Belize History and Weather in January

Just as I started typing Cowboy Doug’s rain report below it started pouring like crazy, I had to go close all the windows on the north and east sides of the house. It is a chilly morning,  San Pedro Weather Live shows 76.2 f or 26c – cold enough for me to trade in pool time for work and house cleaning – they are showing same for tomorrow too 🙁  Welcome to Belize weather in January.

Belize Weather in January  and The Rain Report by Cowboy Doug

As acclimatized Belize expats, Paul and I always get a laugh when, we see tourists wearing shorts and swimming on days when we are reaching for pants and hoodies. It was the same for us when we first turned up January 2006. Our friends we stayed with till we found an apartment were referring to us as ” you Nordic types”  when we went swimming  at the beach at Ramon’s Village resort, which was next door to their apartment. We had just moved from freezing Canada and the water temps were still warm to us at the time.

January traditionally the coolest month with temps around 23°C or 75°F. This month is a popular month for travelers wanting to escape colder temperatures and get a start to their new years travel resolutions.  It is also a good time to visit the mainland for slightly cooler temps in the jungle.

This Rain Report brought to you by Cowboy Doug via sms – catching up a few days worth. This morning 1/10th of an inch since 8am. Yesterday evening – Gonna give ya a rainfall reading… IF IT WOULD EVER QUIT!!! 1 inch and 6/10ths WOW! We just got the road graded too. January 29th 30/100ths less than a 10th and January 28th Jeeze! a little over 2/10ths.

Belize History by Lucy Wallingford

Enough about our rainy morning  and onto some interesting history from Lucy at Slickrock Adventures. Lucy sent the email below when we were going back and forth for her Exploring Caves Branch River in the early 80s guest post. It struck me as a wonderful memory in time and I was glad she agreed to let me share it with you.

Hi Laurie,

We do have old pics, but they are all in slide form. But the really old ones I don’t have. When we first started kayak trips in Placencia in 1986 we rented a beach at the last house, which was near the old Kitty’s Place. We could only shop for food on Saturdays and you had to take your wheel-barrel down the sidewalk and take a number and wait 2 hours to get called to give them your list. Meanwhile our tourists are sitting back on the beach packing their kayaks waiting for me to get back with the food…. but only memories! No pictures. Funny how when you are in your 20s (at least back then) you couldn’t imagine that what you were doing at the time you would like to look back on and have pictures to prove it!

We came to Belize because we were running trips in Chiapas, Mexico and one day my partner Cully just thought he’d go check out Belize. He hired some guy with a sailboat to take him the whole length of the Barrier Reef and picked the itinerary still used by kayak companies today: Placencia, Bugle Caye, Laughing Bird Caye, Water Caye, Silk Cayes, Pumpkin Caye and Ranguana Caye. A 7 day trip. No one was out there back then but a few rasta fishermen; it was incredible.

I never even visited Ambergris until we got the coconut tree disease in 1998. I flew out there and Chris Berlin taught me how to treat coconut trees. Still today we use that method on Long Caye. We have treated our 500 trees every 3 months since then! Chris Berlin saved our island with this knowledge he freely shared with us.

Thanks,
Lucy

Find Slickrock Adventures on Twitter and Facebook. Upcoming Palm tree disease article from Lucy next week.