Depending where you stop I have friends in Honduras and Belize. I hope that you get to the mainland but I think they have the cruise ports offshore. If Honduras, go swim / snorkel with the whale sharks if that’s an excursion- it’s amazing- they are like FL manatees but way much bigger (like boat size catfish). If Belize, you’ll probably stop at Ambergis Key (haven’t been there, but always great diving around there- lots of conchs). Pickpockets / tourist / drunk-target thieves. If Belize City, take a cab/ rent an airport car (don’t get anything fancy, as long as it’s not a broken down car) and go hike the waterfalls / river tube in the Jaguar Preserve. Take a camera / cell phone in a plastic bag- rains a ton right now in rainy season but you’ll see tarantulas and shit like that on the ground. Swim in the huge waterfalls- it’s a beautiful hike out above the jungle (I think Tiger Fern waterfalls?) - near Hopkins.

Friends have a place in Hopkins, and our “grandma” runs a plantation just east of the Jaguar Preserve. She’s a nun- the plantation funds an orphanage and she’ll take you around the plantation in a golf cart where she oversees all of these orchids and all other kinds of exotic fruit orchards that supply fruit to Belize. Best breakfast you’ll ever have. And the most amazing time. It’s just south of the Jaguar Preserve on the east side of the Southern Hwy.

If you’re there at night, go down to the docks in Placencia and pay a local fisherman to take you out to the mangrove bay right there at night- you jump out of the boat and swim in incredibly bright bioluminescent plankton that is bright fluorescent green. So bright that someone in the boat can take a picture of the person in the water just moving their arms around, etc. It’s that bright. Now there’s fish, too, so don’t shit yourself if you feel one, but they’re not big fish. And the locals definitely said there were no predators, etc. and they did it all the time.

If you have enough time on the ground there and can rent a car, the most amazing thing to see further west is the ATM Mayan sacrificial cave. You swim into the cave and go into the mountain where there are actual real skeletons and pottery and stuff (“the crystal maiden”). ATM = Achtun Tunichil Mochnal (it’s Mayan). The maps there reeeally suck- the cave is waaaay off the main road, and it’s like you are driving through a few miles of farmland, cows, etc. You also have to pay a guide who has the helmets and lights and stuff, but they have guides that hang out (for pay) at the Ranger station at the park entrance.

Probably waaay too far from either coast, but just west of the Belize border in Guatemala is Tikal. That’s even more amazing than Belize. If you’re at the border in the morning it takes maybe 30 min to go through customs into Guatemala (its pretty lax, but at least the border guards aren’t fighting each other now- we’ve dealt with minor border stupid stuff before).

Tikal is about 90 min west of Belmopan, if you drive fast safely. Again, you need a guide but can pay for one at the park entrance- and they speak English. You can climb to the top of the temple where Spielberg filmed the other ruins coming out the top of the jungle at the end of the original Star Wars.

If you end up stopping anywhere else in LatAm, let me know. Most of the other places we worked were not tourist areas and you wouldn’t have fun there and I wouldn’t recommend.

Hope you have a fantastic 2022!! Great time to be in LatAm, away from the US!


[Post edited by reconhokie at 01/12/2022 07:05AM]