Belize

Belize is a surprisingly diverse country - whilst we were looking forward to a break from having to ply our average-to-poor Spanish, as English is the official language, we were also exposed to a huge range of languages: English, Spanish, Kriol, Cantonese (every shop or supermarket in Belize seemed to be owned by a Chinese family which made for some bizarrely contrasting roadside signs - next to ‘Jazzy J’s All Night Wonder Bar’ sat ‘Li’s Shop’, and next to ‘De Bangin’ High Life’ was ‘Chan’s Restaurant’) - apparently there is also Mayan, Mennonite German and Garifuna although we didn’t come across it. The Mennonite community surprisingly come from former Prussia, via Canada (which was not conservative enough), onto Mexico and then Belize - they therefore speak a form of German. Obvs.

Pub quiz fact: The barrier reef off the east coast of Belize is the second biggest in the world. In the 17th century, this made it a great safe haven for English and Scottish pirates who had a penchant for raiding Spanish galleons heading to their colonies to the North and South. The Spanish persuaded the English government to clamp down on this nefarious activity in 1670 turfing all the pirates out of gainful employment - so they set off to the Belize mainland and started to tap the plentiful supply of mahogany and create Belize’s first major industry. In doing so, they intermingled with the Garifuna population (effectively the slaves in the Carribean) and the result was the Kriol community - who speak a wonderful derivation of English: “How are you?” = “How de doody?” “Get out of here!” = “Haul your rass!” Hearing the Kriol people speak Spanish with a carribean accent is also a real joy. 

The other seemingly significant group is Americans - there seemed to be large swathes of US expats and tourists - there are direct flights from Florida, it offers warmth during the US winter and it’s comparitively affordable. The number of US estate agents’ signs by the side of the road was testament to the ongoing procession of American retirment homes being built in beautiful, lush Belizean countryside.  

Another character we met whilst riding was an English entrpreneur, who had bought up some jungle ten years ago, and following some dodgy experiences, was finally getting round to clearing the plot, planting all sorts of fruit trees and insect/bird friendly-flora, with the intention of eventually creating a yoga retreat. He let us camp in his recently cleared bit of jungle, where we were privy to a wonderful show of fireflies in the evening, as well as the pleasure of coming face to face with a snake and a scorpion in the ‘toilet’ (bunch of dried palm fronds over a long drop).  

Machete armed as we follow a stream up into the jungle

Sadly on the riding side, we didnt really get that 'yipeeeeee' feeling as we swooshed through Belize - the roads were awful; there was pretty much one paved road across the country and, as our previous blog attests to, some horrific off-road (we have since found out that hire cars are not allowed to drive on the unpaved stretch that we endured due to the risk of damage). 

The Belizean equivalent of the A3

One place we did visit that was akin to paradise on earth was Caye Caulker (pronounced ‘Key Corker’ in a carribean accent) - a beautiful island (or should we say islands - it was wrought in two by a hurricane in the 60s which split the island broadly in the middle, imaginatively named by the locals as ‘the Split’...). This is close to the aforementioned reef and so we did some wonderful snorkelling, seeing various rays, nurse sharks, barracuda and beautiful coral.

Law Enforcement Caye Caulker-Style

The nature throughout Belize was stunning - so many birds greeted us in the morning, bright butterflies joined our journey alongside us for fleeting moments and the Belize Zoo (focused on protecting a conservation corridor) was spectacular.

If all jaguars were like this, we had nothing to fear

One minor drawback of Belize was that, in spite of being at the same latitude as the Yucatan, it was an hour behind. This made for 3.45am alarms to be up and packed for first light, and therefore cooler riding, at 5am. Even by our standards, 3.45am is a pretty heroic wake-up call - it certainly reminds us that this isn’t a holiday!