Belize (Dec. 18, 1998 – Jan. 2, 1999)

Author: Michael Delachapelle

This is the story of a 2-week family (parents, brothers, girl friends) trip to Belize over the Christmas-New Years holidays. Our itinerary was a week at Turneffe Island Resort on a remote offshore Cay for scuba diving, followed by a second week on the mainland at Jaguar Reef Lodge for jungle activities.

Our flights from Seattle to Belize City via Houston on Continental were uneventful (a pleasant change from a previous Continental flight to Central America). We had to overnight in Belize City to make our boat connection the next day. We stayed at the Fiesta Inn, an unappealing hotel that went into bankruptcy days after our stay. We spent the next morning touring the Mayan Ruins (Altun Ha) about an hour out of town. We also walked around downtown Belize City which wasn’t particularly interesting or charming. However, it seemed safe (although I’m told that there are bad sections) and not at all touristy.

Turneffe Island Resort

In the afternoon the managers of the Turneffe Island resort met us on the Fiesta Inn dock and loaded the guests on a boat for the 30-mile trip out to the resort. Upon arrival to the 5-acre island we were escorted to our 2 cottages that would be our home for the next week. The rooms were comfortable, but not luxurious, with good ventilation, ceiling fans and air conditioning (which we never needed to use). All buildings were elevated off the ground to catch more breeze, allow storm waves to pass underneath, and to reduce sand fly exposure (more on this subject in due course)

Meals were served in a comfortable cottage having a dining area, bar and gathering area. The cooking was good but a little heavy for my tastes (Belizean cuisine tends to be that way). A choice of entrees was available for folks who didn’t like red meat. I ate fresh seafood for every dinner and was quite pleased with the cooking. Portions were generous and seconds helpings were available.

Guests shared large dining tables encouraging friendship and lively conversation. After spending a week dining together and diving together we were like one big happy family. I really enjoyed the company of the other guests and resort managers.

The island is completely covered with sand and a few palm trees on the windward side and mangroves on the lee side. There is a nice sandy beach out front with a few coconut trees, a couple of hammocks and kayaks for guests to use. We enjoyed paddling around the nearby keys in protected waters. The reef and wall were only a few minutes paddle away, but there was no snorkeling or diving accessible from the island. The island and resort were recovering from minor Hurricane Mitch damage that covered the island with a foot of sand and debris. Docks were being rebuilt and the beach was recovering (some palm trees were uprooted). Turneffe Resort faired very well compared to other off shore resorts.

The dive operation (owned by the resort) was very well managed by Andy, and the dive masters and boat crews were very competent. The wall was just off the resort so most boat trips were only a few minutes, with the boat returning to the resort after each dive (3 dives a day was standard). Group diving was the common practice, which ordinarily would not be my preference, but worked out well with my family. The boat would drop us off, follow our bubbles during the dive and pick us up at the end. I felt very lazy because everything was too easy - no currents, no waves, no grueling boat rides, no navigation back to the boat, no need to swim, no challenge. But I got used to it, along with a nap between dives, and somehow I managed to survive on this remote island for a week.

Most of the diving was along walls, which started at 40 to 70 feet. I was at my no-decompression limits on nearly every dive because of my desire to swim along the edge of the walls, with occasional excursions over the edge to see something interesting. Nitrox diving, offered on the live aboards, would be quite useful here. The diving was about as good as it gets in the Caribbean. There were plentiful large game fish (grouper, permits, jacks, etc.), eagle rays, sting rays, turtles and nurse sharks. Visibility was usually greater than 100 feet, but sometimes poor above 20 feet.

Turneffe Resort makes a daylong dive trip out to Half Moon Cay and Blue Hole once a week. The trip can be rough, but well worth it. The Blue Hole dive was OK, but definitely not my favorite. To see the stalactites you must go deep (130+ feet), which limits your bottom time to a few minutes. There really isn’t that much to see, but I had to check the square. The other wall dive we did at Half Moon Cay was much prettier and more interesting. I also enjoyed walking around the small island and booby nesting sanctuary.

All our group unanimously agreed that Turneffe Island Resort was very well managed by Jesse, Ron and Andy; had very comfortable accommodations; good food; excellent hard working staff; good diving minutes away; and a competent & safe diving operation. The owners have invested lots of money in facilities improvements such as desalination (superb quality water), large electrical generators and a massive dive compressor. Towards the end of our stay, the resort treated us to a very fine Belizean Christmas dinner (Turkey and much more) and gift exchange party. We were all sad to say goodbye.

Jaguar Reef Lodge

We took the motorboat back to the Fiesta Inn, where we had departed a week earlier, and then boarded a Tropic Air flight to the tiny airstrip at Dangriga, on the coast south of Belize City. The flight took only 20 minutes, but would have consumed a whole day if we decided to drive, for there is no road along the coast. A rather scruffy looking German ex-patriot named Walter met us promptly at the airstrip and drove us the Jaguar Reef Resort 1.5 hours to the south in the small town of Hopkins Village. Walter, it turned out, was an interesting guy and a hard worker (mechanic, maintenance man, carpenter, security guard and bar tender) for the resort.

The first impression of the Lodge is very positive. The rooms are spacious and well furnished, with original artwork on the walls. The main building containing the bar, dining room, reception desk and terrace has a high cathedral ceiling made of thatch, as do the guest cottages. The Lodge is situated on a nice sand beach. Kayaks and mountain bikes are available free of charge.

The initial positive impression quickly began to wear off. The water pressure in my room was near zero, and never got better during our stay. We were hot and tired from our boat/plane/car travel and went to take a late afternoon nap. We turned on the ceiling fan and opened the windows to try to get some breeze. After dozing off for awhile I was awaken by many insect bites over exposed portions of my body. I quickly determined that the culprits were dreaded sand flies that had passed through the large screen used on the windows. Quickly I switched to plan B, shut all the windows and turn on the air conditioner so as not to suffocate. Trouble was, there was no way to turn on the air conditioner. So, off to the front desk I go to inquire how to turn on the air conditioner. Answer was, you must pay $20 a night extra to get it activated. So let me get this straight, the choice is to open the windows and get devoured by bugs, close the windows and suffocate, or pay for air conditioning. This was extortion! The manager kindly explained that each room is supplied with a fogger (fuma kilas) that is safe to use with the windows closed (yeah right!). So the recommendation was to suffocate and fumigate at the same time. After vigorous pressure, the manager did relent and provided air conditioning for free. Other guests had the same problems and also received free AC. Travel tip: insist on free AC before you go.

The dining room and terrace were quite nice, and the food was quite good, but while the guests ate, the sand flies devoured the guests, so nobody could really enjoyed the food or the surroundings. In fact, there was no safe area for people to congregate and escape the sand flies; so most guests retreated to their rooms immediately after the last bite of food. The glacial service by the waitresses only prolonged the agony.

After the first night of carnage, we quickly learned how to survive. One strategy is to cover every square inch of your body with clothing –not very comfortable in the tropics. The other was to coat your body in DEET. It was hilarious to see guests show up for meals either wrapped up like mummies or glistening with a thick coat of DEET. My dad preferred to wage chemical warfare with the sand flies by liberal use of 100% DEET Jungle Juice and continuous room fogging with all windows shut. His skin was so covered with DEET that sand flies would instantly die upon contact.

Lest you think I’m exaggerating about the sand fly problem, let me recount a couple of incidents. The children of one family at the Lodge were bitten mercilessly and left a couple days early (to the jungle where there were fewer biting insects). Others also cut their stay short. The mother of another family got so many bites that she hastily left the resort to fly back to the US but was hospitalized in Houston on the way home. Two people in our group suffered swelling of their limbs.

There are lots of simple things this resort could have done to alleviate the sand fly problems, and there are some things that can’t be fixed. The entire resort is built at ground level, and you will notice that almost every home in the area is built up high (usually on wooden stilts). The reason to be off the ground is not only flooding, but most importantly to get above the sand flies and catch some breeze. The lodge meticulously maintains large patches of sand between cottages that are nothing more than sand fly breeding grounds. Why not fill them in? Why not use large fans to blow away sand flies while guests are dining? Why not provide a screened area where guests can congregate? It’s sad to see an Eco resort that has to constantly apply pesticides to the environment in a pathetic attempt to fight Mother Nature.

Another thing that bothered me about Jaguar Reef was the dichotomy between the hyped descriptions of their eco-tours on their slick web page and brochures, and the real Belize we encountered during our eco-adventures. Reading this material you would think that the jungle was teaming with life; exotic birds, primates and cats. Perhaps the new age elevator music played every morning at breakfast was meant to elevate us to a higher level of consciousness so we could ignore the swarms of sand flies and see the hidden animals of the jungle that were not visible to our naked eyes.

In fact, there are original oil paintings in every room depicting idyllic jungle scenes teaming with life (featuring the mystical jaguar, of course) and picturesque native village with a luxuriant coral reef just off shore. In fact, we found the local jungle to be almost devoid of life, the local village was awash in garbage (as was the ocean and beach), and the reef was miles off shore. The lauded 5 shaded of blue lake (and recent National Park) was actually 5 shades of green with visibility less than 10 feet (very bad for an aquifer). We saw very little life at the Jaguar Preserve and other short treks into the jungle. The jungle was sterile compared to what we saw in Costa Rica a year earlier.

What explains the lack of jungle life? Possibly the logging of all mature hard wood trees that formed the top of the jungle canopy. Possibly the very recent creation of national parks and nature reserves (Costa Rica’s parks are much older and more established). Eco-tourism does not stand a chance in Belize without more jungle life.

For water sports we took the “river & reef” tour that brings guests up the nearby Sittee River (several crocs and iguanas sighted, but not much else) followed by a long ride out to the off shore coral reef. The visibility was not very good but there was lots to see. I was impressed with one snorkeling spot that had an abundance of eagles rays and sting rays – so many, in fact, that this spot could easily become the Sting Ray City (a popular dive on Grand Cayman) of Belize. On the long boat ride back to the resort we stopped at a small Cay that was a booby and frigate bird nesting sanctuary (similar to Half Moon Bay). The quantity of nesting birds was impressive.

We probably had the most fun walking or kayaking into Hopkins Village (2 miles down the beach) to play with the kids (this was not a tour described in their slick brochure). The kids of Hopkins were great, although the grown ups were often cold to us. Even though Hopkins has an impoverished appearance, there is actually zero crime and delinquency (this is sure to change because most of the tiny huts we saw had a TV antenna sprouting from the roof). The Garifuna people of Hopkins still have a distinct culture, and many villagers still make a living by paddling dug out canoes to the offshore reefs to catch a few fish. One wonders why they pollute their environment and livelihood by throwing their trash into water. We encountered so many used disposal diapers floating by the resort that it got to be a big joke.

In summary, I do not recommend this resort. The sand flies can ruin your stay (depending on how much breeze you get) and the jungle excursions are not very interesting (compared to Costa Rica, for instance). This resort has potential, but there are many fundamental problems that can’t easily be fixed. With adequate protection, the jungle should recover (Howler Monkeys and Jaguars have been reintroduced to help the process along). Development around the lodge threatens its secluded nature and the burgeoning population of Hopkins Villages is likely to exert more environmental pressures. All I can say is good luck.