Belize
A tenderboat in the Caribbean Sea took my friend Amanda and I into the small harbour of the capital Belize City, of the small country Belize in Central America.
I had only heard bad things about the country before arriving, so all I knew was to stay out of the city if I didn't want to get robbed or murdered or both. We decided the jungle would be the safest place, and so the 1 hour bus ride to Jaguar Paw began with a tour guide on the mic. The bus was old and the speaker system the guide Bruce used, sounded like something from the 80's so he screamed on top of his lungs to make everybody hear. Thankfully I had my earplugs ready, but I loved the authentic feel of the state of the bus.
It was raining, then clearing up, then raining, then clearing up and all I asked for was the rain to stop before we would go ziplining in the jungle. Instead the rainforest lived up to its name when we arrived.
The tour guide Bruce told us we would do the cave tubing first and that it was 150% chance of getting wet during it, so we didn't bring any cameras. The Crystal Cave we would enter was seen as hell by the Mayans, who used it to worship and sacrifice. Neither of Amanda or I was keen on getting into it, and we asked our new cave guide Alba if there were any dangerous animals in the pitch black cave, like snakes or such? She looked lost for words and then she said "well I can't promise you there aren't any, but if there are, they are far away from us!". We didn't get satisfied with that answer but we still got down the stairs, with our helmets on top with a small light on them that almost didn't help us see at all. I walked just behind Alba because her light was much stronger, which was good both for seeing the surroundings but also to be able to look for scary animals.
We got into what they called "refreshing water" in the cave, and all of us 8 tourists sat our butts down one tube each. It wasn't that cold for us Swedish people, so it was alright, but what wasn't alright was that Alba had to swim around dragging all of us. I felt so bad about this, why couldn't we just paddle with our arms ourselves? It felt like slavery with her swimming and dragging us fat tourists, who just sits lazy and enjoys the dark yet interesting environment. Bats were flying around us and Alba picked up some mud and gave us each a piece of it. While we had it in our hands she said "do you know what you're holding?", and I was ready to drop it because I feared it was gonna be bat poop. But it was just mud from inside the cave that she said would be good for our skin. We went up from the water and walked around with Alba pointing out some artifacts from the Mayan civilization. Everything had been left untouched in the cave, and I will applaude them for not extracting any goods from it.
It was much more interesting than I had thought much thanks to our guide, and when we got ready to leave the cave she said we could choose between swimming free in the underworld lagoon, or she would drag the rest in the tubes as before. I saw a fish looking back at me just before I jumped in the deep waters and began to swim as the first of our small group. I looked up at the cave's entrance/exit at the same time and I have never been swimming in such a beautiful place.
At one of the stops one of the zipline crew asked me "have you seen Harry Potter? because you look just like Ron Weasley". We both laughed and I said "time for some magic then" as I flew away once again between the trees. I will definitely go ziplining again!
Dissapointed by not getting any pictures from the jungle except for boring ones on the ground, I decided I needed at least one picture that said Belize. So I took it literally and went to the Belize sign just outside the harbour on our way back to the cruise ship that was anchored in the sea.
I had to drag Amanda there because it was outside the gates of the harbour, so it was in the real part of town. After we took the pictures people came up to us saying they were so hungry, but it felt more like mocking with tourists than actually begging for food. A car came to a quick stop in the middle of the road and a guy hanged out the door saying "The king is alive!" with a crown on his head, because he sad seen my T-shirt of a zombie Elvis saying the same expression. It felt like total chaos those few minutes we were out in the city, and we were happy to get back on the tender boat to take us out to our home away from home, the cruise ship.
It made such an impression that the ship was anchored in the middle of the sea with big crashing waves when we jumped aboard, I have never made an entrance like that before. I left Belize with almost no pictures, but a lot of great memories, maybe a reminder of old times when you lived a lot more in the moment!
* Best things about Belize – ziplining across the jungle and entering the Mayan cave from hell, one of my most memorable moments ever in life was from swimming in it, while watching the entrance to the cave greeting me once again
* Most mediocre thing about Belize – watching a lot of interesting stuff from the bus window, but not being able to experience them, I would have needed more time here!
* Worst things about Belize – not being able to capture the great memories in photos, and I would recommend anyone to do a jungle tour there or something similar, but I'm afraid I wouldn't recommend anyone to spend time in Belize City, it seemed like chaos those few minutes we spent there
Best countries in the world according to the nerd (will be updated with every post):
1. USA
2. The Bahamas
3. Croatia
4. Montenegro
5. Andorra
6. Cyprus
7. Grenada
8. Turkey
9. Greece
10. Italy
11. Spain
12. Monaco
13. Malta
14. Netherlands
15. Belize
16. Saint Lucia
17. Iceland
18. Denmark
19. Sweden
20. Lithuania
21. Macedonia
22. Armenia
23. Portugal
24. Dominica
25. Hungary
26. Slovakia
27. Belarus
28. Slovenia
29. Austria
30. Russia
31. Barbados
32. New Zealand
33. Ireland
34. Germany
35. United Kingdom
36. Belgium
37. Poland
38. Saint Kitts & Nevis
39. Vatican City
40. Estonia
41. Czech Republic
42. Switzerland
43. San Marino
44. Kosovo
45. Romania
46. Finland
47. Latvia
48. Azerbaijan
49. Georgia
50. Saint Vincent And The Grenadines
51. Antigua & Barbuda
52. Moldova
53. Norway
54. Ukraine
55. France
56. Bulgaria
57. Luxembourg
58. Liechtenstein
59. Trinidad And Tobago
60. China
61. Serbia
62. Bosnia And Herzegovina
63. Albania
I had only heard bad things about the country before arriving, so all I knew was to stay out of the city if I didn't want to get robbed or murdered or both. We decided the jungle would be the safest place, and so the 1 hour bus ride to Jaguar Paw began with a tour guide on the mic. The bus was old and the speaker system the guide Bruce used, sounded like something from the 80's so he screamed on top of his lungs to make everybody hear. Thankfully I had my earplugs ready, but I loved the authentic feel of the state of the bus.
This was another bus that we changed to in the jungle for a short ride over the hill
Belize is a poor country and after we had been riding through what I assumed was a ghetto, Bruce said "so that was the rich part, and now we're getting across the river to see the southside were the ghetto is". I couldn't understand how it could get worse but it could. Still I was intrigued by everything outside the window while Bruce told us that his country was unbelizeable, and I started to believe him. I would never want to live in those conditions, but it was a breath of fresh air to see a completely different part of the world that I'm used to. People didn't seem to mind about the state of their city, they were just chilling, riding on their bikes barefoot like they had all the time in the world and without any direction at all.
When we came out in the countryside you could see the amazing landscape, and in the distance a mountain formation that looked like a sleeping giant.
I didn't take any pictures myself from the bus, but here's what it looks like on a cloudy day according to Internet
It was raining, then clearing up, then raining, then clearing up and all I asked for was the rain to stop before we would go ziplining in the jungle. Instead the rainforest lived up to its name when we arrived.
The tour guide Bruce told us we would do the cave tubing first and that it was 150% chance of getting wet during it, so we didn't bring any cameras. The Crystal Cave we would enter was seen as hell by the Mayans, who used it to worship and sacrifice. Neither of Amanda or I was keen on getting into it, and we asked our new cave guide Alba if there were any dangerous animals in the pitch black cave, like snakes or such? She looked lost for words and then she said "well I can't promise you there aren't any, but if there are, they are far away from us!". We didn't get satisfied with that answer but we still got down the stairs, with our helmets on top with a small light on them that almost didn't help us see at all. I walked just behind Alba because her light was much stronger, which was good both for seeing the surroundings but also to be able to look for scary animals.
We got into what they called "refreshing water" in the cave, and all of us 8 tourists sat our butts down one tube each. It wasn't that cold for us Swedish people, so it was alright, but what wasn't alright was that Alba had to swim around dragging all of us. I felt so bad about this, why couldn't we just paddle with our arms ourselves? It felt like slavery with her swimming and dragging us fat tourists, who just sits lazy and enjoys the dark yet interesting environment. Bats were flying around us and Alba picked up some mud and gave us each a piece of it. While we had it in our hands she said "do you know what you're holding?", and I was ready to drop it because I feared it was gonna be bat poop. But it was just mud from inside the cave that she said would be good for our skin. We went up from the water and walked around with Alba pointing out some artifacts from the Mayan civilization. Everything had been left untouched in the cave, and I will applaude them for not extracting any goods from it.
It was much more interesting than I had thought much thanks to our guide, and when we got ready to leave the cave she said we could choose between swimming free in the underworld lagoon, or she would drag the rest in the tubes as before. I saw a fish looking back at me just before I jumped in the deep waters and began to swim as the first of our small group. I looked up at the cave's entrance/exit at the same time and I have never been swimming in such a beautiful place.
This picture that I found of the caves exit at Internet doesn't do it justice, it was much more epic in real life but at least you can picture what the surroundings were like
It looked like as if I was swimming in an Indiana Jones movie or something, inside a relic in the jungle and I couldn't even believe my eyes. It's impossible to describe it, you have to see it for yourself, but think of crystal clear water and the entrance of the cave to your left, letting in the light from the rainforest outside with vines hanging down the opening. The ancient steps leading back up and you swim around thinking you must be in a dream, because this is too good to be true. Right then it was the best experience I've ever had, I just wished I could take pictures with my eyes so I could show you. But maybe it's a good thing I can't, because now you have to go experience yourself instead!
Outside of the cave Alba asked us if we had enjoyed it and we said it had been amazing, she said "good, now that you're outside I can tell you that there are 68 kinds of snakes in the cave and the marks I showed you on the rocks before were from a jaguar who comes down the cave sometimes". I was so happy she told us afterwards and not before, and now I can say I've been to hell and back!
We had forgotten about the rain in the cave but when we came outside it was pouring down even more, and I got upset because I knew we wouldn't be able to get any zipline pictures either because of this. I loved this place and I couldn't get even one picture from it as a memory. The ziplining was even more awesome, flying across the jungle and I enjoyed every second of it!
Internet comes to the rescue once again to show you how it looked like
At one of the stops one of the zipline crew asked me "have you seen Harry Potter? because you look just like Ron Weasley". We both laughed and I said "time for some magic then" as I flew away once again between the trees. I will definitely go ziplining again!
Dissapointed by not getting any pictures from the jungle except for boring ones on the ground, I decided I needed at least one picture that said Belize. So I took it literally and went to the Belize sign just outside the harbour on our way back to the cruise ship that was anchored in the sea.
I had to drag Amanda there because it was outside the gates of the harbour, so it was in the real part of town. After we took the pictures people came up to us saying they were so hungry, but it felt more like mocking with tourists than actually begging for food. A car came to a quick stop in the middle of the road and a guy hanged out the door saying "The king is alive!" with a crown on his head, because he sad seen my T-shirt of a zombie Elvis saying the same expression. It felt like total chaos those few minutes we were out in the city, and we were happy to get back on the tender boat to take us out to our home away from home, the cruise ship.
It made such an impression that the ship was anchored in the middle of the sea with big crashing waves when we jumped aboard, I have never made an entrance like that before. I left Belize with almost no pictures, but a lot of great memories, maybe a reminder of old times when you lived a lot more in the moment!
* Best things about Belize – ziplining across the jungle and entering the Mayan cave from hell, one of my most memorable moments ever in life was from swimming in it, while watching the entrance to the cave greeting me once again
* Most mediocre thing about Belize – watching a lot of interesting stuff from the bus window, but not being able to experience them, I would have needed more time here!
* Worst things about Belize – not being able to capture the great memories in photos, and I would recommend anyone to do a jungle tour there or something similar, but I'm afraid I wouldn't recommend anyone to spend time in Belize City, it seemed like chaos those few minutes we spent there
Best countries in the world according to the nerd (will be updated with every post):
1. USA
2. The Bahamas
3. Croatia
4. Montenegro
5. Andorra
6. Cyprus
7. Grenada
8. Turkey
9. Greece
10. Italy
11. Spain
12. Monaco
13. Malta
14. Netherlands
15. Belize
16. Saint Lucia
17. Iceland
18. Denmark
19. Sweden
20. Lithuania
21. Macedonia
22. Armenia
23. Portugal
24. Dominica
25. Hungary
26. Slovakia
27. Belarus
28. Slovenia
29. Austria
30. Russia
31. Barbados
32. New Zealand
33. Ireland
34. Germany
35. United Kingdom
36. Belgium
37. Poland
38. Saint Kitts & Nevis
39. Vatican City
40. Estonia
41. Czech Republic
42. Switzerland
43. San Marino
44. Kosovo
45. Romania
46. Finland
47. Latvia
48. Azerbaijan
49. Georgia
50. Saint Vincent And The Grenadines
51. Antigua & Barbuda
52. Moldova
53. Norway
54. Ukraine
55. France
56. Bulgaria
57. Luxembourg
58. Liechtenstein
59. Trinidad And Tobago
60. China
61. Serbia
62. Bosnia And Herzegovina
63. Albania
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