My trip to Belize

[armybloke]

I have just returned from my last ever overseas tour with the army and whilst I was living out in the jungle I sent home my experience on a weekly newsletter to my family and close friends. I have been inundated with requests to pass the letter on and even told I should start a book! Due to the request level for my piece I thought I'd share it with you starting with week 1 and if you like it you can have a week per day until the end of the week. so here goes;

 

It's a jungle out there!

 

Week 1

 

Following my overnight in Miami I have managed to see quite a lot of it and in return been delighted at the spectacle. I have been with Hummingbirds, Vultures, Eagles, Hawks and a myriad of different species of every colour and size. I have so far dived with Nurse Sharks (plural), Manta Ray, Sting Ray and a plethora of fish like they have been painted the Caribbean way! I have been accosted by a spider monkey screamed at by Howlers and licked by a friendly Jaguar - neat stuff especially when you love Wildlife!

 

I have had a taste of Caribbean Is life, their culture and food - along with the odd bottle of Belikin Lighthouse beer (which if I were honest is yuk!) Good job for Guinness that's what I say - yep that is sold here.

 

I have seen Mayan Temples in pristine condition, had a step back in time regarding living conditions and how cultures have grown in pure poverty. The thing is they all have a smile and lots of time - less the drug gangs of course! Hey and they are so poor their priority is to bin everything and buy a mobile phone. If you don't have a mobile you are a nobody - they starve but yep they can tell their mates about it too! Odd. We caught a ferry the other day, it was hand cranked over the river on a rope by a bloke who in reality should have retired and spent a pension on something. He would not even let us help. A single vehicle could perch on the planks while we travelled at a speed close to snail pace to the other side - the worst of it was he wanted no money - WHY???

 

Work is good too. Up at 0545 each day. PT in the morning for an hour - that is a killer in this heat! 30+ each day and that is at 1100hrs! I have a real job here from 0800 to 1700 and that is only because we have sun light from 0600 to 1800hrs each day. Working with mosquitoes buzzing round you all day is uncomfortable and with the heat as well - not nice. Airport Camp is built on a swamp so Mossy City round here!! Assisting special forces is always a challenge but of course I have personal experience and so my life is not too difficult - except perhaps my fitness is not what it used to be and my body has been broken a few too many times before. Jungle survival training is on the cards next week to give everyone a flavour of life outside the workshop! Oh the joy.......'if you want to eat go and catch it' rings in my ears already!!!

 

My last ever trip abroad on exercise I guess so I must make the most of it. Lets face it if Liz wants me out here then she has to pay! God Save The Queen!

[arbogrunt]

well, what about the Rose Garden?...you forgot to tell us about the Rose Garden!

[Andy Collins]

Keep it coming mate, good to read and good to read something a little different too

[DN22 Gardening]

my bro was stationed out there when he was in the army.

 

liked it so much he's built a place near Chetamal ??? ( think thats how you spell it)

 

he says theres loads of work out there for tree fellers...all of $25 belise per day ( about 50p i think)

 

hoping to get out there this year.

[armybloke]

By the way Bz$25 is a bout £10. The place is amazing as is all of that coastline. Primary jungle and a lot in prisitine condition. Trouble being as in a lot of places illegal logging and felling for arable land is destroying huge swathes of jungle.

 

Thanks guys here's the next installment.

 

Week 2

 

The journey started at 0530 on Sat morning picking up rations and making our way to Clarissa Falls to pick up our Guatemalan guide, Guillermo. We arrived at 0800 as promised. The house of Derek and Lynn was beautiful. Perched on stilts at an ox-bow of a river so they had a natural swimming pool on their door step. Lynn is an avid eco-warrior putting feeders everywhere for birds bats and animals alike - even to the point of allowing wild dogs to roam in and feed on scraps! She had every conceivable plant in her vast garden and so I was quite at home. I even gave advice on tree planting, staking and aftercare. Derek and Lynn run the AT for troops in Belize in summer and they have an identical set up in Canada at BATUS for the winter! All makes sense and good business too!

 

The trip to the border took about 5 mins and Guillermo’s wife (Geni) is an immigration officer and spoke perfect english so it all went very smoothly and to be honest they did not look too bothered anyway!! Guillermo spoke spanish, I knew a little and some italian thrown in and within an hour we were conversing well. A minibus had been arranged (friend of their family Manuel) and duly took us to Tikal. What would in England take about 30 mins to travel the 40 plus miles took 2 hours. The roads have no tarmac are full of pot-holes and are really dusty. Small sections had tarmac of sorts but you could never get up to speed. Luckily aircon and the anticipation kept everyone awake, plus the street scenes were very interesting.

 

At our arrival we paid our fees and walked the mile or so from the information centre to the Grand Plaza - well it took my breath away; comparable with the Great Wall, Pyramids and South Is NZ. It was absolutely amazing and the size was beyond comprehension. The pictures do not do it justice as you can not appreciate the vast expanse of temples, pyramids, buildings and walkways. Of the 229 sq miles of the national park only 10 sq miles have been excavated and explored. This site was 6 miles of walkways for us to explore and only really discovered in 1949. You could imagine the intrepid explorers pottering through the jungle and suddenly falling upon this place. Back then it must have been a wonder as it is today. I was standing on the highest pyramid at 62m and could see for miles in every direction. I was blown away by the whole experience. The trees were huge, flowers beautiful and some of the trees were just covered in orchids on every spare branch! Out side of the ruins we went to a little cafe and had a typical meal. It was really lovely refried beans, chicken, rice and a local beer. My meal was no more than GBP 2! and worth every penny. I even bought the cafe's local chilli sauce which was a green gloop for 50p to have with our BBQ later - delicious!

 

On the way back to Belize the border bridge had partially collapsed and repairs were under-way so we walked the half mile or so to the border. That was good too because we mingled with the locals for a little while and got to see the sights and smell the cooking etc. Nice.

 

We got back at about 1830 in the dark. I invited Lynn, Guillermo and his family to the BBQ. Derek had flown to Calgary to begin AT preparations in Canada. We told stories, reflected on the day and slept like logs in hammocks hanging underneath the balcony of their home. Cool as beans. We had a few animal visitors in the night as I heard them scurrying about. I did not sleep well in a banana shape but still I slept on and off. I woke early and sat by the river watching Toucan's feed and other exotic birds swoop in to the garden to pick at dates and other fruit trees. What a lovely day and I really mean that you could not have bought what we did for a holiday. Magical and yes very, very lucky.

 

We left the house just after 0800 and stopped at a Belizean cafe for breakfast. I had Mexican eggs on freshly cooked wholemeal bread - wow! It had chillies in!!!

 

This afternoon we went to the local pool about 5 miles away and chilled out. I went for a walk to a nature reserve, botanical garden and butterfly house. I spent an hour glued to my binos watching Kingfishers and waders feeding at a pool. For the last hour I sat and chatted with some of the lads and sipped an ice-margherita full of fresh limes and a little Tequila.

 

Hey, the guys that decided to stay here and get drunk spent a fortune. My weekend of tourism, less my personal purchases cost GBP15 and that included a tip to the driver!!! So well worth every penny so far.

 

Some points of interest. I saw an orange-bellied hawk, spider monkeys and howler monkeys swinging through the trees, corimundi, otters, and many exotic birds. The bromeliads grow on the telephone wires over here and it took me a while to work out what they were so my binos revealed them growing. Strange place to grow!

[armybloke]

well, what about the Rose Garden?...you forgot to tell us about the Rose Garden!

 

Hmmm 'Raul's Rose Garden'....now there's a treat for people collecting serious diseases. For those not in the know here is the tale. An ex-squaddie way back in the early 1980's saw a gap in the market but first you must know the history first (in brief)....The Belize governemnt invited the British Military to be stationed there to deter Guatemala from attacking them and to add a little muscle to the area. Ideal stepping stone for the Falklands conflict too so we gladly accepted. Harriers from the RAF, helicopters from the Army Air Corps and a plethora of various cap-badged military stationed themselves just outside Belize City in a place called Ladyville. All built on a reclaimed swamp so mossies and crocs are rife! Squaddies (a collective name for the army) CRABS (a collective name for the RAF) and Matlots (yep... the sailors) decended on Belize all needing beer and a little lovin'. Up steps an entrepreneurial chap and opens the Rose Garden just a stones throw from the camp gates. Keeeerrrrrching! The place is full every night to bursting from thirsty chaps but still no loving going on (well maybe but nothing discolosed nudge-nudge wink-wink) So the entrepreneurial chap thinks he can help the locals genberate a bit of an economy by employing some good looking (and not so good looking local women ) and so the rest is history except these ladies of the night have not moved on or retired since those early days and well - they just aint so pretty no more if you get my drift The place has not changed (in my eyes) since those early days and so it has become a tourist attraction rather than a place to go drinking and loving!

 

So there you have it the Rose Garden in a nutshell - stay clear is my advice!

[TimberCutterDartmoor]

Keep it coming mate, good to read and good to read something a little different too

 

What he said

[armybloke]

Week 3

 

I have just returned from the roller coaster from hell and the roller coaster of all roller coasters - you couldn't buy this one that's for sure. I have made acquaintances with some of the guys here - as I do - and they have borrowed a couple of my blokes to help out with a 'job' on the water. In return I was taken for a little spin in an aircraft - for 90 terrifying minutes. These guys have what are known in the trade as special pilots. We did some low level jungle flying and my god was it hairy. The deck for them should have been 150ft and a buzzer goes off if the dip below that and another noise goes off if the dip below 50ft. I think the 50ft alarm was on constantly! They hugged the contours of the mountains on the Guatemala border like a toboggan would in the runners. Flippin ek they were very good and they twisted and turned and .....they did everything and I was very sick when they pulled out doing lots of G in a steep climb! Even the 'chaps' I was with felt really ill and said when we landed that was one of the worst he'd been in! That's how bad it was. Still when we got to Honduras we did a hard left and hugged the Belize coast and 160 mile barrier reef all the way to Mexico and YES I saw the Blue Hole - in fact - the pilot circled it 4 times to get happy snaps, so we were treated well. I have taken a plethora of pictures so they will be added to my collection! I saw Scarlet Macaws, crocs and Monkeys albeit briefly as we trimmed and singed all the tree tops with the wings!! We passed over 1000ft falls, reputed to be tallest in C America, Altan Ha Mayan ruins and a plethora of locations I am still unsure of. I still feel very wobbly but excited too by having this unique chance in life - again!

This is your last iteration of 'life in Belize' as I make my way back to UK via Florida in 2 days. It has been excellent so here is the result of last weeks events;

 

After the flight from hell in the C130 (did I mention that in my last dit?) I was treated to a more sedate flight in a Lynx helicopter to the Jungle Survival Training phase of our exercise. The guys had eaten fresh pig, chicken and plant matter the night before as promised and were fuelled up for the river crossing. Nerves were obvious and heightened after being told that a 12ft croc had to be destroyed 2 days before from the very same spot we were about to enter the water! Yeah great thanks for the tip-off!! The water was cool and deep and about 100m to the other bank - with a nice little current just to add to the difficulty. It's amazing how fast one swims with fear of the unknown - even our non-swimmers did PBs for the day! Still everyone made it unscathed and were glad when the Ex had finished. Drying off on a bridge was extremely gratifying while we waited for the helicopter extraction. Some had to endure the 6 hour journey back by road, so sad faces were evident.

 

Just to add to the nerves on returning to the workshop the following day one of my guys found out the hard way that he was sharing his coveralls with a Tarantula - luckily the non-poisonous type! It was not your average wake up call especially one so hairy crawling up your back trying to escape. Don't worry eco-warriors I caught it and let it free. That's 2 encounters now - the 1st was a snake under a toolbox!

[armybloke]

Week 4

 

We ended the tour on a high by visiting Mexico. A really early start, 0400hrs, meant that we got to Chetumel border crossing before the stampede of people trying to gain access to and from Mexico began. The car we had borrowed seated all 7 of us but with little aircon and cramped conditions it did not make for a pleasant 5 and half hour drive. Sweaty and exhausted we arrived at our hotel. Very nice too. Swimming pool, gym and many other luxuries made for a good stay.

 

Playa del Carmen was now subject to 7 squaddies wallets as we recce'd downtown Playa for food and drink whilst spying for obvious trinkets to take back home. The beaches were champagne white with azure blue crystal clear sea that were relatively empty. Town was full of trinkets, bars and restaurants, including a Starbucks much to my delight. My first real coffee in 4 weeks! Jungle turned to desert out in Mexico. The heat was penetrating rather than humid. Still, panic-tanning and rest was the order of the break. After a day exploring the delights of Playa the following day was travels for me. A ferry to Cozumel revealed a natural aquarium and myriad of amazing marine life. I managed to get a 10am ferry so I'd have a full day. It only takes 30 mins to the island. When I got there I realised that the distances I had been given were somewhat in error. I saw that scooters were on hire as soon as I got off - and was soon mobbed with offers - so I went 4 streets in found a scooter rental place did some bartering and got myself a scoot for just under a tenner for the whole day. I did, as you can imagine, go everywhere and found 2 bird reserves and a national park. I skipped the Mayan Temples as I have seen lots now and spent my day looking at wildlife. The beaches were deserted and very beautiful. Every time I overheated I jumped in the sea - easy. I had a mexican chicken sandwich and coke for lunch watching Pelicans catch fish using the little shack as a diving platform in which I sat under. I swam there but did not need to hire mask and snorkel as it was so clear and shallow I saw everything whilst swimming. I saw flamingos in their natural habitat and a flock of parrots demolishing the fruit in a tree. Really nice to see all the wildlife in their natural habitat. There is only one road on the island so navigating was easy. Superb and worth every Pesos. It is reasonably cheap and certainly cheaper than Belize here so our money went so much further. We ate luxurious foods in the evening; 14oz ribeyes, red snapper, tuna steaks, giant prawns, lobster and so the list could go on.

 

We treated ourselves and spent a few quid going to Coco Bongos club that had more theatrical acts in one evening than Shakespeare’s Globe has in a year. These men and women should be in the olympics for their gymnastics were out of this world, on trapezes and flying through the air with apparently no safety nets or wires. To everyone's advice through the day we upgraded our tickets to VIP status for the show and I am glad we listened. For an extra GBP15 we had eye level seats up in the clouds to where 90% of the show took place. We had our own waiter (shared with other VIPs) that belt-fed us drinks all night. For want of a better description he was literally a walking bar with bottles in every belt and mixers around his waist. He brought two enormous buckets of beer to our tables whilst we got comfortable and that seemed to be the theme for the rest of the night. Still that was just a spectacle in itself. Of course all our drinks were well watered down with the mixers but it was a 4 hour show and I was glad it was not full on drinking or I would have never coped and probably missed it all.

 

The show was mainly done on wires or ropes or long pieces of cloth. It is so difficult to describe. The show was lots of 20 minute excerpts from famous shows. It was like the West End in one venue over 4 hours.

 

It began with Phantom of the Opera in an ariel ballet, followed by Pirates of the Caribbean, Molin Rouge, Chicago, Batman scenes, Spiderman scenes, musical excerpts from Robbie Williams, Rolling Stones, guns and roses and many more (with actors impersonating them), a tribute to Michael Jackson, an Elvis rendition, Marylyn Monroe and so it went on. The acrobats were so strong. Both the men and women had athletic bodies that would put any gymnast and body builder to shame. They did stunts that made the crowd scream as we all thought they had fallen to certain doom only to be holding a ribbon like cloth that held them off the floor inches above the ground at the last minute. The stage was very high up but we were level so all those at lower level would have aching necks this morning and legs of jelly as they had to stand all night where as we had white table-clothed tables and chairs to sit in! All so cleverly done with projected pictures on a huge cinema type back-cloth. I can not do it justice on email. I did think that if this were to go on in UK the H&S boys would have a field-day!!

 

The trip would not be complete without a visit to some gardens and an arboretum. So I went to visit the Yucutan's best example just south of Cancun near to a place called Puerto Moralos. The botanical garden "Dr Alfredo Barrera Marín" has an extension of 60 Ha and is characterized for having its original vegetation. They had lots of different types of gardens from cactus to mangroves. All labelled and with good explanations. There was even a Mayan garden with lots of words about medicines and the plant uses. All very interesting. There was a couple of lookout towers and a rope bridge or 'hunging bridge' as they labelled it! It would never have been allowed to be open in our country. Battered by a hurricane or two I should imagine!! Still I was able to see over the tree tops at various wildlife. Added to my list of animals in their natural habitats is a croc, anteater, Corimundi, snakes and a really cool ant called the lion ant (locally). It was huge and made me laugh as it was full of expression when I took its picture. Like a little person gesticulating to me in a really typical 'what are you doing disturbing my peace' kind of way. Butterflies danced amongst the shadows all the size of small birds and as colourful as any caribbean painting. Magical. I visited a mangrove reserve where there were dozens of types of herons, stork and egrets all fishing for their prize of a hefty lunch. Along with those were parrots and a host of other colourful birds. The beach was typically empty and with talcum-powder sand and crystal clear water teaming with fish.

 

I can not deny I have tried to get a flight to Cuba but I think relations between Mexico and Cuba must be non-existent as no one seems to go there despite being less than 90 miles across the Caribbean sea. Another adventure another time I guess. Havana cigars are plentiful in town and are being made the traditional way in some of the shops I have visited. I did manage to get to see Chichen Itza Mayan temple today. It is apparently the Quintanta Roo districts best example and I would agree. As the sun set Playa beckoned and a chargrilled Tuna steak the size of a dinner plate covered with shrimps was on my menu to celebrate a fine break.

 

We head off back to Belize in the morning so it is adios from me and I will see you when I return to UK. I can recommend all my destinations should anyone be inspired to travel now you have read all of these snippets of my travelling autobiography.

[David Humphries]

enjoying the ride

 

some fantastic photography

 

 

 

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