Paid to Play Episode 6: The one where one of my passengers gets stung by the potentially deadly Portuguese Man of War. The world's second largest barrier reef offers great snorkeling and diving. And this time out I finally got my hands on a waterproof Olympus camera. It's awesome. I have some great photos of some of the larger fish and creatures of the area. But what made this trip especially exciting was that one of my passengers got stung by a Portuguese Man o...

Paid to Play Episode 3: The one where the author joins the Belize Fire Department for an evening while part of his hotel and several others burn down. He also sees dead people…but in a cave, not from the aftermath of the fire. Fortunately. While traveling north to Mexico to meet my first tour group, I had the distinct pleasure of serving with the Belize fire department. This isn't saying much really, as their hiring standards are not really that high. If y...

Today I had my first international haircut and the guy only knows one way to do it. No scissors, just electric shears. So now I look like a US Marine but it´s great in this tropical heat. The sun is relentless here and the days are really hot. In the afternoon, I rented an inner-tube and floated down the Mopan river with 2 young American biologists that are working at a jungle research center a couple hours from here. Iguanas are abundant and I also saw howl...

San Ignacio offered the first hot shower of the trip and is a world apart from Belize city. Today I walked to the nearby ruins of Cahal Pech. Afterwards, I jumped on a chicken bus headed west and got out at a ferry that crosses the river where a road leads the the Mayan ruins of Xunantunich. Ruins are basically lost ancient cities that have only recently (within the last 100 years) been excavated by archeologists. There is still a lot of mystery to these sights a...

I left Caye Caulker for San Ignacio. Since it was Sunday morning, I took a chance and walked to the bus terminal from the water taxi dock. I figured all the crack heads and junkies would still be sleeping off their Saturday night hangovers and I was right. The streets were empty. When I rode the buses in Mexico, they were all very nice and air conditioned. Not anymore! From here on out I'll be on chicken buses ... which are basically old school buses from the US ...