BELIZE PART ONE

HAPPY CAMPERS ON OUR WAY

We had uneventful on time flights to Belize.  Changing planes in Houston was a breeze with enough time to get something to eat.  Upon arrival, Belize customs was quick and easy too.  Picked up the rental car and headed into Belize City.

Our bed and breakfast D'Nest Inn was easy to find with only one missed turn.  Here in Belize to make a left turn you must pull over to the right and wait for all traffic in both directions to clear before making the turn.  Our bed and breakfast was comfortable and air conditioned.  It's about 85 degrees and the humidity is about the same or higher.

After a good nights sleep we had a nice breakfast on the terrace before heading out towards our rental in Seine Bright Village, about 150 miles away.  It took about 5 hours to reach Seine Bright which in located in Southern Belize on the Placencia Peninsula.  About half of the drive was though some pretty drab scenery until we reached the capital, Belmopan.  Then we picked up the Hummingbird Highway which runs from Belmopan east to the coast.

Of course we had to stop for lunch.  We found this spot, just a roadside restaurant serving rice, beans and chicken.  We saw what looked like an non-native sitting a one of the outside tables so we asked him if the food was any good.  He said, "It better be, since I' m the owner."  Turns out he's from Canada and came to Belize a couple of years ago, met his future native born wife and the opened up their roadside restaurant.  The food was good, filling and inexpensive.

ENTRANCE TO OUR RENTAL

WE FACE THE BEACH

REFRESHMENTS

SUNRISE

This the the view from our deck overlooking the beach and pier.  We share this with just two other rentals here at The Maine Stay, and we rarely see anyone else.  We have 24 hour security here, but I don't think it's needed.   Anyway it's a worry free and  a very relaxing atmosphere.

GOOD MORNING

ONE OF THE NATIVES

 THE PRODUCE TRUCK

We bought fruit and vegetables from the local vendor.  The woman in the white t-shirt is Joyce.  She works at The Maine Stay and loves to talk.  She also likes our beer.

CAPTAIN AND CREW

LAUGHING BIRD CAYE

We took a snorkel trip out to Laughing Bird Caye with Splash Divers, one of the many outfits offering excursions here on the peninsula.  Laughing Bird Caye is a National Park which includes a small island and the surrounding coral reef.  Our guide, Prince, led us though the coral pointing out different coral formations, types of fish and lots of lobster.  Too bad it's not lobster season.  Everything is protected here and you aren't suppose to touch anything.  After about a hour in the water on the leeward side of the Caye (key) we got back on the beach for lunch.  BBQ chicken, scalloped potatoes, coleslaw, beans and some really sweet watermelon.

LUNCH

After lunch and some relaxation on the beach we went back in the water on the windward side for another look.  This time we swam around the Caya back to the leeward side.  Bigger fish on the windward side, most very colorful.  Saw a  large school of very small silver fish, much like you see on TV nature showes.  Very beautiful.

Did you know that if you snorkel with your face in the water for a long period of time, your bald head gets really sunburned?

LAUGHING BIRD CAYE FROM BOAT

HUSKING COCONUTS

There are two rangers who stay on the caye, which is about 200 yards long and about 50 yards across at it's widest point.  There rangers stay for 2 weeks and then go to the main land for a week.  They collect rain water to drink, eat coconuts and what ever supplies they bring from the main land.  There are plenty of coconuts on the caye. They have a TV that runs on a battery and is charged with solar panels.  There are not allowed to have guests stay with them (read girls) as is would keep them from their appointed rounds.

TO BE CONTINUED.........................

THIS TIME....BELIZE

Well, we're off again, this time heading to Belize.  Cathie said she wanted to go somewhere where she could just lay on the beach.  We looked at several possibilities and ruled them out for one reason or another.  Fiji, too far away. Tahiti, too far away and way too expensive. Costa Rica, lots of jungle but just a few good beaches.  Maui, been there done that.  We wanted to get away so we ruled out Coronado, it being February and all.  So after lots of Internet searches and talking to others we finally settled on Belize.

We really didn't want to stay in a hotel, hoping for something a little bigger.  We also didn't care to stay in a resort.  We had such good luck last year with VRBO (Vacation Rentals By Owner) that I started searching their web site for a place.  After much perusing, looking at pictures and reading reviews, someone on Fodors.com suggested The Maine Stay.  It looked pretty good and after contacting Drew, the owner, we were sold.  It is located in the village of Seine Bright on the Placencia Peninsula, where we are told, are the best beaches in Belize. The property has it's own private beach with a pier, one other rental unit and the price was right.  Since the "suite" consisted of two cabanas connected by a covered deck, there was room for another couple, so friends and sometime traveling companions Gary and Diane decided to tag along.

So here's the plan.  We leave early Tuesday morning, fly to Houston where we change planes.  Then it's on to Belize City arriving in the late afternoon.  After picking up a rental car, the first night will be spent at D'Nest Inn, a bed and breakfast outside of the city.  The next morning we drive the 150 miles to our beach front cabanas where we will stay for a week and a day.  Then if we can pull ourselves away, we head back to Belize City for the return flight home.

Time permitting, I might get in an update on the blog while we're there.  If not the detail will be shared upon our return.

I'M SORRY

I got this off of Facebook.  I couldn't have said it better.  This young lady speaks for a lot of us.

A DIFFERENT KIND OF TRAVEL

I have a friend, Nick who lives in Texas and works for a local police department.  He used to work at the Sheriff and DA's office with me, so I've known him for sometime.  He retired shortly after I did, but due to some defect in his thinking he went back to work in Texas.  He too has a blog, Rocks in my Sandals, which he says I inspired him to write.  Anyway he recently wrote an entry in his blog about a trip to Washington DC that he took on the government's dime, something he believes I know a lot about.  Here's what he wrote:

One of the requirements was for the project team to attend two to three meetings with the grant management group, CNA in Washington, D.C. Now, many of you of my Law Enforcement friends know we refer to this as a “road trip”. My “road trip” mentor (and reader of this humble blog) is Dana Gassaway. Dana was, like me, a former Deputy Sheriff and retired District Attorney Investigator. Dana was (and is today) a legend in our County for his ability to ferret out a road trip to anywhere on the planet on any given case. Whether it was to do the interview on the bartender in Nome, Alaska or the extradition of the most dangerous felon in his caseload from Miami Beach, Dana utilized the travel departments of both agencies like his personal travel consultants. I and many of my contemporaries often sought out Dana for his travel advice for our trips. He was on a first-name basis with the Finance Department too.

Knowing this not to be entirely true I responded:

I have never been to Nome, Alaska, but I did manage to spend 4 days in Ketchikan at a training conference at which I was paid for speaking. Also the Miami Beach extradition never occurred. Perhaps you confused it with the extradition to Maui. Not wanting to waste the free airfare for my ticket, I actually paid for my wife’s ticket and we spent a week on the beach using some vacation time. A little R&R was well deserved for my investigative skills in knowing to wait until the crook was in the State of Hawaii before notifying the local authorities.

Yes, there were lots of road trips, but not all to garden spots. How about Yuma, AZ Williston, ND, Lovelock, NV not to mention scores of trips up the coast LA. That’s not to say other trips weren’t to some pretty nice places, but hey, someone had to do it."

Nick responds:

Ok....Let me see if I've got this right. You commented on my blog to verify you have been to all kinds of cool places on the company dime and that you're a legend. And that you've also invited your wife along on your "work related" trips. Oh yeah, you've never been to Nome. I stand corrected....I think.

Thanks for the correction. Message received. I think the statute of limitations may be up on these too.

Nick also posted this photograph of my son and grandson on the top of whale Peak, with the caption "Dana standing on another rock".  Well I am standing on a rock, I'm just not in the picture.

In case some of you readers of this and Nick's blog think this exchange harsh, you have to understand that it's all in fun.  Right Nick?

Be sure to read Nick's blog. It's really good!

SOME MORE HIKING/THREE GENERATIONS TO THE TOP

I've been doing some more hiking, trying to stay in shape.  Several weeks ago I went on a hike with an Internet "meetup" group called "Take a Hike". The chosen hike was up Viejas Mountain out in Alpine.  At 4,187 feet it was a good workout with a steep trail to the summit.  There were about 7 hikers in the group all of whom were way younger than me and a whole lot faster.  I was with the group three times during the hike.  At the beginning, on the summit and at the end.  I basically did the hike by myself, so I won't be hiking with them anytime soon. The views from the top were great with a breeze out of the east it was clear all the way to the coast.  The above photo is looking east from the summit.

Next up on the day after Christmas, I drove out to Borrego and hiked around the western end Harper flat.  This huge bowl-shaped valley is in the heart of the Vallecito Mountains and accessed via a 4 WD drive road and a short hike up a wash.  This area was the site of one of the largest Indian camps in the area.  Lots of evidence of the Indian inhabitants with numerous morteros and lots of pottery shards laying about.  I walked about 6 miles, gaining a loosing around 1,000 ft in elevation and only covered small percentage of the valley.

For Christmas 10 year old Grandson McKyle got a new pair of hiking boots courtesy of Grandma and Grandpa.  Grandpa figured he might get a new hiking partner out of the deal and what better place to try the new boots out, but Whale Peak.  Not the easiest hike around but a whole lot better after I discovered that there was actually a trail of sorts to the top.  There is some minor boulder scrambling at the beginning and just below the summit, but that made it all the more fun for McKyle.  As described in the previous post, it is just a little over 2 miles to the summit with an elevation gain of 1300 feet.  To reach the trail head, 4 WD is required.  If you cannot make it over the big boulder in the road, it adds about 1.5 more miles of road hiking to get to the trail head.

McKyle's dad, Gary decided to tag along so with an early start we arrived at the trail head at 7:30.  It was pretty cold and windy, but clear with great views on the way up.  In some spots there was still some icy snow left from the last storm which was about 4 weeks ago.  With lots of cactus to dodge and some trail finding skills, it took 1 hour and 45 minutes to gain the summit.  It is a pretty steep climb in places and I noticed on the way up, I was the only one breathing heavy.

We spent about 30 minutes on the summit, signing the summit register and eating a snack and then heading back down.  No one fell down on the way back and and except for McKyle having a minor encounter with some cactus we arrived unscathed at the trail head around 12:30.

Both Gary and McKyle agreed that this is a great hike.  I think it has become my favorite in San Diego County and I'm sure I'll be returning again.  If anyone wants to climb up with me, let me know as I'd be happy to show you the way.  Just ask my friend Gary who followed me partway up last month. (see previous post)

ON THE SUMMIT

HEADING DOWN

VIEW OF SALTON SEA

WHALE PEAK (5348 Ft)

It's been about 20 years since I climbed up Whale Peak out in the Borrego Desert and I figured it was about time to do it again.  My friend Gary, who has been hankering to go on a hike, said he would go with me.  So a couple of weeks ago, I picked him up at 0 dark thirty and we drove out to the desert.  The best way to climb this mountain is to drive via a 4 wheel drive road to the 4000 foot level before starting out on foot.  The road to the trail head isn't too bad except for one particular spot where high clearance is definitely required.  The old 4-Runner handled it well, cutting off about 2 additional miles of hiking if we hadden't gotten over the rough spot.

The first part of the hike is pretty straight forward and pretty much straight up.  Well not exactly, but none the less uphill via a slot with lots of boulders.

 LOOKING DOWN THE SLOT

Twenty years ago the route to the summit was cross country with one doing their own navigation.  Back then I along with friends failed on our first attempt, having taken the wrong turn.  The second attempt was successful, but it too required some route finding skills.  Anyway off we went on the route I remembered, or at least though I remembered.



 GARY COMING UP BEHIND

Everything was going along just fine, when I heard Gary make an odd noise behind me.  When I turned to look I found Gary rolling down the hill though some of the ever present Cholla Cactus.  Gary's head stopped him from rolling down too far when it met with a non movable rock.



After figuring out that Gary was ok with no broken bones, he said that he had enough of my route finding skills, so after just 3/4 of a mile we turned around and headed back. (Actually Gary was kinda bruised up)  We didn't know it at the time, but we were a little bit off track.

Twenty years is a long time, but I thought I knew where we were going. If you take a look at the Google Earth map, the little white dots are the route we selected.  The purple line is the route we should have taken, but I didn't enter the correct route in the GPS until after I got home. Duh!

Anyway the mountain was still there and I still wanted to Climb it.  So this time I enlisted Cathie, who said she was game to give it a go.  She had climbed it with me on the previous summit and figured I could find the way again, especially now that I had the  route in the GPS.

It was cold and clear on the way up with patches of snow in the shaded areas.  No wind to speak of, so it was a pleasant hike.  We got a little off track by trying to avoid some steep sections by side hilling.  When we got to the top of one ridge, we looked down the other side and noticed a really nice looking trail crossing the high valley below us.  Now 20 years ago, we never came across any trail nor had we heard that there was one.  But now 20 years later there it was.  So we headed down to the trail and followed it all the way to the summit.  With just one steep section just below the summit, the rest of the hike to the top was pretty easy.

 CATHIE LOOKING BACK

 SNOW ON THE CHOLLA

 WOW! A TRAIL

 ALMOST THERE

 CATHIE IN THE STEEP SECTION

ON THE TOP

 SUMMIT REGISTER

 SHELTER

 THAT'S BORREGO SPRINGS OUT THERE

 ON THE WAY DOWN WITH THE TRAIL BELOW

After about 45 minutes on the summit, we headed back down.  This time we followed the trail which made it a piece of cake finding ouR way.  Next time we'll follow the trail from the get go.  Think Gary will try again?  Only if he gets to lead.

 

 WHALE PEAK

WINDING DOWN

 BIG BEND SUNRISE



Before leaving Big Bend National Park we took a short hike up Santa Elena Canyon.  The Rio Grande flows through this narrow canyon and is very popular with river runners when the water level is up in the spring and summer.  The trail up the canyon only goes for about a mile, before the river stretches between the canyon walls preventing further exploration.

 SANTA ELENA CANYON

 JEFF DAVIS COUNTY COURTHOUSE

One thing we noticed in our travels in the Midwest and especially in Texas is that many rural counties have very large and imposing courthouses.  Most of these buildings were build in the early 1900's or before.  Jeff Davis County only has a population of 2300 souls but the courthouse looks like it could be from a much larger county.  About 1000 of those live in the county seat, Fort Davis.



 TEXAS BACK ROAD

The city of Fort Davis takes it's name from, you guessed it, Fort Davis  a National Historic Site.  Fort Davis was founded in 1854 and was named for then Jefferson Davis, the Secretary of War.  During the Civil War the fort was abandoned by the Union Army, but reoccupied after the Civil War in 1867.  By that time travel on the San Antonio-El Paso Road increased and so did raiding by Comanches and Apaches, prompting the Army in re-establishing Fort Davis.  Today many of the original buildings have been restored and furnished to the period when Fort Davis was an active Fort. 

 OFFICER QUARTERS

 ENLISTED MENS BARRACKS

 CHANGING COLORS

The Cottonwoods in West Texas are turning gold and for us that is a signal to head for home.  We've been on the road  just shy of 3 months and it was time to head home.  Besides, Cathie can hardly wait to see the grandkids.  As we crossed from Arizona into California Cathie said to me that next time she would be willing to stay gone for four months.  I guess I better start planning.

GOOD TO BE HOME

This morning when I got up, the first morning after getting home, this is what greeted me.

IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE - WEST TEXAS

In the middle of nowhere really describes this part of Texas.  Getting here requires driving about 100 miles south of US Highway 90 and once here you're up against Mexico and can't go any further.  What it lacks in civilization is made up in its beauty and remoteness.  We stayed in the National Park campground at Rio Grande Village, not really a village, but a small store and gas station along with a ranger station and housing for some of the national park staff.  The Rio Grande is not really very Garnde at this time of the year.  You would have trouble floating down it in a inner tube it is so shallow in places, but in the spring local outfitters run river trips through some of the deep canyons created by the river. 

AMMONITE

On a hike we took we came across this Ammonite right in the middle of the trail.  Because it's part of a much larger boulder it's still there and not in someones yard.

 

We also took a hike in the Chiso Mountains up Lost Mine Trail.  Legend has it that Spanish explorers found a vein of silver around here and enslaved local people to mine it.  According to the legend, the workers eventually rebelled, killed their enslavers, then sealed the mine entrance to prevent further exploitation.  We didn't find it, so the legend remains intact.  The view at the end of the trail, although spectacular, we marred by the constant haze that is usually present in Big Bend.  It's really smog from cities in the east.

Just west of the Park is what's left of the mining town of  Terlingua.   People still live here, but mostly it's been abandoned.  In it's heyday in the early 1900's Terlingua had a population of over 2000, but today there is less than 300.  That is except on the weekend we were there when the population reached upwards of 10,000 chiliheads.  Each year on the first weekend in November, the Chili Appreciation Society International holds its annual  Terlingua International Chili Championship.  Not only do they have chili cookoff, but also BBQ competitions.  We figured to go and see what's up, but when we drove up to the entrance they wanted $30 each for the privilege of entering into the contest grounds.  I asked what we do we get for $30?  We were to we can walk around the grounds and watch all the crazies and drunks.  We don't get to sample any of the chili or BBQ, but if we like we can buy food and drink at an exorbitant cost.  We knew the thing about the drunks was true because just outside the entrance to the cookoff grounds on the state highway, the Texas State Troopers had set up sobriety check points in both directions.  We decided to pass.

The Terlingua Trading Company was known as the Chisos Mining Company Store and sold everything from food to farm equipment and prom dresses to cars.  It housed the mine offices, Post Office and the only telephone.  It is still one of the largest adobe building in Texas.

The Perry School, named after the mine owner, was the largest of 3 schools in the region.  Started as a tent with one teacher and grew to a 5 room building with 4 teachers, a principal and 80 children.



SAINT AGNUS CHURCH 

BROKEN WINDMILL

Tomorrow we continue our exploration of Big Bend Country before heading north for a stop in the Davis Mountains.  From there we will head home after being on the road for 3 months.  To be continued........