For A Few Dollars More: Day 31 - Belize (Teakettle)

Ok, heads up people, I'm a big fan of Belize and I've been looking forward to this bit of the trip so don't expect any objectivity in these posts whatsoever.

Let's start with a bit on Belize itself. British Honduras until independence in 1981, Belize is a downright cracking place to be if you're an English speaker in Central America. The only country with English as a first language and a parliamentary democracy to boot. All the essential ingredients for a stable and civilised society. So civilised is Belize, that they have a Harrier GR3 jump jet parked right outside their international airport as a sign to any arriving tourist that they have been on the right side for a large part of their recent history and that visitors have nothing to fear.

Although their currency is the Belizian Dollar, it has the queens head on it, marking it out as a stable and attractive thing to carry in your pocket.

Pound for pound, Belize is the most sparsely populated country on planet earth. The size of Wales, it has around 250,000 inhabitants. The capital, Belmopan, has a modest 18,000 residents, the size of a large village in the UK. Belize City boasts more (65,000) but I'd be surprised if it matches the size of Bracknell. Thems the conurbations, most towns of note are barely worth the name.

Guatemala has been pursuing a territorial claim on Belize since the 1940's, declaring it the 23rd Guatemalan State. It even has a seat for Belize in its government chambers which has never been occupied. Her Majesty's Government and the Government of Belize take a somewhat different view on this matter.

What all that means is you've got a pretty clean environment in which to explore. And the simply brilliant news is that I now have a new, slightly pasty, travelling companion from home to explore with. I flew into Phillip Goldson international airport from Roatan early this morning and three hours later a very old friend from the UK joined me for the last week or so of travelling.

For a change, he'd done some planning and we jumped into a mini-bus for a trip up country and into the Belizian jungle. Two hours later and we were in our lodge looking out over the tree canopy and listening to the sounds of the wild. Quite a nice change of pace to not have to think about travel and accommodation, just for once.

The lodge itself is several steps up from my recent standard and a welcome improvement! Aside from the very comfortable surroundings, we've got humming birds flitting around the place, I've seen fireflies sparking on the evening breeze, heard howler monkeys trumpeting their presence, bats swooping and chittering in the night sky and the constant clicking and scratching of tropical insects just to let you know that the jungle is ever alive.

We've got a couple of things we want to do here tomorrow but after settling in, we went for a walk in the jungle to acclimatise. Within less than an hour walking through the jungle, I managed to get bitten by every mosquito within five miles. And it bloody hurts!

Flying over the second largest barrier reef in the world, on the approach to Belize City.