Exploring San Ignacio

With a successful evacuation from the island I was clear of the hurricane. I didn’t check out the pictures for the new house being short on time plus I like the element of surprise – clean and safe is what I was after. I booked the place around 5 PM the day before I arrived, there was a lot of messaging with the new host helping to arrange a taxi to pick me up from Belize City but overall a pretty smooth process.

Before leaving the island I packed my entire house up. Mentally I was OK doing it but it sucked packing up everything early – taking down my bathroom setup and all the decorations that I might not get to set back up. I was very proud of myself for how I handled the change, it was a great test to my progress in being flexible. It’s all fine – I’m going to safer place and if shit hits the fan then at least everything is contained a bit. I planned on only taking my carry on suitcase and small laptop bag with me to SI. The new host mentioned there’s some cave exploring if I was interested. I figured I better grab all my hiking stuff and hopefully get to see the countryside, having no clue what to expect.

I landed early and officially safe from the hurricane! I enjoyed that about the San Pedro airport if they had the full flight available they sent you along vs. waiting for your time. By the end of leaving Belize I flew in and out a total of 6 times and it was a great experience, I used Tropic Air and booked everything online each time. They were prompt and great to work with. The flight from the island to mainland is only about 15 minutes. Some stunning teal, blue, green, turquoise beautiful water, it’s a great ride on a little plane.

There were horses on short leads tied to the speed limit signs along the side of the road, or the random tree in the ditch, tied to anything along the way. They don’t have a place to keep the horse during the day so they just move it around along the sides of the road to graze and chill.

On the way to SI there were 2 military check points. I was told just to be quiet and answer any questions only asked directly to me. I didn’t get asked any questions. My driver thinks they were looking for someone specific. There’s only a couple roads in and out of Belize so they do this ‘often’ (not sure what ‘often’ means to them) when on the search for someone. It was a smooth process but my heart was racing a little both times, 2nd time much easier than the first. On the way out of Belize there were 5-6 checkpoints going on and I experienced one while on the island and it was only for people heading North at the time and I was heading South.

When my driver pulled up to my house I was pretty excited for this adventure. Wow do these communities look different than on the island as one would expect. It was wonderful being on the mainland with all of the wildlife. Something I had been missing on the island, it was great to see something other than lizards and loud obnoxious Belizean birds.

I had great hosts with a perfect little property for their guests. They had a nice little setup with 5-6 casitas and their main house. They shared a deck from their house with the guests and we spent a lot of time together throughout my stay. The hummingbirds were stunning and they filled the branches around the deck, waiting for their next turn at the feeders. The deck overlooked a beautiful jungle view overlooking a river. We spent a lot of time playing cards, Yahtzee, enjoying some locally grown green and hearing stories from deep in the bush.

My hosts were originally from Canada and drove to Belize with their truck and only the amount of stuff that fit in the back. Very inspiring for me and my possessions that were all sitting in storage, my gears are turning for what’s next for me. They were very nice people and are loving every minute of their life they’ve built in Belize.

My host makes a great salsa and sells it at farmers market. The farmers markets open/setup at 2,3,4 in the morning – the reason for a farmers market was to have a place for farmers to not only sell their goods but to also shop and buy what they needed. In order to do this they had to be available at non farming hours – during the middle of the night basically. We did not get up that early, no way. We ate breakfast and headed out on foot to the market. While we were there we shopped for fruits and veggies for all of the wildlife she feeds over the ledge of the deck. She buys around 40 lbs of ‘ugly’ discarded foods for the wildlife each week. The iguanas, Capybaras, and other wild animals loved it.

My host and I drove around town for a tour and I took on the town myself the next day. I started with a taxi driver that would just come and get me whenever I text him. He worked out for 3 stops then he started charging differently and claiming I just wasn’t getting it, I got it and chose to walk instead of being scammed. Surprisingly that was the first time I’d caught scamming, I thought I would see it more. My host agreed he was taking advantage of a tourist.

I walked to a place where I made chocolate from a cocoa bean. Chocolate is so gross from the bean directly, it was really neat to taste it throughout all of the stages of making it. We made a hot chocolate that was special to the Mayans that was made for weddings and royalty.

I visited the Iguana sanctuary where they are trying to breed iguanas to increase their population. Cool fact: They can change the sex of an iguana by changing the temperature the egg is kept at. Locals are eating the iguanas and they’re going out quickly, I hear they taste like chicken. The iguanas here were 7/8/9 feet long, I had no idea they got this large.

While adventuring I went to the Mayan ruins of Cahal Pech Mayan ruins. Wow what an incredible energy there. It was super-hot so I didn’t stop and read all of the signs. It was a really neat place that will stay with me forever. Amazes me how they constructed these big structures and that they are still standing. Sure puts our current engineering to shame when we are measuring lifespan of structures. I saw my first cutter ants at these ruins. I spent a lot of time climbing, exploring and feeling the energies throughout the property. Having the whole place to myself most of the time made it even more magical.

I’d go into stores or the market and people knew right away ‘You are Ms. Julie’s guest?’ before I mentioned that I’m visiting or who I am. I know I stick out as a tourist but it felt great knowing the community knew my host as it gave me a little sense of security knowing all of these eyes were on me/have seen me. There were lots of stray dogs all over the place. In Italy it was cats, Belize it’s dogs.

Evacuating for the hurricane to San Ignacio turned out to be one of the highlights of my time in Belize. On my way out of town I was able to go zip lining, cave tubing, several Mayan ruins, lots of hiking in the real freakin jungle and the ATM caves.

The hurricane didn’t end up hitting the island after all and it did exactly as the locals said to a T. Is that how you would spell ‘T’? Now I’m wondering if that phrase refers to the letter or… ? When I returned there was some flooding on the Southern few miles but going 9.5 miles north they didn’t get rain at my house. Back from the jungle and back to beach life. I’m so happy I chose SI. I left there changed in many ways from the time spent in all of the Mayan ruins, Caving the Actun Tunichil Muknal. I need an entire blog space to write about this experience, picture standing in your socks in the middle of thousands of artifacts of pottery left behind from the Mayan sacrifices before 850. I’ll add it to my list.

I focused on living in the moment the last 3.5 weeks and went scuba diving multiple times, I am officially a certified open water scuba diver thanks to White Sands Dive shop in Belize. They have the worlds 2nd largest Barrier Reef along the Ambergris Caye and it’s beautiful.

San Ignacio was welcoming, energetic, and a great cultural exposure – I will be back someday. If you have the chance to go don’t miss out on the caving and spend time in the jungle with a guide. Be alert and aware of your surroundings.

peace & love – stace