As a certified travel agent, international airline employee, researcher, writer, teacher and photographer for four decades, travel, whether for pleasure or business, has always been an important and integral part of my life. Some 400 trips to all parts of the world, by road, rail, sea and air, involved both worldly and exotic destinations. This article focuses on those in the Central American countries of Belize, Costa Rica, and Panama.
Belize:
Belize, the first of them, entered Belize City. Particularly adventurous by nature, his exploration included an expedition in New River to visit the Lamanai Archaeological Reserve, a Mesoamerican site that was once one of the major cities of the Mayan civilization.
Set on 950 acres, it was one of the largest Mayan ceremonial sites in the country and incorporated more than a hundred minor structures, a ball court, and a dozen major buildings, the most notable of which was the Temple of the Mask, the Temple of the Jaguar Masks and the Templo Mayor.
Although most of the other sites offered similar configurations with surrounding ceremonial structures and plazas, the Lamanai site featured those that lined the west bank of the Río Nuevo and the Laguna del Río Nuevo, with residential structures occupying the northern, southern sections. and west.
Lunch under the dense rain forest here included typical Belizean food: chicken, rice, beans, and bananas.
Altun Ha, another Mayan archaeological site with pyramids about 30 miles from Belize City, consisted of a complex of tombs, pyramids and temples, which once served as a commercial nexus during the Classic Period of the Mayan Empire, from 250 to 900 AD Meaning “Rockstone Pond” in Yucatec Maya, it consisted of an artificial lagoon.
Ambergris Caye, a short hop from the mainland in a six-passenger Britten Norman Islander turboprop, was the largest island in the country and offered abundant opportunities for swimming, snorkelling, snorkelling and other water sports. Its Hol Chan Marine Reserve, one of the main dive sites in the Belize Barrier Reef off the east coast, featured the 124-meter-deep Great Blue Hole, along with significant marine life.
San Pedro, accessible by golf cart from the small airport, was the island’s main town, and Ramon’s Village offered an immersion in tropical life.
In the style of the Tahitian huts on the Polynesian island of Bora Bora, it consisted of huts built with native materials by craftsmen using the same skill and techniques that the islanders had in the days of the great sailing ships. A sanctuary located in a tropical garden of Royal Palms, bougainvilleas, lilies, hibiscus and many other types of tropical flora, it was dotted with Mayan sculptures that allowed a glimpse of the civilization that preceded it in what can only be labeled as a Caribbean paradise. .
Costa Rica:
Costa Rica was visited on several occasions. Characterized by volcanoes, it offered numerous opportunities to explore and obtain information about them.
Located in the northeastern part of the country, the conical Alajuela volcano, for example, was over 1,600 meters high and had a crater 140 meters in diameter.
The Irazú Volcano was another. Because its top was close to the tree line, the local area wind produced a virtual lunar landscape. Its many craters were lined with gnarled and burned trees, and its rain-fed mineral pools were brilliantly colored.
The Arenal Volcano, which stretches to 1,657 meters or 5,437 feet, loomed large and ominous over the green slopes that surrounded its base, and had been the most active in the country for the past four decades, its rumble periodically piercing the lush vegetation. , quiet environment.
As a powerful symbol of the geothermal forces that formed Costa Rica, the Poás Volcano revealed a bubbling green sulfuric lake, fed by rain, surrounded by smoke and steam that rose from the fumaroles at its bottom when fog and clouds They separated. The water, seeping through the cracks in the lake’s hot rock, continually evaporated and formed pockets of vapor.
A trip east on the Guápiles highway from San José through the Zurquí tunnel transported me from the modern world to the Braulio Carrillo National Park, covered with rain and cloud forests, whose hiking routes and cable car allowed to see some 500 species of birds and mammals. such as howler and white-faced capuchin monkeys, tapirs, Deppe’s squirrels, white-nosed coati, northern tamandua, jaguars, white-tailed deer, ocelots, pacas, and raccoons.
The only thing about a subsequent trip was an off-road adventure. Carried out in 1984, it uniquely incorporated an expedition in a 7,500 kilogram Zyl Terra-X6, which was once a Russian missile launcher truck equipped with two SAM surface-to-air missiles with a capacity of 4.5 tons and a range of 600 miles, but later it was modernized with a bus cabin. Passing through the Estrella Valley and making its way through banana plantations, it stopped on the banks of the Bananito River to grab a snack and observe wildlife.
Other outstanding areas were Alajuela, the Bananito River, Cartago, Limón, the Orosi Valley with its exuberant vegetation and coffee plantations and, of course, San José, the capital, with its Pre-Columbian Gold Museum, the La Sabana Metropolitan Park, the Cathedral. Metropolitana (Metropolitan Church) and Yellow House.
Panama:
Panama was also the destination of more than one trip.
Synonymous with the 40-mile-long Panama Canal, it attracted notoriety when it was completed in August 1914, allowing large ships to avoid the 8,000-nautical-mile circumnavigation of South America and facilitating their direct passage between the Caribbean Sea and the Caribbean Sea. Pacific Ocean through the Miraflores and Gatún locks.
A 30-minute drive from Panama City was Gamboa Rainforest, whose activities ranged from visiting an indigenous tribe, going on a night safari, and observing wildlife on the riverbanks to staying at the Gamboa Rainforest Resort for the ultimate in luxury. area.
A trip of 600 meters, almost at the height of the treetops, in its cable car allowed views of the local flora and fauna.