Arrival in Belize: The Forecast is Steamy

By Joshua | July 7th, 2008 | 2 Comments »

We land in a green country, completely saturated by a full month of rain and flooding. From the plane, there are bodies of water everywhere, massive puddles among the marshes, lagoons, and rivers. It’s the result of two storms colliding—Alma and Arthur—and causing rain and flash floods that some old-timers say are worse than even Hurricane Hattie in 1961. The worst seems to be over, but 95% humidity is quite a shock after bone-dry Colorado. So far, the roads are navigable and rebuilt bridges are still standing. Today, I take the family for a 90-minute boat trip through the mangroves to Gales Point, a tucked-away corner of Belize which I have never been able to get to … until today. Gales Point is a center of Belizean Creole culture, featuring wildlife in the lagoon and a famous primitive drumming camp I can’t wait to see. (Btw, the temperature in the accompanying weather chart is from 3 a.m., it gets a lot steamier in the day.)