the biazed blog

Belize city is so disgusting! Hot, smelly, dirty, polluted, chaotic and - yes again - dirty. We stopped here out of curiosity and the fact that we needed to refuel our stomaches. We did indeed find a good place to eat (rice, beans and meat - as usual for Caribbean food) and took an espresso. But we were quite contend as we left the town. There may be a vibrant music culture and an astonishing ethnic diversity (Chinese, Afro-Caribbeans, Latinos, Mennonites) and due to its high hurricane probability it may not make sense to clean up things very tidily. However, this town didn't even deserve a photo to be taken.

Wow, that was sooooo cool today. To put it all in one headline, we stood about half a meter next to a crocodile, a black and a coloured jaguar, we saw jumping monkeys ('spider monkeys' to be precise), colourful and huge birds (... and 'Harpy eagle'), anteaters and other cute or funny animals. The zoo is in a very good condition and has small trails that are themselves embedded into the jungle. I took so many pictures that the battery of my camera ran out...
We continued for another minute on the western highway and at the crossing to Dagringa we asked a guy about the condition of this (knowingly problematic) highway (well in truth it's more a dirt road). Due to the strong rainfalls of the last days he strongly recommended us to use the inland highway (paved and less prone to flooding).
After that (and because it was late), we continued to the capital of Belize instead, Belmopan. It's a planned city (80's) and it's location has been chosen to be away from the hurricane endangered coast. Also, Belize City was a suffering from a high crime rate at that time. Much of it resembles an ordinary US-American city: boring, quiet and no real center, just streets. Lodging is more expensive here, but our room (27$) is way better than the Mexican accommodations.
We decided to wash some of our clothes and I'm seriously thinking about buying thongs for the next journey. I was so upset that Anna was so much faster than me. Their weight and fast washing properties are something to take into consideration. Of course one would also need to carry more of them along (in contrast to boxers).