We picked Belize as the starting point for our adventure partly because we thought it would help us ease into the change in foods available to us to continue our plant-based diet throughout Central and South America. We also thought Belize was a good place to start as English is widely spoken, helping us greatly if we couldn’t communicate our requirements in Spanish.

Luckily we were correct on both counts. We discovered to our delight that it was relatively easy to find our basic items like soy milk, oats, cereal, bread and peanut butter at any supermarket (less so of course at local small supply shops/kiosks). What was most surprising was the soy milk imported from Canada was cheaper than what it is sold for in Canada!

Fruits and vegetables are also widely available, and if you stick to local produce, it’s very cost effective too. We paid $1 for 7 or 8 bananas, and about $1.50 for a very large papaya. As a comparison, we picked up 2 peaches (imported from the USA) at the market in Corozal for $5. We didn’t repeat that performance! Fruits and vegetables are best purchased at local markets, which are common in every town and village. Supermarkets tend to mark up quite a bit and the quality/freshness isn’t as good.

A papaya almost as big as my head for $1.50! Awesome!

Organic fruit and veggies are virtually non-existent; we found one store on Ambergris Caye that stocked imported organic produce but it was extremely expensive (for example, $7 for a small bag of organic baby carrots). We decided to stick to local produce and save our budget from being wrecked after the first week!

We didn’t have any greens or lettuces in Belize. These items carry a great risk for food borne illness as the soils and dirty water carry bacteria. Needless to say, from the outset we greatly missed our morning kale and banana smoothies!

We decided to seek out a balance of hostels with and without kitchens so that we could cook our own meals but also eat at restaurants some of the time when a kitchen wasn’t available or when we wanted a break from making meals or wanted to explore the local flavours.

Great kitchen at Yuma’s House Hostel on Caye Caulker

Cooking meals on the road is cost effective and a very social experience in hostels – we met and cooked with a fun and diverse group of people in Corozal and on Caye Caulker. It’s also a fun experience to explore the aisles of local supermarkets to see what local foods are available – combined with wonderful fresh goodies from the market! Our favourite spot was the bright pink fruit and veggie stall behind Yuma’s House Hostel (across from the basketball court) on Caye Caulker.

Home cooking at Yuma’s House Hostel: beans, veggies and tortillas – fresh and fantastic with an oceanfront view!

In Belize we typically made oats and tea for breakfasts, with fruit for snacks. Fruits were mostly bananas, oranges, papaya and watermelon. Lunches and dinners were typically pasta, curries, and beans and veggies on fresh tortillas – with a few peanut butter and banana sandwiches (or tortilla roll-ups) along the way.

Hot oats for breakfast with banana, cinnamon and soy milk

Peanut butter and banana tortilla roll-ups – fun and nutritious :)

Eating out was relatively straightforward, even with our basic Spanish. Almost every dish that didn’t include meat or fish did include cheese, so we simply specified no cheese or dairy (sin queso o lactosa) and enjoyed several delicious meals along the way. Most of our meals out in Belize centred around the staple of rice and beans – made a little spicy with Marie Sharp’s hot sauce – a Belizean favourite!

We also had other local fare like “pupusas” – flat corn cakes stuffed with beans (and other non vegan items of course, but we skipped those options!) and cooked on a griddle. Pupusas are actually from El Salvador but Belize has adopted the dish and added their own flare to it. Another great dish we tried was “salbutes” – deep fried tortillas topped with fresh salsa, beans and guacamole. The more standard food we tried included pizza, burritos, falafels and hummus and veggie burgers. Non-local food and restaurants are more expensive than domestic options.

Pupusas stuffed with beans and topped with pickled cabbage and hot sauce

As for beverages, we drank bottled purified water in Belize, along with coffee, tea, local beer (Belikin – regular and stout), and the water from one delicious fresh coconut! Beer is cheaper than water, and in the heat of the day, so much more refreshing!

Delicious fresh coconut water

To summarize, it was incredibly easy and reasonably cheap to follow our vegan diet in Belize while ensuring that we had variety as well as nutritious meals. Aside from our first few meals in Crooked Tree where we struggled a bit to convey what our needs were and found the food to be very expensive relative to subsequent meals we had, we really enjoyed our time as vegans in Belize.

Best local food tried: bean pupusas in San Pedro on Ambergris Caye (the restaurant across from Waruguma Restaurant – Waruguma is very popular, but they wouldn’t make us pupusas without cheese)

Most surprising food experience: finding soy milk readily available

Most challenging food experience: avoiding deep fried, processed and fast food (it’s everywhere in Belize!)

After 3 nights on Ambergris Caye we boarded the Belize Express water taxi bound for Caye Caulker. A very efficient 30 minute boat ride delivered us safely onto the dock at Caye Caulker – our home for the next 5 nights. Caulker is a very small slice of paradise. With only 2,000 inhabitants, the island is roughly 8km long and about 500m wide. From most points on the island you can see the shore on the other side! The island was split in two when Hurricane Hattie tore through the region in 1961.

Leaving the dock in San Pedro bound for Caye Caulker

The roads are not paved and are covered with sea sand. There are no private vehicles allowed, and the most popular modes of transport are bikes, golf carts and foot. It’s much more laid back than Ambergris Caye and feels less touristy than San Pedro. It’s also cheaper and has a lovely community feel to it. We settled in and got some sand between our toes!

Sandy roads and palm trees – paradise!

We had the foresight to book accommodation ahead of time at Yuma’s House Hostel – the island’s most popular digs for travellers looking for budget accommodation in a tranquil setting, right on the beach and close to the centre of the village. The owner, Susanne, runs a tight ship and ensures that the premises is well kept and the partying kept to a minimum. Perfect! We had booked a private room with shared bathroom for 3 nights, and upon arrival, extended our stay for another 2 nights (one night in a 4-person dorm with bunk beds and the other in a private room). Sharing facilities was very comfortable and easy – especially in such a well-run hostel.

Yuma’s House on the beach

We were delighted to discover a well stocked and clean kitchen, from which we would whip up some delicious home-cooked meals over the next few days. We also made new friends, including a fun British couple (Nick and Hannah) who recently lived in Vancouver, and who coincidentally are also runners, having both recently participated in the Squamish 50 – just like us! We also met folks from Sweden, Holland, Australia, USA and Greece. So fun to cross paths with so many different people, each with their own stories and itineraries. Be interesting to see if we overlap with anyone in the months ahead.

Yuma’s House upstairs kitchen – the social hub (especially on rainy days!)

Bean and veggie tacos overlooking the ocean at Yuma’s House

Unfortunately the tail-end of the rainy season delivered a few stormy and wet days during our stay on Caulker. This gave us plenty of time to relax, share stories and tips with other travellers and plan our route for the week ahead. While wet, it was very warm and humid on the island. We were able to get in three runs during our stay on Caulker (including a 10km trail/beach/swamp run with our British friends!) – one of which started under glorious sunny skies and ended with us absolutely drenched as a tropical thunderstorm swept in. At least our running gear got a wash in the process!

Lots of space to relax at Yuma’s House

Our time on Caulker was filled with walks up and down the island looking for delicious fresh ingredients for meals, trying different cafes for morning coffee, and of course, looking for the next cold cerveza. We also spent some time swimming, lazing about on various hammocks and docks drinking freshly cut young coconuts, watching sunsets and generally living up to the island motto to “go slow” (although Richard almost received a speeding ticket from a local for walking too fast one morning on his way back from the market!).

Coco Loco – the best coconut stand on Caulker!

Coco Loco with another coco loco :)

At “The Split” – the northern most point of the island where Hurricane Hattie split the island in two – everyone flocks here to swim and chill on a sunny day

The Lazy Lizard bar at The Split

Hammock time!

We were very sorry to pack up our backpacks and move on from Caulker! However, the rest of Central and South America were yet to be explored, and it was time to move inland. We purchased a combo water ferry/bus ticket that would take us to Belize City and then onwards to Flores in Gautemala. More on this in the next post!

Beautiful Caye Caulker

Bev’s thumbs up: Yuma’s House, fruit stand across from the basketball court

Bev’s thumbs down: not enough hammock time!

Richard’s thumbs up: laid back vibe, swimming at The Split

Richard’s thumbs down: too much rain

After a relaxing couple of days in Corozal it was time to move into island mode and we set off for San Pedro on Ambergris Caye (the cayes are a series of small islands in the Caribbean Sea just off the east coast of Belize). Our original plan called for a reasonably priced ferry ride (on the Tunderbolt Line) over to San Pedro, but as mentioned in the post: “From Crooked Tree to Corozal” the ferry was out of service and we either had to fly over from Corozal or take a bus down to Belize City and catch a different ferry (The Belize Express) from there. Once we heard that the regional airline, Mayan Island Air, was offering a deal to match the usual Thunderbolt ferry prices we made the very easy decision to go by plane. And so we arrived in San Pedro on Ambergris Caye in style, not at all in backpacker mode, but by “jetting” in on a 3-seater Cessna 182. The flight over from Corozal was pretty cool, taking us the 70km or so towards the east in just over 20, scenic minutes. (Check out the video above to experience our bird’s-eye view of part of the flight:

Not quite a 747 :)

Somewhere over the east coast of Belize

San Pedro itself is a tiny, “vibey”, and loud, beach-side village with a (permanent) population of just over 13,000 people, and has been immortalized in pop culture by Madonna in her song “La Isla Bonita”. The entire island is tiny and most of the traffic on it is of the golf cart variety, and trust me, there is a lot of it on the streets on San Pedro – you actually have to leave the little “downtown core” before you can ease into the laid back island rhythm. And to be honest, we didn’t really find that rhythm here (we’ll only truly discover “laid back” once we hit Caye Caulker in a few day’s time). For such a small village we were really surprised by how busy it was!

Aah, island life

Beach side sights

Golf carts everywhere

The island has seen a fair amount of tourist related development in the past 20 years (which is about how long Madonna’s song has been around) and has become a bit of a resort and retirement community for relatively wealthy north Americans while the locals are still very poor by western standards, but all seem to get along well and there wasn’t any time that we felt uncomfortable.

Upon arrival we walked the 200 yards from the airstrip to the beach where we easily found our lodgings at a very basic, budget “hotel” called Ruby’s Hotel. Ruby’s is located right on the beach and we stationed ourselves here for three nights. We really enjoyed the location which afforded easy access to a few convenience stores and the beach, obviously.

Pretty awesome location

The location also proved to be Ruby’s downfall (at least for a couple of 40’ish-somethings like Bev and me), as there are a number of beach side bars located within a stone’s throw of Ruby’s and on both Saturday and Sunday nights we battled some seriously loud parties until around 3AM – not exactly awesome since we wanted to get up early for our runs (before the temperature started to rise).

Speaking of running, San Pedro (and Ambergris) proved to be rather runner non-friendly as there simply wasn’t much room to run and the streets that do exist there are busy (yeah, they’re only golf carts but the result of getting hit by one would still be unsatisfactory) and superbly uneven (crazy cobblestone). All that said, we did clock close to 30km over the few days in San Pedro.

Some of our running shoes…

All in all we enjoyed San Pedro, but after three nights we were ready to move on to what promised to be a more laid back spot: Caye Caulker.

Richard’s thumbs up: beach side hotel; awesome papayas; and yummy bean filled pupusas!

Mmm, papaya!

Bean filled pupusa

Richard’s thumbs down: super loud and semi-agressive sounding partying right next to our hotel

Bev’s thumbs up: swimming off the dock at Ramon’s Village

Caribbean Sea: awesome

Bev’s thumbs down: expensive and somewhat grungy village/island

After braving two nights and two days in the less than stellar Tillett’s Village in Crooked Tree, we made our way to the border town of Corozal, just south of Mexico.

We caught an early morning ride on the back of a pickup truck to a boat which took us back to the Northern Highway. Once at the highway, we waved down the next bus heading north to Chetumal, Mexico. The ~90km bus ride cost us US$3 each, all the way to Corozal, via Orange Walk and took about 2.5 hours. The ride itself was quite comfortable, and we were treated to the bus driver’s personal taste in music as his stereo was set to full blast while the LED disco lights in the front of the bus provided a rhythmic and hypnotic distraction from the fact that I hadn’t had breakfast yet.

(Click “Play” to hear a sound clip from the bus ride… )

Once in Corozal we found directions to the Sea Breeze Hotel and walked the 1km or so from the bus terminus to check in to our home for the next two nights.

The highly recommended Sea Breeze Hotel

The Sea Breeze is a 2013 Traveler’s Choice Winner on Tripadvisor.com and also came highly recommended by our guidebook as a basic, but comfortable, budget accommodation.

We met the manager, Gwyn Lawrence at check-in and enjoyed his gruff, but comprehensive welcome to his establishment – informing us of the wifi password as well as the fact that the ferry we were planning on taking over to Ambergris Caye (an island about 70km east of Corozal) two days later was out of service due to maintenance. Gwyn went on to kindly suggest we take the Maya Island Air flight over to the caye instead, and quickly had us on the phone to their reservations person. A few minutes later we were all set on the 10:00am flight on Saturday on their 3-seater Cessna 182.

The Sea Breeze provided a great place to stay for our two nights in Corozal, and we really loved having access to the kitchen where we prepared oatmeal for breakfast and made sandwiches for lunch. We were pleasantly surprised by the availability of organic soy milk for our oatmeal and coffee in the “supermarkets” of Corozal. We also got the opportunity to try our first bananas in Belize, and we were not disappointed!

Have kitchen, have oatmeal

Organic soy milk!

Corozal is an interesting, fairly busy little town with nice stretches of paved boardwalk on the oceanfront. We took advantage of these for our first couple of runs since leaving Vancouver. It poured with rain just as we got started, but in the 30 degrees C heat the cool rain was actually most welcome.

Corozal

We also explored our first Mayan ruin at a small site called Santa Rita – just a short 25 minute run north of the town.

Santa Rita

After two nights it was time to make our departure for San Pedro on caye Ambergris, and on Saturday morning, the hotel manager Gwyn saved us the $3.50 taxi ride to the airstrip by dropping us off himself in his 1985 Mercedes Benz TURBODIESEL.

Bev’s thumbs up: Sea Breeze hotel and friendly staff; getting cheered by all who saw us running!
Bev’s thumbs down: nothing

Richard’s thumbs up: oatmeal and bananas
Richard’s thumbs down: nothing

We arrived safely in Belize after a long but uneventful 17-hour journey via Salt Lake City and Atlanta from Vancouver. First order of business after clearing customs was to change out of our cold climate layers into more appropriate attire! With shorts, t-shirts and sandals in place, we loaded up Richard’s cell phone with a local SIM card and airtime (cost was US$25 total) and walked the 4kms from the airport to the main highway.

You need summer clothes in the tropics

Walking to the Northern Highway

Once we hit the highway, we waited for a bus that would take us north on the Northern Highway to our first destination, a village of 1000 people, called Crooked Tree, located within a bird sanctuary surrounded by a lagoon. The buses in Belize are repurposed American school buses complete with boom boxes and a variety of decor! There is a driver and a conductor. Fares are paid once you’re on the bus – we paid US$1 each for a 45-minute ride. The bus dropped us at the Crooked Tree junction and we made our way to the meeting point for our accommodation.

Boat to Crooked Tree

We had a bit of a rocky start as our accommodation, Tillett’s Village, was a bit more rustic than we thought it would be. It looked wonderful on the web but the lodging was very run down and the village had flooded with heavy rains the week before, so the area was waterlogged with no road access. We received an email on the morning of our departure telling us that the owner would meet us with a boat along what used to be the road into the village. Yikes! We decided to go anyway and although we weren’t terribly comfortable in Crooked Tree, it was an interesting look into Belizean village life. To really test our resolve early, we were also subjected to a heavy downpour on the second night, and we were challenged to find dry spots under the heavily leaking thatch where we could put our gear. A sizeable family of cockroaches also seemed to be seeking refuge from the rain and kept us company in our room.

Tillett’s Village – looks nice enough

Although Tillett’s Village receives good reviews on websites such as Tripadvisor, we recommend passing on them for now as it seems that maintenance, upkeep and customer service has not been a priority for them of late. We paid US$40 per night which is expensive compared to other lodging we’ve enjoyed since. We also thought that their meal prices were expensive for the quality and portion of food. We paid US$10 per person for dinner and US$6 per person for lunch. It was unfortunate that the flood had occurred, as we may have had access to a few other meal options but the other lodges operating in the village were closed. We did have a very nice experience with a lady called Nora who runs a “restaurant” out of her backyard in the village. She made us delicious rice and beans with fried plantain for US$1.50 each (great for the backpacker budget!). The bird sanctuary was also closed due to the flood, so part of our reason for visiting was unfortunately inaccessible.

Nora’s – backyard dining in Crooked Tree

Bev’s thumbs up: Successfully navigating our first few days under less than ideal circumstances

Bev’s thumbs down: Feeling very lonely and far away from home on the first night!

Richard’s thumbs up: Experiencing the village of Crooked Tree; wifi at Tillett’s Village

Richard’s thumbs down: Pretty much everything else about Tillett’s Village

View our TripAdvisor review of Tillett’s Village in Crooked Tree here.