Belize Vacation - Part 2

Since our island was fairly small, we spent a lot of time walking around, exploring. We didn't want to rent a golf cart, because there are only three main roads and several beach walking paths that aren't even accessible by cart. We really wanted to explore by foot, so that's what we did. I think I walked the majority of the island completely barefoot!

We also spent a lot of time in these chairs. Swinging chairs in the ocean breeze were the best investment our place could make! 

As you can see, even some of the restaurants on the island have the same idea.

 We eventually made our way down to party central, a/k/a The Lazy Lizard down at The Split. Caye Caulker is actually comprised of two islands, which were once one island. The one island was "split" by a hurricane in 1961. The people of the island realized that it made more sense to fully split the two, rather than try to rebuild the gap. So they dug out The Split, deeper and wider, and it is now used by boats, paddle boarders, kayakers, etc. for easy access around the "south" (more populated) island. the north island does have inhabitants, but the population is much, much smaller. The Lazy Lizard is a very busy party spot. They have big parties here, tons of lounge chairs, diving boards into the ocean, and even a shallow (belly deep), isolated section with swim up bar/table access. It's a really fun place, but the drinks and food, as you can imagine, are a lot more expensive here. 

Island sunrise:

Let me say something about their island "wish list". While the main street is definitely trash-free, once you get off that main streets, into the residential sections, there is trash dumped everywhere. We tried to figure out if this was normal, or aftermath from Hurricane Harvey, which slammed Houston and then rerouted back down and hit Belize last year. Probably a mixture of both. Regardless, their "no trash" portion of the wish list should probably be observed more by the locals. 

Wednesday, we decided to book a tour to inland Belize to visit the Mayan ruins of Xunantunich. We caught the ferry back to mainland, where we were met by a tour guide. She drove us an hour and a half into Belize, almost to the Guatemala border. On the drive, she gave us quite the history of Belize, from the different forms/changes in government power, the drug cartel issues (holy shit) and how the drugs get into/out of Belize, and we even saw some Mennonites along side the road at one point. Once we reached the tour location, we took a hand-cranked ferry across the river and hiked back into the ruins. 

Xunantunich ("Sculpture of Lady") served as a Mayan civic ceremonial center to the Belize Valley region (appx 300 AD). When this region was at its peak, nearly 200,000 people lived in Belize. The first modern exploration of Xunantunich was in the 1890's.  It has gone through several phases of excavation, and additional excavations are currently in the works. 

Overlooking Guatemala

More exploring of our island.  The motto on the island is "go slow". They don't have any sort of hospital or clinic on the island, but do have a jail and two cemeteries, so "choose wisely".  ;)

 

We found a dog who looked JUST LIKE Banks! He was being groomed and wasn't too thrilled about it. But it sure was funny seeing our dog's doppleganger hanging around the island. There are many, many dogs on the island. If they are running around with a collar or leash, they are owned by someone. The dogs just have free reign and aren't kept in yards. There is a humane society for those dogs who haven't yet been adopted. 

The couple who have the Italian restaurant also have a pizza and Gelato shop down at the split. I told Matt we had to try the Gelato, just to see if it was LEGIT Italian Gelato. And it was. The thing I miss most about Italy!!

One of the drinks that is all over the island, at every single restaurant is "rum punch". Belize has many of their own rums, white, medium, and dark. There is one rum that is considered "dangerous", and that is the main ingredient in rum punch. We had asked Chris, one of our guides from the snorkeling tour, and whom we befriended for most of our stay, if he knew how to make the rum punch. He marched us to one of the stores, showed us what ingredients we needed, and then proceeded to make us an entire jug of our own rum punch. Needless to say, this picture was the last picture I took that day because that punch is potent as shit and knocked both Matt and me squarely on our asses for the night!