GoldenBeeTours

We know we are in the tropics as soon as the flight attendants open the door of the airplane, in Belize City. The air is suddenly hot and humid, the sun and the colors intense and bright; quite a dramatic change from the cold weather we had left in the morning.  

But the contrasts don’t stop there. At the airport, people look warm and friendly - they actually smile and make eye contact when they speak in gentle voices! The pace is definitely different,   people seem to move to a different rhythm here. We would have to slow down to adapt. 

We still had to fly south to Cotton Tree Lodge, in the Toledo district. Waiting for us on the airport runaway was a small plane looking beaten and tired, not inspiring much confidence. To disguise my nervousness, I  joked with other passengers on the boarding line: ”Will this fly”? - I asked. Yes it will, they assured me. The airline – Mayan Air – is well known and reliable, they promised. ”Let’s hope they are right”, I thought. 

From the plane windows I  watched in awe the landscape below. First a lush vivid green carpet and small villages here and there; then the immense blue ocean, shining under the sun. Further on we moved over meandering rivers and farmlands, until that scene changed to a massive tropical jungle, dense, compact and mysterious. By the time we arrived in Punta Gorda, Belize’s southernmost town and our final destination, we had flown a long time over the rain forest.   

Bue we had not arrived yet.  At the “airport” in Punta Gorda, a small one room cabin with a smiling Mayan at the one desk, we met our driver Scott, a friendly looking Australian man in his 20′s. He would take us – finally – to Cotton Tree Lodge, in a funny looking old bus painted with the wildest colors and the Lodge logo. We had been flying for many hours - from New York to Miami, from there to Belize City, then on to Punta Gorda -  and we were exhausted. 

The road to the Lodge was a narrow and difficult dirt path. Scott stopped to give a ride to two Mayan looking men walking by it. They were all smiles as they came in greeting us, visibly happy to get a break from the intense heat. ”They are very poor around here”, explained Scott after they got out, closer to their village, Sant Anna. “We try to help them as much as we can, as they are nice people, and they don’t have cars or bycicles”. Laura and I looked at each other in disbelief. What a difference a day makes, I thought to myself. We have so much in the US, and here people live with so little…

As I was dwelling in the inequalities in life, we got to the Lodge. I felt so tired all I can remember is  a nice breeze suddenly blowing on our faces, enormous trees with trunks the size of houses, and the noise of birds and a river on the background. Gloria, another smiling Belizean, greeted us at the front desk as if we were old friends. She gave us the keys to our cabana, a beautiful rustic but comfortable construction standing on wood poles, surrounded by a veranda with two hammocks. The placee felt like heaven under the shady trees by the river. I unloaded and crashed in one of the hammocks.

“Tomorrow we’ll start exploring”, I thought, closing my eyes to enjoy the breeze. “Tonight all I need is a shower and some food”. 

But Laura was already in her bathing suit, heading towards the river.

I’ve just returned from a week in Belize with my 15 year old daughter Laura, who had time off school for Spring Break. And coming back from that tropical paradise to a cold and rainy New York was quite a shock… 

First of all, I would probably never have gone to Belize if it wasn’t for Laura. My younger daughter is one of those so called ‘green’ people, concerned about the environment, the indigenous populations, saving energy, the forests, the seas, the world – you get the picture. I do believe she will end up working in one of these fields in the future, and started to look for a place where she could explore her talents. I needed time off from my busy life in New York as well; little did I know that I was about to have such a great adventure. 

I had heard smart people taking about Belize before. Some scuba divers I know commented on its coral reefs being perfect for that sport, and they travel there religiosly. Magazines I like have been publishing articles on that small – but apparently very interesting - Central American country, and I had a feeling something was going on in Belize…  

Curious, I logged in The New York Times online, always a good start. In its Travel section, my favorite, I found a number of articles on many Belizean subjects: its preserved rain forest, Mayan population, Mayan ruins, snorkeling and scuba diving outfitters (a whole bunch) and so many positive traveler’s entries about a place called The Cotton Tree Lodge, in Southern Belize’s Toledo District, I just had to check it out.

I did look at their website cottontreelodge and I am glad I did. I was about to discover one real gem - a place so different from anything I had seen before, it took me few days there to start understanding what a great idea its American founders Chris Crowell and Jeff Pzena had had. Yes, the Cotton Tree Lodge – and Belize, for that matter – is one of those places we need to adjust to, before we start to ‘get it’.

But once we do, we’ll be hooked forever.

More tomorrow…

There are few things as rewarding as looking at the faces of our children. Seeing their faces on a portrait painted by a fine artist is an even more special experience, one of pure joy.   

This is what I experienced when The Connecticut Society of Portrait Artists – CSOPA - and the Greenwich Arts Council selected my daughter’s Chiara portrait, by Candance Taubner, to be part of their exhibition Faces of Winter 2008 – Fine Art Portrait Festival.  Selected by an independent jury from hundred of entries, these 57 portraits represented some of the most talented artists from Connecticut and New York. The show as a whole displayed - once again – the high standards of the CSOPA and the Greenwich Arts Council. 

Chiara’s portrait painter, Candance Taubner (photo), is known for an outstanding ability to reveal the essence of her subjects in her portraits. She says ‘the face is a universe unto itself – ever changing, surprising, mysterious and compelling. I seek to discover and reveal the essence of my subjects, no matter what age they are. It never fails that I find unique beauty in each person, and I delight in revealing it to them and to the world’.

Her portrait of my daughter is a proof that she achieved her goal, once more.