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Show The Newspaper Thareday, April 22, 19S2 Pate A7 E L I Calm Oasis in Central America z -tj by Morgan Queal Belize, a serene little country in Central America, offers one of the all-time great escapes from mud season. Its Caribbean coast is lined with coconut palms and deserted beaches, and its mainland is flanked by a series of fascinating little islands called Cayes. And Belize is so cheap you can't afford not to go. The country has a population popula-tion of around 120,000 a mixture of black, Mayans and Spanish, most of whom speak a Cajun kind of English brought over from the British Caribbean islands when Belize was still British Hondurus. Belize went independent three !f$ ' . 4 111 Pill Vv 1 X - - - - - - years ago, and its people are trying to live their lives and develop their beautiful little country in peace, amidst the turmoil of the rest of Central America. We happened upon Belize, along with a lot of other backpack-toting tourists who hop the Cayes in the springtime, spring-time, during a spur-of-the-moment trip to the Yucatan. We grabbed a cheap flight ($240 round trip from Denver) Den-ver) to Cozumel, one of those touristy islands off the Yucatan Yuca-tan coast that at Easter time resembles Park City's President Presi-dent Week. After a couple of days of traffic, Texans in Bermuda shorts and overpriced over-priced Pina Coladas, we moved to the Yucatan mainland, main-land, via ferry, and hung out for a few days in the funky cabanas and beachfront bars of Playa del Carmen and Tulum. The area of central coastal Yucatan is basic Eastern Mexico lush and jungly, a blend of tourists and locals, hotel rooms that smell of new, wet plaster, are devoid of xlecor and cost about half the price of accommodations . 'lit ' J, NO. 50 SAMPSON AVENUE Tri-plex lot: $97,500terms. Discount for use as duplex or single family lot. Premier view of Ontario and Empire Canyons. The above photo shows southwestern south-western view from the property. John Vrabel, 649-3600. in Cozumel or Cancun. Playa del Carmen boasts one elegant hotel, a hippie-type hippie-type campground, some condominiums con-dominiums and a couple of $10-a-night motels. Tulum nearby has an interesting Mayan ruin that's worth a half-day inspection. Out of Tulum a few miles (take a cab) on the beach are the Cabanas Tulum, inexpensive, inexpen-sive, frequented by young Mexican families and Berkeley Ber-keley students on spring break. Efficient buses In spite of what they tell you, Mexican buses aren't that bad. We caught one at an intersection of the high- way near Tulum. It was on time, cheap, and got us to Chetumal in a real hurry, tearing down the Yucatan along narrow roads where the jungle foliage grows right up to the edge of the asphalt. Chetumal is the Mexican city closest to Belize which, we had heard, is a nice place to visit. Besides, we were becoming slightly disgruntled disgrunt-led with Mexican prices and pollution the country has a definite solid waste disposal problem. From the Chetumal Chetu-mal bus station, we took a cab to the nearby border station, went through customs cus-toms with our tourist cards, missed the bus but had no trouble hitching a ride to Corozal, a sleepy little coastal coas-tal town just 10 miles into Belize. The contrast between Belize Bel-ize and Mexico was striking. Jungle dominates the Mexican Mexi-can countryside, but after the border into Belize, foliage foli-age gives way to cultivated fields and grazing livestock. Belizians are farmers, and among them are Caucasians in overalls and broad-brim- med black hats. These are German Mennonites who migrated to Belize to establish estab-lish their own farms and communities. Rumor has it that one can still homestead in Belize cultivate a few acres for a few years and it's yours. Frame houses on stilts Corozal is your basic Belizian village by the sea-frame sea-frame houses on stilts, hibiscus growing in abundance abun-dance along picket fences, cement sea walls and store signs in English. From the town square you can walk, perhaps a mile, to a seaside hotel called Tony's where rooms are $10 (American) for two and a dinner of steak and baked potato costs $3. (Currency in Belize is dollars two of theirs to one of ours.) We stayed in Corozal a day to change money at the bank. It's a good thing, otherwise we would have missed the world's greatest Chinese food sweet and sour lobster at a little place off the square where the temperature tempera-ture inside probably peaked at 110 degrees. The bus left at 6 a.m. the next morning for Belize City about lOOmiles south. We walked the mile to town, enjoying a classic Caribbean sunrise, watching fishermen standing waist deep in the water catching their breakfast break-fast in nets and marveling at the stroke of genius that brought us to this idyllic setting. We also marveled at our uncanny foresight in carrying only the minimum gear one small daypack each a move that decidedly increased mobility. We were not prepared, however, for the miserable bus ride four hours to Belize City on hard seats, McCloud Creek McCloud Creek Lots 5 downbalance at 9 interest. No points3 yr. call. $61,500 to $73,500 "11 sold Aesthetically planned and architecturally controlled con-trolled by prominent Utah architect, Kevin Watts. Single family homesites completely landscaped and maintained, 649-3600. iiiiiilllSliw 3Pil over bumpy roads, stopping at every crossroad, and next to us a little girl in a beautiful dress, throwing up relentlessly. Nor were we prepared for Belize City. Upon arrival in that madness of narrow, winding streets teeming with traffic and half-bare bodies, our most urgent need was to get out as soon as possible. We had been told by friends that you could make all the necessary connections connec-tions from Mom's Cafe on the wharf. Inside the door less than a minute, we were offered a gram of you-know-what for $25 (it was probably baking soda). We declined that offer, but accepted one for a $10 boat ride to Caye Calker about 15 miles off the coast. Caye Calker Even for one used to a laid-back life style, Caye Calker has to be one of the mellower places in the Western hemisphere. About a quarter of a mile wide and two miles long, the island is all coconut palms, sand and weatherbeaten frame houses ""''''-r-n ir r-i " mn-- i-nrmnwi. mm on stilts, of course. There are no cars and no telephones tele-phones on Caye Calker, and from what we heard, not even a two-way radio. Communication Com-munication with the mainland main-land is strictly in person. Islanders take frequent trips to Belize City in outboard-powered outboard-powered skiffs to stock up on fresh fruits and vegetables. Fishing and lobstering is the only real business on the island except for a couple of bars, an ice cream shop, some "hotels" and a couple of tiny grocery stores where you can get a quart of fresh orange juice for 90 cents. There's also a "health food" snack bar run by an off-beat British couple who serve you cold coconut custard in their living room. Our hotel was the ubiquitous ubi-quitous wood-house-on-stilts where a double room cost $10 B.H. ($5 American or $2.50 each) a night. The shower and toilet (a flushing one) were down the wooden steps and around the back in a shed. Mrs. Rodriguez, the owner, always had cold orange Fanta, Coca Cola and the native Belliken (belly- 2747 LUCKY JOHN DRIVE This beautiful 4 bedroom home sits adjacent to the new Jack Nicklaus Golf Course. It features 3 fireplaces, spacious decks, custom interiors and a fully landscaped yard. $190,000 with flexible terms Allen Titensor, 649-3600. achin') beer which she would sell out the kitchen door. The sounds of a foreign environment always are memorable. We would wake up to the sound of the ocean breezes swishing through the palms, the waves lapping the beach and the town drunk wretching violently every morning outside our open hotel window. Comfortable climate One thinks of the sub-tropics sub-tropics as being steamy and hot, but on Caye Calker, the constant brisk breeze made for total comfort. One day was an exception. After a rainstorm, we woke up to devastating stillness. It was steamy, hot and miserable, and even the natives were complaining. The sand fleas were running rampant, and inside you had to light little coils of incense to keep them away. The natives of Caye Calker are an industrious lot. Roles are well-defined the men tend to the fishing; the women take care of homes, and children go to school barefoot in a frame school-house school-house on stilts. There are no sidewalks or streets. The entire central part of the island is sand with occasional clumps of grass, lots of palm trees with hibiscus. A lot of the daily living takes place under the r Tr" llflfa :p !UmM& ill - 0 ,, . 4 40F2?1 Mites'-, j, f . "V house, amid the stilts, where women wash clothes in tubs and babies sleep in string hammocks. Strangely enough, the locals are not into swimming as a sport and many don't know how. Usually, if they go in the water, it's for fish, but sometimes you'd see a group of women and children taking a pleasure dip with all their clothes on. Dinner at Evelyn's One of the greatest delights de-lights on Caye Calker is eating at Evelyn's. It's not a restaurant, mind you, but an average island home where the lady of the house cooks in her own kitchen and serves first-class food, at a ridiculously ridicu-lously low price, to six or eight people at a time in her own dining room. To find Evelyn, just ask around, then go to her back door early in the day to make reservations. She'll have five or six entrees to choose from, the best of which is the barricuda dipped in an egg batter, deep fried and served with fried potatoes and a vegetable. We had everything every-thing on the menu at least once, and started over again. The cost is $5 B.H. We like breakfast at Edith's, a hotel across the island (a five-minute walk) where you got scrambled eggs with cheese, fry bread (a deep-fried pastry-like bread served with honey), and a tall glass of fresh orange juice. What is the great attraction attrac-tion of a tiny island with virtually no night life or entertainment other than watching dog-size lizards running across the sand? The reef It's the reef. Off Caye Calker to the west is the largest coral reef this side of Australia. It is sensational. All you need is snorkel, mask and fins for the visual experience of a lifetime. You hardly have to know how to swim. You want a tight-fitting tight-fitting mask and a shallow place to begin, if you're nervous. ' We were lucky enough to meet a native Belizian who grew up on the island and spent 52 of his 54 years fishing and diving on the SILVER KING Distinguished condominiums $132,000 to $450,000 SILVERKING The Silver King apartments, studio, 1 bedroom, 2 bedroom and penthouse units are being sold turn-key-complete, furnished and accessorized. 649-.1600. reef. One has a sense of security with a guide like Chocolate, who told us that even if there are a few sharks, they're small ones. Chocolate or any of the other guides on the island will take you on a three-or-four-hour reef trip for around $5 B.H., and they usually have snor-keling snor-keling gear for rent. While you are catching an eyefull, they'll be catching fish or spearing lobster for dinner. If you tire of the Caye Calker pace, or lack of it, you can find someone to run you over to San Pedro on the Ambergris Caye a little more lively spot that sports a real hotel with a swimming pool and a bar that sells Michelob for $4 B.H. a can and takes a Visa card. The return trip When it came time to leave Caye Calker, we found ourselves dreading a return to Belize City and the rotten bus to Chetumal. We were sure there was another way, and with a little asking around we found a young skiff driver who was happy to run us up the coast to Mexico along with some locals who were going up for a wedding. We paid $40 B.H. each for a four-hour ride in a flat-bottomed boat powered with two 25-horse-power Evinrudes. It jarred your teeth loose everytime that flat boat hit a wave, which was every three seconds, but we were in Chetumal in half the time of the overland route. It took from sunrise to sunset to get from Caye Calker back up the Yucatan to Playa del Carmen, where we had just missed the last ferry to Cozumel. The next day, however, we found that things had quieted down on Cozumel to the point where you could enjoy the fine restaurants, the surf and little open-air bars on the far side of the island. Besides, a little ritz and class felt good after the days on funky old Caye Calker. We left, however, with the thought that in Mexico, they get you coming and going. Margaritas were $4 each at the airport, and as you're about to board the plane, they sock you with an airport tax that grabs your last $10. Park City LANDCOMRVNY Park City. LAND COMPANY ParkCity. LAND COMPANY ParkCity LAND COMPANY |