Maya Ruins of Belize – Lamanai

Lamanai is in Belize’s north, about 40 kilometres south of Orange Walk town.  Like Caracol, it’s in the middle of nowhere and surrounded by jungle.  It’s also on a long dirt road (although there are several small villages along the way, so the area isn’t quite as deserted as the road to Caracol).  You can drive yourself, but the much better option is to join a tour from Orange Walk – not only do you get the previously mentioned benefits of the tour guide, but, instead of going overland, the trip is done there and back on the New River, a welcome alternative to the ‘road’ (notice the ironic quotation marks), and one of the best river trips in Belize.

Maya Ruins of Belize – Caracol

Belize was once part of the Maya world, along with the south of modern-day Mexico, plus Guatemala, northern Honduras, and El Salvador.  The Maya civilisation dominated the northern part of Central America from 2000 BC until the arrival of the Spanish in the 16th century.  They had the only complete written language anywhere in the pre-colonial Americas, and were famous for their maths and astronomy, not to mention their bloody sacrifices and their doomsday-prophesising calendar.

Placencia Movie

So, after spending the best part of every evening of last week clumsily editing this thing together, here’s my first (and quite possibly last) attempt at film-making.  Due to the GoPro camera that I was using not having a screen or view-finder, and people’s tendency (certainly mine) to aim the camera higher than it needs to be, most of what’s being shown is several metres above what I was actually trying to capture!  But at least I’ve managed to edit out all the shaky parts as I press repeatedly on the unit, trying to make sure that it’s turning on or off.  Plus the sections that play like a chase sequence from The Bourne Ultimatum, where the camera suddenly appears to be afflicted with Parkinson’s.  Not to mention the bits which consist of a five-second shot of my face looking quizzically at the camera, silently asking myself ‘Is this thing on?’.  And the classic one-minute-long sequence of my fingertips.

A Whale (Shark) of a Time

As I’ve mentioned before, at Easter in Belize, everyone goes to the beach.  At least it seems like everyone.  Buses to Placencia and Hopkins are crammed with passengers and luggage, boats to Caye Caulker and San Pedro are packed to the gunwales, and it feels like the whole country is on the move.  Admittedly, it’s not as bad as some places (don’t ever visit China during any of its national holidays – you would not believe what several hundred million people on the move looks like!), but the large numbers of travellers, combined with the holiday transport schedules, make it a stressful time to travel, and along with Christmas and New Year, the only time that you ever need to plan ahead and book things in advance here.

Jungle and Jaguars

Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary is one of Belize’s largest and most famous protected areas.  It’s also the world’s only Jaguar preserve, established in 1986 to protect these threatened animals.  Besides being home to the iconic cats, Cockscomb contains miles of hiking trails, the headwaters of several rivers, and the country’s highest mountain range, all contained in over 500 square kilometres of tropical jungle.  And with adjoining nature reserves to the south and west, the animals have a continuous natural corridor twice as large.

Politics, Belize Style – Part 2

“Elections are won chiefly because most people vote against somebody rather than for somebody” – Franklin Pierce Adams

“No part of the education of a politician is more indispensable than in the fighting of elections” – Winston Churchill

“Anyone who is capable of getting themselves elected into office should on no account be allowed to do the job” – Douglas Adams

It’s all over.  The dust has settled, the votes have been counted, and the polling booths taken down.  The hands have been shaken, the babies kissed, the parties thrown, and the palms greased.  Last week’s national and municipal elections resulted in victory for the incumbent United Democratic Party (UDP) and current Prime Minister Dean Barrow.  But it was a narrow victory – instead of the landslide they won at the last election in 2008 (when they beat the People’s United Party [PUP] by a large majority), this time they scraped by, winning 17 of the 31 seats and 50% of the votes.  The PUP won the remaining 14 seats and got 48% of the votes.  The independent candidates and smaller parties split the remaining 2% of the votes (which, in a country with Belize’s population, are very small numbers – each party would’ve had about 800 people vote for them at the most!).  And none of them won any seats in Parliament (so it’s business as usual, with the two main parties occupying the House).

Politics, Belize Style – Part 1

“Politics is a dirty business” – Richard Nixon

“Politics isn’t dirty, it’s the politicians that are” – Anon

“’Politics’ is made up of two words – ‘poli’, which is Greek for many, and ‘tics’, which are blood-sucking insects” – Gore Vidal

It’s election time in Belize.  Prime Minister Dean Barrow suddenly and unexpectedly announced it last month.  Normally, elections are held every five years (as that’s the maximum term a governing party is elected to), and the last election was in 2008, so everyone was expecting the next one to be next year.  But on March 7th Belizeans will be going to the polls.