BELIZE
The islands off the coast of Belize are a tourist mecca for reef snorkeling and general relaxation. We visited in late February and early March before the uncertainties and devastation of COVID-19 hit the world. It was a welcome respite from cares and worry in a laid back, safe environment among these welcoming people.
Floating above the rich reef life of Belize makes it easy to turn off the cares of the everyday world and just breathe and watch the marine life swim by. Turtles, rays, fish of all kinds, eels, conches, and coral make up the rich diversity here.
Nowhere seems safe now with the onset of COVID-19. Uncertainty and fear along with the closure of businesses and travel have created an emotional and physical response to this pandemic. Luckily Americans like people all over the world are putting self-quarantine and legislated stay at home isolation in place, trying to head the precautions the experts and local governments have given us. We are lucky to have local government and state governors who have moved wisely and expeditiously to try and curb the spread early on. Our current President defines moronic more than leadership as he spent the precious time we could have been planning in a state of denial, as he has denied science and experts throughout his career.
We set out on February 26th still believing that COVID-19 would be an Asian virus and might not have the same restrictive consequences in the US and other parts of the world. Thus most of our trip was worry-free as we only checked the New York Times about once a day because internet connectivity was not great.
However, as the days slipped by, we grew increasingly concerned about the news of the spread of the virus. No one in Belize or for that matter Central America had been diagnosed with the disease. Yet I found myself thinking about the coming impact on every restaurant, souvenir shop and tour/ excursion guide we interfaced with. Most islanders are dependent on small businesses that support the tourist trade and this was their high season with spring break just around the corner.
AMBERGRIS CAYE
Ambergris Caye and its small town of San Pedro is where we spent the first 5 days relaxing, doing yoga, renting a golf cart and reading. The weather was overcast and windy at times so we did not reef snorkel. We had a lovely condo with access to a dock and a swimming pool.
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| Very few cars on the island...mostly golf carts |
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| Our beach and pier with cabana. |
Caulker Caye was originally peopled by a slave ship that had run aground. We enjoyed Caye Caulker the most because it was smaller and much more intimate. The local people were friendly and had a real sense of ownership. Caye Caulker has not developed the way San Pedro has, yet still gets plenty of tourism.
Seagulls use the docks as much as the people do and the gulls reign supreme. They are picturesque and fine fisher birds.
People on Ambergris Caye work 6 days a week but on the 7th day they fish off the many piers and docks.
LAKE BACALAR, Quintana Roo, Mexico
We took a water taxi from San Pedro, Belize to the small port town of Chetumal. From there the 45 mile long inland Lake Bacalar is just 25 minutes away.
We rented a small cabana a 1.5 miles outside of Bacalar town on the lake with its own dock and cabana. It was an Airbnb so we were the only ones there, besides a gardener and a wonderful Mexican woman Lily who came in to cook breakfast. It was very isolated and peaceful.
ESTROMATOLITOS
No these are not a type of Quintana Roo tomato, nor is it a dance like the macarena. One of the interesting things we learned about Lake Bacalar is that this is where some of the oldest oxygen (life producing) elements still exist on this planet. They are called estromatolitos in Spanish or stromatolites. They are basically rocks covered in a type of underwater algae that live in freshwater and produce oxygen, in fact, the first oxygen every generated on this planet.
A little Wikipedia science class follows:
Stromatolites or stromatoliths are layered mounds, columns, and sheet-like sedimentary rocks that were originally formed by the growth of layer upon layer of cyanobacteria, a single-celled photosynthesizing microbe. Fossilized stromatolites provide records of ancient life on Earth.
So we were able to actually be where some of the first recorded life on earth was generated and existed. Maybe now we are immortal!
Cenotes
One of the outstanding things about Lake Bacalar besides its sheer size of 45 miles in length are the cenotes. Cenotes are a natural sinkhole in the lake where a cave ceiling has collapsed. People like to swim and dive down into these cenotes. Our trip around the Lake by boat took us to many of these natural cenotes of which the Yucatan is famous for. Considering they were the only source of water in the jungle for the Mayan civilization, they were held sacred by the Mayan people.
Other than a daily swim in the beautiful blue water of the Lake, lazy days of reading, meditating and walking to nearly eco-resort Hotel Rancho Encantado for meals or into town to walk around, we did
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Great wall art in Bacalar. Rob was unsure how to handle this. Cabana on Lake Bacalar. Water was really this clear blue. Caye Caulker
After 5 days in Lake Bacalar, we took a water Taxi from Chetumal back to Belize and this time to Caye Caulker. We thought it would be more of the same type of island population as San Pedro on Ambergris Caye. In fact, it was very different and very much a whole new experience. Here we stayed at another Airbnb that was close to the shore and only a very short walk to the little town that supported the tourists with restaurants, dive shops, tour guides, and bicycle/golf cart rentals. That pretty much sums up what there is to do on Caye Caulker. That is unless you have a boat like the one below that you can go out in. We did not.
The shoreline is the same because you are out in the middle of the ocean. There is not a beach in the typical sense. Here again, there were piers and cabanas to fish from. All the small resorts were situated near the shoreline and the population is primarily in one little town.
It wasn't until the last day of our trip at Caye Caulker that the weather cooperated for us to take a boat out on the reef to snorkel. We got a great tour guide at ANDA DE WATA. and went out with our guide and two young twenty-something girls that were fun.
We stopped at 5 different locations looking at both green and loggerhead turtles, reef fish of all kinds, rays, sharks and an abundance of reef life.
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There was a huge conch shell graveyard where fishermen used to fish and clean conches leaving shells behind. We also stopped at a shark feed site where the sharks did not have teeth but had strong sucking capabilities to suck the bait out of a PVC tube.
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| Green turtle on left and loggerhead on right |
Amazing reef coral like this brain coral on the right. The clarity of the water is obvious also. I did not have contacts but could see the reef life well. The rays floated by in regal harmony with their environment.
Our tour guide was a Belizean local in his twenties and was like a fish himself. He was deft with diving and a great underwater photographer and is to credit for all these photos. He made every effort to accommodate us and actively participated in each of our snorkeling destinations. We wrote up a great review for him and gave him a nice tip for his capable and insightful tour.
Our guide John from Anda Da Wata Tours
So on March 10th, we flew home through Houston. Because we were wanting to see our grandson on his 2nd birthday we went into self-isolation given our contagion concern about traveling through an airport. On March 12-13th they started shutting down flights from Europe so we figured we had gotten home just in time. It has now been 20 days of isolation and I must admit it hasn't been that difficult because we were already in retirement mode and have just had to adjust our schedule for exercise, eating, reading, sleeping and getting things done. This virus will change all our lives in many ways and will affect our society and global health for a long time to come. But we will get through this.
We have great compassion for our health care workers of which our daughter is one, in the ICU with COVID patients. We are concerned for all of those who have or will get COVID and sad for those who will lose family and loved ones to this pandemic. May we all work together to get through this with cooperation, compassion and caring.
