Lonely Planet Forum on Belize and TROTTERS GUIDEBOOK in Dutch

entry for LONELY PLANET FORUM


WESTERN BELIZE RECREATIONAL AREA tourism OPENED with a BANG! ( October 7th, 2008 )
We got a phone call from 3 Flemish Tourists, doing a reverse direction GRINGO TRAIL tour yesterday and picked them up downtown for an overnight at our FALCONVIEW BACKPACKERS ADVENTURE HOSTEL. They were enroute to Placentia and via Punta Gorda, and soon this week back to Guatemala; where they were working in a remote Mountain village Hospital. We sort of get the odd tourist backpacker in our off season at our HOSTEL for travelers. They found us through TROTTERS GUIDEBOOK in DUTCH. They were Veerle, a 26 year old nurse, Steven the 31 year old boyfriend working at the remote mountainous hospital in the village of Yalanhuitz, and his sister Kristel age 35 years, visiting for a month from Belgium. Normally September, October and November, are our dead off season for tourists, though in November we do pick up the odd one passing through. Our FALCONVIEW BACKPACKERS ADVENTURE HOSTEL, is usually going through re-painting and repairs at this time. I had just told my wife yesterday morning, that I expected we would start to get a trickle of GRINGO TRAIL travelers this month. Lo and behold, a few hours later we got three. Their story is interesting. They come from Antwerp and hooked up with a long term volunteer organization www.vivirenamor.be running a village hospital serving many remote high Guatemalan villages. Apparently they had just finished an 8 month stint of volunteering and were seeing the surrounding Central American countries. The job paid their air flights from Belgium and they lived in a small wooden shack in the village, with a bedroom big enough for the bed, but no toilet available. Steven worked as the hospital administrator and Veerle worked as the nurse. The villages in the mountainous area are mostly Lan Chuj Maya indians and Q'anjobal Mayan indians. The Maya have 22 distinct different languages through the old Mayan Empire. The oldest Mayan temple can be found in San Salvador around 7000 years old. A lot older than any Egyptian pyramids. In Belize, our temple pyramids go back about 4000 years.
On my trip to our twin town market this morning, I noticed a string of tourist backpackers on the street in the central bus and restaurant area of our twin towns of Santa Elena Town and San Ignacio Town, and in the local TOUR OPERATORS offices, saw them fairly full of tourists, going out on daily local tours and site trips. I stopped by my friend BOB the Englishman, at PACZ TOURS and asked him about the off season and mentioned the tourists around, in what should still be our OFF DEAD season. He said, it picked up a day ago and they are coming in like crazy from all over. I sort of wasn't expecting this to happen for another month. Nice though for business! Guess I will have to miss my own vacation? The OCTOBER flood we experienced from a torrential TROPICAL STORM # 16, has now gone down, in the Macal and Mopan Rivers around Western Belize Cayo District. Cold weather has been around for two weeks and maybe it is a lot colder in North America and in Europe?
We have a news blog, maintained this year, a few times weekly, with photographs and news of the "Western Belize Recreational Area" of the CAYO DISTRICT of Belize. If you are interested try: http://westernbelizehappenings.blogspot.com

Ray Auxillou
Hillviewhacienda

SIX MONTHS WINTER APARTMENT VACATION RENTAL DEAL

WINTER VACATION HOME IN TROPICAL WESTERN BELIZE

We have now three apartments for rent. Normally they are an annex of FALCONVIEW BACKPACKERS ADVENTURE HOSTEL, for University age youthful world travelers and adventurers, we rent them in tourist season by the night, week, or month.
It has been decided that from our first apartment, which turned out very popular, that we completed two more apartments and are contemplating renting them for a block of six months to people who are escaping the cold of northern climates. If you would like a more economical rental deal, then a six months prepaid rental for just $2000 USA, would secure any six month block of time you wish. You can probably split the time and share it with relatives or friends.
We are located in the foothills of the Belize Alps and are a 100 house village, mostly civil servants, on the slope of Green Parrot Valley. We have fine views over our valley and also across the wider Belize River Valley to the Yalbac Hills. This is a rural suburb village of Santa Elena Town, which is part of the TWIN TOWNS, which includes San Ignacio Town.
The area has a steady low key tourism industry, built around the Mayan temples found here, underground caves and day trips up into the more remote Belize Alps. There are assorted things to do, along with attractions, like horseback riding, canoeing and kayaking the rivers and a small artist colony into Mayan pottery and oil painting artists. For more information check our website at: http://folkmusicfl.tripod/adventuresinbelize/
The major thing it is warm and the climate is one of eternal spring. Our summer is during April and May.

For apartment photos, take a look at: http://stellapinzon.tripod.com/apartmentwesternbelize/
We will have up photos of two new additional apartments by Xmas. They are just being finished. You can walk to the center anywhere in the twin towns in 45 minutes. Taxis around here are about $4 usa. There are car rentals. Most of our economy is based on agriculture and includes, cattle ranching, citrus orchids, regular Mennonite type mixed farms, small scale dairy farms and such things. There are spas, VERY EXPENSIVE luxury resorts ( $2000 us a night ), jungle lodges and that sort of thing.
As a base, our apartment is wonderful, you can go and explore the offshore Barrier Reef islands, which can be more expensive and come home to your apartment in a more low key type foothill affordable atmosphere. There is no rush around here. Do it today, or do it tomorrow.

Papaya growing in my backyard in Western Belize Recreational Area.

Myself, Ray Auxillou, the author picking a papaya outside my kitchen door, by the washing machine. My cousin Gustavo Pinzon sharing the photo, with a coconut tree in the background. We now have an orange tree bearing and a breadfruit tree loaded with breadfruit also. Lots of flowers and a nursery in the yard for growing lettuce and herbs.
It's a tough life retired living in Belize, but somebody has to do it.

GUATEMALAN MILITARY MARIMBA BAND TO PLAY IN BELMOPAN

BELIZE WILL ENJOY SHARING WITH CENTRAL AMERICAN COUNTRIES ON SATURDAY SEPT 13th of the BELIZE INDEPENDENCE CELEBRATIONS IN THE CAPITAL BELMOPAN - FOLKLORIC ARTISTIC FESTIVAL PLANNED.

The Belize Independence day is actually September 21st, but the Central American and North American countries of Costa Rica , El Salvador , Guatemala , Honduras , Nicaragua and Mexico will be sending folkloric artists to the capital of Belize in honor of our Belizean Independence Day celebrations. The artistic performance will be small, as befitting a small populated country. ( About 300,000 people ) and held this coming Saturday at 4 p.m., at the Governor General Field in the capital Belmopan , September 13th. 2008. The capital town itself has a population of 7000 people around the immediate area.

The childrens ballet “PILMIJTOIANIJ” from Vera Cruz, Mexico from a long way away, will be coming to perform, Chetumal , Mexico a frontier town, will be contributing a reggae group called “HIERBA SANTA” and will offer musical concerts. The entrance is FREE! I am extremely excited myself in hearing and seeing the Guatemalan Marimba group “UJUUM MAYAB”. The last time they were in Belize I missed them at a Benque Viejo town, frontier Fiesta on the Western Border with Guatemala . The Benque festival not being publicly announced to warn us. This Military MARIMBA ORCHESTRA is famous in the nearby State of Peten , Guatemala and belongs to the First Infantry Brigade of Peten. We nearly went to war with them back in the 1960’s and early 1970’s over Belize . They use two jungle made wooden MARIMBA orchestra instruments along with a drum set and the orchestra numbers twelve people. Three musicians play one Marimba instrument and four musicians play another different octave marimba wooden made jungle instrument. There are also up to five other musicians joining in with other instruments, like drums. This MARIMBA orchestra plays a wide repertoire of dance music. Belize will be contributing some ethnic cultural traditional dances from different sections of Belize .

Belize also has a declining population of traditional marimba players with over 150 years of history behind them out in Western Belize .

The Festival will also play down in the port on the coast, the political control capital of the country at the Bliss Institute on Sunday. The purpose of the Festival is to strengthen ties between Central American countries and Mexico in North America .

I’m really excited to hear and see this Guatemalan Marimba band as we have run Maya Mountain Folk Music Festivals for over five years, mostly to do with the Marimba. Photos can be seen on the internet at: http://falconview0.tripod.com/annualmayamountainsfolkmusicfestivalofwesternbelize2004/

http://falconview0.tripod.com/mayamountainsfolkmusicfestival/2005belize/

http://falconview0.tripod.com/belizeteenagemarimbacontestof2004/

http://falconview0.tripod.com/mayamountainfolkmusicfl/


WESTERN BELIZE HAPPENINGS can be found regularly on our NEWS SERVICE at:

http://westernbelizehappenings.blogspot.com



News Service presented compliments of: “Falconview Backpackers Adventure Hostel” Santa Elena Town, Western Belize .