Belize, the adventure begins

The smell of burning brush filled the air as we drove down the highway in Belize. I had arrived a mere half an hour ago and during the long arcing approach to the airfield in the 747 it was hard to ignore the dozen or so columns of smoke, but it had not prepared me for the almost burned rubber smell.

Ashley explained that it was the way locals cleared land. Many times in the dry season in May those small fires would get out of control and spread. This only marginally overshadowed the trash and a poverty that was spread along the road. I watched the surroundings fascinated as we rolled over highly humped speed bumps heading into the center of Belize.

And yet I would rather be here. The whole journey began as my friend Ashley's last minute query if I wanted to go to belize for a week. To get down there the journey would start on Saturday at 5pm and end on Sunday in Belize at 10:30 am.

By the end I took a car, two buses, three airplanes, a relatively hostile train and had a fortuitous meeting of an old friend in the early morning hours in Washington, D.C. Seventeen hours later I was in the midst of smoke on a badly humped road in the middle of Belize

We are staying in Belmopan, the Capitol city. It was an odd
combination of tropical aesthetic and marginal poverty next to international embassies. It is a small town by most standards, many roads where dirt including the one leading to the wonderful villa we were staying. It was a wonderful place with a small pool in back a thankfully a breeze to alleviate the 90 degree day.

After cruising around the neighborhood we found a tasty cafe called Blue Moon whose heart sandwich was welcomed, as was this hilarious menu item. Vast tracts of land...

And this odd sign as well...

Followed by a tasty dinner we retired to the porch as darkness fell. The neighborhood had a healthy and vocal pack of dogs whose sincere chorus went on into the night as palm trees blown by the wind mimicked the sound of a summer rain.