17th FEBRUARY - 'HOTEL CALIFORNIA'

The words of the Eagles' song keep going through my head.  As tourist resorts go, the place where we spent last night was rather weird.  Like Black Rock, it was a long way off the beaten track.  We checked into reception [which had a jar of dead snakes bottled in water on the desk] and were pointed to our cabin, no registration required, no passports asked for and no keys given because 'nobody steals anything round here'.  

There appeared to be no visitors but us, but down at the bar Punta rock was blasting out non-stop.  Certainly there were a lot of young Belizean boys hanging about the place for a visitor centre miles from anywhere with no visitors.  What were they all doing?  I couldn't figure it out....

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16th FEBRUARY - THE DENSE BLACK BEAUTY OF THE NIGHT

There’s a compound behind the restaurant where the Belizean staff live.  I walked past it earlier and smelled washing drying on lines and dodged sprinklers on the lawn.  Everybody was busy then, but now the birds have fallen silent and the sun has disappeared beneath the gorge.  The sky’s turned pink, and a milky moon is waiting behind a veil of clouds for darkness to fall.

It happens very quickly here in Belize....

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15th FEBRUARY - BLACK ROCK LODGE

I felt really sad saying goodbye to Luciana.  She was such a good hostess and her lovely apartment and garden became our home.  After a week, I felt as if I belonged.  Partly, I guess, this was because of what I went through losing Dad, but partly I suspect it was reluctance on my part to get on the road again.  At Belize City I worried we’d get the wrong bus, then that it would go without us.  Then at San Ignacio, as soon as we’d been dropped off, I worried that the jungle lodge people would fail to pick us up....

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