One of the joys of travel is experiencing how other people live, including how they eat. I recently adventured across Belize with Dan, seeing the tropical countryside and seaside locales, hearing about Mayan history, watching birds and fish, and eating tasty local cuisine.
I have to preface this entry by directly addressing the fear instilled by travel books and websites regarding "Montezuma's revenge", a common traveler's illness. Two weeks before the trip I was struck with "Raleigh's revenge"- a food-borne bug that landed me in the ER and required strong antibiotics that cleared my gut of any beneficial bacteria BEFORE ever stepping foot in Central America. I was still recovering when I went to Belize, contributing to culinary caution and appetite suppression during the trip. Not my favorite way to travel, but I rallied best I could and had many interesting meals. Local water is usually recommended against on international grips, since bacterial flora is different across the world. Drinking filtered water was easy throughout this trip though, as all our hosts and restaurants visited provided "Crystal", the Belizean version of Aquafina or Dasani. I had no problems with food or water on my trip- everything we encountered was clean and safe.
Our first choice for lodging was the Belizean-owned Crystal Paradise, www.crystalparadise.com, in the Cayo district near Guatemala. Meals were simple and served family-style, with our hosts the Tut family dining on the same fare as the guests. My touchy belly and I were happy for what I consider comfort food- rice and beans- served practically at every meal (including a black-bean paste daily with the morning tortillas and eggs or sausage). The resort provided a good taste of local Belizean life. Music from a local church punctuated the evenings, kids ran around during the day since they were on Easter break. A flock of chickens roamed the grounds, providing an interesting juxtaposition with their distant relatives the blue-crowned mot-mots and aracari toucans who feasted on fruit placed out on fences. We knew where the stewed chicken came from, and the tender pineapple, bananas, and papaya served for breakfast had a very short journey as well. I revised my wish for my municipal government (Cary, NC) to allow backyard chickens to wanting them to allow only hens- that damned rooster crowed ALL night long! I heard other guests querying why orange juice was the only juice served. Later as we drove our cranky rented "jimney" down the Hummingbird Highway to southern Belize, we passed miles of orange groves that populated the valleys between the mountainous forest preserves. Mystery solved.
Our next destination was Maya Beach, on a peninsula north of Placencia. I was pleased to hear a fellow guest at Crystal Paradise comment that their bistro was well known for excellent food. (www.mayabeachhotel.com) It certainly was a change from the simple but tasty family fare we ate in the Cayo District. I relished fresh snapper coated with peanuts and coconut (which the staff had cut down from a palm on the property), drizzled with a lovely papaya curry sauce. Here we drank filtered rainwater, which was just as fine on the gut as the Crystal. As water quality professionals, we both snapped photos of cisterns on all manner of houses in Belize and Guatemala. Everyone had at least one- and not those little 65 gallon barrels we see in stores in the U.S., but great big vats that captured rainwater intended for use on a daily basis (we also saw solar panels on even the smallest of huts in the countryside- we could learn a thing or two from Belize). Without the ipod, tv, radio or newspapers, we thankfully heard no international news on our trip. The big news we did hear came from Maya Beach's chef/co-owner about Belize's upcoming ban on imported dairy products. This American ex-pat shook his head in frustration at how it would effect his menu- local dairy producers would not be able to keep up with demand or provide any variety of cheeses. And pizza? Forget it. Producing his own mozzarella was too time-consuming and expensive. "At least I'll be able to stock up on Italian Parmesan reggianno, while there was no way to stock up on lettuce during their last ill-conceived ban". Apparently the Belizean government tries to occasionally regulate eating local. Clearly the country's one large dairy corporation had undue influence on the government.
One of our favorite eating experiences was sitting on a steamy veranda at Rumfish restaurant in downtown Placencia. As Dan ate a sweat-inducing spicy shrimp ceviche and I enjoyed a shrimp and vegetable pasta dish, the ocean breeze cooled us, and we enjoyed a local soccer match of "shirts vs skins" played on the public field below. We lingered with our gelato cones on the edges of an outdoor public meeting, listening to village council candidates explain the need for a "happy medium" between local culture and tourism development. A proposal for accepting cruiseships at Placencia was under consideration -currently cruise ships holding thousands of passengers dock outside of Belize City 3 days a week to disembark tourists for day-long excursions inland. Seeing the fancy homes under construction in Maya Beach punctuated the fact that tourism and ex-pat retirement was a rapidly driving force on the peninsula- U.S. money stretches much further in Central America than at home. We were sad to see some of the developments- they were obscenely large homes similar to what you might see being built in Myrtle Beach. However, without this driving economic force, it is unlikely that the bumpy, dusty road to the peninsula would be undergoing resurfacing as it was. A happy medium needed indeed- one candidate mentioned the benefits of zoning to protecting the local citizens' quality of life. You can hear almost identical discussions in our own coastal zones of NC and SC.
One can see the appeal of spending time on coastal Belize- our last stop brought us to Caye Caulker, a tiny island just minutes by boat away from the incredible Belize Barrier Reef, second in size only Autralia's Great Barrier Reef. We saw manatees from the plane, and incredible sea-life during a snorkel trip with a native Caye Caulker man named Mr. Juni Salvidar. I later learned that Mr. Juni built the 24-foot sailboat with a bamboo boom on which he sailed us to the Hol Chan Marine Reserve. Although Juni does not eat fish since to him that would be like eating family (the way fish and stingrays follow him and enjoy his company is a sight I'll never forget), we heeded our host Luciana Essenziale's (OASI Apartments www.holidaybelize.com) recommendation to eat at Rose's Grill and enjoyed the freshest of seafood. Whole fish, shrimp, and stone crab claws were laid out on a table next to a grill in front of the restaurant. We chatted with the chef/owner and picked out our meals. The stone crab claws were delectable.
The trip was memorable for not only the meals, but for the show-stopping wildlife, land-based and underwater adventures, and friendly Belizeans and international ex-pats who hosted and fed us.
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