BELIZE – DANGRIGA

December 22-29, 2023

We got to Dangriga and were immediately approached by a taxi driver offering to take us to our location for an overpriced rate. We turned him down and approached the next taxi who offered less than half of the first guy. (Remember: MOST taxi drivers are crooks!) That said, the second guy said he would not charge us extra if we wanted to stop at the grocery store and stock up. We quickly grabbed a few basic supplies, then he took me to the green grocer and I stocked up on fruits and veggies.

Our private beach cabana was over 2 km (just over a mile) from town, down a dirt road. It had rained recently and the road had huge and deep spots filled with water. The location may have been hard to get to and remote, but OMG it was paradise! Although there were two cabanas on the beach, the other one was not rented. We were alone except for the property manager and his wife who had the tiniest shack I have ever seen several metres away from our cabana. They had two cute puppies that we had to make an effort not to pet or otherwise encourage to hang around. They had a habit of gnawing on the screen and making holes.

There was a few coconut trees right on the water. An outcrop of rocks had sunning themselves between dive bombing for fish. The cabana was a one room affair with a wrap around and screened porch. The shower was outside and partitioned off with baby coconut tree trunks. The cabana was one big room with a bed, kitchen and toilet.

The toilet area was partitioned off with the same tree trunks as the outdoor shower.

The kitchen had a 2 burner hotplate that was the slowest in heating up. Whereas our place on Caye Caulker had a stove on steroids, this one was pathetic. I preheated the frying pan for over a minute on high and it still took the butter 2 more minutes to melt. Needless to say it took an hour to heat water just for coffee. Imagine how long it took to fry chicken! Meals were a long drawn out process, but considering it was Christmas with shops closed, we were a half hour walk to town and we had nothing better to do, it was a pleasant activity.

We had two resident geckos. One was lighter colour than the other. Both were welcome guests, as we had lots of little ants and swarms of sand flies that continually chewed on us. I discovered that if I put a few drops of Dettol on the counter and spread it around, it kept the ants away.

The temperature was 41 degrees Celsius in the sun one day (106 F) and 34 in the shade (93 F). We didn’t go into town often. #1 it was too damn hot. #2 it was too damn hot. We had stocked up on groceries earlier, so we were good for several days. We did, however, go into town on Christmas Eve looking for some kind of celebrations. Everyone we asked about it gave us a blank look and knew nothing about any festivities.

We found that to be a common occurrence in Central America. We would ask someone if there was a grocery store nearby. They would reply, No. We would walk around the corner and there was a grocery store. No one seemed to know anything beyond their block or street corner. Google maps was no better. We would type in “Grocery store near me” and be taken to a hole-in-the wall mini-mart. I have nothing against the hole-in-the wall mini-marts, they generally had the basics that we needed, but how can that be considered a grocery store? We started typing in “Supermarket near me”; it would take us to the same places. Whenever we came across a big store, we were almost giddy. We at least had a chance of buying hamburger that didn’t look freezer burnt.

The road to town was about 2.5 km (1.5 miles). It was mostly a gravel road, with patches of dilapidated pavement. In 2 places the road was flooded and we had to detour through the field next to the road. It wasn’t too bad to detour through the grass, except for the thorny bushes. They grabbed at our clothes, hats and skin. Vehicles that passed by would stop and ask us if we needed a ride. Some began to recognize us, and would simply wave the next time they saw us.

In town we noticed that all the grocery stores were owned by Chinese. There were lots of clothing stores, but all seemed to sell used clothing. As in Guatemala City, there were also lots of shoe stores. There were lots of plastic riding toys for kids. There were lots of ultrasound clinics, too. There are lots of Mennonites from Canada here. They migrated here in the 1950s and have huge farms. It is a double edged sword. They provide revenue and jobs to the economy, but they are also accused of deforestation.

Although Canada is doing away with plastic bags and Styrofoam, there does not seem to be a shortage of any of that stuff here. There are plastic bags of various sizes and thickness, depending on what you are buying. We have even come across a few plastic Superstores. It is almost a guilty pleasure to have such an assortment to store our travel stuff.

Christmas day was spend doing nothing but watch the pelicans dive bomb for fish and scratch the sand fly bites. The sand flies are so small that they can go right through the screen without even bending their knees. It was impossible to escape them. Bug spray didn’t seem to deter them either.

The pelicans were literally dive bombing! I sat on a rock near the water for nearly an hour, trying to capture the perfect picture and video. As I sat and watched them I began to notice the method to their fishing. They would bob along on the water, then take to the air only to dive down a few meters away. After the dive bombing the pelicans would gulp down their catch, then bob along again. But I began to notice that they were actually herding the fish back into schools that they could attack again. Every now and then there must have been a huge school of fish, because there were dozens of pelicans splashing down as fast and furious as a hail storm. We never tired of watching them.

On Boxing Day we were going into town so we asked the property manager if they needed anything. He had been kind enough to offer the same for us a few days prior. He asked if we could buy him a chicken. A chicken! We thought maybe some veggies or fruit, like we did. Now bear in mind we paid for them to fill their propane tank so they didn’t have to cook their Christmas dinner on the outdoor fire that they had been using. We asked why they were cooking outside and he said they had no propane for their stove. They had a tiny, tiny shack that was basically a bed, a shower, and hot plate. Even so, we felt it was kind of ballsy of him to ask for a chicken. However, all the stores were closed, so we didn’t buy anything, even for ourselves. We had a lot of hamburger in our fridge so we made a big batch of goulash, which we shared with them. That night we could hear his wife yelling at him for two solid hours. I don’t know if one thing has anything to do with the other, but she did not let up, even for a breath. We never heard a peep out of him.

One day we decided to walk in the opposite direction from town. As we were walking a lady came out from her house. She recognized us from a couple days ago. We were walking and she was riding her bike. We started chatting. I asked her why there were used tires along the beach in front of her house. She explained that it was to keep the beach intact.

She went on to say that when she was a teenager the land went out about 2 miles. That was why the water was not very deep at this point; it was basically shoreline being pulled back into the ocean. She said there were no houses that got drowned. It was all coconut and fruit tress. She said it was beautiful, as she wistfully looked out to sea. She used to own a bar a few metres away, but the sea pulled the beach back and now the skeleton of a building was nearly in the water. She lived in the United States for 6 years, but decided to move back to Belize.

We walked further along, to a dock she pointed out. We walked past really tall, thick grass that had razor sharp edges.

At the entrance to the dock was a gate that warned it was off limits. There was a man (Andrew) going into, what I guessed was, a guardhouse. He waved hello and didn’t seem too bothered that we were there. On the dock we met Dominic Franzois. He was another person who recognized us as we walked to town. He was pulling up crab pots baited with raw chicken parts. He and Andrew were, indeed, guards to the dock. They said they spend their time fishing. By the time we left, they had caught 3 crab.

That dock is situated in the deepest port in Belize. It used to be the main port, but for political reasons, that he did not get into, the port moved to Placencia; where the port has to be continuously dredged. The dock was built of huge squared 10” x 10” logs. There was a long narrow part that lead to a wider part where the boats used to dock. Dominic cautioned us to stay away from the middle. Workers had gone on strike and set fire to the dock. The middle part had semi-burnt logs with wide gaps to the water below.

Andrew said they sometimes catch huge barracuda off the end of the dock. He showed us a picture of him holding one that he had caught. While Dominic chatted with us, Andrew hacked the end off some ripe green coconut. We thought they were not ripe because they were green. The men explained that there are 3 different types of coconut, green, yellow and brown. Dominic had coconut sprouts in the back of his truck. He found them on the ground nearby. He was going to take them to his property and plant them. In 5 years he will have producing coconut trees. Andrew handed us each a coconut and invited us to a refreshing drink.

We were having a delightful visit when it started to rain a bit. The dark clouds had us feel we should head back to our cabin before we got soaked. (It stopped before we had a chance to get wet.) I wish we had met him sooner.

It was time to pack up. We were headed to Placencia to catch the ferry to Puerto Cortes, Honduras.

The bus ride: This bus was not as ritzy as the bus to get here. This was an old converted school bus with an overhead rack added for luggage. It was only 9 Belize dollars ($5.90 CDN) for the 2 hour bus ride. It was raining a bit so the temperature inside the bus was comfortable. Although it was supposed to be the express bus, we stopped at the most random places to drop people off and pick people up. The fare was taken by 2 ladies after we were underway.

The countryside had orange groves, banana farms, rows of coconut trees, and fields of beans. There are vines crawling up trees and along fences. In places the vines hung down across driveways and over balconies like Christmas garland. It looked beautiful.

SIDE NOTE: We were told that many big businesses, such as sugar cane plantations, are owned by Mormons from Canada.