Belize Trip: Cave Tubing and Belize Zoo (Day 4, Thursday, 12/28)

We got up at 6am, packed our bags, walked to the airport and got on a 14-seater airplane headed for Belize City at 7am. From the airplane, we had a bird's-eye view of the city: There is not a single glitzy skyscraper in this biggest city in Belize. Many sections of the city appear to be in need of repairs and maintenance. I wonder if the city was in a better shape before the destructive Hurricane Hattie hit in 1961; maybe money was poured into building the new capital, Belmonpan, and left the old capital unattended. We had read and heard about Belize city's reputation as unsafe; and we were warned not to walk out after dark. All in all, it was a rather grim picture.

Denis, our tour operator, was already at the airport waiting for us. He then drove us to the Water Taxi Terminal to wait for possibly another 6 tourists who might join us. While we were sitting in the car waiting, a couple of people came by and knocked on our window asking for money; adding to the weary and dreary scene, there were several homeless people sitting on the sidewalk spacing out. Inside the car, we chatted with Denis, later his assistant, Mr. Rancho while Denis went looking for the tourists. It amazes me that they both speak 3 different languages: English, Spanish, Creole. In fact, a lot of people in this country can do that. It just shows how diverse this country of merely 280,000 people is.

Mr. Rancho himself has a very fascinating story: His great great grandfather came to Belize from India and moved to an area near Corozal, which he later named Calcutta. His grandfather was a bush doctor who cured many snake bites for people in town including himself (otherwise he could have lost one of his legs (or his life). He is very knowledgeable about plants, animals and history of Belize and he also managed to keep himself updated on current events.

Denis' 6 other customers didn't show up. So, Rancho drove us through the city and soon we were on the Western Highway heading towards the cave-tubing destination. Savannas on both sides of the road are full of lush plants and animals. When Mr. Rancho spotted an alligator resting on the bank of a river, he pulled the car to the side so that we could have a good look at the alligator basking in the sun.

We turned south off of the Western Highway about 40 miles away from Belize City and had a "road massage" (in Rancho's word) on a bumpy gravel road for about 15 minutes; then we were in a jungle - green and lush. At the parking lot, people were lined up for inflated inner-tubes. We changed into proper outfit and joined the line. Another couple (they both love travelling and have lived overseas at different places for many years) joined us. We were handed off to a teenage tour guide (to-be), Elmert, who led us through the jungle barefooted. Then, two of his uncles joined us while we were hiking. Basically, we had 3 tour guides taking care of four tourists! That's quite a service.

After 30 minutes of hiking through the jungle, we reached the place where we would launch our inner-tubes. As they say, the water was indeed refreshing, not cold. We sat in the tube in pairs with M's feet rest on my tube. The river carried us gently down the river under a cave where there are stalagmites and stalactites formations. All cave-tubing people wore headlights which created a moving web of dancing light on the ceiling of the cave, adding an extra mysterious aura to the cave.

Elmert was guiding and gently paddling so we could follow him closely. We passed through two caves, one of which has a water fall that makes mellifluous echos in the cave and a swirl of warmer white water near the waterfall. Floating down the river through the caves and under the open sky is exciting and relaxing at the same time. The water is crystal clear. I could see small fish swimming around my legs. When we came out of the cave, our eyes were met with a steep wall of trees under blue sky with a few strokes of white clouds drifting across - a scene that well fits the image of the Garden of Eden!

After cave-tubing, we were all hungry for lunch. Stopped at a restaurant called "Los Amigos" off the highway and had a nice lunch (roasted chicken, cole slaw, rice and beans). There was a parrot in a cage right alongside the restaurant that grabbed a lot of tourists' attention. She shouted out random English words like "hello" and "What's up!"

Then, we went to the Belize Zoo, where we saw some amazingly beautiful and interesting animals such as Jaguar, Toucan, Jaribu Stork (a big bird on the verge of extinction) and Black Howler Monkey (their howling could well be used in a horror film to mimic the sound of a gigantic monster approaching, yet they are not big).

On the way back to Belize city, we stopped at a prison store near Hattieville, a town named and founded afer Hurricane Hattie in 1961. All the items in the store are made by prisoners and the proceeds from selling these items will be used to subsidize prisoners' monthly stipends.

At a Belize downtown hotel, Mr. Rancho dropped off the couple who spent the day cave-tubing and going to the zoo with us as a group - we really enjoyed their company. We then picked up our tour operator, Denis and off we hit the road again for Corozal. To get to Corozal district, we had to drive up north through Belize District and Orange Walk District. Corozal is the northernmost city in Belize where we had left our car a few days ago. The 2.5 hour drive allowed us to have a glimpse into the northern part of Belize. We passed through a few small villages and towns; and they were all decorated in Xmas lights; even ramshackles were wrapped in glowing ornaments in shape of Santa Claus or Xmas tree. It's very green and lush all the way through. A couple of sugar plantations and refineries can be seen from the highway. In fact, sugar is the biggest industry in Belize; and 15% of EU's sugar is from Belize.

We picked up our car from Mr. P's house, and followed Dennis to his house at his invitation. His house is located on the outskirt of the small, quiet and peaceful city, Corozal, where we would be staying for the night before heading back to Merida. He has an impressively big plot of land on which he built his own house. Wherever I go, I tend to use China as a reference point. Belize is an interesting case. It appears to me that many people own a car and a house, yet the poverty (maybe crime also) is very mush visible, and in some cases, alarming. Then again, China is a huge. It would be hard to do a fair comparison. Denis has a beautiful wife and two little children. When we were there, they happened to be watching the movie "Cars." They were very hospitable. After chatting for a while, my stomach told me that it's time to leave.

Driving around the town for a while, we checked out the best hotel - as the road sign claims - in town: The hotel appears to be right on the waterfront, yet there was no windows facing the water; and the room we looked at was stuffy. So, we kept on driving and settled with a hotel called "Hotel Los Palmos" in the city.

Then, we went looking for a place to get some food. The choices are many and few: There are many restaurants, but the majority of them are Chinese restaurants. The one Mexican restaurant we went to was closed for the day. Now after travelling in Belize for a few days, I was still amazed by the number of Chinese here in Belize. Anyway, we went to one of the Chinese restaurants and picked up some food for ourselves and the night guard of the hotel to go.

The hotel room was clean enough, but the hot shower can only be called a luke-warm shower. We showered, ate and fell asleep on an interview about Gerald Ford, who just passed away, on CNN.