Punta Gorda, Belize

Having spent almost two weeks in Belize, living in jungle-like conditions without any of the comforts of modern life, my group of five explorers and two guides were looking forward to what our travel agent recommended as a modern resort. with sandy beaches. , a Chinese restaurant and excellent rooms.

As we entered the city, I began to have suspicions about how nice this hotel would be. I didn’t see anything that would make me believe a 5 star resort was looming on the horizon. Still hoping against hope, we were all hoping to spend 2 nights in a real hotel.

Suddenly the van stopped, here we were. The Miramarr hotel, the place was a dump. A large two-story building with bars on all the windows. There was a Chinese restaurant, however I’m not sure what century it was last cleaned. They all looked in horror, were we going to spend two nights here?

Staring at the driver, he replied: “I didn’t know, I haven’t been here for ten years, I was sick the last time I came, nobody comes here.” I came to find out that the travel agent hadn’t been here either, she was just referring to a brochure she had seen. (must have been published by the local Chamber of Commerce).

Since this was the only place in town, and sleeping here or on the jungle floor were our only options, we started unloading the truck. The driver was heading home from him in a clean, warm bed. Immediately after checking in, it was necessary to climb an outside staircase to our second floor rooms. Getting into our room required opening 2 locks, and I noticed there were four locks on our interior door, which makes one feel really secure. Bars on the windows and barking dogs greeted us, this is going to be a great night.

All this travel and opulence had made everyone hungry, heading to the restaurant and passing the bar we found several British soldiers hanging out getting drunk, can’t say I blame them. We had passed their barracks on the way to town, the barracks were situated under the road and due to the extremely wet conditions the men were walking in the mud all day. I was wondering what they had done to deserve to be parked here, it must have been pretty bad. The troops acted as if they had been lost at sea for months and we had come to rescue them.

The restaurant turned out to be a buffet, looking at the state of the food I quickly realized it wouldn’t be a good idea to eat vegetables, so my dinner consisted of whatever meat I could find and beer. (The bread was extremely stale, it could have been used as a hockey puck.)

We had traveled here to visit the Lubanaantum, the pyramid where Helen Mitchell-Hedges had discovered the crystal skull many years before. Tomorrow should be interesting.

With all four door locks locked, windows barred, and dogs barking, we retired for a restful night’s sleep. It was then that I detected a stench from the garbage below, placing my hand over my mouth and nose I drifted into dreamland.

Getting up early, he found a restaurant across the street where he devoured a pleasant breakfast. After a short drive to Lubanaantum, the van pulled to the side of the road and we began the half-mile hike to the pyramid, climbing a one-lane mud road past cows and mud puddles to the site. A lot of work is being done and the site should be restored soon. It is interesting with a great view from the top, one can see the Gulf of Mexico.

Before heading back to our luxury suites, the decision was made to sample some of the local cuisine at a roadside food stall – excellent choice! Tomorrow we would be heading north for one more day in Belize, than back to the good old United States.

It had been an eventful 2 weeks, much had been learned about the Mayan culture and way of life in Belize. They have a lot going for them, and I hope the country will change a lot in the next few years, as they told me, they desperately want to improve their lot in life and all they want from us is our advice and knowledge, they don’t want our money. How I wish more countries felt this way.