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short notes
| will's weblog yer host's booklist | events of interest |
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| 22 sept 02 | ...back from Belize |
I travelled with my friend Lorraine, her family and Bruce | With absolutely no idea what to expect, both written [and visual] memories of Winslow Homer1 paintings came to mind, with colors the scream with vibrant intensity
[see The Coral Divers and The Beach in Nassau, for example]
<--pix 1: Belize City at sunset watercolor | ©2002 will brady We headed first for Belize City, where we spent some [altogether too brief] time in Belize City | In preparing us for onland travel, the cruise ship's entertainment director did an altogether disturbing anti-promotion about Belize | 
In that shipboard lecture where we were told what we might expect to see, was accurate in one respect; namely, that the country is not so altered by tourism as to be indistinguishable from other, more visited, locales (such as Cancun, the Cayman Islands or Jamaica) |
disembarking from the ship -->
But the guy ought to apologize to the citizens of that nation | He characterized Belize City in such a way as to make me imagine that we'd be immediately assailed by street urchins in rags, racing from the city garbage pile in order to beg the rich American tourists for pennies The facts were far from the story | From my own observations, there were far more beggars, aggressive ones at that, in Key West, Florida, and most of them were Americans born and bred | Bruce noted that, actually, much of what we observed in Belize, was not a whole lot different from what we've seen in parts of North or South Carolina | While there is no doubt that fiscal poverty is quite prevalent ~ most of the homes that we saw outside the city limits were mere one or two room shacks built up on stilts to keep from flooding during the rainy season ~ the people we actually met were friendly and welcoming | Everyone we spoke with was conversant in English, though Creole and Spanish were more frequently overheard |  I've run into many well-to-do Americans who I could not make such claims |
<-- a shot of the Altun Ha ruins
worker on the ruins site --v
We also spent part of a day traveling to the Mayan ruins of Altun Ha2, some 12 to 15 miles east of Belize City | The man on the right spoke with me of the co-joing Belizian-Canadian efforts to restore the site | Walls long ago crumbled are being remortared, pointed and rebuilt using the original stone from the site | There's much work yet to do | I didn't have time to paint, so I compensated by taking a lot of photos, some with an inexpensive "3-D" Argus camera which takes stereoscopic pictures | I am eager to get those back | On the way back from the ruins, we travel along the "Northern Highway3," and on a stretch that used to serve as part of the highway | At times, the roads are little more than a lane wide, but even when two lanes, it's clear that few are concerned about oncoming traffic when they pass our bus, and with good reason ...there isn't much traffic | Our on-land tour guide explained the many speed bumps along the main highway, noting that people call them "sleeping police" | Few folks want to mess with the chassis of their cars by racing over one | Obviously, the police have better things to do with their time than chase speeders | More proof of the as-yet limited influence of international urban middle class culture are the many roadside shacks and bodegas selling everything from plantains, 
cornmeal, cigarettes and soap | On the other hand, even the most primitive looking residences have television antennas on the roof |
the ship's crew deck-->
©2002 | wbrady | pen + ink The trip onshore ended all too quickly, and we all got called back by 1600 hours, to start on our next leg of the journey, to Key West | Once back on board, the ship's captain headed out to sea, full steam ahead | For both Cayman Island and Cuba hd already been hit with heavy rain and the storm was headed in our direction | Had we been in Belize one day later, we would have been stuck there | I would not have complained | I know I'm gonna want to come back, but for more than a fortnight4 |  The remainder of the trip on board was a busy one | The close to 3,000 people on the vessel ate probably 20,000 tonnes of food in one week | While I ate as much as the next soul I was surprised to find I'd only gained 5 pounds on the trip once I'd arrived home |
<-- squall just out of key west
watercolor | ©2002 | wbrady
As with the Belize trip, I didn't get to paint while in Key West | Saw an impressive series of exhibits at the Key West Museum of Art & History, on the WPA and the arts in Key West | Realized we were going to just miss Biker Week and [as noted above] saw lots of beggars and panhandlers on the streets | We went back on board early, and missed the rain | But once out to sea, I was able to capture the squall as we sailed beyond the barrier reef into the ocean itself |
On the cruise, I did get the chance to do seven watercolor sketches [two of which are posted here], used up five rolls of film [again, you see a couple of the pictures posted] and a whole passel of pencil or pen and ink illustraions ...and I thought about work hardly at all | site footnotes: 1- Winslow Homer's watercolor artwork revolutionized the use of the medium back in the late 19th Century | Some other sites to see his work, or read more about it include the following: Canajoharie Library and Art Gallery's Homer at the Hyde, notes on Winslow Homer by artist Harry Hilson , or the Maritime History website 2- Other Altun Ha websites include Scuba Dad's Mayan Ruins pictures [ though both have lots of pix to download, you might want to look at his Belize Zoo as well], another Mayan Archeology site or the Belize Virtual Field Guide to Mayan Ruins 3- See Rob Glover's recount of bicycling along the Northern Highway 4- Finally, for more about Belize, check out the "tourism and Investment guide" Treasures of Belize, or take the quick introduction from Belizenet | weather: we return to balmy temperatures | It's in the high 70s [] but after Belize and Key West it feels breezy and cool | Might rain on Monday | music: Thanks to modern technology, one can take music almost anywhere | I use music to help in fixing memories in as well | Music was not taken into prols of call |The journey above is no exception | In order of frequency here is a list of what I listened to:
e-mail changes | due to circumstances beyond my control, I have had to change one or two of my old e-mail addresses | New mail can continue to come to the @rondak.org address | A completely new address is now will-b@earthlink.net | Regrets for this inconvenience | other stuff || internet access tools || ECONOMIC TREASON: Do travesties like ENRON make your blood boil? There's a new discussion group on the Yahoo Groups website. It's still new, so the discussion has just begun. Participants are welcome. Stop by, sign up, and add your POV. |
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disclaimer notice: © 1999 - 2002 / Will Brady I hope you've found this site interesting, even thought provoking || Occasionally, images have been directly linked to source sites and others may come from commercial sources | They are reproduced here under fair use guidelines of US Copyright law | Don't write to me about the content of other peoples' sites linked from here || On the other hand, please let me know of any inactive links || Constructive comments, suggested links to add, are welcome. ABOUT THE "PIX OF THE DAY": Each "day" I present a new image from my own work. The image may or may not be relevant to the text the is next to it. The purpose is more to show off my work. Call this a shameless act of self-promotion or whatever | Hope you like them. |
