Blissed out in Belize

 

Backpacking Belize on a Budget

So as some of you know, I started my first “big girl job” as a mental health case worker, mid-April. I started earlier than I was supposed to due to some crisis cases I had to jump on. Because of this, the agency gave me a week off to relax after 8 straight months of school and practicum. So I figured – why not hop on a plane!? My friend Amanda and I had wanted to do a big trip, but with this new job it made things difficult – so we took this as an opportunity! We searched for the cheapest flights, and – Belize it was! We only had a week, but we totally used every single second of our time and ended up having one of the best travel experiences ever, I’d say. The following is a snapshot of everything we did and some things for future travellers to consider! It is truly an amazing country, and if you ever go, I know you’ll enjoy just as we did! Peaceeee 🙂

A few things about Belize in general;

 
– they are the only country in Central American with English as their primary language! Super convenient for this type of travelling experience where we literally just drove around looking for things to do.

 
– $1US is $2BZE

 
– it’s HOT in May! In the Cayo District their warmest months are April and May. And the coolest months are January and February. If you don’t do well with extreme heat (it’s been approximately 105 this week) I would suggest coming in the cooler months, for 80 degree weather!

 
– it is so safe and the people are ridiculously kind! You can ask most anyone for directions or for restaurant/activity suggestions and they will be happy to help 🙂

 
– it is super easy to do a very cheap backpacking trip to Belize! We found flights for $450CDN, rented the car for $400US for the week (and split between the two of us, even better), and between food, hostels and gas I only spent $320US the whole week (which I could’ve spent even less if I had to!) Each hostel was less than $15US a night (and that could’ve been cheaper if we stayed in the dorms, but we went private) and other than in Caye Caulker we never spent more than $10US on a meal!

 
Hopkins

 
– food was amazing!

– people were super friendly and chill

 

 

– there is such diversity in the population here, and racism was not prominent or at least not made aware to us. Unfortunately I’m very used to being called “white” in passing, or stared at, etc. But we experienced NONE of this here. There are many ethnic groups here in Belize, from Mestizo to Maya to Creole to Garinagu to East Indian to Mennonite to Asian, so we didn’t stand out much.

 

 

– safe to walk around at night from restaurants back to hostel

 

 

– we stayed at the funky dodo hostel ($22US each for 2 nights – we could’ve been even cheaper if we chose the dorm style with other people, but we went with a private room with two beds)

– lots of mosquitos in this area, remember bug spray!

 

 

– right on the beach, and the water was lovely!

– laid back environment

 

 

– easy to navigate

 

 

– tons of things to do including;

 
– Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary (only jaguar reserve in the world): only costed us $5BZE, so $2.50, and this money goes directly towards the conservation and preservation of the land and the animals who inhabit it. I LOVE this about Belize. We even saw signs with sayings around the lines of “protect the predators, they are important to our earth” and “I’m not for sale, not today, not tomorrow; protect this species”. Seriously so progressive and understanding of environmental wellbeing. We drove some pretty intense roads into the park where we did a 13km hike to the peak (amazing view) and a bit further back down into the jungle to a waterfall and natural pools. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend hiking this path (Tiger Fern Trail – “strenuous”) in flip flops, however, it can and has been done. Also, I might have looked silly in a dress hiking up a mountain in the jungle, but I would now say it was the best garment for breathability and chaffing-avoidance, lol.

the most refreshing moment of my life

So sweaty, dirty feet, but thankful for this bench (which was kind of starting to fall down the side of this mountain)

 

At the sanctuary they also had river tubing and some other activities, which we didn’t do at this time.
– Che’il Mayan Chocolate Factory: we were too late for the tour but we scored some amazing locally sourced chocolate!

– The Beach: the beach is lined with palm trees, and the breeze off the water was the only thing that kept us from sweating in Hopkins. The water was warm and clean for swimming!

 
– Restaurants: Tia’s Kitchen, Geckos (amazing vegetarian/vegan options), Siomara’s Restaurant (yummy breakfast! Huge portions, super filling – fry jacks, beans, orange juice for $8BZE, so $4US!)

 
– on our way from Hopkins to San Ignacio we stopped at this cool little place (orange and octagonal shape?) on the side of hummingbird highway. (Yam Wits Cool Spot) Highly recommend! Great food, amazing view. And close to the Blue Hole if you want to do a boating or diving trip! A bit further past this restaurant you can see “the sleeping giant” in the mountains..

 

San Ignacio

 
– much bigger than Hopkins, still generally small, but it is considered a major city in Belize

 
– stayed at the Bella’s Backpackers Hostel- little trickier to find but totally fine because of the friendly people; we rolled down our window and asked three little kids and the girl gave us the cutest explanation which got us super close and we asked a couple and we were only one block down!

– they had overbooked so they hooked us up with a sweet apartment loft for the same price! (We each payed $27.50US total for two nights) This place is AMAZING. The guys gave us the wrong change when we paid and we noticed when we got back to the room. Felt awkward at first to go back and ask for our money. We waited a bit and forgot after a couple hours- he came knocking on our door, apologized and gave us our change. Seriously, the people here are amazing!!

 
– no bugs! We had the light on and window open for so long – what a difference!

– little louder, more hustle and bustle, than Hopkins as we’re in more of a city now, but nothing extreme..

 
– go to Guava Limb Café! OMG! We LOVED this place. 7 minute walk from our hostel. Amazing vegan breakfast for me and Amanda had some intense fruit crepes. Also, the host was super friendly and gave us some amazing suggestions for adventures.. (This seemed to be a trend with all servers we had at every restaurant; everyone was genuinely interested in where we had been, where we were going, and what suggestions the could make for us) Would 100% go back for breakfast, lunch or dinner!

 

 

– Ancient Maya Temples of Xunantunich: ancient ruins. This was, yet again, amazing. The Xunantunich (pronounced “shoe-nan-ta-nich” kind of, lol) translation – the stone lady, ruins are huge and you can climb almost all of them. We didn’t get a tour guide because we’re trying to stay cheap, so we only had to pay $10BZE, so $5US to get in. This money goes to the preservation of this area. We did overhear one tour (the only one, as there were hardly any people there when we were there – another bonus to Belize, not “touristy”) and they were talking about cool facts from the ancient king who had ruled the land. Amanda and I just made up our own guesses for the rooms and areas we were in, haha. We climbed to the very top of the largest ruin. The view was insane! We could see Guatamala and the Western most point of Belize, along the border. (Also, HOWLER MONKEYS!)

at the very top of the largest ruin! pictures don’t do it justice!

– Branch Mouth: this is a point where the Macal Rive and Mopan River (from Guatamala) meet and create the Belize River, which flows to the sea. It’s a safe place to swim, and sooo refreshing!

– we ate at Erva’s restaurant for dinner one of the nights, super fresh and delicious for approximately $10US! Fun atmosphere, especially at night with the lights on the patio.

– Similar in name, we ate at Eva’s Restaurant for breakfast. Had stuffed fry jack, a traditional belizian food. Amazing. I drank freshly squeezed orange juice every day too, YES.

– Iguana Project: a rehabilitation/protection/rescue project with the Green Iguana species. This was super cool. For only $9US we got to hangout with tons of iguanas, and we happened to go at feeding time (1PM) which was super cool. The guy working, Nigel, was so knowledgeable and super funny!

 

– Black Rock: this is actually a resort type place in the jungle along the river, but you can go and tube down the river in the mini rapids for $5US+tax. We had a blast! Once again, amazing staff too. If you are looking for a beautiful place to stay and splurge a bit, the cabins looked amazing overlooking the river and we heard it was about $80US a night. (We also saw the most calm horses in the world on our crazy drive up to Black Rock, stopped to say hello! Tons of other wildlife too, including this super cool Tucan)

– Ate at Guava Limb again… Whoops! 😉

– Little side note: on our walk home from dinner, a woman said good evening and we said hello in return (very common to exchange greetings as you walk! Love this) and a few seconds later she said, you know where you’re going? We said yes and exchanged smiles and went on our way. But like… HOW NICE are these people!? Wow.. I’m still thinking about it.

 
Caye Caulker

 
– we drove to Belize City and got a ticket for the water taxi to take us to Caye (pronounced “key”) Caulker. Boat rides are always a bonus!

– Caye Caulker is definitely more “touristy” as it’s a popular island, but it is still ridiculously small and amazing and the vibes are awesome! You could walk the whole island in about half an hour max..

 

– we snorkelled the second largest barrier reef in the world, the largest in the Western Hemisphere – the Mezoamerican Barriee Reef (also known as the Belize Barrier Reef or the Maya Barrier Reef) THIS WAS INCREDIBLE. We were late for the tours because of the way our schedule fell, but they still took us out anyways, just Amanda and I – once again, praise you Belizean people, the nicest! There were three different stops and saw so many things. And on the second stop we swam with nurse sharks and sting rays, and a barracuda was checking us out HARD 😳 On the way back we boated to the other side of the island where we came to an area where they raise and repopulate Tarpon fish, a catch a release area. These fish were MASSIVE and they get to be 8ft long and up to 200lbs! We fed them and they jumped right out of the water for the sardine. One bit Amanda’s hand! And yet again, Belize pulls through – an amazing sunset over the water as we boated back.

– we went and got pizza with our 10% off coupon that our hostel (Juan’s Rooms – Juan in a Million hostel) gave us. Afterwards we were so exhausted and meant to go for a drink, but we totally passed out. In the morning we took the water taxi back and said goodbye to this incredible country.

 

Juan in a Million – Hostel

Overall, I would say this has been one of the best trips ever. The only thing I would change is to delete a nasty encounter with an American, and of course, add more time!

 

 

This country is seriously so impressive. Progressive, kind, genuine, compassionate and loving. We will definitely be back.

Peace, Belize! ✌

Peace, Belize! ✌🏼️🌎