My mom and I have just celebrated our one year anniversary of moving to Belize.  In a lot of ways it feels as though we’ve been here for much longer than one year – that could just be the fact that so much has happened within that year.  Recently I’ve been really contemplating what I will do in the upcoming year.  Will it be another year in Belize?  Back to the states to resume a “normal” life?  Somewhere else altogether?  I really don’t know and once I quit worrying about it I realize that it’s sort of fun to not know what will come next.  That’s what bored me with my life in Oregon; I always knew what was coming next.  As I’m writing this I’m ‘borrowing’ a friend’s house to get away from the bustling town of Corozal and just look out on the bay surrounded only by the sounds of the wind’s affect on nature.  It makes me wonder what the pros and cons are of living in a town here versus being isolated on the water.  My mom and I are lucky enough to have friends here who have the isolated properties and don’t mind sharing every now and then so we really get to experience both while we’re here because our house is very much in town and about a 5 minute walk from the bay.  After a year I’ve experienced a lot of the pros and cons of these options. 

I’ll start with my friends in Progresso, they have essentially built a small compound which is called Progresso Shores.  Progresso is a small village across the Corozal bay and located on a lagoon named Progresso Lagoon.  It’s either accessible by boat or by vehicle crossing over a hand-cranked ferry.  Progresso Shores is outside of the village and located right on the shores of the lagoon.  It is completely isolated and absolutely beautiful.  As you may imagine the lagoon holds much calmer water than the bay so you only hear the water when there is a breeze blowing which is fairly often there.  The water seems to change colors frequently; one day, or even hour, it’s a deep blue color while the next it gives off a green hue.  I’ve been out on the lagoon in a boat, kayak, water-skis and simply swimming and it really feels as though the entire body of water is your own playground – it is rare to see any other boat or person out there playing.  In the early morning the parrots fly over the compound, chatting away amongst themselves, and then you’ll hear them again fly by around 5pm going back wherever they came from.  The nights and the mornings are my very favorite time of day here and that is simply due to the silence.  When I wake up there in the morning I hear birds and wind blowing through the palms and when evening hits it’s the very same thing – if I could use a place to define peace this would be it.  It truly is a perfect place to be but with this complete paradise comes a few drawbacks. 

Of course each ‘drawback’ is based completely on each person’s personality so I mention these as potential drawbacks only.  You simply cannot easily obtain food supplies (unless they are growing in your garden) and this forces you to be organized and efficient anytime a trip in to town is planned.  Going in to town should really happen on a minimal basis because it’s always an ordeal – the roads are not well maintained by the government so going in to town means at least a 40 minute ride on a very bumpy and dusty road and quite often over a ferry which is hand-cranked, adding another chunk of time on to the entire trip.  So if you are the person who loves to just hop in the car and stop off at the corner store, it won’t happen here.   The next potential drawbacks are the critters you may encounter.  Since there aren’t as many people around there are more creatures.  This can include crocodiles, iguanas, snakes, scorpions, lizards, geckos, spiders among others.  You will see them but the good news is that they typically won’t bother you if you don’t bother them.  Having a big dog that eats all these things can also come in handy – although I’m not sure there’s a lot you can do about the croc besides leave him alone.  Lastly, a possible drawback here is the effect it may have on your social life.  It’s a long drive back home which means you may not be going out much at night to have a few with your friends, this means it becomes a big deal to go out and most often what will occur is your social life will come to you.  Friends you find in the village or who live around you are a different story but there just aren’t a lot of people around you.  I will say that the parties I’ve been to at Progresso Shores are some of the best times I’ve had in this country – when you’re isolated parties are that much more fun. 

The next living option here would be a house in town such as ours.  We live within walking or biking distance to almost anything within the town.  All the utility companies are close, the stores are easy to get to and we may find ourselves going there twice in a day because we forgot something, any town events are easy to get to and experience because we live 5 minutes away, internet is fast and we have reliable neighbors who watch out for us.  The bay is within a 5 minute walk from the house and you can jump in anywhere you want along the water front.  The drawbacks are many in this situation though, there are dogs barking at night (this is a sound you get used to), cars going by the house, people walking and talking at all times of the day and night and occasionally a house party that gets pretty loud – basically you have the sounds of any typical town.  For us it’s easy because our bar is right next door so we have zero commute to work and we get reliable and frequent deliveries to our business.  Any sunset or sunrise that we experience is shielded in part by a power line or neighboring house and we don’t get to see the water at night from our windows.  It’s trading convenience for tranquility. 

The last living option which I have experienced is in town but on the outskirts and on the water.  You get the bay right in your backyard with this option and it’s phenomenal.  As I’ve sat here not one boat has raced by so even though you can see the town offshore you still get almost free reign of the bay when you want to go play.  There are a few cars and trucks you hear throughout the day on the quiet dirt road off the house which makes you aware of the outside world as opposed to Progresso Shores where you can actually forget about the rest of the world.  Here you are still close enough to town that most things are convenient and accessible.  With a breeze blowing it is absolutely relaxing.  The drawbacks here are really based on what will happen in the future.  Everything seems perfect now but there are still lots on either side that will be filled, the town will expand in to these outskirts and the isolation that is so appealing now will slowly fade away.  Yes, this may happen in a place like Progresso but it will be way down the line rather than in town where it could potentially happen within the next two years. 

After thinking about these options I would conclude that for me, if I were to stay in Belize, I would choose isolation.  It is absolutely amazing how close to nature you feel and how powerful that really is.  I can always drive my car in to town to get my dose of the real world but then when I went back home I would remain in a truly inspiring place that is worth a few sacrifices. 

First of all I would like to make a note in regard to my last entry on the domino tournament. Last Wednesday mom and I were getting a bit nervous that we hadn’t heard anything about the tournament that was supposed to happen this coming Sunday because we had been told officials would be to our place to give us details. So when David from Belikin came in on other business we asked him if he knew anything since they are sponsoring it. He said he had not heard anything either and would try to find out what was going on. About an hour later a couple guys from the domino team that won at our place came in and were looking for donations to get the team to Belize City for the final tournament. Well, you can imagine our disappointment. Obviously the whole thing had been moved and we had yet to be informed. Now we just needed the details of what had happened – another hour later Adam walked in and told us that there had been a meeting on Monday because a lot of the teams from the southern parts of the country were upset to have to travel all the way to Corozal rather than Belize City which is more of a centralized location. So the decision was made to move the location to Belize City and they had apparently forgotten to inform us. It all makes sense but it was very disappointing to lose the opportunity to host that tournament.

Now back to the fun stuff…

I got invited to go on a trip to the Lamanai (submerged crocodile) ruins with a couple friends about a week ago and since that was one trip I had not experienced here yet I was excited to go check it out. My mom had been on the trip and had a great time so I was really looking forward to it. The whole tour takes off from Orange Walk (about a 40 minute drive from Corozal) and it consists of an hour long boat ride to the ruins through the New River, then we were to dock at the ruins, eat lunch and do the hike through the temples. We were supposed to be on the boat at 9am and had lost track of time so we didn’t actually leave until 10 minutes to 9am. Luckily we were leaving from just outside Progresso village which meant that at a fast speed we could make it there in about 20 minutes. So the three of us hopped in the vehicle and we were off – fast. As we were practically flying over a very dusty and bumpy dirt road I made a call to the tour guide to tell them not to leave without us. I told a little white lie that we would be there in 10 minutes but we weren’t too worried about it since nothing in Belize seems to happen on time. By the time we arrived we were all a little shook up physically from the ride over but ready to jump out of the vehicle to get on the boat. We were correct in the assumption that the boat wouldn’t be leaving on time anyway because we waited around for another 25 minutes before we all actually got on the boat. So we sat down and drank some thirst-quenching watermelon juice while we waited. There were two other guys on our boat – both around the same age range and from Holland which meant there were five of us in total on this trip.

It was finally time to leave so we all got on the boat and Ignacio, our tour guide, started in immediately about what to expect. The boat ride would be a slow ride on the river so that we could see any wildlife that was out and about and we would all soon learn that Ignacio had the best eye to spot any animals running around on shore or in the river. The first stop was a tiny island to feed some semi-tame spider monkeys bananas. These monkeys are used to the boat stopping and fully expect to be fed bananas when we pull up. Unfortunately we only had two bananas on the boat so the girls got to feed them – I was happy about that! It was such a cool experience because as we pulled up they were bounding right down the branches of the tree they had been lounging in. The bow of the boat rustled right below the branches and the monkeys (two of them) jumped in. They knew what they wanted and went right over to us and grabbed the banana from our hands. In a flash they had those peeled and shoved them down their throat. They wanted more and thoroughly checked the rest of the boat, jumping and walking all over us and the boat but once they realized we had nothing else to give them they made their way back to the tree and we headed back out.

Along the rest of the ride we saw lizards, bats, birds and dragonflies and Ignacio fed us information the entire ride. I was disappointed that we didn’t see any crocs on our way there since I had yet to see one in Belize but I had high hopes for the ride back. About an hour and a couple applications of sunscreen later we made it to the dock out of Lamanai. We all disembarked, grabbed the cooler full of our lunch and headed to the picnic area to eat. They had provided a typical Belizean lunch of rice & beans with stew chicken and a salad and it was all delicious. We got our fill and got ready to head out to the ruins. We’ve had a couple hard rains lately and as a result of that the mosquitoes are out in force so since we were in the jungle we knew we’d have to put up a fight – the long shirts and pants went on, hats and of course the repellent. The choice is basically between lots of sweating in heavier clothing or lots of mosquito bites – the consensus was sweat. After our tour of the small museum on site we actually made our way through the ruins at a fairly fast pace. The highlight was the main temple which we were able to walk up and down – on the way up I couldn’t help but become nervous of the trek back down which seemed far scarier. We all made our way up and the view is breathtaking – we were above the canopy and had a perfect 360⁰ view.

We all caught our breath for a few minutes at the top and enjoyed the view then made our way down (at a much slower pace) but eventually got there. As the sweat was pouring from practically every part of my body I looked up again at the temple I had just climbed up to realize what an incredible experience this actually was. On the way through the rest of the site we were able to see a few other temples as well as the ball courts – with each awesome scene and the raucous sounds of the howler monkeys staking territory in the high trees above us there was also the faint sound of mosquito repellent being sprayed from varying bottles.

By the end of the hike we were all dripping with sweat and tired from the hot sun and ready to get back and take a nice siesta so we got back on the boat and were very happy to see that there was cold rum punch provided for the trip back. The boat ride back was a bit faster and I’m extremely happy to report that we saw two crocs in the river on the way back.

Overall it was an excellent experience that I would absolutely recommend. I will post Ignacio’s information soon for anyone interested in using him as a guide. He was extremely informative, professional and friendly.