Belize Adventure

A traveller from Philadephia samples Belize

By Sharon Bar

A Mayan local, Teodocio Juarez, attends to your needs; chats with you about Belize and its history, flora and fauna; and lights the kerosene lamps in your tent at night. His wife cooks a spicy and filling Mayan breakfast and dinner every day. The tent-cabins have comfortable twin beds and a covered porch with a brightly colored hammock.

Adam most relished the hammock after a day of activity. Although we tried reading under the kerosene lights at night, we found ourselves falling asleep not long after dark and waking up as the sun came through the canvas roof of our cabin. Most of the Jungle Camp visitors were stirring by 6:30, as they headed to early morning bird walks, hikes, caving, tubing, and visits to Mayan ruins.

Jungle Camp visitors can make full use of the rest of the lodge's facilities; I had a relaxing facial at the spa. We rented mountain bikes and toured the environs of Chaa Creek and San Ignacio, the nearby town, under skies that were alternately hot and sunny and raining.

The terrain is rolling and lush, reminding me of Lancaster County, but with palm trees. Perhaps not surprising, then, is the presence of a significant Mennonite community, whose members have become the most successful farmers in Belize.

The rain forest is a source of endless discovery. It would take me far longer than a week in Belize to become nonchalant about seeing and hearing spider and howler monkeys overhead, catching brilliant glimpses of scarlet macaws and keel-billed toucans, watching practically domesticated coatimundis nosing around at our feet, and seeing a very shy tarantula peek out of its hole outside our cabin. And that was just one day.

We arranged a side-trip to Tikal, Guatemala - among the most significant Mayan temple sites in all of Central America - through Chaa Creek. At $300 per person (including lodging and meals), the trip wasn't cheap, but we soon identified its value.

We had our own van and driver all the way to Tikal and back, and another Guatemalan tour guide at Tikal. The ride to Tikal from Chaa Creek is about 21/2 hours over minimally paved roads. Here are the two main values of a local driver/guide, in addition to imparting useful information about Tikal and Mayan history: (1) getting us through the scam du jour at the Guatemalan border crossing, and (2) knowing every potentially cataclysmic pothole between Belize and Tikal.

One of our best decisions was to make the Tikal trip an overnight one, rather than a day trip from Chaa Creek, as many do. Reserving a night at a place called the Jungle Lodge allowed us to be at the temple sites at dusk, when the air had cooled and the crowds had vanished. We reached Temple IV, a bi-level pyramid more than 200 feet high - the tallest pre-Columbian building in the Western Hemisphere. We climbed a ladder to a ledge 160 feet above the ground and crouched on it with the folks who had stayed to watch the sun set.

We could see across the rain forest to the mountains on the Belizean border, and the waning light cast a glow on the ancient temples.

A Philadelphia connection is critical to the modern history of Tikal. Archaeologists from the University of Pennsylvania Museum led the excavation of Tikal for two decades until it was turned over to Guatemala in 1969. Many mysteries of Mayan culture and decline remain unexcavated under the blanket of the rain forest, but what is there to see is awe-inspiring.

Our last jungle stop was at the beloved Belize Zoo. The zoo, operating on a shoestring, is carved out of the rain forest, the animals in simple enclosures built into the foliage. The animals are all natives of Belize, in their natural habitats.

Some disclosure is in order: My husband is the president of the Philadelphia Zoo and had contacted Sharon Matola, the Belize Zoo director, to arrange a few hours with her. Not every visitor will get a few hours with Matola, but you may just catch her wandering around the zoo, calling each animal by name, and feeding it some goodies out of her jumpsuit pocket.

Matola, an indefatigable American, was working on a wildlife documentary film in Belize in 1983. When it finished shooting, she started a zoo with the animals that appeared in the film. In 20 years, the Belize Zoo has been visited by nearly every student in Belize and has become a national center of environmental education and political activism around habitat protection.

A budget lodging option in Belize is the zoo's Tropical Education Center, where you can stay in dorm-type rooms and learn about the tropical habitats, too, as have Cameron Diaz and Bobby Kennedy Jr.

We spent our last three days in Ambergris Caye, the largest and busiest of the cayes, which are islands and are pronounced keys. Though bustling and charming, the main town, San Pedro, has no paved roads and no high-rise hotels. Its motto: "No shirt, no shoes, no problem." We whiled away the hours on the beach at Xanadu Island Resort, a perfect combination of comfort and, of course, down-home Belizean charm.

The above appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer, full article here.

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