Arrival into Belize

Our trip to Belize was pretty much uneventful. We took an early morning flight out of Newark directly to Belize City. There were a number of empty seats on the plane. About four planes arrived close to each other leading to a a very busy immigration and customs hall however we were able to breeze through to meet a pleasantly surprised driver from Discounted Belize Shuttles and Tours. He was a very nice and informative gentleman who took us to a supermarket for refreshments and to a roadside canteen for the most delicious rice and peas with lamb for a mere US $3.00 before embarking on the greater than two hour trip to San Ignacio in the Cayo District. Yes, Continental did not feed us…

We got into town in the early afternoon and were able to register for tours at Pacz Tours, a couple minutes away from the Casa Blanca Guesthouse we were staying in. The Saturday market was winding down but that did not deter us from visiting the stalls. Alas, it was not mango season. But we did have a very delicious pineapple. We also managed to get adopted by a stray dog and it took several minutes before we gave him the slip.

Still with daytime to spare, we got a taxi to take us to Cahal Pech, the archaeological site. Cahal Pech (place of ticks) got its name from when it was a cow pasture in the 1950s. The site is located on top of a hill overlooking the town of San Ignacio. It is covered with dense jungle. Cahal Pech was occupied continuously from 1200 B.C. to 800 A.D. It was quite peaceful and breezy there. The ground however was slippery. Afterwards, we walked back to town, about 15-20 minutes, got lost, and got beaten by the rain which had been coming and going in spurts ever since we arrived.

The night ended with Happy Hour ($1.50 USD rum n juice) and complimentary WiFi at Greedy’s and then a delicious dinner at Hode’s Place.

Not yet 8:00pm, we eagerly returned to Casa Blanca to rest our tired bones. For $30 USD a night, we were quite pleased with our clean and basic accommodations. Cannot be beat!