Our trip from Jamaica to San Pedro, Belize was 700 miles and took just under 5 days. This is the longest offshore passage we have done by ourselves and it was uneventful. As I write this we have sailed over 3000 miles since leaving Baltimore. The route map in the photo section shows our general course. San Pedro is a major tourist area and scuba diving center with the worlds second largest barrier reef less than a mile off the coast. The town population is @ 12-15000, all very friendly and accommodating. The streets are small and can be congested and most people use bikes or golf carts to get around. Carts outnumber autos at least 5 to 1. Eating at local places can be very cheap, fish dinner for 2 with 2 soft drinks for $10 or less, best way to find them is ask a local where he eats. The beaches are clean, water clear, and the diving and snorkeling excellent. We arrived the first week of April and worked our way S to Placentia, mostly a fishing village but tourism is growing. As many locals come here for vacation as do foreigners. Around a thousand people live here and there are several small grocery stores and always many fresh produce venders on the street with anything you could want at very cheap prices by US standards. Just across the bay is Big Creek, second largest commercial port in Belize.

We decided to leave our boat at a private dock for safety while we explored inland. We felt uncomfortable leaving it alone for 4-5 days out in the anchorage but have never heard of anyone having and theft problems. It was a wise decision because the day before we moved it a charter boat dragged his anchor across 300 yards of harbor and just hit us a glancing blow as we were coming back to our boat. Luckily we managed to get our dinghy between the two boats before he did more damage. We only suffered a bent anchor part and the captain of the charter boat did not believe their boat did the damage. I guess he figured we dragged his boat the 300 yards just to try and rip his company off.

Local bus service is very reliable and cheap. They are mostly old school buses that the drivers cram as many riders in as possible. At times we had at least 120 people in buses designed for 85 capacity. But it is interesting and a good way to meet the locals. Our 3 bus 5 hour ride took us to San Ignacio, about 6 miles from the Guatemala border. We stayed at a great little guest house in the middle of town and it was luxurious to have air conditioning for those 4 days as well as daily news on the TV. I do miss my morning news casts. We visited Cahal Pech, just short walk from our hotel, the oldest Mayan ruins in Belize dating back to 600 B. C. It is still being slowly excavated as funds become available. Caracol, a 3 hour rough drive along near wilderness roads, is the largest known Mayan ceremonial center in Belize. At its height, around 650 A.D. it had over 30,000 structures, 140,000+ inhabitants, and covered nearly 70 square miles. The tallest temple is 442 feet high. The road passes within a few miles of the Guatemalan jungle. Three years ago Guatemalan banditos were stopping cars along the road and robbing them at gunpoint, hiding passengers and their cars in the jungle until the day was over, then leaving the prisoners go while the robbers slipped back across the border. Now you can get an army escort through this area if you arrive at their outpost at a specified time.

For us the most interesting site was ATM ( Actun Tunichil Muknal ) a must see sight if you are not claustrophobic. Discovered 5-6 years ago by loggers was this cave with an underground river flowing out it's mouth. Further exploration by geologists found Mayan artifacts and human remains. This site was used from about 500 A.D. to 1000 A.D. as a ceremonial grounds. The cave was essentially dry during that time as evidenced by stalactites seen in the flooded portions of the cave lower down. It is about a 1/2 mile excursion into the cave with no lights other than those on your head. Short parts of it has to be swam but mostly you are wading thru water until you get half way in. Then the ground rises and you come upon old pottery shards and bowls, over 2000 of them, plus skeletal remains of previous residents. The archeologists chose to leave the majority of artifacts in place for the enjoyment and wonderment of the people who visit the site. There are currently only a dozen or so guides that are licensed to escort tours into this cave.

As I write this we are anchored in Glovers Reef, one of 3 atolls off the coast of Belize. It is also one of only a few true atolls in the Northern hemisphere. We think this is the nicest of the three and as of now we are the only boat here. We've been here a week already and decided to stay another week just because we like it so much. The entire area is a national undersea preservation area and the diving and snorkeling are fantastic. There is a small all rustic resort on the island and the owner of the resort and the island lives here. The atmosphere is very laid back and casual. If we want to dive we just let them know and they will pick us up at our boat when they take their guests out. They have a small bar open to anyone and it's essentially an 'honor bar' when the bartender Angie is not around. You take your drinks and mark it on your tab, same with the diving we have done. Pay before you leave the island, which surprised us since we are just 'drop ins' that could disappear. But they said only one person ever tried to leave without paying and that was a resort guest. I suppose we have honest faces. We have not been to the mainland in over 2 weeks and have run out of all fresh produce and are short on dingy fuel. Eddie, the owner, said we can ride into the mainland on their shuttle boat tomorrow to reprovision while they pick up new guests from the airport. Hospitality does not get much better than that. We could also eat buffet style in their dining room if we give them advance notice so they can prepare enough extra, not for free of course. Literally everything has to be brought out here by boat except fresh water, a 30 mile boat trip each way. The resort gets 50% of it’s electricity from solar power and the owner plans to double capacity in the near future to provide substantially all of his electricity. When it is finished he will have almost $100k invested in the system and will reduce his current fuel cost for running his generator from $9000/month down to less than $1000/month.

Addendum: We will be leaving Belize in 3 days for the Rio Dulce in Guatemala, about 50 miles away. We will spend about 5 months there waiting for hurricane season to end before continuing S to Columbia and Panama.