HEMISPHERESMAGAZINE.COM
•
FEBRUARY 2013
95
BELIZE
||
THREE PERFECT DAYS
massive pyramid towering above a mani-
cured lawn ringed with jungle. You start
climbing the stairs, which is a challenge
because they’re so tall and steep. This is
by design, so that the king’s visitors would
have to crawl up on all fours, in deference,
and invaders could be easily repelled. At
the top you stand, winded. The view, like
the trek up, is breathtaking. You can see
clear to Guatemala.
Legs howling, you return to the lodge,
change and spend an hour bobbing
around the cliffside U-shaped hot pool
with a bo le of Belikin beer, the ubiqui-
tous national brew. A er that, dinner is at
the property’s Guatemalan eatery, housed
in a plain, screened wooden structure
(
there is also an Italian restaurant). The
food is simple and good: bean stew, grilled
chicken with salsa fresca and a dessert of
bananas cooked in bu er and cinnamon.
It’s been a long day, but you feel you’d
be remiss not to get a nightcap at the bar,
whichhas the original ceiling fan fromthe
opening scene of
Apocalypse Now
.
You sit
beneath it and call for a whiskey. Fortu-
nately, unlikeMartinSheen in thefilm, you
manage to hold it together long enough to
finish the drink and retire, intact, to bed.
DAY TWO
| Your hotel shower is in a
screened roomabu ing a small backyard
(
which itself adjoins a patiowith a private
plunge pool). This grants you the benefit
of showering outside without risk of mis-
treatment by the local insect community.
You wash off what’s left of yesterday’s
bug spray and sunscreen, pack your bags,
enjoy some more coffee and fry jack, and
hit the road.
You motor along the Western High-
way to the capital, Belmopan, and then
turn south onto the scenic
Hummingbird
Highway
.
You follow the road, snaking
through mountain passes, along farms
and ranches, and past small, sca ershot
villages, where children ride bikes on dirt
roads between brightly colored homes
and their parents chat in “cool spots”:
unadorned roadside establishments offer-
ing shade and cold drinks.
The Hummingbird ends at the South-
ernHighway, which then takes you south
to
Maya Center
,
a tiny Mayan village that
serves as the gateway to the
Cockscomb
Basin Wildlife Sanctuary
,
home of the
world’s first jaguar preserve. First stop is
the cra center, whereMayanwomen sell
a wide array of locally made pieces. A er
picking up an incongruously futuristic
