Back to the blog

So, we got back Saturday and I'm feeling this obligation to blog the stuff I wrote about while I was there and also write the stuff I thought about but didn't get around to writing down and so forth, but it just isn't going to happen, so I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. It was a great trip.

My verdict on Belize is that it was a really nice time and the accommodations were very inexpensive but the overall value didn't seem better than Mexico. This may have been different if we had spent more time in the interior looking at Mayan ruins, although that would have really meant going to Guatemala. For folks without a comfort level in Spanish, Belize may offer a better value proposition (ignoring travel costs), but since I love honing my pigeon espagnol, that doesn't apply to me.

Our choice of Belize came out of wanting to use as much of our travel vouchers as possible. Round-trip for each of us was about $450, which was under the $500 travel vouchers we both had. We budgeted about $100 a day and ate pretty well but did not take any guided excursions and didn't buy a lot of junk to bring back.

One of the big hassles is that Belize doesn't have the ATM network that Mexico has. In Guanajuato, you can just walk down to the ATM any time and pull out pesos. In Belize, you have to bring a stash of traveler's checks--the bank (and there was only one) only offered cash advances on credit cards and charged a fee to do it. Fortunately, most places seem to be cool with traveler's checks.