A few comments and annotations to Jailer's detailed report:
And while maybe my view is Pollyanna, it seems that Belize has solved the race issue. All flavors of humanity seem to interact without any concern for differences
This
live and let live attitude is amazing when you consider a comment that the station manager for Taca Airlines told Jailer and I. "Unemployment is 50%".
We left Belize City early
We actually stayed one night at the Radisson in Belize City. A truly uninteresting main city and hotel. We were in the best part of the city, which overall has a reputation for being crime-ridden.
evangelical Flyertalk-ism may be killer boring to the uninitiated
Everyone has his or her own idea of what's important. I mentioned the recent Hilton Gold/50K promotion to one woman who spends four nights a week driving around the plains states staying at motels such as Hampton Inn. I told her some minor fine-tuning of her property choices and use of an Amex card can improve her HHonor total by a massive factor, if she moves quickly. She feigned only minor interest. Oh well, I tried...
then walked to a Maya temple
The ruins are called "Xunantunich"
an airstrip that only allowed 5 feet of wiggle room for our 14 seat single-engine Cessna Carravan
We actually took two flights on a Caravan, which is a single engine plane. The first was from San Ignacio to Placencia (and I was able to sit in the co-pilot seat). This flight was a first for me, as I had never taken off from a dirt airstrip before. The Caravan is a rugged plane, which clearly is designed for countries with varied landing conditions.
The more or less paved airstrip at Placencia (PLJ) I'd guess at around 2,500 feet in length. Landing there from San Ignacio was pretty easy, but the take-off to go back to Belize City was truly one of the closest to having an accident take-offs I've been on. The plane clearly was at its weight limit with a pilot and 14 passengers, and their luggage. Each passenger was allowed 40 lbs., but there is no doubt an average of 55 lbs. with carry-ons was more like it.
The runway bisects the middle of the Placencia Caye (which looks like a long island on a map), and a dirt road runs around the east edge of the landing strip. Having traveled on the road a number of times during our stay, you become pretty familiar with its positioning. As we were heading down the runway (to the east) I could see from my right side window the road begin to turn to the left, where it wraps around the end of the runway. Unfortunately we were yet in the air. Jailer is pretty accurate in his description of the "wiggle room". We cleared the berm at the east edge of the runway by only about five feet. A woman from our group sitting in the co-pilots seat said the pilot seemed totally calm about the take-off. I guess this little of a safety-zone is the norm, for a full Caravan at PLJ.
I would highly recommend Backroads, although Craig said it was not the best of the trips that he has taken with the company. Craig raved about the food before I signed up.
Even though it was the weakest of my three trips with Backroads, it was still great. This company stands out. Jailer is correct about Belizean food, it is pretty boring. However along the coast decent fresh seafood exists. Inland, chicken is a staple akin to rice.
On the way back, we noted that the airport in San Salvador had sustained considerable damage since the outward part of our trip due to the recent earthquake. Windows broken, staff rattled, ceiling panels down and superstructure twisted.
This damage was from a 6.6 quake that occurred five days before our return to San Salvador. According to the news I heard on Voice Of America while in Belize, the event was centered about 35km from San Salvador. It was an aftershock to the massive 7.6 earthquake a few weeks earlier, per something I read upon returning to the U.S.
A few additional comments about Taca, the airline we used courtesy of Latin Pass. Outside of a mediocre red-eye from LAX to San Salvador, every other flight was fine, and always early to arrive. The A-320 we took on our return to LAX seemed brand new, and had much more comfortable seats then the older 320 we used heading south to El Salvador. The flights from El Salvador to Belize were on older 737-200’s that were in passable condition. All our Taca flights were in the front cabin.
BTW, all Taca jets carry American registration numbers.
http://www.backroads.com/trips/MBEI.html
http://www.robertsgrove.com
http://www.hiddenvalleyinn.com
http://www.chaacreek.com
[This message has been edited by Craig6z (edited 02-22-2001).]