I’m going to start with the ONE AND ONLY complaint that we had about .bz in the beginning of this. We were taken to our van, then was told to stand outside (in blazing 92 degree weather I might add) while the rest of our people got there. This is the first time that this has ever happened to us whether it be taking a taxi/bus and waiting for it to fill up, to taking a scheduled tour. They usually have the vehicle running and cooled for the guest to get in and wait. Everyone was sweating and it was pouring off my husband’s head to where he finally said something to the driver asking why we couldn’t be sitting down in the van in a/c. The guy said the other guide (that had just walked back to the port to see if the others were coming) had the keys now. They did provide us with cold water to drink while waiting.

Ok, next problem…now I know why we weren’t waiting in the van/bus…the a/c SUCKED!! We had several elderly people in our van and they kept asking “is this all the colder you’re a/c is going to get?”. They replied it would get better once they got on the freeway…no, it didn’t. But we all made it and didn’t pass out of dehydration or heat exhaustion, no worries. ;o) We had a tour guy JUNIOR who sat toward the back in front of us. He ended up being our person “tube tour guy” THANK GOODNESS! He was the absolute best and told us so much about the island. We could not get enough. Seriously, this guy was the most informative person ever and knew everything. He could answer any question you could throw at him.

I will try to remember some of the interesting facts, but there were SO MANY, I know I’ll forget most. Belize was having Independence Day there and celebrating that from September 10th to I think he said the 23rd??? But it’s a LONG celebration. He showed us the graveyards on the way. It appears as if the bodies are buried above ground with the stones, however, religion is big in Belize and they believe that you can only dig 3 feet down and you have to go 3 feet above. The body is to be buried in the middle. They have to face a certain way with the heads all the same way. I believe it was the sunrise up over the feet and sunset behind the head (please forgive me if it’s the other way around). He joked that he was going to go against all odds and be buried opposite to shake things up. LOL He was hilarious.

He showed us a mining mountain that looked like a Giant laying down, you could see the head, nose, mouth and body. He explained that everyone there lives within their means and live conservatively using and having only what they need. We witness ladies in the rivers washing clothes, clothes hanging dry outside at houses. He explained those that had washers, they were located outside of the home. He showed us the richest mans house that lived there, which happened to be a guy from New Hampshire, I believe. He explained that the population was so small there that there was no crime because everyone knows everyone. They unite and help each other out. The richer (the doctors, lawyers and so on) people lived in the city, the average to poor lived outside of the city.

My husband is a skater, so they talked “skate” talk for a while and he was telling him about skating there and where you would find the skate park at (in the ghetto on the south side).

He talked about his family and children. He was born in Belize, but his family had moved to the US when he was young for several years (for some reason, I’m thinking age 6-12ish). So, he could relate to ANYTHING we talked about and actually told us about his recent visit back to the US and how a “camera took his photo and issued him a ticket for speeding…a CAMERA” LOL

There were no stop signs or street lights (I think he said they have maybe a total of 4 there) and that there was no speed limit. I ask about the police pulling people over for things, he said the only thing they are looking for were people smuggling any American cigarettes and several other things.


The taxes there are so high that it made buying things so expensive, but yet it was the one place (unlike most of the islands) that you could actually purchase your land and have a title like here in the US. He said most places, like Costa Maya and so on, people actually lease their property (and do so on like a 99 year basis), so if you wanted to get rid of it, you really just had to walk away from it, unless you have it in your lease that it could later be transferred. He said you could get an acre for $500-$1000 and it was pretty cheap, but hard to purchase.

He talked about the protected areas and how no one was allowed to build, hunt, or remove anything from that area, but they were very helpful with drying up rain and during hurricanes for protection.

He spoke about the cashew trees and showed us some along the way. I LOVE cashews and now have a better understanding for why they cost SO DARN MUCH!! For each nut on the tree, you get the fruit, 1 nut inside, and 1 seed only. So you can only imagine how many it takes just to make a bag of cashews! Of course I already knew about the seed inside and when burning it, the smoke is toxic. He talked about their cashew wine and how tasty it was…he would give us a taste when we were done with the trip. Then told us about all the things they use on the island to make wine out of.