Time to Tropicalize

Time to Tropicalize

Ah, Belize! I would say I’m in love, but, as I told Dad the other day, I’ve also fallen in love with the Bahamas, French Polynesia, Georgia, Mexico, the Gold Coast, etc,. So I think I’m really just in love with travel. Fernweh. Anyway, enough about my personal wanderlust, you want to hear about Belize!

Old-school Belizean fisherman
After leaving Mexico, my family and I had originally planned to go straight to the Belizean outer reef atolls and skip the mainland totally. But after two weeks of ocean travel and rolly anchorages, we were ready for some solid land. Cutting through a pass in the reef, we headed southwest for Dangriga, where we planned to clear customs and pick up some much-needed fresh provisions. As usual, we got more than we bargained for…

We chucked the anchor down in a spot off Dangriga that seemed as rolly as the ocean we had just left; Jasamine rocked incessantly almost porthole to porthole with the swell. Leaving a green Mom onboard, Dad and I rode off in the dinghy to brave the high pier. After some shenanigans that involved an oversized wave and a drenched Dad, we scrambled ashore and walked off the rickety, hurricane-torn dock into town. I was practically giddy stepping onto mainland Belize soil for the first time! Palm trees and houses were backdropped by lush jungle leading up into the spectacular mountains beyond. This was Central America! I wanted to soak it all up like some kind of travel-addicted human sponge.
One of the rivers that run
through Dangriga

Open-air markets sell everything from
 produce to clothing
Dangriga is one of the most unusual places I have ever visited. New concrete houses intermingle with dilapidated, wooden termite sanctuaries. Chickens and barefoot children run in the streets past ladies giving away glossy pamphlets. Refrigerated supermarket buildings and open-air produce tents station themselves on opposite sides of the town bridge, seeming to face off. As a crowning flourish, as we walked along the main street, amidst the intermittent purrs of passing automobiles, I suddenly heard a clashing sound racing towards us. Before I had time to wonder, a horse, at full gallop, came thundering past, swerving around cars, bikes and pedestrians! I could barely believe my eyes as I stared after the shirtless man riding his horse bareback! It was like something you’d expect to see in a movie, or even in some remote European city, but not in Belize! But then perhaps I should be expecting the unexpected… After all, as the locals say here, “This place is unBelizable!” In Dangriga, old challenges become new in a way that seems striking and surprising to visitors; but to the melting pot of Garifuna, Mayan, Hispanic, and Asian residents, this is everyday life. 


As we walked back towards the dock, heading for our sailboat home, a local Garifuna woman called out to us from across the street, “You hain’t leavin’ yet , eh?! You needs to TROPICALIZE! You too PALE! Take yo’sel’ a bottle ‘a coconut oil, put in some sunscreen, an’ some bugspray, an’ get you some TROPICALIZATION!” And with a firm nod and a lot of  crazy laughter she dismissed us. She didn’t seem like a woman to be trifled with, so if anyone needs me, I’ll be out tropicalizing with one eye on a book and the other on the lookout for the unexpected. ;)
Jasamine, horse, and palm trees... Tropicalize!















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