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!)

We spent over 3 weeks in Guatemala and during this time, had the opportunity to try a wide variety of foods and restaurants that satisfied our vegan requirements. The staple of rice and beans is nicely complemented by the ever-present corn tortillas. It’s impossible to walk down the street and not hear the pat-pat-pat of the tortilla dough being hand-shaped into 5-inch rounds or to smell the tortillas toasting on the cast iron griddles. The tortillas are made from many different corn varieties – white, yellow, blue, black and likely more! Delicious on their own or as part of a meal!

At our first stop in Flores, we were delighted to discover a full menu of vegetarian and vegan options at the restaurant inside Los Amigos hostel. We tried the tofu wrap, burrito, curry, falafel and salads, as well as the fruit smoothies. All were very tasty, and very reasonably priced for our backpackers’ budget. We decided to eat all of our meals here, as the food, prices and atmosphere were just right for us. They also have an awesome happy hour menu with great deals on all sorts of yummy cocktails and local beers.

Richard relaxing in the garden restaurant at Los Amigos hostel in Flores

The city of Antigua provided a wide variety of options for us including well-stocked supermarkets and a large outdoor produce market. We had a kitchen at our accommodation, Holistico Hostal, so we were able to cook for ourselves most of the time – economical and healthy! We whipped up bean and veggie fillings for our delicious corn tortillas, hot off the griddle! We did enjoy two meals in local restaurants – a fresh and tasty quinoa and tofu wrap at Pitaya and a typical Guatemalan meal consisting of veggie-stuffed tostadas, guacamole, salsa and pickled cabbage at Sabe Rico. Both were on the pricier end of the scale, but were good quality meals. We were also able to temporarily return to banana heaven and enjoyed the use of the hostel’s blender, making a deep green spinach and 8-banana smoothie on two occasions!

Lunch at Pitaya in Antigua

Guatemalan meal at Sabe Rico in Antigua

Return of the spinach-banana smoothie – oh, how we missed you!

The majority of our time in Gautemala was spent in Panajachel, a town on the shore of Lake Atitlan. Here we lived with a local Guatemalan family while we attended Spanish school for two weeks. We ate all of our meals with host-mom Magda, and she did an amazing job of catering to our (unusual) requirements. Breakfasts were fruit and cereal or oats, lunches included pasta, beans/rice, veggies, tortillas and bread, and dinners included soup, bread, tortillas, salad and veggies. We supplemented our meals with peanut butter sandwiches as snacks during lessons, and lots of fruit during the day. Our host-mom was very intrigued that we could not only survive, but thrive on our diet – especially since we ran a marathon while staying with her!

Panajachel has a fair number of restaurants offering vegan options, some even advertising vegan meals and treats on their window signage. Our culinary outings in Panajachel on Calle Santander included a wonderful smoothie/juice bar called Pitaya (not connected to the one in Antigua), a great little restaurant called Llama del Fuego with a multitude of tofu, tempeh and other vegan friendly options, vegan apple strudel from Cafe Kitsch, wood-fired pizza and delicious freshly made pupusas (bean stuffed corn pockets) with salsa from a street vendor.

Pitaya Juice Bar in Panajachel – banana, mango and papaya smoothies – yum!

Another smoothie break at Llama del Fuego in Panajachel – chocolate, banana and mango – yum again!

Snack time at our study table at Casa Magda!

Bev with our host-mom, Magda, in the kitchen at Casa de Magda

During our time at Lake Atitlan we visited two other villages on the lake shore. San Pedro is the largest village after Panajachel, and is a bohemian oasis with a wide variety of vegan choices. We enjoyed a yummy veggie burger at the Irish pub (only one of the many nationalities represented here!), and made the mistake of only buying two delicious vegan choc-chip banana cookies from the natural foods market on the main street just up and to the left from the ferry dock. This market stocks a wide variety of local and imported foods that would happily support a plant-based diet, albeit at a hefty premium. The other village we visited was San Marcos, and it’s a little more hippy trippy than the other villages around the lake. We tried to find a few of the vegan outlets that we’d read about, but were unsuccessful in locating them – either due to closure for the season or poor directions. We were later told that they do exist by friends who visited the village!

In Guatemala we did feel a bit restricted with breakfast options in lodgings that included breakfast in the room rate. Most often breakfasts included bread, fruit, eggs, pancakes, juice and coffee. We usually opted for the fruit, bread and coffee, and then added our own granola, oats or cereal as we were able to. We did have pancakes on occasion once we’d confirmed that no dairy was used in the batter. It’s worth considering this when you’re travelling as a vegan, as the inclusion of breakfast is often not great value if you don’t take advantage of the full spread. Going forward, we may opt to ask for a reduction in rate in favour of an included breakfast.

Breakfast on the deck at El Portal Hostel in Semuc Champey – granola, Cheerios, soy milk, bananas and coffee

Finding staples like fruit, vegetables, soy milk, cereal and peanut butter was very easy in Guatemala and the supermarkets are very well stocked. Bread is in plentiful supply with bakeries or “panaderias” almost outnumbering the tortilla vendors! Be aware that the bread is usually made with white flour and is more cake-like than the crusty bread that you might expect if you’re from North America or Europe. You can also buy sandwich bread (wholegrain and wholewheat) in the supermarkets that are a little healthier although who knows what goes into that bread to keep it fresh! There are also many street vendors who sell cut fruit, fresh juice, pastries, breads, chips, candy and soft drinks. Similarly, there are vendors who board buses with all sorts of food items. Most of these were deep-fried items and definitely not vegan-friendly! Be sure to ask if the item is “sin carne o lactosa o huevos” if you’re intent on staying vegan!

Learning a bit of Spanish was very helpful to us when navigating meal times and shopping for groceries in Guatemala (and all the other Central American countries we’ve visited). It’s definitely a good idea to brush up on a few Spanish phrases and to learn the Spanish words for meat and dairy items. Most restaurants understood vegetarian, but very few understood vegan, so we were careful to describe as best we could in our limited Spanish what we did and didn’t want!

We picked up a batch of supplies as we moved through each major town and were never without an “emergency” source of calories! Aside from more secluded jungle locations like Semuc Champey or smaller villages across the countryside, we found it very easy to continue our plant-based diet in Guatemala in the locations that we found ourselves.

And last but not least – beverages! We enjoyed many wonderful cups of coffee in various spots across Guatemala. Our favourite place for a strong brew was undoubtedly Crossroads Cafe (notwithstanding the religious underpinnings!)  in Panajachel. Of course, we are now in the habit of taking our soy milk with us wherever we go as there is usually a great cup of coffee within arm’s reach! Favourite drinks in Guatemala included the deep, dark Moza beer (our favourite beer hands down on the trip so far) and the many delicious smoothies along the way made from the fresh and plentiful fruit supplies including papaya, mango, banana and pineapple. Be sure to ask if the smoothie bar has soy milk as cow’s milk and/or yogurt is commonly used to make smoothies. You can ask for purified water to be used if no soy milk is available (or bring your own, as we did!).

Rich enjoying a cold and satisfying Moza beer

Best local food tried: Corn tortillas

Most surprising food experience: Eating wonderful tempeh sandwiches in Panajachel

Most challenging food experience: Too much bread