Belize, Caye Caulker
Belize is completely different to Guatemala although they are neighbours the contrast is stark. i hadn´t even planned on visiting Belize, but hey that´s the joy of travelling, each day is NEW. I was travelling up with some gringos (yanks), took the bus over the border and then a boat to Caye Caulker. A very chilled out, no car allowed, Caribbean island that has the Blue Hole (google it if you don't know it). I went snorkeling seeing as i didn´t have my PADI. That being said i did see a small Shark feeding, many manta rays, silky smooth with large wings and lots of little fish
among the coral.
Although Belize is an ex-British colony and everyone speaks English, there is a very strong US influence on popular culture such as music, clothes, food etc. Furthermore, there does seem to be a lot more infrastructure in place when compared to Guatemala. Such brick houses, electricity pylon's, efficiency and things generally working. It seems strange to me because the local Rastafarian belizian is quite chilled out and lazy, its the Chinese than run all the corner shops and supermarkets so i don't know how they got all their ducks in a row. Maybe the US helped.
I also spent a couple of days at Dangriga to visit Tobacco Key. Dangriga is nothing to speak of, somewhat down trodden. Sometimes the locals were friendly (if money is involved) and sometimes there don´t care to notice you are there. The reef was very similar to that at Caye Caulker.
Finally my last days were spent at Placencia waiting for the weekly boat to go to Honduras. It was a nice enough small town on a peninsular however i just couldn't believe the litter on the beach. i even took a photo of it and when i went to the tourist to buy my boat ticket, i told them what i thought. Later that day they started digging holes in the sand and burying the rubbish as opposed to using a bin bag to collect it. What can i say? I guess litter is only a worry for the West. It certainly doesn't seem to be a worry for the people here.
