My trips to
Belize, Guatemala and Honduras were all part of my ongoing, at the time, exploration
of the Mayan lands and photographing the ruins sites.
Guatemala
and Honduras were covered in a trip that started out in Villahermosa MX. in the
fall of 2008. After visiting a bunch a
sites on the Mexican side of the Rio Usumacinto, I traveled upstream and crossed
the river in a motorized launch into Guatemala and then took a specialized van over
a rough jungle road to Tikal. There I met up with a companion, rented a car,
and set out south to the Guatemalan upland country with a short detour to
Copan, Honduras, to visit the large and important Copan ruins. Then it was on
the Antigua and Lake Atitlan for some real "Guate" flavor and
country. Hot and humid in the lowlands,
cooler in the mountains.
Belize is a
very down home kind of place with 6 distinct ethnicities getting along well together
- that would be Mayans, Mestizos, Blacks, Chinese, white descendents of the
original English pirates and mahogany wood cutters and Mennonite farmers. I attended
the Settlement Day celebration in Dangriga where a group of ex-slaves had ended
up after being exiled from their Caribbean Islands home by the British back in
the early 1800's. There is no building over 4 stories in the whole country, only
one bridge is two way and the two ferries I used were are hand cranked by
stalwart ferrymen. I drove over all the major and some not so major roads in
the country. It is a small place. The Mayan ruins were great and to get to one required
a day long excursion down a river on a motor launch which turned out to be a
neat little adventure. Nice and hot and
humid.
