Honduras and Belize

Punta Gorda, Belize
The King and I....our friend in Belize. He made us the BEST fresh coconut soup EVER!

La Ceiba, Honduras
This was our ride to the river to swing thru the canopy.

Snorkeling off of Utila, Honduras

Brain coral and a school of blue tangs.

One result of governments’ failure to meet the needs of their people, as with the case in Chiapas, Mexico (see previous posts) is the lack of participation in nationalistic thought and lifestyle choices by the citizens. These widely varying senses of self and belonging were witnessed in the form of drastic differences among the geographical regions and social strata of society throughout our journey.
During our travels, we noticed contiguous cultural zones that did not adhere to the borders that were drawn among them. The indigenous Maya of southern Mexico and Guatemala seemed to have many common features, despite their separation on the national level. Similarly, the cultures of the Garífuna and other African descendants on the Caribbean coasts of Belize, Honduras, Costa Rica and Panama had many similar features as well due to the British influence in the region and a similar historical context. We noticed a much higher rate of bilingualism among these communities where the majority of people we spoke to were proficient in English, Spanish and Patua or Garífuna languages. We noticed that people were more outgoing and forward with us than they were in southern Mexico and Guatemala, where we encountered many people who seemed shy or uninterested, if not occasionally outright resentful.
We also noticed that the most common culture in the cities was a more modernized one among the mestizos in the larger population centers of Cancun, Mérida, Guatemala City, Tegucigalpa, Managua and San José. We noticed the most influence from North American pop culture in Mexico, Costa Rica and Panamá, where people knew all about US movies, music, sports and politics; we were even asked which U.S. presidential candidate we supported in every country we visited (not one person mentioned McCain ;>).