Belize — August 2013
Andrew, Debra, River (then Nathan, 14), Sam (12) & Lilly (5) · August 3–17, 2013
Two weeks in Belize, all five of us, based in Placencia on the coast — a proper family expedition with an age range from five to fourteen, which meant a trip built around splitting up as often as coming together.
[PHOTO: Placencia beach / our base on the coast]
The standout day was the boat trip out to Silk Caye on the 8th. Silk Caye is barely an island at all — a sandbar with three trees on it, the kind of postcard Caribbean speck you assume is photoshopped until you're standing on it. The reason to go, though, was the water around it: we swam with nurse sharks and rays, right up close. Nurse sharks are docile, bottom-dwelling things you can actually handle, and there's something wonderfully odd about drifting alongside a shark with no adrenaline involved at all.
[PHOTO: swimming with nurse sharks and rays, Silk Caye]
[PHOTO: Silk Caye — the sandbar island with its three trees]
The adventure quotient went up a notch when the boat ran out of petrol somewhere out in the water, and the owner had to phone ashore for someone to bring more fuel out to us. And then, right at the end, came the moment the trip is still remembered for: Sam was last out of the water, and the boat owner suddenly started calling for him to get out — urgently. Nobody understood why until he explained: a large turtle was heading straight for them, and turtles, unlike the sharks we'd just spent the morning happily petting, can actually bite. Having treated the sharks as a non-event all morning, the idea that the turtle was the dangerous one struck everyone as completely hilarious.
[PHOTO: the boat / the fuel-rescue moment]
A few days later we split the family down the middle. Debra took River and Sam inland to the ATM Caves — Actun Tunichil Muknal — one of the most remarkable cave systems in Central America. You wade through an underground river into a Maya ceremonial cave, the water sometimes neck-deep, and inside are ancient Maya skeletons and artefacts left exactly where they were left, including the famous "Crystal Maiden," a skeleton encrusted in calcite. Lilly, at five, was too young for the wading, so I took her instead to an iguana sanctuary and a butterfly house nearby — the right call for that age, and a good day in its own, gentler way.
[PHOTO: ATM Caves — underground river / cave entrance]
[PHOTO: iguana sanctuary or butterfly house with Lilly]
We spent several days working through the Maya sites inland from Placencia — Xunantunich and Cahal Pech near San Ignacio, and Nim Li Punit and Lubaantun further south, with San Ignacio itself serving as our inland base near the Guatemalan border. There was also a stop at the Cotscombe Basin and the Mayflower ruins along the way. Between the coast and the jungle, the two weeks covered a lot of ground.
[PHOTO: Xunantunich or Cahal Pech ruins]
[PHOTO: Nim Li Punit / Lubaantun]
We closed the trip with a couple of days at the Belize Zoo, on the 15th and 16th — a gentler note to end on after two weeks that had run from shark-infested water to underground rivers to Maya temple ruins.
[PHOTO: Belize Zoo]
Belize packed an enormous amount into two weeks — coast, cave, jungle and ruin — and it's one of those trips where the stories (the turtle, above all) have outlived the itinerary in family retelling.
Tags: travel, Belize, Central America, 2013, family
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