I should have started a blog when we first arrived in the country of Belize. I actually forgot that I had a blog area for travel so now I will need to bring the blog up-to-date to share with others
We arrived in Belize city on February 23, 2014. We rented a car at the airport and drove around Belize city for a little bit. We've been checked into the best Western motel in Belize city for the evening. Our flight had arrived in the late afternoon.
Renting a car is pretty expensive; we paid about $100. US a day, but you do get unlimited mileage and have more freedom.
I can recommend the best Western as a good place to stay. They have Internet in the lobby and the beds in the room were very comfortable
The next day we left to go to Hopkins which is in southern Belize on the coast. We first got lost in Belize city trying to get out. But people are very friendly and helpful; the country uses roundabouts to redirect traffic. The signs are pretty good, we probably missed the one we needed for our turn. Getting lost is not all bad; you usually get to see things you would have otherwise missed.
We stopped along the way to visit the Belize Zoo. This is a wonderful zoo and a little different than others that I have been too. For one thing you are able to get closer to the animals. I was able to get close enough for a tapir to lick my hand.
We stayed longer at the zoo then we had anticipated which meant that we had to drive to our destination in the dark partially.
I do not advise driving on the highways at night. For one thing there are speed bumps that help keep traffic slower and populated areas but sometimes they are unmarked.
The other thing is that there are many people along the roadway on bicycles walking and they are hard to see.
Somehow, in the dark, we made it to our hotel in Hopkins which is the Coconut Row Hotel.
This hotel is on the water and very nice we stayed at this hotel for four nights, we used the hotel as a base to go further south to Palencia.
One of the things that is striking about the country are the number of stray dogs that roam around. Many of them clearly have had puppies recently.
In Hopkins there is a humane society where we stopped and learned that they try to gather stray dogs and to spay and to neuter dogs that are owned by the area residents. We donated some funds to their effort.
We noticed much land for sale and met some fellow travelers from Canada who were there to shop for farmland. They were ready to sell everything in Canada to move here and I wondered if they had been here during the monsoon season.
We drove to Palencia which is south of Hopkins; again we saw lots of signs for the sale of property.
We did not spend much time in Palencia; it is much larger and busier than Hopkins.
We are nearing the end of our trip at this point, so I will post as I can along the way. At the moment we are on Caye Caulker getting ready to leave for Ambergris Caye.
