Greg and Mandy's Travels

It’s the age old problem for the tourist industry, isn’t it? Everybody wants to preserve the pristine vibe of their particular tourist spot, without having hordes of tourists and lots of development spoil it all. However, if you don’t keep up with the development, then you will be passed by either other tourist spots, or other tourist developers, who want to come in and take over. It’s the same here in Caye Caulker. Everybody wants to preserve the slow way of life and the relaxed vibe. However, you have to keep the infrastructure growing to provide water and rubbish facilities, and other things necessary to cope with thousands of tourists.…

Belize is poorer than I expected. It has the air of being reasonably prosperous under the British, but as they withdrew in the 60s and 70s it has all gone downhill from there.

A couple of random facts to give you the idea. This year they raised the minimum wage from AU$2.50 to AU$3.50 an hour.

Whilst the average annual salary of most jobs here in Belize rate middle of the table – around 150 out of 250 countries- the average wage of a teacher comes in at 220 out of 250 countries paying only AU$10,000. They are never going to crawl out of their hole when a teacher is paid less than a supermarket check out chick.…

It’s all Christopher Columbus’ fault.

In the 1400s, there were two major naval powers. The Portuguese and the Spanish. They were in competition for a concerted land grab of every coastal area they could find. Long before either the Panama canal or the Suez canal was opened, a country who controlled the major ports along the African and South American coast controlled the trade routes and therefore could control the levees and taxes raised from passing ships as well as profiteering from all the supplying of the various expeditions. Because Spain and Portugal went to war over every country they found, they eventually appealed to the Pope to settle who should have dominion over which countries, and so the Pope divided the world down an imaginary line.…

A regular and uneventful start day. Picked up by the Conn-X-ion shuttle at 6:45, and braved the peak hour traffic down the highway to the Brisbane airport. Check in and security went without a hitch, and for once I wasn’t singled out for an explosives test – we must be in Brisbane and not Sydney.

Plane was a few minutes late, so time for a few laps of the terminal while we waited.

Short 3 hour flight to Auckland on an Air New Zealand 787. Watched Ticket to Paradise to while away the time – I’ve definitely seen worse on a flight.…