Belize – Las Sirenas

So.. after a month back on land it’s finally time to update my blog with the trip to Belize.

Day 1 (27.12): Arrived at Rio Dulce at about 11ish, after about 5 hours on a bus from Guate, boarding time was 1:30 so we had some time to wander around looking at the city. The weather was nice, sunny and hot, but not too hot, humid, but not to humid. At about 1:30 we boarded the boat, the crew wanted my passport, $55 for taxes and entrances fees and what-not, and of course, my sandals..

My cabin was about the size of a small coffin, with a hatch in the head-area.With my camera bag at my feet I could almost fit.

The first day we went to some small place/hotel-thingy in the river
and stayed there to the next day.

Day 2(28.12): We started moving at about 6ish. And reached Livingston around 7ish. The weather was nice and sunny for a short visit to Livingston, a small and pretty town.

Later we left for the Belize Cays, a 7 hour trip. After a few hours the sea started to get quite rough, and everyone were soaking wet. Due to a somewhat big design-flaw in my hatch my coffin got pretty wet as well.. Around 17ish we arrived at Frank’s Cay. And then the rain started..

Oh, and we saw dolphins! For a short period, but still, we saw dolphins!

Day 3(29:12): We stayed at Frank’s Cay the entire day. Rain, rain and rain. Also a lot of wind. And some more rain. The sea was nice and clear, swam around a little looking at corals and pretty fishes. Also went to the island to check out the buildings there. In 2006 a hurricane destroyed a lot of the island, at the moment there’s only two guys living there. They walk around cleaning up the beach and looking after the island.

Day 4(30:12): We left for Tom Owen’s Cay. Rainy at first, but then it cleared and got quite good. Did some snorkeling and visited the island, where I got a tour by a friendly guy called Ato, on the island there’s some sort of hotel, quite simple (in a good way) and quite nice, but.. well it’s not exactly very eco-friendly. Also we had quite a spectacular sunset!

Day 5 (31:12): We left for the 2^nd biggest in reef the world and we anchored right in the middle. The weather was really good, sunny and just a little wind. Did a lot of snorkeling and saw some really cool stuff, and by cool stuff I mean fish, cuttlefish and corrals etc.

This was actually new-years eve, and the dinner
was spectacular. Lobster with mashed potatoes
and salad, really good, actually quite a lot better
than nice. (The two vegetarians on board got mashed potatoes and carrots for dinner).

Staying awake until midnight was not a very intelligent option, being an intelligent boy I went to bed and set my alarm at 23:45. Franz, Ingrid and myself got up to welcome the new year, and thankfully, for some reason, it didn’t rain at this point. It was actually really nice, staying in the middle of the ocean, with good friends, a Gallo, watching the fireworks from one of the islands in the horizon. Definitively one of the better ways to spend the last minutes of 2009 and the first ones of 2010.

Day 6 (1.12): We left for Rio Dulce about 5 in the morning. Reached Livingston about 11ish, and waited a little while for the migration officers to get on the boat so that we could actually be allowed to get back on land in Guatemala. Then we left for Rio Dulce, arrived around 6ish.

During the trip on the river I got stung by some kind of yellowish fly-thingy, which made my left hand swell to the size of a boxing glove in 20 minutes.

Day 7 (2.12): Ate breakfast on the boat and got back on land about 9ish. Got a cab to Guatemala city and managed to get the guy to drive us all the way to San Juan Comalapa (poor guy, that’s a 7 hour drive one-way). Arrived in Comalapa 4ish, tired and feeling kind of landsick.

Summary: The first few days were really wet, and we had rain every single night (which would’ve been okay if my coffin actually had some working ventilation except for opening the hatch and getting all the rain straight in my face). However, we also had lots of sun and I just barely got sunburned, thanks to using quite a generous amount of TiO₂. The trip was a great success, really relaxing, and snorkeling over the coral reefs was a really fantastic experience. Also the food was awesome, with lots of fish and seafood. All in all, well worth it

And as always, there’s more (too many) pictures on flickr!