall. Thought about trying find a site where a river disappears into a sinkhole. Turns out it's a two-hour hike on a very steep muddy trail so I passed. Just too treacherous during the rainy season. Found the Voice of America satellite field referenced in a book I read about an American family that moved to Punta Gorda and lived in a tree house right on the ocean back in the '70s I found the trail they used to get back and forth to town. While hiking the trail, I ran into three policeman back there drinking beer and celebrating one of them getting a promotion. Really nice guys, and I hung out with them for a while.
After three days in Toledo, I drove up to the Cayo District. As the crow flies, if there were a highway it would take about an hour. But there isn't, so you have to drive back up the Southern Highway to the Hummingbird, then up to Belmopan and hang a left on the Western Highway. I picked up a pair of hitchhikers, a Belgian and a Swede, on the Southern Highway. Turns out they were headed to the Cayo to do some farm work to help fund their trip. I took them all the way to their destination both as a favor and I wanted to see that area of the Cayo. Good thing for them as it was about 15 miles down a very rough dirt road starting in Georgeville that then looped back to Santa Elena. The next day, I decided to track down Chaa Creek Lodge and duPloy's Jungle Lodge. Again, far down a very rough dirt road. These two resorts are within a couple of miles of each other. I wanted to check them out and report back to my wife, who is very much a creature comforts kind of gal. Of the two, Chaa Creek is bigger, nicer and a lot more expensive but duPloy's is very nice and has a 50 acre botanical garden that Carol would love. We may stay there someday.
The next day I drove back to Placencia and resumed Lion Fish Hunting. We went to Blackbird Caye, Southwater Caye and several others that I can't remember.
As always, I did all my diving with Splash Dive Center. It was great to see the crew again. There's been some turnover, but several of my favorites are still there. Dorian, in particular, is probably my all-time favorite dive guide. Very easy going but also very professional. We've dived together so much that we know what the other one's thinking, and he trusts that I know what I'm doing.
The reefs were in very good shape, with lots of the usual variety of fish. It wasn't unusual to see some big stuff, like turtles, rays, lobsters and sharks and on a couple of dives we saw all four. It seemed like there were fewer Moray Eels but then again they don't hang out in places where the Lion Fish do. I did have one swim after me a bit, which is always a little unnerving.
Ralph and Patty at Splash were wonderful hosts as always. Splash continues to be a top-flight operation with the highest ratio of guides to guests I've seen anywhere. Towards the end of my stay, Ralph and I went hiking in the Cockscomb Basin. I love how you can zip up the road and be in the jungle in less than half an hour. I spent my next to last night in Cockscomb sweltering in a little cottage with no electricity and water that stank of kerosene in hopes of either hearing or seeing a jaguar and/or howler monkeys. No luck there either. Lots of birds, though.
Then I made my way up to Belize City. That place is beyond crazy and a bit of a culture shock after spending so much time in the jungle and village. Still, I can see the improvements in the downtown core. Speaking of improvements, there was road improvement construction all over the country, including the Hummingbird, the Western Highway and most especially the Northern Highway from BZ City to the Bridge over the New River. That section of the Northern Highway is going to be the first four lane road in the entire country. I spent the night in the Villa Boscardi B&B, which is on the outskirts of BZ City about three blocks off the Northern Highway. I had to fly out at 6 am the next morning, so I wanted to be close to the airport. Otherwise, I would have stayed at my first choice, The Great House, across the street from the Ft George Radisson.
All in all, it was another great trip. I got in a lot of dives, especially week three, and checked off a number of items on my Bucket List. I've been going to Belize for years, and there's still plenty to see and do. Can't wait to return next year.
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