Belize 2022

The passage from Isla Mujeres south to Belize was tough. For some or all of the time I experienced strong winds, adverse currents and big surfing seas, and as I remained within sight of land to minimise the affect of the north setting current I slept for just 20 minute spells. I could have stopped at any number of places but wanted to arrive in Belize within as few days as possible from the official date I had cleared out of Mexico….otherwise, officials want to know why it took so long and “what had I been doing?”.

I reached San Pedro’s Pass at 4am in the dark in 25knots of onshore wind and a big onshore swell. I took the guide book advice not to pass through the barrier reef in such conditions, and continued for a further 35nm down to the big ship entrance into Belize waters at English Cay passage. This passage has the advantage of being protected by an offshore reef, the Turneffe Islands. Once inside the barrier reef I dropped the sails and headed northwards back to San Pedro where I wanted to clear in to Belize and to spend some days visiting.

These waters are beautiful shades of blue, shallow and joined by narrow passages between the cays. All was fine until Hick’s Cays where I went aground twice while attempting the Porto Stuck between cays, so with no other safe route north I turned around. I only have a 5 foot draft and later discovered that many boats go aground here…..a perfectly ridiculous situation for a yacht cruising ground.

I decided to head towards Belize City and dropped anchor in Sibun Bight well after sunset. I had a good night’s sleep and in the morning, despite communication problems, I went into the nearby Cucumber Beach marina, over three days after leaving Isla Mujeres.

The marina manager, Collette organised the FIVE local officials I needed to see to come to the boat that afternoon, and I had five copies of all the documents required. I expected the process to be lengthy and expensive….some of which would be “tips”. I knew that a negative covid test was required on arrival in Belize as it was impossible to to be tested in Mexico and arrive within the 72 hour deadline, but I “tested negative” with a tip as requested! The official also took me to an ATM to withdraw the funds for the whole process, which the immigration officer wasn’t happy about as I hadn’t been released to leave my boat!

I finally received all the documents I needed for my month long stay in Belize within three hours of the first official arriving, and at a cost of $US 450 with receipts for some of that total. I wanted to visit Belize and knew it would be expensive. The cost isn’t clear in advance because different ports have different costs and different officials have different ways and means. However, Belize is the 36th country visited since 2014 and by a long way, the most expensive to clear in. For comparison, the French Caribbean islands, such as Martinique, cost 5 euros to clear in and to clear out, both processes taking less than 30 minutes.

I look forward to Belize putting on a grand show……

The header photograph is Cucumber Beach marina in the setting sun and close to a full moon….the Wildbeast is the second boat on the right.

Much was closed over the Easter holidays and I needed to rest, so I spent time organising an inland trip to San Ignacio starting on the Tuesday after Easter. Buses go by the marina every half hour going to San Ignacio, via the country capital Belmopan and cost 10bz….$US5 for the two hour trip. I booked Old House hostel for three nights. I do like the simplicity and ambience of backpacker hostels, and at $US13 a night I love the value!
I visited the Green Iguana Conservation Project in the San Ignacio Resort Hotel. The project focuses on incubating the eggs and raising the young until they pass their vulnerable age before releasing them into the wild. The project team controls the temperature of incubation which leads to a majority of females hatching. The green iguana is hunted in Belize around certain religious festivals, such as Easter because their meat and eggs are considered delicacies….so females are more at risk during the hunting periods.

I have booked an adventure trip to the Actun Tunichil Muknal cave, the Cave of the Crystal Sepulchre….known as ATM.

The ATM cave tour wasn’t quite what I thought it would be….it was much better! Our group of eight had a registered guide, Eric. The tour started with a hike which crossed three rivers and then we had to swim a short distance into the cave. Once inside our hike was sometimes wading through the internal river and sometimes climbing further up the cave system. The caves were awesome, and Eric kept us updated with the geological history and the Mayan significance as a place of ceremonial worship and sacrifice. The very best exhibit, the Crystal Maiden, was saved until the end, at which point we returned back through caves to finish with the hike and three river crossings.

The Crystal Maiden is the skeletal remains of a 20 year old woman which have laid for over 1000 years. Archaeologists believe she was sacrificed by a priest as part of a religious ritual.

Cameras are not allowed into the cave, and so all photographs were supplied by the tour company, Mayawalk Tours.

I said goodbye to San Ignacio to return to Cucumber Beach marina, and spent a few hours in Belize City…the original capital city. Belize City was devastated in the 1961 Hurricane Hatti, after which the government moved the capital inland to Belmopan. Sadly, although Belize City remains a transport hub for cruise ship visitors and water taxi trips to the cayes, it is full of sadness and despair.

I then headed to the northern cayes via Porto Stuck which I passed through with great advice from the Belize Cruisers FB group. I anchored overnight to watch the sunset at Caye Chapel, a private island and exclusive resort. Then I motored for an hour to Caye Caulker to anchor for a few days. I passed my 68th birthday doing yoga at Namaste Cafe, watching European football and spending time with friends I had met in San Ignacio…I also booked a day of diving at the Great Blue Hole and the surrounding reef.

It was a long day of diving starting at Frenchie’s Diving at 5:30am for breakfast and briefings, and then a two hour fast boat trip to the Great Blue Hole for the first of three dives. Some people say that the Great Blue Hole is more of a tick on your bucket list than a great dive in itself, but I say it is both! The formation of the giant marine sinkhole began over 150,000 years ago, and is 318m in diameter and 124m deep, making it the largest marine sinkhole in the world. We dived down to 40m, which is my deepest dive yet, and saw many stalactites and stalagmites which were formed when the Great Blue Hole was a series of caverns above ground before the ocean level rises flooded the cavern about 15,000 years ago. I also saw my first shark in the wild….just a Reef Shark swimming below us in its own domain.

The second and third dives, at Half Moon Caye and Long Caye Aquarium were shallower dives on beautiful reefs separated by lunch on the beach at Long Caye. The two hour trip back to Caye Caulker was actually shorter as we focussed on bottomless rum punches! That evening I took the dinghy across to the Pelican Sunset Bar and met fellow divers, Ed & Sarah for Friday night sundowners….a perfect end to the day. In the photograph, Wildbeast can be seen at anchor in the distance.

I decided not to sail up to San Pedro on Ambergris Caye because the anchorage here on Caye Caulker is so much better…..it is west facing, and so much calmer than the east facing San Pedro anchorage. So I took the water taxi for a day trip. I wanted to visit San Pedro because it is the place in the Madonna hit, Isla Bonita where the first line begins, “Last night I dreamt of San Pedro, just like I’d never gone I knew the song”. I was a Madonna fan in the 80’s and went to see her live in Leeds, UK in 1987….but I’m just reminiscing now! It was a great day out, but I do prefer Caye Caulker. I will stay in Caye Caulker for three more days because there’s some great European football matches to watch, and Belize Yoga classes at Namaste Cafe every morning and Pelican Sunrise Bar every evening!

My plan then is to sail down to Placencia with an overnight stop in an anchorage somewhere midway.

Sailing plans are written in the sand only to be washed away with the tide….on my last planned evening on Caye Caulker I read that Guatemala had lifted its strict entry restrictions, and I changed my plans to suit. I will now stay longer on Caye Caulker and in Belize, and I will sail to Guatemala to stay the hurricane season up the Rio Dulce. Guatemala will be cheaper than Panama to stay and to complete the work I want to do on the boat for crossing the Pacific in 2023, and once the hurricane season ends I have a good long passage down to Panama to test the boat.

I went to San Pedro on the water taxi again just to extend my Belize visa at the immigration office, and I have booked to stay in a marina on the Rio Dulce for the hurricane season. I now have to contact a customs and immigration agent to organise entry into Guatemala. Once all that paperwork is complete I will leave Caye Caulker to sail down to Placencia, and then onwards to Guatemala, which I hope to do early June. In the meantime, I will enjoy life on Caye Caulker, known as the “La Isla Carinosa”, as can be seen in the photograph.

I finally left Caye Caulker and split the 80nm passage south to Placencia into two….on the first night I anchored off Middle Long Caye, and then on the second day, as the wind backed sufficiently to be able to sail, I decided to cover the remaining 50nm to arrive in the anchorage at Placencia just after sunset.

Apart from one awful day of wind and rain the weather has been great during the first few days in Placencia. I will organise some dives and a chocolate tour. I have a special mystery treasure hunt to complete, and I have a couple of boat jobs to do, one of which is to find and repair an air leak in the dinghy…another mystery in itself!

I had a great day with Taste Belize Tours on a Rum and Chocolate tour. Our first stop was Copal Lodge which owns the Copalli rum distillery…the distillery is so new that the 5 Year rum isn’t available until October 2022. Then we went to a family farm for a Belizean lunch followed by a demonstration of their chocolate business. Cacao is grown organically on the farm and used to handcraft their own brand of chocolate, Junajpú. While there is evidence of cacao use in Mexico by the Olmec civilisation 4000 years ago there is no evidence of chocolate production. Centuries later the Mayans were roasting and grinding cacao seeds to produce a drink “xocolatl” meaning bitter water.

Then I had a “football weekend” starting with the Champions League final with Real Madrid beating Liverpool on Saturday, and then, much more importantly, my hometown team, Nottingham Forest beating Huddersfield Town to gain promotion to the Premier League for the first time this century….thanks to Barefoot Bar for switching on the TV at 9:30am on Sunday when the bar doesn’t normally open until 11:00am!

The mystery treasure hunt I mentioned previously is an extraordinary story of the sea. Forty three years ago an American friend was sailing on a 70’ trimaran, Veni Vidi Vici, built by her father. The boat got into difficulties in a storm and went aground on the reef near Placencia, and although the crew were rescued the yacht was sadly wrecked. The crew were taken to Placencia and subsequent to satisfactory medical examinations were flown back to the US. The story made the newspapers and the yacht had to be cut into smaller sections to be taken off the reef. Sofia, who was 22 years old at the time has never returned to Belize and asked me to find out what I could about the yacht. I have made various enquiries, and the most relevant information is about the 2001 Category 4 Hurricane Iris which caused severe damage to Placencia……so it is my guess that any remains of Veni Vidi Vici were lost in the post hurricane clearing and rebuilding operation. However, I still have some more enquiries to make before I leave Placencia.

I used Go Sea dive shop at the Placencia harbour front for two dive trips…the first was a long day trip to Glover’s Reef for two reef dives around South West Caye and my final Belize dive trip was to Laughing Bird Caye in the photograph, named after laughing gulls which used to nest on the tiny island, and sadly marred by poor visibility…probably caused by the sea swell over the previous 48 hours. I have now completed 18 dives this year and there is no doubt that Belize offers many great dive and snorkelling options. On my return from Laughing Bird Caye back to Placencia I spent some time with my Argentinian friends, Carolina & Facundo on “Odiseaporamerica” who are meandering their way from Argentina to Alaska

in an old VW van, seen in the photograph, and supporting their trip by making and selling their own range of jewellery. I first met them on Isla Mujeres, and as we both head to Guatemala next week, who knows….we nomads may meet yet again!

My Belize visa expires soon on 9th June and I’m already plotting my clearance out through customs, immigration and the port authority at nearby town, Independence. Livingston, Guatemala is just a day sail south in the Bay of Honduras.

One more session with Positive Vibration Yoga with Brice and one more beer at the Placencia Yacht Club with Caroline, and then I’ll say goodbye to Belize.