Adventures of the spade #11

Marie Sharp's Habanero Pepper Sauce, found on every table in Belize, is the spade's new favourite table condiment. Ours too, as it happens. Marie grows most of the (all natural) ingredients herself at the factory in Dangriga. We're trying to work out now how many bottles we have space to bring home...

Rob

Tobacco Caye

As soon as we saw Tobacco Caye from the boat, we knew we'd arrived somewhere really special. Just the size of a football pitch, the island is a tiny slice of paradise surrounded by turquoise water and a wonderful coral reef. This photo shows how small it is; Rob managed to get the whole island in from the end of a jetty. You just need to tilt your head a bit!



We stayed at a wonderful place called Lana's on the Reef, run by the delightful Lana (actually Lorna but the spelling allows for the strong Caribbean accent!). She looked after us so well, cooking us delicious food and even washing our clothes for us.



This may look like a shed for holding fishing equipment but it's actually a dive shop! Because the reef is so close to the island we were able to dive right off the shore and we had the luxury of a dive master to ourselves; no more large groups or dive boats like in Roatan. Mario was great, going at our pace and he knew exactly where to find the wildlife. We swam with some enormous Tarpin fish that were about as big as us and very inquisitive and some beautiful Eagle Rays, which looked like they were flying through the water. Certainly our most relaxed, and probably our best dive ever.



As we sipped our sunset beers on the beach, we saw this Eagle Ray coasting around in the shallows! We only stayed two nights but Tobacco Caye has gone right in with some of our very favourite places in Central America. It's so great that, though we're into our last few weeks, we can still be surprised and impressed.



By the way, while we were waiting for our boat in Dangriga, we were treated to an impromptu performance of the local Garifuna drumming. It's normal for people to get up and dance but I don't think anyone expected a visit from this drunk guy from the dock. I love the fact that Rob looks totally oblivious throughout!



Rachel x

Honduras to Belize

After leaving the Bay Islands, we headed East along the coast to the town of Trujillo. Famously, this is where Cristopher Columbus first set foot on the American mainland, on his final voyage to the Americas in 1502. The town was initially the capital of Spain's colonial province of Honduras, and was repeatedly attacked by pirates including the notorious British pirate Henry Morgan. For such a sleepy little town, it has played a very important role in Latin American history.



After this we headed West along the coast to Omoa, another colonial small town. Nowadays it's a popular weekend resort destination for the people of nearby San Pedro Sula, Honduras' second city. The principal tourist attraction though is a Spanish fort, built in the late 18th century and also repeatedly attacked by British pirates and privateers (similar to pirates but officially supported by governments in Europe).



Feeling it was time to leave Honduras we caught a boat to take us from Puerto Cortés across the Gulf of Honduras to Placencia, Belize. This is such a different place to the rest of Central America. In the 16th century, Belize was largely ignored by its Spanish conquerors. It became a popular base for English and Scottish pirates during the 17th century and Britain became more interested and took over more control, even while the country remained officially under Spanish rule. In 1862, Britain declared the territory of British Honduras, and people from all over the British Empire settled here, accounting for the rich ethnic diversity found in Belize today, along with the language - English. In 1981, British Honduras became the independent nation of Belize.

The boat journey itself was amongst the most 'exhilarating' experiences of the whole trip! It certainly helped Rachel to face her mild fear of boats head-on. No photos are available, as moving around or holding anything while the boat careered over the extremely rough sea was to take one's life in one's own hands. We survived though, and Rach is feeling a little better about boats too (a good job, considering we've taken about 10 boat trips in the last week alone!).



Here's the view from the veranda of our cabin in Placencia, right on the beach. Worth the hellish boat journey, we think.

Rob