Belize: Bye-bye Mangroves – Viva Vacation!

On a recent trip to Belize, the mermaids - that would be my wife and daughter, sought out any excuse to immerse themselves in the Caribbean Sea; and my daughter's desire to swim with a whale shark featured prominently on her list of reasons for our visit. It's a rather hopeful wish on her part, but if you don't think big there's not much chance of experiencing anything out of the ordinary. Alice had booked her place on an organised whale shark trip months in advance, and when the day arrives we all make the road trip to get her…

Belize: Mayan Temples and Howler Monkey Business.

The 17th May 2017 is another beautiful day in Belize and one that turns out to be rather special. Up for an early breakfast with my wife and daughter I eat scrambled eggs and tropical fruits, heaping both onto the same plate to save time. The view however is altogether more subtle than my inelegant attitude towards the functionality of food, and we gaze out across the smooth metallic expanse of the the Caribbean Sea warming from silver to gold as the sun rises. Within half an hour, we are moving along an empty road, the sun now throwing the…

Belize: The Down Side – Deforestation.

During a recent visit to Belize with my wife and daughter, it was impossible not to appreciate the beauty of the flora and fauna of what many regard as a a sub-tropical paradise. "But, there is something missing", said my wife, "and I'm not sure what it is". I thought about this for while and if I had to put it down to one particular thing, then it would have to be a lack of primary forest. Figures for deforestation are sketchy for Belize and what we believe sometimes depends on where the figures come from - certainly it would…